Millar leaned forward. “Tell me about them. Are they not worthy parental figures?” His language was fluent, yet there was an old-fashioned hint to his phrasing.
“How long have you got? The short version or the—”
“Tell me everything,” he interrupted. “Leave nothing out.”
So I told him. Everything from when I was found in the cardboard box, right up until Luc nearly rammed his motor into me then offered his services as my getaway driver. I spoke quickly, not wanting to take more of this man’s time than was necessary. But he didn’t seem hurried, and he only rarely paused me, to clarify a word here or there. When I ran out of story to tell, I clamped my lips together, suddenly too aware of his commanding presence in the room, as well as our obvious physical similarities. I slid my hand towards Luc’s thigh, desperate for his touch, but his silent sideways glare meant I curled my fingers around my own leg instead, trying and failing not to feel hurt by his rejection.
“You have no information about your birth mother then? Nothing at all?”
I jerked my attention back to Millar. “Nothing.” I laughed softly. “Well, perhaps she could knit.” I told him about the cardigan I’d been wearing when I was found. “Oh, actually, there is one more thing, but it’s probably nothing.”
Millar’s eyes bored into me again. “Nothing potentially relevant is ‘nothing’. Let me decide.”
“I just wondered if perhaps she wasn’t English. Charley with a y is usually the girl’s spelling. Like I said, it’s probably nothing. I spent a lot of time daydreaming as a kid. I have an overactive imagination.”
“I disagree. I believe this is the most relevant thing you have said.”
Luc spoke. “How can this be relevant…sir?” Hmm, he felt the dominance Millar was exuding too, even though judging by the tense set of his jaw, he was having trouble being polite.
Millar flicked a glance at him, before responding to me. “Because I believe I am your father, and what you considered of no consequence has solidified my belief.” Over my breathy gasp to have what I’d wondered so casually confirmed, he continued. “I had a brief dalliance with a young woman roughly twenty years ago. She wasn’t a native of the British Isles.”
A brief dalliance. “A hook-up, you mean?” Great, I was the unwanted result of an impulsive shag. I’d always presumed so, but to have it confirmed was frankly a bit of a kick in the nads. The fact I wasn’t apparently even fully British wasn’t a blip on my radar right now; too much else to think about.
Millar shook his head with a faint smile. “You young people are so quick to assume the worst. No, if it was Malin, and I am certain it was, she was on holiday here with her family. She didn’t want to return home, but her father was insistent. One could almost say he was desperate to leave.” He shook his head again, but this time he seemed momentarily lost in the past, cloaked in sadness. “Perhaps he felt uneasy around me. I am adept at blending in, but occasionally humans can tell. I did try to find her, but it was as if she’d disappeared into thin air.” He raised earnest eyes to me. “I had no idea she was pregnant, but I wanted to be with her anyway.” He exhaled heavily. “I would have raised you, if I had known.”
I wasn’t sure that was much of a comfort. My adoptive parents hadn’t been amazing, but this house was tucked away in a forest in the arse end of nowhere. A sudden vision of an even lonelier childhood than I’d had swum before me, interspersed with a lot more blood. Although, I bet Millar would’ve let me eat steak.Idiot, you’d have been raised on blood.This room was austere and old fashioned, but it reeked of money. Anyway, surely a vampire wouldn’t be pissy enough to insist on his offspring being a vegetarian? The thought of a vegetarian vampire nearly made me giggle. I should stop re-watching Twilight so often, even if the wanking fodder was exceptional. Kellan Lutz alone was worth switching on for.
I realised I was expected to have replied to his pronouncement. I sat up straighter and tried to look pleased. “Well, yeah, cool. Mighta cramped your style a bit though. You don’t exactly look the type to pull all-nighters with an inconsolable baby. And I was a fuckingnightmare,apparently.” God, I really was an arse. I didn’t need to sound quite so proud of the fact.
To my surprise he laughed, showing two rows of rather uneven teeth. “Oh, Charley, I think you’d have tested me sorely. You’ve been here less than an hour, and I’m already beginning to wonder if fatherhood is for me.”
“Lucky for you it doesn’t exactly matter, seeing as I’m nineteen and all,” I snapped. Was I bitter? Hell yeah, I was.
“For Chrissake, Charley, calm the fuck down will you? Dalziel is trying to help you,” Luc ground out through pinched lips.
I shot him a sour look that probably told him what I thought of the ‘help’ so far, but, realising he had a valid point, I mumbled an apology to Millar. Or perhaps, I told myself, I should start thinking of him as Dad.
“I think you should call me Dalziel,” he said next, as if he were psychic. “Seeing as I’m willing to bet ‘Father’ might be a stretch.”
“Dalziel.” I tried the word out on my tongue. “Yeah, I think that’s probably best. I’m not in the market for a daddy right now.” Let him interpret that any way he liked.
He sucked in a sharp breath, then addressed Luc properly for the first time since we’d arrived. “Bradshaw, what’s your take on the security camera story?”
Luc ran through everything I’d already told Dalziel, from his own perspective. “He was running for his life, I’d swear on it,” he said. “So I do think the biker gang are after him. I can’t see any reason for him to have made this up.”Oh cheers, this means you’ve considered I was an attention ho on the lookout for an adventure? Thanks, Luc, not.With a swift glance at me, he added, “Charley’s kind of impulsive, and pretty quick to anger, so while I think he’d be able to off someone if threatened, I don’t think he’d be able to lie about it so convincingly. His story hasn’t wavered once. And he doesn’t seem to hold a grudge for long, so again, his fear seems justified. The Red Wyverns aren’t the sort to let this drop. Not without either bringing the actual killer to justice, or being satisfied that Charley’s been punished. Which obviously, I don’t want to happen.”
“Obviously,” Dalziel repeated drily. He glowered at Luc like he was a bad smell under his nose and I really didn’t like that—
“Are you on his case ’cause he’s a shifter?” I challenged Dalziel. “Because you might want to drop the attitude. If you actually give a fuck about me, you might even want to thank him, seeing as he’s the reason I’m still breathing. Just saying.”
Luc paled. “Oh, Charley,” he groaned.
Dalziel stared at me as if he couldn’t believe his ears. “I’ll let that go, mainly because I can tell you’re temporarily enamoured of whatever the wolf is giving out. But don’t question my authority again. You’re not too old for me to put you over my knee and spank the disrespect out of you.”
My eyes boggled at his threat, but Luc caught my gaze and made a frantic slashing motion across his throat with his index finger, his own eyes on stalks.Fucking drop it, you idiot,I could almost hear him saying.I muttered a vague apology, and Dalziel nodded. “Perhaps this would be a good time for you both to refresh yourselves after the drive. I’ll have Eleanor see you to a guest suite.” He stood, and strode across the polished wood floor, leaving us suddenly alone.
17
LUC
