Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
London Druid Headquarters
Thomas slammed his hand down on the desk, glaring at the Druids around him who had failed him. “Give me something!” he bellowed.
David Smythe stepped forward, his dark head bowed. “Sir, we’ve looked everywhere for both Lord Brannelly and Ms. Thornevale.”
“Everywhere?” Thomas asked in a deceptively calm voice.
He caressed the top of his fifteenth-century mahogany desk as he leisurely walked around from behind it to stand before David.
The man had never disappointed him before, and Thomas wasn’t taking this setback well.
“Is that true? You’ve looked everywhere? ”
David kept his gaze on the floor, refusing to look up.
Thomas turned his attention to the others in the room.
The only one who dared to meet his gaze was Ella.
She had ambition for power and influence that nearly matched his.
And she was willing to do whatever it took to get to the top.
That alone brought her into his close circle of those he could count on.
Yet tonight, even she had failed him. That simply wouldn’t do.
“And what do you have to say for yourself?” he asked Ella. “All you had to do was stay with Rowen, and you couldn’t even manage that simple feat.”
Ella lifted her chin a notch. “I couldn’t exactly follow her to the toilet.”
“You should’ve waited right outside the door. Instead, she managed to not only slip past you but leave through the front door. And head right to Mason. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it had been planned.”
Defiance glittered in Ella’s brown eyes. “Rowen was hesitant about us from the moment she walked in. It was too much for her. We should’ve started with a more intimate meeting as I suggested.”
“Are you telling me how to do my job?” Thomas demanded, letting anger tinge his words—the threat clear.
Her lips parted as she prepared to answer, but he spoke over her.
“If not for Rowen, Mason would be dead now. An impressive display of incompetence, Ella. You’ve all but managed to orchestrate a calamity I’d previously thought impossible. ”
“We located the Aston Martin at the storage units. I’ll track them down,” she said.
The four men knew their place, but Ella had no idea when to shut her mouth. Usually, her impudent behavior amused him.
But not tonight.
Thomas curled his hands into fists as he turned away, his fury rising at the thought of Mason on Skye. “Oh, we’re past that, my dear. I’d wager that both are in the very place I was trying to keep them from.”
“But…” Ella began.
The last thread of his restraint snapped. In the space of a heartbeat, seething rage ignited in his veins. He spun with a roar, magic bursting from his hands.
Ella didn’t even scream. Her gasp caught in her throat as his strike hit her chest, caving it in. She stared at him with stunned, wide eyes as she raised a shaky hand. Then she crumpled, dead before she hit the floor.
Magic crackled around his fingers, alive and hungry, the air scorched with its residue. His own chest heaved from the sheer force of his fury. He didn’t pull back his magic. Instead, he let it swirl in his palms, its thick essence sliding beneath his skin like a predator straining at its leash.
He stood over Ella’s body and looked at the others, daring them to try their luck. “Anyone else want to speak?”
He wanted—no, he needed—to take another life, to expel some of the indignation roiling through him.
But he had to be careful. Everyone had limits.
Even him. He had let his anger get the best of him twice, and both times he had nearly lost control of London—of everything.
It was a mistake he couldn’t repeat. Everything was finally falling into place. All he had to do was keep it together.
But if one of the bloody fools provoked him, no one would blame him for reacting.
It seemed they were far more intelligent than the pretty Ella. He had enjoyed having her on her knees with his cock in her mouth, but there were plenty of others ready and willing to take her place. Had she not blundered so badly, he wouldn’t be trying to sort through this debacle.
Bloody hell. He had been so close to being rid of Mason once and for all. The bastard had dared to dig into his parents’ deaths. Thomas had thought he’d put enough things in place to prevent Mason from linking him to the accident, but he’d been wrong. So fucking wrong.
Mason had been good at hiding what he was about, but Thomas was too clever for that.
He had unlimited money and people at his disposal, and he had used every one of them to get the information he needed.
Now, the only thing standing between his total domination of the Druids and losing it all was Mason and the information he had obtained.
Dozens of individuals were scouring the entirety of London for the documents, as well as a couple at the Crawford Estate.
Every electronic device Mason owned had been searched.
Thomas even had everyone Mason had the slightest connection to investigated and their homes and offices searched, all to no avail.
And time was running out.
Thomas rolled his shoulders to relax, gradually pulling back his magic until it was contained—until he was in control again.
Then, he tugged at the cuffs of his starched dress shirt and walked behind his desk.
He lowered himself into the chair and rested his arms atop the wood as he regarded the men. “Options?”
“We go to Skye,” David suggested.
Thomas pondered that. “Whoever goes will be banished.”
“It would be worth it if we could get to him.”
“That’s just it. You’ll never get to him.” Thomas shook his head. “That option is off the table. I’m not risking one of you to go up against anyone on Skye. Yet,” he added.
Jimmy, the youngest of the group at only twenty, said, “Then we take Crawford Estate.”
Thomas chuckled. “Mason is very much alive, and even if he weren’t, the estate would go to Ferne. I don’t care about his title, lands, or homes.”
“We could hurt him that way, though,” Jimmy argued.
David cut the younger man a dark look, telling him to shut his mouth. Then he glanced up at Thomas. “If Mason had the information, he would’ve released it by now. Especially after we tried to kill him.”
“Maybe.” Thomas drummed his fingers on the desk. “And maybe not. Mason is his mother’s child. Alicia Crawford was too smart for her own good. She and Shane fooled me, and I wasn’t about to fall for the same thing with their son.”
The shrill ring of a mobile broke the heavy silence.
Irritated, Thomas motioned for David to answer when the man hesitated.
David pulled the phone from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and answered.
A beat later, David’s eyes jerked to Thomas.
Another few moments passed before David pressed the mobile to his chest and said, “It’s Parker Barclay.
He’s demanding to speak to you. He claims he has news you’re going to want. ”
“Does he now?” Thomas debated whether to take the call.
He didn’t care for Parker much, even though the lad always did as ordered.
There was just something about him that rubbed Thomas the wrong way.
Yet the fact that he had called instead of his mother, Diana, intrigued him.
Thomas motioned for David to bring the mobile. “What is it, Parker?”
“Right down to business. All right, then. How do you think the relationship is going between London and the Edinburgh Druids?” Parker asked, his enjoyment clear.
Thomas narrowed his eyes as he leaned back in his chair.
What did the boy know that he didn’t? Diana was there, keeping George and her Druids in line.
Or she should be. He wrote a quick note on a piece of paper for David to check on Diana and handed it to him before he said, “I think George is taking far longer to get us results than I had hoped. Are you suggesting that you have a way of moving things along faster than your mother?”
Parker laughed, the squeak of a chair coming through the line. “You could say that.”
There was something different in the way Parker spoke. Almost as if he believed himself in charge. Thomas watched David across the room, trying to reach Diana. He saw Thomas looking and shook his head, letting Thomas know she wasn’t picking up.
“You see,” Parker continued, “George is no longer running Edinburgh. I am.”
Thomas let that sink in. His anger had been growing rapidly up until that point. At first, he’d believed that Parker would ruin things just as Mason had tried, but now he was second-guessing that. “What a nice surprise.”
“It was certainly a surprise for George.”
“How did such an…event come to pass?” Thomas inquired.
Parker chuckled, the sound dry and edged with confidence. “Fairly easily, actually. She never saw it coming.”
“I didn’t think you had it in you. What is it you want, Parker? You wouldn’t be ringing if you didn’t want something.”
There was a pause before Parker said, “My due.”
“Ah. I take that to mean you’ve outgrown your family.”
“Diana is dead.”
Thomas sat up in disbelief, his mind racing. No one harmed one of his Druids without repercussions. Was it one of the Edinburgh Druids? Or was it someone from Skye? “How? When? I need to know who did it.”
“A few hours before George. And as for the how, it was with a knife. She, too, never saw it coming. I was honestly surprised she didn’t fight back. I always expected her to fight me.”
Shock shuddered through Thomas as he slowly rose to his feet, his heart pounding in his chest. “You killed her.”
Parker’s laugh floated through the line, the sound grating. “Believe me, it was a long time coming.”
This was an unexpected and unwelcome outcome, but there was time to ponder Parker and his motives later. Right now, he needed to keep the youngest Barclay on his side. “Well, you’ve certainly become someone I didn’t expect. What can you do outside your family’s shadow?”
“For that, you’ll have to wait to find out.”
Thomas lowered himself into his chair once more. Parker had surprised him, but now it was time to do what he did best—take power. “Now that we have control of Edinburgh, there are a few things I need from you.”
“You aren’t in control of anything. I am.”
Fury sizzled through Thomas’s body, sharp as lightning.
It was never good to get him angry, and Parker was teetering on a precipice as it was.
Diana had known her place and had gotten things done.
She had been useful. Finding her replacement wouldn’t be easy.
That, on top of the Mason and Rowen fiasco, only created more turmoil when there should have been none.
“Careful, son,” Thomas replied coolly, violence hanging on the syllables. “You have no idea how long my reach is.”
“And you have no idea what I’m capable of. Try to take Edinburgh from me, and you’ll find out,” Parker snapped.
Thomas clenched his jaw. He could’ve taken the Druids from George at any time, but he hadn’t wanted to.
His focus had been Skye. If Parker pushed him, he would rain hell upon the city the likes of which none had ever seen.
He had been saving that for Skye, but he wasn’t averse to using Edinburgh as a test site.
“Did you call to gloat about your kills, or was there something more you wanted?”
“You needed to be made aware of my claim over Edinburgh. However, if you’re amenable, we can come to an understanding.”
Thomas seethed with outrage. Who did this bastard think he was? “What kind of understanding?”
There was a smile in Parker’s voice when he replied, “An agreement similar to what you had with George. I need to think about my future, you understand.”
Thomas looked down at his hand as he turned it over and let magic flood into his palm. Maybe Parker wasn’t as shrewd as he had first thought. “And no doubt you’ve been cut off from your family’s funds.”
“Unfortunately. I do have a little put away, but I require a certain type of lifestyle. Besides, you don’t want to waste any of your precious Druids going to Skye. That’s what those in Edinburgh are for.”
A slow smile spread over Thomas’s face. “Do you have Druids on the isle now?”
“Of course. Who are you looking for?”
“I’m after an American woman and Mason Crawford.”
Parker chuckled softly. “I can guarantee that Mason will be with his sister. He’ll be easy to locate. Not sure about the American. Do you have a photo?”
“You’ll likely find Rowen with Mason.”
“Do you want me to find them or kill them?”
“Find them,” Thomas answered. “Contact me the moment you do, and we’ll discuss your…requirements.”
Parker lowered the mobile to the table and looked across the room to the Scottish beauty lying against the headboard, tangled in the sheets, one shapely leg exposed.
“You’re smiling. That’s good,” Mara said.
He shifted lower in the chair and placed his feet on the seat of the one opposite him. “It went fabulously. I wish I could’ve seen his face when I told him about Diana.”
“Which part?”
“Both.”
Mara’s smile grew, crinkling the corners of her hazel eyes. “It’s going just as you want, baby.”
It was going better than that. His plan was falling into place easily. He should’ve done this years ago instead of remaining in Kurt’s shadow.
“Do you think Thomas will give you any money?” Mara asked.
Parker shrugged. “I don’t care if he does. It was just a ploy to get him to think I need it. He’ll attempt to use it as leverage. He thinks he’s smarter than everyone else, but he’ll learn soon enough.”
“Oh, I do love it when you talk like that.” She threw off the covers and rose from the bed to walk naked to him. She straddled him, sliding her fingers into his hair.
He didn’t move as she lowered her mouth to his, sliding her tongue along his lips before kissing him.
He had always had a weakness for breasts, and Mara’s were fabulous.
And she knew just how to use them. He groaned as she pressed the large globes into his bare chest and began to kiss down his neck.
He grasped her firm arse and pulled her tighter against him.
Suddenly, she sat up, a frown marring her pretty face. “Still nothing from your dad?”
“Not a peep.” He tried to retake her lips.
Mara pulled away. “Surely, he’s been told about Diana by now. And for that matter, Kurt. He should’ve contacted you about the funerals.”
“I don’t care. There’s nothing he can do.”
“What if he knows you’re responsible for their deaths?”
Parker shrugged and wound his hand in her long, brunette locks to force her back to him. “I don’t care if he does. I’m his only child now, which means I inherit everything.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Maybe sooner rather than later.”
“We have enough to handle here at the moment.”
“It would only be a wee trip,” she said and nipped at his lip. “There and back before anyone misses us.”
Parker got to his feet and carried her to the bed. “No more talking,” he said before claiming her lips.