Heart's Price (MxM)

Chapter 18

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Dane growls, amber eyes scanning the list of names from beneath lowered brows. "What the fuck?"

He's angry, and I don't blame him. When I'd seen the list, I hadn't known what to feel.

Ambrose had handed it to me with a rueful smile, a wash of color touching his cheeks and brow. "Don't be mad, little wolf," he'd said. "I didn't know if I could trust you before. But I do now."

He'd looked so unwell, laying pale against the pillows, the skin around his eyes and lips still slightly blue, that I hadn't the heart to be angry with him. I'd simply taken the list of names, looked it over, absorbed what it told me, and left him with another promise to return that I was only half-aware I made.

"He did say the theft victims were acquainted," I offer now, though I don't sound convinced. We're sitting once more around the little table in Julian's cottage, while Dougal chases the wind through the meadow grass outside.

"Acquainted?" Dane repeats, tossing the note across the table towards Julian. "They're fucking related, Noah."

He's not wrong. The list of names revealed that the nine occultists—and among them, the victims of the recent thefts—were all connected by blood or marriage to a certain Rowan Oakfield—Ambrose's maternal grandfather—or to Aengus Thorne. They were Ambrose's family, in other words—at least on his mother's side.

Julian picks up the sheet of paper and reads aloud from the names and notes Ambrose had listed.

" Rowan Oakfield, father of Lillian Thorne, and grandfather of Ambrose Thorne—deceased.
Mathilda Oakfield, (aka Mattie Macleod) wife of Rowan, sister of Aengus Thorne's first wife, Rosie.
Aengus Thorne, married to Rowan's daughter Lillian (previously married to Mathilda's sister, Rosie Macleod)—deceased.
Jack Thorne, son of Aengus (by first wife, Rosie)—deceased.
Brutus Oakfield; son of Rowan; brother to Lillian.
Penelope Gordon, (nee Oakfield), daughter of Rowan; sister to Lillian
Augustus Thorne,(aka August Turnbridge) brother of Aengus
Aileen Thorne, (aka Aileen Reed), sister of Aengus
Thaddeus Barker, son of Aileen Thorne."

He looks up, amethyst eyes wide.

"Damn. That's a thicket of Oakfields and a tangle of Thornes, alright," he remarks.

Dane casts him a look. "You realize this makes Ambrose a prime suspect, right?" he asks, turning towards me. "He's basically a byproduct of these people's greed, and then suffered years of abuse and neglect at their hands. People have killed for a lot less."

I nod, and then push my glasses back up the bridge of my nose as they slip. I'd told Dane everything Ambrose had told me—well, almost everything—and I had to admit the thought had occurred to me as well.

"He has a pretty good alibi, though; for Barker's painting at least," I say. "He was with me."

"You've heard the term 'accomplice,' right?" Dane asks. "The thief—whoever they may be—might not be working alone. Ambrose could've been there to distract you."

I swallow. If distracting me was Thorne's objective, Dane doesn't know the half of it.

"But then why tell us all this, and give us the names?" Julian asks. "All of these Oakfields and Thornes have obviously done a good job concealing their true identities. If not for Ambrose, we'd probably never have discovered the connection."

"That's another thing," Dane says, rubbing his jaw. "If not for Ambrose."

He'd been surprisingly sanguine about the news of Julian's close call and Ambrose's fortunate ability, and now I was beginning to understand why. I didn't like it, but I understood.