Black Heart (38 page)

his mind around what they were telling them.

“The king wanted a killing machine, someone that he could trust to put his duties

and oath above all else,” Liam explained as he looked over at Shayne.

“And that wasn’t us, lad,” Shayne said, his voice thick with regret. “We couldn’t be

bought. Our loyalty belonged to our family and no amount of coin or promises of more

land would change that and he knew it.”

“Ye were the youngest of eight men who were looking to start families of their own

soon. No matter what we said or promised, Ma’ was afraid that ye were going to be left

without any land of yer own and back then, Tadgh, that could have easily been a death

sentence,” Finn explained before Liam once again took over telling the story that was

supposed to somehow explain this crazy mess.

“Ye were about eight years old when Ma’ went behind our backs and gave ye to the

king in exchange for his protection. He made promises that ye would be well settled when it

was time for ye to start yer own family.”

“Wait a second,” Marty said, interrupting them before they could go any further, “I

thought you said that he was a man by the time that you were done training.”

“Back then he was, lass,” Declean said with a shrug. “He worked as a man and

trained like a man and to us that made him a man.”

Before Marty could ask any more questions, Liam continued. “Ma’ loved ye, lad,

and she did what she thought was best,” he explained as if Tristan really gave a damn.

“By the time that we found out what she did, it was too late. Ye belonged to the

king until yer service to him was completed.”

“How long was that?” Tristan found himself asking, having absolutely no delusions

about what kind of life that would have been for a child.

“Ye were promised until ye were twenty-five,” Liam said harshly, looking pissed.

“The bastard took advantage and convinced Ma to give ye what could have easily been a

life sentence in his army.”

“Were you able to get him out?” Marty asked as she shifted into a more comfortable

position against him, causing his injured shoulder to brush up against the couch and forcing

him to ignore the black dots that danced along his vision.

“Getting him out wasn’t a choice, lass,” Shayne said softly as he gestured for Liam

to continue.

“Stealing from our king would have meant that we forfeited not only our lives, but

that of our mother’s and of his. We had no choice but to allow it. But, we did find a way to

protect him.”

“How?” Marty demanded, not sounding pleased by this story one bit. There was no

doubt in his mind that she was imagining the innocent child in her womb being forced into a

fucked up situation like that and hating every second of it. Not that she would ever have to

worry about someone harming their child, because he would kill anyone that even thought

about trying.

“Shayne gave his oath to the king in exchange for the right to protect Tadgh during

training and battle,” Liam said, gesturing to Shayne.

“It was a right that we all wanted, but Shayne won the honor,” Quinn added

solemnly.

“We would have all been there to protect ye, lad, if given the choice,” Aidan

explained.

“There was no doubt that Shayne would keep ye safe, lad,” Fergus said without

looking at them.

When Shayne suddenly looked away, Tristan knew that Shayne hadn’t been able to

keep his promise.

“Tell me,” he said, keeping his eyes locked on Shayne.

Sighing heavily, Shayne shifted his gaze back to Tristan so that he could glare at him

through angry green eyes that Tristan suddenly realized matched his own.

“Ye got us sentenced to death on the first day, ye stubborn bastard!”

Chapter
32

Marty waited for shock, disbelief, something to hit her with that announcement, but

sadly, she wasn’t surprised, not at all.

Tristan was pretty damn stubborn and seemed to enjoy pushing people’s buttons. So

it really wasn’t at all surprising, at least not to her, that he would do something to piss

someone off, even in another life, enough for them to want to kill him. Even her father,

who loved Tristan like a son, had come close a few times to wringing Tristan’s neck. Not

even a month ago, Tom and Denny had to wrestle a gun out of her father’s hands after

he’d found out that they’d eloped.

Granted, Tristan had led everyone to believe that it had been all his idea. It hadn’t

been, not completely. After she’d agreed to marry him, she’d decided that an engagement

of any kind wasn’t going to work, not once Beth got involved. Beth would have stretched it

out, made their lives a living hell and made the whole experience torture as she pulled

together her version of the perfect wedding.

Instead of going through that nightmare, they snuck off first thing in the morning for

coffee and a quick visit to the courthouse. Forty-five minutes later her father was being

dragged away from Tristan as he swore up and down that he was going to shoot the bastard

for touching his daughter. By lunchtime her father was over it and eating pizza with Tristan

in their office and making plans to go fishing next month.

“It was only by the grace of God and this one,” Shayne said, gesturing to her and

confusing her even more, “that we didn’t lose our goddamn heads that day!”

“Me? What did I do?” she asked, still having a hard time believing that they were

actually talking about her and Tristan like this.

“Ye stopped yer father’s man from taking his head when the dumb bastard didn’t

have the good sense to shut the fuck up,” Shayne bit out as he glared at Tristan.

“My father……,” Marty repeated slowly.

“Not Hank, lass,” Shayne said with a wince. “I’m sorry. This must be really

confusing for ye. Maybe we should take a break.”

“No, no, I’m fine,” she rushed out, afraid that if they stopped now that she would

never find out what was going on. “Please continue.”

“Are you sure?” Tristan asked, giving her arm a comforting rub as he pulled her

closer.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she lied, knowing that, by the end of the night, she might very well

be anything but fine once she found out what they had planned for them.

“Yer father was the king of our area,” Liam said, taking over the conversation and

making it very difficult for her to focus.

King?

Seriously?

“He doted on ye when ye were young, which was probably why he indulged ye

when ye asked to have Tadgh’s life spared,” Liam explained as he leaned back in his chair

and to the side, striking what a lot of women would probably consider a very sexy pose with

his perfect muscles bulging in just the right way, but it didn’t do a damn thing for her.

“The two of ye were about the same age when Tadgh went to yer father’s camp. Ye

were already promised to another, which was probably why yer father turned a blind eye to

the two of ye sneaking off to play together. He didn’t think that he had to worry about

Tadgh doing anything foolish.”

“It also probably didn’t hurt that he knew that Shayne here,” Quinn said, gesturing

with a nod towards Shayne, “never allowed our little brother out of his sight.”

“Ye had no playmates of yer own, so yer father didn’t see the harm in allowing ye

to play with what would one day be one of yer personal guards,” Aidan explained.

“He probably thought that it would create loyalty for ye from Tadgh,” Fergus

pointed out before adding, “I doubt the man ever thought that he’d ever have to worry

about the two of ye falling in love.”

“I don’t think any of us expected that,” Finn said softly.

She sneaked a peek up at Tristan to find him watching the men in the room and had

to wonder if it had been love at first sight then, too. It probably had been, she realized as

she looked away. She’d probably taken one look at him and fallen head over heels in love

with him even as he’d pissed her off, she thought with a sad smile. She didn’t have to ask to

know that this love story probably didn’t have a happy ending.

“What happened next?” she asked when no one made a move to continue telling the

story.

After a slight pause, Liam continued where Finn had left off. “When Tadgh wasn’t

training, which wasn’t often, he was sneaking off to see ye. At first yer father thought

nothing of it, but as the two of ye got older he liked it less and less and made sure that

Tadgh knew his place.”

“Whenever Tadgh disobeyed yer father he was punished,” Quinn said.

“Which was often,” Shayne added quietly.

“I don’t think that any of us were really too surprised when we found out that the

two of ye had married in secret,” Liam said with a fond smile and a chuckle that was shared

by the rest of the men.

“He was a sneaky little bastard,” Shayne said, laughing along with his brothers. “Hid

it from us for two whole years before I caught the two of them.”

“We knew that he would have never let her marry that prick,” Fergus said, grinning.

“Nah, we’d have killed the bastard before he touched her,” Finn said with a firm

nod that was quickly backed up by several “Ayes” and nods of agreement.

“What happened then?” Tristan asked, making her wonder if she was the only one

that noticed his words sounded rushed.

“Once her father found out, he was not a happy man, but it was her choice. Back

then we didn’t force arranged marriages and in theory she was free to pick her husband,”

Fergus explained even as she waited for the “
But
”.

“However, her father didn’t see it that way and neither did her betrothed,” Finn

explained before Liam once again took over.

“With our help, Tadgh was able to take ye onto the safety of our lands and protect

ye until we could figure out a way to get ye off our lands and move ye out of his territory.

We thought we had enough time, but then we found out that ye were carrying a babe right

around the time that we discovered that there was a bounty on Tadgh’s head.”

“It took some time, but we managed to get ye both out and we were taking ye up

north when they caught up to us,” Liam said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his

knees.

“We would have made it, but that’s when the babe decided that it was time to make

an appearance,” Shayne said with a shrug.

“Then what happened?” she asked, already having a good idea.

For a moment, no one answered and just when she was about to beg, Finn spoke.

“The details aren’t important, lass. What’s important is that all of our fates were sealed that

night with a curse.”

“What was this curse?” Tristan asked.

“When he caught up to us,” Liam said instead of answering Tristan, “ye claimed that

Macha was yer soulmate, yer one true love, lad. He mocked ye even as he cursed ye…….as

he cursed all of us.”

“He bound us to the earth to live a life of pure hell,” Fergus bit out angrily. “We’re

stuck in a game that we can never win.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tristan asked, sounding just as pissed, which

usually didn’t take much, but she had a feeling that he was in a lot more pain than she’d

thought.

“We’re stuck in this fucked up existence until we can figure out a way to beat the

bastard!” Fergus snapped, his anger becoming more and more obvious with each word until

he was practically shouting.

“Calm yerself!” Shayne yelled.

“Fuck that!” Fergus snapped back. “They need to know what’s going on and what’s

waiting for them!”

“Not like this,” Finn said evenly.

“Ye came to kill him, didn’t ye?” Fergus said, sounding bitter as her worst fears

were confirmed. “The polite bullshit never worked before so let’s just put it all out there so

that he knows exactly why we’re about to fuck him over!”

“Oh, and why’s that?” Tristan asked, sounding calm while she was doing her best

not to panic.

“Shut the fuck up!” Quinn shouted, moving towards Fergus who looked more than

willing to meet him head on.

“Yer scaring her, ye dumb bastard!” Shayne yelled, moving to join them.

“She should be scared!” Fergus shouted, shoving Quinn back. “She’s about to get

her heart broken again and there’s not a fucking thing we can do about it!”

“It didn’t have to be like this!” Finn yelled, getting in Fergus’ face and shoving him

against the wall.

“Enough!” Tristan and Liam shouted.

“Cut the shit and just tell us what’s going on,” Tristan demanded even as he gave

her arm a comforting squeeze.

“We’re all bound to this earth and so are our soul mates,” Finn said, shoving his

hand through his hair as he stepped away from Fergus.

“While our soul mates are stuck being born over and over again,” Quinn said, taking