Black Heart (47 page)

“No.”

“You want to tell me who you are since you’re holding my daughter?” Hank demanded.

He probably would have simply taken Marty away from Shayne an hour ago except that

when he’d tried, Marty had started crying again so the man promptly handed her back over

to Shayne.

“No, not really.”

Declean chuckled as he walked through Denny and sat down next to him. “Ye might

want to tell them something, lad.”

That probably would be for the best, he decided as he looked at his brothers for

suggestions, but the useless bastards only shrugged. Very helpful, he thought, sighing

heavily with annoyance. Looked like he was on his own, again.

“I’m her brother-in-law,” he said, deciding to go with the truth. At least, the truth as far

as he saw it.

Denny chuckled darkly. “Nice try, asshole. I’m her brother-in-law.”

“Aye,” Shayne readily agreed, “but you’re her brother-in-law by adoption. I’m her

brother-in-law by blood. Tristan is my little brother.”

“Wow, it’s like daytime television come to life,” his annoying soul mate mumbled,

destroying the stunned silence that he had to admit was a bit off-putting. The glares weren’t

exactly comforting either, he decided. The words of encouragement from his brothers

definitely weren’t helping either.

“Ye stupid son of a bitch,” Declean groaned.

“Real smooth, shit head,” Finn added with a sigh.

“I knew we were gonna pay for Ma’ dropping ye on yer head,” Liam said, shaking his

head in disgust as he disappeared, probably to go pace in Tristan’s room.

“Well, as much fun as this has been, and it’s been loads,” the annoying woman said,

cutting through the silence as she got to her feet. “I have to go, but I really need to speak

with the Detective when he wakes up,” she said, handing a business card over to a stunned

Denny, who couldn’t seem to stop glaring at him.

Yup, it was really fucking great to be human.

Chapter
41

“I swear to God that if you don’t drop that sponge that I will have you committed by

morning,” he promised, leveling a glare on his mother.

She sighed heavily as she dropped the sponge back into the small bowl. “None of my

boys appreciate me.”

“I do,” Shayne, the biggest fucking traitor, said cheerfully as he sauntered into the room

and dropped down on the bed next to him.

His mother gave that pleased smile that seemed only reserved for Shayne as she readily

agreed, “I know you do, sweetheart.”

Shayne, the fucking kiss ass, grinned smugly.

“Fucking brownnoser,” Denny grumbled from the couch where he openly glared at

Shayne.

“Denny Black!”

“Well, he is!”

“Words hurt, lad,” Shayne said with a sniffle that made his mother’s glare turn

murderous on Denny.

“That’s it,” Denny said, getting to his feet and storming off towards the door, “I can’t

take this any longer. I’m going to work.”

“Never mind him, Shayne. He’s just upset,” his mother said with that damn smile.

Seriously, how did the bastard pull it off? From what he’d heard his mother had wanted

to wring Shayne’s neck when he’d pulled that whole long lost brother bullshit, but one

shocking DNA test and sob story later and he had her wrapped around his finger. The

woman couldn’t seem do enough for his “long lost” brother.

His father, brother and Hank were still suspicious and if he hadn’t been able to get

Shayne some fake papers they probably would have given into the urge to drag him out

back by now and beat the shit out of him.

“I have to go make dinner, but I’ll be back later to check on you,” she said, leaning over

and pressing a kiss against his cheek. Before she could pull back all the way, Shayne was

leaning over him and pointedly clearing his throat.

With a small giggle, she leaned over and planted a big kiss on Shayne’s cheek before she

grabbed her bucket and headed out the door, leaving Tristan to glare at the smug bastard.

“Ye know that she loves me more, don’t ye?”

“She really does,” Finn said, appearing in the seat that Denny had vacated.

“Aye,” Declean said as he appeared, sitting on the corner of the bed. “She’s downstairs

right now making him a sandwich.”

“It could be for me,” Tristan muttered, already knowing that it probably wasn’t.

Quinn appeared, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, shaking his head. “No,

it’s for him. She’s down there cutting the crusts off his sandwich the way he likes it.”

“Actually,” Marty said, strolling into the room with two cans of soda in her hands, “she’s

making it for me, because the crust upsets my stomach and later tonight she’s baking me an

apple pie.”

“If ye weren’t knocked up ye know that I’d be the favorite,” Shayne said, accepting the

can of soda that Marty held out to him.

“Keep telling yourself that,” Marty said smugly, earning a smile from him as she placed

his soda on the nightstand and leaned down to kiss Tristan.

“Enough of that now,” Liam said as he appeared in the room. Fergus appeared a few

seconds later. “We have some things that we need to discuss.”

Marty brushed her lips against his one more time before she carefully climbed over him

so that she could sit between him and Shayne. If any other man had thrown his arm around

Marty’s shoulders the way that Shayne did he probably would have killed him, but he didn’t

have any worries. He knew exactly how Shayne felt about Marty, because he remembered

everything, absolutely everything.

It was a bit frightening at times to have so many memories swimming around in his head,

but it was also a blessing. Now he knew exactly how much his brothers loved him and what

they’d been through for him. For the first time in his life, lives, he felt truly whole. He had

his wife, a child on the way and he had his brothers. He didn’t know how long this would

last, but he planned on enjoying it while it did.

The only thing that marred his happiness was this fucking curse. Things had changed and

he didn’t know just how much or how it would affect them. He also wasn’t sure if he’d

escaped the curse. Marty believed it and for now, to keep her happy he kept his thoughts to

himself. He didn’t think the curse was done with them yet.

“Quinn, ye need to keep watch over Shayne,” Liam announced, earning a snarl from

Shayne and a shit eating grin from Quinn.

“I don’t need a guard.”

Liam simply ignored him the way that he normally did when he wanted to piss him off,

which was often. “We need to figure out why Shayne’s soul mate is trying to contact ye,”

Liam said, reminding him that he had a few phone calls that he needed to return. Now that

he was back on full medical, that shouldn’t be a problem, he thought miserably.

He fucking hated full medical.

“She’s a private investigator,” he said, grabbing the ice pack on his shoulder and

readjusting it before it could fall off. “She’s looking into a cold case for a client that I’m

investigating.”

Liam nodded, looking thoughtful. “Aye, that might just work.”

“What might work?” Marty asked, snuggling into Shayne’s side since she couldn’t touch

his left shoulder or arm without him passing out. Stupid fucking infection and separated

shoulder, he thought bitterly as Shayne wagged his eyebrows in his direction.

“We need an excuse to get these two together,” Liam explained, doing a great job of

erasing all signs of humor off of Shayne’s face.

“Hell no!”

“Doesn’t she think that he’s a mental patient?” Marty asked, obviously trying not to

laugh, but his brothers didn’t seem to care enough to try and hide their amusement.

“Aye,” Quinn said, chuckling. “Shayne always did have a way with the lasses.”

“I’m not doing it,” Shayne said firmly.

“It’s the only way we can find out how this curse is working. If ye can get the lass and

break the curse on yer end, it might allow one of us the chance to do the same,” Liam said,

knowing that Shayne would do anything to help his brothers break this curse.

“I hate her,” he said evenly, but not refusing, Tristan noted.

“I’m not asking ye to fall in love with the lass.”

But he was asking Shayne to make her fall in love with him. He didn’t say that and

wouldn’t, not with Marty in the room. She wouldn’t like it and, if she hadn’t fallen asleep

on Shayne’s shoulder, she’d probably be ripping Shayne a new one.

“Fine, I’ll do it, but as soon as this thing passes off to one of ye, I’m done with her.”

Tristan chuckled, he couldn’t help it. The idea of Shayne trying to court a woman and

getting a chance at a little payback for all the bullshit that Shayne had put him through over

the years was just too much. This was going to be fun.

“What’s so funny, lad?” Shayne demanded.

“Remember what I told you about payback being a bitch? Well pucker up, asshole,

because here it comes.”

Shayne closed his eyes and let out a pained groan as he dropped his head back against

the headboard. “I really fucking hate being human.”

Chapter
42

One month later……

A noise woke Marty up. She sat up in bed and looked around the room, frowning when

she didn’t see anything. After a quick glance at the alarm clock on Tristan’s side, she

realized that it was a little past three o’clock in the morning and the other half of her bed

was still empty.

She still had another night left without him, she remembered with a sigh as she looked

around the room again, this time searching for his brothers. When she didn’t see Declean or

Finn, she quietly whispered their names, hoping that they’d hear her.

They didn’t.

After a minute, she considered yelling for them, but she didn’t want to attract any

unwanted attention if she could help it. She’d only experienced cold dread once and once

was more than enough for her. She wouldn’t do anything to draw attention to herself if

there was a ghost in the house.

When she heard another loud noise it occurred to her that perhaps it wasn’t a ghost

roaming the house. It was probably just Denny or one of their parents dropping by, she

realized, letting out a sigh of relief that was quickly halted when something really important

occurred to her.

It was after three in the morning and no one in her family would be foolish enough to let

themselves in and take the chance of Tristan mistaking them for a burglar. Then again, after

Beth had walked in on the two of them having sex in the foyer two weeks ago, no one in

their family came over without calling first anymore.

“Shit!” she hissed softly as she crawled out of bed and grabbed the baseball bat that

she kept beneath her side of the bed. For all of about ten seconds she considered going

downstairs and taking care of this problem herself and if wasn’t pregnant, and concerned

about the baby getting hurt, she would have done just that.

Cursing Declean and Finn to hell, she grabbed her cell phone and quickly made her

way to the walk-in closet. As quietly as she could, she opened the door and stepped inside.

The walk-in closet hadn’t been a big deal to her when she’d moved in with Tristan, but

right now she was glad that it was so large. There would be plenty of room to swing the bat

if an intruder found her.

She opened her phone and called Tristan, hoping that he’d pick up.

“Hey, sweetheart, I-“

“Tristan, there’s someone in the house,” she whispered, cutting him off so that she could

quickly get to the point and he could get his ass home where it belonged so that he could

beat the shit out of anyone crazy enough to break into their house.

“Where are you?” he asked casually, too casually, she thought. Tristan was extremely

overprotective of her. Something like this should have him flipping out and promising to

send every cop on duty her way.

“In the closet with the baseball bat,” she said softly.

“Good. Okay, stay there I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said quickly, hanging up on

her before she could get the chance to point out that he was over three hours away.

She stared through the white paneled door. She could see bits and pieces of the room,

but not much. At least she would be able to see if someone walked in. A creak from the

direction of the bedroom door had her holding her breath.
Oh God, he’s on the second

floor!
She gripped the baseball bat firmly and raised it, ready to start swinging.

The door to the bedroom opened and a large man walked inside. She couldn’t make out

any features, just that he was large. He walked inside and moved around the room, taking

his time. She held her breath while she watched him, praying that he would leave quickly.