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Don picked that moment to come striding through the throngs of stu
“What the hell is going on?”
Bones set me down and went to my boss in a blink of speed. To Don’s credit, he didn’t try to run.
“You must be very determined to kill me to go to such lengths,” he flatly commented, squaring his shoulders.
“I’m not here for you, old chap,” Bones said, looking him up and down thoroughly. “I’m here to find out what rat you’ve got in your garden. But first we’re going to have a chat, the three of us. You’ve kept her in the dark long enough.”
“Tate, Juan, make sure no one comes through that door and no one tries to get frisky. The place is secured, but someone could pull a weapon. Keep sharp.”
I inclined my head toward Don’s office. “After you, boss.”
Don took his seat like it was any other visit and not a hostage situation, and we sat across from him.
“Don, I’d like to introduce you to Bones. The real Bones, not the impostor on ice in the fridge. You’ll remember him from Ohio, where he gave the highway a whole new look.”
“All these years, Cat,” Don said with sadness. “You’ve been working the other side this whole time. Bravo, I was totally fooled.”
My mouth opened in outrage, but Bones beat me to it. “You ungrateful sod, the only reason I’m not picking you out of my teeth now is because of her. She fancies you a decent man, not that I agree, and has in no way betrayed your trust. You can hardly say the same.”
I rolled my eyes. A death threat, gee, great way to start out a talk.
“I haven’t played you at all, Don,” I said. “When I left Ohio, I thought I was leaving Bones behind for good. He tracked me down and found me only two weeks ago, and I have never done anything to betray this operation.”
Don shook his head in self-rebuke. “I should have sensed a trap. No vampire ever surrenders. How did you get your mother to play along?”
“She didn’t,” I said grimly. “Bones told her he wanted to meet without my knowledge. We knew what she’d do.”
Bones snorted. “When I got to her house, she’d already blacked both her eyes and knocked over every stick of furniture in the place. But back to you, Don. For most of my years, I’ve had a trade. I find people, and I’m right good at it. So imagine my surprise when I had such a devil of a time tracking her, and then also my inability to find much out about her father. Now, failure to locate one I could see, but two? Both hidden so carefully, it was almost as if they were concealed…by the same person.”
A foreboding sensation crept up my spine. Bones squeezed my hand.
“Two things always struck me as strange when she disappeared into the smoke. The first was how you found her so quickly. You showed up with all of her facts and figures the day she was arrested. Too pat, that. Such research takes time. You’d have to have been keeping tabs on her for a while, and how would you have known to do that? Only one way. You already knew what she was.”
“What?” I shot out of my seat with a shout. “Don, what have you been hiding?”
“Sit down, luv.” Bones gripped me when I would have sprinted across the desk to throttle Don. For his part, Don had turned a fine shade of parchment.
“The second thing that stumped me was how there were no records of any recent deaths matching her father’s description at the time her mother was raped. Not even any John Does. Ian’s the one who solved that riddle. You know him as Liam Fla
“No,” I answered for Don, whose mouth was sealed in a tight line. “He wasn’t. Get to the point, Bones.”
“I’d rather hoped Don would step up and finish it for me, but he’s staying quiet. Probably hoping like blazes I’m only fishing, aren’t you?”
Don didn’t reply. Bones made a regretful noise. “Open that envelope I gave you earlier, Kitten.”
With trembling fingers I drew the paper out of my shirt, ripping open the seal and unfolding the single page inside. It was an article with a photo, but the caption underneath blurred into nothingness because all I’d needed to do was look at the face.
The man standing with a grin had red hair, high cheekbones, a straight nose, a jaw that was masculine but eerily similar, and I couldn’t tell, but I’d bet those were gray eyes. Even faded, the likeness was unbelievable. Finally I had a face to put to my hate, and it was a mirror of my own. No wonder my mother had such issues.
As absorbed as I was in devouring the image of my father, it took me a minute to look at the other person in the photo. The one with an arm around my father’s shoulders. “Family Celebrates Commendation of Federal Officer,” the title read.
The years hadn’t been kind, but I recognized him at once. A furious chuckle escaped me, and I flung the page at Don.
“Well, isn’t life just one big joke? One huge cosmic one-liner! I now know just how Luke Skywalker felt when Darth Vader told him who he was, only you’re not my father. But you’re his brother.”
TWENTY-FOUR
I GLARED AT MY BOSS. “SHOULD I CALL YOU Uncle Don? You son of a bitch, you sent me out on how many suicide missions when you knew I was your niece? You and my mother have a lot in common-the two of you should be related!”
Don finally broke his silence. “Why would I think you’d be any different? Thirty-five years ago my older brother was investigating Liam Fla
“Six months later, your mother was attacked in the same city in Ohio I’d followed him to. When I read the description of her rapist, I knew it was him, and I knew that he’d finally crossed over. Then five months later, she gave birth to a child. One with a genetic anomaly documented at birth. Yes, I suspected all along, and made it a point to check up on you periodically while I created this department. Years went by, nothing happened, and I began to forget about you. Then your name came up in co
Don smiled but it wasn’t happy. “I also believe that life is a comic accident. Here God had given me the one thing strong enough to stop my brother and his kind, and it was his own daughter. Yes, I used you while waiting for the day when you’d turn as he did, but that didn’t happen. When I finally believed you were different, I sent you to capture Fla
My mind reeled with this latest bombshell. Ian had made my father? The same man who’d turned Bones had also been the one who sired Max? That made Ian partly responsible for my half-dead existence. Unbelievable.
“It’s not Fla
Don made a derisive noise. “How are you going to find out who this mythical traitor is? Torture all the staff?”
Bones glowered at him. “For someone who’s studied vampires for years, you certainly don’t give them much credit. Forgetting these?”