Grim Offerings (Aisling Grimlock Book 2) Read online

  Griffin focused on Aidan, interested in the response.

  “Because he’s … taking you away from me.”

  I froze. What the … ?

  “I’m taking her away from you?” Griffin asked, nonplussed. “Don’t you think that’s a little crazy?”

  Jerry flapped his hands nervously. “I don’t think we should finish this discussion.”

  Everyone ignored him.

  “Yes, of course it’s crazy,” Aidan said. “I know it’s crazy. I can’t help it. You’re trying to push me out of her life. You think I don’t know, but I know.”

  “I think someone has sympathetic PMS,” I said.

  Aidan stuck out his tongue. “That wasn’t funny the first time you said it in middle school. It’s not any funnier now.”

  “You’re being irrational,” I said. I glanced at Griffin for support, but he was busy studying Aidan with a thoughtful expression.

  “I am not being irrational,” Aidan said. “Every time I turn around this … guy … is in my face. When we watch The Golden Girls, he has to watch it with us. When you laugh now, it’s always with him. I told an outstanding joke the other day and you didn’t even crack a smile.”

  “That was a good joke, honey,” Jerry said, trying to bolster him.

  “And worse, when you’re upset, you don’t come to me,” Aidan said. “You go to him. He’s the one who makes you feel better. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?”

  “Like you’re inappropriately attached to me?” I was completely thrown. I couldn’t believe he would think this, let alone say it out loud. Griffin already thought there was something wrong with my relationship with my brothers. This was going to send him over the edge.

  “Wait a second,” Griffin said, holding up his hand. “I think we should hear him out.”

  What? Did I wake up in an alternate dimension where everyone is crazy today? Maybe I’m still asleep? I reached over and pinched Jerry.

  “Ow! Why did you do that?” Jerry jerked his arm out of my reach.

  “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming,” I said.

  “Then you should have asked me to pinch you.”

  “You really dig in when you pinch,” I said. “You leave little half-moon marks on my skin. I don’t like it.”

  Griffin and Aidan stared at one another.

  “Are you saying you don’t like me because you think I’m stealing your sister from you?” Griffin asked.

  “I don’t dislike you,” Aidan said. “I just don’t like how Aisling always goes to you. I’m the one she used to go to when she was upset. It was a big job, but it was my job.”

  “Hey, what about me?” Jerry protested.

  “She still goes to you,” Aidan said. “You’re her best friend.”

  Realization washed over Griffin’s face. “And she’s your best friend.”

  Aidan faltered. “She’s my sister.”

  “She’s also your best friend,” Griffin said. “I didn’t … I should have taken that into consideration.”

  “What?” Everyone was definitely going crazy. “He’s been awful to you.”

  “He’s just been marking his territory,” Griffin said. “That’s a man thing. I’m fairly certain I did the same thing last night when you came back from your date with Morgan Reid.”

  Aidan shifted. “You went on a date with Morgan Reid last night?”

  “Can we get back to the conversation at hand? We can talk about that later. How can you possibly think I would let anyone replace you?”

  “He already has,” Aidan said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You haven’t spent any time with me since he came back.”

  “We played shark attack.”

  “We all played shark attack, and he was on your team. We’re always on the same team. That’s how we win.”

  “Oh.”

  “He was on your team for Trivial Pursuit, too. That’s our game. We dominate at that game.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “It just made sense to break up into couples.”

  “Right. Couples.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Have you ever considered that I felt the same way when you started dating Jerry and stole my best friend?”

  “I did not steal your best friend,” Aidan said.

  “I’m no longer the most important person in his life,” I countered. “You are.”

  “Oh, please. He still takes your side instead of mine.”

  “That’s because I’m always right.”

  “She is,” Jerry agreed.

  “Life is about changing and evolving,” I said. “Because I’m dating Griffin doesn’t mean I don’t need you. I’ll always need you. We shared a womb.”

  “And you totally kicked me for nine months. Now you’re just kicking me in a different way.”

  “She didn’t have feet for nine months,” said Jerry, ever pragmatic in tense situations. “She looked like a tadpole for a lot of that time.”

  “Jerry, butt out,” Griffin said. “Let them talk.”

  “For crying out loud, Aidan, you’re being a … .”

  “If you call me a girl, I’m going to beat the snot out of you,” Aidan warned.

  I sucked in a breath to calm myself. “Griffin isn’t here to take your spot,” I said. “He has his own spot. You still have your spot.”

  “I don’t feel like I do.”

  “I don’t understand why this is just coming up now,” I said. “You were the one taking his side in the restaurant the other day. You were standing up for him. You didn’t feel this way then.”

  “That was when I thought there was a chance he was going to break up with you,” Aidan said. “I thought that was why he hadn’t called. I figured I would get to put the pieces of your life back together, be the big hero and curse his name for weeks when you realized what was going on. I didn’t think he was really working.”

  “You said you did,” I pointed out.

  “I was trying to make you feel better,” he said. “Once he showed up that night, I knew it was all over for me. I was the forgotten person in your life.”

  “I can’t forget about you, dumbass,” I said. “I also want to have my own life. I think it’s harder for you because you’ve managed to get your own life, and it still overlaps with mine.”

  Aidan considered for a moment. “That makes sense,” he said.

  I was surprised.

  “I still don’t want Griffin to watch The Golden Girls with us. That’s our thing.”

  I scowled.

  “I think that’s fair,” Griffin interjected.

  “What? You can’t miss out on The Golden Girls. They’re comedic perfection.”

  “I think it’s fair for you and Aidan to have one night a week where it’s just the two of you,” Griffin said. “I’m okay with it. We’ll set up a schedule.”

  “A schedule?”

  “You know what I mean,” Griffin said. “No one needs to feel displaced here.” He turned to Aidan. “You and I need to come to an understanding, though. I don’t appreciate your attitude. I admit I was wrong. I should have called her while I was undercover.

  “It was a new situation for us, and I was worried about waking her up. I had no idea I would be gone as long as I was,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere, though. You need to accept that I have a spot in her life, just like I accept you have a spot in her life.”

  Aidan grudgingly nodded.

  “It’s not easy for me to share her with you and Jerry, either,” Griffin said. “I find this whole arrangement … odd. It is who she is, though, and I happen to like who she is. I’m not asking for us to be best friends. I don’t expect us to have guys’ nights and shoot pool. I do think I deserve a modicum of respect.”

  “Fine,” Aidan said. “I’m sorry.”

  Griffin arched an eyebrow.

  “I am sorry,” Aidan said. “I didn’t mean to hurt Aisling. I didn’t really care about hurting you, but I didn’t want to hurt her, and that
’s what I was doing.”

  “I think you should shake on it,” I prodded.

  Aidan and Griffin exchanged a stiff handshake.

  “Yay!” Jerry clapped excitedly. “Now, let’s talk about having guys’ nights. I know you were joking, but I think they’re a great idea. Instead of shooting pool, though, we should go to a spa. I don’t like getting that blue chalk on my fingers. It stains.”

  “Yeah, that’s not going to happen, Jerry,” Griffin said.

  “Besides, spa days are what we do together,” I reminded him. “I don’t want Griffin to displace me in your life.”

  Jerry beamed.

  “So, everyone is okay here, right?” Griffin pressed.

  Aidan nodded.

  “Good,” he said. “Now someone feed Aisling. She’s been whining about breakfast for an hour.”

  Aidan lifted his eyes up to me. “Are you happy now?”

  “We’ll see,” I said. “I’m happier, if that helps.”

  “Good. Now, tell me what possessed you to go on a date with Morgan Reid. If I don’t like your answer, I’m still going to beat the snot out of you.”

  And things were back to normal.

  Twenty-Six

  “Is there a reason we couldn’t have done this over the phone?” Griffin parked in front of Grimlock Manor later that afternoon, his morning smile replaced with a grim frown. “I thought we were going to spend quality time together.”

  “We did that last night,” I said. “We did it this morning, too. We also did it after you and Aidan made up.”

  “That’s not quality time together,” Griffin said. “Not everything is a euphemism for sex.”

  Huh. You learn something new every day. “Dad wants everyone together for a meeting. He’s technically our boss. I had to come. You didn’t.”

  “Yes, but I wanted to make sure he didn’t hijack you again and try to make you stay here,” Griffin said.

  “He only did that because of the wraiths.”

  “He did it because he’s a control freak.” Griffin pocketed his keys once he got out of the car. “You’re all control freaks.”

  “I am not a control freak. I’m easygoing.”

  “Has anyone … other than yourself, I mean … ever accused you of being easygoing?”

  I searched my brain. Someone must have. I snapped my fingers. “My fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Lucifer, did.”

  “Mrs. Lucifer? That can’t have been her real name.”

  “No, but she looked like a female devil. Her real name was Mrs. Lumen.”

  “And she said you were easygoing?”

  “When my parents went in for parent-teacher conferences, she told them that compared to my brothers I was the easiest one,” I said. “That’s the same as being easygoing.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Get in the house,” Griffin ordered.

  “You’re awfully bossy,” I grumbled. “No one ever accused you of being easygoing, did they?”

  “I’ll have you know most people think I’m very easygoing,” he said. “It’s just when I get around you and your family that my demeanor shifts.”

  “Are you saying you have multiple personalities?”

  “Have you been watching soap operas again?”

  “Hey, soap operas are wondrous things,” I argued. “They take the everyday and make it surreal.”

  “You really are a lot of work,” Griffin said.

  “Again, I did all the work last night … and this morning.”

  “Stop saying things like that in your father’s house,” Griffin warned. “He already thinks I’m a sexual deviant.”

  “Just wait until he really gets to know you,” I said. “Then he’ll know you’re a sexual deviant.”

  “Work. Work. Work.”

  “OKAY, we have some new information,” Dad said, leaning forward in his desk chair and steepling his fingers in front of him. He always did that. He thinks it makes him look scholarly. “Why is he here again?”

  I glanced at Griffin. “Because he’s part of this, and he was at my place when you called.”

  “Why was he at your place?”

  “Because he spent the night.”

  “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

  “Are you trying to give me an ulcer?”

  “Are you … ?”

  “Let it go,” Redmond said. “That townhouse is a den of sex and debauchery.”

  I shot him a look.

  “I wasn’t talking about only you,” Redmond soothed. “I was talking about Aidan and Jerry, too.”

  “Thanks, man,” Aidan said.

  Redmond clapped him on the back. “Don’t mention it.”

  “Oh, I’m going to mention it,” Aidan said. “I’m just going to wait until Dad isn’t watching.”

  “I’m going to help him mention it,” I threatened.

  “I think you have your hands full already,” Redmond said.

  “No, she had her hands full this morning,” Aidan said, waggling his eyebrows.

  “You shut your filthy mouth,” Dad exploded.

  Aidan had the grace to look abashed. While things weren’t perfect between us again the tension had noticeably eased.

  “Oh, it’s all fun and games until Dad’s aorta blows,” I teased.

  Griffin pinched the back of my neck. “I’m starting to feel uncomfortable.”

  “I am, too,” Dad said. “Aisling, you can’t sit there.”

  I had settled on the arm of Griffin’s wingback chair when I entered the room. “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want to be constantly wondering where Griffin’s hands are,” Dad said.

  “They’re in his lap.”

  “Go and sit with your brothers,” he ordered.

  I rolled my eyes, but did as I was told. I pushed between Braden and Cillian, forcing them to make room for me on the leather couch. “Move over.”

  “Sit over there.”

  “I want to sit here.”

  “We don’t want you to sit here,” Braden said.

  “I want her to sit here,” Cillian said, slinging an arm over my shoulders. “I’m a good brother.”

  “That’s why you’re my favorite,” Dad said.

  Cillian shot a smug look in Braden’s direction.

  “Enjoy it while you can,” Braden said. “I’m going to be back on top in a few days.”

  “All of you shut up,” Dad snapped. “We have serious business to attend to.”

  “Yeah, stop being immature,” I said. “You’re going to give Dad a heart attack.”

  Braden poked me in the ribs.

  “I will never understand why your mother insisted on procreating,” Dad said.

  “I think you should’ve just had one child,” Redmond said. “You had perfection with me. You mucked everything up by adding the rest of them.”

  “I see we all have the attention span of gnats today,” Dad said. “I’ll make this brief.”

  “That’s what Redmond does on all of his dates,” Aidan said, smirking.

  Dad extended his finger. “Not one more word.”

  We all snapped our mouths shut. We’d pushed him about as far as we could safely manage for one afternoon.

  “As I said, we have some new information,” Dad said.

  “Where did this new information come from?” I asked.

  “I’ve been working on the computer,” Cillian supplied. “Dad won’t let me do anything else.”

  “That’s because you’re recovering,” I said. “You need your rest.”

  “Listen to your sister,” Dad said.

  “Oh, man, can you say that again?”

  Dad furrowed his brow. “What?”

  “I need you to repeat the ‘listen to your sister’ thing, but I need you to wait until I have my phone out so I can record you,” I said.

  “I will gag you if you don’t shut your mouth,” Dad said.

  I mimed zipping my lips.

 
“Anyway, I’ve been going through Reid’s finances,” Cillian said.

  Griffin leaned forward. “How did you get his financial information?”

  “Let’s just say it wasn’t legal,” Cillian said.

  I watched Griffin to see how he would react. Instead of flying off the handle, he merely shrugged. “Continue.”

  “His clients are interesting,” Cillian said. “All of them have a rap sheet.”

  “Do we have a short list?” Braden asked.

  “Well, not exactly,” Cillian said. “There was one name that looked fairly innocuous until I delved a little deeper.”

  “Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Redmond said. “What’s the name?”

  “Sylvia Dobbs.”

  “Is she that woman who won the lottery last week?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “You need to learn how to tell a story faster,” I said, snapping my fingers. “I’m feeling the urge to nap coming on.”

  Aidan rolled his eyes. “That’s because you were up all night … .” Dad cleared his throat. “Watching The Golden Girls,” he finished.

  “Sylvia Dobbs appears to be a normal woman,” Cillian said, trying to alleviate the snowballing tension. “That’s why she stood out.”

  “No one is normal,” I said.

  “Especially not you,” Aidan said.

  “Oh, and you’re the poster boy for normal,” I scoffed.

  “I will kill you both,” Dad threatened. “Cillian, please finish. If your sister opens her mouth again, shove something in there to shut her up.”

  “I think that’s Griffin’s job,” Aidan said.

  Dad’s clenched jaw muscles tremored.

  Cillian was trying hard not to laugh. “Sylvia Dobbs has financial ties to someone else we know,” he said.

  “Who?” Now I was genuinely curious.

  “Duke Fontaine.”

  The joking attitude that filled the room seconds earlier dissipated quickly.

  “Who is Duke Fontaine?” Griffin asked. “The name sounds familiar, but I can’t remember why.”

  “Duke Fontaine is Dad’s nemesis,” I said.

  Griffin racked his memory. “Is he the freelancer who keeps trying to steal souls for the highest bidder?”

  I nodded.

  “He’s the one who fought with you and Cillian a few weeks ago, right?”