Cody hadn’t told her that part. What else wasn’t he telling her?
“What happened to your neck?” Marcas asked Cody.
Cody touched a red mark just over his jugular vein. “Shay bit me.”
Everyone stared at her, cocked eyebrows leading to grins.
Shay’s face heated. “That’s what you get for handcuffing me to the bed.”
The grins grew wider, and Shay’s face hotter.
“Sorry,” Cody said looking at her lips. “Do you want something to eat?”
“Careful,” Ronan said. “She might take a chunk out of the other side.”
“No, thanks,” Shay said, spearing all the men with a glare.
“Good,” Lachlan said. “’Cause Faelan just took the rest of the food.”
“You wouldn’t believe how much that man can eat after being suspended in time for a hundred and fifty-one years,” Bree said. “Come on, let’s get away from all this testosterone before we choke.”
“Who brought the cat?” Lachlan asked, looking at the cat, who’d pushed through the cracked door.
“It showed up at Nina’s,” Cody said. “Probably belongs to the Petersons.”
Bree and Shay left the room. “Now,” Bree said, lifting one dark brow. “Why exactly did Cody handcuff you to the bed?”
***
Tristol hovered outside the window, watching Malek pace the floor, his ear to the phone. “When I get back from Scotland, you’d better have Shay and the book,” Malek hissed. He stopped, his face convulsing, but he controlled the shift. “She’s with Cody MacBain! He’s the one. Get her away from him. If she’s Edward Rodgers’s daughter, she and the warrior can’t be allowed to breed.”
Edward Rodgers? The shock of that name jerked Tristol upright from his hiding place. The woman who stole the book could be Edward’s daughter? Was this the real reason Malek wanted her? Did he know about the powerful emerald Edward Rodgers was supposed to possess? This shed new light on things, but he didn’t have time to investigate. The Dark One had summoned him again. It was getting tedious, continuing this thousand-year-old charade, when he needed to monitor his prisoner. Tristol found his lieutenant and issued new instructions. If this Shay woman was Edward’s daughter, she was more valuable than any stolen book.
Chapter 5
Shay woke to the smell of Cody and bacon. The bacon part she understood. The Cody part didn’t make sense. A suspicious dent was in the pillow next to hers. Had Cody slept there? She didn’t remember anything after that cup of tea he gave her. She sat up, and her head swam as if she had been drugged, or was it the dream of the glowing man again? No, this felt like drugs. Cody must have put something in her tea. She threw on her clothes, brushed her teeth, and stormed out of the room. He had put her in Ewan and Laura’s old bedroom, insisting she stay at his house where they could protect her. She found him in the kitchen with Faelan and Bree.
“You bastard! So you’ve gone from handcuffing me to the bed to drugging me?”
“You drugged her?” Bree asked.
Faelan’s eyebrows rose. “You handcuffed her to the bed? Damnation. I wish I’d thought of that.”
Bree pointed her finger at him. “Don’t even try it.”
Cody scowled. “It was just valerian root. You needed rest.”
“Rest? I was practically unconscious.”
“Maybe Cody was afraid you would bite him again,” Faelan said to Shay. Bree elbowed him. “Sorry,” he said, grinning.
Cody scooted past Shay. “We’re going out to check the woods again. I want to warn Old Elmer to be on the lookout.”
Faelan gave Bree a lingering kiss. Cody looked at Shay’s mouth, licked his lips, but kept his distance. “Be back before long. Stay here.”
Shay followed him to the door, itching to hit him… or something. “Why don’t you just tattoo that on your hand? Stay here.”
“You look like you want to bite him again.” Bree grinned. “Or maybe you want to handcuff him to the bed.”
Shay’s cell phone rang. She grabbed it, hoping it was Renee. It was Jamie. She hadn’t talked to him since he moved from Scotland to Virginia.
“So what’s up with the table? Is it a consolation prize, or have you changed your mind?”
“Table?”
“I’ve got a table here with my name on it. It came from your shop in Leesburg.”
“I didn’t send it.” Why would Renee send Jamie a table? “What kind of table?”
“It has four legs, a top… it’s a table.”
“Funny. Pretend you’re describing your knife collection.”
“Hmmm, it’s round, dark wood, has these little drawers in the middle and doors on the sides. Funny designs on the edges.”
The mate to the one in Scotland. The one Julie had canceled. Why would Renee send it to Jamie?
“Keep it there. I’m coming to get it.” Jamie’s place in Luray wasn’t that far away.
“You’re taking it back?” Jamie asked.
“It might be a clue.”
“To what?”
“Someone broke into my shop in Scotland and destroyed the mate to that table. The shop in Leesburg was vandalized too, and last night someone broke in here.”
“Your house?” Jamie asked, alarmed.
“No. I’m in Virginia, at Aunt Nina’s.”
“I’m coming to get you.”
“No. I need to get away from the house for a while anyway. I’m bringing a friend with me.”
“Who?” he demanded.
“A woman.”
“You trust her?”
“I do.” She did. It was one of those instant connections, like with Lucy Bell and Renee. And Cody. They didn’t happen often, but when they did, it was strong.
“If you’re not here in two hours, I’m coming after you.”
“Cody’s going to kill you, you know,” Bree said, when Shay told her where she was headed. He and Faelan were out in the woods, trying to track whoever broke in.
“I’m not sitting around like a prisoner. Anyway, it’s probably safer away from the scene of the crime.”
Bree grabbed her purse. “I like the way you think. Let’s go get the table. Some fresh air and excitement will do me good. We’ll be back before the men know we’re gone. What about the cat?” It sat in the doorway, ears raised like antennae, eyes so green they seemed to glow.
“I’ll put it outside. Maybe it’ll get bored and go home.”
***
“Why are men so overbearing?” Shay asked as they drove.
“They can’t help it,” Bree said. “I think they’re all born that way. My father would hardly let me out of his sight.”
“Why?” Shay asked.
“I think he got paranoid after my Aunt Layla died. She was only twenty-five. As if my father weren’t protective enough, I go and find Faelan buried in the family graveyard, and he’s even worse. When he gets too chivalrous, I remind him how many times I’ve rescued him.”
“I bet that goes over well,” Shay said, thinking how fierce Faelan looked.
“Like a ton of bricks. We fight as hard as we love. How can you not argue with a man who believes women should sit at home while men protect them? You should’ve seen his face when he found out Sorcha was a warrior. You haven’t met her yet. Picture Xena the warrior princess with red hair. And Anna. Actually Anna has the black hair and turquoise eyes. Drop dead gorgeous and tough as nails. Faelan doesn’t have a clue what to do with them. They didn’t have female warriors in his day.”
“There are female warriors?”
“I keep forgetting, all this is new to you. I’m sorry,” Bree said, catching Shay’s frown. “I know it bothers you that they hid your identity from you. That’s a bummer, growing up thinking you’re someone else, not knowing your real family. I’d be angry too, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the short time I’ve known these warriors, it’s that they’re as protective as grizzlies when it comes to family. It’s instilled in them in the womb, this need to protect, to guard, even strangers.” She rubbed her stomach again. “Did they tell you anything about your real parents?”