When the Shadows Fall by Elise Noble
CHAPTER 44 - ALARIC
SEPTEMBER SIXTEENTH, AND Alaric had been on edge all day. Almost a week had passed since the showdown at Shadow Falls Academy, and things were finally getting back to normal. Or as normal as things could be in the new post-Emerald world.
Rune had gone back to school, and yesterday, Alaric had returned to the US with Beth for meetings. The phone had been ringing off the hook this week with new enquiries now that Alaric’s name had been taken off the blacklist. Old contacts were calling, and at this rate, Sirius would be turning away work. Alaric might even be able to toss a few contracts in Emmy’s direction as thanks for the jobs she’d given him when the firm was in its infancy. Outside of Judd, Ravi, and Naz, she was the one person who’d believed in him all these years.
He’d always love her, but not the same way he loved Beth.
Beth. He’d liked her as soon as he met her, even when he thought she was working against him, but nothing had prepared him for what he’d find when he scratched through her prim and proper exterior. Fifty shades of filth hidden under demure little suits and sky-high stilettos. They’d finally achieved one of his life goals on the flight back to the US, and when they’d both squeezed out of the tiny bathroom at forty thousand feet and a grey-haired lady had shaken her head and tutted, Beth had just giggled. Then given him a handjob in first class.
His perfect woman, and she wasn’t a bad PA either. Sirius’s office had never been so organised.
All of which meant he was keeping her. Permanently. Two months, twenty-nine days, and twenty-three hours ago, she’d agreed that three months was an appropriate length of time to wait for a proposal. He had an hour left to wait. The ring was in his pocket, dinner was in the oven, and there was a bottle of champagne on ice. Hell, he’d even arranged both of her wedding gifts. Was he nervous? No. She’d practically said yes already. Gift number two? That made him edgy. She’d said she wanted it, but did she really?
“Ready to eat?” he called up the stairs.
“Five minutes. I’m just changing my clothes.”
Alaric almost asked if she needed a hand, especially with her shoes. She loved fancy high-heeled pumps, and so did he. On her, not himself, obviously—he’d break an ankle if he tried to walk in those things. But that could wait until later. The salmon en croûte would burn if he got distracted. Mrs. Fairfax had said to give it exactly forty minutes, not a moment longer. He had it on the table by the time Beth walked down the stairs, laid out beside steamed vegetables and a bottle of chilled white wine.
“You look beautiful,” he said when she finally appeared. Not that she didn’t always, but she rarely wore four-inch Louboutins for a quiet dinner at home.
“So do you. Handsome. I mean handsome.”
Alaric pulled out her seat and poured her wine. He’d never lived with a woman before, but it was worth the wait. Getting up in the mornings was so much easier these days.
“I hear Killian Marshall went home this afternoon,” Beth said.
“He did.”
Strangely, Alaric had become quite fond of the man over the last few weeks, despite their difficult start. Marshall kept his mouth shut regarding the precise details of his illicit dealings, but they’d had some interesting discussions about art in general and art theft in particular over late-night glasses of Scotch. Alaric liked to think they’d stay in touch.
“Do you think he’ll go straight?”
“Yes. I actually do.”
“What about Hugo Pemberton?”
That was a trickier question. He was still handling stolen paintings, undoubtedly, but after some serious contemplation, Alaric was inclined to agree with Marshall over him. Better for the world’s missing treasures to be kept in tip-top condition until they were eventually found than for Sirius to turn a relatively harmless old man over to the police. Besides, they had someone monitoring him. Gemma was still working at the gallery by day and staying at Judd’s place in London by night.
“Reckon we’ll leave him alone for the moment as well.”
“I can’t pretend that I’m not still a teensy bit annoyed that he fired me, but I think that’s the right decision. And I suppose, really, I should thank him. I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
“Strange how things turned out, isn’t it? For everyone.”
“I’m so glad Vanessa has a place at a new school. Sky and Asher both seem fond of her, and I wouldn’t wish another year at Shadow Falls on anyone. Apart from perhaps that Deandra girl. From what Sky’s said, she seems ghastly.”
“Karma moves in mysterious ways.”
When it became clear the academy would be closed for a month at least while the FBI dug into the backgrounds of all the staff and decontaminated the cellar, Black had pulled yet more strings and gotten Vanessa accepted at his old school. Rybridge Prep counted the current president among its alumni, and its reputation was second to none. Vanessa would be boarding, but Alaric had a feeling they’d be seeing a lot of her at Riverley on the weekends.
He nodded at Beth’s plate. “How’s the salmon?”
“Very—”
Beeping cut her off mid-sentence, and Alaric tensed. It was time. He’d been waiting for this moment for three long months. He fished his phone out of his jacket pocket to shut off the noise, only to find it wasn’t his alarm ringing. When he looked up, Beth was tapping away at her phone screen.
“Sorry about that.” She swallowed hard. “I don’t know if you remember, but three months ago—”
NowAlaric’s alarm went off, and what could he do but laugh?
“You beat me to it. Seems great minds think alike.”
“You did remember?”
“I was hardly going to forget.”
“Sorry. It’s just that being married to Piers for so long… He forgot every birthday and every anniversary. Anyhow, enough about him.” She smiled brightly and fumbled a gold band out of her cleavage. “I bought you a ring and everything.”
Alaric slipped a velvet box out of his pocket. “As I said: great minds. Give me your hand, Beth. In marriage and in life.”
“But of course.”
Thank goodness for that. The ring fit perfectly, the same way Beth fit him.
“An emerald?” she asked.
“I thought it was appropriate.”
She slid her ring onto his finger, and that was it—they were both officially off the market. Alaric abandoned all thoughts of dinner, walked around the table, and kissed his girl stupid to seal the deal.
“So…” she said once they came up for air. “What’s an appropriate length of time to wait between engagement and marriage?”
“Five minutes?”
“Be serious.”
“I am. I’ll fly you to Vegas right now if you want.”
“Ugh, no. I’m not getting married in Vegas. That’s so tacky.”
“Don’t say that to Emmy or Black. They got married there. Twice.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“They’d better not be. I have big plans for tonight.”
Beth’s eyes widened, and she put on that breathy voice that made him hard every time.
“Precisely how big are we talking?”
“Eight inches?”
“I think it’s closer to nine.”
The champagne could wait. Alaric scooped Beth up in his arms and carried her out of the dining room.
“Bedroom? Or do you want to bend over my desk ag—”
Bzzzzzzzzzz.
Who the hell was at the gates? Emmy was under strict instructions to keep her crew away from Hillside House tonight, and the other members of Team Sirius were in England. Nobody else even knew where he lived now.
“Get rid of them,” Beth mumbled. “Please.”
“I will.”
It was probably canvassers, or someone trying to sell him a new religion, but he picked up a gun just in case. You never could be too careful. And there were still three paintings missing from the Becker Museum. Were they all cursed? Very likely, because when Alaric checked the screen on the entry phone, the sight before him was worse than he’d ever imagined. He’d rather have faced a hit squad.
“Oh, shit.”
“What? Who is it?”
“My parents.”
“Your parents? I thought you didn’t speak to them anymore?”
“I don’t.”
Not for eight years, anyway. Not since they’d found him guilty of all charges and cut him off. He was tempted to leave them outside in the rain, but he knew his father too well—if Bancroft McLain had decided he wanted to talk to his son, then they’d be talking, sooner or later. Best to get it over with.
Beth kissed him softly on the cheek. “Whatever you decide, I’ll support you.”
“I should probably find out what they want.”
“Shall I wait upstairs?”
“No, stay.” His father would be less likely to act like an arse with another woman around. And they might need a mediator. “If you’re okay with that. They might be rude.”
“I spent half a lifetime pretending to be nice to my parents’ friends. I’m used to it.”
Reluctantly, Alaric buzzed the gates open, and his father’s Bentley pulled up outside the front door. Way to spoil a great evening.
Beth stayed polite as the elder McLains checked her over. Fortunately, she looked like exactly the type of girl they’d want him to marry, which led to a bemused smile from his mother. Lavinia McLain hadn’t been fond of Emmy at all.
“Mom, Dad, meet Beth. Beth, these are my parents, Bancroft and Lavinia McLain.”
Cue handshakes and polite noises.
“Tea or coffee?” Beth offered. “Water? Something stronger?”
A glass of Scotch would have gone down well, but Alaric kept his mouth shut.
“No need,” Alaric’s father said. “We won’t be staying long.”
Good. Alaric got straight to the point. “Why are you here?”
His parents looked at each other, and then his mother deferred to his father, the same way she always did.
“We saw the news.”
“Am I supposed to be impressed?”
“They finally found that money.”
“They did.”
Blackwood’s and Sirius’s names had both been kept out of the media. The people who mattered knew, but publicly, the FBI got the credit.
“I hear you had a hand in it.”
So his father still had ears in the right places.
“Somebody had to keep looking.”
Another glance between his parents, and finally his mother spoke.
“We shouldn’t have doubted you all those years ago. We’ve come to apologise.”
Well, well, well. Miracles did happen. “It’s a little late for that.”
His father took over again. “I understand why you would feel that way. We can’t turn back the clock, but we wanted to make amends.” He drew a slim envelope out of his pocket and placed it on the hall table. “We’ll just leave this here.”
Alaric’s mother glanced at Beth again, and suddenly she smiled. “You two are engaged?”
He nodded and took Beth’s hand. “We are.”
“Congratulations. That’s lovely, isn’t it, Bancroft?”
“You’ve done well for yourself, son.” His gaze flitted around the large hallway, assessing, and then came back to Beth. “Very well.”
“I know.”
Technically, the house still belonged to Emmy, but one day Alaric hoped to buy it from her. If Sirius kept growing, he’d manage it.
“So… We’ll be going then.”
Alaric didn’t bother to stop them. Why should he? Even before the Emerald incident, they hadn’t made things easy for him, and when he’d needed their support, they’d turned their backs.
“I’ll buzz you out.”
Once the gates had closed behind them, Beth sank onto the ornamental couch Bradley had put in the hallway. He’d just shown up one day, directed two men where to place it, declared it looked “fandabidozi,” and scurried out again. Eight years, and he hadn’t changed a bit.
“That was weird,” Beth said. “Are you okay?”
“That’s the closest my father’s ever come to apologising for anything.”
“Perhaps he could give my father lessons. What’s in the envelope?”
“No idea.”
Alaric tore it open and found some sort of legal document, folded into three. McLain Family Trust, blah, blah, blah, from this date, blah, blah, blah, authorised signatories, blah, blah, blah.
“It seems as if they’ve unrevoked access to my trust fund.”
“Really? How much is in there? Not that I care or anything,” she hastened to add. “I’m just nosy.”
Alaric knew she didn’t care. Beth wasn’t in this relationship for the money. When she’d fallen in love with him, he’d been camping out on friends’ couches, for pity’s sake.
“About five million bucks, give or take.” And if his parents had relented, he’d inherit ten times that someday. “Guess we can build those stables you want now.”
He tossed the document back onto the table. He didn’t much care about the cash either. Wealth wasn’t important to him, not anymore. Integrity was important. Friends were important. And Beth? She was vital.
He picked her up again, bridal-style, and carried her towards the stairs.
“Now, where were we?”
She whispered in his ear, and a grin spread across his face. They could drink the champagne for breakfast.