6. Connor O’Doyle

Chapter 6

Connor O’Doyle

Unwanted visitors suck.

The door creaks loudly, and I scowl at the large man who walks into the study as if he didn’t nearly set my entire business venture back months only weeks ago.

“Connor,” Frank says in greeting, his voice nonchalant, despite having just broken into my home and study.

“Frank, what the fuck are you doing here?” I groan, still seated at my desk, attempting to work out what exactly is happening to my body. I’m in no condition to speak to anyone while I wait to see what reaction I will have to the new medicine Jekyll sent.

“I came for a late-night visit,” Frank says, still half hidden in shadow.

“Oh, I am not receiving visitors.” I hope it’s a very short visit, because I don’t have the time to deal with Frank.

He chuckles and steps further into the room.

“You know Vlad isn’t here,” I tell him, shaking my head at the painted ceiling. Why am I surrounded by people who refuse to listen?

“I know perfectly well where he is. Him and his human mate , as it turns out. I suppose it’s all for the best then that he is on my yacht. The idiot still hasn’t figured out this is all in my plan to make amends.”

I snort at the idea of Frank moving Vlad and Aubrey around like chess pieces. “You mean the Maldives?”

“Exactly. Aubrey won a box set of tickets to the Maldives. All-inclusive too. Who would have thought?” His shark-like eyes focus on me, giving me that dead-fish stare.

“You are sick,” I announce, aware that if Vlad knew, he would be livid.

“Don’t worry, I have nothing against Aubrey now that we know she is his mate. She’s practically family, and I am no threat to her. All will be well.” He waves a hand as if this makes up for everything that has happened.

“You shut down the castle for three whole days,” I bite out, yellow flashing in my mind at the reminder as my body tenses for a fight, the monster inside me triggered by his closeness.

The giant raises his head, rotates his shoulders as a loud popping sound emits, and groans in satisfaction. “I have always loved this room,” he says, looking up at the ceiling, his gaze trailing over the many shelves of books and antiquities.

“What are you doing here, Frank, if not for Aubrey?” I ask, wanting to get it over with since it’s obvious he won’t be leaving until he has his say.

His expression hardens. “Playing dumb, Connor? I never pegged you as someone who shies away once he’s been caught.”

I sit up at that. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Caught?”

He scoffs, and his massive hands go behind his back. I realize then he’s not joking. Who am I kidding? Frank would have to have a sense of humor for that to happen.

“You’re serious? You think I’ve done something to you?” I blurt in disbelief. “The idea is ridiculous in itself. Cut the bullshit and tell me what happened.”

He lifts a hand and a spark ignites in his palm. For fuck’s sake, can I not catch a break?

“Like you don’t know.” He unbuttons his jacket and moves to sit in the chair across the desk from me, the same one Whitley sat in hours ago. Smoke curls away from his body, filling the air.

Frank’s genetic makeup means he is a kettle, always hot, and a boil over can happen at a moment’s notice. Or that is what happens when the giant loses his temper.

“I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about, mate,” I reiterate as I move to open the nearby window to cool his hot head down.

“Aww. You giving us a porkie, Connor? Tell the truth, mate. What the fuck were you doing hacking into Talbot? All you had to do was ask me and I would have given you the files,” he practically growls.

I go still. Smoke wreathes around him and a flicker of flame lights in his eyes, his fury more than obvious. I envision all the priceless books and artifacts I have collected over the years consumed by fire and turned to ash.

“Frank. I don’t know anything about whatever files you’re fucking talking about.” Fuck me. If he destroys the study, I will murder him for good. I level a finger at the floor. “I did not hack into my own fucking company. Why would I?”

“Is that so?” His voice comes out low, sounding odd combined with how orange he is turning. Frank goes still as if weighing whether I’m lying or not, but finally seems to accept I am telling the truth. With his shirt sleeves pushed up, the veins in his arms and scarring around his digits and joints glow a faint vermilion from his anger on display. “Fine, say I believe you.”

“Why the fuck do your eyeballs look like basketballs? For fuck’s sake, stop it . I swear, I will take my portion and walk, you bastard.” I threaten him the only way I can as I stalk over to him, my muscles ready to rip from my clothes at a moment’s notice. I have as many shares in Talbot as he does, and he knows it just as well as I do. “You only care about the company? I will burn the fucker to the ground if you don’t calm your shit right now. Start from the beginning and tell me what happened.”

Knock. Knock. Knock. We both freeze at the sound.

“Mr. O’Doyle? I mean, Connor?” comes Whitley’s sweet voice on the other side.

Skin ripples and tears as my fingers become claws, and I dart my hand out to grip Frank’s shoulder when his eyes swivel to the door with a dark light.

“Do. Not.” I will rip his fucking heart from his chest and eat it if he so much as looks at her.

“Who is that?” he says, sniffing at the air, and rage explodes in my chest.

A low growl rumbles up my throat as a sharp burning sensation bursts in my sternum, most likely from the thought of her in Frank’s orbit. None of the employees should ever have to encounter Frank. He is a snake in sheep’s clothing and twice as deadly.

“She is none of your concern.”

He sniffs again, and I wrap my hand around his throat, baring my teeth when he grins.

“Hello?” the bastard calls out, and I punch him in the arm with my free hand—hard. She won’t be able to tell it’s not me speaking through the thick walls.

“Stop it, dickwad.”

“Sorry to bother you again, but I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment?” Her voice is all false sugary sweetness, and I bet she’s trying to butter me up to get something after our last conversation. I saw how angry she was when she left, ready to implode because I can’t stop being a jerk to her for some freaking reason.

I wish I had never dragged her into any of this. Not the Dracula cosplay farce for the gala, not the dinners, none of it, because Frank is looking at me with a gleam in his eye that I don’t particularly like.

“Of course. Could I set up an appointment with you tomorrow?” I answer as professionally as I can, hoping Frank doesn’t catch the strain in my tone. Her damn scent is wafting from beneath the door, killing my senses, infuriating me, while making my traitorous dick jerk in my trousers. “I’m a little tied up at the moment.”

Frank chuckles at that, and I squeeze to cut off his voice to a wheeze.

“Sure.” I can almost hear her glare, but her quiet curse to herself is unmistakable.

“Goodnight, Miss Whitt,” I call out to her, praying for once the brat obeys.

“Goodnight,” she says softly.

I wait until I hear her footsteps back away, maintaining my glare at the orange glowing eyes across from me. Frank swats my arm away, breaking my hold, and rubs lightly at his neck. I sigh and straighten up, letting my head fall back, closing my wolfish-yellow eyes for a moment as I rein myself in.

“Well, isn’t that interesting?” he says, and his tone has me snapping my gaze back to him as he pulls at his coat, inspecting it for tears. “Who is she?”

“No one worth mentioning—and what the hell?” I stare down at my shirt that has busted a seam. “You know how much this shirt costs. You’re a fucking asshat.”

“Pick better insults already, Doyle. You’re beginning to bore me.” He runs his hands through his short blond locks, sweeping them back from his forehead. “Someone, and I know you know who, hacked into Talbot and somehow grabbed the encrypted files that have everything the witch did, from Egypt to Cairo, and everything on Odette is on that drive.”

“Why would I know who did it? It wasn’t me,” I tell him honestly. “This is the first I have heard of it.”

“You better be telling the truth. If any of this were to get out, I don’t think I have to tell you how bad that would be for all of us,” he says, stretching his tree-trunk legs out in front of him and crossing them at the ankles.

It would be insanity. Monsters exposed to the world. So many magical rules broken in one fell swoop we would be ostracized from society once more—or worse.

“I swear to you on my life, I’ve had nothing to do with this and I have no idea what makes you think I did.”

“Whoever did it has been creating holes and covering them almost instantly. If I hadn’t seen the pattern, I never would have caught it. We traced it, but it bounced through multiple VPNs. This hacker is good at covering their tracks.” His blond brows furrow, then he eyes me warily. “The one and only lead is the culprit had contact with someone here.”

My brow furrows as well. “As in Romania?”

His expression darkens. “As in this castle. At least three weeks ago.”

I move back around my desk and sit down heavily in my chair. Rubbing at my beard, I snatch up my phone to check who was here at the time.

“That had to have been around the grand opening. It would be like picking through a haystack with the amount of people that were here.”

“Actually, no.” He grows stone-faced, his body stills with calm, and the orange leaves his gaze entirely. “It was the week before your little grand opening.”

I remember back to who was visiting the castle a week before that disaster, but can only think of Aubrey, and maybe George. “No one was here.”

It makes no sense. The ability to tackle Frank’s immeasurable network firewalls would have to be astronomical. He brags about how impenetrable Talbot is constantly, and now this?

“Who even could hack into Talbot and not get caught by you and your minions? It’s impossible,” I say, not willing to give him more information until I know exactly what they took.

“Believe me, once I find who did it, they will be wishing they had never been born.” He chuckles, orange sparking in his gaze again, and I growl.

“Stop it with the fire. I swear to the gods, one scrap of paper in this place goes to ash and I will fillet you.”

“Threaten all you like, Connor, but I am not going anywhere until I find out who did it.”

I run a hand down my face, groaning. Fuck me.

“You realize if anyone finds out you’re here, it’ll be even more of a mad house?” I huff out, imagining camera crews on the lawn trying to get a photo.

He waves a hand. “I know how to blend in. You just get me the name.”

“And when Vlad figures out you were here?”

Frankenstein settles his large frame deeper into the bronze inlaid chair across from me, probably one of the few in the castle that can hold his weight. “One issue at a time, pup.”

Touché.