Deadly Gift by Heather Graham
In memory of my mom,
and the Irish contingent—
those who believed in leprechauns and
banshees and that all things could be possible.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
And for some folks who are amazing all year: Dave Simms, F. Paul Wilson, Harley Jane Kozak, Alex Sokoloff, Jason, Shayne, Derek, Chynna and Bryee Pozzessere, Connie, Scott, Al, Josh, Stacey and Kaylyn Perry, Helen and James Rosburg and Ali DeGray, Brian and Kristi Ahlers, Lance Taubold, Rich Devin, Kenny Jones, Debbie Richardson, Mary Stella and Beth Ciotta, Mr. Mark Johnston, Bob and Sandra Levinson.
The inimitable Kathryn Falk, Lady Barrow and Jo Carol Jones and Carol Stacy, Cindy Walker, Pat Walker and Patty Harrison, Kelli Salkin and CJ Hollenbach and Kevin and Nate Beard.
Kevin, you are my true hero!
Prologue
Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island
The sea was a beautiful thing, and being on the water was absolute heaven.
Eddie Ray felt the air on his cheeks and knew that they would be turning red soon with windburn. It was a winter’s day, but off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island, the seas were deceptively serene. He loved the sea in winter, with its changeable moods. He wasn’t a fool. He didn’t intentionally run out into dangerous storms, but he’d brought more than one boat through a heaving nor’easter, and he loved the churning waves, the wind, and even the cold that came with the driving rain and stole into a man’s bones.
But today was sweet! Crisp, cool air, the temperature hovering near forty degrees. A soft breeze, just enough to fill his sails and power the Sea Maiden, who rode the water as if she floated on air. She was his favorite of all their boats. He even had her name tattooed on his arm.
He hadn’t needed to take the Sea Maiden, of course. She was a sixty-footer, and none of those nouveau riche boys who earned their money in the city and came to Rhode Island to flaunt it would have taken her out for one passenger.
One strange passenger.
Eddie sat at the helm and glanced around. He had taken the man on at twelve o’clock sharp, just as the guy had asked, and they were going to be back at the marina by two-thirty, because his partner Sean and his wife would be heading out at four to Ireland, and Eddie intended to be there for the send-off. It was a big deal; Sean hadn’t been back to the country in which he’d been born for years.
And not since his honeymoon to the Caribbean had he been on a trip with Amanda.
The new wife. The “trophy” wife, as Kat, Sean’s daughter, called her. Well, if a man was going to marry a woman less than half his age, he had to expect some backlash. Then again, Sean O’Riley had always reminded Eddie of an old-fashioned kind of pirate. Not a real pirate. The kind in the movies. Captain Blood. Heroic, bold and determined. Sean would manage to keep peace in his own house by facing it the same way he faced the wind: legs firmly spread on the deck for balance, hands on his hips.
Kat was off chasing her music career most of the time these days. She was good, and they were all as proud as they could be. But Sean wasn’t good at living on his own. He needed someone else around the place, preferably a woman to take care of all the details he had no interest in handling himself. Kat’s mother had died long ago, and now that Kat wasn’t around, Sean needed company. Company other than his old maiden aunt, as sweet a woman as Bridey might be. Company other than Clara and Tom, who looked after the big old house. Marni, who was married to Cal, their newest and youngest partner, was always willing to play hostess when Sean needed to entertain for business, but Sean had needed more than that, ergo Amanda.
Whatever made Sean happy was, in Eddie’s mind, good. And if Amanda made Sean happy, then Eddie was happy—though, God knew, he couldn’t figure out why she was enough for Sean. He’d finally decided she must be a dynamo in bed, because she didn’t have the brains of a clam, and she barely pretended to be nice to Kat, who was the light of Sean’s life. But Sean was his best friend, as well as his partner. They’d traveled life’s seas together, the rough and the calm, the good and bad, the happy and the tragic. So if Sean was enjoying this particular voyage, then Eddie was glad for him.
This Christmas, though, Eddie had already arranged to give Sean the one thing he’d been hunting for as long as he could remember.
They had read all the books, reliving history from before the Revolution, looking for clues, all the while building up their charter business together, and on top of that, Sean had fought to keep up the big old house his grandfather had built.
Eddie smiled suddenly. Yes, they were friends.
And he was pleased, pleased as all get-out, to think that he’d gotten the best Christmas gift in the world for Sean.
But for the moment…