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“Where?”Xavier demanded.“Where is the great-niece?”

“Dublin,” Annie said immediately.“She’s in Dublin.”

“Back to Dublin,” Colum said with satisfaction.

Xavier nodded but shared a look with Annie.Whoever was chasing the manuscript knew where the archive was and had attacked Colum there once already.

Suddenly, he sympathized with Florence.Because there wasn’t anything Xavier wouldn’t do to keep Colum and Annie safe.

ChapterTwelve

Colum: I fecking hate travel.

Franco: I know.

Colum: There’s people.Everywhere.

Franco: True.You’re a terrible choice for a character in a road trip book.

Colum looked up at the first bit of movement after God only knew how many hours.They’d doubled down on the research, deep diving into the Stokers, just in case they came up empty with the great-niece.

Xavier seemed sure that Florence Stoker would have a piece, and his confidence was persuasive.

But for Xavier to be right, it meant the Stokers, or maybe just Florence, had known about this dangerous manuscript but never told the Masters’ Admiralty.Or maybe they did, and that’s how the archive ended up with the painting containing the first piece.He didn’t actually know exactly how the canvas came to be in the archive, especially given the complete break between Wilde and the society.

If the Stokers did know about the first piece, and made sure it ended up with the archive, why didn’t they pass over the section they had?

But then again…

Colum was working in circles.If things didn’t pan out with the great-niece, they needed a plan B…and C…and D, but he was glad they were going back to Dublin.While he would put his hand to God and declare that everything in his archive was catalogued, a niggling doubt nipped at him.What if Florence Stoker’s piece was in the archive somewhere, and whoever catalogued it hadn’t realized what it was?

His brain was starting to hurt.

Annie stood up, arching her back to stretch.The position pushed her breasts out, and while Colum liked to consider himself a gentleman, he was also a red-blooded man and he couldn’t resist the pull to admire them, his thoughts running rampant as he recalled the way it had felt to be inside that mouth, that pussy.

Anastasia Ward was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met, and the fact that she was as attracted to him as he was to her felt like a goddamn miracle.

More than that, she cared about him.Colum had been on his own since Josephine’s death, and as far as being his own keeper, he was shite at the job.His sister was the one who’d always made sure he ate the occasional vegetable rather than living on fish and chips, made sure he looked after himself, even forced him to stand up and walk around outside.

“You’re up to ninety,” she’d say, insisting he go outside even if it was lashing rain.It was strange to him how he’d always found those thoughtful little acts annoying as hell, because they were the things he missed the most these days.

Since the first day they’d met, Annie made sure he came up for air and food as they conducted their research, encouraging him to take regular breaks.She also made sure he had a steady supply of hot tea and biscuits, nudging them under his hand whenever he got lost in whatever he was working on.

He’d ignored or grumbled about those things when his sister had been alive, never once thanking her.He rarely even noticed she was doing it, taking it for granted, too lost in his books and thoughts.

He wouldn’t do that again.Wouldn’t fail to appreciate a kindness shown to him.So, he’d said, “Ta,” to Annie every single time.So much so, she’d teasingly told him he didn’t have to keep thanking her.The thing was, she was wrong about that, because he did.He couldn’t let a woman he…

Bloody hell.

Colum blinked a few times and even shook his head.Because he’d nearly thought the word love…about Annie.

Obviously, he’d loved his sister, but that was a very different kind of love, and he definitely had feelings for Annie, but was she a woman he loved?

That couldn’t be right, could it?

He’d known her less than a week.

Love didn’t come as quickly as that.Or at least, he assumed it didn’t.