Family Man

surrounded by a pack of witches and warlocks.”
    Katy was acutely embarrassed. “Matt should never have repeated that remark. It was a gross exaggeration. A silly joke. I certainly never meant to imply—”
    “Forget it. I told you once you don't lie well. Katy, I want your honest opinion on something. Which member of the coven do you think might have reason to embezzle from Gilchrist, Inc.?”
    Katy stared at him in stunned amazement. Then she scowled. “Are you still on about that?”
    “More so than ever.” Luke eased the Jaguar onto the road and turned toward the nearby lights of the big house. “There's something going on.”
    “Forget it, Luke. No one in your family would do anything like that.”
    “My gut instinct tells me that what's been going on is inside work. If I can't clean it up quietly in the next month or so, I'll launch a full-scale security investigation at Gilchrist, Inc.”
    “Oh, my God.” Katy studied his profile. “How are you going to try to clean it up quietly?”
    “With an outside computer investigator. Someone I've gotten to know during the past three years. He makes a living doing this kind of thing. I'd do the investigation myself if I had the time, but I'm too busy putting out brush fires all over Gilchrist, Inc. these days. I can't bury myself in a computer long enough to find the culprit.”
    “Well, I refuse to believe it's someone in the family, or even in upper management. And I hope you'll keep quiet about your lack of faith in your relatives,” Katy said forcefully. “If the other Gilchrists find out you suspect one of them of this kind of thing, they're going to be hurt and angry.”
    “So what?”
    Katy raised her eyes toward the heavens in exasperation. “So you're supposed to be acting as the head of the coven—I mean the clan—now. You should try to get along with the others. Show them you aren't the enemy. Luke, this is your family .”
    “You're too damn sentimental for your own good, Katy.”
    “I'd rather err on the side of family sentiment than turn into a callous, cold-blooded, unfeeling brute.”
    “Is that what you think I am?”
    Katy hesitated. “I think it's what you try to be,” she said gently. “After what happened three years ago you probably think it's safer to be that way. Luke, I know what you went through. I know what it feels like.”
    “Is that right?”
    “Don't mock me. Don't you think I know what a temptation it is to just pull back from everything? I couldn't do that because I had Matt to care for. But you have family members counting on you, too. It's time you came out of your shell and started acting like a man with family responsibilities. You're a Gilchrist, Luke, and there are other Gilchrists depending on you.”
    His expression was chillingly amused. “Why would I want to be responsible for a bunch of witches and warlocks?”
    “Because you're one of them.”
    “No. I'm not one of them. I'm the family bastard, remember?”
    “You make it difficult to forget,” Katy said tightly. Luke was quiet for a moment. “I wonder if Justine will have told the others that I intend to take the Pacific Rim as my fee for saving the collective Gilchrist ass.”
    “I have no idea.”

    Justine had indeed told the others. The hostility that greeted Katy and Luke when they walked into the suite was palpable.
    Hayden and Maureen got right to the point as Mrs. Igorson served sherry.
    “You've got a hell of a nerve, Luke,” Hayden growled. “I wonder what your father would have said.”
    “My father would never have come back to do the job for you,” Luke said. “You know that as well as I do.”
    “You have no business taking the most successful restaurant as a fee,” Maureen declared, outraged. “This is a family business.”
    “So Katy keeps reminding me.” Luke swirled the sherry in his glass and went to stand alone at the window.
    He remained there, aloof and isolated, as the family members attacked. Justine, looking surprisingly strong and regal in a black and silver dinner dress, watched speculatively as one by one the others registered their protests.
    “It's not fair,” Eden said passionately. “It's wrong. You don't deserve to be taken back like this in the first place, and you certainly have no right to act like an outside paid consultant.”
    “If you don't like it, hire yourself another consultant.” Luke sipped his sherry and gazed out into the gathering shadows.
    “This is all some kind of revenge