A Birth day

"I think it's possible someone's not as squeaky clean as they'd like us to think they are," Angus said, "but I don't have any evidence--just suspicions. Actually, it was my friend Minos here that suggested we consider it. Oh, you haven't met, have you. Let me introduce you. Minos, this is Lucian. He's an auror and he's been a good friend and a huge help on several missions. Lucian, this is King Minos. It's a long story, but his Fae kingdom has had to find a new home, and they've established their new kingdom outside in our garden."

Minos fluttered over to Lucian and bowed and then extended his tiny hand out to Lucian in friendship.

"He prefers you just call him Minos, I believe," Marcus said. Minos nodded.

"Come make yourself at home, Lucian," Angus said. "And Ruby made the cake. Not me. I'm afraid I was tied up elsewhere."

"How about an Irish coffee, Lucian?" Marcus offered. "And maybe Ruby will cut her cake for us."

Lucian listened to Angus and sighed as he listened . Seeing Minos fly over and bow he did the same in return " its a pleasure to meet you King Minos, and Ruby cake is delicious." he said then smiled taking the kings tiny hand gently and shaking it. " oh tempting" he said then nodded " thanks as he accioed a cup with coffee and added some whisky " I am off the clock" he said making Ruby and Aria chuckle as Ruby went and cut the cake sending out plates to every one minus Lucian since he had his own slice already.

Aria chuckled " knew you'd be interested" she said to Lucian who accioed a folder and placed it on Angus knee " take a look, no its not confidential." he said sipping his Irish coffee as he let Angus take a look at the file " we picked up on Suzzanne doing some strange dealings with one Michael Gorski, his brother Emile Barbier , different fathers, same mother some how went from nothing in their vault to a shit tone" he looked down at the play pen " oops I mean , a lot of gold" he said taking a drink from his cup as Caprice stood looking at him hr head tipped as if she was studying him.

"Well, we had an incident a couple days ago," Angus said. "Beauxbatons had another incident. Someone infiltrated the school on the first day of apparition classes, impersonating aurors, and they kidnapped Anise. Long story short, we were able to trace them to the Cirque de Gavarnie on the French border. When we got to where Anise was, we saw she was being held by Priscilla and her husband Dominic. We immobilized them, and we turned them over to the aurors.

"Then, last evening, we were contacted again by the ministry wanting Anise and I to make some statements about this same kidnapping incident, supposedly to try to find enough evidence that would ensure that Priscilla would stay behind bars. So, Robert helped to make the arrangements for us to go and make witness statements. Things did not go as planned, though. They only took about an hour to take Anise's statement, and it does appear that it was a rather run of the mill affair for her. However, it wasn't that way for me. I wasn't asked to make a standard witness statement. I used to be an auror. I know what those are. And I wasn't exactly interrogated. I was badgered--hard--for almost four hours about all of my past history with Suzanne and her family and Priscilla."

"You should probably know," Marcus told Lucian, "that Robert told me afterward that Kate's seers' energies were strongly picking up that Angus was not just in distress but that he was actually in danger. Robert went in and ended Angus's meeting with the aurors and brought us straight home. It was Minos here that said he thinks that someone might very well be working for Suzanne and infiltrating the ministry to try to implicate Angus in order to get him jailed and get Priscilla freed, along with giving Suzanne the satisfaction of seeing Angus jailed for the crimes that she, in fact, commited. That was when we decided to see if this whole situation interests you at all."

Lucian sat and ate hi cake and listened to them talking , when Marcus spoke and said Kate had picked up that Angus was in danger he nodded " would not surprise me, we've looked into the French ministry for about a year and a half , seems our men get stone walled each time we investigate anything to do with these to men, I don't think the minister has anything to do with it herself but I am sure she doesn't know about the corruption that's going on" he added then looked to Minos and smiled as he spoke.

"Good catch Minos" he said then to Aria and Angus " my advice let them hang them selves , don't do any more, Roberts right about not going back there until we say its all clear." he added as a note appeared by his hand turning it he looked at Angus and handed it to him. " they have ben seen at Suzzanne's home and she's not pleased with them ether, so looks like your right" he said shaking his head

"Well, that was Minos's advice," Angus said. "He has always given me excellent advice. I could certainly do worse than to heed the advice of a king. I agree with you that Daniella is a decent woman, but my thoughts are the same as yours. The ministry is entirely too big for her to micromanage it all."

When Lucian got the note that the corrupt men had been to the Gelding house, Angus sighed.

"It just gets deeper and deeper," Angus said, frustrated. Minos looked at him and began gesturing to him. Minos was insistent that he not do anything more. He felt that perhaps there others that could take this up with far less risk than Angus. "Do you think this is about Diamond?" Angus asked.

"No," Marcus said firmly. "Not at all. People don't entirely change their personalities, and you know for a fact that she is not the maternal type. She sees Diamond as merely a possession. You have a far greater chance of Tom caring about her than Suzanne. Honestly? I think this is 110% about revenge. Suzanne is a bitter, vindictive woman. This is about getting revenge for you taking what she believed were possessions of hers--her children, her husband, her house, all of it. Just possessions, nothing more. After all, when she left, look at what was important to her--things, not people Not photos of her children. Not anything other than her good jewelry, a few clothes, some money. Nothing that any woman with a heart would want. She wants you set up for a huge fall, and I, for one, am not going to let that happen if I can help it."

Lucian looked at Minos and chuckled " well done, another good thought" he said as he listened to Angus and Marcus " Marcus has a good thought, if she wanted Dimond all she would have had to do was get some one on the grounds and take her while you were away today, but she didn't I don't even think Dimond is in her thoughts now, I feel Marcus is right on the revenge thing, Pricilla's out of the picture now so she's trying a different but same antic." he aid

Ruby and Aria sat quiet as they drank their coffee and ate a piece of cake. " so we become more vigilant when were out" she said placing her cup down next to her on the table. Aria nodded.

"yeah, Marcus is right" she said giving Caprice another toy to play with while Dimond had laid down to take a nap in the play pen.

"Well, much as I didn't want to consider this," Angus said, "I think I don't have a choice. I think I need to move ahead with plans to take permanent custody of Diamond. She needs to be safe, and even if Tom hired a nanny, it does not keep her safe from Suzanne. It's the last thing I wanted, but I don't see any other way." He looked at Ruby. "Look, she's your sister. Your vote counts most of all. Do we move ahead with it? I could try to open Tom's eyes about her, but he's enough of a monster as it is. She doesn't stand a chance of a normal life if we return her."

"Don't blurr the lines, Mate," Marcus said. "You have two separate issues. The first issue is that Suzanne would like you very dead. If she can't manage that, she's going to do her utmost to put you behind bars. That seems to be more important than Diamond. Diamond is safe for the moment. You being alive, in my book, trumps the issue about the custody of Diamond."

Minos gestured to Angus.

"Minos says alive is better," Angus said, amused.

"It is somewhat more preferable," Marcus laughed.

"Minos thinks we need to try to get Daniella to root out the crooked aurors to take some of the heat out," Angus said.

"You have any pull inside the French ministry, Lucian, with honest aurors that would like to root out corruption in their own ranks?" Marcus asked. "I'd prefer not to take Angus off the estate unless the place is on fire. He's far safer here than in France now for obvious reasons."

"Does this mean Ginger and I can't go to school?" Anise asked.

"I think you can, so long as you're going to Evan's and not to the school," Angus said.

Ruby listened to Angus and was glad Marcus spoke she smiled and nodded " he's right, on thing at a time" she said and looked at the now sleeping Dimond. Lucian heard Marcus and nodded " I have a few in the ministry that could do recon for me2 he said "I'll contact them in the morning and get the investigation started but it could be long and drawn out, I do agree with Anise and Ginger not going to school, as has already happened to open and easy for snatchings." he added as Ruby took his cup from him and took it to the kitchen.

Aria looked at Lucian and sighed " I just with this whole thing was done for2 she said the looked to Marcus " so every one can relax" she finished her own cup and stood up to take it to the kitchen.

"Wait," Angus frowned at Aria. "I thought you were an adventure sort of girl. Are you not? I mean, I understand if Ruby doesn't always jump at the opportunity to go pillage a village, but I thought you were more the sort to leap in where Ruby fears to tread. And you and Ruby now just want everyone to relax? What's that all about?"

"Do you think we should give Daniella a heads up, or would you prefer to have your contacts work completely undercover?" Marcus asked Lucian. "You know, we could let Angus go visit Daniella, take his shirt off and flex his pecs in her direction a few times and see if..."

"And see if Michael knocks my block off? Thank you, no,'" Angus said. "Michael Tremaine much prefers that he be the one she bats her eyes at, and not me."

"No, no, I only mean..." Marcus began.

"Nope, nope, nope," Angus said. "I'm not undressing for Daniella or anyone else. And since my shoulder is a solidly colorful black and blue, I don't think anyone would find it attractive. You go flex your pecs or perhaps your gluteus maximus at her. She might like that better." Marcus scowled at him.

"No," Marcus replied.

Aria looked at Angus and chuckled " I am but sometimes relaxing is just as good, I know when to go rushing off to explore a rain forest and when to stay home and appreciate what I have" she said smirking she heard Angus and Marcus and gasped at Angus suggestion " oh hell no" she said " the only woman seeing his maximus anything is this woman " she said and crossed her arms but smirked knowing it was teasing talk nothing more.

Ruby laughed at Angus and Marcus banter and at Aria s reaction " I agree with Angus about him not going topless to Daniella , and he's right in regards her only having eyes for Michael, maybe talking to Michael to talk to her about what's going on wouldn't be a bad idea." she suggested. " but I do have to agree with Aria , not that it would be bad seeing you Marcus topless I'd rather you keep it to the bed room so Aria doesn't blow her stack from jealousy and we have several women with their eyes tore out from looking at you."