The Lost - J. D. Robb [130]
Cullen stirred sugar into his coffee. “What do you think of Ross?”
Aidan shrugged, wishing she could evade the question. “He’s charming and smart and funny. And, without question, devoted to you.”
Cullen nodded absently. “No more than I am to him.”
“And yet you’re not related?”
He glanced up. “Not in any legal sense. But without Ross Delaney, I doubt I’d be sitting here.”
“What does that mean?”
“Many years ago, Ross saved my life. I was in Dublin on business, and met an old friend at a pub. We drank a bit too much, and when I left, I made a wrong turn and found myself in an unfamiliar neighborhood. I was a perfect target for punks, and a couple of them attacked me.” He shook his head. “I fancied myself a pretty good fighter, but I was no match for those street toughs. I was having my hide kicked when suddenly one punk fell, another let out a cry and the lot of them ran screeching like banshees into the night.”
“Ross?”
He nodded. “He came out of nowhere and fought them off like a man possessed. I was bloody from head to toe, and this wiry lad, who looked as though he couldn’t lift a sack of potatoes, carried me to my hotel, hauled me to my room and cleaned me up before putting me to bed and phoning for a house doctor.” He frowned, remembering. “In the morning I was alone. I walked that same street, giving his description to everyone I could find. Nobody claimed to know who the lad was. But finally a girl who plied her trade on the streets said it had to be Ross Delaney. She showed me where he stayed most nights, and sure enough, there he was, asleep in the doorway of an abandoned factory, my blood still on his clothes.”
“He was sleeping on the streets?”
“He was, yes.”
She thought about what Ross had told her. His mother had left before he could talk. “Where was his family? Who raised him?”
“From what I learned, he pretty much raised himself. He lived with his father until around the age of eight, when, after being beaten nearly senseless in a drunken rage, Ross left.”
Aidan thought about the fact that she’d never seen Ross take a drink of alcohol. Now she understood why.
“He just left? At eight? Where could a boy of that age possibly go? How could he survive?”
“He hid out on the streets of Dublin. Learned from other lads where the best scraps of food could be found and where it was safe to sleep.”
“What about school?”
“He’d had little schooling when I first met him. I offered him money for saving my life. He refused my money, even though I could see that he was in desperate need of it.” Cullen stared down into his coffee. “There was something so noble about the lad, I found myself drawn to him. By then I’d acquired a great deal of wealth, and nobody to share it with. My search for Moira was going badly, and I needed something or someone on whom to focus. Getting the lad out of that miserable existence became my mission.”
“How did you persuade him to trust you?”
Cullen smiled. “It took a while, but I can be very persuasive when I’ve a mind to be. I brought him here and hired tutors to see just what he could do. To their amazement, and mine, we discovered that he had a fine mind and an inquisitive nature, and because he’d been on his own for so long, was far superior to most lads his age. He was soon excelling at academics, and I realized that he could do anything he set his mind to.”
“What about his family? Did he ever try to contact them?”
Cullen gave a quick shake of his head. “They’d abused and abandoned him long before he abandoned them. Why should he ever look back?”
Why, indeed? She mulled all she’d just been told about the fascinating Ross Delaney.
“And so, by some strange twist of fate, a street fight brought me the son I’d never had. And like a true son, he now shares my life.”
“That’s generous of you.”
“Not at all. He actually saved a drowning man. I’d been drowning in self-pity. Even though I’d already amassed a fortune, I was drinking heavily, and my life had no direction. At first I thought I was doing this poor down-and-out lad a favor. But in the end it was Ross who was helping me,