Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
ALEX
“Are you sure you don’t need anything else?” I was aware I’d already done everything that needed doing for Ciara, including packing a bag and getting her settled at her parents’ house, but I didn’t want to leave her. I was too paranoid about what might happen if I wasn’t here to stop it.
She blinked at me with eyes that were bruised from fatigue. In the wake of the adrenaline dump, and all that came after, her energy had run out. “Yeah. I’m good. Thanks, Alex.”
The quiet tone of dismissal told me I wouldn’t have any luck trying to sleep on her floor as the resident bodyguard, and I didn’t want to alarm her or her parents any more than they already were. Of course they needed to fuss over her. She was their baby.
“Right.” No more putting it off. “I guess I’ll go so you can get some rest.”
Ewan’s dad extended a hand. “Grateful to you, lad, for looking out for our girl.”
He had no way of knowing how those words strained the guilt I was barely holding at bay.
I accepted his firm handshake.
“We’re a little surprised about you two, but very pleased,” Mrs. McBride added.
That just added to the guilt. I’d just blurted out our supposed relationship status in the moment because I’d wanted to justify my right to be there. And because, with everything going on, Ciara felt like mine. Mine to protect. Mine to care for. The walls between us had been eroding since we’d started this ruse, but I knew the reality was something we’d have to discuss later, after she’d had some time to recover.
I ducked my head in a nod and looked back to Ciara, who’d slumped down on the sofa. “If you need anything—any of you—don’t hesitate to call.”
She sat partway up and winced. “I thought of one thing.”
“Name it.” Any task would be better than none and would help keep me away from the edge of the spiral threatening to suck me under.
“It’s probably stupid, but can you check with the police about my car to see if they found any of Pippa’s cheese?”
“You want me to look for… cheese?” Was that a sign of confusion? I checked her pupils again.
“I was bringing a big batch of it back for Afton. It probably flew out of the car, but in case it didn’t… It’s going to be a while before the next batch is ready.”
Work. She was thinking about work. That was probably more of a sign that she was okay than anything else. “I’ll check on the cheese.”
It meant going back to the car, either at the accident site or wherever it had been impounded, which I’d planned to do, anyway. I wasn’t missing the opportunity to examine her brake lines myself this time.
With one last round of goodbyes, I finally pushed myself out the door. I had less than an hour of daylight left. I’d try the accident scene first. In an area this small, I’d be surprised if emergency services had already been able to remove her car. Fifteen minutes later, I crossed the gorge bridge again to find Finn and Callum still at the scene.
“What are you lot still doing here?”
“Car hasnae been moved, so we’re guarding it,” Callum said easily.
And this was one of the reasons these men were my closest mates.
“How’s Ciara?” Finn asked.
“Concussed, but alive. She’s at her parents’ resting.”
Callum jerked a thumb down the hill toward the remains of the car. “There’s something you’ll want to see.”
I followed him down the embankment, holding in a shudder as I realized exactly how close she’d come to ending up in the gorge. Another fifty feet, and she’d be dead.
Shut it down, Conroy.
Half the undercarriage of the car was exposed by how it had landed. I accepted the torch Callum offered and crouched down to inspect it. The brake lines weren’t hard to find. I traced the length of each, seeing the oily residue of brake fluid. It took me less than a minute to find what I’d been looking for. Small punctures in the lines, near the edge of the metal coupling. They’d been made in such a way that had there only been one, it might have been attributed to wear and tear or faulty lines. But there were two, damaged in an identical fashion that would bleed fluid slowly, until the brakes simply gave out. No real way to estimate how long it would take or where it would happen. Ciara didn’t keep a consistent daily schedule. This sort of tampering, on its own, would’ve been enough to hurt or kill her. But that someone had helped her along absolutely verified this wasn’t any sort of accident.
The situation reminded me far too much of what had happened with my father. I’d never gotten the opportunity to look over that vehicle to prove what I knew in my gut was true. His car crash had been no accident, either.
“Do you think her ex would go this far?” Finn asked. “An ‘If I can’t have her, no one can’ sort of thing?”
I considered the question. “The man is an entitled twat and totally believes Ciara should be his, but I don’t see him as a killer. At least not like this. This shows premeditation and at least a modicum of mechanical skill. I could see Drummond losing his shite in a crime of passion sort of way, but not doing something this cold and calculated.”
“Can’t hurt to call the police and ask about him, now can it?” Finn prompted.
“True enough. Did you get photos of the tampering here?”
“Aye,” Callum confirmed.
“Good.” Pulling out my mobile, I dialed the number for the constable we’d spoken to when Ciara had reported Brodie’s harassment.
Constable Darci Williamson answered on the first ring. “Mr. Conroy, I expected to hear from you. How is Miss McBride?”
“Alive. Thank God. You ken what I’m calling about, aye?”
“You want to know whether Brodie Drummond could be behind today’s accident.”
“I do.”
“As soon as the report came in, I went personally to check on him. He has an airtight alibi for the time in question. Was in the middle of a meeting with multiple coworkers at the time. Whoever did this, it wasn’t him. But we’ll keep looking. We won’t let reckless endangerment like this stand.”
“It’s quite a bit more than reckless endangerment. The brake lines were sabotaged. I’ve got photos to send you of the damage.”
There was a beat of silence. “You do that. I’ll see that we bring in an expert to go over the car with a fine-toothed comb.”
“I appreciate that.” I rang off. “Alibied. Which I expected.”
“He could’ve paid someone,” Callum suggested.
“He could’ve.”
“But you don’t think he did,” Finn finished.
“No.” I thought this went beyond Brodie Drummond in ways I hadn’t yet had a chance to fully process.
“You have other ideas about who might have done this?” Callum prompted.
They hadn’t been read in. Hadn’t been part of the mission I’d run that had started all of this.
“Maybe. But none I’m ready to discuss yet. Need to do some digging.”
“Okay.” Finn squeezed my shoulder. “You know we’re here when you’re ready.”
“And we’ve got your back in the meantime.”
This was why these men were my brothers in ways that blood family could never understand.
“Thanks.” I took the torch and moved around to look at the inside of the car.
Callum peered in the other side. “What are you looking for?”
“Cheese. Ciara was on her way to deliver some to Afton when all of this happened. She asked me to see if it survived the crash.” I panned the light around the interior.
I didn’t have to look to know my friends were staring at me.
“This thing you’re doing with her, it started out fake, but you feel something for her,” Finn said. “When she called in trouble, you tore out of the office as if the Cù Sith were on your six.”
There was no sense in denying it. My behavior had made it clear enough.
“Aye, I feel something for her.” Such a pale, weak statement for the reality.
“What are you going to do about it?”
That was the question. Because it wasn’t as simple as boy likes girl and boy asks girl on a date for real. Because I wasn’t a normal man. I’d moved to Glenlaig because I’d believed that it was safe. But it seemed I’d been too presumptive. My past was catching up to me. Again. And this time it was bleeding over onto Ciara because I’d been deluded enough to think I’d reached a point in my life where I could legitimately start over, free of the shadow that had cast a pall over my life for far too long. Because she’d asked me for help. She was being targeted because she was important to me, and I’d made sure the public at large knew it.
“I don’t know. But I’ll start with tracking down the fucker who did this and make certain he can’t do it again.”