Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
ALEX
“I’m not going.”
Ciara met my announcement with a patient stare. “Who’s being feartie now?”
“I’m not afraid. But I don’t like leaving you alone. We both know Brodie’s behind this latest rash of petty shite.”
“That’s exactly it,” she protested. “Petty shite. So I’m getting more junk mail and subscriptions. And there’s that bit of identity theft that’s already being dealt with. All things from a distance. It’s annoying, but not dangerous. There have been no more direct threats from anywhere. There’s no reason for you not to go to poker night.”
The family dinner I’d attended last week had gone well, and Ciara’s contingent of stand-in brothers had generally behaved. As we’d been leaving, they’d invited me to their monthly poker night. I knew what it really was—an opportunity to interrogate or intimidate me without the women present. I hadn’t one hundred percent committed, but I hadn’t clearly said no either. In truth, I’d expected more actual need of my bodyguard services, but there’d been no further attempts on her life.
“I can’t justify asking Finn or Callum to keep watch on you just to go hang out and play poker.”
“You don’t have to. I’m literally going to be downstairs with my girlfriends. The Kilt Lifters are playing tonight, so the pub will be packed with women. I’ve loved spending all this one-on-one time with you, but this is all part of my normal life, Alex. I feel like I’ve let Brodie take too much of that from me already.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Despite my efforts, I’d dug up nothing further to suggest who might have been behind the sabotage of her car. My gut said it wasn’t a one-off, but I knew I couldn’t keep her under lock and key.
“Fine. I’ll go. But I’m walking you down to the pub myself. And if you need anything ? — ”
“I’ll call or text you.” She rose to her toes and brushed her lips to mine. “You deserve to have a night off yourself.”
I wasn’t sure this qualified, but I wouldn’t put that on her.
As she’d predicted, The Stag’s Head was absolutely packed full of women. I escorted her toward the back of the pub, where the tiny stage was set up. Saoirse, Skye, and Pippa had already commandeered a table in the corner with a direct view of the band.
“There now. I’m safely here. You can go.”
I fixed her friends with a heavy stare. “You’ll look out for her, aye?”
“If the deplorable Brodie shows up and causes problems, you can rest assured that we’ll take care of it. I’m a vet. I know where all the pig farms are,” Saoirse declared.
Satisfied with that, I hooked my hand behind Ciara’s nape and pulled her in for a long, lingering kiss that was as much a display for any gents present who might get ideas about her availability, as because I needed my own fix to hold me over. Her blue eyes were satisfyingly blurry when I eased back.
“Something to think about while I’m gone.”
The incoherent noise she uttered made me smile as I nudged her toward the waiting chair.
“I’ll see you later, Hellcat.”
“Later,” she murmured.
Her friends were grinning like Cheshire cats, and I suspected she was in for her own interrogation the moment I was out of earshot. I was okay with that.
The drive out to Hamish’s only took about ten minutes. He and Afton lived in a sprawling old farmhouse that had clearly been added onto repeatedly over the last couple of centuries. A barn sat off to one side with several goats milling about inside the fence.
Huh. Hamish hadn’t struck me as the farm animal type.
I parked beside the cluster of other vehicles and headed toward what appeared to be the main door, though all the additions made it a little hard to tell.
Hamish himself answered my knock. “Come in. You’re just in time. We’re about to deal.”
I followed him back to the kitchen, where a truly impressive spread of food was laid out on the counter. I glanced from it to Hamish. “Afton?”
“Aye. We’re her grateful guinea pigs.”
“You’re a lucky man.”
“Don’t I know it. Beer? Whisky?”
“No, thanks.”
Raleigh shuffled the cards. “Not a drinker?”
I started to say I never drank when on duty, but that would’ve brought up more questions than I cared to answer. I wouldn’t consider myself truly off duty again until I knew the threat to Ciara was past. “Seems smarter to keep my wits about me with you lot.”
“I hope you came prepared to lose,” Connor announced from the table.
I grabbed an Irn Bru from the cooler and took a vacant chair. “Honestly, I came expecting to be interrogated.”
Hamish dropped into the chair beside me. “We can do that and take your money, too.”
“We’re multi-talented like that,” Raleigh added.
“Get to it, then,” I prompted. “No reason to delay.”
“You know Texas Hold ’Em?” Raleigh asked.
“I’m familiar with most forms of poker.” It was one of the few forms of easy entertainment we’d had on deployment. But no need to mention that.
He began to deal.
“So, I’ve noticed you haven’t actually been staying in the flat you’re leasing from me,” Hamish said. “You’re spending all of your time—including your nights—at Ciara’s.”
I swept up the cards I’d been dealt and began putting them in order. “That wouldn’t be anybody’s business but ours. She’s a grown adult.” Aware they were all staring at me with various shades of disapproval, I continued. “And given all the harassment she’s had from her ex and whoever ran her off the road, I’m no’ particularly keen on leaving her alone to give someone another shot.”
As I’d hoped, that effectively shut down any What are your intentions? lines of questioning.
“Do we need to have a… conversation with Brodie?” Raleigh asked.
The pause before “conversation” made it clear he intended to let his fists speak for him. I knew I liked this cowboy.
“I already did. Not sure it did any good.” I didn’t want to admit the fact that Ciara’s crash had happened after that confrontation. I didn’t believe I’d set him off enough to go after her like that. If the target had been me, maybe. But I didn’t like the proximity of the two events.
Hamish started the betting and slid a stack of three chips to the center of the table. “We could file a non-harassment order.”
“Probably not a bad idea.” I checked my cards and added my own bet. This was an opportunity to get different perspectives on Brodie. “You were all around while Ciara was dating Drummond. What are your perceptions?”
“Never thought much about him at all, to be honest,” Connor admitted.
“He was just kinda there,” Raleigh added. “But we didn’t see any red flags while they were dating. He seemed okay. He certainly didn’t seem like the kinda guy who’d run somebody off the road.”
“Officially, he has an alibi,” I pointed out.
“You sound like you don’t believe it,” Hamish said.
“I’m no’ sure what I believe at this point.”
I’d done my deeper digging. There was no record of him owning or having access to a dark 4x4. And while the additional evidence of his continued obsession was worrisome, I couldn’t find anything tying him to the accident. Which just supported my original theory rather than the paranoia my handler had suggested.
He hadn’t come back with any information yet, and I was starting to wonder if he ever would.
We laid down our cards. Connor won the pot with an ace high flush. He gathered his chips, and Raleigh began to shuffle again.
I swirled my finger through the condensation on my drink. “Is there anybody else you can think of that Ciara might have got on the wrong side of? Someone who might hold a grudge for any reason?”
“Nobody who’d have the kind of grudge worth threatening her life,” Connor said. “All I can think of is small, schoolgirl shite from back when she was in high school. She found out a group in her class had stolen the test in their chemistry class in order to cheat and outed them. Torpedoed their grade in that class and landed them with a mark on their records. But everyone involved is either gone or married now.”
“That doesn’t exactly sound like a smoking gun,” I agreed.
“Are the police any closer to finding out who’s responsible?” Hamish asked.
“I’ve kept in close contact with Constable Williamson. The police are still looking for the vehicle that struck her. They put a notice in the area asking people to report any dark-colored SUVs with damage to their front bumpers. So far, none of the leads have played out.”
“Yeah, but there’s a lot of empty stretches of land up here,” Raleigh said. “Seems like plenty of places to hide something like an SUV, if you’re motivated enough.”
“That’s one of my concerns. And until we have answers or confirmation that whoever is behind this has been neutralized, I’m sticking close.”
Raleigh dealt the next hand. “Well, we can’t rightly fault you for that. But aren’t you worried about the code?”
“The code?”
“Ewan’s one of your best mates, aye?” Connor prompted.
“Says the man who married his sister’s best friend?” I asked.
“Not the same thing,” he insisted.
“Look, Ciara is a grown woman who can make her own choices. She’s not property. She doesn’t need her parents’ or brother’s permission to date someone. More to the point, she matters to me a great deal. At the end of the day, regardless of how Ewan may end up feeling about it when he finds out—and she’s asked me not to tell him because she wants to talk to him herself, so I’d appreciate it if the three of you would keep this to yourselves—that’s the only thing that matters.”
The three men exchanged a look, then nodded.
“Good enough for us,” Raleigh announced. “Let’s play some poker.”