Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
ALEX
“I thought you said you were good at poker.” Raleigh raked in his pile of chips, which put him tied with Connor for current winner.
“Perhaps I’m a wee bit out of practice.” Or I’d let them win. I was down nearly twenty quid, but I’d managed to establish a reasonable rapport with the other men in Ciara’s life. I considered that a worthy tradeoff.
“You should have more snacks. That makes the losing a lot more palatable,” Hamish assured me.
“I wouldn’t say no to more of those egg rolls.” I was just heading to refill my plate when my mobile rang. Ciara’s name flashed across the screen. “Hey. Are you all right?”
She hesitated before answering, and in that pause was every fear, every terror that haunted my nights. “Ciara? What happened?”
“First off, I’m okay.”
Every thought of the game fled my brain as I shifted into mission mode. “What. Happened?”
“Brodie’s been arrested.”
For just a moment, shock overrode everything. Then logic caught up and my hands curled into fists. “What did that fucking wankstain do?”
She hesitated too long again before finally answering. “He attacked me outside the pub.”
I held in the fountain of curses I wanted to spew about what the hell she’d been doing outside the pub at all when I’d expressly told her not to leave. We’d have a conversation about that later. After I’d finished burning the world down and sorted how to break into the police station to rip the bastard’s arms off and beat him to death—angry-Wookie style.
“Where are you?” All other noise in the room had ceased, which told me everything I needed to know about the fact that my tone had dropped into I-will-fuck-up-someone’s-shite territory. Every cell in my body shouted at me to move, to get to her, but my training stopped me from going off half-cocked.
“The police station. The girls are with me.”
Which meant she wasn’t in imminent danger and likely wasn’t too badly hurt. That was something. “Are they okay? Were they also attacked?” Had there been multiple assailants? Or was Drummond foolish enough to go up against a group?
“No. They were inside when it happened. I was just running upstairs to the flat and got jumped in the alley behind the pub.”
It didn’t matter that I’d given her explicit orders. She should’ve been able to do that. She shouldn’t have had to worry about any of this at all. But I hadn’t done my job well enough to protect her. I hadn’t managed to put a stop to the threat.
Self-recriminations had to wait.
“Alex, I swear I’m okay. I took him down myself.”
That had me pausing. “You… did?”
“Aye.”
I’d be proud of that later, but right now, I needed to lay eyes on her. To make sure she was okay. “I’m on my way.”
When I ended the call, I turned to find the rest of my poker-playing compatriots on their feet.
“What happened?” Connor demanded.
“Drummond attacked her outside the pub. Apparently, she took him down herself.”
Raleigh nodded in approval. “That’s our girl.”
“The police have him in custody. I’m going to pick her up.”
As they all moved en masse toward the door, I held up a hand. “She swears she’s okay. Either way, she won’t want an entourage or a mob with pitchforks.” And I didn’t need any more witnesses if I lost my shite.
“Let us know what you find out,” Hamish said. It wasn’t a request.
I nodded and rushed out.
When I strode into the police station ten minutes later, I’d already come up with two dozen ways to ruin Brodie Drummond’s life. What little would be left of it after I tore him into little pieces. All plans of vengeance faded as I spotted Ciara sitting in the visitor’s chair across from one of the desks in the small station, surrounded by her girlfriends, who all wore shades of concern on their faces.
“Alex.” She rose as I approached. I was already scanning her from head to toe, looking for even the slightest scratch or new bruise, but all I saw were the fading marks from the accident before she walked straight into my arms.
I curled around her, careful not to hold too tight in case there were injuries I couldn’t see. “You’re not hurt?”
“I told you, I’m okay. He took the worst of it.”
“You fought back.”
“Damned straight.” She pulled back far enough to look up at me. “You’ve met my brother. He equipped me very early on, before I went to university, for how to defend against unwanted advances. I just choose to avoid that most of the time.” One corner of her mouth lifted. “I broke his nose.”
It wasn’t death, but the idea of it gave me an unreasonable amount of satisfaction. Having any woman hand him his arse would have been demoralizing for Brodie. Having it be her? Aye, that was a step in the right direction in terms of retribution.
“It’s better than he deserves,” Saoirse sniffed.
Pippa wrung her hands. “I should have come with you.”
“We all should have come with you,” Skye added.
“If you’d come with me, he might not have tried this, and he might not have been arrested,” Ciara argued. “And I almost certainly wouldn’t have gotten to break his nose.”
“Arrest isn’t conviction,” I warned. Far too often, men who raised their hands against women were released to do it all over again.
She squeezed my hands. “I already got them the footage from the security cameras you installed. He’s going to get into legitimate trouble from all this.”
“I can confirm that.” Constable Williamson stepped out from the hall. “I’ve just gotten off the phone with the judge. Because of his alibi for the time of the accident, we couldn’t get a warrant before, but we’ve got one now. We’ll be searching his property for any evidence of that dark SUV or proof that he hired someone. Regardless of what we find there, thanks to that video footage, we’ve nailed him for assault. He’ll do time for that, and I can promise you, if there’s something else to find to buy him a longer stay behind bars, I will find it.”
“Thank you, Constable. We really appreciate it,” Ciara told her. “You’ll keep us in the loop?”
“Of course.” Williamson turned to me and flashed a fierce smile. “You should be proud of your partner. She managed a hell of a takedown. His face is a mess.”
I’d work my way around to proud once I got past the fact that he’d had a chance to get to her at all.
“Will he be released on bail?”
“That’ll be decided at the hearing, but I intend to push for no. We’ve got proof of escalation, and God willing, we’ll find more evidence by the time he sees the judge after the weekend. For at least the next few days, you’ve certainly got a breather,” Williamson said.
Did we? Was Drummond actually behind it all, as my handler had suggested? Or would this search for additional evidence be some kind of wild goose chase because the local police didn’t and couldn’t know about the potential outside threat?
A door opened, and another officer escorted Brodie out of what must have been an interrogation room. He truly looked like shit, with bruising along his nose and across both cheeks. Bloody tissues were shoved up his nostrils.
“I want a doctor before I choke on my own blood. And a solicitor.”
“We’ve got a call in to Dr. Donaldson,” Constable Williamson told him. “You’ll get seen when you get seen.”
His attention jerked toward her and from there to Ciara.
“Fucking bitch. You’ve pushed me too far! Everyone will agree!” Despite the handcuffs, he squirmed in the officer’s hold.
I was still mentally assessing whether I’d be liable for assault myself if he broke free and I “apprehended him” with excessive force when the officer hauled him down another hallway where I could just see the edge of a cell.
“Wanker,” Saoirse snarled softly.
“May someone sneak him a laxative milkshake,” Skye added.
“I hope that’s all the excitement we get for a while.” Pippa moved to Ciara and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I’m glad he’s been caught.”
“You and me both. Thank you all for coming. Sorry I put a bit of a damper on girls’ night.”
“Are you kidding? I think this is inspiring me to sign up for a self-defense class.” Skye looked at me. “I figure you maybe know someone who can help with that.”
“Aye, I can do that.” Making sure they could all defend themselves would give me something active to do in the face of a threat I wasn’t at all convinced was over.
Ciara turned to Williamson. “Are you through with me?”
“Oh, certainly. If we have any other questions, I know where to find you. Go enjoy a well-deserved rest.”
I stood back as Ciara made her farewells to her friends.
I kept waiting for some kind of relief to hit, but my brain was still spinning, insisting it couldn’t be this easy. Nothing ever was.
Ciara cupped my cheek, drawing my focus back to her. “Let’s go home, Alex.”