Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
CIARA
The moment Alex dragged open the front door of their building, we were greeted by the thunk of a nail gun and the thumping bass beat of eighties American rock.
His brows drew together. “Are you sure you’ll actually be able to work in all of this?”
I was sure of no such thing. But I was still without a car of my own, I didn’t have an easy way out to Ardinmuir, and after hearing about the assault, my business associates had banned me from today’s event, anyway. None of them had appreciated my pointing out that they should see the other guy. I was ordered to rest. As if I had time for that with the Mullen-Vaughan wedding staring us in the face for next weekend. Three hundred people for an outdoor wedding in early bloody November. I still wasn’t satisfied with our in-case-of-rain plan.
But all that aside, I didn’t want to leave Alex on his own. While it was tempting to think that everything was over now that Brodie had been arrested, Alex hadn’t been able to settle. There was at least a small element of feeling impotent that he hadn’t been the one to stop Brodie, and a more sizable chunk of guilt that Brodie had been able to get to me at all. If sticking close to Alex would put his mind at ease, I’d make this work. This was why noise-cancelling headphones had been invented.
“It’ll be fine. I can as easily write emails and work on event flows here as there. And God knows, you’ve prioritized my work over your own for most of the past two weeks. It’s your turn.”
I let Havoc off his leash and dumped my bag on the front counter. He immediately began sniffing his way around the perimeter of the front lobby. The renovation efforts hadn’t yet extended out here, so my office for the day would involve a camp chair and my lap desk. Not the most comfortable, but I’d worked under worse conditions.
Alex pulled Saffron out of his coat and set her in the playpen, which she protested at impressive volume for such a wee thing. “Wheesht. I can’t be having you in my pocket while I’m using power tools, aye? Keep Ciara company.”
Evidently deeply unimpressed with this suggestion, Saffron yowled at him.
“I thought cats were supposed to be independent.”
I snickered. “It’s your own fault. You’ve set yourself up as her emotional support human.”
“I mean, you’re right here.”
“Yes, but she sees me as a rival for your affections.” To prove the point, I edged in close, wrapping my arms around him and peppering kisses over his cheek.
The kitten hissed at us.
“See?”
“She’s usually fine in the pen.”
“She’ll settle down once you walk away.” I hoped.
With a sigh, he headed for the door to the back. I followed, curious how much progress had been made since I’d last been here. The other side of the building had been transformed. They’d effectively gutted the place, erecting walls where none had been to delineate office space. Beyond that, the big rolling door had been installed, and the walls divided into different sections I presumed would ultimately house gear. Callum and Finn appeared to be constructing more wall sections.
“What about The Flying Scotsmen?” Finn suggested.
“What are you on about?” Alex asked.
Callum secured a section of 2x4 with the nail gun. “Still brainstorming names. I think his suggestions get worse as he goes.”
“You still haven’t named your business?” I asked.
“Nope. We can’t agree on anything,” Alex explained.
“Didn’t you have to have a name for legal paperwork?”
“Aye, but the legal name of the venture isnae the same as the name we’ll be doing business as. We wanted time to think of something marketable.” Callum pointed at a waiting stack of cut wood. “Hand me that next piece.”
Finn positioned the 2x4. “We could cash in on the tourist love of the Mel Gibson film and call it Braveheart Adventures.”
“And I suppose next you’ll be having us film a commercial in our kilts, with our faces painted blue?” Alex snarked.
“It would certainly bring in a certain type of clientele,” I ventured.
“No’ the clientele we want,” Callum argued.
“What all will you be offering as services?”
“Hiking, camping, abseiling, kayaking, mountain biking. That sort of thing. There are a lot of opportunities in the area.”
“All activities meant to get clients off the beaten path,” I mused.
Alex nodded. “Aye. That’s the gist of it.”
“What about Out of Bounds Scotland? It gets at that off the beaten path aspect and suggests you’ll be taking clients on unique adventures they won’t get anywhere else.”
All three men stared at me.
“Yes! That!” Finn exclaimed.
“Why the bloody hell didn’t we ask her to begin with?” Callum demanded.
“To be fair, you’ve been a lot more focused on my needing a bodyguard for the past several weeks. And in case I haven’t made it clear before, I really appreciate it.”
“Of course. You’re Ewan’s sister. That makes you family,” Finn declared. “Though it sounds as if you’re no slouch yourself. I heard you bashed the bastard’s nose in.”
“I’m a very even-tempered woman until I’m pushed too far.” Brodie had pushed me miles too far. Maybe if I’d been less concerned with being nice to start, we wouldn’t have reached this point.
“Things to remember, Conroy,” Finn teased.
Alex just grunted and moved off to grab his tool belt.
I lowered my voice. “Maybe lay off a bit, aye? I think he’s struggling with not getting to beat the shite out of Brodie himself.”
At their confirmatory nods, I stepped back. “I’m going to get out of your way and get to work myself.”
Hopefully, some time with his mates would help sort out whatever was bothering him. Out front, I found Havoc lying beside the playpen in some sort of stare down with Saffron. Satisfied they both appeared to be occupied for the moment, I set up my temporary workstation and dove into the backlog of admin waiting for me. If I couldn’t be boots on the ground for today’s event, at least I could get ahead for some of the others.
I worked straight through the morning, with only a couple of pauses to deal with the animals. As I was without a marker board, I co-opted a stack of index cards and tape and made use of the big blank wall. It always helped me to get my thoughts out in a way I could see them all in one place.
I was trying to figure out how we could structure the timeline to pull off both a rehearsal dinner and an engagement party on the same night in early November when my phone rang.
Spotting Constable Williamson’s name on the screen, everything else fled from my brain. “Hello?”
“Miss McBride. I have news.”
“Can you hang on for a moment? I want to get Alex.”
“Of course. He’ll certainly want to hear this, too.”
Pushing through the door into the back, I waved at the guys. They immediately stopped what they were doing, their gazes sharpening, their postures shifting, ready for action.
Alex came toward me. “What is it?”
“Constable Williamson has news.” I put the phone on speaker. “Okay, go ahead.”
“First off, we found the SUV that ran you off the road. It’s consistent with exactly how you described it. The front bumper is damaged, with paint that clearly came from your car. It was hidden in an outbuilding at a fishing cabin owned by Brodie Drummond.”
“Brodie has a cabin?” Why hadn’t I known that?
“According to property records, he was deeded it upon the death of his grandfather, about ten years back.”
“What does that prove?” Alex demanded. “You said he had an alibi.”
“Well, in light of this discovery, I went back and had a longer conversation with his coworkers. Turns out that the meeting he was in the middle of was a video conference, and he had technical difficulties during a sizeable chunk of it. They could hear him on the call, but allegedly his camera kept going out. He had the time to get out to the gorge road and back. That’s means, motive, and opportunity. Obviously, at the end of the day, it’ll come down to a judge and jury, but we have him. It’s over.”
Over. I waited for the relief to hit, but mostly, I just felt queasy. A man I’d cared for, one I’d spent time with, one I’d considered—albeit briefly—building a life with, had tried to kill me. How could I have gotten it so wrong?
“Thank you for letting us know, Constable.”
“I’m sure I’ll be in touch as things evolve, but I knew you’d want to know first thing so you can get back to normal.”
Normal. I didn’t even know what that looked like anymore.
“I appreciate it.” I hung up the phone.
Alex and I stared at each other. His brow was knit in concentration, and I could see the gears in his brain, trying to make this new information fit.
I reached out to lay a hand on his arm. “This is great news. I mean… horrible, but also good.”
He reeled me in. “I know you want to believe it’s over, but I’m not sure I buy this. It feels far too convenient.”
Was it convenient? Or was this a case of the most obvious answer being the right one and Alex not being able to accept that? And if he didn’t, was that about his own paranoia because of what he’d been through? Or did he think that if the threat disappeared, suddenly I would, too?
Before I could figure out what to say, Havoc burst into a spate of excited barking. A big, broad figure filled the doorway to the lobby.
“What the actual fuck were all of you thinking?”