Chapter 6
Connor
I looked between Declan and Rory and wondered why both were scowling. “Well? What’s going on?”
“Rory, you checked her out, didn’t you?”
Declan asked, with an edge to his voice.
“Yeah,”
he nodded, turning back towards the monitor, his fingers flying over the keyboard. “She’s a librarian… I can’t find the file on her now.” He looked up at me, “Connor, you searched her background. Where’s the file?”
I pulled up a chair beside him and took the keyboard. In no time, I had the file open in front of me, and I felt like I was betraying her trust. Which didn’t make a lick of sense considering the circumstances.
I stared at the screen, my eyes scanning the details of Mia’s life. On the surface, everything seemed normal - a quiet librarian from a small town, no criminal record, a sparse social media presence. But as I delved deeper, inconsistencies began to emerge.
Her employment history showed gaps, periods where she seemed to vanish off the grid entirely. Her educational background was impressive, but oddly varied - degrees in literature, computer science, and forensic accounting.
Rory pointed at the screen, “Why would a librarian have so many different degrees?”
I shrugged, as I reviewed her travel records. “Maybe she was undecided as to what she wanted in life?”
“Wait, add sharpshooter to the list. She did kill Cookie without batting an eye,”
Rory mentioned.
“Maybe she hated him,”
I looked up at them. And both men were looking at me with a fierce look on their faces.
“What?! It’s possible,”
I said, turning my attention back to the monitor.
Mia had an impressive number of international trips. Beijing, Brussels, Dubai - she was never gone more than a few days.
The more I clicked, the more I regretted it. Hidden beneath layers, I found evidence of large sums of money moving through offshore accounts. The transactions were expertly concealed, but the pattern was clear to someone who knew what to look for.
“Holy shit,”
I muttered, leaning back in my chair.
Declan leaned in, his eyes narrowing as he took in the information sprawled across the screen. After a long moment, he grunted, “Something’s not right with her.”
I nodded slowly, my mind racing. “She’s not just a librarian. This level of smoke screening, the hidden accounts, the tech knowledge - she’s got to be some kind of hacker or cyber security expert.”
Rory whistled low. “No wonder those guys are after her. Question is, who’s she working for? And what the hell did she get mixed up in?”
I ran a hand through my hair, feeling a mix of fascination and dread. The woman I’d just proposed to - even if it was a fake engagement - was clearly not who she claimed to be. And now, I realized with a sinking feeling, I’d dragged the entire clan into whatever mess she was involved in.
“What do we do now?”
I asked, looking to Declan for guidance.
My brother’s face was grim as he straightened up. “We need to have a little chat with her. And this time, we’re going to get the whole truth out of her - one way or another.”
As we moved to leave the room, a thought struck me. I turned back to the computer and quickly began typing, searching for one last piece of information. When I found it, my blood ran cold.
“Ah guys,”
I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “Isn’t bigamy a crime in Canada?”
I asked because on the screen was a photo of her standing at a church altar, kissing a man.
“Holy shit!”
Rory said, staring at the screen. “In answer to your question, yes it’s a crime.”
I looked at them. “Now what? What do we do?”
I knew it was a long shot, but I had to add, “I need to get married unless you want to stay on as captain, Declan.”
“That’s not going to happen,”
he shook his head. “But I think instead of confronting her about all this, you take the opportunity to find out exactly what you can from her. And if that fails, we confront her,” Declan said firmly. “Can you do that?” he raised his brows, expectantly at me.
“Yeah, sure I can.”
I didn’t feel confident in my answer, but I had to try. “How do I do that?”
Declan grinned and smacked me on the back. “Use your charm on her my man, use your charm.”
A nervous laugh escaped past my lips. Charm? Me? I didn’t have any charm. “When do I do that?”
Declan grabbed me by the forearm and hauled me out of the chair.
“Right now. Just tread carefully, act like you don’t know a thing,”
he warned, his voice low and serious. “Until we have more information as to who she is and what she’s involved in, we can’t trust her completely.”
The three of us left the library and made our way to the kitchen, where bursts of laughter from Wren, Mia, and Kat echoed through the hallway. Act normal, I chanted urgently in my mind as we approached, but any semblance of normalcy shattered when I crashed into the back of Declan. He had stopped abruptly, pressing a finger to his lips with a fierce intensity. “Shush,”
he hissed, eyes blazing as he gestured sharply toward the kitchen.
Inside, Wren’s laughter rang out at something Kat had said, when Mia’s voice cut through the noise. “You know what I really miss?”
she declared, her voice charged with nostalgia. “I miss sitting in a bingo hall, dabbing my cards while I stuff my face with nachos and cheese.”
“That is the BEST cheese in the world. I could drink that shit!”
Kat howled, in amusement. “I haven’t tasted that in a decade!”
“It’s decided,”
Wren declared, the sound of her smacking her hand onto the table, rattling the dishes upon it. “The three of us are going out for the night! It’s only 6:30 pm, we can catch the next bingo then hit the bars afterwards. We’re making it a girls’ night to remember!”
Declan started walking again, headed right for the kitchen with Rory and me taking up the rear. I wish I was like my brother. Confident and commanding.
Wren squealed with delight as Declan hugged her from behind. “Go pack, little goose,”
he murmured, nuzzling her neck.
“Pack? For what?”
Wren shook her head and looked at the other women. “We are going to bingo then the bar tonight.”
Declan stood straight and said, “Fine, then I guess I will head to the South of France myself.”
She stood up and squealed, taking hold of his face in her hands. “Really?! We’re going on our honeymoon?!”
“Yes! Now get going before something else delays us,”
he smacked her on the ass as she stood up, causing her to squeal even more as they left the room.
“Sorry girls! Bingo another night!”
she called out, her excitement obvious as she dashed out of the kitchen with Declan close behind. Their footsteps echoed through the hallway, punctuated by her occasional squeals of delight and his low chuckles.
Rory cleared his throat, breaking the sudden silence that had fallen over the kitchen. “So, Kat, what do you say we hit the town tonight? I know this little Italian place that does the most amazing carbonara you’ve ever tasted.”
Her eyes lit up at the suggestion. “Oh, that sounds lovely! I haven’t had a good carbonara in ages.”
She glanced at her watch. “Give me an hour to freshen up?”
As they made their exit, chatting animatedly about their dinner plans, I wanted to yell to them that I could make the carbonara and we all could eat right here at home. Because now, I found myself alone with Mia and the kitchen suddenly felt cavernous. The silence between us stretched out like an endless chasm as I fidgeted with the cuff of my shirt, my mind racing as I tried to figure out how to approach her.
Charm, Declan had said. Use your charm. But what charm? I was about as charming as the apple that I was currently staring at in the fruit basket on the counter. Still, I had to try to figure out who she really was and what she was hiding. Sure, she was Wren’s half sister, but no one really knew Mia.
" So..." I began, cringing inwardly at how awkward I sounded. “Want to, uh, go for a drive?”
She raised an eyebrow at me, a hint of amusement in her eyes. “A drive? Where to?”
I shrugged, aiming for nonchalance but probably looked more like I was having a mild seizure. “Just... around. You know, see the nightlife.”
To my surprise, she smiled and nodded. “Sure, why not? Let me grab my jacket.”
I sat there and waited a full ten minutes when I thought she had decided to bail. Can’t say that I blamed her. Just when I was ready to give up, I could hear her on the stairs.
“Sorry, Wren snagged me into her room for a minute. She wanted my opinion on her dress,”
she said as she walked into the kitchen.
“Ah,”
I waved a hand in dismissal as relief surged through me, “You’re good. Come on, follow me to the garage.”
As we climbed into my car, I still had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. I just knew I needed to get Mia alone, to try and unravel the mystery surrounding her. We drove in comfortable silence for a while, the city lights getting brighter and brighter the closer we got.
Just on the edge of town on an impulse, I pulled into the parking lot of a run-down building with a flickering neon sign that read, ‘Lucy’s Bingo Hall’.
She turned to me, her eyes wide with surprise. “What are we doing here? Is this one of the family’s holdings?”
“No,”
I cleared my throat, suddenly feeling very self-conscious. “I, uh... I overheard you saying you missed playing bingo. So, I thought maybe we could give it a try.”
A slow smile spread across her face, lighting up her eyes in a way that made my heart skip a beat. “Aww, that’s sweet of you.”
I nodded, feeling a warmth spread through my chest at her reaction. “Yeah, well... I thought it might be fun.”
Her lips parted in a sleepy smile as she raised brow. “Do you even know how to play bingo?”
I laughed, rubbing the stubble on my jaw. “Not a clue. But I’m willing to give it a go for you. But you have got to be exhausted. We can do this another time if you want?”
She pulled on her door handle and as she climbed out of the car, she looked over her shoulder and said, “And miss the nachos and cheese? Not a chance.”