Chapter 27 Lachlan
LACHLAN
“You know, if you’re going to brood, this is the wrong place to do it.”
The familiar feminine voice jerked me out of my musings. I spun in my green leather captain’s chair and smiled at Lucy leaning against the doorway to my stage office. “You’re back.”
She pushed off the doorjamb with a glamorous smile and sashayed across the room toward me. Her silk summer dress rippled with the movement, and I thought about how elegant she was in her high heels and how it wasn’t quite as sexy as Robyn’s athletic grace.
Damn.
I’d started doing that, and I wasn’t quite sure how to stop.
Comparing every woman to Robyn.
“I’m back.” Lucy sighed and settled her pert bottom on my desk in front of me. “And glad to be back.”
“Kept your room for you.”
“I noticed. Thank you.”
“How did the meetings go?”
“Okay, I guess. Nothing sparked my passion.”
“Maybe you should start screenwriting. Write something you want to star in.”
Her lips parted. “I, uh … I actually already have started writing. You think I can do it? That I’m capable?”
“I think you’re capable of anything you put your mind to.”
She gave me a tender smile and then glanced back toward the door. Beyond it, we could hear members talking and laughing together. “The castle is busy.”
“Summer approaches.”
“Of course.” She chuckled as she turned back to me. “I know busy is good for you, but I prefer it quiet.”
Something in the back of her eyes, a shadow, caught my attention. “You okay, Luce?”
If it was there, it abruptly disappeared. “I should be asking you that, Mr. Broody. Is everything okay?” Her expression hardened. “Nothing bad happened while I was gone, right?”
“No. It’s been quiet.”
“That’s good. How’s Mac, the family, Arro … Thane?”
I wasn’t stupid. I was aware of some attraction between my friend and brother.
However, I knew Lucy. She wasn’t the settling-down type.
Didn’t trust anyone long enough to do it.
And for that reason, she’d stayed away from my brother.
I couldn’t say I wasn’t thankful. Thane’s heart had already been broken by his wife’s sudden death.
The last thing he needed was to become entangled with a charming but elusive American starlet with a mysterious past.
“Everyone is well.”
“And Robyn? Or is she the reason for the brooding?” she teased.
I exhaled heavily. If I admitted what I was feeling out loud, it might make the inner turmoil worse. But I wasn’t a stupid man, prone to bouts of self-denial. I understood my feelings, recognized them. I just didn’t know what to do with them.
Lucy leaned toward me. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Luce …” I shifted uncomfortably and then pushed out of the chair. Restless. I strode over to the tall, narrow window adjacent to my desk and stared out at the golf course and woodlands beyond.
“You know you can talk to me if something is bothering you.”
My pulse quickened. “Luce … remind me that I have no room in my life for a woman.”
“And why is that again?”
Images of my childhood, of my father, flashed before my eyes. My mother’s gravestone. Watching Thane grieve over the gravestone of his wife.
I remained silent.
“Or not.” She gave a huff of laughter, but it sounded a little hurt.
I turned to her. “It’s just not for me, Luce.”
“I know. I get it. You know that.” She strolled toward me, her heels clicking on my hardwood floors. When she stopped before me, she didn’t have to crane her neck to meet my eyes, she was so tall in the shoes. “Why do you need the reminder?”
I gave a small huff of disbelief. “Robyn.”
My friend’s eyes widened with understanding. “Are you saying … oh my God, you’re falling for her.”
The idea made my heart pound, my skin flush, and I scowled. “No, I’m sure it’s not that drastic,” I denied. “But I do … I do have real feelings for her. Unexpected and real. I don’t know how to move forward.”
“You would usually end things.”
“When the woman started to have real feelings, yes, but this has never happened to me before.” Suddenly I realized who I was speaking to. “I mean, Luce, you know I care about you—”
She held up a hand, cutting me off with a tight smile. “I know what you mean.” She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “I should have known Robyn would do this to you.”
“Why?”
“You tell me. She has something, doesn’t she?”
Yes, she did. And it was driving me mad.
I wanted to be around her all the time. She never bored me.
Her dry wit and no-nonsense attitude made me laugh while her sense of adventure and lack of inhibition ignited my blood.
Yet it was her fearless honesty and soft compassion beneath the sexy toughness that most called to me.
I’d told her things. About my family. My past.
It made the fact that she still wouldn’t confide in me about the scars on her chest that much more disappointing. I wanted to know her. Even as it excited me to keep discovering her.
“Is it just the sex?” Lucy pushed.
I shook my head. It wasn’t just the sex, although that was goddamn mind-blowing. I was addicted to the taste of the woman.
“What do you want me to tell you?”
“To walk away.”
Lucy reached out to stroke my cheek, her fingers rasping against the bristle of my short beard. “Sweetheart, even if I tell you to do that, you won’t. I can see it in your eyes. She’s under your skin.”
Fuck.
Luce was right.
I turned away to stare out the window at my estate. Only a few short months ago, all I had to worry about were my siblings and my business.
Now not even my mystery stalker overshadowed the top of my concerns.
Robyn.
My mind, my very blood, was filled with nothing but her.
It was aggravating and not a little terrifying.
“I’ll leave you to brood.” Lucy’s heels faded away. “And Lachlan … Robyn is wonderful, but she’s made it clear this isn’t her permanent stopping place. Don’t be the guy who holds her back because he doesn’t want her but he doesn’t want anyone else to have her. She deserves better than that.”
I scowled out the window. That wasn’t my intention. Ever. I wouldn’t do that.
I turned to say so, but Lucy was striding through the doorway.
“Oh! Jesus!” I heard her cry. “What are you doing skulking here?”
Hurrying toward the door, I heard Fergus of all people reply, “Sorry, Ms. Wainwright.”
Stepping through the doorway, I saw Lucy skirting the mechanic. She glared at him and threw an exasperated look at me before she strode away toward the main staircase.
“Fergus?” The mechanic rarely came into the main rooms of the castle. “Problem?”
“Computer issue with one of the Rovers, Mr. Adair.”
“Fergus, you can call me Lachlan when it’s just the two of us,” I reminded him. For God’s sake, I’d grown up with the man.
“Right.” Fergus grinned, but it was a preoccupied smile.
“Computer problem?” I prompted.
“Yes. It’ll need to go in, I’m afraid. Wanted to check with you first.”
The manufacturer always charged a fortune, but if Fergus couldn’t fix the issue, then there was nothing else for it. “Book it.”
“Lachlan.” Fergus tipped an invisible hat to me, a quirk he’d picked up from someone when he was a wee boy, and then sauntered in Lucy’s wake toward the exit.
That restlessness made itself known as soon as I was alone again.
A walk.
A walk along the beach would do me good.
The castle was in order. If I was needed, they’d call my mobile.
And if I stayed there any longer, I would give in to the urge to track down Robyn.
I had to prove to myself that I could stay away from her. In fact, I wouldn’t go to her tonight.
I dared myself not to.
Reaching for the phone on my bedside table for the millionth time, I tapped the screen and the clock lit up.
Three fifteen in the morning.
Sticking to my guns, I’d denied myself Robyn.
Ate dinner with Arrochar at her place, stayed late into the night, and returned to the castle at midnight.
If I was being honest, I’d hovered outside her door for a good five minutes before calling myself a weak-willed prick and then stormed into my room.
A grown man reduced to an addicted teenager by a woman a decade younger.
But what a woman she was. I groaned as I imagined from memory Robyn before me on her hands and knees. Never just receiving what I had to give but taking it, demanding it, bucking back into my thrusts with a savage, greedy lust. Just the memory of it made me painfully hard.
“Fuck,” I muttered, throwing the covers off the bed. I sat up, running a hand through my hair, feeling my willpower ebb.
She was mere feet away, across the hall. Mine if I wanted.
Why the devil was I denying myself?
Rat-a-tat-tat.
I looked up at the sound of the knock on my door.
Robyn?
I leaned over to switch on a bedside lamp and then strode across the room to unlock the door. To my disappointment, no one was there.
What?
I popped my head out the doorway and looked to the right. The double doors at the end of the hall moved slightly, as if someone had just disappeared through them. An uneasiness settled over me as I finally saw the trail of red rose petals along the corridor floor.
“What the …?” I murmured, retreating with the intention of putting on some clothes to investigate. White flashed against the oak door on my peripheral, and I jerked back from it to see a printed note pinned to my door.
My disquiet grew as I read it.
Your love is cold.
Mine is colder.
I cursed under my breath and hurried across the hall to check Robyn’s door. It was locked. Good.
I glanced down the corridor at the trail of petals. It was a clear sign that I was to follow it. And wherever it led, I didn’t want Robyn near.
Rushing back into my bedroom, I threw on clothes and called down to security for backup. Within minutes, I heard the knock at the door and found Pete standing outside with Kyle, Xander, and Eccleston. “You were fast.”
Pete wrenched his gaze from the note on the door, his expression grim. “Trail of petals leads all the way downstairs. We haven’t followed it yet. We wanted to make sure you were secure first.”
“Let’s check it out.” I closed my bedroom door behind me. “How did they get past the cameras?”
“Distraction.” Pete looked pissed. “Sorry, sir. There was a disturbance at the front gate, and we were all focused on that.”
“Disturbance?”
“Someone broke the cameras. McHugh went out to check them, but we haven’t heard back from him yet. The rest of us were checking the perimeter of the castle when you called.”
“Shit.” We picked up the pace, following the petals without speaking so we didn’t wake up the members. The trail led all the way downstairs and into the staff wing.
“The kitchen?” Pete deduced.
Sure enough, as soon as we walked into the kitchen, I halted abruptly.
The bright lights overhead flooded the kitchen so there was no missing the large pool of blood around the body of security guard Greg McHugh.
Pete rushed to the body as I froze in utter shock. “Secure Mr. Adair!” he barked at his men, and I felt the security guards surround me, guns out.
“No, no.” I came out of my horrified daze as I watched Pete check McHugh for a pulse. “Is he …?”
Pete looked up in furious grief. “He’s dead.”
My gut roiled with nausea. Forcing it down, I ordered, “Check the cameras.”
“Not until you’re secure.” Pete stood, frowning as he spotted the trail of petals when I did.
They curved around toward the back of the kitchen where the commercial walk-in freezer was.
Your love is cold. Mine is colder.
“Oh my God.” I was gripped with terror as I understood. “Robyn. ROBYN!” I roared, pushing my men off me and dodging Pete as I raced past my fallen security guard toward the freezer.
The handle was up.
It was closed.
“ROBYN!” I was sure she was in there. My fingers fumbled with the handle in my panic until another hand joined mine. Pete.
Together we pulled, and the door opened with a breathy suction.
I saw her hand first as the freezer swung open, and my knees threatened to buckle.
Then she was revealed.
Her red hair covered her face.
“Lucy?” Renewed shock made me hesitate just a second. It wasn’t Robyn. “Fuck, Lucy.” I hurried into the freezer with Pete and together we lifted her cold, strangely heavy body out of the walk-in.
Laying her gently on the floor, I noted her worryingly blue lips and deathly stillness. Pete rested his fingers on her neck and sagged with relief. “Call an ambulance!” he yelled at his men. “She’s still alive.”