Chapter 22 Regan #2
According to Lachlan, if it hadn’t been for Regan’s quick actions and help from the other parents, Sean might have gotten away with Eilidh. The very thought sent a cold shudder down my spine. I didn’t know the details yet. I did know I owed Regan more than I could ever pay back.
I skidded to a stop outside my house, my thoughts solely focused on its occupants. Bursting through the door, I rushed into the main living space, dizzy with relief as my children jumped from the couch beside Regan and Robyn and rushed me.
I dropped to my knees, taking in every inch of them before they slammed into me.
Physically, they were fine, but as they clung to me, they cried, the sound unbearable.
Tears filled my eyes as I pulled them tighter to me, vowing I would never again take for granted the singular feeling of my children embracing me.
I pressed quick, desperate kisses to their heads as my tears threatened to fall.
A hand on my shoulder brought my head up, and I looked into Lachlan’s concerned face. “They’ll be all right. They’ve just had a fright,” my brother assured me.
Eilidh and Lewis pulled away from my embrace, Lew wiping at his cheeks while Eilidh’s face turned purple with anger through her tears. “That bad man hit Ree-Ree, Daddy!”
My heart leapt into my throat. “What?” I stood, glancing from Lachlan’s stormy expression to across the room where Robyn had her arm around Regan on the sofa.
She had an elbow to her knee and a bag of frozen peas pressed to her eye.
“Regan.” I moved toward her, and the children ran across the room before I could get to her. Eilidh scampered onto the couch to press against her while Lewis took the seat next to his sister, his serious focus on Regan.
I approached, aware of Robyn at her other side, but unable to take my eyes off Regan. She watched me warily and lifted her head from the frozen peas. Her right cheekbone was swollen. It would bruise.
Renewed rage flooded me. They’d all just returned from the minor injuries unit in nearby Golspie, but I had assumed it was routine after something like this to have everyone checked over. Lachlan hadn’t mentioned that McClintock had attacked Regan.
The reminder that I couldn’t sweep her into my arms and bury my face in her throat so I could feel and hear her pulse rushing, alive and healthy, was a gut punch. Instead, all I could do was lower to my haunches before her and place a comforting hand on her knee.
“Are you all right?”
She gave me a wry smile. “Eilidh is all right, so I’m all right.”
At the disagreeable sound Robyn made in the back of her throat, and the way her eyes blazed, I could see she didn’t think so. I turned back to Regan as she shot her sister a quelling look, and I noted the bruise at her temple.
“What the—” I cut off my curse just in time as I stretched to push her hair back. Barely able to hear over the blood rushing in my ears, I demanded, “What exactly happened?”
Regan brushed my hand away and gestured subtly with her head toward the children. Her eyes said “later.”
“Ree-Ree’s going to be okay, right, Daddy?” Eilidh stared up at me soulfully. Lewis wore the same expression.
“I’m fine.” She turned, switching the frozen peas to her other hand so she could pull the children into a one-armed hug. They both tried to plaster themselves to her side, and my gut tightened at how shaken up they all were.
I stood abruptly, leashed fury burning my nerve endings.
McClintock was going to fucking die for this.
“Robyn, why don’t you call out for some food?” Lachlan was suddenly at my side, his hand on my shoulder. “I’m going to take Thane outside for a minute.”
“I’m not leaving them,” I growled.
“You need a minute. And I need to fill you in on what happened.”
I looked down at my family. Regan lifted her chin, her expression sympathetic. “Go. We’ll be okay for another few minutes.”
“I’ve got them,” Robyn assured me.
As I reluctantly followed Lachlan out onto the deck, I snapped, “This better be quick.”
My brother didn’t answer me. He led me down the deck and across the yard into his garden.
“Lachlan, where are we going?”
He glanced over his shoulder at me, his expression as cloudy as mine. “Trust me.”
Despite the impatient fury boiling inside me, I followed Lachlan into his house and upstairs to the home gym that made mine look pathetic in comparison. Lachlan led me over to the corner—to the boxing bag.
“Robyn’s.” Lachlan tapped it. “I put it in here for her. It’s where she leaves everything that frustrates her.
It got used a lot in the first few days of Regan’s arrival.
And it’ll be the first place she comes tonight.
” His eyes darkened. “One parent, Michelle Kingsley, told us McClintock grabbed Eilidh at the gate, but Regan rushed him. He backhanded her, and that’s what drew Will’s attention.
He moved in to help, and Regan got Eilidh free from McClintock.
Will got hit and McClintock went for Eilidh again.
Regan hit him, dazing him long enough to get her arms around Eils and Lew, protecting them with her body.
That’s when the other parents descended on him, but the bastard got a few more kicks and punches in to Regan’s head and back before they subdued him. ”
The imagery my brother created made me sick with fury; at the same time, my chest ached with gratitude.
“There was no way he would have gotten Eils,” Lachlan assured me, his eyes bright with pride. “Regan would have died before letting that happen.”
I found it hard to swallow, my throat so thick with emotion.
“I misjudged her,” Lachlan admitted softly. “I wanted to believe in her for Robyn’s sake, but there was always a part of me waiting for her to show us who she really was.”
I thought of Regan using her body as a shield to protect my children and felt like my heart might explode. “This is who she really is,” I replied hoarsely.
My brother nodded. “The question is why she needed to protect Eilidh. Who is McClintock, Thane?”
“The man Fran had an affair with,” I bit out, knowing the truth was unleashed now, no matter what.
Lachlan looked away for a second, the muscle in his jaw ticking. “She cheated on you?”
“Aye. He was a colleague at her school. I caught them a few months before we found out Fran was pregnant with Eilidh. It had been going on for months.”
“And you forgave her? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Hearing the disbelief in my brother’s voice, I bristled. “She was my wife and my son’s mother. I had to try. Especially when she told me she was pregnant again. And I didn’t want you to treat her differently. The only person who knows is Regan.”
Lachlan’s eyes widened slightly at that detail, but then something else seemed to occur to him. He exhaled slowly. “Is Eilidh McClintock’s?”
“No,” I growled.
“You did a paternity test?”
“No. I don’t need to.” I took a menacing step toward my brother. “She’s my daughter.”
“And if she’s not?” Lachlan pushed.
“Lachlan, brother, unless you want my fist in your face rather than that punching bag, don’t say another word.”
Realizing I couldn’t even entertain the thought of another man being Eilidh’s birth father, Lachlan let it drop. He pushed the boxing bag toward me. “Let it go here. You can’t go back into the house the way you are now. You’re seething. And the kids need you calm.”
Taking Lachlan’s advice, I shrugged out of my jacket, whipped off my jumper and the shirt beneath it, and brought my fists up to my face.
Instead of the boxing bag, I saw McClintock.
I saw McClintock terrifying my children.
Punching Regan. Regan shielding them while she took blows to her head and back.
Rage flooded out of me, and I roared as I threw a punch powered by its intensity.
By the time the worst of it drained out of me, sweat soaked my hair and skin.
Head bowed, hands on my hips, I whispered, trying to choke back the tears, shaking with the force of it. “What if she isn’t mine?”
Arms came around me, and I found myself pulled into my big brother’s embrace.
“We’ll deal with it … and you won’t lose her.
We’re not losing her. I won’t let that happen.
Whatever it takes, Thane, I mean it. Whatever favors I need to owe, whatever palms need greased, laws fucking broken—I will do it.
Nobody is taking our wee girl from you.”
I tightened my hold, needing to believe more than I ever had that Lachlan Adair could do anything he set his mind to.