Chapter 7
MAC
Arro.
Her name roared in my head as I grabbed my keys off Dave, one of the estate chauffeurs, and jumped into my waiting SUV. After receiving an angry call from Thane that Arro had been sent a threatening note that mimicked Lucy’s, I’d barked a bunch of orders at my team and rushed from the castle.
All my training, everything I knew about keeping calm in a dangerous situation, fled me.
Because it was her.
Arro.
If anything happened to her …
My hands wrapped tight around the steering wheel as I tore down the estate driveway. Was this how she felt when she heard I’d been stabbed? As the gates to the estate opened to allow my exit, her face flashed before my eyes from that morning last year …
Whatever they were pumping into me helped with the pain, but there was more than a twinge of discomfort anytime I tried to move.
I’d been in the hospital for a week, and I couldn’t be more desperate to leave.
To get to Robyn. Thankfully, they were discharging me tomorrow.
It couldn’t come soon enough. I’d let my daughter down again.
Missed our dinner date. Aye, my excuse wasn’t a bad one, but I wondered what she’d thought sitting at the table, counting the minutes I didn’t show up. Had I hurt her again?
I winced, angrily. For that alone, the motherfucker who gutted me was going to wish he’d never been born, once I figured out who was behind the purple eyes I saw peeping through the ski mask.
Contacts. To disguise himself. The fucker had come out of nowhere as I stepped out of my house to go meet Robyn for our first dinner together since she was a child.
As Robyn and I had discussed, the contacts probably meant I knew him. I flinched, remembering the sensation of the knife going in. Three times. Renewed frustration filled me. How had I let that happen? I felt like a fool. A failure. All my training, and I’d let someone gut me.
But I couldn’t let it consume me. I had to shrug it off and concentrate on finding the bastard. Robyn was sticking around to help me do it, but the thought of any harm coming to her made me even more eager to get out of this hospital bed.
“You’re awake.”
The voice soothed something so deep inside, no one knew it existed. Something dark, twisted, and full of self-loathing. Like an angry beast, a dragon, buried in the pits of my soul. Only she had the power to quiet its fiery stirring.
Arro.
I smiled tenderly at her as she strode into my hospital room. A glance at the wall clock told me visiting hours had just begun.
“You do know they discharge me tomorrow,” I teased. “There’s no need to keep checking on me.” God, but I was so fucking thankful she’d visited every day.
Arro’s sweet smile caused a wave of longing as she took the chair by my bedside and dragged it close. “I want to visit. You look so much better today. The color is back in your cheeks.”
“Good,” I muttered, studying every feature of her beautiful face. “Won’t you be late for work?”
She shrugged. “Marcello is handling things until I get there. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine.”
“Mac.” Arro stared me down.
My lips quirked. “I hurt a bit when I move,” I confessed.
Those gorgeous pale-blue eyes moved to where my wounds laid beneath my pajama T-shirt. “I’m going to kill the bastard,” she muttered, sounding more bloodthirsty than I’d ever heard her.
It made me smile until her gaze returned to mine, and I saw how tormented her expression had become.
“If I’d lost you …” Her eyes filled with tears, and she lowered them, trying to shield herself from me.
The tortured croak of her voice revealed everything we’d been too afraid to admit out loud. And even though it made me a selfish arsehole, I exulted at the idea of being loved by Arrochar Adair.
I reached for her hand, and she clasped onto me, fingers curling tightly around mine. “I’m fine,” I replied hoarsely. “I’m alive and I’m here. Robyn and I will find out who is behind all this.”
Arro nodded and seemed to shake herself, blinking rapidly to push back the tears. Our gazes met again, and she gave me a soft smile. “Robyn stayed.”
I nodded. “She stayed.”
“I’m so happy for you, Mac.”
I flinched and tried to pull my hand away, but Arro clung to me. “We’re not … nothing has been… we haven’t talked things through. We’ve just been talking about the case, really.”
“But she’s here,” Arro insisted. “Mac, if she didn’t want a relationship with you, she would have left already. And you didn’t see her face when I told her about your attack. Robyn was terrified.”
I flinched at that too.
“I’m sorry.” Arro sighed. “I didn’t mean … I just wanted you to know that Robyn loves you. There might be a lot of hurt between you and many things to discuss, but I believe you and she will work this out. That you’ll have a relationship with her again.”
Hope, that torturous wee bastard of an emotion, rose inside me.
Fuck, I hoped Arro was right, even as I told myself I didn’t deserve the chance. For Robyn’s sake, however, I would tell her whatever she needed to know.
She sighed, her eyes drifting over me again. “I bet you’re glad you’re out of here tomorrow.”
“You have no idea.”
“I wish I could kidnap you now,” Arro teased. “We could just get in the car and drive somewhere, away from all this, just for a bit. Just the two of us.”
Her words and the way she looked at me leaned dangerously toward bringing our feelings out into the open. Feelings that were awakened on a New Year’s Eve a few years ago. Feelings, I had to admit, might have been developing for months before that.
Now those feelings were locked down in that dark pit with all my demons. They tried to creep out, to escape, but I knew I couldn’t let them.
Looking at her now, though … sometimes it was hard to remember why that was.
Why I couldn’t just bridge the distance between us and kiss her pretty mouth?
Arro Adair had given me the best fucking kiss of my life that night, and she didn’t know it.
She didn’t know that kiss plagued my dreams. That in my dreams it went further, that I peeled the silver dress that sculpted her body like a second skin from her perfect tits, that I pushed the hem up past her thighs and sank into her tight heat.
“What are you thinking about?” Her voice was husky, drawing me from the fantasy.
She knew. Her eyes were smoky, cheeks flushed. She was visibly turned on.
Arro knew where my thoughts had gone.
That I dreamed of looking into those beautiful eyes, watching them grow hazy with need as I moved inside her. Sometimes it was slow and loving. Sometimes I fucked her in desperation, her nails biting into my back.
I could feel my body stirring, my mouth dry.
“I don’t think you want to know.” The words fell from my lips before I could stop them, my voice thick, hoarse.
Arro’s breath caught, her fingers tightening around mine. “I think if you weren’t currently covered in stitches, I’d very much want to know. Perhaps even indulge in a demonstration or two.”
Despite the danger in her flirting, I couldn’t help but laugh. She laughed too. But I saw the pain in her expression, the sadness, and even the fear. I hated it. I hated I wasn’t free to love her. To promise I’d never leave her.
She bowed her head and pressed a kiss to the top of my hand, and I felt every ounce of her in it.
It hurt.
Fuck, it tore me apart worse than the three knife wounds in my abdomen.
I pulled my hand from hers, needing the distance.
Arro gave me a knowing smirk and murmured, “It’s not going anywhere, Mac. What we feel. It’s not going anywhere. It just keeps growing. I think Guy can tell.”
The temptation of her was agony. And I didn’t even want to think about the bloody chef who warmed her bed whenever he liked. Ever since he’d started dating Arro, I couldn’t look at him. I’d avoided the estate kitchens for weeks.
But if she, the most loyal and steadfast woman I’d ever met, could look at me like this and say these things, then Guy wasn’t the one for her. I didn’t see it lasting between them, and that relieved me, selfish bugger that I was.
My gaze dropped to her mouth. I couldn’t. But I wanted so badly to pull her to me, even just to feel the brush of her lips on mine. To soothe me.
The door to the room flew open, breaking the moment. Robyn walked in, her expression suspicious as she glanced between me and Arro. I braced myself, but my daughter merely smiled as she walked toward the bed. Her attention on Arro, she said, “Hey, it’s nice to see you again.”
Arro looked flushed, guilty, and she stood up too quickly. “You too. I was just leaving. I have to return to work.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Robyn said, surprising me.
I tensed, wondering what she’d seen, what she suspected, and what the hell she would say to Arro once she had her alone.
Keeping my face blank, I looked at Arro as she told me she’d see me later.
Whatever she saw in my expression made the light I wanted to protect so badly flicker out of her eyes. She walked away.
My demons bayed from the darkest place inside me, and I closed my eyes to drown out their mournful roars.
Before I knew it, I was pulling up outside Arro’s bungalow, parking behind the patrol car that was already there. Thane’s SUV was behind Arro’s car. Thrust from my memories, I jumped out of my Rover and marched up her front walk to bang on the door.
A few seconds later, Thane opened it.
“Is she okay?” I asked with steely quietness as I entered without an invitation.
Thane’s face was hard with fury. “She will be,” he promised, and then gestured for me to go into the living room.
Some worry eased at the sight of Arro sitting in her armchair across from the two police constables on her couch.
But when she didn’t look up at me, that crack inside me grew.
Expression carefully controlled, I introduced myself to the police.
Thane and I stood as Arro recounted returning home to find the note.
PC Anders, a police officer around my age, held the note in her gloved hands and allowed Thane and me to look at it.
My gut tightened. “It’s the exact same wording,” I confirmed.
“From the Lucy Wainwright and Fergus McBride case. This is the same thing Lucy had Fergus write on the first message to Lachlan. It was painted on the wall behind his bed, though, so whoever sent this couldn’t access Arro’s home.
” The thought made my hands curl into fists.
“If that’s the situation, we’ll process the note for prints, but we’ll need to pass your case to the detective inspectors involved in Lucy’s case, which means they’ll need to speak with you again, Ms. Adair,” PC Anders said.
Arro nodded. “That’s fine.”
The police departed with evidence in hand, leaving me and Thane alone with Arro.
She still wouldn’t look at me.
“Possibilities?” Thane broke the silence. “People who hate us?”
“Could be a Lucy Wainwright fan, unhappy with the results of the trial,” I suggested. There had been more than a few conspiracy theorists who believed she was innocent and was set up. For what cause, fuck knows. There was no talking sense with blind, infatuated morons.
Thane nodded, but his eyes narrowed on Arro before turning back to me. “What’s going on with you two?”
“Nothing,” Arro and I said in unison. Too quickly. Guiltily.
Her brother looked aggravated by our answer, but sighed and said, “We need to come up with a list of suspects to give to the police.”
“Is there anyone you’ve had an issue with, Arro?” I asked.
Still not meeting my gaze, she shook her head. “No one I can think of.”
“I reckon we get everyone to check their mail. This could be targeted at anyone involved in the case. We should also send someone to the prison to question Lucy.”
Thane’s brow furrowed. “Won’t the DIs do all that?”
“Aye, but I want to make sure we’re on top of it too. I have contacts with the police in California. I’ll get someone to go speak with Lucy.”
“I can’t imagine her talking, even if she knows anything.”
“We have to cover our bases.” I looked back at Arro. Her face was pale, her shoulders hunched over. She looked exhausted.
I wanted to pull her into my arms.
Swallowing hard against the urge, I said, “You can’t stay here alone.”
“Agreed.” Thane nodded.
“I won’t let this person chase me out of my home,” Arro bristled, standing to pace the living room in agitation. My eyes followed her every move.
“I’ll sleep on the couch,” I offered, determined to do just that. It wouldn’t be the first time. Though it would be since our … falling-out.
Arro shook her head adamantly. “Like hell. I’m fine.”
I tried not to flinch at her vehement rejection.
“You’ll stay in my guest room,” Thane commanded. “Just for the night. For me,” he added.
His sister looked at him and paused, seeing the worry on his face. Her shoulders dropped. “Fine. Let me pack some things.” Arro brushed past me, her perfume teasing my nose. “You can leave, Mac,” she threw over her shoulder before disappearing into the hallway.
The crack widened.
A few seconds later, Thane stepped into my path, suspicion on his face. “What the hell did you do?”
I was ashamed to admit it, would never admit it out loud, but fear had driven my relationship with Arro. It had kept us apart. It had destroyed us. And now it might ruin everything, all the things I’d feared losing in the first place, all the things my fear had pushed Arro away to protect.
“It’s just a disagreement,” I hedged, no emotion, no guilt in my voice.
Thane saw through me.
He took a menacing step closer and looked at me in a way he’d never looked at me before.
Like I was the enemy.
“I love you like a brother, Mac.” His words did nothing to temper my rising panic. “But don’t think I’ve been blind these past few years. If I find out you’ve hurt Arro … I’ll fucking kill you.”
And he meant every word.
I looked away, my chest feeling shredded. “Keep her safe,” I bit out gruffly. “I’ll see what I can learn from the police. I … I will find out who sent that note and end this,” I promised before I stormed out of her house.
I stuttered to a stop on her porch, wanting to turn back, to stride back inside and pull her into my arms and feel her breathe against me, alive and well and … loved.
Even if Arrochar Adair hated me now, I still loved her.
And no fucker would harm a single hair on her head.
They’d have to go through me first, and I was a six-foot-four wall of writhing, contained, cold fury.
The sadistic little fuck who did this was going to regret it for the rest of their life.