Chapter 13 #2
Eredine stared impassively at him for a second before she looked past me and out the window to the firth. “Sometimes I forget how beautiful it is here. I could stare at that view all day.”
“So could I,” Arran murmured, seeming to memorize her profile.
I scoffed, and he raised his hands defensively. “It slipped out. Just an honest response to a spectacular view.”
“Oh my God, do they serve Macallan here? I think I’m going to need it.”
They didn’t serve whisky, and I didn’t need it because Arran mostly behaved himself.
He slipped flirtations into his interactions with Eredine, but we actually enjoyed a pleasant breakfast together.
My brother was cagey about his time in Thailand, where he was supposed to have been bartending for the past two years, but I hoped he’d open up a little when it was just the two of us.
Arran insisted on paying for breakfast, and Ery and I waited by the door.
She was fixing her hair, the heavy mass of it slipping from its tie, when Arran sauntered over.
His gaze fixed on her hair as she pulled it with effort into a high ponytail.
“Christ, you’ve got gorgeous hair,” he said, his voice a little hoarse for my liking.
Eredine raised an eyebrow and asked as I pushed open the door, “When are you leaving again?”
My smirk dropped as soon as I spotted my Defender where I’d parked it in the distance. I could see the spray paint from here.
Hurrying into a run, I heard my brother utter a muffled curse, and his footsteps and Ery’s picked up pace.
I skidded to a halt by my car. Fear thrummed through me.
Spray-painted across its side:
You aren’t you without me
They were the same words Fergus spray-painted across a Range Rover on Lachlan’s estate last year at Lucy’s bidding.
“When am I leaving?” Arran growled. “Not anytime soon, by the looks of this.”
The police checked the security cameras at An Sealladh, but my Defender was parked too far from the building.
They checked with people who’d come into the café after us, but no one saw anything or had dash cams that might have caught the culprit.
The car park was at the windowless front of the building, with all other windows facing the view across the loch and either side of the café.
We had nothing.
And the bastard was now doing an excellent job of frightening me.
I’d gotten lulled into a false sense of security since nothing had come of the first note.
The constables who’d arrived to check the car had called it in and had been advised to confiscate the vehicle.
They said there wasn’t much else they could do but turn it over to the detective inspectors from the original case. I felt helpless. Powerless.
Gravel kicked up behind me, and I spun from watching the police confiscate my Defender for prints to find two SUVs pulling into the car park.
Thane and Mac.
My attention moved to Mac as he jumped out of his vehicle, his face dark with thunderous rage.
And while there was still anger inside me when I looked at him, it wasn’t as volcanic. In fact, it had been diluted with utter sadness because I was pretty sure I could never forgive myself for putting us in that situation, and I’d never forgive him for his reaction to it.
Looking away, I turned to Thane as my big brother pulled me into his embrace. “Are you okay?” he asked gruffly.
I nodded, giving him a reassuring squeeze. God, our family needed a break from all this crap. When would it stop?
Mac’s eyes bored through me as he gathered with us to watch the police load my Defender onto a recovery truck. “When do you think I’ll get it back? They just said ‘as soon as possible.’”
“I’ll see if I can get a bit more information,” Thane said, already moving away. “I want to talk to the police, anyway.”
Mac hurried to follow him.
A few minutes later, the police got in their car and followed the recovery vehicle out of the car park while my brother and Mac returned to us.
“Well?”
“They said they’d contact you, right?” Thane asked.
“Yes, but I was hoping they might give a specific day.” How the hell was I going to cope without a car? I needed a vehicle to get to work.
Thane shook his head. “They said as soon as possible, and I believe them. For now, let’s get away from here. I can get everyone in my car. We’ll head back to mine to discuss.”
“I’m actually kind of tired.” Ery gave me an apologetic smile. “I can stay if you need me, but I thought maybe Mac could drop me off since I’m in the opposite direction from you all.”
I was surprised, but not upset. Whatever had gone on in Ery’s past, I had a feeling all this brought it back up for her. I didn’t want her to be alone to deal with it, though. “Do you need company?”
She shook her head. “I think I’m going to take a nap. Call me if you need me, though.”
“I will.” I hugged her and whispered, “I’m sorry about all this.”
“Hey, not your fault.” She stepped back, her next words directed at Mac. “Do you mind?”
Mac flicked me a look but said, “Of course not.”
Arran and I piled into Thane’s SUV, and the first words out of Arran’s mouth were, “That’s it, you’re moving back in with us.”
“Us?” I asked, my hackles rising at his bossy tone.
“Thane’s.”
“No way. Thane already has you. He’s not putting up with me indefinitely.”
“I’m right here,” Thane cut in as we pulled out onto the road. “And Arran’s right. You can’t stay on your own while we’re in the dark here.”
“No.”
“Then move onto the estate,” Arran pushed. “It’s guarded.”
“That helped Greg McHugh, didn’t it?” I flinched at my bitter sarcasm. “I’m perfectly safe at my home with my very expensive security system.”
“You don’t have a car right now,” Thane reminded me. “Come stay with us for a bit, and you can borrow mine. We’ll make do with one for now.”
“No,” I repeated stubbornly. “I’ll borrow a car from Lachlan’s fleet. But I’m not changing my life because of this moron who’s just trying to scare me. Me. No. Take me back to my house. Arran’s left a borrowed Range Rover there, anyway, that he needs to collect.”
“Oh, shit, yeah, I forgot about that,” he muttered.
“I hate this.” Thane’s voice rose with anger. “I hate we don’t know who is behind this, and that I have to leave you alone. Don’t make me.”
Despite my fear, despite my need to please my family, I couldn’t give in on this.
Inside I was shaken more than I could say.
Why was I being targeted because of Lucy’s case?
I’d had very little to do with the whole thing.
But I couldn’t let my brothers see how scared I was.
I needed them to think I was okay because I needed them to let me deal with this in my own way.
No one was chasing me out of my own home.
“I’m fine, Thane. And for all we know, this is just some wee prick playing a prank. I feel safe at home. Don’t take that away from me.”
My brothers grunted in unison. I knew what that meant. They’d take me home, but they weren’t happy about it.
MAC
While I was desperate to get back to Arro, to ascertain how she was feeling, furious at the thought of her being afraid, I’d also do just about anything for Eredine Willows, so there was no chance of me saying no on the rare occasion she asked for a favor.
Not that I knew her all that well. And yet, I probably knew more about her than most. I’d known her when she answered to a different name, was there when she picked the new one after looking at a map of Scotland, and I’d helped Lachlan protect her all these years.
Despite not sharing a close friendship with her, she was my family.
Because she felt a deep loyalty to Lachlan.
“Are you all right?” I finally asked as we drove down the road that led to her home in the woods. “This whole situation … is it bringing things up you don’t want to remember?” I knew from Lachlan that Lucy’s stalking had shaken Eredine.
“I’m fine.” She gave me a toothless smile. “Just worried about Arro.”
There was something in her voice, something pointed.
I pulled to a stop behind her car outside her idyllic home. Switching off the engine, I looked at her, and she studied me in a way that made me feel seen. And I was sure I didn’t like it.
“I know, Mac. About you and Arro. Arro needed a friend to confide in. I know about the past few years, and I know what happened at your house a few weeks ago.”
Every muscle in my body locked as I waited for Eredine’s censure. For her to voice out loud every awful thing I already knew about myself.
To my shock, she offered me a weary smile. “I don’t think Arro knows Lachlan is aware of what’s between you and her … but you know he knows, don’t you, Mac?”
Fuck.
How the hell did Eredine know that?
“Lachlan told me.” She shrugged, answering my question.
Seems everyone told Eredine their secrets.
“And after he just married your daughter, we all know he doesn’t have the moral high ground when it comes to standing in your way of being with Arro. He wouldn’t, anyway. You know that, too, don’t you?”
I did know that.
My pulse throbbed in my neck. My face was too warm.
“Arro thinks you pushed her away because of Lachlan, but we both know differently. We both know why you really pushed her away. At least I can guess. Probably the same reason I push everyone away.” Eredine’s expression turned stark as she looked out the windscreen. “Not deserving of them,” she whispered.
My throat thickened at her unnerving perception.
At my silence, she looked at me again. “I’d be a hypocrite to tell you to get over yourself. But I will say this … you don’t see yourself the way others see you, Mac. People truly depend on you because you make us feel safe. We see the good in you. The protector. You are good enough. More than.”
Unexpected emotion filled me, and I resented her a little for the immensity of the feeling. Pushing through it, unwilling to hurt another woman I cared about, I replied, “If I’m good enough, Eredine, then you’re an angel. I don’t like that you think ill of yourself.”
In answer, she gave me an exhausted shrug and opened the car door. I wanted to say more, to find the right words to understand why she felt unworthy, but I already knew I wasn’t the right person for that job. How could I be when apparently, we were cut from the same cloth?
Before she closed the door, she leaned back into the car and said, “Don’t stay away because you think that’s what Arro wants.
Don’t wait for her to come to you, Mac, because she won’t.
She won’t ever again.” Her words ignited my panic.
“It has to be you.” Eredine’s smile was encouraging, sweet, and it made me pause.
As I watched her climb the steps to her house, waiting to make sure she got safely inside, I reeled.
Arro had told Eredine everything about my reaction to her a few weeks back, and Eredine hadn’t judged me for it. She hadn’t raged at me to stay away from Arro.
She’d understood as no one could.
I hated the reason she understood.
But she did.
And she believed I shouldn’t give up on Arro.
Years ago, I’d left it up to Robyn to come to me, and once we discussed our past, I realized quickly that I should’ve gone to her.
I shouldn’t have given her the space to come to me if she wanted to, because that wasn’t what she needed.
Robyn had needed to know I loved her and wanted to be in her life.
I’d let my guilt and self-loathing cloud my judgment.
And when I hurt Arro, I’d done the same thing again. I’d stayed away because I thought that was what she needed.
What if I was wrong again?
What if Eredine was right?