Chapter 4 Eredine
EREDINE
While I led the small class of celebrities through the cool-down exercises, I could feel Iris Benning eyeballing me. She’d been doing it throughout this afternoon’s session.
I hadn’t seen the actor since the beginning of the week when she’d encountered Arran and me outside the Gloaming, but when she’d turned up to a Pilates class this afternoon, I got the distinct feeling she was itching to ask me something.
“Push into your heel, stretch your right calf muscle. That’s it,” I encouraged, looking around the studio to make certain everyone was following carefully. “Okay.” I stood out of pose and then lowered myself to my mat. “Last one, and then you’re free.”
The class tittered as they mimicked my position.
“It’s your favorite stretch,” I teased. Even though it was mine, I knew not everyone loved it. “Knees bent, place your right foot over your left knee and gently draw your knee to your chest.” Turning my head on the mat, I searched everyone, saw they were good, and said, “Now the other knee.”
A few minutes later, the class was on their feet, rolling up their mats.
When I first moved to Ardnoch to run one of Lachlan’s fitness studios on the small loch on his estate, I’d been a little starstruck at first. Yes, I’d lived in LA most of my life and seen more than my fair share of famous people, but I’d never instructed them in an intimate studio.
Funny how quickly I got used to it, how easy it was to remind myself they were just people, good, not so good, funny, complicated people.
One of them had even become a close friend.
But she’d been one of those rare folks with a special gift.
She was wicked, so very wicked, but, Lord, did she have a gift for making people believe she was good.
Lucy Wainwright was a high-caliber actor who’d befriended me, gained my trust, gained all our trust, and then she’d terrorized Ardnoch, including me, all because she was obsessed with Lachlan.
No, she was obsessed with herself, and she’d decided that Lachlan was the only man worthy of her.
She did just about every diabolical thing a person could do to have him.
She almost killed Robyn and Lachlan. She wrecked my studio, which emotionally took me back to a traumatizing place.
And she hadn’t operated alone. Her accomplice, Fergus, worked as a mechanic on the estate and had been a longtime family friend of the Adairs, another of Brodan’s close childhood friends.
He was working on an old car for me before Lucy shot him.
Truth be told, Lucy had shaken my faith in my gut instinct.
But not today, as Iris Benning waited until every other person left my studio before she approached. I felt it in my gut that Iris Benning was not a nice person and that I needed to be careful around her.
“Eredine, right?” She smiled falsely.
I didn’t bother replying because she’d just spent an entire hour in my class while people said my name.
Her smile wavered, annoyance flashing in her eyes. “Right. Well, I’ve noticed that you’re kind of chummy with the Adairs. I’ve seen you with Lachlan on the estate and then you were cozy with the younger one who looks like him in town the other day.”
I waited, wondering where this was going, sensing I would not like it.
At my continued silence, her smile dropped entirely. “I’ve also seen you with Galbraith.”
Oh, here it was.
“Do you speak?” she spat.
Patiently, I replied, “I’m waiting for the question.”
Her jaw clenched. “I want Mac’s number and thought you might have it.”
I did. “If you have a security issue and would like to talk with Mr. Galbraith, you only have to ask Wakefield or Stephen”—Ardnoch’s butler and underbutler—“and they will arrange a time for you to speak with Mr. Galbraith.”
Iris sneered, and it amazed me how lovely she’d seemed before I met her compared to how plain and mean she appeared now. “I need to talk to him, and I’m pretty certain he’ll want to talk to me too, if you catch my meaning. Which is why I’m asking if you have his cell number.”
Lord, she was delusional. “I can’t give out staff members’ private contact details to you.”
“So, you have his number?”
“Ms. Benning, Mr. Galbraith is engaged to my friend.”
She smirked. “Men are not monogamous creatures, and I’ve seen the way he looks at me. Now give me what I asked for.”
Was she wackadoodle? True uneasiness filled me. What was it about this place that attracted the crazies? “Ms. Benning—”
“Let’s cut the crap.” Iris stepped toward me. She was tall, so we were face-to-face. “I want Mac’s number, and unless you want me to get you fired, you’re going to give it to me.”
Though rage burned through my blood at her threat, I stayed outwardly calm. “Fired?”
Her lips twisted cruelly. “I’m an excellent actor, Pilates Girl, and I’m pretty sure everyone will believe me when I say that you hit me in a fit of rage for no good reason.”
What?
Was she insane?
Struggling to control my breathing, I clenched my fists, hating the satisfaction I saw in her face as she took in my reaction.
“Well? Mac’s number?”
Feeling sick to my stomach, but refusing to be cowed by this awful woman, I replied, “You’ve made a huge mistake, Ms. Benning.”
“Don’t you threaten me,” she snapped, getting in my face, and I feared this was about to escalate.
“Step back,” I replied quietly. “Step back now. There are cameras in this studio,” I warned her.
Her eyes widened as she retreated, glancing up toward the corner of the room. She spotted the CCTV Lachlan installed after Lucy and Fergus trashed my studio. Iris blanched. Her gaze flicked to me. “I’ll just say you threatened me. Which is true.” Then she stormed out of the studio.
“Damn it,” I muttered, running a shaky hand down my face.
Lachlan’s expression had darkened, a human representation of a thundercloud.
“She said what?”
Still sick to my stomach, I repeated word for word what Iris Benning said to me.
My boss and friend pushed away from the desk in what we called his stage office.
It was a fancy reception room just off the great hall used to talk with club members.
His actual office was a small, practical room in the staff quarters.
“That nasty, dangerous wee …” He petered off in a growl of anger.
He then lifted the phone off his desk and hit a button. “Mac,” he barked, “I need you in my stage office now.” He hung up, his attention returning to me.. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I promised him, even though I was still shaken.
Lachlan rounded the desk and leaned against it. “I’m sorry I put you in this position.”
“You didn’t. You weren’t to know what she was like.”
“But I knew she was bothering Mac. I just didn’t realize it was this bad. And to threaten you … did she honestly think she’d get away with that? That I’d believe her over you?”
Yes. But I had to wonder if deep down, Iris thought no one would believe a Black member of staff over a White club member.
She was a fool, if so. She didn’t know Lachlan at all.
It also made me wonder if she’d done this before.
How many people she thought below her had she hurt to get what she wanted?
It made me seethe, though no one would ever know.
I was a swan, floating calmly across the water, but no one could see my feet kicking like hell beneath.
“Thank you for trusting me,” Lachlan said.
I gave him a small smile. “Of course. You’re a good boss, Lachlan, and an even better friend.”
His lips quirked, but his eyes were still filled with anger and concern. A knock at his door brought our heads around as Mac Galbraith entered. He took in the sight of us and closed the door. Sensing the obvious tension, he scowled. “What happened?”
ARRAN
It was a good thing the kids were around to hog my attention because every second they weren’t asking me a question or demanding a story, my attention was drawn to Eredine.
She’d seemed fine after our conversation on the beach a few days ago. I’d been assured from her demeanor that whatever feelings she’d had for Brodan had been shallow and fleeting.
But for days now, Eredine had been quiet and introspective, and when I tried to ask her if anything was the matter, she blew me off.
It was fucking irritating.
I wanted her to tell me when she was having a shit day. I wanted to be that person she could vent to.
Something was up. I could feel it.
As I took a bite of the fajitas Lachlan and Robyn had cooked for our weekend family get-together, I watched Eredine smile at something Arro said at the other end of the table. What was with that? Ery usually sat with me.
Had I pushed her away by being honest about Monroe, about how I used to treat women? Surely, she knew from the fact that I had a permanent case of blue balls, I hadn’t touched another woman in eight months.
It was the longest I’d ever gone without sex.
And it was bloody unpleasant.
Sensing my stare, Eredine looked over and frowned. “What’s wrong?” she mouthed.
Aye, wasn’t that the question of the hour?
Before I could respond, my niece, Eilidh, who just turned seven but acted like a deranged forty-year-old half the time, announced loudly, “I’m done! Uncle Arran, will you come watch a movie with me now?”
“I’m done too.” Lewis, my nine-year-old nephew, pushed his plate away.
Thane, my second-eldest brother and their father, said from beside me, “Then you both may be excused from the table, but Uncle Arran is still eating.”
Eilidh frowned at me, and I tried not to laugh as she said with extreme disappointment, “You’re so slow, Uncle Arran.”
“Apologies, my lady.” I bowed my head.
She giggled and slipped from the table. “You can make up for it later.”
Snorting, I nodded, but found my gaze drawn back to Eredine. Her eyes were lit with affection as she grinned at me.
My heart lurched in my chest.
Thane nudged me, and I reluctantly pulled my focus from her.
My brother gave me a searching look. “I hope you know what you’re doing there.”
Indignation filled me. “What does that mean?”