Chapter 3 Brodan
brODAN
PRESENT DAY
It was some view from Lachlan’s suite in our family’s renovated castle.
With Robyn pregnant, he never stayed on the estate overnight these days, so he’d offered me his room until I figured out my next move.
The windows overlooked the North Sea, and on a perfect September evening, the sun set across the water in spills of red, orange, and gold.
Not even a drop of pink or purple to soften the fiery sky.
So naturally, all I could see was the long, red-gold hair of Monroe Sinclair.
The woman had barely changed in almost eighteen years.
It really had been like staring into the face of a ghost.
And like one, I’d treated her as if she didn’t exist.
Watched her fumble with those groceries and sent my bodyguard to help her.
Very mature.
“Prick,” I muttered to myself.
I couldn’t get those big gray eyes of hers out of my head.
Almost eighteen years.
We’d now been apart longer than we’d been friends. I rubbed my chest where it ached.
A knock at the door drew my head around, and Walker Ironside stepped into the room.
He’d been part of my private security team for four years, and, much like my brother Lachlan with his ex-bodyguard Mac, when two Scotsmen find each other in foreign lands, they tend to bond.
Walker was more than my bodyguard—he was my friend.
“Still heading to the Gloaming?” Walk asked, hovering near the door.
When I finally decided I’d done enough running and for once, I’d let my high-handed big brother take over managing my career, most of my security team took jobs elsewhere.
Not Walker. Lachlan offered him a place on the security team here at Ardnoch, the private members-only club that catered to film and TV industry people.
Walker took the job, but he made it clear his priority was still protecting me.
“Aye.” I nodded and stepped away from the sunset that reminded me too much of a ghost. “Leaving now.” I’d promised my eldest and youngest brothers I’d meet them at their newly renovated (but not quite finished) pub, restaurant, and hotel for a drink.
“I’m coming with you.”
It was not said with the tone of a friend, but in the tone of a bodyguard. “Walk, I told you, I’m safer here than anywhere.”
“You’ve just moved back, and the news of it is everywhere. There could still be a threat, and until I determine the village is safe, you’re not going anywhere alone.”
It was the most Walker had said in one sentence in a while. Lips twitching, I slapped him on the back. “Then let’s go.”
To my further surprise, as Walker drove us out of the estate toward the village, my friend spoke again. “Do you want to talk about whatever has you in a strange mood?”
I flicked a look at him. Walker knew more about me than anyone did, even my family. He even knew about the best friend who’d slept with my brother and then left, never to be heard from again. “The redhead today.”
“Aye?”
“That was Monroe.”
“I know.” He looked at me before staring back at the road. “She gave me her name.”
Scowling, I replied, “You didn’t say anything.”
“I was waiting for you to say something. Anyway, I knew she had to be someone because I’ve never seen Brodan Adair give up the chance to rush to the aid of a gorgeous woman.”
My frown deepened.
He huffed. “Don’t worry. Even if she was my type, and she’s not, I wouldn’t go there.”
“I don’t care,” I lied.
Walker made a quiet sound of disbelief, but I let it sit.
Honestly, I was still too fucking tired to deal with anything I was feeling. Collapsing at Thane’s and Arrochar’s double wedding was a big wake-up call. I’d been pushing and pushing.
Running.
I was too tired to even fake my famous charm and humor.
One reason I let Lachlan cancel film projects I’d signed on to was because I had no fuel in the tank. No passion. The thought of shrugging on someone else’s persona exhausted me.
I missed my family.
I missed the Highlands.
I missed who I used to be, and I wasn’t even sure I knew who that was anymore.
“I’m thirty-seven years old, and I’m bloody lost,” I admitted hollowly.
“You’ll be all right, Bro,” Walker offered quietly. “Life’s about choices. Just have to be sure you take time to think about things before you make your next move.”
At Walker’s sound advice, I turned toward him. Over the years, I’d cracked him open a bit. He was more loquacious with me than anyone, but he usually only opened his mouth when he had something important to say. And everything he said always made sense. Something occurred to me. “I’ve got an idea.”
“Okay.”
“From now on, you make all my choices. All my decisions.” I grinned, feeling free of the burden already. “Aye, I’ll even pay you a bonus for doing it.”
Walker shot me a disbelieving look. “You want me to be the boss of you?”
“Who better?” I sat up, my mood lifting as I got into the spirit of the idea. “Walker Ironside is a wise man.”
“You’re second-naming me?”
“With a name like Ironside, people should second-name you all the time.”
He grunted because it pissed him off when he found out I’d actually hired him partly based on his cool-as-fuck surname.
“C’mon, Walk. I’m floundering. I’m fucked. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. But you are a man of common sense and a perceptiveness bordering on the occult.”
“Bro—”
“I’ve been making some really stupid decisions over the last few years. I know you’re my mate, but even you can agree with that.”
“Considering you exhausted yourself into the hospital, aye, I can agree with that.”
“So … you decide what I do with my days. For the next … three months. Three months of bossing me around. It’ll be a nice turnabout for you, I’m sure.” That was sarcasm. He was a bossy bastard.
Walker looked like he was considering this. “I get to make all your decisions from now on?”
“Aye.”
“For three months?”
“Three months. My life is in your hands.” I reconsidered that, since my life was in his hands daily. “More than usual.”
“And you have to do everything I tell you to do?”
“Everything.”
“What happens if you don’t do what I tell you to do?”
Hmm. “I’ll wash your clothes for a month.”
He snorted at that. “Pathetic.”
“I’ll, uh … buy you a very nice watch.”
“What the fuck do I care about very nice watches?”
I frowned. “Well, what do you want?”
Walker pulled into a parking spot outside the Gloaming and switched off the engine. He turned to me with the devil in his eyes. “To make sure you take this seriously … I want your Black Shadow.”
“Get to fuck,” I guffawed. I owned one of the few 1950 Vincent Black Shadow motorbikes still in existence, and it had cost me six figures.
My friend shrugged. “If you want me to do this, give me a reason to believe you’ll take my decision-making seriously.”
“Has anyone ever told you, you’re an intense motherfucker?”
He stared at me with a cool look that either meant he was bored or preparing to kill me.
See?
Intense.
“Fine,” I agreed. “If I fail to follow through on your decision-making, you get my Black Shadow.”
With a nod, Walker slid out of the SUV. I noted him checking our surroundings, always in work mode. I got out, and we walked into the Gloaming together, looking forward to familiar faces.
Being around my family was a balm. I felt a bit out of it, having missed so much of the amazing changes that had happened in their lives over the last few years, but just being near them was enough.
I’d barely taken in the pub’s transformation when a stranger popped out of nowhere, inches in front of me. She stared up at me with unbridled awe.
“It said online you’d be here, but I never actually thought I’d get to meet you,” she said in an accent that sounded Welsh. “I’m Angharad, and I’m such a fan.”
Discomfort and more than a twinge of annoyance surged through me. I shoved it down as I caught sight of Lachlan, his pregnant wife Robyn and my youngest brother Arran, and his girlfriend Eredine sitting at a table with banquette seating at the rear of the pub.
My attention returned to Angharad as I felt Walker hover just over my shoulder. She’d barely even looked at him, which was shocking since Walk was hard to miss. “Hi, Angharad, nice to meet you,” I said as patiently and pleasantly as possible.
“I came all the way up from Cardiff just to see you and wondered if you could sign me.” She yanked down the collar of her T-shirt, almost exposing herself. “I’m going to have it turned into a tattoo.” With her other hand, she held out a marker.
It wasn’t the first time someone had asked me to sign cleavage. Remembering our deal, I glanced at Walk. “Well?”
He grunted and lifted his chin.
So I scribbled my autograph where Angharad from Cardiff wanted it and said, “Have a nice evening.”
She grabbed hold of my arm to stop my departure, and I heard Walker clear his throat in warning. Angharad dropped her hand quickly. “Can I buy you a drink?”
I looked at Walker in warning. He shook his head, just like I knew he would.
“I’m here to spend time with my family, so not today, but thanks.”
“Oh, okay.” Her disappointment made her smile tremble, but she held up her phone determinedly. “Will you take a selfie with me, then?”
“Nope.” Walker put a hand between me and the phone. “No selfies.”
She stared wide-eyed up at Walker as if she’d just noticed my hulking bodyguard. Then she looked at me. “No?”
I gave her an apologetic shrug. “He’s the boss.”
“Oh.” She frowned in confusion.
“Nice to meet you, though. Have a good night. Safe travels back to Cardiff,” I added, feeling a tiny bit bad she’d come all the way up here and Walk wouldn’t let her take a selfie. I asked him why as we neared my family’s table.
“You’re at home. You need normality. We don’t need her posting your face online and reminding everyone where they can come to get a selfie with Brodan Adair.”
Like I said.
Wise.