Chapter 3 Brodan #2
Most of my face-to-face encounters with fans went fine.
Sometimes overzealous fans tried to touch me inappropriately, but the worst fan encounters actually came in the mail.
All of my fan mail arrived at a PO box we set up, and I’d eventually hired someone to sort through it so I didn’t have to see the nasty stuff.
Men and women’s unclean underwear wrapped up like presents.
Hair clippings. Toenail clippings. Lovelorn letters proclaiming we were meant to be.
The only mail on the darker side I ever saw were the threats.
We had to make the police aware of those, and thankfully, they were few and far between.
Though, we’ve been vigilant since two years ago when threats I’d received turned out to be from my old school friend Fergus.
He’d stabbed my sister’s husband in the gut, killed a guard at Ardnoch Estate, and kidnapped Lachlan and Robyn with the help of Hollywood starlet Lucy Wainwright.
Lucy killed Fergus and was now doing a life sentence for her crimes.
Lucy was a psychopath obsessed with Lachlan.
Fergus’s apparent reasoning for his part in it was that he resented me for leaving him behind and hated my sister Arrochar for breaking up with him when we were younger.
So, aye, we took those kinds of threats seriously.
And while Angharad was no such threat, I appreciated Walker protecting my privacy.
“Fans found you already, then?” Arran asked, standing up and gesturing to two empty seats. I met Lachlan’s gaze as I took a seat across from him.
“You all right?” my big brother asked.
I nodded. “Fine. You know what it’s like.”
Lachlan was actually the one who got me in the door in Hollywood.
He’d started making a name for himself as a young action star, and after being on set with him a few times, I caught the acting bug and took up drama at university.
However, Lachlan had never truly enjoyed acting and retired to turn our family’s neglected castle and estate into the esteemed private club it is today.
He met Robyn two years ago, the estranged daughter of Mackennon “Mac” Galbraith, Lachlan’s head of security. Mac had Robyn when he was only sixteen and living in the States. They’d reconnected when Robyn came to Scotland to find him, and she and Lachlan fell in love after a very rocky start.
I smiled at her in greeting, my attention dropping to her neat but prominent bump. She looked ready to pop. “How are you feeling?”
Robyn smiled wearily as she smoothed a hand over her belly. “Tired, mostly. Ready to meet her.”
“How long to go now?”
“Three weeks, give or take.”
In a bizarre twist of fate, my sister Arrochar fell pregnant at the same time and was due a couple days after Robyn. Even more complicated, she was married to Mac, Robyn’s father. My siblings were determined to make our family tree a talking point for generations to come.
“Get you anything?” Arran asked.
Walker slid into the seat beside me and nodded silently in greeting to my family.
“I’ll have a pint,” I said. “Walk?”
“Driving.”
I nodded and then turned to Eredine as Arran disappeared across the room behind the bar. Her gorgeous hazel-green gaze met mine. “How are you, sweetheart?”
She smiled her pretty smile, and it surprised me I didn’t feel the pang of attraction I once did. I guess now that she was firmly with Arran, I’d psychologically made the switch that she was off-limits. “I’m good.”
I knew that was an honest answer because for the first time in the seven years I’d known Eredine Willows, she actually seemed good.
The air of sadness and worry had drained from her entire being.
She glowed in such a way it was almost like looking at a new person.
That probably had something to do with the fact that for years, she’d been in hiding from her twin sister’s murderous ex-boyfriend.
He’d finally caught up with Ery, but Ery had fought back and won, and now the bastard was where he was supposed to be—rotting in jail, awaiting his trial, not just for the murder of Ery’s sister but for several counts of sexual assault.
Several other women had come forward since his incarceration, including a US senator’s daughter.
The bastard was fucked.
Good riddance to him.
I gave her a quick one-armed hug. “Glad to hear it. My brother’s taking good care of you, then?”
“You know it.”
Looking at Lachlan, I gestured around to the pub that had been brightened with new plasterwork and furniture. It very much looked like the interior designer for Ardnoch Castle had been in here, and I had no doubt that was true. “It’s looking good.”
“It is,” Lachlan agreed. “Arran is doing an amazing job. There’s just a few more renovations to do upstairs, and then it’ll be done. On schedule, no less.”
“What are we talking about?” Arran placed the pint in front of me before taking his seat next to Eredine and draping his arm around the back of her chair.
“What a fantastic job you’ve done on the Gloaming.
” I was proud of my brother, but I had to admit, I was also jealous.
Not that long ago, Arran had been the lost one, drifting farther and farther from our family.
I’d done what I could to keep him with us, and when he returned, he proved to himself he was not only capable of looking after his family, but of being a bloody good businessman.
There was nothing but contentment around him, and as happy as that made me … aye, I was a bit envious too.
Arran grinned. “Thanks, Bro. How’s recuperating going?”
“Well”—I took a gulp of my lager and then relaxed back in my chair—“I made an important decision today.”
“Oh?” Robyn asked, seeming genuinely interested.
“This man here”—I clapped Walker hard on the back, and he glowered at me—“is making all my decisions from now on. Except for when I eat and take a piss, of course.”
“Charming.” Eredine wrinkled her nose.
“I live to be so.” I smirked at her, and she rolled her eyes.
“You are joking, right?” Lachlan asked wearily.
“Nope. And my Black Shadow is Walk’s if I fail to go through with whatever he tells me to do, so I have a vested interested in being an excellent employee.”
“You bet your Black Shadow?” Arran gaped at me.
I grimaced. “It was the only thing that would get the bastard to agree.” And they all knew I never backed out on a bet. Walker was using my sense of honor against me.
“I think you and I need to get to know each other better, Walker.” Arran chuckled. “You sound like my kind of people.”
Walker tipped his head toward Arran in silent agreement.
“A man of few words,” Robyn surmised.
Walker just stared at her.
And she stared right back, big, gorgeous hazel eyes unblinking, completely unintimidated.
Christ, Lachlan married a sexy woman.
I could tell by the way the corner of Walker’s mouth twitched as he continued to stare at her, he thought so too.
“So, the gossip mill was whirring today,” Arran said, drawing my attention. He was frowning, all humor gone. “Word is you bumped into Monroe in Flora’s and ignored her. What’s that all about?”
“Arran,” Lachlan murmured in warning. Eredine nudged her boyfriend with a frown.
My wee brother raised an eyebrow, not letting it drop. “Well?”
“It’s none of your business.” This was a reminder of how Ardnoch protected its celebrities behind the gates of the estate, but gossiped about each other like it was an Olympic sport.
“She’s our friend, or have you forgotten that?”
Whoa, where did that come from? “Was, not is.”
“She has no one. Do you care?”
An ache speared my chest, and I ignored that too. “I guess I stopped caring when she fucked my brother.”
Tension crackled around the table as Eredine murmured under her breath and Arran leaned toward me, eyes flashing.
“One, that’s not polite to mention in front of Ery.
Two, I didn’t sleep with your girlfriend, Bro, and I’m done acting like it was that kind of betrayal …
unless, of course, you finally admit you wanted Monroe for yourself. ”
“Arran,” Lachlan snapped.
Arran shook his head, gaze still on me. “Nah, I’m sick of carrying around that guilt. He doesn’t get to treat me like I betrayed him if he doesn’t actually give a shit about Monroe. Either he cares or he doesn’t.”
Heart racing, I pushed up from my chair, yanked money out of my pocket, and threw it on the table. “I couldn’t care less about her.”
“Sit.”
At the rumble from my left, I turned to gape at my bodyguard. “Are you kidding me?”
Walker shrugged casually. “I make all your decisions, and I’ve decided you’re finishing your pint.”
“While this wee prick antagonizes me?”
“Sit.”
With my Black Shadow on the line, I slowly sat and took a lengthy chug of my beer.
Lachlan grinned from Walker to me and back to Walker. “I think I like this new arrangement.”
Robyn visibly choked on her laughter, and I glowered at them.
“So, we’re good, then?” Arran leaned past Ery. “Since you don’t care.”
“Aye, we’re fine.” I’d like to kick his antagonistic arse, but we were fine.
“What are you planning to do while you’re home?” Eredine asked, breaking the tension.
“Rest,” Lachlan answered for me.
“I can’t just rest. I need to do something.”
They all looked at Walker, surprisingly way too okay about my bodyguard making all the decisions on my behalf.
Walker sighed. “I’ll think of something productive.”
Thankfully, Eredine the angel switched the subject to the fact that more locals had shown up at the pub tonight than usual. It was taking the villagers a little longer to get used to the idea of Arran and Lachlan running the Gloaming with all the changes they’d made.
Later, as Walker and I got into the SUV to drive back to the estate, I felt a black cloud hover over me. Sometimes alcohol, even in small amounts, depressed me, which was why after I got drunk and started a fight at a club in LA a few years ago, I’d mostly steered clear of the stuff.
“Maybe your next decision for me should be for us to leave. We could go to an island somewhere with exotic beauties serving us food in coconut-shell bikinis.”
Walker sighed as we pulled away from the Gloaming. “No. You’re where you’re supposed to be.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You really think so?”
“Aye. Problem is, there are things you’ve kept hidden from your family. And you’ve been absent. They miss you. They’re worried about you.”
He was a talkative bugger tonight. “So that gives Arran the right to be a dick?”
“It just means things are probably going to be bumpy for a while until you work out all those old resentments.”
Walker the Wise, I thought humorlessly.
“What the hell am I going to do here for months? I’m knackered, but the thought of doing nothing makes me restless.”
“Maybe we’ll start with your family. See if they need help with anything.”
“Arran clearly needs help with a smack to the face. Cheeky shite.”
Walker’s lips twitched. “Typical brother. Pushing all the right buttons.”
Indignation suffused me. “No buttons were pushed. She isn’t a button.” She was a ghost.
And I had enough ghosts haunting me.
I didn’t need another.