Chapter 28
I KNEW I LOVED HER
Lachlan
I had her. And now she’s gone.
I knew she was up to something when she flirted with me in ways she never had before.
Fake ways that would otherwise be beneath her, at least when it comes to me.
Emery is raw, honest. She can’t hide her hate or her lust for me.
It makes me want to tame her more. It makes it that much more gratifying when she gives in.
The moment she batted her lashes and taunted me to watch her walk away while she went downstairs so she could bring me back her knickers was a big sign.
I wanted to believe she was doing this for me. We’d become something I never expected. We became a we. I’ve never been a we with any woman. I never wanted to be. Emery seeped under my cold skin like a warm ray of light and took hold of my heart as if it had been hers alone to claim.
I was thinking about that while I was waiting for Emery to come back when I got the text from Angus that stole all my attention. Had I not been distracted, I would have noticed she was gone for longer than necessary.
I missed it. I missed all the signs. Not once had I considered that she would run again. It hadn’t crossed my mind because it wasn’t possible. It shouldn’t have been.
I don’t know what angers me more. That I allowed myself to take her here against my better judgment, that someone among my people betrayed me by helping her—there isn’t a chance in hell she did this alone—or that she had the audacity to leave me after everything that’s changed between us.
I gave her my mum’s library. I gave her more freedom than I was comfortable with. I gave her whatever she needed. I even gave her my goddamn bed! That’s as close to getting my heart as you can get.
I was so distracted by Angus’s text, I didn’t notice when Bonnie came upstairs alone. She didn’t return to the bar, which is why I assumed she was still with Emery. When I noticed her at a table instead of with Rory, I grew even more suspicious.
Something was delaying Emery, but what? A secret phone call? I know everyone she holds dear. The list is short. Or was someone talking to her, curious about her life, and bold enough to keep her trapped downstairs.
Not wanting to draw attention, I strolled across the room, stopped to talk to Rory, and then headed downstairs. I was going to spank Emery in that damn loo for making me anxious.
When I found it empty, I checked the additional one around the corner that the employees frequented.
Empty as well. Tension coiled in my body.
I didn’t want to lose my shit in front of these people who respected me, so I kept my cool as I checked the kitchen.
They hadn’t seen her. Could she be lost in the storage room?
It didn’t make sense, but she’d had half a pint of ale.
Perhaps the effects snuck up on her. She is a lightweight when it comes to Scottish liquor and brew.
I scanned the dimly lit storage room and decided it was too dark and cold for her to have wondered inside.
That left one other place. The office. The door was locked so I texted Rory and had him send down the manager.
I had Duncan open the door in case Emery somehow passed out inside.
As ridiculous as it sounded, it made more sense than her escaping this place.
When I found it empty, I began to panic and called her.
No answer. I told Duncan to act as if everything were fine and that I needed his office.
Within minutes, I had texted Rory, Connal, and Hume at the door.
When they came up clueless, having not seen her, I texted Wes. He regularly monitored the cameras and village activity from the castle.
Ten minutes had passed before I learned from Wes that Emery had fled out the cellar door with a raven-haired girl I knew was Maisie.
Ever since Ewan’s death, she’s blamed me.
He was her favorite uncle. She attended his wedding to my mum and even visited him at the castle once.
I knew she hated me and didn’t blame her, but I didn’t think she was capable of this.
It took Wes ten more minutes to interrogate his sister and report back that Tessa had connected the two young women. Tessa thought she was setting Emery up for failure and humiliation for her preposterous attempt to leave me.
Preposterous indeed, as well as dangerous and foolish. She, too, was shocked that Maisie had been able to get Emery away.
I’d deal with Tessa’s impetuous behavior later. After I had Emery back in my care.
Despite that it took me twenty minutes to discover she’d ran, it took me only one minute to figure out why. She overheard me on the phone in my study. It was the only logical explanation. Wes confirmed it with footage of Emery from the hallway that matched the time I was talking to him.
Had I known, I would have explained that wasn’t the plan anymore.
That she meant more to me than keeping my deal with Angus.
That I told him I would make him a partner at my second largest American company—one that would work well enough for his operations—and that he’d accept or he’d get nothing at all. We’d go back to war.
He countered my offer while Emery was in the pub’s loo.
Angus: Spencer Securities was the deal. Now I take the girl and get it for myself, along with the castle.
The fool wants to use her as leverage to get what he wants.
For me to get Emery back, I’ll have to give him my inheritance and Spencer Securities.
Wes was right. I flaunted her in his face at our wedding when I invited him as a guest. It gave him access to her in a personal way he never would have had.
It was a game brought on by my arrogance.
I didn’t know I’d fall for Emery and want to protect her with my life.
I was also confident he’d never get her while she was under my care.
No one could take her from me. She didn’t even want to leave anymore—hadn’t brought up returning home since we started fucking.
I knew she wouldn’t. It had all been part of my plan.
Every bit of it, except for the part where she left me, and what felt like a searing blade lodged deep in my heart.
Fear paralyzed me in a way it never had before.
My reaction was how I knew I loved her. To realize this, I had to lose her and at the worst possible time.
Angus doesn’t make threats without the means to pull them off.
I keep tabs on him and his spies. I always know when they come to the village.
No one has spotted them lately, and Wes would have seen them on the surveillance cameras.
After I informed Angus about my amended arrangement, I knew it’d piss him off, so we became more vigilant about monitoring the town.
Had I any inkling that she’d leave me, I never would have let her leave the castle.
He could be on his way here. He could find her before I do.
I’ll burn the world down if anything happens to her.
“She stopped.” Wes’s voice comes through the speaker of my phone.
Connal slows the SUV on the dark road. As soon as Wes was able to track Emery’s phone, we chased after her.
They couldn’t get far in that mini car that barely reaches forty.
I offered to buy Maisie a new car when she graduated high school.
My mum told me she needed transportation to work. Buses don’t service here.
Maisie said, “Trying to buy my forgiveness is low. Unless you can bring them all back, leave me alone.”
My intention to help had only made her hate me more.
“Where’d they stop?” I ask, my shoulders as hard as rocks. Most likely, car trouble is the cause. Still, I worry that my sudden change to the agreement means Angus has someone watching and waiting for me to screw up—like I did tonight
“A mile up the road,” Wes says.
“Got it.” I end the call but don’t tell Connal to step on it. Scaring them might make them run.
Our headlights don’t catch sight of anything other than open road.
“It’s been a mile,” Connal says.
I call Wes.
“They’re not here,” I say instead of hello when he answers.
The clicking of a keyboard sounds through the phone. “You’re right there.”
“There’s nothing.” My lungs burn with anger.
Wes laughs, dark and low. “She figured it out and tossed her phone. I’m tracking you both. You’re right on her. It’s there.”
Fuck! My mind scrambles for what to do now. “Find out everything you can on Maisie. I don’t think she’d bring Emery to her home.”
It’s a small house she inherited when her parents died.
At sixteen, she could legally choose to live there on her own, but I don’t think the isolation was good for her.
Ewan was there for her, though not consistently.
She got into trouble. I forced Duncan to give her a job despite her reckless behavior and shoplifting charge.
It helped keep her busy, but Maisie is the blackest sheep in the village.
“I’ll call you back,” Wes ends the call.
“What now?” Connal pulls to the side of the narrow road and parks on the grass.
I crack my knuckles to keep from roaring at the top of my lungs. I want to beat the dashboard in, beat on someone! I unlock my mashed molars to answer, “We wait.”
Emery
After driving for fifteen more minutes, Maisie pulls into a driveway with an open gate. She parks in a large, paved area in front of a modern ranch home that looks Scandinavian in design. Two other sedans are parked near the side entrance garage.
“Whose house is this?” I ask, suddenly nervous.
She didn’t seem like she knew what she was doing and now we’re at this house that isn’t a cottage like I expected in such a rural area.
The low surrounding fence and gate aren’t fortress-material like at Duhnill Castle. This place is in the middle of nowhere.
I hear sheep. The fence could be to keep them in.