“Colt just told me the car’s registered to a PI firm in Jackson. Good reputation, big hourly rate. I don’t have any ties to Jackson, so I have no idea who hired them.”
Kennedy pulled her phone from her pocket and began to type. “I’ll set my PI on it.”
“A PI on the PI,” Donovan muttered. “This’ll be interesting.”
“We’ll find out who’s investigating you soon enough, Donovan,” she cut out. “If the firm’s that big and that reputable, their man will know you’re onto him and report it back to his client. They’ll soon make their approach, and we’ll be ready. Let’s assume for a minute it’s not Evan doing this. Have you got beef with anyone else?”
“No,” he denied.
“Could it be something to do with the military?” she inquired.
“There’s no reason for Uncle Sam to sic a PI on me. And even if there was, it wouldn’t be a civilian firm working out of Jackson. If the military wanted to know anything about me, they’d put their own intelligence units on it, and believe me, nobody would see them coming,”
A thought suddenly occurred to me. “Would your uncle Patrick or Liam follow you?”
“Liam, no. He’d approach me directly.” He shrugged. “Paddy does all kinds of shit I don’t understand, but I don’t think it's him. There’s no reason for it.”
“He wants you to join the family business, right?” I pointed out.
“I don’t think it’s so important to him that he’d hire a PI to take pictures of me, Posy. It doesn’t add up, and it’s not Patrick’s style. He’s more of a turn up at my gym and make subtle threats kinda guy; though he’s laid off us since the whole Callum and Maeve debacle. He got his way with that shit show, so he’d do well to quit while he was ahead. Plus, Mam would fucking flip out on him and believe me, even Patrick Doyle would think twice about stoking up the wrath of Maureen O’Shea.” He shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong, not much would shock me about Paddy, but he wouldn’t hire someone to do his dirty work: it’s not his style.”
“We also have to look into the possibility that this could be about Imogen,” Kennedy suggested thoughtfully.
The air in the room thickened.
I rested my hand on Donovan’s back soothingly. “I don’t see why anyone would be interested in Immie enough to hire a PI, but we have to keep it in mind so we’re not blindsided.”
He turned to me, his eyes stricken.
“Honey,” I whispered. “We’ll look after her.”
He nodded. “I don’t want my girl left alone at all. Even if she’s playing in the living room and we need to go into the kitchen for something, we take her with us.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
“I’ll have to tell Ma everything,” he muttered. “She’ll go barmy.”
“It’s better than the alternative,” I stated. “We’ll sit Maureen, Callum, and Maeve down and explain everything. We need to make sure Imogen’s always covered.”
“Yeah,” Donovan breathed. “We should talk to Gabby and DJ, too. They need to keep their wits about them. Gonna ask DJ to stick close to Gabs while they’re out.”
My heart sank. “Do you think the kids are in danger?”
“We can’t be too careful. If someone’s got the balls to follow me and take pictures, they won’t think twice about doing it to the kids.”
“The new school year starts in a couple of weeks,” I reminded him. “It’s going to be difficult to keep tabs on them.”
Kennedy’s mouth pressed into a line, and she gave a slow, deliberate nod. “We’ll start digging today,” she promised. “If we need to, we can contact the school principal. Seth will understand. God knows he’s been through similar shit with Cara and the club.”
I had to stop myself from shuddering. The thought of some creep out there, lurking, with a camera trained on our babies, made me feel nauseous.
“I’ll call Colt.” Donovan turned for the door and prowled out of the room without even looking at me.
Staring after him, I chewed on my lip, ignoring the weird feeling spreading through my belly.
I didn’t want to read too much into his reaction, but it felt like he was shutting me out.
“Is everything okay with you two?” Kennedy asked softly. “He seems to have retreated into a shell.”
