She flipped him off. “He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
“Food?”
“Of course food. And… Never mind,” she muttered.
He cackled. “I can connect the dots, thanks. Early birthday dinner?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, good, because I have something for ye.” He retrieved a small box from the pantry. “I was gonna have Ken get it fer ye if I wasn’t back.”
She didn’t take it yet. “Back? Where are you going?”
“To see if I can track down Hamish.”
“You found him?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. I found some things that match up with Corrine’s memories. Obviously, there’s no one named Hamish Lewis I can locate. He’d be a right silly twat if he hadn’t changed his name. But I followed a few trails and want to see if my suspicions are correct. Obviously, I want to do this in person.”
She finally took the box and unwrapped it. Inside was a simple gold narrow cuff bracelet. Obviously old, from the small dings and scuffs on it, but it looked like it’d been lovingly hand-polished. And there were small symbols stamped in it.
He took it out and slipped it on her right wrist, holding her hand, staring at it for a moment and his eye shimmering with limned tears. “I put this on Tahlia’s wrist when we wed,” he hoarsely said. “It belonged to my mother, and she gave it to me for her. Tahlia always wanted to give it to our daughter, if we had one.” He sniffled back tears. “And of course, we didn’t. But yer my daughter, and I love ye. And yer about to become a mum. So I want ye to have this. And one day, pass it down to yer baby girl and tell her stories about me if I’m not around to do it for ye.”
She threw her arms around him. “Don’t talk like that—you’ve got plenty of years left in you and you know it.”
“Yeah, well, seems like we’ve had a lot of lessons lately remindin’ us it ain’t guaranteed.”
“Thank you. I love it, and I love you, too. And yeah, you are my dad.”
He stepped back and took her hand again. “To be honest, I don’t know if what I know is correct, and I haven’t ever had the heart to research it. But this one here is supposed to be for protection. This one here for love. And this one for strength.”
He smiled. “Now, I know ye won’t want to wear it all the time. Ye won’t hurt my feelings if ye don’t. But it deserves to be passed on to someone I love, who I know will appreciate it and what it means and keep it in the family.”
She was glad she hadn’t put any makeup on, because she would have smudged it with her own tears. “Thank you. I promise I’ll take good care of it.”
“I know ye will. I thought about takin’ it and havin’ it duplicated in silver or stainless so ye’d have that to wear more often, but with this past year, things got away from us.”
She laughed. “They did.”
She perched on one of the stools while he set the box aside for her and continued his dinner preparations. “Anyway, I just realized I never answered yer question. I think he might have ended up near St. Louis, like he told her. I won’t be home when ye get back. Duncan’ll drive me to the airport tonight. My flight out is early tomorrow morning. I sent Ken an e-mail with the info.”
“If he’s alive? Hamish, I mean?”
“Well, that’s the rub, innit? I can’t make a plan beyond what’s in front of me. The next steps depend on what I find or not. I’ll keep you posted and I’ll take actions as warranted.”
“Why not send Jared?” That was their Enforcer based out of Chicago.
“He’s busy with resettlements and he’s not a Prime. With Stig and Elliot back, ye can spare me a few days. Don’t fash yerself; I won’t take any risks.” He cleared his throat. “Say, like stealin’ a scooter.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, making him cackle.
A few minutes later, she heard Ken on the stairs and when she turned to look, she nearly fell off the stool.
And not because she was clumsy.
“Holy…wow!”
Badger looked up and did another double-take. “Well look at ye! That’s right smart!”
