“You might want to rethink giving me another chance,” he said quietly, a tinge of menace curdling his tone. “After all, I am Millicent’s doctor. One call from me to social services and Fyfe loses his daughter.”
He did not just …
Rage clouded my mind.
He was attempting to blackmail me into dating him?
A cold laugh huffed from between my lips as I stared up at a man I’d thought attractive a mere week ago. Now I thought he was one of the scummiest things I’d ever laid eyes on. And I called him athingbecause he was not aman. “You think you can threaten and blackmail me?”
“No one would dispute the word of a doctor.” He shrugged, taking a casual sip of his coffee.
Chuckling at his naivete, I watched his face flush with rage. Oh, he didn’t like a woman laughing at him. Safe in the knowledge there was nothing he could do to me in the middle of the street, I scoffed, “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“A once-famous actor?” He guffawed.
Something snapped in me at that moment.
For years, I’d allowed my power to be taken from me. Allowed others, friends, strangers, to have power over me. Someone had planted a fucking camera in my home and watched me, hadstolenpower from me, and I didn’t even know it.
And I was done.
“No. I’m an Adair. You think we’re just a family with some money, a few businesses … You’d be wrong. Our estate isn’t some fluffy club for the rich and famous. There are powerful people in that club with connections that would blow your mind. And through them, my family has connections that reach the highest level of government. In multiple countries. One phone call and I could have your medical license stripped from you. Your car license revoked. Evicted. Credit score annihilated. In other words,Dr. Phillips, you mess with me, my family, or Fyfe, and I will fuckingruinyou in every way that matters. You might have gotten away with threatening women in the past, but this time you chose the wrong one. Because I know my own power. And this part’s really going to enrage you since you’re a little, little man who clearly gets off on making women feel weak … but I have so much more power than you, that wee threat you just made is a joke my family will be dining on for years to come.”
He lunged toward me, teeth bared, like he might hit me.
“Do it,” I hissed. “I dare you.”
Cameron caught himself, his expression blanking. He glanced around to see if anyone was watching. Then he leaned in and vowed quietly, “This isn’t over, you little bitch.”
“You’re right. It won’t be over until you’re out of Ardnoch.”
“Problem here?”
I looked to my right to find Walker standing outside the bakery. He was parked in the no-parking zone, his piercing eyes fixed on Cameron. When he looked at me, whatever he saw on my face had him striding forward to stand at my back.
“Hi, Walker. Cameron, have you met my sister-in-law’s father? Ex-Royal Marine Commando, head of security at the estate. Walker, I was just telling the new doctor here that maybe it’s best he find a job elsewhere. As in not in Ardnoch or anywhere near us.”
“Oh aye, your dad called me this morning. So this is the prick?”
“Excuse me?” Cameron straightened his shoulders, appearing affronted. “I don’t know what she’s told?—”
“He just threatened to call social services on Fyfe so they’ll take Millie from him unless I agreed to date him,” I told Walker with a casualness I didn’t feel.
The atmosphere instantly turned ice cold as Walker took a step toward Cameron, towering over him at six and a half feet. “Oh, I think it’s definitely time you moved on from Ardnoch, Doctor. Or I might just have to investigate you. I’m sure there are a few skeletons in your closet just rattling to get out and destroy your life as you know it.”
“I see threats are a common currency in this village.” Cameron glowered.
“Uh, pot meet kettle.”
His eyes narrowed on me. “You think I’m afraid of you? After this, you should be afraid of me, Eilidh. I don’t take kindly to threats.”
Walker stepped right into Cameron’s space, not touching him, but his menacing expression was clear. “Neither do I. Don’t even think about breathing in her direction because the next time you do … by the time me, her father, and her uncles are done with you, there won’t be a body to find.”
This time Cameron was smart enough to show a little fear. Without another word or glance in my direction, he strode off.
Walker and I watched him until he’d turned the corner out of sight. Then Callie’s dad looked at me, concern written all over him. “I’m tired of making that threat. Hopefully, that’s the last time I have to. But I don’t thinkthatproblem is over. Until me and your dad finish this, you go nowhere alone. I’ll walk you and Millie back to your car.”
“Do you think that’s necessary?”
