I thought he might not answer, but he turned from the water and nodded. “Aye, we’ll eventually run into each other, anyway. Sooner rather than later. And it’s only right that I do.” His features tightened with pain. “Isla and I … well, she forgave me, even if Taran couldn’t. I owe her. For her, I’ll talk to Taran and offer my support. Though I know she’ll throw it back in my face.”
“Heard she was engaged.”
Quinn cut me a betrayed look. “Are you trying to wind me up?”
Fuck.
“No.” I clamped a hand on his shoulder. “Just trying to see where you’re at so I can have your back. My shitty way of trying to say I’m here if you ever need to talk.”
One night, maybe a year after I’d moved to the island, Quinn and I got shit-faced and traded war stories. His was about Taran Macbeth. The one who got away. I knew what it was like to have a woman haunt you, even if my circumstances were different.
“I know. Thanks.” He eyed me. “Did I pick up on a vibe between you and Tierney?”
I smirked to hide the truth. “Vibe?”
“Heather’s teen speak rubs off on me sometimes.” He referred to his seventeen-year-old daughter.
“Well, there’s novibe,” I lied outright.
“You sure?” The fucker eyed me knowingly.
I’d lied for a bloody living and yet Quinn McQuarrie could see right through me, and I knew it. “She’s our client. She lives here. She’s thirteen years my junior. Three reasons why if there is a ‘vibe,’ I’m ignoring it.”
“There’s definitely a vibe.”
“If you sayvibeone more time …”
Quinn snorted and walked toward the house. “She’s back here at four so you might want to be done for the day by then if you’re avoiding thevibes.”
Aye, I’d make sure I was gone by four.
Despite wanting to avoid her, I couldn’t say I hadn’t indulged my curiosity a little. I’d known she was Tierney Silver of the Silver Hotel and Resort empire. I’d known she’d given up her fancy life in New York to buy a rundown guesthouse in the middle of fucking nowhere, bringing a spotlight to Leth Sholas that made me uncomfortable since I’d picked the middle of fucking nowhere to live for a reason.
What I hadn’t known until I’d dug a little deeper was that Tierney Silver hadn’t merely given up her rights to the hotel empire … she’d sold the twenty percent share in Silver Hotels that she’d inherited upon her parents’ deaths. She then donated all that money (more than $100,000,000) to multiple charities. It had been all over the news.
Why did a hotel empire princess donate her inheritance?
Why did she pick the middle of fucking nowhere to start over?
I didn’t like unknowns.
My very nature tempted me to get close to her if only to learn the answers to these questions.
However, the pull between us, that strange, heightened awareness that crackled in the air every time I looked at her, was enough to bury my curiosity.
I didn’t need nor want to be pulled into Tierney Silver’s orbit.
It was just asking for trouble, and I’d had enough of that for a lifetime.
Pulling my phone from my back pocket, I sent a quick text to Jay, a hacker friend and computer genius, asking her to do a quick check to make sure there was no trace of Cameron’s video online.
7.Tierney
Two days later, I’d just finished dinner when my phone rang.
I reluctantly turned it over to look at the screen, hoping it wasn’t another call from Hugh, hoping it might be London who’d texted back to promise she’d visit as soon as she’d saved enough for the flights. I’d offered to fly her over, knowing my prideful friend would say no and wishing for once she would say yes, but the restaurant kept her so busy. Still, London was the only family I had left, and I missed her more every day.
The call wasn’t from London. My pulse leapt at the sight of Perri’s name. Fumbling in my hurry, I dropped it and scrambled to pick it up.
