I didn’t want to hear a warning about Lovelyn being too good for me. I knew that already, and Mila had implied as much when she learned we’d had a one-time thing, as Lovelyn had claimed it.
It wouldn’t work out with Lovelyn. I wasn’t what she needed, even if she was making do for now. Mila would be happy when I was the broken part, replaced by something better.
“Kane?”
Lovelyn’s soft voice interrupted us, her gaze worried. “I don’t mean to cut in, but the rope around that woman’s throat… That makes three hurt by their neck. Dixie, Esther, and now Karla. We have to find Dixie. I’m scared that the killer will try again.”
Adrenaline rushed in my veins, built off of Lovelyn’s need and a deep sense of shame in all I could never be. “Then it’s time to visit Primrose Marchant.”
Lovelyn dutifully followed me. Back downstairs, out of the warehouse, and into my car without a word. Proving exactly how someone as good as her couldn’t settle for a man like me.
Chapter 34
Lovelyn
Rain spattered the car, the afternoon darkening the deeper we got into the countryside outside Deadwater, on our way to the home of the Marchant grandparents. I mused on her name. Primrose. Another P name. Though surely not the one we sought, unless controlling the companies would be of use to her.
Kane had been silent since we left the warehouse, and I understood why. He didn’t love the Marchant family. This wasn’t a happy reunion for him, more a necessary evil.
I would do my best to make it easier.
On a road lined with trees and gated driveways spaced far apart, we pulled up to a gate with cameras looking down on us. Kane pressed the button on an intercom box.
It crackled.
He pressed it again and spoke. “Kane Ryan.”
“And?” a male voice answered.
“Lovelyn Wells,” Kane added.
There was a pause, then the gates clanked and eased open. A shiver ran over me, and I subtly held my arms against the creepy vibe the estate was giving off. Further down the road, a huge, white, modern house came into view. Not what I would expect to find in its rural surroundings. It looked like it had been droppedinto the pretty surroundings, all sharp edges and clean lines. An alien in the landscape of mountains and heather.
We approached the front door, and it opened to reveal the man I’d seen in the club last night. Wallace, Kane’s uncle.
At around five-nine, and in an oversized jumper and what appeared to be pyjama trousers, Wallace gave Kane a pointed once-over and me a dismissive smile. There was a passing familiarity when he turned his head to show us in. Enough for me to recognise that his brother had passed on some genes.
In an echoing hallway with a shiny white floor and little furniture, Wallace paused. “Mother is in the office. She’s expecting you. Before you go in, I need to give a warning.”
Kane shifted closer to me. “I wouldn’t.”
The threat in his voice was clear.
Wallace gave a dramatic shudder. “God, you’re just like him. Able loved to play the hardman as well. The warning is not to upset her. She’s suffering.”
“How?”
Wallace huffed. “How do you think? Everything she knew changed. Her life is in upheaval. When we finally get this shit behind us and the company off her shoulders, she might be able to breathe again, but currently, your grandmother is drowning.”
My heart panged for the woman. Though there was still so much I didn’t know and was dying to unpack in the Marchant mysteries, the one thing I was certain about was that more victims would be uncovered.
Maybe she was one of them.
The uncle sloped down the corridor. More slowly, we followed.
Kane leaned into me and spoke low. “Notice how he didn’t say she was upset at the loss of her husband?”
He was right. I’d let the thought be implied in my mind, but it hadn’t been said.
