I had been a country boy, and this scene felt like home. Wide open spaces without skyscrapers or cranes smearing the horizon. I envied my brother, getting to spend time here with his girls. I had a couple more nights here before I had to get back to London for more client meetings and a couple of jobs that I couldn’t send a representative to, but for now I could enjoy the lack of claustrophobia and soundwaves that weren’t marred with the ever-present burring of engines and exhausts.
Running for ninety minutes had cleared my head. A hot shower had made me feel awake. The walk to the cottage to see my brother made me feel heavy. I knew enough about Katie Worthington’s ex to know he was scum, just rich scum that wore a suit. I’d come across him before when a client was having issues with security breaches in their database. I didn’t have the skillset of a modern day white knight: I wasn’t a hacker, but I had employees who were. We found an employee had been retrieving information that was sensitive, and could’ve been used to sabotage the business. Through a bit of hacking of our own we’d linked the employee back to one of Dean Lacey’s companies. Our client had gone cold when we’d told him, taking the information and telling us he’d deal with it in his own way. We’d left him to it and stepped away, job done. Except it wasn’t, because I’d needed to know more about Dean Lacey, just in case I came across him again. And now I had.
The cottage should’ve been the picture for a jigsaw. Flowers framed it and ivy cluttered the stone walls. I heard the keening of a swing and saw bare feet flying up in the air as I turned round the side to the front door.
Nick pushed one of the twins, Margot I think, with screams of what I figured were delight puncturing my eardrums. Katie was sitting on a blanket with Kitty, a couple of puppets that looked like they’d been made from my brother’s socks on her hands.
“I hope they were clean,” I said as I drew closer. “My brother’s feet should be declared a biohazard.”
“Flip off,” Nick said, leaving the swing and Margot still trying to touch the sky. “You’re thinking of your own feet. He was the boy who refused to wear socks for about five years. His trainers had a half-life.”
Katie laughed, looking shyly at me. She had been a model a few years ago, in both high-end magazines and celebrity gossip columns. Her image had been cleaner than bleached teeth: healthy, never too skinny, never caught drunk or doing drugs and she’d been involved with several different charities. She’d married Dean Lacey two years ago and no one quite knew why. “Does your uncle have cheesy feet?” she said, grasping Kitty’s foot and pretending to bite it. “Are his feet cheesy or are they perfect like yours?” She used the baby voice I’d heard from myself when teasing the twins. Kitty laughed, which made Margot scream, probably wanting the attention her sister was getting.
“My feet were perfect,” I said as Nick turned round to get Margot. “Far better than yours.”
“We’ll fight later when there aren’t any ladies present,” Nick said, Margot wriggling in his arms. “Then I can swear without worrying they’re going to repeat it.”
“Hence the ‘flip off’,” I said, his word replacement not being missed. “So which twin said a bad word?” I bent down as Kitty yanked herself towards me.
“Margot,” Nick said. “The bad twin.” The bad twin who was trying to pull Nick’s hair.
Katie laughed. “If you say that any more she’ll grow up with a complex.”
Nick nuzzled his daughter. “My Maggie’s not going to have a complex, is she? She’s going to boss the world.” Margot pulled his hair harder. “Shi... shine.”
I laughed at the same time as Katie, really enjoying my brother’s pain.
“You should set up a swear jar.” My head turned as I heard the voice that filled my dreams and my days at the moment. “By the time they’re eighteen you’ll have saved enough for both of them to go to college debt free.”
Nick laughed, Margot now on the blanket with her sister. “Yeah, thanks for that Claire. I’d like to see you try to keep your words clean for more than half an hour.”
She smiled. “I can if I want. I just happen to appreciate the power of a good cuss.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Let’s see if you manage to keep those cuss words to yourself while we go through security detail for you both.”
Claire shook her head and sat down next to the twins, cropped jeans tight enough to show off every curve of her legs.
“I get why you’re still doing this. I know my brothers are ridiculously overprotective especially after the last time, but I don’t think I’ll be targeted. And if someone does come after me to take evidence, they’ll have a job.”
I watched Nick study her as if she was some foreign species who didn’t quite understand the lingo yet.
“Claire, if I was to tell you how to go about organising a petition for a divorce or getting full custody what would you do?”
“Ignore you and tell you to go play in the sandbox.”
“Would you like to take your own instruction?”
“Fuck off.”
“How much did we say per swear word?”
“Again. Take a hike up a high hill.”
“Better. Can I explain what is going to happen without you telling me different?”
She looked at me for the first time. “Killian, how much do you value your brother’s life?”
I shrugged. “It’d mean more work for me.”
