“Who’s there with you?” She wanted to keep him talking, for her sanity rather than his. She also wanted to go upstairs and see with her own eyes that he wasn’t bleeding to death or something, but she knew with the little amount of rationality that she had left, this was only going to cause him more stress.
“Dylan and afriendof his. Did you know you had a little visitor staying here for – let’s see – the last, I don’t know, week?” Jake sounded absolutely furious.
“Oh.” Lainey felt her own blood start to boil. “Dylan?”
There was another groan from who she figured was Dylan.
“Yep, Dylan. The fucker thought accommodation was included in the job. Looks like someone he owes a bit of money to found him here, isn’t that right, Dyl?”
There was no response, two of Severton’s finest walking through the door.
“Are they upstairs?”
Lainey nodded at the police constable who she didn’t recognise.
“We’ll go up. You just wait outside.”
She did as she was told, arms folded, looking up at the clear sky.
Five minutes later, Jake wandered outside, his eyebrow split and a black eye already forming.
“Shit.” She pounced on him. “What the hell happened, Jake? Why were you here?”
He shook his head and took hold of her arms, moving her to arms’ length. “I was checking the outbuildings. I had a funny feeling tonight – the town was packed for some reason and I knew you and Imogen would’ve come back and not checked.”
He’d been worrying about her.
“I walked in on a fight. Dylan owes that bloke - ” He pointed to a big mountain of a man who was being brought outside to where an ambulance had now turned up. Imogen, Holly and Josh were all outside now too, as were three of Jake’s labourers who lived on his land. “A shit ton of cash. Turns out he offered your new kitchen stuff as payment.” Jake turned to the officers. Two more police vehicles had now turned up. ‘You need me to come down to the station?” he asked them.
“We’ll need a statement. And if Mr Gilbent wants to press charges…” The officer looked over at the man Jake had clearly thumped.
“We all walked into walls.” The words fell from his lips far too easily. “Didn’t we Dylan?”
“Fucking wanker!” Dylan was clutching his head, his eye completely swollen.
Jake let go of Lainey. “Get yourself back in the house and I’ll lock everywhere up.” He looked over at the officer Lainey did recognise. “I’ll come down now to give a statement. Just let me sort stuff here.”
The officers said a few more words to Jake, Dylan and Gilbent being not too carefully shown into the back of different police vans. Lainey did wonder whether they’d be better being put into the same one and left to fight it out.
“I’ll walk you back.” Jake put his hand on her shoulder.
Imogen had already made her way to the farmhouse now the show was over.
“Thank you for checking on the buildings.” She looked up at him. His jaw was still clenched, his expression harsh. “McGarry’s mare…”
“It’s what I’d do for any neighbour. And I’ll sort the mare.” He stopped at the doorway. “I’ll wait here until you’ve locked the door.”
And that was it.
He didn’t say anymore.
Chapter Seventeen
Jake Maynard felt like shit.
His face throbbed and the cut above his eye stung like hell. It’d been a long time since he’d last taken a blow to the face in a fight, although it hadn’t been that long since he last thrown a decent punch. He rubbed his knuckles; Dylan Granger’s debtor had a hard face.
“Ready to do your statement?” Bob Edwards stuck his head out of his office, a smattering of sauce at the corner of his mouth.
