“I’ve got McCarthy men in Inverness on an errand right now, can have them investigate?” Lachlan offers.
“Aye. I’ll give you the address. If those fucking frat boys were a set-up from the Aitkens as payback…”
Lachlan takes out his mobile and makes a call. “Tiernan, can you do our mates a favor, brother?”
We share the information with Tiernan McCarthy, one of the Clan’s most well-known fighters.
“Thanks, Tier.”
Lachlan hangs up his mobile and slides it into his pocket. I watch as Ailsa slides a little notebook into the front pocket of her apron, and scurries out the back door.
What the bloody hell is she up to?
“Be right back,” I tell the others, and I get to my feet to follow her. I enter the living room, but she’s gone. I look right, then left, and she’s bloody nowhere. How did she evaporate like that? She isn’t on the steps, or on the front stoop. She’s fucking gone.
“Tate,” I yell to the kitchen. He comes to the doorway, shaking his head.
“They’re gone, brother. Tiernan says the address we gave him is abandoned, looks like no one’s lived there in ages.”
It seems silly and foolish now to tell them I saw a furtive housekeeper write something down on a notepad. Surely she didn’t mean anything by it.
The back door opens and the girls come in, flushed from the cold. Cairstina’s eyes meet mine across the room. She’s looking at me curiously, her head tipped to the side like she does, but I’m a million miles away.
Something needs to happen, and it’s up to me.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Cairstina
Leith is troubled,I know it. The men are having a hushed conversation when we come in the house, and they quickly clam up when we enter the kitchen.
“Come here, doll,” Leith says, beckoning to me. He takes me beyond the kitchen to a quiet nook, alone.
I walk over to him, and he takes my hand. “What’d you do with that book you were reading?”
I text him.
I finished the first one and shelved it in the library. I’m on the second now.
He nods. “Good girl.”
Going to give it a read?
“Yes, actually,” he says soberly, and at first I think he’s joking, but I can tell he’s actually quite serious.
I cover my mouth in a silent giggle.
Maybe you’ll get some ideas?
He reaches over and gives me a teasing smack to the arse that makes my cheeks flame. I quickly admonish him in a text.
You can’t do that here! What if someone sees you?
He gives me a mock sober expression. “Then they’ll see what happens to cheeky lassies.”
I roll my eyes, which earns me another swift spank.
Well we don’t have time for you to turn me on.
