“Did you really think a Huston would go to jail? For a little insider trading? No, baby. I must take my slap on the wrist, but it’s only two years. Then I’m a free man. Thing is, we both know I’m not apatientman, and it has already taken quite a considerable amount of patience to give you space for the last fifteen months. I’m over it. Though it had the nice side benefit of lulling you into thinking we were actually done.” He laughed softly.
“We are done,” I managed to bite out. “I have nothing to say to you. I’m hanging up.”
“How’s that visa extension coming along?”
Panic tightened my throat.
He chuckled. “I thought that would get your attention. Did you know that my father is friends with members of the British Cabinet? He went to Harvard with a Brit who is now, and you’re not going to believe this, the Secretary of State for the United Kingdom. Do you know what a Secretary of State is, baby? That’s the highest authority on decisions regarding immigration and visas.”
As his meaning sank in, the street wavered in front of me, my hand shaking so hard the phone trembled against my ear.
“I do believe you’ll be applying for an extension on the work visa soon, and I have to tell you, it’s not looking good. So I’d start packing, London. You’re coming home. To me. And you and I are going to have a very difficultconversationonce we’re reunited.”
Screaming sounded in my ears, and I realized it was internal. I was screaming in my head to hang up on him! I did, my fingers shaking so hard I almost dropped my phone twice.
I was going to be sick.
Reaching blindly for purchase on something, anything to hold me steady, I bent over and retched. Only a bit of bile and saliva came up but the urge remained, my chest heaving with the contractions.
“London!” I heard a gruff voice call out and the vague sound of running footsteps. Then an arm braced around me. The scent of cologne mingled with sea salt offered a distraction from my panic.
A strong hand rubbed my back.
“There, there … you’re all right.”
I knew that deep but gentle voice wrapped in a Scottish accent, and I cursed the fates that he would be the one to witness this moment.
Wiping at my mouth, I straightened, and his arm dropped away.
I stared up into the rugged face of Murray Shaw and into his beautiful mossy-green eyes. Even in my state of panic, awareness shivered through me as our gazes locked. He searched mine with an intensity that had me coming back to myself. Reminding me that right now I was in Leth Sholas and I was safe.
“What happened?”
It had to be the shock that caused me to blurt out that my ex had threatened to derail my visa. As soon as the words were out, I wanted to pull them back. Only the girls and Ramsay knew Nick had been abusive. Murray wouldn’t understand why going back to the US scared me so much.
“I … uh … I just … I’ve made a life here,” I tried to deflect, even as I felt the nausea rise again. I swallowed it. “It would devastate me to have to return to the US.”
“Do you really think your ex has that kind of power?”
“I don’t think he’s bluffing.” I screwed up my face as I saw the deep concern in his eyes.
Murray of all people didn’t need to shoulder my problems. He had his own problems to deal with. He owned the largest fishing company on the west coast. Word had it, he’d taken his father’s little business and expanded it into a small empire. He now supplied many of the national supermarkets with fresh fish. And his company offered guided fishing tours around the western isles. According to Cammie, Murray was the wealthiest person living on Glenvulin.
You’d never know it from his untrimmed hair and scruffy beard. Or his clothes. His cable-knit sweater had seen better days. As he stood before me, the wind ruffling over us both, I could smell the sea air on him. Everyone said he didn’t need to go out on the boats, especially considering he had a large company to run, but I’d seen him down on the harbor working with a crew.
Mingled with the salty sea air was something citrusy and fresh. His soap or cologne. Maybe both. His broad shoulders looked massive in his sweater as his tall frame filled my vision.
“So I’d start packing, London. You’re coming home. To me. And you and I are going to have a very difficultconversationonce we’re reunited.”
Nick’s threat echoed in my mind, and I tried to throw it out before I started panicking again. Instead, I focused on Murray’s handsome face that would be even more handsome if he trimmed his beard.
The word was Murray was not only trying to win sole custody of his daughter from his ex-wife but that his ex-wife, because of some marriage contract, was taking a hefty salary out of his company every month. The guy had his own issues to deal with.
“I’m sorry for bothering you. I should?—”
“You didn’t bother me.” Murray lifted a hand as if to reach out to me, but he clenched it into a fist and dropped it at his side again. “Can I help?”
“No.” I walked backward away from him. “I’ll be fine,” I lied and then hurried away before he could stop me.
