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The waitress arrived with more tea and coffee and the breakfast plates that the newcomers had ordered.

“You slashed my tires,” said Oliver when the coast was clear.

Mrs. Buckley took a sip of her steaming tea. “I had to stall you so we could find Kyle first. Plum, Laura, and Caroline drove over to Galway. Caity was raging, but not as bad as Patty or her brother.”

That was why Mrs. Buckley insisted on staying with them. She was giving the others a chance to seek out Caity first.

“The way he operates,” Laura tore off a small piece of toast, “makes it bloody difficult to bring him to court. The police won’t bother with some con artist. A recovered watch means nothing to them either. But we’re stronger together—we actually have a case. First, we need to track him down, get our money back. Then we hand everything over to the police.”

Addy turned to Oliver. “It was your watch that started it all.”

“Something poetic about that.” Oliver laid his hand over hers.

It hurt to do it, but she pulled away. The touching had to stop. She couldn’t get on that plane back to Seattle in pieces. Something flashed in his eyes, but he reached for his tea and said nothing.

Addy tried to focus on Plum’s words.

“Approached Roman and Mandy. Found a new getup for that. They were just as lost as the rest of us.”

The women launched into an account of their search to date, somehow managing to turn the roadblocks into an adventure that even had Oliver chuckling.

Dammit, she liked them. In another life, she could see herself being friends with them. They were smart and warm and down-to-earth. The kind of women who wouldn’t fall for a con.

Then again, Kyle could be charming when he wanted to be. He listened, paid attention. Pretended to care—until it no longer suited him.

Reconciling this scam artist with her brother was hard. He was a great dad to Netta. He loved the little girl, and she loved him. But there was an emptiness deep inside him that no amount of money or women or love would ever manage to fill.

How many more victims were out there? How had she missed it? She’d known about the startup, the girlfriends. But somehow she’d overlooked the lifestyle that didn’t add up: his expensive shoes, that damn sports car, the fancy toys he bought Netta. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to see it. Kyle had always been her blind spot.

This was her fault. Maybe if she’d asked more questions, had paid more attention to the gaps in his stories. But she’d let it all slide. The brother she’d assumed was simply wild and irresponsible was purposeful and cruel. And his little girl would be paying for it.

Addy eyed her fresh cup of coffee. Her churning stomach couldn’t handle it. “We’re looking for my brother because we need him to sign off on my parents having temporary custody of his daughter. He popped up around Ireland once in a while, but nothing for the last three months.”

Plum swallowed a forkful of egg. “I did something earlier, and I think we are finally getting traction. I posted Kyle’s photo on Reddit. A few women reached out. One said that he tried to pick her up at a bar here in Dublin three months ago, but went home with someone else. I think that was his last known sighting.”

“What bar?” Oliver asked.

“The one at the Merrion Hotel,” said Plum. “We were waiting for it to open this morning when Oliver called. You guys want to come with?”

Chapter 49

Oliver’s palm settled low on Addison’s back when they reached the Merrion Hotel. The first time he’d touched her since breakfast.

What had he been thinking on the way over? He’d known her brother’s crimes, but reading about something and putting faces to names wasn’t the same. She was surprised he was still here at all.

Inside the hotel, Bar No. 23 whispered luxury and privacy. Addison took in the dark-green walls, plush armchairs, gilded artwork. The perfect place for Kyle to scope out his next mark. The very thought made her nauseated.

One by one, Mrs. Buckley and her brother’s exes filed into the lounge behind her and Oliver. How many more women were out there who wanted their money and dignity back? When would it be enough for Kyle?

She’d sacrificed a lot to protect her little brother. And every year, he seemed to get worse—greedier, more entitled, brasher. Juggling a harem of women whose accounts he sucked dry? She’d have never suspected that. Her brother could have found a number of ways to make a living. He had Irish citizenship—he could work legally here. And yet he chose to swindle women out of their hard-earned money and discard them like it was nothing. Somehow, he had become more selfish than she could have ever predicted. The bastard had abandoned his own daughter to avoid being questioned by the police over a watch.

Pulling out her phone, she showed a passing waitress a photo of Kyle.

The waitress studied the photo before handing her phone back to Addy. “Sorry, no, I don’t know him.”

“Someone said he was here a few months ago. Left with a woman who he met?”

The waitress glanced at the bar behind her. “Ask him. He’d remember.”