Arran told me about the conversation in the hospital room and how Lachlan had fired Brodan’s manager and temporarily taken over managing Brodan’s career. I knew Brodan well enough to know that he would have put up more of a fight if he hadn’t been amenable to Lachlan managing him. Which told me, beneath his stoic utterances of “I’m fine” and his distant behavior, he still needed and wanted his family around.
Lachlan pulled Brodan out of unsuitable projects and cleared his schedule after the movie in Canada. He was supposed to do a press tour for a big movie coming up, but Lachlan was planning to cancel that too. He already had Brodan’s flight booked to return to Scotland in six weeks, once shooting finished.
I personally thought it was too high-handed of him, considering Brodan was a grown man, but Arran seemed on board with the plan to force his brother to take a break in Ardnoch. Which told me he was really worried about Brodan.
As for the rest of the Adairs, well, I hadn’t seen and barely heard from Arro and Mac, who had shacked up in their bungalow for a little mini honeymoon. Regan and Thane were as busy as ever with the kids, and Regan was helping Robyn design the nursery.
Everything was somewhat back to normal, which was probably why I’d forgotten about the strange emails Arran had been receiving. And why, when I returned home from work the following Tuesday evening, that the vase of vibrant flowers sitting at my front door didn’t register as anything ominous.
I grinned as I walked up the porch, thinking Arran one of the most romantic men I’d ever met. Squatting, I breathed in the scent of the gorgeous, long-stemmed red roses and plucked the card from their midst.
Cold nausea prickled over me as I read the typed words on the card.
You didn’t think I’d forget about you, did you? I never forget what’s mine. See you soon.
Arran’s emails immediately came to mind. I dropped the card like it might be covered in poison and ran back to my car. Locking myself inside it, I fumbled for my cell, adrenaline shaking my hands as I pressed speed dial.
“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” I gasped as the line rang out.
Then click. “Gorgeous, can I call you back—”
“Someone left flowers on my porch with a creepy card in it.”
“Where are you?” Arran barked.
“In my car, in my driveway. My doors are locked.”
“Get out of there now. Drive toward the village. We’ll meet in the middle.”
* * *
Thirty minutes later, we were back at my lodge. Arran had checked every inch of the place, and now we were scrolling through CCTV footage.
We watched as a car pulled up to my house around midday and a woman got out. She took the vase of flowers out from the back and walked to the porch. Her face was clear as she knocked on my door.
“That’s Beth.” She owned Bethany’s Flower Pot, the florist situated on a lane off Main Street.
“We’ll need to call her and see if she can give us any information,” Arran said, his features strained with worry as he turned to me. “I need to tell you something.”
I nodded, not liking his tone.
“I got an email. On Saturday night while Brodan was in the hospital.”
I tensed. “A creepy email?”
“Aye. But this time it mentioned you by name.” He pulled out his cell, tapped the screen a few times, and then held up the email. I read it, the earlier nausea returning.
Looking up from the email to Arran’s face, indignation flooded me. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was going to. I just … I wanted to wait until Nylah found something. She’s going to trace it for us, but she’s in the middle of something for another client. But when Lachlan gets here, I’ll ask him to pressure her to deliver. Now that”—he scowled at the bouquet on my dining table—“things have escalated.”
Arran had called Lachlan and Mac, who were on their way right now. But I didn’t care about that at the moment. I cared Arran had kept this from me. “You should have told me.”
“I was going to. I was never keeping it from you.”
“You should have told me when you got it.”
“I didn’t want to pile it on. We’d had a crap night with Brodan, and I thought if I showed you the email, you’d freak out, and I didn’t want that for you.”
And while I understood where he was coming from, I needed him to understand something. “Now that we’re in a relationship, I know things are different between us and that you want to protect me from anything hurtful, just as I want to protect you. But you have never treated me like I’m not strong enough to handle the truth, and I really don’t want you to start now. Do you know the reason I let you bulldoze your way into my life within weeks compared to the years it took Arro and the girls?”