Mace and Cole had continued to swap shifts keeping an eye on things for us and they’d kept Bullet overnight for us too. We’d finally forced ourselves out of bed on Monday. Mace had brought Bullet with him that morning and we’d taken the dog for a long walk in Central Park. The Seth I’d started losing my heart to three years earlier had started to return to me as the mantle of his insecurity and loneliness receded. We’d spent the whole day surrounded by people, but it had still just been the two of us. I’d been supremely grateful for Mace’s presence as he followed us from a distance, because I hadn’t been able to focus on anything but Seth.
We’d spent Monday night with Mace, Cole and Jonas and their small menagerie of animals. And for the first time, I’d truly felt what Mace had said…we were almost like a family. I’d been a little bit worried that there would be some awkwardness on Seth’s part between him and Jonas, but there hadn’t been. But the highlight of my night had been when I’d covered Seth’s hand with mine at the dinner table in plain view of everyone. Seth’s look of shock had been priceless. He’d clearly expected me to downplay what we were to each other in front of the other men. So I’d gone a step further and kissed him, hoping he finally got the message.
I wasn’t running anymore…not from anything.
I glanced up from my phone to see Mace looking at me yet again. Never in all the years he’d worked for me had I seen the man smile. Now that was all I saw. And as much as it irritated me, I also liked it.
“Fuck off,” I muttered.
Mace chuckled. “So if this deal goes through, would you guys need to move out here?” Mace asked slyly.
“Why? Two guys not enough for you?” I said with a smile.
“Hell, they’re more than enough,” Mace laughed. “You have no fucking idea.”
I bit back another smile and focused on the text that appeared on my phone.
Be out in a few. Wrapping things up with Stan.
I was disappointed there wasn’t a dirty note this time around, but glad to know I’d have eyes on Seth again soon. I saw a few people that I’d seen show up for the meeting start to come down the hallway and exit the office, so I knew it wouldn’t be long before Seth came out.
My phone was on silent so I felt rather than heard the call coming in and I glanced to see that it was Mav. Since the receptionist had stepped away from her desk and there was no one else in the waiting area but us, I stayed where I was and answered the call.
“Hey,” I said. I hadn’t talked to Mav much in the days since we’d left Seattle, but he’d been sending me regular reports about the patrols that he and two of my other men were doing on Seth’s property.
“We got them,” Mav said in response.
I leaned forward and Mace instantly went on alert. I checked for the receptionist, but we were still alone so I put the phone on speaker and turned the volume down so only Mace and I would hear Mav talking.
“Tell me,” I said quickly.
“We spotted her this morning-”
“Her?” I said in surprise.
“Yeah, it’s a woman. Jennings saw her on the path from that access road next to Seth’s house. She was trying to poison the dog again, Ronan. We found the meat on her.”
Fuck. Thank God we’d brought Bullet with us.
“Who is she?” Mace asked after I remained silent for too long. I’d been caught up thinking about the devastation Seth would have felt if he’d lost his dog.
“Some lawyer,” Mav said.
I stiffened at that. I only knew one female attorney in Seth’s life.
“Says her name is Tabitha Brighton.”
“What the fuck?” I snarled as I stood up.
“Ronan, she started saying a lot of shit when we questioned her. Like how she hadn’t been the one who hired the guy who mugged Seth and shooting Bullet was an accident. She keeps insisting that some guy made her do it…that they were just trying to scare Seth so he’d be too afraid to leave his house again like before. She was also armed with a small caliber handgun.”
Rage shot through me but Mace took the phone from me. “Did she say who the guy was?”
“She kept saying his name was Stan.”
“What?” I croaked as I lifted my eyes to meet Mace’s. I was moving a second later and shoved past the receptionist who came around the corner.
“Sir, you can’t go back there.”
I ran to the conference room and threw the door open, but my stomach fell when I saw it was empty.
“Sir-”
I grabbed the receptionist and barely managed not to shake her the way I wanted to. “Where the fuck are they?” I snarled.