Always You (Adair Family 3)

“A guy at work.” I glowered at Arran. “But not someone I suspect. He’s a bit of a misogynistic dick, but that’s a personality flaw, not an excuse to indict him.”

“But you said he’d looked into you,” Arran argued, and then turned to Mac and Lachlan. “He made a comment about her thinking she was above everything because of her family, because of you and Brodan being movie stars.”

“I’m adding him to the list.” Robyn produced a tablet as if out of nowhere and scrawled his name across the screen. “Surname?”

I reluctantly gave it to her but added, “I don’t think he’s a strong suspect at all.”

“Duly noted.”

“I’m leaning toward a crazed fan of Lucy’s,” Mac continued. “I’ve already got our PI investigating any known or obsessive Wainwright fans. We’re still trying to get someone to go in and speak with her to see if she’ll tell us anything useful, but she’s denying visitation.”

Robyn noted all this and mused, “Why you, Arro? I think we should talk about that as a starting point. No one else has received notes, so our clue to who this is lies with you.”

Thane sighed. “If it is a crazy stalker fan of Lucy’s, it could just be that they’ve fixated on Arro because she’s the only adult female Adair. Or was until recently.”

“She’s also gorgeous,” Regan added. “Could be fixated on her because of her looks, as sad and shallow as that is.”

I smirked unhappily. “As much as I appreciate the compliment, I think it’s more likely that they saw me as the weak link. Perhaps a man who sees women as the weaker sex but recognizes Robyn isn’t an easy target, considering she’s the reason Lucy failed to kill her and Lachlan.” I flinched just thinking about how close I’d come to losing my big brother. How close Mac had come to losing his daughter.

Our eyes met like two magnets, and I saw the fear roil in his beautiful, dark gaze. He remembered too.

I looked quickly away before he pierced my numbness.

“Why not Regan or Eredine, then?” Robyn prodded the theory.

“We’re not family,” Regan answered, and Thane could’ve gotten whiplash with how fast he jerked his head to glare at her. She hurried to explain, “I mean, not officially Adairs.”

He grimaced and glanced around at us all. “We’re psychoanalyzing a ghost. All this is just guessing. We need more information.”

“Working on it,” Mac replied through gritted teeth. “Believe me.”

“What if we stop looking at it from the Lucy perspective?” Arran offered quietly. “What if it’s nothing to do with her? The notes from the case were well publicized, thanks to the media. This could just be someone terrorizing Arro because she is …” His worried gaze met mine. “Because she is the target.”

A horrible silence filled the room at the thought, and I couldn’t hold back a shiver or the way my heart raced with fear. Thane reached out to squeeze my hand, and I held it, grateful.

Finally, Robyn cleared her throat. “Okay, say worst-case scenario, this is about Arro. Who would want to hurt you?”

I’d been racking my brain for weeks trying to figure that out for myself. “I can only think of people like Duncan—people who I’ve had the odd confrontation with. A girl I went to college with, a project manager at the start of my career … but that’s grasping at straws. Everyone has had a confrontation with someone in their life.”

“I want names,” Mac demanded.

I opened my mouth to argue when Robyn said bluntly, “Guy.”

It was like my heart leapt at the name, and I glowered at my sister-in-law. Not that Guy hadn’t crossed my mind, but I knew men like him. They were bullies who fed on the weak, and he’d have moved on to someone he thought was weaker since he knew he couldn’t best me. Besides, it was a moment in my life I’d still not quite gotten to grips with emotionally. And there was the small matter of Mac not knowing about it, and I didn’t want him to know about it unless necessary.

“No.” I glowered at Robyn.

She grimaced apologetically. “Arro, I know not everyone knows, but I think he’s worth looking into.”

“Why?” Mac asked, and I couldn’t look at him.

“Who is Guy?” Arran asked.

“Arro’s ex-boyfriend,” Lachlan explained. “He was the chef at the estate, but …”

Looking at my brother as he silently asked for permission to tell the story, I shrugged off the shame that was desperate to crawl over me. Even though I knew what Guy had done wasn’t my fault, I blamed myself for not seeing the bully in him. I wanted to hide from my mistake, but it was my story to tell. I still didn’t think he had anything to do with this, but Mac, for one, wouldn’t leave it alone until he knew.

“We dated for about three months. It was fine. We were fine. But gradually, Guy started acting jealous over other men.” I couldn’t look at Mac because it wasn’t over other men. It was over Mac, specifically. The night of the ceilidh, Guy lost it after watching Mac and I interact. I shouldn’t have been flirting with another man while seeing Guy, and I owned that, but I hadn’t deserved what happened to me.