“I still think you’re a dick for threatening to beat and rape Westlyn and Ellison. And for taunting me when you knew I was scared out of my fucking mind for both of them. But I’m grateful you didn’t harm either. I know how loving you are to my sister, and that means a lot.” He holds out his hand to Ellison for a new suture. “And just so you know, I’m still pissed off at you for shooting me.”
“Sorry about shooting you. I didn’t want to do it, but you were going to thwart my plan for taking Westlyn.”
“Ah, fuck. It all worked out.”
“Until now.” I stroke Westlyn’s hair. “I can’t lose her.” I love her too much.
Westlyn goes through cycles of wake and sleep while Jamie and Ellison tend her wounds. Every time she wakes, I tell her how much I love her, and she tells me the same. The sewing goes on for hours. I know Jamie is taking great care in suturing her to the best of his ability so she’ll be left with as minimal scarring as possible.
It’s late afternoon by the time all of Westlyn’s wounds are closed. The more agony I see her in, the more my fury multiplies. “Will you give her something to make her sleep?” I don’t want her to remember any of this pain.
Ellison strokes the top of her head. “We’ll make sure she rests well.”
“I don’t want her to wake and find me gone, but I have to go figure out who’s responsible for this attack.”
“It’s okay, Kieran. She shouldn’t wake anytime soon, but if she does, we’ll tell her where you are and what you’re doing,” Ellison says.
“Please don’t tell her what Thane said.” I don’t want her to be upset on top of this.
“Won’t say a word.”
“Can you call your contact at the Royal Infirmary before I leave? I’d like to know if the motherfucker showed up there before I go to the trouble of investigating every Order member.”
“Sure.”
Jamie and Ellison both step out, and I’m alone with Westlyn for the first time. I take this private moment to look at her wounds. There are so many slashes on her skin that she looks like she ran through a plate-glass window. “I’m so sorry this happened to you, doll. But I’m going to find the fucker who did this to you. And when I do, I’m going to make him sorry.”
Jamie returns. “I can’t fucking believe it. There was a man who came in with a blunt force trauma to the skull a few hours ago. He has a concussion and is being kept for observation.”
“Sounds like that could be our man. Is Isobel still here?”
“I’ll get her,” Ellison says.
Isobel comes into the trauma room. “Jamie says the man who did this may be at Royal Infirmary. I need you to go with me and identify him.”
“Of course. That animal needs tae be put down.”
“Did you get a name?”
“Tavis Ewart,” Jamie says.
“Ewart,” Isobel says. “That name is very familiar tae me.”
“I’m still not familiar with every brother, but I don’t recall one being named Tavis Ewart on the list of Order members.” I drop a text to my dad, telling him to check the roll for this asshole’s name.
“Feels like I’ve known an Ewart before, but I can’t put my finger on it right now.”
“Maybe it’ll come back to you when you get a better look at his face.”
“Maybe.”
“Tavis Ewart’s room, please.”
The woman keys in his name and frowns. “Looks like Mr. Ewart was discharged.”
Fuck. “How long ago?”
“I’m sorry. I can’t give you that information.”
Isobel and I walk away from the clerk’s desk. “What are we going tae do now?”
“Only thing I can do. My brother is going to hack into the system and get his home address.” Let’s hope he’s forgiven me for choking him.
“Yer brother’s contribution is hacking?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“We dinnae have a hacker, but times are changing. We need one.”
“Yes, ma’am, every brotherhood needs a hacker.” Don’t know what we’d do without Maddock.
I phone Maddock and put him to work on locating Tavis Ewart. He’s fast as fuck. Has a home address for me in under five minutes. “Looks like we’re going to a village on the outer edges of Edinburgh.”
The farther we drive, the more convinced I become that Tavis Ewart is not Order. None of our members live on this side of the city. It’s a dump.
“I’ve been over this way before.”
“What circumstances would bring a leader’s wife to find herself in this slum?”
“I came with my daughter-in-law. We were investigating a lead aboot Abram.” The car stops in front of a stone cottage. “His lover lives here. Cameron…” Isobel’s eyes widen. “Cameron Ewart. That’s no coincidence.”
I’m confident that we’ve found the man who attacked Westlyn. I just don’t know why. “A man who lives in the same household as Abram’s lover attacked his daughter more than a year after Abram’s death. What does that mean?”
“I have no idea, but we are about to find out.”
The door is unlocked, so I walk in as though I’ve been invited. “Who the hell are you?”
“Is this him?”
Isobel answers without hesitation. “That’s definitely him.”
“Are you the police? Are you arresting me?”
“You’re going to wish I were the police.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m the man who’s going to make you sorry that you attacked my fiancée with a knife.”
“Is the Breckenridge girl dead?” His voice is so cold.
“No.” I see his disappointment. “She didn’t do anything to you. Why did you try to kill her?”
?
?I want to see Abram.”
He doesn’t know that Abram’s dead? “Oh, you’re going to see Abram all right… in hell.”
“What does that mean?”
“Abram is dead.”
“You’re lying to protect him.”
“Abram has been dead for a while.”
“So has my little girl.”
“Cameron?” Isobel says.
“Yes. How do you know her name?”
“Abram used tae come here tae…” Isobel pauses. “Spend time with Cameron. She had information aboot him that I needed, and I spoke to her.”
“Did you know that she was dead?”
“I did not. I never saw her again after that day we spoke. I’m sorry tae hear that.”
The bastard wails. “Abram killed her.”
“How?” Isobel says.
“The doctors told me that she had been choked. She didn’t die right away. She was in a coma for almost a year before I lost her. And that bastard did it. He killed my little girl.”
I’m not going to ask how he knows it was Abram because I’m sure he’s probably right.
“I’m sorry for your loss, but you’re coming with us. You have a mess to clear up for me.”
“What kind of mess?”
“Don’t worry about it right now. Either walk out on your own or have both of your kneecaps shot off and be carried out of here. Your choice.”
He chooses to walk.
Isobel and I take Tavis Ewart to one of The Fellowship’s warehouses. This isn’t The Order’s mess. I’m not killing this man on our territory. This is Abram’s doings, and The Fellowship will be responsible for the cleanup.
My father and brothers are the first to arrive. As far as I know, it’s the first time Isobel has seen my father since the night I kidnapped Westlyn.
Dad isn’t pleased to see Isobel here. “Issy shouldn’t be here for this.”
Isobel is a fiery redhead. My father should know better than to talk to me about her as though she isn’t standing there. “This man attacked Westlyn in front of me. I want tae be here. I hope ye aren’t under the impression that I’m too soft for this because ye’d be wrong.”
“I know you’re tough, but this isn’t a place for a lady.”
They spar back and forth about her being here, like old friends, but then the conversation takes a different turn. “Aren’t you going to ask me about William?”