Here With Me (Adair Family 1)

“That’s what friends do.” She nudged me with her shoulder. “Besides, wouldn’t you miss me?”

I chuckled. “I would, actually. I don’t have a lot of female friends back home. My closest friend is married to my old partner.”

“Your cop partner?”

“Yeah. We drifted apart when I gave up the job, but we’re still good friends. The job kind of became my life, though, so I don’t have friends outside of it.”

“Well, you have me and Eredine now. And I’m not going anywhere. Sex with a guy in the South of France is easy to come by. Friends I actually connect with? Not so much. Which is why I’m staying, even though”—a cloud darkened her eyes—“this person is starting to give me the willies. Not knowing what’s going to happen next … especially since it looks like it’s someone close to Lachlan.”

Protectiveness surged inside me at her display of vulnerability. “Lucy, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Her expression lightened. “I believe you.”

“And I promise, I’m constantly thinking about this case. I will figure out who is behind it.” At the moment, I was leaning toward McCulloch and his granddaughter, Sarah. They seemed the most obvious choice. Occam’s razor: the answer that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct. “How much do you know about Sarah McCulloch?”

Lucy braced against the hood of the SUV, seemingly as uncaring as me about the drizzle dampening our respective hairdos. “The housemaid. I mean … housekeeper.” She grimaced. “Lachlan admonishes me for calling them housemaids.” Her voice lowered to a gruff brogue. “They’re housekeepers, Lucy. How many times do I have to remind you that you can’t call them maids?”

Smirking at her impression, I nodded. “Yeah, the housekeeper.”

Lucy gave me a look. “I’d say you’re on the right path if that’s the way you’re thinking. She has a serious thing for Lachlan.”

“How serious?”

“Like every time I’m with him and turn around in that castle, she’s scurrying out of sight like she was watching us. She blushes and stammers around him, all googly-eyed and adoring.”

I grunted at the idea of anyone acting that way around Adair.

Lucy chuckled, apparently reading me like a book. “You don’t like him, huh?”

“I’m not going to disparage your friend.”

“But …?”

I couldn’t help myself. “He gives off this vibe like he thinks he’s better than me.” I winced, hating how juvenile I sounded. “It’s … I’m not good with people who lord their superiority over others. Considering I’m pretty epic, I take offense to someone thinking I’m not good enough.” Beneath my bravado, there was that kid who’d been abandoned by her father, who worried that maybe she wasn’t good enough.

“Girl, you are epic, and I love that you know it.” Lucy pushed off the hood and gave me a coaxing smile. “So few of us are brave enough to admit our awesomeness out loud. But be nice to Lachlan. He’s my friend, and my friends should be treated well.”

Hearing the edge of admonishment in her voice, I looked away.

Lucy prompted, “I take it Lachlan told you that he and I …”

I shifted uncomfortably, hoping me knowing wasn’t a problem between us.

“I get that for this case, you had to ask him about past relationships with anyone on the estate. Easy to work that one out, and I am more than a pretty face.”

I turned back to her. “I know that.”

The teasing sparkle was gone from Lucy’s eyes. “It was strictly casual, my thing with Lachlan. Great sex with someone I felt safe with. But not at any point did I let my emotional guard down because I knew I’d get hurt. When he suggested we end things, it surprised me how relieved I was.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

She snorted. “Because one, I don’t want you thinking I’m moping after him and leaving dead deer carcasses in my wake.”

“Fair enough.” I chuckled.

“And two, it wouldn’t surprise me if his inability to let someone in, truly in, is why he’s in this mess. Lachlan is charismatic, kind, and patient—”

The huff of disbelief burst out of me before I could stop it.

Thankfully, Lucy just laughed. “He is. And if you aren’t smart, like me, a person could find themselves longing for something they can’t have, reading him wrong, thinking there’s more between them than there is, and getting pretty pissed about it when Lachlan doesn’t fulfill the fantasy they’ve created in their heads.”

I edged closer to her. “You think this is a scorned lover?”

“Or someone who wants to be his lover.” Her expression was pointed.

Sarah McCulloch.

It was about time I found a way to talk to the young housekeeper so I could get a sense of her myself.

* * *

With the promise of seeing one another tomorrow for another MMA lesson with Eredine, Lucy and I parted, she to the estate and I into a quick shower before my daily drive to Inverness. The shower stall in the trailer was so narrow, I banged my elbows against the walls every time I turned. Trying not to remember the luxurious bathroom I’d spotted in Lachlan’s suite days ago, I hurried through the routine I usually enjoyed and reminded myself the trailer was temporary.