There with You (Adair Family 2)

“Didn’t he let you roam the estate?”

“I was investigating a crime.” Her tone brokered no further argument, and I shut up. “And he wanted in my pants.” She shot me a smirk.

I chuckled, but it still bugged me to be treated like I was untrustworthy. While I had shown a lack of consideration for my sister these past eighteen months, I’d done nothing in my twenty-five years on the planet to suggest I was the kind of person who couldn’t be trusted to walk around a private estate without pissing off its inhabitants.

As we walked down the gravel driveway, past the impressive castle, I caught no glimpses of a famous person. I caught no glimpse of anyone. Robyn ushered us down a path that led away from the castle. Soon, however, a small loch edged with modern cabins appeared, and I forgot my annoyance.

The cabins were compact and clad in silvered wooden larch. Each had a floor-to-ceiling glass window that looked out over the loch. The flowered shrubbery and small trees that grew around the loch reflected in the water so it was more green than blue.

“This is so pretty.”

Robyn grinned. “Great place for yoga, right?”

Definitely. “So is your new backyard, though.”

My sister chuckled because it was true and then knocked on the door to the first and largest cabin.

“Come in!” a feminine, American-accented voice called.

We stepped into a large, rectangular room with mirrors along the wall opposite the door. The wall to our left was made entirely of glass, revealing a spectacular and tranquil view over the loch. Mats and other equipment were stored on the back wall to our right on floor-to-ceiling shelving.

Standing in the middle of the room, hands on hips and a small smile on her face, was Eredine Willows.

Even though Robyn and I were fairly tall, Eredine was taller. I guessed at least five ten. She was stunning with dark brown curls I watched her pile into a large topknot. With smooth, golden-brown skin and hazel eyes so light they almost looked green, I guessed her to be around my age, but I wasn’t sure.

Robyn had given me a quick catch-up in the car. She knew little about Eredine’s past, but she knew that the young woman was good friends with Lucy Wainwright and had taken her betrayal hard. I was strictly not to mention the Oscar-winning actor who was currently in jail, awaiting trial for almost killing my sister.

The thought made me flinch as Robyn and Eredine chatted while setting up the wrestling mat. When Mom and Dad told me about Robyn and Lucy—when I saw the news splashed across tabloids—I’d felt distant from it as much as the thought of it horrified me. Now, being here, seeing my sister alive but how affected she and her friends were by Lucy’s homicidal behavior, a simmering rage burned in my gut.

They better put that woman away for life, or I might be tempted to kill her myself.

“So, Regan, what is it you do?” Eredine asked with a friendly smile as she straightened from helping Robyn.

“She’s a vagabond,” Robyn answered with a slight bite to her tone.

I glowered at my sister before smoothing my expression into bland politeness. “I’m a nanny, though without a position at the moment.”

“So that’s your profession now?” Robyn raised an eyebrow.

Trying not to let her goad me, I shrugged. “Well, it’s the job I’ve been employed in the most.”

She snorted, giving me a dirty look.

“It is,” I insisted. “Why are you being such a bitch?”

Eredine sucked in a breath.

Robyn narrowed her eyes. “In front of Eredine, really?”

“You started it with the tone.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You’re being passive-aggressive, and it’s not like you.”

“I guess we’re both acting unlike ourselves, then.”

“Is this how it’s going to be the entire time I’m here?” I huffed, crossing my arms as I noted Eredine sneak toward the exit. I didn’t blame her. We’d just invaded her space and immediately started arguing. I couldn’t even be embarrassed about it, I was so mad.

And I wasn’t the only one.

Robyn’s face turned red. My sister was a slow burn. She rarely lost her shit, but when she did, it was explosive.

She detonated. “You left me six weeks after I got shot, and I barely heard from you again in over a year!”

I flinched at her shriek. It was filled with so much pain and anger, emotions she’d clearly buried deep because I had never seen my sister look so unraveled. Not even after she got shot.

And I’d done that to her.

A sob burst up from my gut, and I covered my mouth as it tried to escape.

The door closed softly behind Eredine.

“Don’t.” Robyn pointed a finger at me, tears blurring her vision. “Don’t you cry when you’re the one who wronged me.”

I nodded, covering my face with my hands as I sobbed in a choked voice. “I know.”