Always You (Adair Family 3)

I’d tried to inject humor into my tone, but my daughter studied my face as if burrowing for secrets. She saw too much.

“Come on.” I released her. “You don’t want to miss your flight.”

The three of us strode across the hall and out onto the gravel driveway where several cars lined up to leave. Lachlan led us to a black Range Rover. It was part of the estate fleet but for his personal use. An estate chauffeur, Richie, was behind the wheel waiting for them.

Robyn suddenly reached for me, and I enveloped her, surprised by how hard she hugged me. I held her closer to reassure her, but still she whispered, “When I get back, we’re going to talk about what’s going on with you.” She kissed my cheek and murmured, “Love you so much.”

I swallowed past a lump of emotion. “Love you more than life, wee birdie.” The words came out scratchy and hoarse. “Have a wonderful time.”

She patted my chest and climbed into the back of the SUV.

I clapped Lachlan on the shoulder. “Take care of her. And by that, I also mean no work. She’s the only thing you need to think about while you’re away. We’ve got everything covered here.”

My best friend and boss smirked. “You know me too well. But I promise, I will focus on only Robyn.”

“You deserve this,” I said quietly.

And he did. The Lucy Wainwright trial had been in mid-February and lasted two weeks. After teaming up with Fergus (the estate mechanic and childhood best friend of Brodan and first boyfriend of Arrochar’s), former actor Lucy had wrought devastation on the club. She and Lachlan had ended their casual relationship a while ago, but he nor anyone had realized she was in love with him. After she found herself ostracized from Hollywood by the powerful wife of a lover, Lucy grew obsessed with getting Lachlan back. As if somehow he could fix her life. She believed creating a problem for him and then proving she was his greatest support through it all would push him back into her arms.

It started small, with adoring messages scrawled against walls. Then it turned darker, the messages more threatening, a deer’s carcass left along with an ominous note. Vandalism. Then I got fucking stabbed, unaware at the time that the perpetrator was Fergus. Only Arro and I knew the reason I was stabbed was because Fergus knew Arro had feelings for me. Thinking he was her friend, she’d confessed it to him. Secretly still in love with Arro, Fergus had tried to wipe out who he viewed as his competition.

Fergus also attacked Robyn in her trailer, but thankfully couldn’t best her. Realizing Lachlan was growing increasingly involved with Robyn, Lucy then staged her own attack and had Fergus lock her in the freezer in the club kitchen to garner Lachlan’s sympathy and attention. One of my men, a good man, a good friend, Greg McHugh, was killed when he cornered Fergus during the incident. Fergus gutted him. If the bastard weren’t already dead, I’d have ended him myself just for that.

Lucy beat me to it. They kidnapped Lachlan and took him to an abandoned shed located on land owned by a local farmer, Collum McCulloch. They lured Robyn there, pretending Lucy was Fergus’s victim too. Lucy “freed” herself and shot Fergus point-blank in the head. She was going to do the same to Robyn and Lachlan, all because they’d fallen in love, but Robyn was one of the toughest women I knew, and she overpowered the deranged bitch.

Lucy was charged, and it took awhile, but they finally extradited her to the US. Of course, as she was Hollywood’s sweetheart and Lachlan was also famous, it meant the trial was global news. We all flew to the US, since we were witnesses in the case, and I upped security around us, hiring men from an American company I often used to secure my family. The paparazzi were all over us, but we got through it.

Lucy’s defense team entered a plea of insanity, but she’d been independently diagnosed by a handful of psychologists who all agreed Lucy was not insane but suffered from narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders. For the murder of Fergus, being an accessory to the murder of Greg, and for the attempted murder of Lachlan and Robyn, she was sentenced to thirty-five years without the possibility of parole. While incarcerated, she was to receive rehabilitation, but I knew enough about the prison system to know resources like that weren’t always available. Only time would tell.

“Aye.” Lachlan nodded. “We all do. We can all move on now. Dad.”

I glowered. “Don’t even—”

Lachlan burst into laughter. “It’s bloody weird, right? I am now your son-in-law.”

“Maybe so, but call me Dad again, and I’ll deck you.”

He laughed harder and drew me into a hug where we pounded our fists against each other’s backs to make the display of affection seem more manly. “As long as you never call me ‘son.’”

Grinning, I shoved him toward the car. “A promise I can keep, I assure you.”

I watched Robyn and Lachlan drive away, heading toward paradise and peace, and a deep bloody melancholy fell over me like a shroud.

It was supposed to be a happy time for us as a family. The victory of justice. Moving on. Robyn and Lachlan getting married. All of us closer than ever.

But I’d gone and fucked it up royally only a few weeks after Lucy’s trial ended.

Arro hated me.

Truly.

Abruptly, my stomach turned, and I hurried around the corner of the castle, out of sight.

It was just in time as the vomit rose up and out. After a few seconds of upchucking, I leaned on the wall, wiped my mouth with a shaking hand, and forced back the sting of tears. “Fucking get yourself together, man,” I whispered bitterly and pushed away from the wall to find something to clean up my mess.

4

Arro