Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
“Get off my farm.” Jared gestured to the front of the house. “And heads-up, I’ll be filing a complaint against you both. I’m good friends with Chief Inspector Jim Rowley at Inverness. I’ll be sure to let him know how utterly useless and disrespectful you’ve both been.”
The younger paled even further while the other PC just sneered and stormed off. His partner followed him with another glance of worry over his shoulder.
I moved to Jared, sliding my arm around his waist. He immediately curled me into his chest as we watched the officers get in their patrol car and drive off.
“What now?”
“I wasn’t lying. Jim Rowley used to be a PC at Tain. He and Granddad were good friends their whole lives. Jim worked his way up to chief inspector. I didn’t want to call him about the ewe because I wasn’t sure it was something. But now with this, I think we need his help. And he needs to know he has two arseholes among his ranks. He’s a good man. He won’t stand for it.”
Worry knotted in my gut. “Who could be doing this, Jared?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s my father.”
I squeezed my eyes closed, hating that so much for him.
“I’m sorry.” The sorrow and guilt in his voice had me lifting my head to look at him.
“Why are you sorry?”
“I know you loved them.” He gave me a sad smile. “’Specially Ginger.”
My eyes flooded with tears. “It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.” My fingers gripped his shirt, desperate for him to hear me. “And I need to get better at dealing with things like this. My husband is a farmer. I need to toughen up.”
“No.” His voice was sharp as he cupped my cheek. Expression fierce, he insisted, “Don’t ever change. It isn’t weak to care. And nothing should have happened to those birds. Nothing.” Jared glanced sharply back at the house. “Whoever did it was on our land while we were in the house and we didn’t hear a thing.”
Too busy caught up in each other, that’s why.
Guilt flashed through me.
“My grandfather never installed a security system. He has a rifle cabinet. We were the security.” He looked down at me, and I saw the thoughts whirring behind his eyes. “But we need to install a system that includes a few cameras. If it was just me … but I won’t chance anything happening with you in the house.”
Fear flickered through me. “Do you think it could go that far?”
“No.” He gripped my shoulders. “Hamish doesn’t have it in him to physically hurt us. He’s just messing with me. But still, I won’t take a chance with you in the house. Plus”—fury glittered in his pale jade eyes—“I want to catch the bastard in the act.”
Twenty-Five
Allegra
As much as I hated worrying people, it was nice to know that they cared enough to be concerned. Jared had contacted his friend, the chief inspector, and he’d sent out his own men to question us about the chickens and the ewe. He promised Jared he’d have someone bring his father in for a thorough interview. Then he asked us if there were any other possible culprits. We couldn’t think of any.
From there Jared returned to work because he had to. And just because I had Jared now didn’t mean I didn’t need my sister. I’d gone to her, shaken up, and she’d taken the afternoon off work. Despite the circumstances, it was nice to catch up with Aria. I’d also subtly made it clear to her that Jared and I were really making a go at our marriage.
That caused her even more concern. I understood. Ardnoch had been quiet for five years, but for a while there, it was a magnet for danger, and not one of our friends had escaped unscathed. To be fair, Aria’s danger had caught up with her in LA, but it had made her wary. People surprised you. Sometimes in awful ways.
“Honestly, we’re pretty sure it’s Jared’s father behind all of this,” I repeated what I’d told Aria to Sloane Ironside and Monroe Adair a few days later.
We sat in Flora’s, the popular local café. Flora had given Sloane her big break with her baking, buying cakes and treats to sell to her customers. Once everyone knew where Flora was getting them, Sloane’s baking business took off. When she discovered her wealthy father had left her all his money, she was able to purchase a property across the street and open her bakery.
Life was so good, she could afford to run it part time. The limited opportunity to buy goodies from Callie’s Wee Cakery only added to her success. Sloane had tourists flocking to Ardnoch just for her baked goods and she had a waiting list for her wedding cakes.
Monroe Adair was married to retired Hollywood actor Brodan Adair, the third-eldest Adair sibling. He’d been a huge movie star, and I met him before I moved here because he’d starred in one of my dad’s movies. However, when he returned to take a break at home, he discovered his old childhood best friend Monroe had moved back to Ardnoch. I didn’t know the ins and outs of their romance, but apparently they kind of hated each other for something that happened between them when they were barely out of high school. They hadn’t spoken in eighteen years. I thought it was so romantic that even with eighteen years between them, they’d fallen so in love, they got married within months of reuniting. Their son Lennox (Nox), now six, came along pretty fast too. Brodan co-owned the whisky distillery outside of town with his eldest brother Lachlan.