Page 19 of Connor's Claim
Arran lightly punched my shoulder. “Lead with that. It’s working.”
I flipped him the bird and climbed out of his car, his laughter chasing me to my own. Then I drove out into the city, putting space between myself and the centre of my world which somehow now contained my previous source of gravity.
There were two things I needed to do on this dark Sunday afternoon. Neither of them were the place I found myself driving to.
Deadwater sat on the border of Scotland and England, and an hour’s drive north took me to the seaside town of North Berwick. Where my mother lived.
Dealing with Everly, and her comment about other women in my life, had prompted the thought that I hadn’t checked in on my mother for a while, so I found myself heading there. Up the coast, through the windswept landscape, and to the outskirts and Lochbridge Road which sat under the towering slope of North Berwick Law, a steep hill that had a whale’s jawbone at the summit. As a lad, I’d heard the stories of how whale bones had been hauled up the hill as a monument three hundred years ago but had no fucking clue why.
I was in no mood for nostalgia. Only the reassurance that other elements in my life were as they should be.
I parked up on the street outside my mother’s white semi-detached house, the coastal weather stripping the paint here and there. She had flowerpots lined up under the window and kids’ toys scattered around the front garden. Under my watch, her red Honda backed into the drive, and I climbed out of my car at the same time as she released her two young sons from the back. Atfifty, she had the same thick dark hair as me. But that was the only resemblance we shared.
As if she could sense me across the road, my mother’s focus lifted. Then her gaze shuttered, and her mouth formed a stern line. She said something to her boys then opened the front door to shoo them inside, turning back to watch my approach.
She didn’t speak, just ran a disapproving look over me, her arms folded.
“Nice to see ye, too,” I quipped.
“What do ye want?”
Inwardly, I sighed. “Nothing your maternal powers would be able to give. I just wanted to check in.”
“My children are home.”
My brothers, not that they’d ever been introduced to me as such.
I wanted to throw out my hands and demand to know what the fuck I was, if not her child, but berating her wouldn’t get me anywhere.
I matched her posture of hostility. “Not gonna pollute their lives with my presence, don’t sweat.”
She peered at the door then back to me. “If it’s money you’re after?—”
“I’ll earn it myself. When have I ever asked ye for anything?” My temper rose, but I tamped it down. “Listen, a couple of women have been killed in Deadwater, and I was worried. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
She didn’t fit the mould. Cherry and Natasha had both been young and beautiful. Attention-grabbing for different reasons. I’d never considered my middle-aged mother a target, not that she wasn’t beautiful, but she wasn’t in the city. Hadn’t been for the best part of a decade. Still, I wanted to pass on the warning.
“Did ye really come here to scare me? Or maybe the neighbours with that get-up.” She gestured up and down me.
My tattoos, she meant. I wore no outward signs of being in a gang.
I was wasting my time here. Still, I leaned in. “Just take care, aye?”
The woman gave an exasperated huff of breath, turning without a goodbye. I stomped back to my car and sped away.
In an even darker mood, and with the steadily falling rain matching my energy, I returned to Deadwater and commenced my hunt for Riordan fucking Jones. Slowly, I was putting into place all the components necessary to get Everly out of my life again.
Riordan had heard from somewhere about the abduction attempt. He’d tell me once I tracked him down.
Likewise, Convict would get people talking. He had the easy manners to make people like him.
I’d use the information they gave me to neutralise the threat. With that, she’d go home. And I’d burn my sheets and never think about her again.
Chapter 8
Connor
Afternoon turned to night, and I’d exhausted all the places I suspected Riordan might be. He had a girlfriend, Moniqua, whose cousin had been in the Four Milers, but that dude was dead as a doornail. Her apartment was empty when I checked it.