“I wouldn’t do that if I were ye, lad,” Shayne said with a bored sigh as Robert took off in the other direction, leaving him to go back to scrolling through his phone, torn between peppermint gum and-
“Bloody hell!” Robert snapped when he suddenly found himself right back where he’d started.
“Ye can’t leave, lad,” Declean said as Shayne exited the browser again.
“Why the hell not?” Robert demanded.
“Why didn’t ye give into the light when it came for ye after ye died, lad?” Shayne asked as he opened the file for Jillian Mathers.
“Because I’m not leaving until I make old man McClellan pay for what he did to me,” Robert snapped, crossing his arms over his chest as he leveled a glare on the tavern.
“I don’t think he’s coming back anytime soon, lad,” Shayne drawled, holding up the phone with Jillian’s picture.
“I’m willing to wait,” Robert said with a firm nod as his gaze flickered to the picture of Jillian seconds before his expression turned pitying.
“She was a nice girl,” he said, moving to take the phone only to have his fingers go through it.
“So, ye remember her?” Shayne said, watching Robert nod as he dropped his hand away.
“She used to bring vegetables from the kitchen and leave them by the tree for the rabbits. They came out as soon as they heard her voice. Sometimes deer joined them. Watching them helped pass the time. I even named a few of them, but they stopped coming after she was gone,” Robert said quietly. “She was a nice girl.”
“Do ye remember what happened to her?” Shayne asked, closing her photo and swiped until he found the photo of the hitchhiker.
“The bastard yelled at her to stop leaving vegetables out, claiming the rabbits were destroying his flowers. She left crying,” Robert said, nodding towards the path in the woods that would no doubt take them to where the poor girl had been killed.
“Do ye know who this is?” Shayne asked, holding up his phone.
“That’s the bastard that made her cry,” Robert said as Shayne glanced back down at the phone, noting that Patrick died in prison a few years ago and found himself wondering why a hitchhiker would care about flowers.
“How about any of these other girls?” Shayne asked, pulling up the photo gallery of the missing girls and took his timeswiping through them, watching as Robert stared intently at each picture, slowly shaking his head before Shayne swiped to the next picture.
“I haven’t seen any of them,” Robert said, shaking his head.
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Shayne said, releasing a disappointed sigh as he slid his phone back into his pocket and took in everything from the path in the woods to the tavern, noting that the dining room had the perfect view of the path.
“What time did she go missing?” Declean asked, following his gaze.
“Saturday morning, right before they opened,” Shayne said as he glanced from the windows to the path.
“Did anyone follow her?” Shayne asked, glancing back at Robert.
“Just him,” Robert said as he shifted his gaze back to the tavern and slowly narrowed his eyes with a look that dared old man McClellan to come out.
“Ye know he’s dead, right, lad?” Declean asked, watching as a muscle clenched in Robert’s jaw.
“He’s bound to show up sooner or later,” Robert said with a firm nod that let them know that he planned on waiting for as long as it took.
“We can release ye now, lad,” Declean offered only to have Robert stubbornly shake his head.
“I’ll wait,” Robert said as Shayne was grabbed from behind and yanked back before he was suddenly released and found himself in the men’s room, causing him to stumble back across the freshly polished tiled floors beneath his feet.
“I really fucking hate ye,” Shayne said as he was forced to hold onto the bathroom counter and close his eyes as a fresh wave of nausea threatened to drop him on his ass.
“Because we keep reminding ye that yer our bitch?” Aidan asked as Shayne opened his eyes in time to watch his brother hop up onto the marble countertop with a satisfied sigh.
“That might have something ta do with it,” Shayne said, reaching over and turned the cold water on.
“What happened?” Declean asked as he suddenly appeared next to them.
