Page 127 of Playing By Ear

“Everything?”

“Aye.” It was the only way to make Perry understand why Jamie was so much more than afraid. “Everything.”

Chapter 24

By the time they reached his flat, Perry had adjusted to the new rhythm of Jamie’s gait, one that rolled and lurched with the walking boot. Over the past month, it had become second nature to grasp Jamie’s elbow when they were out together, to tuck his white cane away and let Jamie guide him.

Who was this man Perry trusted with his life?

He had Jamie lie on the living room sofa and prop his injured foot on the arm. “I’ll fetch some cold packs.”

Jamie caught his hand before he could step away. “Shall we cancel tonight’s plans? With Fergus and them?”

Hang out with Jamie’s mates in the middle of this crisis? Perry’s first impulse was to cancel the get-together, cancel this entire relationship.

But he had to hear Jamie out.

“We’ll decide later.” Perry pulled his hand free and headed for the kitchen.

As he gathered ice packs from the freezer, Perry wondered whether tonight’s dinner party was all that kept him from breaking up with Jamie on the spot.

The MacKrays. Of all the people in this city.

Jamie didn’t seem involved in the family business himself, and he’d claimed to have left them a decade ago. But he’d so thoroughly hidden his identity, surely he could have also lied about his estrangement.

Was this why Jamie never stayed with anyone for long? Was it never him being left, but him leaving before a new partner could learn the truth? Perhaps Perry was another in a long line of safely shallow dalliances. Their relationship felt anything but shallow, but feelings couldn’t always be trusted.

Perry blinked. How long had he been staring into the freezer? Long enough for his fingers to grow numb around the ice packs in his hands.

He hurried back to the living room and arranged the packs around Jamie’s ankle, securing them with the strap of the cold-pack eye mask.

“That’s your headache mask,” Jamie said. “What if you get a migraine?”

“That’s the least of my concerns right now.” Perry went to sit on the couch beside Jamie’s head so he could see his expressions. No, he needed distance. He settled into the chair nearest Jamie’s feet. “So. You’ll tell me everything.”

“Aye.” Jamie took a deep breath, then let it out. “Firstly, I want to say I’m sorry I never said sooner who I was. I wanted to protect you.”

“Mightn’t I have been better protected by knowing the truth? At least then I could’ve made an informed decision whether to”—fall in love with you—“become involved with you.” Perry’s anger raised its head. “On our first date, I told you what your family did to my officiating career.”

“I know. I’m sorry. The MacKrays felt far away that night.” Jamie’s voice was hollow. “They’re not far away now.”

“If you’d never returned to them—if your father wasn’t dying—would you have told me eventually?”

Jamie hesitated. “Cannae be certain, as I never had an ‘eventually’ with anyone before.”

Perry steeled his resolve. “Are you associated with any of your family’s dealings?”

“What? No! That’s why I left them. I couldn’t be part of something that caused so much misery. Aye, they do a lot for the community, but that doesn’t excuse the crimes.”

Perry tried to conjure up suspicion, but nothing in Jamie’s voice fed it.

“My plan,” Jamie said, “was to tell you after my father…moved on. It would’ve been safer then. My sister’s taking over the firm and plans to make their business completely legit, she says, for the sake of my six-year-old niece. She doesn’t want Lucy to be surrounded by violence like we were.”

Perry tilted his head. Was it even possible to scrub the legal stains off a criminal enterprise? “Do you believe her?”

“I believe she’ll try.”

“What will you do if she fails?”