Page 81 of Irish Betrayal

And then a picture came through of him with his arm around Sutton Daniels.

Blair: Don’t try to find me. I’m finally happy.

As the tallest woman there, Gray grabbed his phone and she and her friends read the messages.

“Blair loves Sutton,” Bébhinn said. “She would never think you two were a thing.”

“Blair would never act this way. She would never worry you or her family,” Gray added.

Mags shook her head. “Those texts aren’t from Blair. I’d bet my life.”

thirty-eight

COLL BARR

Catriona’s cry twisted his insides. “Find our daughter, Coll. Please, God. Find her,” she begged. Coll looked at his son’s stricken face and knew he didn’t have the luxury of falling apart. He lifted the slight form of his beloved wife into his arms and cradled her head against her chest.

“Let’s go. Now,” Coll barked. “Laith. Lachlann. Grab as many bags as you can and load the plane.” After delivering their devastating news, Blair’s best friends and their husbands reluctantly left them on the tarmac.

Daniel looked devastated. “Daniel,” he barked. “Board the plane. Don’t respond to the text until we figure out the best way to word the message. That isn’t my daughter. She would never do something this selfish.”

Coll watched, satisfied as Daniel nodded jerkily and boarded without a word. He and the boy had a lot to discuss, but there was an order to how a person in the business of security handled emergency situations—and attacking your daughter’s boyfriend didn’t make the top ten no matter how he wished otherwise.

As they settled into their seats, he met his son’s eyes, who looked about as ready to kill Daniel as he was.

“Take care of your mother, son. I’ve things to see to.” As Coll knew he would, Laith simply nodded and scooped up his mother, placing her between himself and his best friend, Lochlann MacGregor.

First, he needed to call Thomas, who answered immediately. “Any luck tracking Blair’s phone? Two messages were sent just now to Daniel from it, but we all believe she didn’t write them.”

“Goddammit. Peter Samson?”

“Most likely. Daniel is about to give me more information about that. I’ll pass everything to you. The phone?”

“Landfill. Clearly it was dumped in a bin and picked up by a trash truck. I’m working on that. The detective will submit a request to Blair’s cell provider for access to carrier data. Where the phone traveled, call and text logs, but that might take weeks.

“I’ve contacted one of our friends from Dublin’s police headquarters and requested a wellness check for Samson. I told them to make it a priority. We know Blair didn’t make her flight, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t come on another. Samson could have taken her there, though I believe it highly unlikely.”

“I agree. Blair wouldn’t have gone willingly, and airport security would have flagged them.”

“By the time you land, I hope to have video of the parking garage where she dropped off her rental.”

“Blair is four months pregnant. The girls knew and came to the airport to tell us.”

“Did you know?” Thomas could be heard asking his wife.

“No. The girls would never have told except in a case like this,” Josephine replied.

Thomas cursed and then asked, “Is it…who is the⁠—”

“O’Faolain’s,” Coll answered, giving the man beside him a brutal look. Coll gave it to him. He didn’t flinch.

“I'll be in touch,” Thomas said before hanging up.

Coll leaned back in his chair, sitting at one of the plane’s tables used for business or meals. Bran, Ulf, and Daniel stared back at him. He’d left his phone on speaker when speaking to Thomas so he wouldn’t have to repeat the conversation.

“I spoke with Blair two days ago after I found out that Samson was in Oklahoma teaching at the same school she was attending. I asked her a few questions. She was uncomfortable and promised to tell me everything the moment she got home. What did she tell you, Daniel?”

thirty-nine