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Instinct. Rune has always relied on instinct about people more than facts on a piece of paper. It’s saved his life—and our business—too many times to discount.
I release Della, but I don’t go far. I trust Cian’s sharp eyes and Rune’s instincts, but I’m not ready to let her out of my crosshairs just yet. Because I trust in my ability to put a threat to us and ours down quickly and efficiently.
Della coughs, and her eyes settle on me as she massages her throat. “Something happened to my sister.”
Her fear looks genuine. I’d almost buy it if we didn’t have a scrap of Lawrence’s uniform sitting on our office desk.
“You didn’t know Everleigh was gone,” Cian says slowly, and I get the sense he’s been watching her all this time, studying her for any sign of deception. “Everything we’ve said is a surprise to you. You didn’t take Everleigh.”
“Take?” Fear morphs into a terror so real there’s no way she’s faking. I would know. “No, I didn’ttakeher.”
“Someone took Everleigh—Lawrence, in all probability—and it looks like he was setting you up to take the fall,” Rune explains.
Della stares at Rune for a beat, and then she kicks the nearest wall, yelping as she hops on one foot. “Fuck.This is my fault.”
Did she just kick our fucking wall?
When Della swings back around, tears are shimmering in her eyes. “He must have known Everleigh was here. Or maybe I gave myself away somehow, and he followed me.” A tear falls, and she angrily dashes it away as she focuses on me. “Ever told me not to go back. I didn’t listen, and now he’s taken her. You should have killed me.”
I blink.
That’s a first. Usually people are begging me to do the opposite.
Her face crumples. When she moves to kick the wall again, Rune clears his throat, maybe to save her foot, maybe our entryway, who knows, but she lowers her foot to the ground without kicking.
That’s when I know for sure she didn’t take Everleigh.
Guilt isn’t a feeling I’m used to. But seeing Della’s reaction? Knowing I was wrong, and I nearly killed Everleigh’s sister? Punching myself in the face wouldn’t hurt as much.
“I should have bought a gun and blown his brains out in the night,” Della rages. “Or killed him with a horse.”
A horse?
I glance at Cian and then Rune. They return my look with a half-shrug as if to say, you can take the lead on this.
Fair enough.
“I’ll bite,” I grate. “Wasthat an option?”
Della sniffs and whirls around, her eyes red and puffy. “Well, no. But I should have made it one.”
We study each other.
Seeing the guilt in her eyes that likely rivals my own, I nod. “I might have misjudged you.”
“That’s okay. I get why you would think I did it.” She sniffs again. “I don’t know how Lawrence worked out Everleigh was here, and why he wouldn’t just confront me. Why did he let me come back here?”
“Time,” Cian says quietly.
We all turn to him.
He’s staring into the distance. “How much time have we wasted?”
Nearly fifteen minutes. We stopped to talk, and by the time we went to the back garden gate, the road was empty and Lawrence was gone. If we hadn’t found that torn piece of blue uniform, we’d have gone after Everleigh straight away.
Lawrence used those precious minutes to get Everleigh away when we could have stopped him and saved Everleigh before he took her off our property.
“Fuck,” I curse.
