Page 11 of Love Bomb

“I don’t remember what happened,” Conall complained. “I get left out of everything. Why did you blow up her garden?”

“Aw,” Kade said. “The baby is complaining that we won’t play with him again.”

“Dickhead,” Conall said. “But seriously, what’s the story?”

Bain took a deep breath. “You know Da is an electrician. Well, back then, he worked for a company based in Fort William. About a month before this,” Bain gestured to the screen where he was digging holes in the flowerbed to lay his charges, “he did a job on Kitty’s estate.”

“While he was there,” Darach continued. “A diamond necklace went missing. Kitty accused Da.” He shook his head in disgust. “Like he’d ever do such a thing.”

“Anyway.” Bain took over again. “The cops investigated and, to add insult to injury, it wasn’t just our local cop who looked into the matter. Kitty dragged in the Fort William police because his employer was based there.”

“Aye,” Darach said. “If it’d been the local cops, they would have rolled their eyes and told Kitty to call them when she found it.”

“Instead,” Kade said. “There was a big investigation, Ma and Da were humiliated, Da’s reputation was ruined, and he was fired from his job.”

“Is that why he stopped working in Fort William?” Conall said, his jaw dropping.

“Aye,” Bain said through gritted teeth. “Two months later,” he pointed at the screen, “just before this happened. Kitty found the necklace. It had fallen behind a drawer in her dresser. She never apologized to Da, or made things right with his former employer.”

“Man,” Conall said. “That’s just brutal. I had no idea.”

“Yep,” Darach said. “She’s a piece of work, all right.”

On screen, young Bain had finished his prep work.

“I like how Rona stopped filming for the boring bits,” Bain said. “She probably brought a snack and had a wee break while she waited for me to finish. Rona never went anywhere without a snack.”

Bain had a very clear memory of that night. The moon had been so bright that he hadn’t even needed a flashlight to get the job done. And the charges had been set with a precision that most experienced professionals couldn’t pull off.

The camera shut off again, while Bain got some distance from the rose garden. Thankfully, Rona had enough sense to follow him away from the blast zone. Bain dreaded to think what might have happened if she’d stayed in the rose garden.

Now the screen showed him standing at the edge of the trees, on the slope overlooking the garden. Damn if he didn’t smile when he pulled out the detonator and pushed the button.

The camera caught him in the corner and the blast in the distance. It had taken out the central circle of Kitty’s precious rose garden, leaving a lovely crater in its place. A moment later, there was a second, smaller blast, that made everything standing around the crater fall into it.

Just like a sink hole.

Of course, nobody actually believed a sink hole had opened up under Kitty’s roses. But they couldn’t prove otherwise. Especially since the area didn’t look anything like people imagined it would after a bomb had gone off.

Bain was very proud of the job he’d done that night.

It had finesse.

“If Kitty gets her hands on this, she’ll bankrupt herself putting you in jail,” Darach said.

“She won’t have to,” Conall said helpfully. “The video will convict him in a second.”

His brothers glared at him.

“What?” he said, holding up his hands. “I’m just stating the obvious.”

“You don’t think Rona would really hand this over to Kitty, do you?” Darach said.

Bain got to his feet. “I think the demon would do whatever it took to get her own way.” He put his empty beer bottle on the coffee table, popped the drive from the laptop and stuffed it in his pocket. “I’m going to the hotel to see Rona. If I get arrested, somebody post bail.” Then he strode from the room.

“Don’t kill her!” Darach shouted after him. “She doesn’t really want to see you in jail, she’s just pushing your buttons.”

Probably, Bain thought. She did have a talent for it.