Page 18 of Love Bomb

Nobody made a move for their phones. They all just stared at her.

“I’m blowing up every one of you along with the folly,” she shouted at them. “If you insist on staying near the folly, I’m taking you down too. Do you hear me? I’m razing it all to the ground.”

Bain snapped the seatbelt in place then slammed the door shut. He ran around the truck.

Rona was in the process of unfastening the belt when he climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Safety first,” he said, brushing her hand out of the way and refastening it. “Wave to all the nice people who think you’re a lunatic,” he told her as he reversed out of the carpark.

Rona rolled down the window. “Get away from my phallic folly,” she shouted. “It’s mine! And I’m blowing it up. You can’t stop me. No one can stop me.”

The truck lurched forward, and Rona stuck her head out of the window. “And it’s the Dalgliesh folly! Not the MacGregor folly!”

She sat back in her seat, winded by her outburst.

Bain raised the window while she contemplated throwing herself from the truck.

“You’ll just end up with a face full of snow,” Bain said, reading her mind. “Whereas, if you stay in the car, I promise to buy you chocolate cake.”

She glared at him. “With butter icing?”

“Is there any other kind,” he asked as he pointed the truck toward town.

CHAPTER NINE

It’d been a long time since Bain had experienced Rona’s temper, and he’d missed it. Nobody lost their cool like Rona. She was walking proof that the myth about red hair was true.

“So,” he said as he drove through town, “are you going to tell me why you’re so desperate to bring down the folly?”

“I already told you.” Her eyes blazed at him. “As long as there’s something left to fight over, my family will use it to rip each other apart. And because my delightful grandfather left the folly to me, I’m currently everyone’s target. There are even distant cousins, whom I’ve never met, coming out of the woodwork to hassle me about the folly. No folly. No harassment. It’s that simple.”

Bain had learned something about Rona pretty early on in their acquaintance. The more innocent she seemed, the more likely she was lying. Or in this case, leaving important stuff out.

“If you don’t tell me the whole story, I’ll just find out on my own,” he said.

“You’re forgetting something, Bain. I don’t owe you any of my story. You’re lucky you’re getting that much.”

“There was a time when you told me everything,” he reminded her.

“There was a time when I thought you were worthy of telling it to,” she snapped back. “Those days are gone.”

“That’s brutal.” Bain turned into the carpark behind Morag’s bakery. The owner might have prioritized protesting the folly, but the bakery would still be open. Nothing got in the way of Morag and a day’s sales. “What did I ever do to deserve such wrath?”

There was so much heat in Rona’s eyes that he felt burned. “Nothing,” she said very deliberately. “You did nothing.”

There was something in her tone. Something he was missing. But he couldn’t figure out what it was.

Rona blinked and turned away from him to stare out the windscreen. “Stop trying to get inside my head. You don’t know me anymore. I was just a kid when I left Invertary, and we were never friends.”

“No, we weren’t,” he agreed.

They were something else entirely. Rona had been his shadow for over four years. He’d taught her how to defend herself, how to pick locks, and how to fix a car. He’d threatened her bullies, defended her against criticism, and reminded everyone he met that Rona wasn’t her parents—she was better.

In return, she’d pestered him, harassed him, followed him everywhere—and adored him. Nobody had ever looked at him the way Rona had done. Not before he’d met her, and sure as hell not since.

She hadn’t been blind to his faults. Often she’d been the first to call him on them. But even knowing exactly who he was, she’d still looked at him as though he were her savior. No, her warrior.

He shook his head to clear it. “Stay here. I’ll get cake.”