Page 7 of Love Bomb

He knew that would get a decent reaction from his brothers. They’d been trying to keep him out of jail for years.

“Really?” Darach said, pulling out a chair at the kitchen table. His smile was indulgent. “I don’t believe that for a second, not our Rona.”

Bain looked skyward but only saw the kitchen ceiling. Great. Now she was our Rona.

“Knock it off,” Bain snapped. “She wants me to blow up the folly.”

He smirked at her and cocked an eyebrow in a silent challenge to charm herself out of that.

“Oh,” Kade said as he helped himself to a beer from the fridge. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. The folly is listed. You could get into trouble for blowing it up.”

“Seriously?” Bain said. “That’s the only reprimand she’s getting for her hare-brained idea?”

Darach leaned across the table and patted Rona’s hand. “I’m sure she has a good reason for wanting to blow it up,” he said.

Unbelievable.

Rona flashed Bain a smug smile. “Yes, I do,” she said.

His three brothers eagerly leaned in toward her to hear whatever gem was going to fall from her lips. It was nauseating to watch.

Rona took a deep breath, drawing attention to her chest and making Conall blush all over again.

Bain gestured to his own eyes before pointing to Conall, in the universal symbol that he was watching him. Conall quickly looked anywhere but at Rona.

Better. Much better.

“It’s like this,” the demon said. “Just before my grandfather died, he had a huge fight with my father and cut him out of his will. At the same time, he promised my mother that her inheritance would increase, because he liked to play them against each other. In the end, when the will was read, it turned out he’d left everything to me.”

Darach gasped like a big sissy.

Bain gave up on his tea and helped himself to a beer. He needed alcohol to watch this.

“I bet your parents weren’t happy with that,” Darach said.

“No kidding.” Rona pushed her hair back over her shoulder, revealing the milky-white skin of her throat.

There were no freckles on Rona’s pale skin. A fact that had always fascinated Bain because someone of her coloring should have been covered in them.

“What did they do?” Kade asked, just as eager for the story as his twin.

Chumps. She was playing them. Trying to get them onside so they’d gang up on him and make him blow up the folly for her. She’d done this when she was barely in her teens, and here she was doing the same thing all over again. And his brothers were still falling for it. It made him fear for the male of the species.

“They were furious,” Rona said, her eyes going dramatically wide. “They’ve vowed to contest the will, and they go to court next week.” She lowered her lashes and slumped in her seat, adopting an air of weakness and desperation. “That’s why I’m here. I only have a few days to blow up the folly or I’ll lose my chance.”

This was pathetic. “Don’t forget to mention that you’ve owned the folly for two months,” Bain said. “But you conveniently left it to the last minute so that your criminal plan would coincide with Caroline McInnes being out of town.”

Annoyance flashed in her eyes before she softened them for his brothers. “Of course I waited until the historical committee chair was out of town,” she told them. “I couldn’t pull this off with Caroline still in Invertary. But you must understand.” She leaned in towards his brothers, earnestness pouring off her. “The folly has to come down. It’s the only way to save my family.”

Bravo. Honestly, this was Oscar worthy. Bain almost clapped.

“How will it save your family?” Darach asked, his bleeding heart on display for everyone to see.

Oh yeah, she’d already won him over.

“It’s the last part of the Dalgliesh legacy,” Rona said solemnly. “My mother and father both want it to prove a point, and they’ll fight over it until their dying day. No matter who gets it, the family will never be at rest. The only way to stop the fighting is to get rid of the folly.”

Bain almost laughed. “And I suppose they’re more interested in the folly than the fortune your grandfather left behind?” he asked, in the hopes a dose of reality would get his brothers back on planet earth and out of Rona’s fantasy land.