Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
“Bea, are you okay?” Harvey asked.
She nodded, but he saw her lower lip wobble, and he held open his arms. She shot into them, and he held her briefly before she pulled back and slapped her hand down on his chest.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were here? Why’d you send me next door? I’m not a child, you know.”
“I know you’re not a child, but I didn’t want you here on your own. It’s dangerous.”
“How could it have been dangerous? There was no one here.”
“But I didn’t know that, did I?” he said, as Paddy returned from searching the house. “There could have been someone in the house, hiding. Or outside, watching. All of this is just stuff. But you are not.”
“The worms aren’t stuff! They were tipped over. We’ll never recover them!”
“It’s all right, we can get new worms,” he soothed. Even though he’d rather strip naked and run down the street. Then he turned to Paddy. “All clear?”
“Yeah, but it’s the same in every room. You pissed someone off lately?” Paddy asked as he walked over and messed up Bea’s hair.
She snarled at him. “Stop messing up my hair.”
“Nah, don’t want to.”
She huffed out a breath and straightened her hair. “Wait, why did you ask Harvey if he’d pissed anyone off lately? Isn’t this just a random robbery? They must have realized he wasn’t home, right? Or is something going on?”
Shit.
Paddy and his big mouth.
“Nothing is going on, Bea,” he said.
Although he did wonder if this break-in was related to what was going on with Lily.
But they couldn’t rule it out either.
“And why don’t I believe you? Do you know why? Because you’re lying to me.” She waggled her finger at him.
“What’s going on in here?”
Oh, fuck. Could this day get any worse? Harvey managed to cover his groan with a cough as Ronan stepped into the room.
Who had called him?
Then as Bea spun and threw herself into Ronan’s arms, he had his answer. Of course, she’d called Ronan. Both of his sisters called their oldest brother for everything they needed.
Ronan’s dark eyes flashed to Harvey. “You should have called me instead of leaving it up to your little sister.”
“It’s just a break-in, Ronan. It doesn’t require your attention,” Harvey told him.
“Just a break-in. Normally, during a break-in they take things rather than destroying them all. Looks like whoever it was, was searching for something.”
“They ruined the worm farm and I can’t find any of the worms. I could try and find some of them, I guess.” Bea’s voice was filled with sadness, and he knew that it would be a trigger for his oldest brother, because he didn’t like their sisters to feel anything except happy.
Nothing else was acceptable to him.
“Don’t worry,” Ronan told their sister gently. That voice was reserved for just her or Fiadh. “We’ll get some more worms.”
“And you’ll make sure whoever did this to them pays,” Bea said.
And Ronan’s voice hardened. “Oh, yes, I’ll make sure whoever did this pays.” He glanced over at Harvey. “You had Bea coming to your house when you weren’t here?”
“She was feeding the worms. It was only once every three or four days.”
“This person could have still been here when she arrived. She could have been harmed.”
“I’m fine, Ro,” Bea told him, glancing up at him with a smile. “Just upset about the worms and all the mess. Poor Harvey. They destroyed all of his stuff. I mean, most of it was ugly, but still, it was his stuff, and they had no right to mess it all up like this.”
Why did everyone keep saying that his stuff was ugly? His house hadn’t looked that bad, had it? Well, he guessed he’d never taken a lot of notice. Most of the furniture had just come with the house and then he’d added bits and pieces.
“It’s eclectic,” he muttered.
“Sure it is.” Bea gave him a pitying look.
Jesus. It wasn’t like he lived in a dump. Most of the stuff in here was expensive.
“Right, here is what is going to happen, Paddy will go over the security footage and find out anything he can about who did this,” Ronan commanded. His arm was still around Bea’s shoulders as she leaned into him. “I will get someone to come sort through this shit and take care of it.”
Right, it might be a mess, but he wasn’t certain that he liked it being called ‘shit’. He glared at his brother who simply stared back at him. Ronan turned to Bea. “Are you all right? Do you need to take the day off work to recover?”
Jesus, he’d once been on his death bed with food poisoning, and his brother had made him work. He shared a look with Paddy who just shook his head and shrugged.
Ronan had always been like this. And, truthfully, if he wasn’t this protective over their sisters then Harvey and Paddy likely would be.