: Chapter 3

Max

Lia’s car peeled away, and I stared after her.

Rory stooped to collect the photograph from the ground. “Holy shit. I didn’t know this, Max. She didn’t accept my friend request, only replied to my messages. I never saw any pictures. God, this is insane.”

I hardly heard her.

Lia had a baby.

She assumed I knew.

“How the fuck…?” I started, but I couldn’t finish my sentence.

“Go after her,” Rory urged.

“What the hell just happened? Why all that anger at me for not acknowledging the bairn? How was I supposed to know?” I shouted.

“Asking the wrong people,” Maddock unhelpfully inserted. “Seriously. Ye have to go after her.”

“Yes!” Rory exclaimed. “Didn’t you hear her? She didn’t know about Maddock. She must think you’re trying to hurt her.”

“I don’t believe a word,” I ground out.

Rory got in my face. She slapped the baby picture against my chest, forcing me to take it. “I do. Unless she’s an incredibly good actress and had this all planned out, her reaction to seeing you and Maddock together was not faked. I know, because I did the same thing. I mistook the two of you. Now get on your bike and chase her down before she leaves and never speaks to you again. She needs to know what happened. This is even more important…”

I got her meaning. In light of the baby situation.

None of this made sense. My intellect, such as it was, had been suspended. But Rory was right, and I needed to set Lia straight on the facts.

With my limbs as heavy as lead, I shoved my helmet back on and threw my leg over my bike, then I took off in pursuit of a woman I’d never expected to see again.

Over the bridge, I bombed down the track, slowing only to take the frosted corner to the main loch road. Lia’s car rolled on ahead, and I caught up and veered wide to buzz past, wind whipping me.

The conversation outside the garage had frozen me solid. This action woke my blood, and a surge of emotion caught me off guard. Breathing hard, I accelerated then zipped into her lane, no other cars on the road. Then I skidded to a halt and spun the bike around to face her, almost dropping it as I stared her down like a matador to a bull.

But Lia’s gaze was not on the road. Instead, she stretched to something in the passenger seat, her attention on her task.

Her car closed in on where I stood, directly in the line of her wheels.

I hit the Interceptor’s horn.

No reaction. I was seconds from being mowed down. Like an idiot, I braced myself.

Lia righted herself, fiddling with something in her hands. Finally, she lifted her gaze. Her mouth opened in a cry, and she slammed on the brakes.

Still, I didn’t move.

For so long, I’d let her break me into pieces, over and over. Every memory of her ruined me. Rory had it right, I hadn’t moved on. I was stuck on Lia’s betrayal. Her visit today had only made everything worse. If she killed me now, it would be no different than what she’d been doing for years.

With a squeal of brakes, her car slithered on the icy road.

I closed my eyes and let it happen.

My bike crunched. The car bonnet smacked into me.

I flew then landed hard and skidded down the tarmac, my helmet cracking. The road scoured my leather jacket under the arm I’d braced to save myself.

Then it all stopped, and a ringing echoed in my head.

A car door opened, and Lia’s shout pierced the air, her loud music the backdrop.

“Max!” Her footsteps drummed on the ground.

Fuck, I couldn’t let her touch me.

Jerking away, I stood and extended one arm and then the other before testing my neck. This wasn’t the first time I’d come off my bike, though never had I just stood there and let it happen. Luckily, nothing seemed broken.

Lia arrived in front of me, her features twisted in fear. She reached for me, and I danced back, evading her touch.

“Of all the idiotic… What were you doing in the middle of the road?”

Needing air, I pulled my helmet off, hissing at pain in my arm. “Aye, my fault ye ran me down. How did ye not hear the bike or my horn?”

“I had music on. The road was empty. Shit! You’re bleeding.”

“Nothing new there,” I retorted.

I peered down at the tatters of leather jacket over my forearm. A nice case of road rash dripped blood down my hand.

Lia drew in a hard breath, her gaze fixed on the red blood. “Get in the car. I’ll take you to hospital.”

“Why bother? I still have the knife in my back from the last time I was around ye.”

She glowered and took a step away, folding her arms. “You have no right to be angry at me. Other than for knocking you off your bike right now, I mean. That was half your fault for standing right in my path.”

I couldn’t help it, but I soaked in the sight of her.

She’d pinned up her blonde curls, but loose strands framed her face. Her cornflower-blue eyes sparkled, even under the grey skies. When we met, I’d been a sucker for her pretty face. How feminine and fucking gorgeous she was.

Time had changed nothing. I hated myself for it.

“I came after ye because we aren’t done talking,” I said.

Anger tightened her jaw, but she let me continue.

“Until five minutes ago, I had no clue that ye had a baby.”

“We have,” she corrected. “And that’s impossible.”

I gritted my teeth. “Second point, I didn’t say that shite about my brother to hurt ye. It’s a fact. Ye met him in a bar after we split up. He thought it was a one-night stand. I have no fucking clue what ye thought. But aye, ye slept with him. Maddock. My twin.”

Those blue eyes of hers rounded. “No.”

For a millisecond, I desperately wanted her to be telling the truth. For this act to be genuine. But I didn’t trust Lia as far as I could throw her.

“Yes. After ye had your little dark-alley fun, a lass in the bar who’d recognised ye told Maddock off for messing around with his brother’s ex. That’s how he found out. Then he and Rory spoke to her recently, which is how Rory got your details.”

“Sara,” Lia mumbled. “The only other person I knew in Inverness. This is unreal. It was you that night.”

“It wasn’t.”

Her gaze clung to the ground, and she staggered back a step. I resisted the urge to steady her, though I’d been the one knocked over.

“I’m…leaving. If you don’t want me to take you to hospital, do you need a ride home?”

“No.”

“I have to get back to my daughter.”

I’d shoved the bairn’s picture into the pocket of my leather jacket. It scalded my skin.

“What’s her name?” I blurted.

More blood dripped down my fingers, decorating the gravel.

“Evie.”

“Evie,” I repeated.

Finally, Lia’s gaze met mine. “I’ve waited a long time to hear you say her name. What a way for that to happen.”

She climbed back into the driver’s seat. The road was clear now with my bike on the verge and me out of the way. Nothing to stop her leaving.

“Wait.” I paced after her and grabbed her door, stopping her from closing it. “Take my number.”

“Why? You didn’t want anything to do with her before and you’re doing the same now.”

Frustration rose in waves. “I didnae know about her.”

“Then we’ve both had a shocker today.” She gave up wrestling the door.

“My number.” I jabbed a finger at her phone, clipped to the dashboard with a map onscreen.

Lia picked it up and took down my digits as I recited them. Then she hit the button to call me, and my phone rang in my pocket.

Huh. At least that wasn’t broken.

“Where’s the bairn now?” I found myself asking.

Lia swallowed, confusion and distress plain in her expression. “My boyfriend’s looking after her. I’ll talk to you later. I need to go and process this.”

“Process what?”

A pause showed her disbelief. “In a heartbeat, I’ve gone from having had sex with one guy to two. And from being entirely sure over the father of my daughter to having two candidates. I came here to tell you the news, and now you know. Forgive me if I don’t hang around for chat.”

With that, Lia closed herself in and sped away.

While I sat down hard and bled onto the ice.