Page 54 of Riordan's Revenge

“Take me home.”

Chapter 17

Cassie

Riordan sped us into the night, heading south, and my brain raced over thoughts and feelings just as fast.

The engine roared. I wanted to scream.

Out of Aberdeen, we reached a junction, and I sucked in a breath, suddenly realising where we were. Tapping Riordan’s arm, I gestured for him to take the road to the left. The sea road. A slower route down the east coast of Scotland but one which held a place that was precious to me.

I wanted to at least drive past it. To somehow help crest the strange feelings brewing in me.

Without pause, Riordan signalled where I’d directed and drove us on, past the sign for the Stonehaven and Dunnottar Castle, then Catterline Bay. Even through my borrowed helmet, the salty tang of the sea made it to my nose, and emotion continued to rock me.

As if sensing my weird state, Riordan drove more slowly.

Then I saw it.

Almost hidden by overgrowth, the switchback led down the low cliff. I stiffened and pointed, and my fiancé, because I was running with that, turned the bike almost three-sixty to take it. We cruised down the potholed road, bumping over ruts then crunching rocks at the bottom. He stopped, engine off, a hand already waiting to help me down.

In zombie fashion, I stumbled, my boots sinking into the loose gravel of the beach.

Silence greeted me. Nothing but the hushed pull of the waves.

It had been years since I’d come here. Not one thing had changed. Not the house to our left with the glassed-in porch and the shed full of surfboards. Not the exact arrangement of rocks in the silvered, calm sea. Yanking off my helmet, I set it down and paced to the water’s edge. It rushed up to greet me. Like it knew me. Like it was welcoming me back.

Riordan approached, scrubbing over his flattened hair. “What is this place?”

“Nowhere, really. It was home for a few days when we were on the run.”

He watched me for a beat then sat in the gravel. “This after the hostel Jamieson burned down?”

He was piecing together my history. I kind of loved that he cared.

“Aye. But that was back on Torlum.”

“Where you were kidnapped to? Tell me about it.”

It was better than trying to get to grips with what I’d learned about my mother. Staring out at the dark horizon, I considered my own past. “None of us knew each other growing up, apart from Sin and Jamieson who had seen each other in passing. We didn’t know we were related until one by one, me and my brothers were kidnapped and taken to Torlum. It’s a remote, desolate island in the Hebrides. The locals were toldour presence was a young offenders rehabilitation type deal, but really, we were picked up because we were McInver’s kids and he was dying. Someone else wanted his inheritance, and as we had no idea who we were, hiding us away meant the executors of his will would never find us. I was six years old when they took me.”

“Holy fuck.”

“Right? Except for me, for the first time, I had a family. I had four big brothers and their girlfriends. From nothing to everything, and every single one of them gave a fuck about me. It was in that house over there that I realised I wanted Sin and Lottie as my parents. That I loved them. We swam in this bay.” I choked on a thick throat. “We weren’t even here that long before the homeowner discovered us trespassing and called the cops. It’s just always been in my mind as the real starting point of my life.”

“What happened when the police came?”

I hung my head. “They took me. I had to go back into foster care. I didn’t see my family again until Arran’s father kidnapped me as a hostage. It was the end of us being on the run because he got what was coming to him.”

“Arran killed him?”

“He wanted to, and so did I. There were too many cops there. That man is rotting in jail now, but not before he murdered Arran’s mother, Audrey.”

Something registered in Riordan’s gaze. “Project Audrey. Your brother mentioned that to you. What did he mean?”

“It’s a service Thea runs. She’s Struan’s wife and a social worker. We help women who are at risk of losing their kids to social services because their lives are fucked up. They get referred to Thea’s team, then helped with legal matters and housing. Whatever they need. It’s very worthy. We named it after Audrey because Arran’s warehouse is the front ofthe business. Many of them come via that route after being trafficked. Thea wants me to work for her.”

He wrinkled his nose. Without a word, I read his thoughts.

---