Page 240 of Tangled up in You

Beth had to hide the smile she felt coming on when Jack burst out laughing at her statement. Damn the man had a nice laugh.

“I highly doubt your heart is black, lass. It may seem so right now, but I highly doubt that it is.”

“Thanks. Although Haley and Doug may not agree with you right now.” Beth smiled softly as she shook her head and walked towards the window to look outside.

“Did you really want to marry him?” Jack asked, coming up behind her.

“Deep down…no. The day Mac collapsed, I was actually sending Doug a text telling him things were over. Had been for a while and I knew he was cheating on me even then. Didn’t think it was Haley though, since she preferred the rough bikers that came into the bar. Doug is far from that. He’s a jerk, but no cowboy or biker. Hell, at best, he’s a shitty businessman. He even makes a shitty conman if you want the truth.”

“You were texting him that it was over?” Jack laughed as he came to stand behind her.

“Yeah. He was getting on my nerves. We already hadn’t been intimate in three months by that time. I worked every chance I could. Mac never liked him. Thought he was a pussy who was a wasted jizz stain on his daddy’s cock that got lucky.”

Beth had to turn around and stare at the man when he started laughing at her statement about Mac. Fuck, he’s hot.

Yeah, it’s been too damn long since she’s had sex. She seriously needed to get laid.

“Tell us about Mac. He was obviously very important to you.”

Beth looked over at Jack and smiled. He genuinely seemed to care.

“He was. Mac didn’t really talk much about his past. I know he was from a small village, but he says Inverness since that seems to be all people know when he talks about it. He joined the British Military as soon as he could and became S.A.S. He had a sister who he left behind and a nephew he was very fond of. Used to say if he could reach out to them, he’d set me up with a real man, a Scottish man who would treat me right. But he’d lost contact with his sister years ago when he moved to the United States.”

“Ah, so he was a Scottish man?” Jack smiled really big at the news.

“Yes. Lilt and all. He took me in when I was fifteen, after my parents had died. I had run away from the foster home I had been staying in after the foster dad tried to sneak into my room and have his fun with me. Didn’t work out too well for him when I stabbed him with the kitchen knife I had snuck into my room.”

“Son of a bitch!” Jack mumbled as his eyes went dark.

“I’d been sleeping in a makeshift box behind the bar behind the trashcan for about a week when Mac had found me. I think he knew I was there all along since I always found food andwater there whenever I’d left for the day trying to find a job in town. We were about to have a pretty big storm blow in when he came out and told me to get my shivering behind in the bar and get to work. He had customers that needed tending to. Had me go upstairs into his apartment above the bar and get cleaned up before he put me to work serving.”

“You stayed with him all that time?” Jack asked, sitting down on the couch.

“Yeah. He became the dad I had lost. He told me when I was being a bitch. Made me go back and finish school. That was non-negotiable. Fought with social services about getting custody of me. Laid into the social worker who placed me with the foster family who’d had numerous complaints. Said if she didn’t give him custody of me, he would make sure the entire world knew what kind of social worker she was and how she ignored the kids when they told her they were being abused or trafficked.”

CHAPTER 8

Jack couldn’t fathom the hell that Beth had gone through. He’d seen it time and time again in their field.

Unlike some countries, their unit could operate on their home soil if they are called up by the higher ups. London had a high homelessness issue that was growing everywhere.

It broke his and his teammates’ hearts when they saw women with children living in the streets because they were kicked out of their homes. He knew his best friend Brodie brought it to his mum’s attention since she was part of the committee that tried to help such women.

“Mac never talked about his life here?” Jack asked, shaking his head to break out of his thoughts.

“No. Just that he had a sister he left behind when she married up. He had kept in touch with her during his times with the SAS. He had a nephew he called ‘Little Ridge” whatever that means…”

“How do you know that nickname?”

Jack and Beth turned towards the door to where Brodie and Angus were standing. Right away, he noticed Brodie was breathing heavily and upset.

“What nickname?” Beth asked in confusion, looking between the four men.

“You said that he had a sister and a nephew he called Little Ridge. He was in the SAS…”

“Lass, did Mac ever tell you what his sister’s name was?” Jack asked softly, putting a few of the puzzle pieces together with Brodie’s reaction.

“No. He didn’t. I found a letter in his desk when I was going through it to find the lawyer he dealt with to let him know that Mac had passed away. I believe her name was Skye. I believe the name on the envelope was Skye MacDonald. I didn’t even know his first name was Liam until I saw that.”

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