Page 49 of The Beast

And how did both Isla and Keir decide that living here was the best choice?

I pick my way down the stairs, carefully skirting several areas with loose pebbles scattered on the stair tread. It is blatantly unsafe, particularly in the house of someone with a young child. The thought occurs to me again: why would Keir decide to live here?

I am so absorbed in my own world and trying to figure everything out, that I run into Natasha on the stairs. She has a whole arm full of unwashed clothes and she is carrying them upstairs for some unknown reason. She yelps when I run into her and almost falls backward. I grab her arm and hold her up but the clothes that she is holding go flying all over the place.

She makes a disgruntled sound. “Look what you’ve done! So clumsy!”

Squinting at her, I loosen my grip on her arm and let her go. She wobbles and almost falls backward again, righting herself at the last moment. She glares at me and clutches at the wall for stability.

“Seriously?” she asks.

I roll my eyes and gesture toward her, trying to get her to move.

“Excuse me. I’m trying to go downstairs to catch up with Isla. You’re in my way.”

Natasha arches a brow and her expression turns hot.

“Just because you’re in the castle right now doesn’t mean anything. Keir will be back before you know it and he’ll probably bring someone else to take your place. Mark my words.”

I roll my eyes and start down the stairs, shouldering her aside. As I go, I hear her make a noise.

“Rude!” she says sharply.

I stop and turn, giving her a sweet, innocent smile.

“What was that?” I said.

“Why are you even here?” she asks, putting her hands on her hips. “I mean, really though. Why is Keir so interested in keeping you close?”

Crossing my arms across my chest, I size her up. “You’re awfully salty for a personal assistant. If Keir says that he wants me here, that should be enough for you.”

She pokes her tongue out of her mouth, looking dour.

“I’m just looking out for his best interests. I am always on the lookout for anybody that doesn’t have his back, like I do. Keir and Isla have enough on their plates without having some strange woman appear in their lives to cause drama.”

I sigh. “It looks like they are great at starting drama with or without me. Keir can’t seem to look up from his phone and Isla seems like she is dead set on any kind of distraction that will grab his attention for any length of time. Things are not good here.”

I swirl my fingers in a gesture, squinting at Natasha. She rolls her eyes.

“I’ll say this a thousand times if I have to. If you don’t like it, you can leave. There is the door. I don’t even know why you’re here in the first place.”

Making a face, I tilt my head at Natasha.

“Let me turn around and ask you the same thing. Why are you guys here? Why did Keir decide to bring Isla all the way out here when you could be living so much more comfortably in Edinburgh? I’ve seen the lifestyle that Keir is accustomed to and the kind of houses he inhabits. Why would you come all the way out here to this burnt-down castle, instead of living in one of those penthouse suites? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Natasha juts out her hip and rests her hand on it. “If you must know, there was an incident about two years ago. Isla got into a fight with another student, a physical altercation. I guess the other little girl said something negative about Isla’s mother and Isla really lost her mind and attacked the other little girl. And it happened to be during a field trip. So there were other parents present. Isla’s behavior became an immediate touchpoint for all the parents that felt she was receiving too much attention and too many resources, as opposed to their children. It didn’t really make sense, because Keir essentially bankrolled their entire class. He paid for everything and everyone, just to be there. But that wasn’t enough for the other parents. They jumped on an anti-Isla bandwagon and essentially made the school expel her.”

“They expelled her?” I ask, my eyebrows rising.

She nods. “Yeah. There was a lot of drama. Threats of lawsuits, kids taken to emergency rooms for psychological trauma following the event… It was a whole thing. “When Keir looked at all of his options after that, it made the most sense for them both to move out here. At least this way, they’re away from Kingsley.”

“Wait, wait. Who is Kingsley?”

A surprised laugh bursts from Natasha’s lips. “God, you really don’t know anything.” She smirks at me, her gaze lighting up and down my body. “If Keir wants you to know about that, about his past, he can tell you himself.”

She turns in her spot and heads up the stairs, dismissing me without another word. But I follow her, much to her dismay. She takes a left from the foot of the stairs and I trail after her, full of questions.

“When is Keir supposed to be back? Isla has been asking.”

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