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  Callum followed the footsteps up to the path leading out of the cove. Most were obscured by the women’s prints, but there was definitely only one set.

  “I don’t think you saw two men with a body,” Callum said. “I think you saw two men with a duffel bag. I think there was an altercation on the beach. One killed the other and then took off with the bag. Did you see any blood when you were here?” There would have been a lot of blood, seeing as the man’s throat had been slit.

  “No, it was dark.”

  It was possible the blood had soaked into the sand under the body and Isobel had assumed it was water. There wouldn’t have been any colour in the moonlight.

  “When did you come into the cove? How long after you saw them get off the boat?”

  “I waited at the top of the cliff until I heard the car roar away. The driver seemed to be in a hurry. Then I called my sisters.”

  Callum pinched the bridge of his nose. This was one helluva mess, and she’d landed smack dab in the middle of it.

  “What’s going on Callum?” Isobel said softly.

  He let out a sigh. “I’m guessing here, but I think the guy with the bag had a delivery to make and he was on a tight schedule. I think he intended to come back and deal with the body.”

  She wrapped that ugly cardigan tighter around herself. “And while he was gone, we took it away.”

  “Aye. He knows the police didn’t take it. If they had, the whole place would have been cordoned off and crawling with investigators for days on end. The fact it isn’t, means someone else had to have taken the body. Someone who was watching them. He’ll most likely try to figure out what the agenda of that person is.”

  “There was no agenda. All I wanted to do was make sure Jack didn’t find the body, and the cops weren’t called.”

  “Aye, but now this mob are aware that someone knows about them.”

  “Oh.” Big eyes blinked up at him. “That isn’t good.”

  “No. It isn’t.” He resisted the urge to shake her. “Now would be a good time to call in the police.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t, I told you that. You need to believe me when I say I don’t want the police involved. I can’t risk that they’d arrest me and take me away from my kids. I sold stolen goods. I didn’t report the sneaky boat activity. And now I have a body in my freezer. There is no way they won’t arrest me.”

  She had a point. “I know a lawyer—”

  “Callum, I can’t afford a lawyer. I can barely afford to feed my kids. People like me, people with no resources, don’t get away with breaking the law. They get sent to jail, and I can’t let that happen. I need to find another way out of this mess. That’s why I came to you. You have to help me. You will help me, won’t you?”

  “I’m trying to help you. This is bigger than I thought. We need help. You need to call the cops.”

  “I can’t. Don’t make me. I’m the only parent my kids have ever known. I can’t let myself be taken away from them. They would feel as though I’d abandoned them too. And if they lock me up, I won’t be able to pay off the loans. The moneylender said he’d hurt my family if I can’t pay him back. I can’t talk to the police unless I take my kids and sisters and we run first. Then, once we’re safe and hidden, I could maybe make an anonymous phone call. What am I thinking?” She threw up her hands. “I don’t have money to run away and start afresh. Maybe I could sell a kidney? Is that legal?” She was all too serious.

  “No, it isn’t legal,” Callum said.

  She nodded, appearing utterly crestfallen that she couldn’t sell a body part. “Then I’m stuck here. With a body in the freezer and a moneylender threatening my family. I don’t know what to do. That’s why I came to you. I honestly don’t know what to do, and you’re the scariest person I could think of. The only person I could think of who might know what to do with a dead body. You are going to help me deal with the body, right?”

  Callum stared at her before sighing. “Aye, I’m going to help you. But we can’t deal with this alone. I’ll need to call in help.” Which meant contacting the team he’d run out on. He wanted to curse a blue streak at the thought. There was a good chance they wouldn’t take his call. They say you shouldn’t burn bridges for a reason, and he’d taken a nuclear bomb to his.

  “Not police help, right?”

  “Not right now.”

  “Not ever.”

  “I can’t promise that. But I’ll try to sort this for you without involving them.”

  “Because I can’t get taken away.” The look of absolute resolve on her face made Callum wonder what she would do if he called in the cops. “What do we do about the body?”

  “Leave it where it is for now,” he said. “At least until I do a bit of investigating and see how deep this hole is that you’ve stumbled into. You need to go stay with one of your sisters for a few days. Just in case these guys come back and decide to look for the person watching them.”

  “That isn’t possible.” She shook her head adamantly.

  Callum was losing his patience. “Is there anything I suggest that you feel you can do? Because if you aren’t going to take my advice, I don’t see the point in me being here.”

  “Mairi and Agnes share a tiny one-bedroom flat over the town’s garage, and Mairi is up all night working. Agnes has a college exam tomorrow that she can’t fail. And Donna is live-in staff at the mansion house. She isn’t allowed to have people stay over. That’s why I can’t go to them. Plus, I can’t put them in any more danger than I already have. I’m not trying to be difficult. This is just the way things are.”

  She stood there looking at him with those oversized eyes that begged him to rescue her. Although he was fairly certain she wasn’t even aware that’s what she was doing. His eyes flicked to the spot on her belly where his baby could be growing, and he felt his own stomach clench. He deeply regretted opening the door to her that morning. Things had gone from bad to worse since he’d done it. And now, instead of her being someone else’s problem, she was most definitely his.

  “Woman, your life is a mess.”

  “I know,” she wailed.

  Callum expected tears, but she pulled herself together. She looked small, fragile and completely overwhelmed. And he couldn’t stand it. With a sigh, Callum wrapped an arm around her and pulled her to him. He awkwardly patted her back and hoped she didn’t start to cry. He’d rather crawl on his belly through a war zone than deal with a weeping woman. Especially one as soft as Isobel, who was fighting her tears and trying hard to be brave. She might not have any common sense, but she did have courage, he’d give her that.

  “I’ll spend the night at your place,” he said with heavy reluctance.

  There was a little hiccup. “On the couch.”

  That didn’t even merit a reply. Of course he was sleeping on the couch. She had two kids in the house, and touching her had caused enough problems already. He grasped her shoulders and set her away from him. “I’m going back to my place to pack an overnight bag. I’ll be back in an hour. Try not to get into any more trouble while I’m gone.”

  She lifted her chin. Her eyes were blazing at him through unshed tears. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  With a snort, Callum turned his back on her and started the slow climb back up the cliff.

  CHAPTER 9

  SOPHIE HAD FALLEN ASLEEP WEARING her green dinosaur onesie, with a pink tutu on top. She had a shark motif swim cap tugged onto her head and ski gloves on her hands. Isobel grinned at her unconscious three-year-old. She was never quite sure what she would find when she went in to check at bedtime. As soon as the light was out, Sophie dressed in what she thought was appropriate for bed, and it was never what Isobel had put her to sleep in.

  After softly closing the door on the bedroom she shared with her daughter, Isobel knocked on her son’s door. There was a grunt, which Isobel took to mean “come in”. Jack was sitting on his bed, his headphones around his neck and his tablet computer in his hands. He’d r
etreated to his room after dinner, once Isobel had explained that Callum would be spending the night. He hadn’t said a word to her since.

  “You still in a huff?” Isobel wished he would still let her kiss him goodnight and ruffle his hair the way he’d done when he was little.

  “About your boyfriend moving in?” He gave an exaggerated shrug. “Why would I be upset about that?”

  “It’s not like that. He’s only going to stay tonight to make sure we’re safe.”

  “The same way he made sure you were safe when he jumped your bones?”

  “Jack!” Isobel felt her cheeks heat.

  “What? I’m not allowed to talk about how some random guy might be the father of my new little brother?”

  “There’s no baby. I told you that. I’m not going to explain what happened between Callum and me; that’s between us.”

  “Sure. Will it still be between you two when he walks out on us, like everyone else does? Don’t know if you noticed, Mum, but I live here too. I need to deal with the crap they leave behind when they run, just like you do.”

  He was breaking her heart. “I know you do. I’m really sorry that my bad judgement has hurt you. I never meant for that to happen. You know I love you, Jack, right? You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, and I wouldn’t change a second of my life if it meant you weren’t in it.”

  His cheeks turned pink and he looked away, suddenly mesmerised by his computer screen. “If he hurts you, I’ll make him suffer. I’m not a little kid anymore. He doesn’t get to hurt you.”

  “I know.” Isobel itched to touch him. “How about a hug?”

  “No!” But he did give her a smile.

  He put the headphones back in place and tuned her out, his eyes fixed on the screen in front of him.

  Isobel closed the door silently and pressed her forehead against the shabby cream paint. She was screwing this parent thing up again. Who knew what sort of long-term emotional issues she was passing on to her son? And really, she couldn’t blame him for anything he said. She was a disaster as a mother. Sure, she did her best, but it was never good enough. Even she could see that. They lived hand-to-mouth, relying on her sisters for extras, like tablet computers for school and second-hand games consoles, so that her teenage son would fit in with his friends.

  She turned and sat on the top step, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Of course Jack was upset about Callum. It was yet another man Isobel had dragged into their lives, even though she didn’t want him in it any more than he wanted to be there. She’d screwed up. Again. And her kids would suffer because of it. Again.

  “What are you doing sitting up there?” Aggie called softly. “Come down here, where we have cake.”

  Isobel tried to surreptitiously wipe away her tears as she painted on a fake smile. Aggie wasn’t fooled; her eyes filled with sympathy as she walked up the stairs to meet Isobel halfway.

  “Don’t mind me, I’m having a pity party.” Isobel forced another smile.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Agnes said as she wrapped an arm around Isobel.

  “Jack’s angry with me.”

  “Jack is a teenager. He’s angry with everybody.” They headed down the rest of the stairs together.

  “I’ve made a mess of his life. His dad didn’t even want to meet him, and then I married Rob thinking he’d make a good father for Jack. How could I have been so dumb? Why am I such a terrible judge of character?”

  Her other two sisters jumped up to hug her when she entered the kitchen. For a moment, the comfort of being in the middle of them all made her burden lighten. Without these three amazing women, she wouldn’t have survived.

  “We’re all terrible judges of character.” Donna stroked Isobel’s hair. “It’s the Sinclair curse. We’re genetically incapable of telling a good man from a bad one.”

  “It’s why the rest of us are single,” Mairi agreed. “We know if we pick someone, he’ll likely be a dickhead. You were the only one brave enough to try.”

  “Dumb enough,” Isobel corrected.

  “We were all fooled by Robert.” Agnes tugged Isobel out of the group hug and guided her into a chair. “We all thought he was a great guy. None of us saw the slightest indication that he was a gambler.”

  “He had a good job,” Donna agreed as she placed a huge wedge of chocolate cake in front of Isobel. “He’d had it for years. We thought he was stable.”

  “Plus, let’s be honest,” Mairi said as she sat down beside Isobel. “He wasn’t that good looking, and we all thought he’d be more dependable because of it.”

  The sisters stared at her in stunned silence.

  “What?” Mairi said around a mouthful of cake.

  “We didn’t think that,” Donna said. “Did we?” She looked at Agnes and Isobel, who shook their heads.

  “No, we didn’t,” Agnes said. “Why would we think the fact he was skinny and had bad hair meant he was stable and honest?”

  “Because he had to work harder to be popular. Because he should have been grateful he landed someone as gorgeous as Isobel and treated her fabulously because of it. Because he had no muscle mass and wasn’t able to fight off anybody who came after him. You’d think the inability to defend himself would mean he wouldn’t get into trouble in the first place.” Mairi sat back with a triumphant smile, as though she made perfect sense.

  “I worry about you,” Agnes said. “You don’t think like normal people.”

  “Like you would know what normal is,” Mairi scoffed, before digging back into her cake.

  “Robert wasn’t bad looking and he wasn’t skinny. He was lanky,” Isobel felt the need to point out. “He was handsome in a kind of geeky way. The way that guy who owns Facebook is handsome.”

  “He is not handsome,” Donna said.

  “Yes, he is. He’s handsome, but not hot or sexy. There’s a difference, trust me. I know. Jack’s father was hot. Robert was handsome in an understated way.” And Callum was sexy as hell. But she kept that last part to herself.

  “Have you had your eyes tested lately?” Mairi asked with such seriousness that the rest of them burst out laughing.

  “Callum McKay is hot and sexy,” Agnes said with a sneaky smile at Isobel. “Isn’t he? How on earth are you going to keep your hands off him for a whole night?”

  “Oh!” Mairi sat up straight. “I nearly forgot. Jack said Isobel already had sex with Callum.”

  “What?” Agnes said. “I was kidding about keeping your hands off him. Isobel?”

  Isobel squirmed in her seat. “Jack didn’t say that,” she said as firmly as she could.

  “That’s right,” Mairi said as her thumbs flew over her phone, “he said you could be pregnant. That Callum was shouting about you carrying his child.” She shrugged. “I guess the sex part was implied.”

  Isobel glared at her youngest sister, but it was wasted on her.

  “You slept with the outlaw?” Donna screeched. “When?”

  “This morning,” Mairi said. “To pay for his help.”

  “He wanted sex for his help?” It was Agnes’s turn to screech.

  “I did not sleep with him to pay for his help!” Isobel practically shouted.

  “Then why did you sleep with him?” Donna demanded.

  “Because he’s hot!”

  There was silence. Isobel realised what she’d said, and her face burned.

  “You really did have sex with Callum?” Mairi said. “I thought Jack had misunderstood and I was winding you up.”

  Isobel groaned, put her elbows on the table and dropped her face into her hands. “Kill me now.”

  “Somebody should,” Agnes snapped. “What were you thinking?”

  “I wasn’t thinking,” Isobel snapped back. “That’s the whole point. I wasn’t thinking at all. It was a rerun of Jack’s father. Only worse. Much worse. Callum kissed me, and I didn’t have another thought until it was over.” She threw up her hands. “But what difference does it
make? I thought long and hard before I married and slept with Robert, and look how that turned out.”

  “You didn’t think long and hard,” Mairi said. “You married him three weeks after you met him, and he charmed himself into your pants a whole lot earlier than that.”

  “We’re not talking about Robert,” Agnes said. “We’re talking about Callum McKay. A man you barely know, who you somehow still managed to have sex with.”

  “You only went over there to feel him out about helping us,” Donna said incredulously.

  “She felt him out, all right.” Mairi grinned.

  Isobel scowled at her. “Not helping.”

  “Please tell me you used protection,” Agnes said.

  There was silence. It was pointless lying. She’d stutter and they’d know the truth anyway.

  “You didn’t,” Donna whispered. “Are you insane?”

  “How could you?” Agnes demanded. “You of all people? The poster child for teenage pregnancy? Didn’t you learn from that mistake?”

  “Apparently not!” Isobel pushed back her chair and stomped to the sink. She needed a glass of water. No, she needed alcohol. But seeing as she didn’t drink, she’d have to make do with water. She really needed to start drinking.

  “Wait a minute,” Donna said. “Callum could have thought about protection too. Didn’t he say something? Suggest you use something?”

  “We were too busy for the topic to come up.” And didn’t that make Isobel sound like the world’s biggest tart?

  “Are you pregnant?” Mairi asked.

  “You can’t tell in a matter of hours,” Agnes said. “Don’t you know anything?”

  “I know enough to use a condom,” Mairi said.

  “Could you be pregnant?” Donna asked. “Is it possible?”

  Isobel gripped the glass of water tight enough to make her knuckles turn white. “It’s possible, but not probable. The timing is off.”

  “I can’t believe you did this,” Agnes said. “I really can’t.”

  “You can’t believe it?” Isobel felt her temper flare. “I was there and I can’t believe it! I’m a cliché. An uneducated woman with no morals, who jumps into bed with any man who comes her way.”