AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You gave me half a million quid. It’s already done.’
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
LOGAN
We’d made it out of the estate without being apprehended, Valentina having a quick shower while I got her clothes from Grieves and stuffed her things into a bag, before grabbing my belongings and throwing them and her into my car.
As I had washed Edward’s blood from my hands, I’d tried to regret my decision to lay into his face. But I couldn’t. Seeing him trying to force himself on Valentina had unleashed the side of me I tried to keep under control. Violence had always been a part of my life, with my job working for my father, and now controlling our syndicate. Usually, the violence was measured, and planned, to extract information or teach a lesson. Edwards was the first time I’d lost my temper and reacted with my fists since I’d been a teenager.
I wished I’d dragged my knife across his throat while he was down.
Valentina rested her arm against the window, her cheek pressed against it as her eyes focused on the trees whipping by as my car twisted through the highland roads. It would be a few hours before we reached Glasgow, and the atmosphere lay thick between us.
What the hell did you say to the woman you were bringing home to pretend she didn’t exist, knowing she was taking a piece of your soul with her?
I should never have given in.
Never.
Silence bathed us for miles as Valentina scrolled on her phone and I focused on the road ahead, dodging the occasional red deer and hiker. Every so often, I’d feel her eyes on me as I stared ahead, trying to find something to say.
‘Thank you,’ she said in an almost whisper.
‘For punching Edwards? My pleasure. He’s always been an insufferable douche.’
‘For standing up for me. For letting me in. For making things I’d only ever dreamed of happen. I know following you to Rosenhall was a bit unhinged, but I had to know what it would be like.’
Reaching over, I squeezed her thigh, finding it almost jarring for it to be covered in denim rather than the easy access linens. Fuck, I’d miss her thighs.
‘I should thank you. You were everything I’d always dreamed about finding up at the castle, but I’d never quite found. You are going to make someone very happy one day.’
Her throat bobbed as she looked back out at the passing trees. I slid my hand back to the wheel.
‘If you weren’t you, who would you be?’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘If you weren’t a McGowan, who would you be? If your whole syndicate blew up overnight and it left you with nothing but enough money to start again, what would you do? Would you work to build your business back up?’
‘For it to go that badly, I’d probably be dead.’
Valentina rolled her eyes at me before giving my arm a nudge. ‘Come on, it’s a long trip. Dream with me.’
When she smiled, I felt my walls crumble around me. Fine. I could play.
‘I’d leave.’
‘Leave Glasgow?’
‘Leave everything. I’d find a little cottage in the highlands with a log burner and a bit of land. I’d spend the days chopping wood and feeding my animals, and my nights not worrying about deals going through or who I’d have to impress or placate to avoid a bullet through my head.’
‘What kind of animals?’
‘A couple of labs, maybe a cat to chase the mice from the wood store. Some goats. A donkey.’
Valentina laughed. ‘What do you want a donkey for?’
‘I love them. I’d have his field back on to the garden so I could go out and have a cup of tea with him in the morning and put the world to rights.’
