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“You know,” Derek mused, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, “I almost feel bad for tricking her like that. Almost.”
The older biker clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. Sometimes people need a little push in the right direction. And trust me, those two lovebirds belong together.”
“Besides,” the younger one added with a wink, “imagine the look on her face when she gets there and finds out it was all a setup for the most romantic surprise of her life!”
“Well, gentlemen and lady,” Derek said, raising his bottle for another toast. “Here’s to love, to family, and to the craziest matchmaking scheme south of the border!”
As they clinked bottles once more, the jukebox in the corner suddenly sprang to life, playing an upbeat love song. It was as if the universe itself was celebrating their successful plan.
The older biker chuckled, his gravelly voice softening as he reached up to his face. With practiced ease, he peeled away the weathered skin, revealing it to be an expertly crafted silicone mask. As he removed it fully, Declan’s familiar features emerged, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
“Bloody hell, I thought she’d never leave,” he said, stretching his jaw after hours of pretending to be an old biker. “These masks are brilliant, but they’re not exactly comfortable for long periods of wear.”
Beside him, the younger biker was going through a similar transformation. Wren’s delicate features emerged as she pulled off her own mask, shaking out her long hair from beneath the short wig she’d been wearing.
“You’re telling me,” she grumbled, in her natural lilting Canadian accent, the complete opposite of the gruff biker voice she’d been speaking with. “I thought my vocal cords were going to snap from talking that low for so long. And don’t even get me started on this itchy beard.”
She scratched at the fake facial hair still clinging to her chin, wincing as she pulled it off. “Remind me again why I had to be the one with the full beard?”
Declan laughed, the sound rich and warm without the affected rasp. “Because, my dear, you lost the coin toss. Besides, you pull off the rugged look quite well.”
Wren rolled her eyes. “Next time, you can stuff yourself into a corset and heels.”
“Deal,” Declan agreed with a wink, before turning his attention back to Derek. “You played your part perfectly, my friend. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to keep a straight face when she handed over the keys.”
Derek shook his head, still marveling at thetransformation he’d just witnessed. “I still can’t believe you went to all this trouble just to get her to go back to Toronto. Couldn’t you have just, I don’t know, called her?”
Wren snorted, pulling off her leather jacket and hung it on the chair behind her. “Please. You know Kat. She’s as stubborn as they come. If we’d just called and asked her to come back, she’d have dug her heels in even deeper.”
“Precisely,” Declan nodded, his expression growing more serious. “She needed to believe she was making the choice on her own. That she was needed.”
“But the explosion, the ambush... none of that was real, right?” Derek asked, a note of concern creeping into his voice.
Declan’s eyes twinkled. “Oh, it was real enough. Just... carefully organized. We needed something big enough to draw her back but controlled enough that no one actually got hurt.”
Chapter 36
Kat
The estate loomed before me as the taxi pulled through the unmanned gate, making its way down the slight hill. The black stone house was eerily silent and seemed to envelop the grounds around it. The pasture was empty of all horses and the pond, usually full of ducks and geese, was void of life. My heart raced as I paid the driver and stepped out, the gravel crunching beneath my feet. The air was thick with an unsettling stillness, broken only by the distant call of a lone bird.
I approached the house, my footsteps crunching in the gravel. The front door creaked open at my touch, revealing a darkened interior. “Hello?” I called out, my voice sounding small and fragile in the emptiness. No response came.
Room by room, I searched the house, each empty space adding to the growing knot of dread in my stomach. Rory’s room, still bearing traces ofhis scent, stood frozen in time as if waiting for his return. Declan’s study, usually a hive of activity, was eerily still, papers scattered across his desk as if he’d left in a hurry.
In the kitchen, I found signs of a hastily abandoned meal - half-empty cups of tea, a plate of biscuits left untouched. Connor would never leave his kitchen in such a condition. Even Rory’s mom’s room was deserted, the absence of her beloved dog’s excited barking added to the unsettling atmosphere.
With shaking hands, I pulled out my phone and dialed Rory’s number again. The familiar ringtone echoed through the empty house, mocking me with its cheerful tune before cutting to voicemail. “Rory, please,” I whispered, fighting back tears. “Where are you?”
Desperation clawing at my chest, I stumbled out onto the back patio. The once meticulously manicured gardens stretched out before me, were now overgrown, bathed in the soft glow of twilight. It was beautiful, peaceful - and utterly wrong without the family that should have been there to enjoy it.
Unable to hold back any longer, I sank onto a nearby bench and let the tears flow. Sobs wracked my body as the full weight of fear that they were all dead crashed over me. Had I come all this way only to find them gone? How could something soterrible truly happen?
As I sat there, lost in my grief, a muffled sound caught my attention. It was faint at first, barely audible over my own ragged breathing. But then it came again - a string of colorful curses floating on the evening air from the direction of the old barn.
My heart leapt into my throat. Someone was here! Wiping my eyes, I rose to my feet and started towards the barn, hope and anxiety warring within me. The curses grew louder as I approached, accompanied by the clang of a metal wrench dropping onto concrete.
With trembling hands, I pushed open the barn door, wincing at the loud creak of rusted hinges. The interior was dim, lit only by a single work light that cast long shadows across the hay-strewn floor.
