Lingerie Wars (The Invertary books) (40 page)

Kirsty's jaw dropped. Lake clenched his. It wasn't anything he didn't already know about them.

"Maybe they didn't know you were hurt?" Kirsty said hopefully.

He loved her for thinking that, but he knew different.

"They knew everything," he said. "It's the only story in town. They thought the fire would send Rainne running to them. They were waiting for her."

Kirsty and her mother exchanged a look. Lake could see that they didn't understand. He knew for a fact that Kirsty's mother would have clawed through the burning rubble to get to her.

"They are shameful people," Betty said with a disgusted shake of her head.

"Where is she?" Alastair wailed. "Why would she run away like this?" He rounded on Lake. "This is your fault," he said as he pointed at him. "She said that you and her parents were fighting over her. What did you do?"

Lake looked down at Kirsty. This wasn't the time to talk about that. He needed to think things through before he talked to Kirsty. His plans had changed. He had changed.

"It doesn't matter now," he said at last.

"It matters to me," Alastair shouted. "Tell me. Tell me what you said that made her run away from me."

Lake closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them the women of Invertary were glaring at him. They already knew that they weren't going to like his answer. Betty pursed her lips.

"It's between me and Rainne," he told the boy tightly.

"No, it's not. It has to do with all of us," Betty said.

"Betty," Lake warned.

"Lake here," Betty said, ignoring him, "told Rainne that he plans to put the shop on the market come Monday."

Lake shook his head as shock rippled around the room. Although Kirsty still held him, he could already feel her put distance between them. Under his breath, he cursed Betty.

"It's not settled," he said.

The truth was that he didn't know what he was going to do yet. All he knew was that his plans to leave Invertary weren't as pleasant as they'd been months earlier.

"He's leaving us," Betty told everyone. "He's leaving all of us."

Kirsty dropped her hand from his waist.

Kirsty took a step back from Lake. He was leaving? He'd been planning to leave and he hadn't told her. She looked at her mother. There were tears in her eyes.

Alastair's eyes flashed and his fists clenched. It looked like he wanted to hit Lake. Kirsty looked up into Lake's concerned eyes.

"You're selling the shop?" Kirsty said. "But it's a success. Isn't that what you wanted?"

He shook his head softly.

"I never meant to keep it," Lake told her. "I was going to tell you, but then things changed."

"When were you going to tell me?" she said. "When you were packed and ready to go?"

Lake started to speak, but Alastair strode forward and poked him in the chest. It took serious courage on the boy's part. Lake raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why are you selling Rainne's shop?" he demanded.

"One, it's not Rainne's shop. And two, I wasn't helping her," Lake said. "I was only doing what our parents did. She needs to learn to stand on her own two feet. And I need to get on with my life too."

"Selfish bastard," Alastair said.

Lake nodded - that was probably true.

"You mind your language," Betty told Alastair. "Lake here has bent over backwards to help Rainne and all he's gotten for his trouble are complaints and problems. You're just angry because the lass didn't want to stay with you."

The fight went out of Alastair. He snatched the note from Lake. He read it again, with obvious hope that the words would change, that there would be a hint in the note as to why she ran out on him.

"I love her," he said softly.

Kirsty's mum patted him on the back and cooed soothingly.

"It's always hard," she said, but her eyes were on her daughter.

Kirsty couldn't look Lake in the eye anymore. He took a step towards her.

"We need to talk about this," he said. "Alone."

She shook her head.

"What will you do?" she asked him.

"I was planning on taking a partnership in a security firm—high-end bodyguard work, stuff like that."

"So you're leaving?" she said softly.

There was silence. Everyone except Alastair watched the interaction as though they were watching a train crash in slow motion.

"Let's go somewhere and talk. Nothing is set in stone. We can work something out."

"Like what?" Kirsty looked up at his beautiful blue eyes. "My life is here." She scoffed. "What I have left of it."

"There are other options," he said stiffly.

Kirsty walked over to stand with her mother. This was more than she could bear. She was losing it all. Everything. Her life. Her income. Now she was losing Lake too. Well, she wasn't going to sob. And she wasn't going to fall apart. Not this time.

"Of course," Kirsty said. "It makes perfect sense to leave. Why would you stay here and run a lingerie shop?" She looked up at Lake. "Good for you. That's great. It's the right decision. A security business, that's perfect."

She stepped back towards the door.

"It's absolutely perfect."

Lake reached for her.

"We need to talk about this," he told her again.

She stared at him. What could there possibly be left to say?

"Honey?" her mother said. Her voice shook.

"It's okay," Kirsty said. She felt a smile appear on her face. "Lake's doing the right thing. I just wish I'd known."

Lake folded his arms. His jaw set. Waiting. It took her a minute, but she got there. Kirsty's shoulders slumped.

"It was the lingerie war, right?" she said. Stupid. Of course it was. "You knew I wouldn't fight back if I thought you were leaving anyway, and you wanted the publicity. You wanted to raise the profits and profile of the shop. It was a great idea. You did a great job. The shop must be worth selling now. Well done." Her voice trailed off. "Great."

Lake took a step towards her.

"I don't want to do this here, with an audience. Let's go upstairs."

"You don't need to explain," Kirsty told him. "I understand. Lovers by night. Enemies by day. Right? Well, the night part is over and"—she signalled to the smouldering heap across the road—"Betty's right, you won the war, so there's no point in the day part. I understand. Our time is over. It's fine."

"It's not fine. You need to trust me. I'll come up with a solution."

"You do that," she said as she turned away from him. "Okay," she told her mum in a voice full of false cheer. "We best get going." She glanced back at Lake. "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess," she said. "I'm glad you're okay. Thanks for coming to the rescue. Time to go home." She stumbled over the word. "It's been a long night. Lots of emotion. Right? Time for us all to calm down and get back to normal."

Kirsty smiled over-brightly as she pushed the shop door open.

She held her mother's arm tightly as they walked past the mess that used to be her life. Beside her, her mother worked hard to hide her sobs. Kirsty kept her eyes on the black void where the loch should be. Together, they walked towards it.

"What about Rainne?" Alastair demanded as the rest of the women filed out after Kirsty.

They all had the same disgusted look on their faces. Lake had gone from town hero to town villain in five seconds flat.

"What are you going to do about Rainne?" Alastair said.

Lake had to stop from taking his rage out on the boy. This wasn't his fault. It was all Lake's doing. He'd screwed it up and now he had to fix it. He wanted to run after Kirsty, but he knew she wouldn't listen to him now. She was exhausted and in shock from the evening. She needed time to rest. Then he would explain. Then he would fix everything.

"We need to find Rainbow," Alastair said.

"Be here at oh eight hundred hours," Lake ordered. "We'll find her."

Alastair nodded eagerly.

Lake wanted to throttle his sister. The last thing he needed was to chase after her when there were other things he had to deal with. Urgent things. Unfortunately, she didn't have the sense to survive on her own. He couldn't just let her go. He had to make sure she was okay.

"Tomorrow," Alastair said, a broken man.

Alastair looked at Betty, his soul laid bare in his eyes, then nodded at Lake and left the shop. He broke out into a run as soon as he was out of the door.

"Poor boy," Betty said as she watched him go. "First love is always a bitch."

"I'm really cheesed off with you," Lake told her tightly. "You should have kept your mouth shut."

"Why?" Betty demanded. She put her hands on her hips and glared up at him. "So that you could skulk out of here on Monday without even saying goodbye?"

"No," Lake said tensely. "Because my plans have changed and now you've screwed things up."

Her mouth fell open. She looked confused.

"You're staying?"

"I was going to work that out with Kirsty—until you shoved your big foot in your mouth."

They stood in silence as they watched the last embers from the fire die in a new flurry of snow.

"It's not too late," Betty said.

The wind went out of him when he looked down at her. Her face was shining with joy. Against his better judgment, he threw an arm around her shoulder.

"It's too late for a pleasant conversation, that's for sure," Lake said. "She won't believe I mean what I'm saying. No. It's going to take something more to convince her that I intend to stay."

Betty sniffed.

"You're really staying?" she said. "For good?"

"Well, I don't know if it's good, but yes."

Betty grinned over towards the burnt-out building.

"First, I have to go after Rainne," Lake said.

"Make sure you smack her on the backside when you find her."

There was a minute's silence.

As Lake watched the fire, all he could see was the look on Kirsty's face when she'd fled.

"Do you have Caroline's phone number?" he asked Betty.

She stared up at him.

"Did you get a knock on the head?" she asked. "You do know the woman you love is called Kirsty, right?"

Lake grinned. The woman he loved. Damn right she was the woman he loved.

"Yeah, I know her name," he told his pet Hobbit. "But I still need Caroline's number. I need her to organise something for me."

"What do you need her highness for? Why can't I do it?"

Lake threw back his head and laughed. Yeah, like he'd trust Betty to sort out his life.

Grumbling under her breath, Betty went to fetch the number.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The morning after the fire, Lake was gone. In fact, everything was gone. The very worst had happened to Kirsty and the world hadn't ended. With resolve she wouldn't have believed possible, she began to pick up the pieces of her life. The strange thing was, because she'd built her life from scratch once before, it wasn't that scary doing it again. She thought it would be, but she was wrong. It would just be hard. Very, very hard. Especially without Lake.

Christmas came and went with no word from him and Kirsty's hopes that he would return began to fade. She told herself that it was pathetic to pine after him, especially since he'd run off without even saying goodbye. As New Year's Eve approached, Kirsty wondered when she'd see the "for sale" sign on Lake's shop. She'd been expecting it since the Monday after the fire and it hadn't appeared, which made everything even more confusing. To add to her suspicions, Betty wasn't talking. And Betty always talked.

Betty's silence didn't stop the speculation, though. The rumours were flying in Invertary. The local pub had become a hub of gossip and intrigue, mainly because Caroline wouldn't tolerate it at the library and no one wanted to hang around the bakery. Kirsty was perfectly aware of the talk. She could hardly miss it, seeing as the women of Knit Or Die gave her almost hourly updates.

"I hear he's joined the foreign legion," Jean said in a conspiratorial tone. "It was all that testosterone. Far too much for a wee town like this."

The women nodded.

"A man like that needs an outlet, he's better off in a war."

"I don't know," said her mother. "I think he's gone to find his sister."

Shona nodded as her lips pursed.

"Word is that she fell pregnant to that young Alastair and went mad with the thought of all that responsibility."

"Oh," Heather said. "I heard that she killed her parents in a fit of rage and was on the run."

Jean's eyes went wide.

"Nobody's seen the parents since the night of the fire," she said in a stage whisper.

The women gaped at each other.

"Seriously?" Kirsty said, mainly because she'd had enough of listening to them. "Rainne killed someone? Rainne who talked about peace and recycled underwear? The girl who made the traffic stop so a hedgehog could walk across the road. That Rainne?"