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you, Rafael. Now bog off.” Niall held the door wide and pointed his thumb in the direction of the bar.
    Rafael nodded formally, staring at her as if he had something else to say. His eyes flicked to Niall, whose irritation was starting to show in the set of his jaw and lowering of his brow.
    “ Boa noite , Lily. I see you Monday.” He nodded to Niall as he passed, but Niall ignored him and released the door to swing shut on Rafael’s heels.
    “You’re not seeing that wanker, are you?” Niall asked.
    “You have got to be kidding.” Lily rolled her eyes. “We share the same supervisor.” She glanced at the telephone, wondering if her mom had remembered to turn off the burners after her nightly cocoa. But Niall was watching her and she didn’t want anyone to suspect there were problems at home. “Okay, slave driver, I’ll get back to work.”
    “You’ve still got five minutes.” Niall stepped closer, his voice softened to warm toffee.
    Maybe one day she’d put him out of his misery, but right now she wasn’t in the mood. She patted his cheek on the way out. “Don’t worry about me, sweetheart. You just rest your old bones.”
    She thought she heard his growl behind her back and grinned. Men were easy to control. It was women who gave her hives.
     
    “Gimme Shelter” played on the stereo, stirring up memories of when Dougie, Gray and Nick had shared a damp, poky flat as undergrads. Of drunken parties and the unrelenting hope of having sex at a time when all that mattered was getting inside a girl without knocking her up or catching HIV. Then Nick met Chrissie and everything changed.
    Dougie laughed at something Leanne said. Some story about how the first time she’d got on a horse she’d gone straight over the other side. Nick watched Dougie squeeze his wife’s hand, one of those intimate little gestures between couples that excluded everyone else.
    Nick smiled grimly. Love was rare and precious. Needed to be nurtured and not taken for granted. No one deserved happiness more than Dougie. He’d give his left nut to protect the guy. Without Dougie, he would never have survived Chrissie’s death. Dougie had looked after him, dried him out and eventually kicked his ass into shape. Got him focused on doing something useful with his life, rather than pickling his internal organs. Even so, Nick didn’t know which of them was more surprised when he’d joined the police force.
    Susie shot him a glance from under her lashes. She’d been talking to Gray since he’d arrived, totally at ease with the other man and hiding from Nick.
    That was okay. He let her think she was safe for now. He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was getting late and excitement buzzed along his spine, tingling just beneath the surface of his skin.
    Tonight he was finally going after what he wanted.
    “Where’s the Thruxton, Nick?” Gray had a tanked-up gleam in his eye.
    “Nick’s got a kick-ass motorbike,” Leanne whispered to Susie.
    “A Triumph. A total babe-magnet.” Gray grinned, oblivious to a chocolate smear on his chin. If it had been Susie wearing chocolate, Nick would have helped her out, but Gray was on his own.
    “I want a ride on that bike,” Leanne murmured quietly in Susie’s direction.
    Dougie scowled. “Over my dead body.”
    “I want to borrow it.” Gray slid Nick a hopeful glance.
    “Over my dead body,” said Nick and everyone laughed. Gray never drove a vehicle without putting a ding in it.
    “Anyway—” Nick’s chair creaked as he stretched out his legs, “—I put it in storage this morning.”
    Autumn in Scotland was not the place to be riding a motorcycle unless you wanted iced testicles. He’d taken Lily for a ride yesterday because she’d pestered him all summer and he hadn’t been able to put it off any longer. But one good thing about visiting Emily had been finding out all about the Heathcotes’ new neighbor, Susie Cooper.
    This morning he’d run a background check on Susie Q