Read Online Suspicions (The Battling McGuire Boys Book 3) by Cynthia Eden - Free Book Online Page A

you need to chill out.”
    Mark braced his legs apart as he faced them. “If any of you think I had something to do with the death of your parents, say it now.”
    Her brothers didn’t say a word.
    “The McGuires have been my friends for as long as I can remember. Yeah, Gregory used to get mad because he didn’t want me around you all, but...he wasn’t me.
And I’m not like him.
If he did anything,
anything at all
, to your parents, if he was involved in any way, I swear to you, I will find out the truth.” His breath heaved out. “I protected that SOB while he was alive. I did it for my mother’s sake.”
    A mother who’d passed away when Mark was a teen, right before his eighteenth birthday. Mark had vanished for a time after that and had only come back...right before Ava’s parents had been murdered.
    She wasn’t sure what he’d done in those years, but judging from the way Davis kept talking about Mark, she strongly suspected her brother was aware of his secrets.
    “He liked to hurt people.” Mark’s shoulders rolled back. “Me in particular. And yeah, you probably already know that he hated your father. He blamed the man for taking the one woman who Gregory said was perfect.”
    Ava couldn’t move.
    “He loved your mother, or at least, as much as he could love anyone. When my mom came around, he thought she was beautiful. I heard him say once that he had to claim the most beautiful woman around. That it would show the McGuires. I don’t even know if he ever loved my mother. He sure didn’t love me.”
    Ava broke from her stupor and hurried toward Mark. He was baring his soul in front of them.
    “I stayed until she was gone, and I came back—because I knew he was bad. I was taking steps to get him in rehab, but he didn’t want help. He just wanted to die.”
    And he had. Ava stopped at Mark’s side. But then she realized that wasn’t good enough. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
    She and her brothers had been caught up in their own pain for so long. What about Mark? What about his pain and his life?
    Even heroes needed help.
    He was tense against her. “If he was involved, I’ll find out.”
    She pulled back just enough to look up at his face.
    Their gazes locked. Tension thickened in the air.
    “Um...right...” Jennifer cleared her voice. “I think we should probably pack it in for the night. Brodie, Davis, how about we head up to the main house? Let’s give them a chance to...to talk.”
    “Yes,” Scarlett agreed instantly. “Grant, we should leave and head home, too. You’re supposed to call your other brothers, remember?”
    Because Sullivan and Mac were out working cases, they hadn’t been able to join the dinner-slash-grilling-Ava-with-questions event.
    Footsteps shuffled forward. Ava glanced over and saw Davis hesitate. He inclined his head toward Mark. “I know what he did to you. I hated it. I saw the scars, man. Not until too late, but I saw them. By then, he was already in the ground.”
    And Ava remembered touching Mark’s back, feeling the raised flesh beneath her fingertips. Scars?
    A dark picture formed in her mind, and nausea rolled in her stomach. If her suspicions were right, then Mark had suffered far more than she’d realized.
    “I thought about putting him in the ground myself,” Mark admitted starkly. “That’s why I left.”
    Davis glanced at Ava once more. They’d moved away from the light, so it was hard for her to see his expression.
    “Ava has nightmares,” Mark murmured. “I just... I want to make sure she’s okay before I leave.”
    Jennifer was pulling Brodie toward the main house while Scarlett dragged Grant to their car.
    Davis exhaled. “I guess Ava’s always safe...when she’s with you.”
    “I’d protect her with my life.”
    No, that
wasn’t
something she wanted to happen. She never wanted him to be put at risk for her. She didn’t want
any
of them put at risk for her. She had