He held her hand a second longer than necessary. She waited for him to pull her in and kiss her, but he let go, his expression dark.
“It’s good beingfineall the time, isn’t it?” he said.
She dusted her coat as he emptied his pockets into the backpack. She really wasn’t dressed for trekking through the forest. “I heard other cars,” she said.
“Going by the chatter of those three before I sprang them, we can count on another two carloads. Between the gunshot and the flare, we’d better get going. Shall we take his sat phone? I couldn’t find any phones on those other goons.”
“Too easily tracked. We’ll disable it and toss it. Jamie... I spoke to Hyland on that phone.”
“Just now? Bloody hell.”
“He’s going after my parents.” She related the details as she stripped the phone.
“Well, then,” Jamie said, pulling on the backpack. “We’d better go and get this thingamajig from him before that happens.” He started walking, then stopped and turned. “You coming?”
She set her jaw. Tess, Charlotte and now her parents...
What choice did she have?
* * *
THEYCLIMBEDTHEhill behind the loch, emerging from the misty basin onto bare rocky terrain under stars and a fat moon. Jamie breathed in cool, dry air. Of all the corners of the world he’d traveled to, that smell—mossy, woody, herby—belonged only here. Ahead, just above the summit’s smooth lip, jutted the crumbling battlements and keep of the old castle.
He checked his wrist for the time, but of course, his watch was back at the cottage, destroyed along with any remaining self-respect—and Samira’s respect. Any questions he might’ve had about his ability to withstand temptation had been emphatically answered. He fisted and stretched the fingers of his injured arm. Pain pulsed down to his nail beds.
“Are you okay to jog?” he said to Samira, beside him. “I’ll feel a lot better when we’re in the next valley, back under tree cover.”
“Is that where your friend lives?”
“No, we’ve got to walk a little further, to the next loch. That okay?”
“Eshi.”
He set a steady pace, the rucksack bouncing on his back. She’d fallen quiet once they’d set out. What was there to say? Was she so disgusted that she regretted sleeping with him? But, hey, it was probably healthy that she saw him for what he was, however much it hurt his pride.
Of course, now he owed her his life, and was very nearly responsible for ending hers. Not how this arrangement was meant to work. So much for being addicted to her approval—she sure as shit wouldn’t be looking at him in the way she had before. Aye, like all addictions, it eventually spun round and kicked him in the balls.
A distant thudding rose up. He swore.
“Helicopter?” Samira said, looking around.
“Aye. Run faster. Can you see those ruins up ahead?”
“I see a pile of rocks...?”
“That’s them—we’ll shelter there and check what it’s up to. From there we can sprint up and over the hill and back into the forest.” If it was the same high-spec bird that’d chased them through London, he could assume it had thermal.
Its silhouette rose over the hills on the far side of the loch. Yep, the MH-6, a good five miles away, so out of thermal range for now. He grabbed Samira’s hand and upped the pace. The crew would be wondering how they’d lost communication with their advance ground team. With the fog, the chopper wouldn’t mess around searching the loch and forest. They’d sweep across exposed higher ground.
“They’ll have the last GPS coordinates from the sat phone,” Samira hissed.
“Aye, that’ll be their starting point. An hour or so old but it gives them parameters.”
The terrain steepened on approach of the castle. Jamie’s eyes and feet worked hard to sidestep strewn rocks. A twisted ankle could prove fatal.
“I can’t see much cover in those ruins,” Samira said, panting.
“The keep is mostly intact. It’s a little obvious but there’s enough of a roof to hide us, so long as they don’t winch anybody down.”
