Lachlan took his point. Was it his ownsister’s life under threat and he was in no position to aid her,‘twould drive him daft. Still, whether or not it made sense toVictor or even himself, being unable to protect Veronica wasgetting to him. He dinna ken why he’d felt such an all-consumingconnection with the wench from the moment he’d first seen her, buthe had and did.
He kept up his pacing, praying to the saintsthe brave wench made it to the boat unbitten. Victor had informedhim that, if bit, she couldna travel back to this time. Ifinfected, she would turn into one of those…things. The bites, heknew, caused the infection from which there was no remedy.
‘Twas a nightmare, this. Still, Veronica hadmade it thus far unbitten. Though worried aboot her person, herecognized her strength and perseverance. She could do this. Shehad to do this. She had been through too much to cease her effortsnow.
Be safe, woman, Lachlan thought,willing her to obey him.Get to the docks and into the boatunbitten. Then come to me.
Chapter Six
Veronica swerved the electric vehicle’ssteering wheel to miss a lone, emaciated eater who’d wandered ontothe dirt road, a cloud of dust all that could be seen when shechanced a glance in the rearview mirror. Her stash of weapons wassecured next to her on the floor of the passenger’s seat, all ofthem save one gun with a silencer hidden inside the large, fauxleather bag she’d found at Victor’s. She’d left one gun out just incase and set it on the seat next to her brother’s laptop.
Victor was currently otherwise occupied. Hewas speaking to that giant of a man in a language she didn’tunderstand. It was just as well. She needed to concentrate on theroad and get to the interstate as quickly as possible. She justprayed I-77 north wasn’t filled with broken down cars. She doubtedthat would be a problem anywhere near Apple Creek, but it would bea definite probability the closer she got to Cleveland. Thankfullyshe’d been born ambidextrous. She could steer with one hand andshoot with the other if the need arose. So long as she didn’tinadvertently drive near a swarm of eaters while being forced intoa position where she had to keep the car at a low speed, shereasoned she should be okay.
Unfortunately, hungry reanimated corpsesweren’t her only concern. What remained of the living could givethe eaters a run for their money any day of the week in terms ofthe havoc they wreaked. Nobody trusted anyone anymore. That factwas the entire reason it had taken so many years to make it toApple Creek. People today had two choices: go it alone—with familyand friends you’d had and trusted before the plague if such amiracle existed—or band together with other survivors and pray theywouldn’t rob, rape, murder you, or worse.
Veronica’s father had taught his children totrust no one. Even her brother, the same guy who’d refused to go totarget practice with her and daddy or learn martial arts under histutelage, had inherited their father’s severe skepticism of otherhumans. A Navy Seal, daddy had seen the worst of humanity andraised his children accordingly. Mom had tried to temper herhusband’s paranoid outlook on life, and it had worked to an extenton Veronica, but not with Victor. Her brother was and always hadbeen as paranoid as they came. Considering the current alternative,that had turned out to be a good thing.
Growing up, Veronica had been a daddy’s girlwhile Victor had been a mama’s boy. Not that Veronica didn’t loveher mother or Victor their father. On the contrary, the Banksfamily had been tightknit clear up until Michael and Julia Bankshad succumbed to the plague. When Victor had informed her of theirdeaths…
God. There were no words to encapsulate hergrief or that of her brother’s.
She had wanted so much to hug Victor and, ifthe situation allowed for it, visit their parents’ graves. For fourpainstakingly long years she’d slowly but determinedly made thetrek from Los Angeles to Apple Creek. It had never occurred to hershe’d be on the road heading toward Cleveland and onward to theHighlands almost as soon as she arrived. Yet here she was drivingtoward the interstate, her parents’ final resting place stillunvisited by her and getting further away from her the more shedrove.
She knew mom and dad forgave her though.They’d want their children to take care of each other andconcentrate on their mutual survival.
*****
Lachlan kept his gaze hooded as he watchedVeronica make her way towards this place called Cleveland in thething called a car. The lass seemed to be safe for the present,which allowed him some semblance of inner peace.
“The road she’s getting on now,” Victorexplained in Gaelic, “is called aninterstatewhere we comefrom. It’s a road that will take her to Cleveland in the fastestpossible manner.”
He nodded to his back. “’Tis a boon,that.”
All this waiting whilst being able to donaught was jarring to his typically stoic mind and body. He againfound himself wishing he could retrieve the woman himself. Doingnothing was not in Lachlan’s nature. Doing nothing was not how amon became laird of Clan Gunn. Here, in his time, Lachlan was asclose to being a king as the Highlands kenned. He was accustomed togetting his way, whether by force or no.
He wanted his bride and he wanted her now.More than aught else, he conceded, he desired her safety. The wenchbarely kenned he existed, yet none save mayhap Victor worried o’erher everra move as did he.
She was becoming more than an obsession. Shewas becoming a need.
*****
“Sis, there appears to be a group of what Ithink are the living making their way towards I-77. Your pathscould cross so be aware.”
Veronica blinked, her attention coming backto the here and now. The journey had been such smooth sailing forthe past twenty minutes or so that she’d allowed her mind towander. Oddly, it had meandered back to memories of that large,brooding man who’d stood unmoving behind her brother. He washandsome in a ruggedly masculine way—very tall, very broad, andextremely muscular. Men just didn’t look like that anymore. And themanner in which his dark gaze had all but seared hers…
“Thanks, Victor,” she muttered, forcing hermind back to the mission at hand. Later, if she made it to the boatintact and ended up at sea, she’d have time to take in the enormityof time travel and mysterious Highlanders.One thing at atime, she reminded herself. “But how do you know this?”
“Do you really want the answer?”
She frowned. Knowing Victor, no, shedidn’t.
“I didn’t think so.”
Her eyes were on the road and not on thelaptop, but even though she couldn’t see her brother she couldsense his amusement. She semi-snorted. He knew her too well. Shewas like daddy—all action and little interest in artificialintelligence mumbo jumbo. Victor was mom’s son—all science andlittle else.
“I’ve got a gun on the seat beside me nextto your laptop. I won’t hesitate to use it on the living or thedead if it comes down to it,” Veronica said.
“I can see the gun,” Victor mused.
