I can’t go through with it, though,I can’t.I know this now. I can’t bring devastation to Mac, or even to his family.
I don’t know how I’ll get out of the ultimatum my father’s given to me, but I know I have to find a way.
There has to be a way.
I hear Bram Cowen’s voice rising and falling, and a softer, feminine voice trying to calm him. Flora?
I freeze. I don’t want to eavesdrop per se, but I also don’t want to miss an opportunity to hear something I need to. I listen, feeling so guilty I almost wish Mac will come and find me. That he’ll catch me red-handed. That he’ll punish me for what I’m planning to do.
Why do I sort of wish he would?
“She isn’t here casually, Flora,” he mutters, then his voice trails off into Gaelic. I can’t understand much of what he’s saying, but I do hear one phrase loud and clear.
Spiaire salach.
My blood runs cold, and I shiver.
Filthy spy.
“Nay, Bram, you must listen,” Flora says, but I don’t stay around to hear any more. I turn and walk away as quietly as I can, my head bowed low, and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end.
Someone’s watching me. I know it. I can feel it.
I look to the left and right, but see no one. I’m skilled enough at finding hidden cameras. Anyone who grew up around my fatherhasthatskill, anyway. I see no camera on the stairwell, but there’s one by the front door and several on the floor below us as well.
I walk down the stairs, heading out to see Mac, when I see someone scurrying into another room. Blast it, it’s the same girl I caught up here. What on earth is she doing?
I open the door and head out, shivering when a quick wind makes the leaves by my feet swirl past.
I hate this duplicity.Hateit. I want to believe that Mac’s sincere. I want to believe that the feelings we have for each other aren’t make-believe. But I’ve only just met him. How can this be anything more than infatuation?
And then I see him.
My God, he’s bare-chested, swinging an ax to chop the broken bit of fence. With the mountains behind him and his muscled, inked chest glistening with sweat, he’s a fucking vision. A real man of the mountains, the stuff of fantasies. So strong. So powerful. So fucking alpha.
I watch as he swings the ax, and the wood goes splintering to the side. One of his brothers shouts out and says something, and they all burst out laughing, deep bellowing laughs, all masculine and rugged. And I feel a wee bit guilty because right then, I don't want to leave this clan. My family isn't like this, and I want to know these men better.
He sees me when I near and leans against his ax. His eyes shine at me, and he grins, that dimple showing on his cheek making my heart flutter madly in my chest. I wave at him, like a silly little girl, then immediately feel embarrassed by my outwarddisplay of affection. My family doesn't do that. We know better than to show any type of emotion.
He grins and waves back. Leith and Tate look up to where I am, and suddenly, with the sun glaring behind them, I know.I’ve seen these men before.
When I first saw them all together, I felt a strange sort of recognition. But I didn't really know how to reconcile it, or how I would know these men. But now I remember.
“Last year,” I say, shaking my head from side to side as I approach. “You three were in the petrol station in Inverness centre, weren’t you?”
Mac laughs, but he doesn’t meet my eyes. He turns to grab his shirt from the fence.
“Aye, perhaps, lass. But you have to understand that we were likely in the petrol station in Inverness centre about fifty times last year. Why would you remember one time?”
For some reason, Leith doesn’t meet my eyes but just keeps working, and Tate does the same.
“Because it was the first time I saw any of you. And now, seeing you all together like this… I just remember." I turn to Leith next. “Do you remember? You were asking how to find the Cathedral." I shake my head. "But why would you need to know how to find the Cathedral? You've lived here all your life, haven't you?"
I don't miss the way they all look at each other. They don't want to answer my question. They know exactly what I'm talking about.
And when it all becomes clear to me, I wish I could take my words back. Of course they knew where the Cathedral was. I wasin the wrong place, at the wrong time, and they were probably doing something illegal.
Mac puts down his ax and walks over to me. He smiles, but there’s warning in his eyes. “Are there things your father doesn’t speak of, lassie?”
