Page 56 of Highlander’s Lesser Evil

“The guards won’t be prepared for a fight from within.” Gemma bit her lower lip and looked at the two of them. “I have a plan, but it’s dangerous, and I will need help.”

Jillian and Elizabeth both gave her their full attention.

“First, I will need a distraction.”

The guards stood around him, perplexed, as Theo saddled his stallion. He could understand their confusion. First, he’d told them that he had no intention of going to Loch Moran since it was in good hands and he was needed here. Then, he’d ordered a few guards to go and check on Gemma. At the last minute, he decided that he needed to go himself.

Last night, as he lay in bed alone, he finally admitted to himself what he already knew. Letting her go was a horrible mistake. She anchored him, and there was no way he would ever hurt her or his child. None.

Damn it, I love her.

Now, the guards were ordered to stay behind and keep an eye on things while he was gone. He didn’t intend to be gone for long; just long enough for him to check on things and bundle Gemma up and bring her back where she belonged.

“Laird MacDougal!” an unfamiliar voice rang out, and the guards immediately put their hands on the hilts of their swords.

Theo turned and frowned. It wasn’t someone he recognized from his lands or from Loch Moran. It was a man a few years younger than himself with a fierce look on his face as he reached for his own sword.

“Stand down,” Theo told his men quietly before he turned to the stranger. He didn’t like the look of desperation on the man’s face. “Identify yerself.”

“Oliver MacSeaver.”

David and Cameron’s cousin. “Have ye come to declare yer loyalty to me?” He really must care for the boys if he’d decided to make this trip alone to become a part of their clan. Theo admired his resolve, but the man’s face held something entirely different.

Fear.

“Nay, Laird. I have come with ill news. Yer wife has been kidnapped along with her friends, Jillian MacSeaver and my own Elizabeth.”

Ice laced his blood. She was supposed to be safe at the loch. “Kidnapped? Who would dare?”

Oliver’s eyes hardened. “By the one ye left in charge. The warrior Thomas. Graeme stayed behind to organize a search with the guards, but we doonae know who we can trust.”

Thomas had betrayed him. His second-in-command. His friend who had supported his rebellion and knew all of his secrets and all of his fears. Theo wanted to drop to his knees, but his beloved was in danger, and he would waste no time.

“And how do ye know this?”

“None have seen the ladies since two nights ago, and there was a message found in her cottage from Thomas himself. He demands that ye step down from yer role as laird, and she will be safely returned.”

Damnation, this isnae about Loch Moran at all!

Furious, he whirled and stared at the keep. There was only one person he knew who would demand that he stepped down.

“Father,” he hissed.

Turning, he pointed to four guards at random. “Two of ye ride to Sinclair lands and two of ye ride to Hamilton.” He would have preferred to ride to MacKay as well, but they were too far away. “Tell them I need forces here to make a stand against my father’s mercenaries.”

“Gemma—” Oliver started before he remembered himself. “Yer wife is not on these lands.”

“Nay,” Theo said coldly. “But if my father is still giving orders, then he has more than Thomas faithful to him. We will weed out the traitors and get her location.”

“How do ye plan on doing that?”

Theo pulled out his sword. “By letting them know that I have no qualms about spilling blood to protect my wife.”

26

Gemma had never swooned a day in her life, but as she stumbled from the tent, her hand pressed against her wound—which was still bleeding—she felt faint. The fabric that was pressed to it was soaked, and blood smeared her thighs. Stumbling out of the tent, she ran wildly for the woods before she stumbled to her knees.

At first, no one even seemed to notice.