Page 88 of In Bed with her Highland Foe

“Elliot?” he murmured in surprise.

“Friends of yers?” Brayden asked from his side.

“Aye, they are.”

“Looks like we’ve been missing a good battle,” Aaden said, nodding as he looked around the great hall. “What dae ye say, Elliot?”

“I say, where dae we start?” Elliot had two pistols in his hands. He looked straight at Michael, nodded, and threw the second pistol through the air toward him.

Michael dove to catch it just as the two men acted.

Aaden and Elliot, both threw themselves at the soldiers who had followed Shay and Larry into the room. They were cut down fast, injured, falling to the floor bleeding badly.

Michael caught the gun in a fumble, landing on his knees. He turned to face Shay, ready to fire, when suddenly, Kyven was no longer in his arms. She was screaming in panic as she was thrown into Larry’s grasp.

“Aaden, get Kyven,” Michael bellowed.

“Aye, Captain!” a distant cry shouted.

Michael lost focus of all that was around him. He heard the clatters of swords form Brayden, Aaden and Elliot, but he didn’t see them. Instead, he saw the bullet that he fired at Shay, who tried to doge it. He cried out, backing away through the injured in the great hall, trying to avoid the bullet as it pierced his skin.

Michael leapt after him.

“Get back,” Shay demanded. “Fer I will kill ye this time, Michael.”

He remained silent, not wasting a word on Shay as he advanced toward him, the pistol and a sword in his grasp.

“I’m warning ye!” Shay warned, raising the dirk in his grasp. Michael knocked it away with one swipe of his sword. It thudded to the ground, just as Shay tripped over one of the benches, losing his balance with his injured shoulder. “I will kill ye.”

Michael reached down and clubbed Shay over the head with the butt of the pistol. He cried out in pain, wailing like an injured sow. Michael reached for the neck of his shirt and pulled on the collar, sharply.

“Ye willnae hurt anyone ever again.” Michael placed the tip of the sword to Shay’s stomach.

“Michael!” Brayden called. “He’s a laird. If ye kill him…”

Brayden didn’t need to say anymore. Michael halted, his hand on the hilt of the sword. How tempted he was to take his revenge, for Elisa’s sake, as well as Kyven’s, to end Shay’s reign of fear and greed for good.

They’ll hang me fer the murder of a laird.

Then Michael saw himself in bed with Kyven, the way she smiled up at him, felt her hands on his chest.

That’s the life I want.

Instead of driving home with that sword, he cut across Shay’s stomach instead, incapacitating him.

“The king will decide what tae dae with ye,” Michael said and backed away. “Take him tae the dungeons,” he called to the nearest guard who was recovering from his own wounds.

Hurriedly, Michael walked back down the hall, his whole-body tense. He was moving toward Kyven when he saw that she too was safe.

Larry, pinned at the end of Aaden’s sword, was dead against the wall. Kyven was shaking, walking away from the group in Michael’s direction. He caught her in the middle of the chamber, dropping his weapons and embracing her so tightly that he lifted her from the floor.

“Well, well,” Brayden said, turning to face Elliot and Aaden. “I have much tae thank ye both for.”

“Is it time for introductions? What a fine place for it!” Tynan’s voice suddenly declared.

Michael put Kyven down but did not let go of her as he turned to see Tynan sat up on a nearby table. He was covered in blood and very pale, but his wound was staunched, and he was smiling.

“Who are ye two fine soldiers?” he asked, pointing between Aaden and Elliot.