Chapter Ten
In which there are most diverse options for higher education in Scotland. Which comes in handy here.
Luna…
“I have no way to process this.”
I’m sitting on the couch in the study, still filled with mementos from the Lords - those bastards may they rot in hell - and Wallace built me a huge blaze in the fireplace because I can’t seem to stop shivering.
“Aye, it’s a bit much for a civilian,” he agrees, rubbing my chilly hands. “You’re in shock right now, lass. You’re a tough wee thing, though. You’ll be all right in a moment.”
“There was a lot of shooting,” I whisper. “You would think as an American that wouldn’t really get to me, but the actuality of the thing is…” My brain runs out of words to say, so I sit there, feeling his huge, warm hands engulf mine.
“Drink this.” He hands me a glass of water. I gulp half of it down before it spills from the corners of my mouth, and I stop, embarrassed, swiping the back of my hand against my wet face.
I ask the first thing I can think of. “What’s your name? Your real one?”
“Wallace is my cousin’s name,” he admits. “It was easy to remember for my cover. My name is Kai. Kai MacTavish.”
“Maybe I’ll call you Wally.”
“Not if ya want to live to see another sunrise.” I let out an inarticulate croaking sound that makes his eyes widen, and he rubs my back. “Sorry. That joke was in bad taste.”
“You’re not funny, Wally.”
He’s about to retort when two other people burst into the room. One, a spitfire of a girl a little older than me, is yelling at the man, who towers over her.
“Really? You’re complaining about my skills now, ya eejit? Do ya know how hard it is to set the dosage for that many people based on weight and size so they’ll all drop at the same time?” She shoulder-checks him as he laughs. “You do it next time, then.” Peering around his bulk, she smiles at me. “You must be Luna, aye? I’m Catriona, and this one-” She points at the man, “is my brother Michael, who knows so much more about poisons than I do, it seems.”
“Poisons?” I ask faintly.
“Aye,” Michael says, smiling at me warmly, “Cat’s the MacTavish Clan expert on poisons.”
“It… never occurred to me that poison could be a career path,” I say. “I mean, my guidance counselor in high school didn’t mention majoring in poisons in college. I guess you folks over here have more diverse options for higher education.”
Catriona looks at Wall- I mean, Kai. “She’s still in shock, then?”
“She’s comin’ out of it.” He blows on my hands, trying to warm them up. “Luna is a resilient lass. You should have seen her wrap that bullwhip around Deacon’s neck. The miserable fecker never saw it coming, she was so-”
I lean over just in time to keep from throwing up on myself.
“I’m sorry about your boots.”
Kai is rinsing them off in the kitchen sink, still managing to look masculine and in charge wearing just his socks. People are bustling around us on mysterious missions with an Olympic level of urgency that seems to indicate more terrible shit is about to happen.
“It’s all right. That’s not the worst thing that’s landed on these boots.”
Covering my mouth, I wave my hand at him. “Please, I beg of you to not elaborate on that, okay? Also, Catriona said poison. She poisoned all those people? How?”
“It was a fast-acting agent, I dinna know the name, it has a lot of syllables involved. It acts as a paralytic and stops the heart,” he says casually, as if I’d asked him if red wine paired better with fish or beef.
“How did she administer the poison to so many people?”
Kai gives me a quick glance. “It was in the pigeon. Ya dinna like pigeon, so fortunate, that.”
“Wh- but- I-” I stammered, “What if I did like pigeon?”
“Then I would have stopped you from eating it,” he says calmly, as if I’m the unreasonable one for getting upset.
With casual disregard for any remaining vomit, he pulls the boots back on. “It’s time for us to leave, little fox.”
“Why are you calling me a fox?”
He grins and damn him, he looks like a pirate. A sexy, hot as hell pirate. The cognitive dissonance of thinking he was a monstrous arms dealer to his big reveal of being undercover to catch and kill the arms dealers but also still being some kind of criminal is making my brain hurt.
“Because ya are a clever wee thing. Takin’ off last night, saving your friend and baiting Deacon like that even though he could have killed ya? You’re no lamb. You’re that cunning fox that escapes in the end, leaving the hounds sniffing around, losing your scent.”
There’s so much to unpack there that I set it aside for later. I’m rapidly reaching the limit of What the Actual Fuck is Happening Here with no end to the madness in sight.
“We’re leaving? Can you drop me off back at my hostel in London? I had a bag with my wallet and passport, but I have no idea where it went. I’m going to have to go to the US Embassy and get a new one, I guess.”
Kai finishes lacing his boots and rises to his full height, which is much taller than me. I’m used to that, being short of stature, but I’m at eye level with his nipples; it’s very disconcerting. He took off his shirt earlier to wipe my face after the whole humiliating puking episode. “Let’s board the helicopter and get you out of here.”
“Helicopter?”
He winks, taking my hand and pulling me along. “Fastest way off this island, I’m thinking ya never want to see it again, aye?”
“Yes,” I agree fervently. “Never again.”
The helicopter is an enormous thing that seats ten of us, including Catriona, Michael, Kai’s father, and a few other men who are casually introduced as cousins. Kai straps me in and hands me a pair of headphones. As we rise, hovering over the estate, I see a boat speed away from the little harbor.
“Are the workers on that boat?” I ask, tugging on Kai’s arm. “They’re all innocent, I’m sure of it. They were so scared.”
“Most of them are innocent,” he answers, “and aye, they’ll be safe and sound on the mainland in no time.” An unholy grin lights up his face. “Hey… Ready for a show?”
I’m thinking of the in-flight movies I watched on the plane from New York to London, so I’m looking for a screen in the back of the seats until I realize that wasn’t what he meant at all.
The helicopter circles the island as Michael and Kai gleefully count down.
“Three.”
“Two.”
“One.”
“Light that bitch up!” Kai yells, and the chopper shakes, dipping and briefly losing altitude as an enormous fireball roars up from the center of the mansion, flames curling in on themselves and then exploding outward. The huge building detonates into a million pieces, taking all the outbuildings, the dock, and a fair amount of the forest with it.
“Bloody brilliant,” Kai says, slapping Michael’s shoulder. “Nothing left but ash and bricks.”
Catriona smiles at me kindly. “Dinna worry, we got everything we needed from that hell site.”
“Did you have to blow it all up?” I ask weakly.
“Aye.” Dougal, Kai’s father, leans over. “It is crucial to make a statement.” His expression is cold and for a moment, I see what I think his enemies witness right before he kills them. “This is a warning the rest of the families responsible for this abomination will never forget.”
“Yeah, I believe it,” I agree, staring at the flames leaping twenty feet high, as if they’re trying to reach the helicopter and consume us, too. When the pilot turns, heading toward the mainland, I’m grateful to leave it all behind. I hope I can forget this place as completely as they destroyed it.