Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Leith
We're nearly at Inverness when I get a text from Mum.
Your father’s had a fall. He’s okay, son, but you need to know that Cairstina’s run. She thinks herself to blame, but she isn’t.
I call her immediately. “What are you talking about? This isn't possible. What do you mean she's gone? Did you have anyone follow her?”
“Leith, I didn’t realize it at first. I was too busy making sure your father was okay.”
“What happened? Was there a row? What the hell happened, Mum?”
She’s crying on the other end of the line, I can tell.
"Cairstina was in the kitchen with me. Your father came in in a temper, so I had her hide in the pantry.
I didn't know he'd hear her, but he said a few things that made her angry and she came out of hiding. She’s very loyal to you, son.
He…" Her voice trails off. “He grabbed her, and I got in between, and… she shoved him away. He hit his head on the corner of the table.” Her voice is choked.
The bastard.
“Where did she go?" I'm aware of the fact that I'm more concerned about her than I am about him. But she's the one that's defenseless. She's the one that needs my protection. Where has she gone to?
"I don't know, son."
"Didn't you see her?”
“I was taking care of your father. But Nan says she took a car.”
She took a bloody car? What the hell was she thinking? My God, when I get ahold of her…
But maybe she's afraid. Maybe she thinks she hurt my father, or she was afraid that he would come after her, just like her brother did. My God, I could kill him.
"We'll find her," I tell Mum. "Keep me abreast of what's going on with Dad."
"I will, son, I promise. Stay safe. Can you come home soon? Or do you still have work to do in town?"
"We are nowhere near finished here. But I promise I'll be in touch with you soon as I can. Text or call me the second you find anything new, aye?”
"I will. Stay safe." Her voice trembles with emotion, and I know that it's been too much for her to see her husband hurt, Cairstina leave, and her fear for her sons’ safety as well. I sympathize, but what's most important right now is that I find Cairstina. I can't imagine what she's going through.
The only safe place in her world is the Cathedral, but surely she wouldn't go there?
I turn to my brothers and Lachlan. We've made it to the empty house, but of course there's nobody here.
And we need to find a place to go. We need to find a clue, when my phone buzzes with a text from Cairstina.
The relief I feel from hearing from her is immediately swallowed by the fear I feel when I read what she has to say.
No.
I turn to the others.
"Dad's been hurt. Cairstina got into a row with him, he fell and banged his head.” I don’t tell them she pushed him.
No one needs to know. “I just got off the phone with Mum.
I also got a text from Cairstina. She somehow overheard the Aitkens, and they say that they're going after Islan and Paisley.
The question now then, is where are the girls? "
"They were supposed to be studying with Fran,” Mac says. "Not sure if that's actually where they went. You know how they are, especially Paisley. If she had somewhere to go and she didn't think that we wanted her to go…" His voice trails off.
“My thought precisely." I turn to Tate. “Can you call Fran? See if she knows anything?”
“Of course. But honest to God, Leith, if what Cairstina says is true…” He grimaces. I’m thinking the very same.
“Aye. If what she says is true, where we go next is the bloody fucking Aitkens.”
“This will be war.”
“Of course it will, but it also means they’ve thrown down the gauntlet if they've gone after my sisters. And I won’t allow that."
Unlike us, the Aitkens do not value anonymity. They live in a huge house near one of the ruined castles of Inverness, attended by large staff, surrounded by a pool and a high gate and massive security.
“If we go there unarmed, without the proper back up, we're sure to be ambushed.”
“It's a risk we may have to take." I don't want to discuss this anymore, because what I really want to do is go find Cairstina.
I'm torn between looking out for my sisters and looking out for my bonnie lass.
I need to find her. I called her, but it goes to voicemail.
In frustration, I call again, and this time it's actually answered.
She doesn't speak, of course, but I can hear an oily voice that’s vaguely familiar.
It takes me a minute to realize what I'm hearing. Is that her brother? Bloody hell.
“Hello? Hello?” But the phone disconnects.
"Cairstina answered her phone, and I heard her brother in the background. I think he's got her.”
Mac stares at me. “Why the bloody hell would he have her?" I quickly tell them what Mum told me.
"If she knows anything at all about the Aitkens, it could be more useful having her with us than going straight to their house. Could be a trap, though, for all we know,” I admit.
I think this through, and I don't have to think long because I know if I can find Cairstina, see that she's safe, find out what she knows, then I can find my sisters next. "But I don't know where she is. All I know is that she's with her brother. Could be bloody anywhere."
“Could be,” Mac mutters.
“But there was a chime in the background…” My voice trails off as it all becomes abundantly clear at once. The chime. The chime of the Cathedral.
I turn to face my brothers. “She’s at the Cathedral, I know it.”
I send her another text, and another; of course, she doesn't reply. I do the same with my sisters, and it infuriates me I can't get in touch with anybody important to me right now. I don't know what we're gonna do. But I know that I have to find Cairstina.
We take the back roads to the Cathedral.
Cars are parked under the overhanging branches of a tree.
Someone's here. But who? I walk around the side, but the front door’s locked.
I ring the bell, fully expecting no answer.
I look up the Cathedral phone number and call MacGowen, but that also goes to voicemail.
We’ll have to find a way inside.
I hear a dog barking in the distance. Is that Bailey? What the bloody hell is he doing here? Where is he?
I turn to Tate. "Did you hear that?"
“Aye, brother, I did. Where is that coming from?"
“Every bloody door’s locked,” Mac mutters.
I don’t give it a second thought. I take my gun from the vest I’m wearing and smash the butt of it into a door panel. The glass shatters, I shove my hand through the open space, and unfasten the lock.
I hear someone approaching behind me.
“Hold them off, Mac.”
Mac turns around with a grin on his face. It’s one of his favorite parts of the job.
It's really quiet in here, quieter than I’m used to. Where’s Father MacGowen? I jerk my chin at Tate. "We need to find MacGowen," I say in a whisper. "He could be in danger, just like Cairstina.”
Tate’s eyes widen at something he sees behind me.
I turn to the parsonage living room and give a start when I see Father MacGowen.
He's either passed out or knocked out, on his side in the fetal position, his mouth gagged and hands bound.
Somebody's been here before us. Where the bloody hell is she?
"See that he’s okay, Tate, will you?”
Tate nods. “Of course, brother, you know it.”
Father MacGowen stirs, and my heart soars with hope and relief. He’s alright. He’ll be okay, I know it.
Cairstina can’t yell to me wherever she is. I've never wished she had the gift speech more than I do now. But Bailey, if he hears me, maybe he can bark. Maybe he can make a sound? “Bailey!”
I shout his name again, and again, and to my immense relief I hear a bark, followed by a cry.
A slew of texts come to my phone, one after another.
We can’t be with each other anymore, Leith. I’m a menace to you and your family. You need to go now.
I slam my thumbs on the screen so hard I may break the phone. WHERE ARE YOU?
Silence. No response. Nothing.
I push into the kitchen and scan it, looking for something, anything at all that would give them away, when the back door opens, and my questions immediately cease. Dougal isn’t hiding from me at all. He walks straight in with his arm around Cairstina’s neck, holding a gun to her head, literally.
“Ah, there you are,” her brother says. “My, my, aren’t you familiar?”
“Let her go.”
“Let her go?” he asks, as if amused. “Now, why would I do a thing like that? She doesn’t belong to you. She never did.”
“She belongs to no one,” I say through gritted teeth. I’m ready to rip his fucking arm off. “And you ought to know that. She’s free, and always should’ve been. She never did you any harm.”
“And you know that, do you?”
She won't make eye contact with me. Why not? Does she really think all the things that she said to me in the text? Have I been mistaken all this time?
Knowing that settling down isn’t the life for me, that I’m entrenched too deeply in the chains of Clan life. Not when my life isn't my own and it never has been.
If I attack her brother right now, I could hurt her. If he pulls that trigger, she's dead, and my gut instinct says that he doesn't care if she is.
I look for Bailey.
We haven't spent the past weeks training this dog for nothing. He knows my commands, and he knows to protect her.
She finally looks at me, and when she does, I give her a signal silently.
There’s a heavy potted plant atop Bailey’s rope.
If she knocks it over, he'll be free to attack.
I hold up three silent fingers, thankful that our entire communication up until this point has been silent, and we know how to read each other better than anybody else in the world.
She doesn't need my words; she knows exactly what I mean.
On three.
I go down to two fingers, I hold up one, and then I make a fist. She gives a barely-perceptible nod. She knows the cues.
On three, she kicks over the pot holding Bailey's rope down, and I give the sharp command.