Chapter 32 Lachlan
LACHLAN
The road to Inverness flew past me at speed as Mac drove us to the hospital as fast as the law would allow.
I sat in the passenger side filled with a dread that made me physically ill. I had the shakes, clammy sweat coated my skin, and my stomach roiled with nauseating fear.
“Shit, Lachlan, you look like you’re about to pass out.” Mac’s voice sounded far away even though the man was right beside me.
I cut him a look. Mac’s features were taut, his own face peaky. “I’m all right,” I managed. “Just keep driving.”
All my life, I’d worried my family was cursed, and when Thane’s wife died, that was it.
I was sure of it. Adair men were doomed to watch the women we loved die.
My grandfather was the only one in generations to escape that fate, but I found it hard to imagine I’d ever be that lucky.
Perhaps it was punishment for the sins of my ancestors who, from all accounts, were ruthless, self-involved bastards.
Many of the landed gentry were back then.
If Robyn died—
A harsh lurch of nausea had me rearing back in the passenger seat. I slammed my eyes closed and took a couple deep breaths. Man up, Lachlan! I yelled inwardly. If Robyn … Mac would need me.
Tears of fury clogged my throat.
Who was I kidding?
If Robyn died, I’d want to die with her.
It was true.
I was just like my emotionally weak father after all.
“She’s not dead,” Mac bit out angrily, and for a moment, I wondered if I’d spoken out loud. “My daughter is not dead, so stop looking like you’re going to her funeral.”
I nodded sharply and tried to mask my feelings.
All I kept hearing over and over was Eredine’s voice.
“Ada and I were worried, so we followed her. She’d swerved off the road. Hit a tree. The paramedics just got her out. She’s unconscious. They’re taking her to Inverness. Lachlan … we passed a truck on the road, couldn’t miss him on those tracks … he was wearing a mask. That’s what alerted us—”
The fucker.
“Coward couldn’t fight her … so he drove her off the road,” I muttered darkly to myself.
“We don’t know that yet.” Mac heard me. “We’ll find out when Robyn tells us. And she will tell us. I feel it in my gut, Lachlan. My girl is fine.”
Please let his bloody gut be right.
When we pulled into a space at the hospital, I jumped out before the engine was off and then swayed against the car as the world tilted.
Jesus Christ.
“Lachlan, you all right?” Mac was at my side, bristling with concern and impatience.
I waved him off and pushed him toward the hospital main entrance. Attempting to shake off my debilitating dread, I followed Mac in, ignoring the nurse at the reception and her wide-eyed stare when I appeared at my friend’s back.
“Uh …” She reluctantly dragged her eyes off me.
“Let me check.” She typed into the computer.
“Robyn Penhaligon. Yes, she was brought in forty minutes ago and is currently in diagnostics.” She gestured to double doors to their right.
“Just give your name at reception and they’ll let you know when you can see her. ”
“Diagnostics,” Mac said as we marched toward the doors. “That’s good. They’re just checking her over.”
I wouldn’t get my hopes up until I saw her for myself.
We didn’t need to give her name at reception. As soon as we walked into the waiting area, Eredine hurried across the room and threw her arms around me.
I squeezed her tight, grateful she was okay and that she’d had the sense to follow Robyn.
Eredine hugged Mac next, and one of my security team, Ada Renshaw, crossed the room to join us. “Sir, Ms. Penhaligon regained consciousness in the ambulance. They’re just testing her vitals and have taken her in for an MRI.”
Mac sagged at my side. “She’s okay.”
“Miraculously, it looks that way.”
My friend slumped into a free chair next to Eredine, and I couldn’t help but do the same. Limbs still trembling, I didn’t feel a hundred percent.
A bag of salted peanuts appeared in front of my face at some point as we waited. I looked up and saw Mac holding it out to me, expression grim.
I scowled.
Mac waved the bag at me determinedly. “You had a shock. And you’re shaking. Your blood pressure more than likely dropped. Eat.”
The thought of eating nauseated me, but I took the nuts because I knew Mac might force-feed me otherwise. A few minutes after demolishing the bag, I realized the bastard had been right when I started to feel less light-headed.
“Robyn Penhaligon’s family?” a nurse said as she approached the waiting room.
Me and Mac shot to our feet.
“I’m her dad.” Mac moved toward the nurse.
She raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Her father?”
Jaw muscle ticking with annoyance, he nodded. “Teen dad, at your service. Now can I see my bloody daughter?”
The nurse nodded, expression apologetic, then looked beyond him to me. “Lachlan Adair.” She recognized me. “Oh. Well, are you related to Ms. Penhaligon?”
“She’s my better half,” I uttered hoarsely.
It was just a saying, something people usually called their spouses.
That’s what the nurse took it to mean, unable to hide her shock that Lachlan Adair was seriously involved with someone and it hadn’t been splashed all over the Scottish tabloids.
But I’d said those words because I meant them.
Robyn wasn’t just under my skin. She made me whole in a way I hadn’t been since I was a boy.
As the realization sunk deep into my soul, I followed the nurse and Mac, listening intently as the nurse said, “Your wife and daughter is recovering from a concussion, most likely caused by impact with the car’s airbag.
She’s complained of tenderness in her neck and shoulders, her ribs, and there’s some bruising on her shins from the impact with the dashboard, but otherwise she’s in good health.
The MRI showed no signs of intracranial bleeding, so all we need to do is keep an eye on her concussion.
We advise an overnight stay for observation. ”
Robyn was alive and well.
I exhaled heavily, relief making my knees shake as we strode onto a ward.
“I’d like her moved to a private room.” I found my voice.
“I’ll need to check if we have any available.”
“I’ll pay extra.”
The nurse grimaced over her shoulder. “Mr. Adair, this is an NHS hospital. If we need the private room for a sicker patient, they’re prioritized regardless of who you are or what you’re willing to pay.”
Well, that was me told. “Give her the room, I’ll pay for it, even if you have to move her out of it for someone else.”
She nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.” Stopping at the last bed on the ward, the nurse pulled back the surrounding curtain, and there she was.
Robyn.
She looked up at us from the bed, no sign of damage except for a paleness to her skin and shadows under her eyes.
My knees almost gave out.
And then she opened her mouth and announced angrily, “That fucker drove me off the road!”
It seemed to take hours for everyone to disperse from the private room I’d acquired for Robyn. While we waited for the police to arrive, Eredine and Ada were allowed in to see her so she could thank them for rescuing her.
Then the two detective inspectors from our case arrived to interview Robyn. She remembered what kind of truck our murderer drove, but she couldn’t remember the registration number. At least we had something to go on this time. I wanted that piece of shit found more than ever.
And to Robyn’s and Mac’s relief, the DIs were again thinking the two cases were related.
Lucy arrived soon after the DIs, along with Arrochar. I hovered on the edges of the room while Robyn chatted as if she hadn’t just been run off the road into a tree. Other than enraged the attacker had come at her in such a cowardly manner, she seemed in good spirits.
And her behavior was increasing the heat on my simmering fury.
Eventually, Mac surmised something in my countenance and stood. “I think it’s time we give Robyn and Lachlan some privacy, eh?”
The women glanced over at me, and I ignored the raised eyebrows and murmurs and waited for them all to get out.
Mac was last to depart. He halted in front of me, a warning in his eyes. “Maybe save the lecture until after she’s out of the hospital.”
I made no promises.
With a sigh, Mac threw a tender smile at Robyn over his shoulder and exited.
As soon as the door swung shut behind him, Robyn raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to stand way over there or get over here and kiss me?”
My feet moved before I was even aware of instructing them to. I bent over the bed, cupped her face in my hands, and pressed a soft, relieved kiss against her mouth. Squeezing my eyes closed, I deepened it, tasting her, exulting in her being here and alive.
When I finally released her, Robyn gave me a charmed smile. “Now that’s what I call a kiss.”
What if I’d never gotten to kiss her again or have her smile up at me like that?
To feel all that goddamn spectacular energy that emanated from the very essence of her?
I hadn’t lied that night in bed when I told her she was the most truly alive person I’d ever met.
And her magic had almost been snuffed out.
Because of me.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
If the curse was real, then every second Robyn stayed here, the greater chance I had of losing her. “You went to that fucking fairy glen alone,” I snapped abruptly.
Robyn winced, raising a hand as if to touch me, but I retreated. She frowned. “Lachlan, I was turning back. I promise. I was trying to find a passing place to turn around when the bastard came out of nowhere.”
“It was reckless, and you promised.”
“I know.” Her eyes flashed with irritation. “That’s what I’m telling you. I realized that and I was turning back.”
“A bit goddamn late to be sensible.” I gestured to the hospital bed.
“Hey! I do not need a lecture right now.”
Cursing under my breath, I reached out and hauled one of the visitor chairs closer to the bed. Slumping down into it, I bowed my head and tried to get my shit together.