Chapter 6
Dixie
We exited the cabin into a rainy day, and I wrapped my arms around myself. Being outside felt strange. Dangerous, somehow. Even in this isolated spot, backed by dark-green woods and the summit rising above.
“You don’t like neighbours?”
Tyler locked up the house. “I don’t mind the city, but I need space sometimes.”
He crossed to his car—a second one he’d brought from a garage down the track—and opened the passenger door for me, resting an elbow on the doorframe. “Arran offered me an apartment in the warehouse. The one opposite Cassie and Riordan’s. I furnished it, but I haven’t stayed there.”
“Kidnap is an expensive business, and you have another mouth to feed. Can’t maintain two properties.”
His lips twitched. “I should put it through expenses.”
Once I’d climbed in and he’d closed my door, he rounded to the other side. I shivered, both at the safety of the car and at the proximity to Tyler. In the house, he’d been careful not to get too close. Now, we’d be inches apart for hours.
I also hadn’t enjoyed my ten seconds of fresh air. I didn’t like going out, even if this was my plan. But I had no choice if I was going to get the space I needed. I tugged up the hood of my borrowed jumper and hunkered down.
Tyler handed me his phone, unlocked and on an app. “Pick the music. We’ll be on the road for a while.”
An unlocked phone? His trust was a strange thing. As odd as mine. Given freely when he had no reason to believe I’d do anything but run. Or text Arran from his number. I did neither of those things, only picking a suitably dark song that went with my mood. ‘Villain’ by From Ashes to New.
I was in my subterfuge era. Finding ways to tread water so I didn’t drown.
Tyler drove, and I watched the world go by.
I slept for a while, anxiety waking me with a jolt.
Tyler took a breath, his fingers flexing on the steering wheel. “Everything’s okay. We’re thirty minutes out of Inverness.”
Which meant I’d dozed for most of the four-hour trip. I struggled upright then took in the traffic, changed my mind, and curled right back down again. “What if your crew are here?”
We’d picked Inverness as a central hub that I could get in and out of to lay my trail. Close enough to make it feasible for me to have hitchhiked to from where I’d landed after leaving the island. Busy enough for me to disappear into a crowd.
“Pick up my phone. The passcode is seven-eight-nine-six. Now go to the app that has a blue map icon.”
I did as he asked. A map of Scotland loaded, three flashing dots displaying, one on the Isle of Skye, one over Ullapool, another further south in Mallaig.
“I track my crew’s locations. We do it for each other on active missions. It’s a safety mechanism. Also saves paperwork if someone goes missing.”
My mouth fell open. “Daddy Spy. Can they see you?”
“Only if I turn my location on. Currently, they think I’m working on something else which doesn’t involve them.”
“Clever. Who’s who?”
No names were displayed, which made sense when this was all about his team protecting each other.
“A1 and A2 are the Atherton brothers. Ye haven’t met them yet. R1 is Kane and by default Lovelyn.”
“According to this, Kane is still on Skye. That’s where we came in, wasn’t it?”
“Aye, it was.” He pursed his lips, clearly working something out. “I don’t like that assumption I just made about Lovelyn. Do ye mind if I call him?”
“Why would I mind?”
“In case he says something sensitive. He isn’t indiscreet, but he’s just been at your ma’s house. Your comment on her selling ye out means she might not have been kind. He’d share that.”
“My mother hates my guts, hun. That ain’t news. Call away.”
He gave a troubled half-smile then touched something on his dashboard that had the call blipping over the car’s speakers. It connected, giving a voice to the Shithouse AKA my brother.
“Here,” Kane said.
“Checking in,” Tyler replied.
Kane took a breath. “All good, but no sighting. Nothing since we left Torlum. Would’ve called ye if there had.”
“Lovelyn still with ye?”
“Of course. We’re working through every fishing village on Skye, northwest to southeast.”
I stiffened, unable to connect to any family feeling because of what Kane had said.
I was pretty sure Tyler had taken me into Elgol, a tiny place off the beaten track.
I’d recognised the rocky beach and raised car park.
It was next on their path. Whoever he’d hired or borrowed the boat from might give us up.
Tyler’s gaze touched on mine. He tapped the steering wheel. “I’ve had intel to suggest she was seen in Inverness. Not a confirmed sighting, but one I’d like checked out.”
My shoulders tightened more, though his carefully phrased words were part of the plan.
Kane made a sound of interest. “Credible?”
“Enough for me to pass it on. Timing feels plausible, doesn’t it?”
“I’d say so. My gut feel is that wherever she landed, she’d leave again in a hurry. Probably begging a ride from whoever she could. It would make sense that she’d end up in a place with transport links. Want us to head there? It’ll take a couple of hours.”
“Aye, do it. Did ye manage to pick up her things?”
I sank in my seat, adrenaline eking into my veins from the near miss. Tyler continued the conversation, Kane doing exactly as he’d guessed and describing Mum’s sour jibes, how glad she was to see the back of me, but my heart pounded.
He ended the call, silence filling the car.
“I hope it was okay to bring our strategy forward. We have time to get ye in and out long before they arrive.”
“They were close.”
“They were. Ye don’t like how that feels.”
“Not even a little.”
Even if Kane wasn’t the Big Bad I’d thought he was, coming face to face with him would take away my ability to hide.
I’d have to answer so many questions, and I couldn’t deny Lovelyn.
Not my friend who’d done a lot to help me.
Under her gaze, I’d crumple. I’d be forced back into the light when I wanted to stay in the dark.
Tyler drove on. Soon, we entered the familiar streets of Inverness, grey-brown stone buildings rising above busy shops.
I’d grown up south of the border in England, but my mother had moved us north when my Marchant grandparents first took interest in me.
Just like everyone else, she followed the money.
When we neared the drop-off point we’d agreed on this morning, Tyler had tensed up, his jaw hardened. “You’re clear on what ye want to do?”
“Crystal. I’ll walk in, have at least two conversations, drop the clue, then get on the Edinburgh bus and leave. You’ll be waiting at the first stop.”
From my bag, I slid on the broad hairband that I’d sometimes worn in work when I was a day or two away from the hairdressing appointments that kept my yellow-gold locks a more commercial platinum blonde.
It hid my roots and was a pretty accessory in purple and black with tiny skulls.
Lovelyn had admired it. She’d know it when she saw it.
With greater regret, I removed Tyler’s cosy jumper and snagged my jacket from the back seat. Then with my bag over my shoulder, I was ready to go. I had the route in mind and the will to make this work. I just had to get out of the car and walk.
At traffic lights, we stopped, and Tyler swallowed then reached to lightly touch my arm. Not a hold, and only for the barest second. But so much like he didn’t want me to go.
“Stick to the plan,” he said quietly. “I’ll be where I said I’d be.”
I ducked my head, checked the road, then climbed out. Stick to the plan. I could do that.
Along Academy Street, I cut through a lane, the cold spring weather throwing a splatter of rain at me that cooled my too-hot head. At the end, it opened out to a concrete expanse of bus stops and covered shelters, busy with people, the public library ahead and a big café to one side.
A sense of intense vulnerability hit hard. It felt like every single person turned to me. In my twisted mind, each face belonged to a Marchant. All had reporters on their message list.
I made a beeline for the ticket office. Inside, I rushed to the first uniformed person I could see, babbling about needing to get a bus. The woman directed me to the desk to buy my ticket.
To the teller, lies fell from my tongue. Of how I needed to get to Edinburgh as soon as possible. Of how I needed a cheap ticket. Enough of a fuss to make me memorable. Dropping my phone when it came to pay. Fumbling my bag. Not all that acted either, as panic was my new bestie.
With the transaction finally complete, I faced into the room, taking a second for any cameras to pick me up. I mopped my brow, slipped the hairband from my head, and took my bag to a vacant seat, rooting through it, dropping the band to the floor.
The first woman I’d spoken to appeared next to me, and I froze.
I was so busted. She knew everything.
She eyed me curiously but pointed outside. “Ye wanted Edinburgh, aye? Bay three. About to leave.”
I blurted thanks and darted away.
Once more, the fresh air fritzed my brain. Worse again, not better. Tyler would be gone already, down to the other side of the centre where the bus made its first stop to pick up more passengers. Or to drop off wayward runaways.
I wanted him right back here where he could scoop me up and I could bury my head in his chest. I’d never done that, and I’d always wanted to.
I hated that thought even as it bloomed.
He’d been so kind. Driving for hours without complaint to enable what I’d asked him to do.
No lunch. No breaks. He coped with whatever the world threw at him.
And he’d kidnapped me.
I checked the clock on the departures board.
Two minutes until the bus left.
I turned on my heel and ran the other way.