Chapter 13 #3
I turn to Paisley. She’s gripping Cairstina, her shoulders shuddering.
She looks at me warily, as if she’s afraid I’m going to lecture her for coming here, for putting herself in danger, and God if that isn’t the first time I finally realize I have been too strict.
She thought it necessary to run away. She doesn’t know that all I want is for her to be safe.
“C’mere,” I say, my voice choked with emotion and from the effort it takes to control myself.
I take her from Cairstina and embrace her, holding her to me.
She’s so little, so young. Mum never planned on having another child and calls her the bonus bairn, the one she never thought she’d have.
She’s so much younger than I am and Jesus, I may’ve overstepped my damn role.
“Let’s get her home. Do you have your things in another room?”
She nods, but Cairstina’s already after them.
The bloke I beat lies on the floor, his eyes partly opened. I point my finger at him as I take her home.
“If you ever come anywhere near her again, I’ll kill you. Slowly, and painfully.” I mean every fucking word. I don’t care about the consequences. He’s lucky he still draws breath.
I hand Paisley to Tate. I won’t let Cairstina walk in the snow in her bare feet. I pick her up and thank her.
“May not have found her without you.”
We make it back to the car, and Fran’s waiting on the side of the road.
“My God!” she shouts. “I was afraid if I left the cars someone’d call the police or nick them so I stayed. Is she okay? Paisley?”
Paisley nods. “I’m fine. Little banged up.”
Fran’s eyes flash. “And I hope your prick of a boyfriend’s more than a little banged up,” she says, her eyes flashing at me.
“You could say that,” Paisley says with a wince.
“Go home, Fran. Thanks for your help. We’ll take it from here,” Tate mutters.
“Just let me come, make sure she’s alright?”
Tate’s gentler than I am. “No, lass, but thanks very much. You’ve been tremendously helpful. Come by tomorrow and we’ll have a wee visit, eh?”
She smiles at him and waves goodbye, driving along the road that takes her home.
Paisley hangs her head when we reach the car. “Can I sit with Cairstina?”
Her voice is little, like her, and I wish I could make this all go away. I wish she hadn’t seen firsthand what pricks a bunch of men can be.
“Of course,” I tell her. “Why don’t you sit with her in the back?”
So Mac takes the passenger seat and I drive, and Paisley sits between Tate and Cairstina. We drive along the road that takes us home for long minutes before anyone speaks, but after a minute or two, I have questions that I want answered.
“What happened?” She looks at me in the rearview mirror and bites her lip. “Paisley, we need to know.”
“If I tell you, you’ll go back and finish the job. I don’t want you to kill him, Leith, and you will.”
I don’t even bother to lie. “Likely. So what happened?”
She blows out a shaking breath. “Well… I met Jack at a concert a few weeks back.” I give Mac and Tate looks in the rearview mirror but don’t say anything.
“And I thought I really liked him. I hadn’t spent much time with him, though, but we talked on the phone nearly every night.
He invited me out last night, I’d never been to his place.
And sure enough, he doesn’t have his own flat like he said, but he’s got flatmates. ”
“Clearly,” Mac mutters. “Go on.”
She releases a shuddering breath. “And I—he wanted to let his friends do things to me. Said he thought I’d be into it.”
“Mother of God,” Mac mutters. “Should’ve fucking killed him.”
“I said no, and he hit me. Knocked my phone out of my hand and it shattered, so I couldn’t call or text.” She sighs. “Now, Leith, you don’t need to growl like an animal. You already kicked his bloody arse, didn’t you?”
“Not good enough,” I grunt. “God.”
“I know, I know,” she says. “I can’t believe he was such a loser. He seemed a right sort.”
“Most men are pricks,” I tell her, frowning at her in the mirror. “Assume all of them are until they prove you otherwise. Did he rape you?”
She shakes her head. “No, but not a doubt in my mind if you hadn’t come when you did…” I count slowly in my head to calm myself.
One, two, three, four, fivesixseven fuck! It isn’t working. I go to turn the car back around.
“No, brother,” Tate says from the back. “Take her home. We’ll do what we need to later, not now. Not with the girls with us.”
I grumble, but do as he says for I know he’s right.
“What do we have to tell Mum and Dad?” she asks in a little voice.
I sigh. “Let me take care of that.” I shake my head. I take the blame for this, for pushing her to rebel by being such a tight-arse. God.
“I won’t lecture you, lass, I think you learned your lesson here. But I will ask that if we’re not going to trouble Mum and Dad, you give me the courtesy of telling me where you’re going and when. And for my part, I won’t be so bloody rigid. Alright?”
She nods. “Aye. Thank you.”
She speaks in a hushed voice to Cairstina, and when I look, Cairstina’s holding her hand, gently stroking it as if to soothe her. It’s good to see the two of them enjoying each other’s company. It feels oddly like Cairstina belongs here with us.
We reach home after dark.
“Leith, Mum will see me, and if she does—”
I shake my head. “Come to my place. I’ll ring Islan and we’ll get you fixed up, alright?”
She nods, and as we park the car, she smiles at Cairstina. “You should stick around,” she says. “I think he’s a lot softer when you’re here.”
Cairstina shoots me a furtive look, then quickly averts her eyes. She isn’t here to stay, and we both know it.
And could a woman ever be with a man like me? Even if she wasn’t here temporarily, I’m the head of the Cowen Clan, and I can’t offer her what a woman like her needs.
Islan joins us in the house, and I call Mum to tell her we’ve got Paisley, and she’s fine. She’s at my place because she wanted to spend some time with Cairstina. It seemed to work, though I’m not sure Mum buys it.
Still, she doesn’t ask questions.
The girls clean Paisley up and help her get dressed.
Islan has some staff members bring us dinner, and we eat at the small table in my kitchen.
Cairstina, as usual, eats a huge bowl of stew and several large, hearty rolls topped with butter.
Paisley seems better, as she joins us for dinner and tells us more about what happened.
Islan’s furious. “Why didn’t you kill him, Leith? Why?”
I blow out a breath. “Our way isn’t to murder for retribution, Islan. A man like him deserves a far worse punishment than that.”
Cairstina’s eyes widen, but she only dollops more stew in her bowl.
“Agreed,” Islan says. “But then eventually you must make sure he pays the ultimate price.”
I look sharply to Cairstina, who’s intently focused on eating her roll.
The girls finally go back to the house. I’ll have a chat with Mum later, but Dad doesn’t need to know what happened tonight.
I don’t like making the decision for him, but I don’t trust him with his heart condition.
There was a reason he stepped down as the Captain of our Clan.
Paisley’s safe now, and we’ll see to it that ex of hers gives her no more trouble.
The girls go back at night, Islan planning on telling Mum Paisley’s tired and needs some rest. We’ll deal with this all another day.
When the girls have gone, I build a fire in the fireplace and beckon Cairstina over to me. She looks at me shyly. She’s discarded the wig and changed into a pair of lounge pants and a soft sweatshirt, wearing fluffy socks instead of those heels she shed in the field earlier.
“Come here.”
She comes to me and sits beside me, and gives a sharp intake of breath when I tug her onto my lap.
“Thank you for today,” I tell her, grateful for her help.
She nods, and pulls out her mobile.
I’m glad we found her. The poor girl was traumatized.
I nod. “Aye, she was, and I’m so grateful, I can’t even tell you.”
She smiles. I know.
I laugh. “When you took off like that, I had no idea where you were going or why.”
Well, I was afraid we didn’t have much time, that if I’d taken the time to text you, we’d miss our chance to find her or something. And it seemed more important to find her than tell you why I was running. It was probably silly, though, I mean we could’ve driven. You trusted me, though.
“Aye, lass, of course I did.”
She cradles my face between her hands, holding my gaze for long seconds before she kisses me. I sigh. This feels like a reunion, like a part of who I am reignites when we’re together.
“You’re such a brave lass. Such a brave, brave lass. You know that?”
She nods and texts again. Thank you. But it isn’t true. I was so afraid when we went into town today, I could hardly breathe the right way. I almost lost my mind when I heard my brother’s shouting.
“He won’t hurt you again.”
If I have to spend the rest of my life doing nothing but keeping the people I care about safe, I’ll die a happy man.
She nods, but I’m not quite sure she believes me.
What happens to me next?
She tips her head to the side, curious.
I bend my mouth to hers. “What happens to you next is that I fuck you until you come so hard you forget your name, then tuck you into bed for a good night’s sleep. Sound good to you?”
She wraps her arms around my neck, eagerly kissing me, her answer loud and clear.