Chapter 31 #3
“I don’t have a private plane at my disposal,” Nathan growled. “I had to wait for the bloody shuttle just like everyone else.”
“You’ll have money enough very soon,” Gilly said dismissively. “As you can see, I have gone to the trouble of saving his whore for you—”
“You did not,” Nathan said in astonishment. “I’m the one who had her sent to you! Besides, I don’t care about her. I’m here for him. Stay out of my way so I can kill him and have this over with.”
“I don’t want him dead,” Gilly said sharply.
“I don’t care what you want—”
Gilly advanced on him. “You fool, you couldn’t have done this without my wit.”
“And you couldn’t have done this without my money,” Nathan spat.
“Which you don’t have any more of,” Cameron put in. “Money, that is, Nathan. Not wit, Gilly. You have that and to spare, of course.”
“Don’t flatter her,” Nathan said, his words clipped. “She’s a backwoods Scotswoman who hasn’t the foggiest idea of how to execute a decent revenge. I don’t even know why I need her.”
“Because I told you all his secrets,” Gilly said in a low, very dangerous voice.
“I told you he was the laird of the clan Cameron in 1375, that he traveled through time to get here, that he lied to have everything he has.” She rounded the end of the dungeon toward him.
“You would have nothing without me. And if you touch him, I’ll kill you. ”
Cameron clasped his hands behind his back. “Thank you, Gilly,” he said quietly, “for being on my side for a change.”
That sent both Gilly and Nathan into a frenzy of shouting.
Sunny flinched in spite of herself. She had thought nothing could be more dangerous than medieval Scotland, but she decided she’d been wrong.
This was much worse. Cameron didn’t have his sword, Nathan had a gun, and Gilly had no more hold on her sanity.
Her shrill accusations were becoming wilder by the minute.
At least she had turned her venom on Nathan.
Even Nathan began to look a bit nervous.
“I say,” he said at one point, taking a step back from her, “I’m all for a bit of housecleaning, but we have to make this seem like an accident.”
“As you did with your father?” Cameron asked politely.
Nathan pointed the gun at his head. “What do you think you know?”
“He knows no more than you,” Gilly said with a snort.
“You didn’t have the courage to kill your sire, I did.
You wanted him out of the way and I saw to it, just as I saw to Giric’s father for him.
” She spat on the floor at Nathan’s feet.
“I’m always forced to do things men won’t.
But everyone thinks you did it, Nathan, don’t they?
And if someone must swing for it, ’twill be you and not me.
After all, you were the one who couldn’t leave Cameron alone afterward, weren’t you?
I told you to wait and you’d have what you wanted, but you were too bloody greedy, what with your assaults on his office and trying to find him in deserted alleyways.
I told you he was cannier than that, but you wouldn’t listen. ”
Nathan’s face was so red, Sunny thought he might be on the verge of a stroke. His hand was trembling so badly, he could hardly hold the gun.
“Do you actually think I’ll allow you to spread any of that about?” Nathan said, sounding very agitated. “How would you like it if I killed him and ruined your plan, you stupid rustic—”
Sunny felt time begin to slow. She watched as events unfolded in a way that felt more like a movie running at a fraction of its normal speed.
Maybe the drugs were catching up with her again or maybe she was growing dizzy from having her arms above her head for so long.
She didn’t know, didn’t care, didn’t want to watch, but she simply couldn’t look away.
Nathan pointed the gun at Cameron’s chest, Cameron pulled a foot-long dirk out from behind his back and flipped it so he was holding on to the tip of the blade, and Gilly rushed toward them both, her hands outstretched.
And just behind Nathan stood Penelope Ainsworth with a very large, very sharp rock between her hands.
She brought it down with crushing force against her brother’s head.
Cameron flung the knife at Nathan as he turned to see who was behind him.
The knife caught Nathan through the wrist, but the gun went off anyway.
Gilly recoiled as if she’d been struck. Sunny watched her as she staggered around the edge of the dungeon opening.
A red stain was spreading slowly over her chest.
And then time went the other way, moving so swiftly that Sunny felt as if the rest of the drama unfolded almost instantaneously. Before Sunny could blink, Gilly had reached her and stabbed the needle into her shoulder. She shoved the plunger home.
“Die,” she breathed out, then she slid down and landed in a heap at Sunny’s feet.
Sunny saw Cameron leap over the dungeon opening toward her. He caught her in his arms and jerked the needle free of her flesh before she felt her knees give way.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“Sunny . . .”
“Don’t let me go,” she said, fighting the blackness.
“Sunny, stay with me. Stay with me!”
Darkness fell and she knew no more.