Chapter 32
Cameron caught Sunny as she went limp and lifted her up into his arms. “Aid!” he bellowed.
He’d hardly gotten the word out before he realized that Patrick and Derrick were already there on either side of him, working on the handcuffs that held Sunny’s hands over her head. Once they had freed her, Cameron carried her around the edge of the pit, then sank to his knees with her in his arms.
“Go see to Peter,” Cameron rasped to Derrick. He looked up at Patrick who was squatting down across from him. “What’s the drug?”
“Ketamine,” Patrick said briskly. “I found the bag just inside the door with the empty vials. Judging by the way your man Peter’s breathing, I think he’s had quite a bit.
Sunny’s had less, which is very fortunate.
” He put his fingers to her neck and looked as his watch for a minute, then put his hand against her forehead.
“Let’s get her back to Moraig’s as quick as may be. ”
“You can’t be serious,” Cameron said incredulously. “Just what in the hell are you going to do there?”
“Let her come out of this without adding a whole host of other things to the mix,” Patrick said evenly. “I know what I’m doing, Cameron.”
“Against modern drugs?”
“Ask Bobby the former addict. I detoxed him more than once until he stopped being stupid enough to get high.”
“I can’t discuss the particulars right at the moment,” Bobby said happily from the other side of the hall. “We have another collection o’ unconscious lads outside, as well as this load o’ refuse here. I’ve a bit to do to tidy ’em up for Hamish. Shall I bring ’em in and pile ’em all together, Pat?”
“Please do,” Patrick said, rising. “I’ll look quickly at Peter. You start for the road, Cameron. I’ll fetch your car then meet you there in ten minutes.”
Cameron couldn’t move. He knelt there, cradling the woman he loved in his arms, and felt quite certain his heart was on the verge of breaking.
She was bruised, her dark hair was tangled, her face exceedingly pale.
He bowed his head and prayed, because he couldn’t do anything else.
If something happened to her, if Patrick was wrong and—
“Cameron, now,” Patrick said sharply.
Cameron looked up. “I’m trusting you with what means most to me.”
“I know,” Patrick said seriously. “Make haste so I can take care of her properly.”
Cameron picked Sunny up in his arms and turned.
He almost ran Penelope over before he realized she was still standing just inside the door, looking down in horror at her brother.
He didn’t want to take the time to talk to her when time was of the essence, but she looked so devastated, he couldn’t not at least offer her a brief bit of comfort. He walked over to her and stopped.
“Penelope?”
She looked up at him, her eyes full of tears. “I think I killed Nathan.”
“His head is far too hard for that, love. Of course, he will wish you had when he wakes up in jail.”
She took a deep breath. “But Nathan didn’t kill my father, did he? It was that . . . that crazy woman over there, wasn’t it?”
“I imagine so,” Cameron admitted, “though I don’t think Nathan will escape his part in it.”
She shivered. “That woman said she knew you as well.” “Darling, everyone knows me here. That’s what happens when you’re laird of the hall up the way.”
“But she said you were from another . . . time.”
Cameron shot her a look. “Really, Pen. Too many romance novels in the bath, don’t you think?”
She took a deep breath, then nodded. “You’re right.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “What now, Mac?”
“The bobbies will come and you’ll answer their questions as best you can. I’ll leave Derrick and Ewan behind to help you. Then at some point I’d like to talk to you about your father’s company. Someone needs to redeem it.”
“Who, me?” she asked, aghast. “Work?”
“Others have done so with great success.”
She apparently couldn’t even manage a glare. “It wouldn’t matter, though, would it? Not with what Nathan’s done.”
“Penelope, your brother is a dangerous, vindictive lad, but I think the drugs have made those tendencies worse. The board will understand that, especially when I help them see the truth.”
Her mouth fell open slightly. “You would do that for me?”
“Of course. After all, I owe you my life.” He looked at her thoughtfully. “Why did you find yourself here, if I’m allowed to ask that.”
She looked at him bleakly. “After I saw what Nathan was doing to you in his offices, I began to suspect him of less than charitable feelings for you.” She twisted her hands together.
“I wasn’t sure what could be done, but when he left the building in a tearing hurry, I determined to follow him.
I feared he would see me on the shuttle, but I was hiding behind dark glasses and a hat.
There was also an obliging bloke next to me who seemed to raise his newspaper at just the right time whenever Nathan turned to look up the aisle behind him. ”
Cameron suspected that might have been Oliver. He would have to thank him for more than just shadowing Nathan and keeping Derrick apprised of the situation. He smiled. “Brilliantly done, Pen, truly. Today would have finished much more tragically without you.”
She attempted a smile, but it was a sick smile indeed. “At least some good has come of it.”
“And more will follow. I think I can guarantee it.”
She looked at him silently for a moment or two, then looked at Sunny. She reached out and smoothed the hair back from her face. “She’s beautiful. Is this the girl Nathan said you were seeing? Sunshine?”
Cameron wasn’t surprised that Nathan knew, or that he’d passed on what he knew to his sister. “Aye. If it eases you any, I loved her years ago. I lost her, unfortunately.”
Penelope considered. “And now that you’ve found her again, are you going to marry her?”
He nodded solemnly.
She took a deep breath, then let it out. “Very well, I’ll call the newspapers tomorrow and cancel everything. I will try to paint you as the cad, but I don’t suppose anyone will believe that.”
“I haven’t cheated on you, Penelope,” he said gravely, “if that makes it any easier to bear.”
“Saving yourself for marriage, Mac?” she asked tartly.
“Aye,” he said, unable to stop his smile.
She snorted at him, then blinked when she realized he was serious. She pursed her lips. “Do you want the ring back?”
He shook his head. “Keep it. I’ll settle your debts for you as well.”
She looked a little taken aback. “Why?”
“Because, Penelope, that is what a gentleman does when he parts company with a woman, even a woman who has never loved him.”
She had the grace to blush. “We have no secrets, I see.”
“Did you think we ever did?” he asked mildly. He nodded to his right. “I believe there’s a MacLeod lad over there who might be able to help you until Ewan and Derrick are finished with their business.” He looked over his shoulder and met Ian’s eyes. “Ian, would you take care of her?”
Ian nodded and walked over. “Happy to do so, of course. Lady Penelope, why don’t you come sit over here away from the rabble. We’ll have them bound long before they awake, then I’ll see you installed happily in a comfortable spot for the night.”
Penelope paused. “I hope she’s better soon, Mac. And you’ll call me about Father’s company?”
He nodded. “Once Sunny’s well, aye, I will.”
She nodded, then walked away with Ian. Cameron took a deep breath, then left the hall with a considerable sense of relief coursing through him.
A murder solved, an ex-fiancée exonerated, and nothing in front of him but the freedom to take the woman he loved home and cherish her for the rest of their lives.
He supposed he would enjoy it—when he was sure Sunny would wake again.
He saw Patrick sprinting north as he continued east. Now that the blood wasn’t thundering in his ears, he could hear that Sunny’s breathing was very shallow and rapid. He cradled her close to him and walked as quickly as he dared toward the road.
He prayed Patrick MacLeod knew what he was doing. He wanted to believe that this was no worse than a medieval wound, but he wasn’t sure he could. Modern life was, as he could readily attest, more dangerous in some ways than the past.
He quickened his pace and vowed he would give Patrick MacLeod an hour, but no more. If Sunny wasn’t markedly better by then, he would take her to the hospital.
I n the end, he gave Patrick three. Sunny had been unconscious for the first, fighting off tea during the second, and cursing during the third.
She was obviously going to be just fine.
He sat on the floor of Sunny’s loo and stroked her hair as she rested her cheek against the cool stone of the floor and made use of an impressive string of vile names in an impressive number of languages.
He supposed he should have felt relieved that she seemed to be applying them to both him and Patrick equally.
“Damn you both to hell,” she managed.
Patrick clucked his tongue at her from where he sat leaning against the bathroom’s door frame. “Really, Sunny. After all we’ve done for you.”
“How long have you both been here?” she asked hoarsely.
“Since the very first hallucination,” Patrick said unrepentantly. “It’s been a glorious afternoon, really.”
Cameron smiled at Sunny’s less-than-gracious thank you.
He also smiled at the fact that she had reached out and put her arm over his leg, and she was conscious enough to do both.
He’d trusted Patrick MacLeod, but there had been times when he’d had his own string of vile curses to heap on Patrick’s head.
But now Sunny looked as though she would survive, he was free of quite a few things that had been troubling him, and he could smell things cooking in Sunny’s kitchen that had to have been imported from Patrick’s house.
“Want me to shut out the smell?” he asked suddenly.
Sunny only groaned. “Nothing is going to make me feel any worse than I feel right now. Cam, I want you to take my brother-in -law outside and hurt him.”