Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
I sit here frustrated and confused. How am I to get answers now? What does this mean?
I have to fight against poking my lip out and pouting. Instead, I help Kate begin to put the games away. Sadness washes over me because I don’t know when Cole will return.
“Ach, ye girls should head to bed. I’ll drop ye to softball practice in the morning,” Dougie says, breaking into my thoughts.
As I look at Dougie, I get this feeling there’s something more he wants to say. He’s watching me as closely as I’m watching him. I look away as I note the pity in his eyes.
Does he know that I have a thing for his son? Is he pitying me and my stupid crush? I shake my thoughts off and follow Kate to her room.
I’ll have to wait until Cole calls, then maybe I’ll have the courage to ask him all the questions I have floating in my head. I guess only time will tell.
Helen
“Finlay warned ye would come to my door,” Ken McDougal says as I enter his study.
“Then you know what he has done?”
“Aye, I know what the bastard has done.”
I couldn’t go home without knowing if this happened because of me. Angus is dead. In the back of my mind, I have always known there was a chance that the Krupins would find me.
If this was them, I need to know now. I should have known the death of Ian Black was going to open up a can of worms. I disappeared for the most part when I met Angus.
Onyx died, and Helen was born. I fell in love with Angus that first day in that coffee shop; now he’s gone.
It was a hit. That much I knew for sure before I arrived in Scotland. However, I’ve come to know Angus’s family and I knew this could have come from them just the same.
That’s why I came here to Scotland this morning. I watched as the man I love was taken from me. I felt so helpless as the woman I’ve become would have no need to carry weapons.
Angus died in my arms after I got him out of the wreck. People on the street yelled and screamed in confusion and concern. Yet the driver of the car that rammed Angus right outside our hotel got away.
I stared into my love’s eyes as the life went out of them. However, not before I promised him I would find whoever did this and make them pay. I now have my answer and the name of the person who will die for this.
All I need now is permission. Archie McDougal is a dead man. That I will make sure of.
“I knew you were one of Ian’s mercenaries from the time Angus showed up with you.”
I turn to see Ewan McDougal has entered the room from a hidden entrance. I ready myself for a fight. I knew this was a chance I would take when I came here.
“Aren’t you and I the same?” I scoff.
“Aye, love. Ye can relax. My quarrel is not with ye,” he replies.
“I know what ye have come to ask,” Ken says.
“He not only set in motion the events that took my husband’s life, but he has also told the Russians how to find me. Pavel Krupin promised he would find and kill me. Archie has done half the work.
“All of this for a man who’s sure to kill him next. Oland will always be out for himself. Archie is just a pawn, but he will pay for his actions.” I seethe.
I am to be next, but not before Archie is wiped from the face of the earth.
“Och, we know this. Archie has been working outside the family for some time now with that auld bastard Oland,” Ken says.
“He’s our brother, but our da was right not to trust him. We never will again.”
“Then you give your approval?”
“Aye, but with conditions.”
“Name them,” I bite out.
“We will watch.”
I lift a brow in question.
“This must be completed without wind of who or how. We believe he was involved in Da’s demise, but we haven’t been able to prove it. Da was as fit as a fiddle.
“To drop dead of a heart attack. Rubbish. Now Angus.
“Our own nephew. Och, it’s not right. The only reason I don’t take his head off myself is because I don’t want my own blood on my hands,” Ewans says.
“All right.” I shrug. “As long as you know I’m not going to show mercy.”
“Aye, understood. Once it is done, you can never come back. We can’t justify allowing our brother’s murderer to walk Scotland. If anyone found out, it would end badly for all involved.”
“Fine. Deja and I will leave and never return.”
“Is that wise?” Ewan speaks up.
“What do you mean?”
“Ye said yerself Archie has revealed to the Russians yer whereabouts. Deja isn’t our blood, but we love her like our own great-niece. Angus would want us to protect her.