A dull thud sounded from inside.
“Fuck!” He lunged toward the door, but Mac held him back. He shook his head at Thane and reached slowly behind his back to pull out a gun he’d tucked into the waistband of his kilt.
“Behind me,” he murmured to Thane. He reluctantly fell back.
Mac twisted the door handle, and it opened.
Thane frowned. That should have been locked.
Stepping quietly through the small entrance, his eyes fighting to adjust to the darkness, Thane stayed at Mac’s back even though he was desperate to push ahead. Then Mac suddenly halted with a hoarse “Jesus Christ.” And then, “Thane, get the light.”
“Lights on,” he called, but the annex didn’t light up. The smart device must have been disconnected.
A muffled squeal from within the main room caused a score of renewed fear through his heart, and he lunged for the light switch at the door. Mac was already striding into the room, and Thane moved with him.
Fury and relief were all Thane felt at finding Eilidh and Lewis each tied to a garden chair. Lewis’s chair was on its side, his son on the floor. Tears streamed down his children’s faces, and their yells of relief were muffled by the duct tape over their mouths.
“Jesus Christ,” Mac repeated in controlled rage as he hurried to Eilidh, tucking his gun back into his kilt and out of sight under his dress jacket.
Thane fell to the floor behind Lewis, struggling to untie the tightly knotted ropes binding his wrists behind the chair. “Knife!” he yelled at Mac.
“One second.” Mac pulled a Swiss Army knife out of his sporran and proceeded to saw at Eilidh’s bindings.
“It’s okay, Eilidh-Bug,” Thane promised, holding her teary gaze. “I’m here now.” He turned to Lewis, embracing him over the chair. “Dad’s here, bud. I’m going to take off the duct tape, okay?”
His son nodded frantically.
“It might hurt a bit, but I’ll be quick.”
Lewis nodded again.
Swallowing hard against the angry tears in his throat, Thane grasped a corner of the tape and yanked it off in one fast flick.
His son cried out in pain and then promptly burst into tears.
“It’s okay, bud,” Thane murmured through his own tears as he peppered his son’s cheeks with relieved kisses. “I’ve got you, you’re safe.”
He strained to look from the corner of his eyes as Thane tried to untangle the ropes again. Lewis hiccupped. “I heard you outside. Tipped my chair.”
Pride seared through him. “Good, that was good, Lew. I’m so proud of you.” The fear he’d been trying to keep at bay clawed at him. “Where’s Regan, Lew? Was she with you?”
Lewis stilled from his struggles to get free. “She wasn’t here. The bad man took us out of our beds. He threatened to hurt Eilidh if I didn’t go with him. I didn’t want him to hurt her, so I went,” Lewis cried.
Fuck.
Thane squeezed his eyes closed, wondering how on earth his kids would get through this latest trauma.
“You did the right thing, Lew. I’m so proud of you for looking after your sister.”
“Daddy!” Eilidh shrieked as Mac removed the duct tape. She sobbed and then pushed off the loosened ropes to fly across the room. Thane caught her in his arms, probably holding her too tight, but nothing was better than feeling her warm and alive. Even as her tears soaked his shirt.
“Shh, my darling,” he hushed, rocking her as she sobbed and hiccupped in his arms. “I’ve got you.”
He nodded gratefully to Mac as he moved out of the way to the let his friend free Lewis.
“Was it the man who tried to take Eilidh last time, Lew?” Mac asked as he worked at the ropes.
“No, Uncle Mac.” Lew’s answer winded Thane.
He met Mac’s eyes.
If it wasn’t McClintock …
“Who the hell has Regan?” Mac uttered the question that made Thane light-headed with renewed terror.
39
Regan
Waves crashed.
They were so loud.
As it pulled me out of sleep, I wondered why the sea sounded closer, louder than usual. Had I left a window open? My head throbbed painfully.
What the hell?
Groaning as the headache became overwhelming, I pushed my eyes open, blinking into the dark of my bedroom. Why did my pillow feel weird?
Wait.
What?
I sat up slowly, my hands sinking into brittle winter grass. The moon streamed across the sky and the sea beyond. Harsh, icy wind buffeted through my hair and seared through my uniform.
I was sitting on a cliff top.
“I thought you would never wake up. It would have ruined everything.”
That voice.
Suddenly, my night came back in a flash. Eredine’s attack. The children missing.
It was him.
What had he done with Eilidh and Lewis?
Fear and wrath coexisted within, distracting me from the headache and consequent nausea. The bastard had knocked me out. Was I concussed? I felt concussed.
But I couldn’t think about that. I had to find Eilidh and Lewis.
Turning slowly to face the man belonging to the voice, I searched frantically around him, but there was no sign of the children on the cliff with us. The waves were choppy tonight, crashing dramatically into the rocks below.
Austin Vale stood bathed in moonlight, fields stretching behind him and hopefully toward Ardnoch. I didn’t know how long I’d been out and thus how far he’d taken me from my home.
“Where are they?” I glowered at the son of a bitch. “What did you do with Eilidh and Lewis?”
Bitter wind ripped across the cliff, and I shivered violently.
Austin lowered to his haunches several feet away from me, wearing a thick sweater with a jacket over it. Bastard.
“Eilidh and Lewis?” I demanded.
“They’re fine, beautiful,” he replied just loud enough to be heard above nature.
“Where are they? Why did you touch them?”
Oh my God, I’d put them in danger. Tears sprung to my eyes and I trembled harder.
“You make it sound sordid. It’s not,” he sighed heavily. “When I got here, you weren’t staying in the house anymore. You were supposed to be in the house. Instead, you were stuck behind the security gates of that estate, and you never left. I got impatient.”
I’d only been behind the gates for forty-eight hours. Which meant he’d not long arrived in Scotland.
“When I saw them leave the children behind with just that waif of a woman, I took the children to lure you out. Plus, I knew taking them would hurt you. And I want to hurt you a little, even though I love you so much.”
I ignored the words that repulsed me and concentrated on the kids. How did he know what Eilidh and Lewis meant to me? “How do you know anything about me?”
“You think the occasional tail from your sister’s cop friend was enough to stop me from finding you?” he scoffed. “I’m a determined man, Regan. I couldn’t just sit back and let you think I didn’t care. When a man loves his woman, he has to show it. No one would tell me where you went, so all I could think to do was keep running an image search. Nothing. You were like a ghost. I was low on cash for a while, which is a problem when it comes to resources, but I came into some money a few weeks ago, thanks to my brother. I hired a PI, and she did some digging for me. Found out about your sister and her engagement to that actor. From there, she found you. So I hired another PI here in Scotland. He emailed over photos and information about your life here. He couldn’t get too close to the house because you had security on the kids, but he did his digging elsewhere and got what we needed.