“He’s got Amy! That murdering terrorist has her out the back. He’s dragging her towards the forest outside the herb garden. Someone help me!” His agonized tone left everyone momentarily speechless and then there was what sounded to him like a stampede of wild horses rushing towards him. To his vast relief no one questioned his assertion as to who had Amy. Patrick hurled instructions to the Marines who tore out of the front doors splitting into two teams as they separated on the château steps and ran to cut off any attempted retreat. James and Gemma leapt back into their hire car to cut off any escape down the track through the forest.
Joe’s burly arms caught Paul and swept him quickly through the château and down the stairs to the kitchen. They all ducked as they ran so no one could see them from outside.
“We can follow them from here. How far along the path at the back were you?” Patrick whispered in his ear and Paul felt the man stretching upwards to look out through the window.
“Forty seven paces from the corner tower. I could hear Amy struggling so I don’t think they would have gone much further. The forest is dense there but I don’t know it well. I haven’t been through it without anyone guiding me so I don’t know how we are going to find them.” Paul bobbed frantically at Patrick’s side.
Patrick put his hand firmly on the top of Paul’s head and held him down.
“For God’s sake keep still. I can’t spot a thing through the window if all I can see is your reflection bouncing up and down. Joe has he passed the gate yet?”
Joe grunted back.
“Nothing. Did he know you’d spotted him Paul?”
Paul shook his head.
“Not a chance. Amy was struggling with him and she must have hit him where it hurts because I heard all the breath go out of him. I would have tackled him myself but I didn’t want to make the same mistake as I did in the job centre and I didn’t want to chance losing him either. God, if I’ve made a mistake and he hurts her, I will never forgive myself.”
Patrick put a calming hand on his shoulder.
“You did the right thing. You would never get the better of him in the grounds. There are too many obstacles to trip you. We’ll catch him Paul. He can’t get away by car now even if he has brought one onto the estate and there are only so many places he can hide until we find him. If it comes to it, Joe can track him,” his tone was so reassuring that Paul was about to relax but then thoughts crowded in again.
“He’s not going to keep her alive long enough to track. The bastard is completely ruthless. He’ll cut her throat.” Panic gripped him yet again. “If only those idiots back home had believed me none of this would have happened. I knew it was him all along but they just assumed I was wrong. It’s so bloody frustrating. The only good thing about this whole nightmare has been me meeting Amy. I can’t lose her Patrick, I just can’t,” his last words were almost a sob and Patrick was about to shake him when Joe suddenly hissed.
“A shadow back there. That’s not Mick or the others so it must be Samadi and Amy. He’s following the path. I bet he’s worried he’ll get lost in the forest. He must have some transport somewhere along the perimeter walls.”
Patrick slid sideways along his kitchen counter and pulled Paul along with him. Paul steadied himself and kept his hand on the worktop as Patrick guided him to the back door. His hand struck a wooden block beside the chopping boards and he pulled Patrick to a sharp stop.
“I’m taking some of these. If there’s any chance I can get him you let me know.”
Patrick took a deep breath as the metal blade of one of his cooking knives glinted in the darkness.
“Jesus Paul, those things are lethal. You know I can’t cook with a blunt blade and it’s pitch black out there.”
Paul gave a grim laugh.
“Like that’s going to make any difference to me and to be honest, the more lethal your knives are the better. I’ll take two just in case I miss the first time. You just tell me where to aim and I’ll get him if the chance arises.”
Patrick raised his eyebrows as he answered.
“It wasn’t your eyesight in the pitch black I was worrying about, idiot. I was more worried about my own. If I tell you wrong and you hit Amy by mistake, I’m rather more concerned about what you will do to me. Ellen might not be pleased with you.”
Joe sniggered as he opened the back door quietly.
“You are more likely to get a knife up your backside if you don’t tell him. Look, we’ll just play it as it lies. If there’s chance of a clear shot we’ll let you know okay?”
Paul pocketed two of the knives and nodded.
“Right, let’s go. We don’t want to lose them now.” They all crept along the herb garden path and slipped through the gate at the end. Joe held the iron gate while it closed and Patrick squinted into the darkness along the edge of the trees. There was a sudden movement at the end of the garden wall and Mick and John came into view.
John whispered in the darkness.
“He’s dragging her along the path. She doesn’t look good but we weren’t sure about any weaponry he might have and didn’t want to take a chance. If he’s got a knife to her throat he could have slit it in a second.” He stepped back as Paul growled deep in his chest.
“If he hurts one single hair of her head, I’m going to kill him with my bare hands. I swear to God that I will see him in hell before he harms another person.”
Patrick guided Paul along as they all crept along the path following the man when Joe came to a sudden stop. He held up his hand, pointed his finger and signalled for Mick and John to go into the forest and loop round a bend in the path. As Patrick and Joe continued with Paul the cloud overhead cleared and moonlight suddenly shone upon two figures struggling on the path.
Amy had come round and was fighting again.
“Just let me go. I won’t say who you are. I didn’t even know who you were until now. I never saw you before in my life. I don’t even know why you came to England in the first place. If you had stayed in your own country no one would have been any the wiser. I certainly wouldn’t have been.”
The man cuffed her with his elbow and slid a knife from his pocket. He pressed it to her throat.
“Don’t lie to me. You stood beside him in court. I knew that you would be a problem as soon as I saw you. No one knew I was in England. Your stupid armed services had seen to that, conveniently reporting my death very prematurely over eight years ago. Fools that thought they could kill me, Samadi! You were the only one who could identify me if the case was ever called into question again.
But then I made an amazing discovery. I found out that your silly little country gives its citizens money, for doing nothing. I couldn’t let an opportunity like that pass. Even though I was still making a fortune with my drugs ring, if your country is going to give their wealth away who am I to stop them giving some to me? And it is only you who could ruin all that. Well you are not going to get the chance. I never thought those men would find you in that château . Who would have expected a bunch of beaten up, handicapped idiots, one of whom cannot even see what lies before his very eyes, to discover you and the other bitch so quickly. I am only sorry that I lost my friend over it. He was much weaker than I had anticipated,” he grunted as Amy struggled again and landed a sharp kick on his shin.
“You bastard! You have another think coming if you think you can get away with this. Paul will come after you and kill you and you will have deserved it. You took his sight! You evil lump of filth.” Amy caught a lucky break as her arm flailed and she caught the man upside his head. The next thing she heard was a triumphant yell.
‘Thirty at two o’clock.’ Then something buzzed past her ear. There was a grunt of pain behind her and the man let her go completely. He staggered back as a rush of men came at them from out of the darkened forest and suddenly she was hauled into a pair of iron arms.
Kisses as light as air rained down on her forehead as Paul’s breathy whispers caressed her ears.
“
Amy. I’m sorry. I was such a fool. Can you ever forgive me? I can’t lose you, I will die without you here.” the pain in his tone had tears streaming from her eyes.
“There’s nothing to forgive. You would have soon seen sense when I arrived with all my clobber on Friday,” she laughed as she caught sight of his staggered expression and then turned to the men still scuffling behind them. Mick sat on the terrorist’s chest and Joe wrapped his ankles in what looked like his own belt as Patrick pressed a wadded up t-shirt to the man’s shoulder. John tapped numbers into his telephone and then walked off into the darkness as he spoke quietly to someone on the phone.
Amy turned back to the man who held her so tightly in his arms and was about to speak again but his lips were suddenly on hers, devouring her with pent up passion. When he allowed her to breathe he leaned his forehead against hers.
“I thought I had lost you. Three times in one day is more than any man can stand. When you go home to sort all of this mess out, I’m coming with you. I’ve never run from my responsibilities before and I don’t intend to now. The judge will be fine as I will have proved myself correct and you will have excellent references for believing in me even when others didn’t. Now let’s leave the clearing up to this lot while I get you back inside. I need to check you over for any injuries,” he smirked down at her as he gathered her in his arms and guided her back to the château .
Chapter Eighteen
Amy held Paul’s hand as the taxi driver drove them towards Roscoff. Amy laughed and picked confetti from her cleavage as Paul rained kisses along her shoulder to her collarbone.
“Stop, you wild man. Can’t you wait until we can be private?” There was a smile in her voice as he gave her one last peck on her cheek.
“No, not really. We’ve been so busy the last few weeks we don’t seem to have been able to spend much time together.” Paul sat back in his seat but he kept hold of her hand.
Amy rolled her eyes.
“We’ve slept together every night except for when we were in England, idiot. And then that was only because of all that questioning. You never did tell me what it was really all about and I can’t understand why they kept you for so long. I didn’t see you for nearly two weeks. I was panic-stricken thinking that they had put you in prison even after we cleared everything with the judge. It was as though they were interrogating you when you had done nothing wrong. If Patrick hadn’t been there to reassure me the whole time I would have gone mad.”
Paul cleared his throat but remained quiet. There were some things that he couldn’t share with Amy and even if he could he certainly wasn’t going to do it in front of a taxi driver. It was probably best that she didn’t know the whole story anyway.
The taxi drew into the long driveway of the château and stopped at the front doors. Paul stepped out of the car and walked around to his bride’s side to open the door.
“We have it to ourselves for a fortnight so let’s make the most of it. After that we are going to be working like mad for the foreseeable future. I’m only glad that Gemma decided to join us. She’s a lovely woman. You’ll like her.”
Amy looked up at him.
“I like her already. She kept me company a lot of the time while they questioned you. She’s going to be perfect here. She’s such a tough woman, but she’s soft too. I’m sure that our clients are going to love her.” She glanced over the front of the beautiful château . Its walls gleamed and the crystal clear windows sparkled in the moonlight.
She couldn’t stifle a yawn. It had been a frantic day.
They had married at a small registry office with only Gemma and Patrick as witnesses and had raced, still in their wedding clothes, to catch the afternoon flight into Dinard. They all drank champagne on the flight and David met them at the airport. He passed them a vast photograph album filled with pictures of his new baby son. An obviously delighted Robbie carried the tiny baby in nearly every photograph and David confirmed that his position as the baby’s father had been squarely usurped.
The wedding party arranged by Ellen, Geraldine and Lucy had carried on long into the night and now Amy was relieved to be standing in the quiet moonlight.
The taxi driver slipped past them carrying their bags into the hall, then he bid them good evening and good luck and disappeared down the drive again leaving them alone on the château steps.
Amy took in a breath and cast a quick glance around the grounds. Long shadows crept across the landscaped lawns and she gave an involuntary shudder. Although she knew Samadi had been captured, she hadn’t heard his fate and while she was sure he wasn’t outside their front door step she was still hoping that Paul would reveal exactly what happened to him.
He must have been reading her mind.
“He’s gone Amy. He’ll never hurt anyone ever again,” he assured her in quiet tones.
She shook her head.
“It’s just that there wasn’t a thing about the incident or your acquittal in the papers. The other worker has been sent back to his home in Afghanistan but I still don’t know what happened to that vile man. I keep waking up thinking I can hear his revolting voice.”
Paul laughed.
“You’ll never hear that voice again and neither will I with a bit of luck. As to there being nothing about his capture in the papers, well we didn’t want to advertise the fact that we had let a known terrorist into our country and had even given him social security benefits… It wouldn’t have gone down well with the general public.”
Amy took a deep breath.
“No, you are right there. And what with the Americans being involved rather than our own countrymen, well there would have been uproar…” She stopped for a moment and then lifted her chin to him. “Why were the Marines involved anyway? I never even spoke to them again. They disappeared right after you saved me and I haven’t heard a word about them since.”
Paul rubbed his finger over her worried lip. It trembled slightly beneath his thumb and he bent to kiss it gently then he whispered into her ear.
“They had an urgent mission back home. The five of them took a private flight out of the military base at Brest the night we captured him.” He suddenly ran his hand down her back and bent as he scooped her up and carried her over the threshold of the château.
She laughed breathlessly as he mounted the stairs to their newly furnished apartment with her held tightly in his arms. She leaned up, kissed him under his proud chin, and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on to him as if she would never let go.
He strode towards their bedroom and deposited her in a waft of pale silk onto the bed. She was about to pull him down on the huge bed with her when she suddenly realized what he had said.
“Four of them. The Marines I mean. Mick, John, Peter and Caleb. You said five Marines and there were only four.”
There was a short silence as he swung a muscled thigh across her legs and pinned her to the bed, then he put a finger across her lips as he spoke again.
“Well, on that flight there were five Marines, though of course the fifth one, the new recruit, was injured, on a stretcher and under heavy sedation. I understand that he’s having every care attended to in a very special high security facility back in the United Sates that will cater to his every need. I’m certain he’s going to make a full recovery and have a very long and happy stay there,” he couldn’t disguise the sarcasm in his tone.
Amy stopped breathing and then the air rushed out of her lungs as she understood his meaning.
“Oh, I see!” Was all she could say.
Paul nodded above her and he grinned as he thought about the secure facility that would house Samadi for the rest of his natural life.
“Yes, ‘Oh, I see!’ about sums it up. Our people wouldn’t believe me when I gave him to them on a platter so other interested parties have taken up the slack and that’s all I am going to say on the matter.” He ran a long finger down the front of her lace covered dress and lowered his lips to the exposed part of her breast then lift
ed them again to whisper. “Now stop talking and take off all this blasted frippery. I need to see my wife!”
The End!
I hope that you have enjoyed
Scarred Horizon
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You can keep up with Jackie on her website or email
www.romanticsuspensebooks.org
[email protected]
Scarred Horizon (Scarred Series Book 4) Page 20