“Ow,” Flynn said. “That had to hurt. The guy looks like he’s been scalped.”
“Burnt off his balaclava,” Grunt agreed as Lake came up beside them.
“Get Megan,” Lake ordered Grunt, and the man mountain was instantly gone.
Shots hit the snow behind Lake and Flynn, making them dive for cover.
“No!” Harry shouted. “I’ve been hit, I’ve been hit. They killed my laptop. It’s okay, baby, it’s okay. Papa’s going to dig out the nasty bullet and you’ll be good as new.”
“You’re embarrassing me,” Flynn said.
“It’s my favourite laptop,” Harry said.
Lake kept low to the ground and crept back into the kitchen. He ran across the room, aimed at the guy pinning Harry down and fired through the glass window. Twice. One in each leg. The guy went down with a howl, firing wildly. As soon he was on the ground, Matt rushed out and removed the gun, but ignored the writhing man.
“Nine,” Matt said.
Lake watched from his spot beside the kitchen door as Matt produced some plastic ties from his pocket and secured the fallen guy’s arms and legs.
“Clear this side,” Callum said.
“Clear out front,” Mitch said.
“I’m pissed I didn’t see any action,” Josh said.
“Go find your wife,” Mitch told him. “That’ll cheer you up.”
“I’ll scout round the perimeter,” Matt said, and took off at a run.
Harry and Flynn came out from their hiding spot and headed towards the castle. Flynn walked up to the injured men lying bound in the snow and tasered each of them.
“Just in case,” he said.
“Is it over?” Abby shouted. “Did you get them all?”
Flynn looked up at his pregnant wife, the relief plain on his face. “It’s over, sugar. You okay? The babies?”
She looked down at her belly then smiled at her husband. “We’re fine.” She looked behind her into the master bedroom. “We’ve made a bit of a mess in here, though. Jean accidentally set off a firework in the wrong direction. Where’s Megan?”
Matt came running up as Abby asked about his sister. He looked at Lake. “All clear.”
Lake nodded. “Boys, get the prisoners and the wounded inside. Matt, you’re with me. Let’s get your sister.
They took off at a run after Megan.
24
* Rainne and Alastair *
Alastair landed face first in the snow. Pain surged through him. Aye, those ribs were definitely broken now. He focused on breathing slowly, hoping to ease the pain. That was when the gunfire started. Lots and lots of gunfire.
Rainne...
He scanned around him, blinking away the daze in his head. The snow glowed orange in the dimming blaze of the still-burning snowmobiles.
Rainne?
There.
The silhouette of a body lying against a tree.
She wasn’t moving.
Rainbow!
Alastair swallowed panic that felt a whole lot like terror, and struggled to sit up. The world swayed and tilted. He fell to his side on the snow and pure agony racked his body. More gunfire rent the air. Who was shooting? Was Lake here? Alastair worked on breathing calmly as stars danced in front of his eyes.
He saw the shadow of a figure, crouching low to the ground and moving fast towards the castle. Enemy? Friend? He didn’t know. Adrenalin coursed through him, dulling the pain and clarifying his thoughts.
He had to get to Rainne.
He had to get her out of harm’s way. He didn’t know who was firing. And no one knew he was out there with Rainne. If they weren’t being deliberately targeted, they could still get caught in the crossfire. They needed to get inside. Now.
Slowly. Agonisingly. He crawled across the snow. Every breath was a knife to his chest. He could barely feel his fingers, which was probably a good thing, as it meant he also couldn’t feel his wrist. It had lost its bandage and was now bent at an unnatural angle. Bloody hell, he was a mess. No use to anyone.
And he was all Rainne had.
Nausea assaulted him, but he struggled onward. Got to get to Rainne. An eternity later, he collapsed at her side. He put his hand on her back.
“Rainbow. Baby,” he whispered, afraid to attract the wrong attention. “You need to wake up. We need to get out of here.”
She didn’t move.
No. No. No. No. No...
Panic made Alastair sway in place. She had to be fine. There was no other option.
“Please be okay, Rainbow. Please be okay.” His whispered pleas were swallowed by the black night.
Women were shouting. He could almost taste hysteria in the air. Alastair blocked out the words. It sounded like the world was exploding behind him in bursts of luminous colour, but everything he cared about was right in front of him. He brushed her hair from her forehead and caught sight of his hand. He lifted it to the dim light.
Blood.
No. This wasn’t happening.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her up so she was leaning over his legs. He propped his back against the tree and pulled her into his lap. She was a dead weight.
No. Not dead. Never dead. Don’t think it. Don’t say it.
Her face was as white as the snow. Her lips were blue.
“Rainbow. Wake up.”
He unzipped her coat and thrust his hand inside, splaying it over her heart. He waited.
There! A heartbeat. A breath.
“Don’t scare me like that.” He buried his face in her hair. Inhaled her scent.
His cheeks felt wet, and it took him a second to realise he was weeping.
She was okay. She was going to be okay.
There was another short burst of gunfire. He thought it came from the back of the castle. More shouting. Male and female voices. Was it over? Were they okay? He looked down at Rainne, so limp and lifeless in his arms. His brave girl. Braver than he was, willing to try for a second chance with him. Willing to put herself and her heart out there for him to stomp on.
And he had. He’d stomped all over her because he’d been too scared to take a chance on getting hurt again. Pathetic bloody coward. Too stubborn to see past his pride until it was too late. No. Not too late. Never too late. She was breathing. She was going to be fine. She had to be.
“Sorry, Rainbow. Please be okay, baby.” He kissed her hair.
He needed to get them out of the snow. He needed to carry her to the castle. It didn’t matter if the place was full of nutters with guns. If they stayed where they were, they’d die of hypothermia anyway. Better to try for the warmth of the nearest building.
“Don’t worry, Rainbow. I’ve got you.”
Alastair clasped her tightly and tried to get to his feet. A brutal, nauseating wave of pain had him falling back to the ground and gasping for air.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” He wasn’t sure who he was trying to reassure. Probably himself.
Right, he had to do this differently. He gently placed Rainne on the snow beside him and got to his knees. Bending over, he lifted her to cradle her in his arms. She was so small. Had she always been this small? Delicate. Fragile. So damned fragile. He glanced at the castle. It was quiet. No more gunfire. Good. That was good. Right?
He took a breath and raised his leg until his foot was flat on the snow in front of him. His weight still rested on his knee. Now was the hard part. Tensing his muscles and holding Rainne tight, he transferred all of his weight onto his foot and pushed upright. With one agonising surge, he was on his feet. Rainne clutched to his chest. He wanted to roar in victory, but instead he bit his bottom lip and swayed with pain.
For a moment he concentrated on breathing and staying upright. At last the dizziness faded, although he still felt weak and his jaw was at breaking point from clenching his teeth.
Slowly. Agonisingly. He turned towards the castle. He didn’t know who was in there. He didn’t know who was in control. But he did know Rainne had to get out of
the cold. She wouldn’t survive if she didn’t. There was nothing for it but to take the chance and head for the castle. He just hoped he’d find help waiting for him, instead of a firing squad.
“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered to Rainne. “I’ve got you.”
And he was never letting her go.
That was where he’d been going wrong. He’d let people walk away and hoped they came back. Not this time. Not again. This time he was going to superglue the woman to his side if that was what it took to make her stay. It was amazing the clarity that came with life-threatening danger. His objections and fears now seemed petty beside the vastness of what he could have lost.
And he wasn’t going to lose Rainne.
He wasn’t.
Black spots appeared in his vision as he tightened his hold on his girl. At least she wasn’t lying in the snow anymore. He drew in another agonising breath.
He took a step. It jarred his side, making his eyesight blur. He shifted Rainne’s weight slightly until she was resting on his forearm rather than his wrist. Only sheer brutal determination kept her in his arms. Another step. Another agonising burst of pain. The snow sucked at his boots, trying to keep him in place. Alastair fought against it. He kept his eyes on the building in front of him and kept on walking.
Another step closer.
He heard a gunshot from further away. Over near the west gate, he thought. But no more shots from the castle.
Another step closer.
Rainne was silent in his arms. There was no way for him to check if she was still breathing. Not without letting her go. And he wasn’t doing that. Not ever.
Another step.
He saw movement through the windows of the castle’s grand room, but couldn’t tell who it was. Candlelight flickered to life, making the room glow. Shadows moved about.
“Nearly there,” he told Rainne.
He’d lost count of the steps he’d taken. His lung felt like someone was holding the sharp tip of a knife against it.
Damn, he was a hair’s breadth away from a punctured lung.
Another step.
He’d lost feeling in his frozen fingers. His arm muscles cramped to keep Rainne tight against him.
One more step.
One more step.
Just one more step.
He reached the snow-covered front stairs to the castle. The door at the top lay open. Voices wafted out from inside, but he couldn’t make out what anyone was saying. Sweat trickled down his brow. This was it. He was going in. He hoped to hell he’d meet a friend instead of a bullet.
He took the first stair with a groan. Four more. He could do it.
Four. Bloody hell, the pain.
Three. Breathe. Slow. Shallow.
Two. Hold it together. Nearly there.
One. Swallow the pain.
There. He was there. The sharp agony under his ribs was stronger. Stars burst in front of his eyes. He stepped into the hallway, boots heavy on the wooden floor. He was past stealth. He didn’t care who heard. He took a step towards the grand room. Someone came through the door.
Alastair froze. It took a second for him to realise it was Caroline. She turned towards him and gasped.
“Rainne needs help,” Alastair said. His words seemed to be coming from far away.
“Help!” Caroline shouted as she rushed towards him.
Joe appeared beside her, his face stern. His eyes went wide and he ran at Alastair.
“Help Rainne,” Alastair said. Damn, his words were slurred and he was finding it hard to see.
He felt a pop in his side. A bright flash of white-hot pain surged through him. His eyes rolled back. And he was falling.
Still holding Rainne tight to him.
25
* Megan *
To say Megan was annoyed would be like saying the Hulk felt slightly grumpy.
She’d been hauled into the darkness and dragged through the snow without even a coat to wear, and she was freezing her bum off. Her silver sweater had been chosen for pretty, not practical. Not to mention she’d changed back into her high-heeled fashion boots with their smooth sole which kept slipping in the snow. On top of that, a seriously scary guy stalked two paces in front of her and her former captive was pressed to her back. Trust him, he’d said. Yeah, she’d get right on that.
Megan scanned around her. The snowfall was easing up—slightly. There were no other men near them. It was just the three of them. And from the sounds of it, the bad guys back at the castle were having their backsides handed to them by her brother and his friends.
Good. She hoped they suffered.
She tripped over the snow and head-butted Reynard’s spine.
“Watch it,” he snapped. “Keep hold of her. We need to speed up. I have a couple of snowmobiles stashed at the west exit.”
“What about the others?” Dimitri’s left hand wrapped around her upper arm.
“They’re on their own. I don’t get paid enough to save their asses.”
Charming.
Dimitri motioned for her to speed up, using the gun he held in his right hand. “Hurry,” he ordered.
Was he an idiot? She scowled over her shoulder at him. No way was she hurrying to get to whatever Reynard had planned for her. Dimitri bugged his eyes at her, as though to remind her of what he’d told her. Like she’d forget. He’d told her to follow the scary guy and he’d come up with a plan to save her—later. That did not instil confidence. She wasn’t even sure what side the guy was on. Dimitri had his own agenda, and Megan figured she’d become dispensable if she got in the way of it. So, no. She wasn’t going to wait around for him to rescue her. What was this, the eighteen hundreds? Did she look like she was wearing a corset and would faint at the first sign of trouble? No. She didn’t need to be rescued by some man.
She was going to rescue herself.
She looked down at Dimitri’s hand as it held the gun loosely at his side. It was the only type of gun she recognised—a Beretta M9. She’d been given a lecture on it from Grunt one night when they were watching an action movie and she’d called it a toy gun. Grunt had retrieved his Beretta and talked her through how it worked, all to make the point that no gun was a toy. At the time she’d thought he was being anal; now she thought he deserved a thank-you hamper, because Dimitri was holding the only gun on the planet she knew how to use. Now all she needed to do was come up with a plan to get her hands on it. She looked at the gun. Then at the scary guy in front of her. Then back to the gun.
Oh, to hell with having a plan.
She never did have the patience for planning anyway. Without a second thought, she grabbed Dimitri’s hand, and gun, pointed it at Reynard, flicked the safety off with her thumb and squeezed the trigger.
“What the—” Dimitri started.
Before he could say, or do, anything else, she turned and kneed him in the balls. He howled and bent double, leaving Megan time to turn to Reynard. He was out cold, face down in the snow. She grabbed his gun—some sort of automatic thing she didn’t recognise. She swung around and pointed it at Dimitri’s head, hoping she didn’t have to shoot, because she wasn’t even sure her finger was on the trigger.
“Drop the gun.” Then she kicked him in the balls again for good measure.
His gun fell to the snow, followed closely by the man, who writhed in agony.
Serves him right.
The guy had been nothing but trouble since she’d captured him. Megan tore her eyes from the groaning Dimitri and looked down at the overly complicated gun in her hand. She wasn’t quite sure how it worked, so she tossed it over to the trees and picked up Dimitri’s discarded handgun. Much better. Point and shoot. She could do that.
“You gonna leave anything for me?” a voice said.
Megan reacted before she realised it was her brother-in-law. She had to lower her gun to let him walk forward.
He looked down at the two men and grinned. “I came to rescue you.”
“Thanks?”
; Grunt crouched beside the scary unconscious guy as the weight of the situation began to sink in. She’d shot someone. Had she killed him? Her hands began to shake, and she worked to hide her reaction from Grunt. She didn’t want to tarnish her newly acquired street cred.
“Is he dead?” At least her voice was steady.
Grunt looked positively delighted. “No. You shot him in the ass. I think he passed out from the shock of it.” He pointed at Dimitri, who had turned green and was muttering something about never having children. “Why didn’t you shoot him?”
Megan shrugged, although inside she wanted to weep with relief. No dead bodies. Yay for her. “I’m not sure what side he’s on.”
“I would rather have been shot,” Dimitri wailed.
Lake and Matt appeared out of the darkness. Megan let her older brother pull her into a tight hug.
“Good job, Grunt,” Lake said.
“Hey!” Megan complained into Matt’s chest.
“Wasn’t me,” Grunt said. “By the time I turned up, she’d sorted them out.”
Lake and Matt gaped at her.
“What?” She was seriously offended by their disbelief. “I have skills.”
“No you don’t,” her brother said.
“Fine. I might not, but I watch a lot of action movies.”
“You’re telling me I was taken down by a woman whose only experience comes from action movies?” Dimitri shouted. Megan noted he was back to using a vague North American accent.
“Can I kick him again?” Megan asked her brother.
“Unfortunately,” Lake answered. “We need him. We have some questions that have to be answered.”
“He won’t answer,” Megan said. “He’s the one we were interrogating in the castle.”
Dimitri started to laugh, while still holding his balls. “That was an interrogation?”
“I really want to hit him again.” Megan took a step towards the guy, but Matt pulled her back.
“He’ll answer the questions I ask,” Lake said to Megan. His cold eyes were on Dimitri.
Yeah, she bet he would. Megan would answer anything Lake asked her too. There was something about his controlled, calculated stare that was chilling.
Here Comes the Rainne Again Page 16