Stockings full of presents were out on all the furniture because there were so many presents inside they couldn’t hang without ripping the nails from the wall. Quentin carried Beaty down and she sat on the couch under a blanket with a stocking full of presents in her lap.
Zach began making breakfast and Emma hugged me, “Thank you Katie for helping us make this so perfect.”
“What did I do? This was totally Santa, there’s no way we mere mortals got this done in a day.”
And that’s what we did all morning, as the sun rose on the beach, we drank coffee and ate some egg and sausage casserole, and pressured Hayley to get out of bed already, and we slowly one by one opened our presents and delighted in Magnus and Beaty’s delight.
The only melancholy part was Archie’s stocking with a present from Santa and presents from me and Magnus and an extra two from Hayley, because she was secretly a big softie, but it was the good kind of melancholy. We missed him. We wanted him here. We would fix this so that he was safe. This stocking was a promise.
We played with Ben and were in good spirits, allowing the house to get knee deep in wrapping paper and kissing and hugging each other and yes, it was everything I wanted and more.
And my present from Magnus, a box that was wrapped terribly, in paper printed with penguins in Santa hats. But I knew he had concentrated on it, had really tried to get it right. The tag read ‘to Kaitlyn’ in his swooping handwriting, and then underneath it ‘love, Magnus’. I knew it was full of nothing but his intentions, both unspoken and spoken, but still, it really made me weepy when I opened it. I knew in every bit of fiber in my being, he loved me —that’s what that box was. He wanted to love me forever. He wanted a family with me. To grow old with me.
I don’t know if anyone in the history of time has ever been as happy as I was about an empty box for a present.
I also got a pair of sweatpants from Hayley with rainbow stripes on one asymmetrical leg that were so soft I might never take them off.
There was, if it was possible, too much chocolate.
Michael came over to see his big brother Zach and he brought Hayley a Christmas present and she seemed exasperated by it, but also happy, too. The two of them went out on the back porch and talked for a while. James dropped by. It felt like I hadn’t seen him in a lifetime but it had only been a month. He, Magnus, Quentin and Zach played ball in the house with Ben, making an awesome dangerous racket, and then we all lounged, spent, jacked on caffeine, and crashing from the breakfast calories.
I loved having our house full. Zach was back in his element, feeding all of us. Hayley and Michael were not fighting. I curled up under Magnus’s arm and we enjoyed the food and friends, with some music playing, and the lights twinkling. An epic day and it was only just now 11:30 am.
Fifty-eight - Kaitlyn
Michael left to go to his parents’ house for Christmas dinner, sad he had to leave our festivities. James went home to check on his dog.
Magnus and Quentin decided to get busy and loaded up in Quentin’s truck to go to the storage unit to get the ATVs.
I guessed they had been gone for about thirty minutes when we saw the first sign of the storm.
The storm wasn’t on the television’s constantly running weather channel. This one was right outside. Zach and I both met at the sliding doors and a moment later Hayley met us there too.
To the south of us the sky was black. Storm clouds were banking up and rolling higher and higher. The wind was picking up and—
Emma came down the stairs with Ben on her hip. “Zachary do you see?”
“Yeah, honey, I see it. Can you get Ben back upstairs?”
He said to Hayley. “I’ll go talk to the security guards, will you call Quentin?”
She already had her phone in her hand.
I said, “Shit, I hope that’s just a storm,” as the high storm clouds began to arc lightning strikes from the center of it down to the sand.
I heard Hayley’s voice saying into the phone, “Yeah, it looks like it’s centered over Main Beach. Yeah, how far away are you? Okay, I’ll tell Katie.”
She turned to me. “They’re off the island and there’s been an accident, traffic is backed up on the bridge, so it will be a while.”
“Then that’s too late. I can see someone under the storm.”
I took the flight of stairs at a run to the second floor and went out on the deck to speak to the security guy. “Do you see that person?”
“Yes Ma’am.” He was looking through his binoculars.
“Man or woman or...?”
His voice was a deep southern twang. “Well, ma’am it looks like a woman, do ya wanna give it a look?”
He passed me the binoculars. I aimed them toward the stretch of sand between the surf and the dunes, right in front of our house, and directly under the storm that was beginning to dissipate. There was someone lying in the sand, a woman. I passed him back the binoculars. “It’s Lady Mairead, Magnus’s mother, stay here, protect the house, I’ll go out and see what she wants.”
I raced back downstairs to the ground floor. “Zach, it’s Lady Mairead.”
“What the hell does she want? Doesn’t she know she’s supposed to jump into Savannah? She’s directing Reyes right to our house.”
“Yeah, We need to lock down this house. I don’t know what she wants, but I’m going to go find out.”
“What’s the fucking protocol?”
Emma called from the stairs, “We used to turn everything off, go quiet, what do we do?”
I said, “Turn everything off, go quiet, hide in a closet. I’ll be back.”
Zach grabbed a handgun we kept in a drawer in the kitchen island and checked if it was loaded. “I’ll walk out there with you.”
Hayley said, “What should I do?”
Zach said, “Will you wait here?” Then he called up to Emma, “Emma! Will you show Hayley where our gun is?” He said to Hayley, “Use it to guard the inside door.”
“Yes sir.”
Then we were bolting out the door down the deck to the sand.
I was in my new Christmas sweatpants, with a crop top, also barefoot. I didn’t need shoes because this was Christmas Day. We didn’t need to go anywhere that required shoes. We jogged down the beach, the person we were racing toward moved and shifted in the sand.
Lady Mairead’s face was pale and strained.
I pulled up in front of her with my hands on my hips. The storm was almost gone, the wind now just a high breeze, enough to whip my hair into my face and sand in our eyes.
“Lady Mairead, you’re supposed to jump into Savannah, Reyes is going to—” Her eyes held mine, as she brushed sand off her big linen skirts and then straightened the deep green bodice from the 18th century with her Campbell tartan wrapped around her shoulders.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I have come tae warn ye, Reyes is here, he is coming over the dunes at any moment. You will need tae tell Magnus tae be ready.” She held up her hand for Zach to heave her to her feet.
“Magnus isn’t here. He went to—”
“Why on earth isna he here?”
“He went to get a stockpile of weapons to go fight Reyes.” More clouds banked above us. A second before, the clouds were parting, now they rolled back in, and I did not want to be under another fucking storm.
She looked up at the darkening sky and said, her voice flat and frightened. “We daena have time tae discuss it.”
“Shit,” I said, “We’ve got to get off the beach.” I had to yell now over the storm, the whipping wind, my hair wild, the air sizzling with the electric charge of the lightning that was beginning to crash into the beach just behind us. I yelled, “Run, run, run!”
Lady Mairead hustled, I ran just behind her, sort of herding her faster, faster, please go faster, and Zach brought up the rear, turning around to look behind us. We hit the walkway and clomped down the boards. The security guard rushed out to help us in and I took one la
st look behind me. There were men under the storm, a grouping of them, still and quiet from the jump, not menacing at all beyond the storm, but from across the sand, over the dunes, were men on horseback, ten coming up from the south, another ten coming from the north. “Holy shit, he’s got his freaking—”
“Run!”
Horses driven by soldiers covered in armor and carrying swords thundered across the dunes bearing down on us as we skidded to the sliding glass doors that Hayley was holding open for us. We raced in and slammed them shut behind us.
The security guard yelled, “Everyone down, behind the couch!”
He and Zach each had their back to the wall on either side of the door. I peeked over the back of the couch, my heart racing, my head spinning. Footsteps clomped down the boardwalk, steady and menacing in their pace, slow and sure, as if we were cornered, like we were — totally cornered in a freaking house full of my family that was knee deep in toys and excess and wrapping paper. That’s what I had concentrated on for two days instead of getting the weapons out of storage. Buying gifts. Because I wanted some normalcy.
But I had forgotten that I don’t get normal.
I get crazy bullshit-evil guys.
It came to me that Hayley was speaking into the phone. Her voice the voice of a person that was seriously freaking out. “What do you mean, traffic? Get on this fucking island, Quentin, there’s a maniac with a —” She peeked over the couch. “A fucking army. He’s got an army in Fernandina.”
“Can I have the phone?”
She passed it to me as we locked eyes, both our hands shaking so much we barely got the phone from one to the other.
“Quentin what am I supposed to do?”
“Security called it in, the police will get there before we do, just hold tight. We’re almost past the accident—”
Magnus’s voice through the bluetooth of their phone. “Kaitlyn?”
I sobbed, “It’s really scary Magnus. He has so many men and it’s…”
“I ken, but he wants me, daena do anything. When I get there, I will kill him and twill be okay. Where are ye hidin’?”
“I’m behind the couch.”
Quentin’s voice, exasperated, “Get behind the kitchen island at least, Katie. You’re exposed.”
I whispered, “I can’t, he’s right here, right outside—”
There was banging on the glass door, loud.
Hayley and Zach and I went totally quiet.
I clamped my eyes shut and begged the universe for the police, anyone, a freaking horse — it could ride by the truck my husband was in and he could jump on and ride at a gallop up the side of the highway to get here. “I’m scared.”
Quentin and Magnus discussed what to do. I looked over at Hayley, her eyes closed tight. Why were we doing that, did it make us hide better?
More banging.
The security guard commanded, “I’ve called the police. They’re on their way, you have one minute to clear off this—”
The sliding glass door shattered.
Quentin’s voice, “What the hell was that?! Is he in the house? Katie! Is he in the house?”
Reyes’s voice, “I don’t want any trouble with anyone, I want Magnus.”
I squiggled down to the end of the couch and peeked around to see Zach, standing stiff and still, holding his gun, his eyes wild. I shook my head, don’t do it, there’s too many men.
The guard’s voice, trying to sound dominating, said, “Magnus isn’t here, so you can get the fuck out of here. The police are on the way.”
From the distance sirens.
Reyes said, “What? Magnus is too scared to come out?”
“He’s not here.”
The man laughed. “Well, somebody better get out here and talk to me, I’ve got Archie and we—”
“He has Archie.” I said it to the room, to anyone listening, as an explanation for what I was going to do, and then I stood from behind the couch with my hands up. “Where is Archie?”
From the phone I heard Quentin and Magnus’s voices as they went ballistic. But I was already standing, locked eye to eye with Reyes. He was covered in gear, bullet proof vests, a helmet, full protection against our handguns and behind him, men with swords and other weapons. I couldn’t even tell what most of them were. They all looked like some crazy Mad Max kind of scenario, like what you would get if a bunch of 17th century men just raided the arsenals of armies from a dozen different centuries.
I was facing them all down.
I had not thought this through.
Zach was in my line of vision, so was the security guard, but they were seriously outmanned. If they shot anyone, we would all go down.
I asked “Do you have him here, where is he?”
Reyes said, “Why would I bring a baby to a military exercise, Queen Kaitlyn? I’m a gentleman, not a terrorist.”
“Fuck you,” I said, “Do you have Bella too?”
“Your husband’s mistress? No, I—”
“Why the fuck do people keep calling her that, you piece of shit. Where is Archie?”
His smile grew mischievous. His eyes held a glint I did not like.
It came to me that he might not have Archie, that he was bluffing, and I just basically surrendered to a maniacal monster without a back up plan.
But guess what?
He was in the house.
I really didn’t have any other choice.
“I will take you to baby Archie, Queen Kaitlyn, you can comfort him while you wait for Magnus to run his errand for me.”
The voices were muffled coming from the phone, but I could tell Quentin was trying to get me to stop. I pushed the phone over to Hayley so she could deal with it.
“Fine, but no one else gets hurt. Don’t you touch a hair on anyone in this family’s head. Not one. If you’re a gentleman, prove it. Make a deal with me — you don’t hurt anyone.”
“Of course, Queen Kaitlyn, I wouldn’t dream of injuring anyone else.”
“And where are you taking me? To Archie? You promise?”
I stepped around the couch with my hands up, brushing near Zach who mouthed, “Be careful.”
Reyes grabbed me by my arm. “Tell Magnus I will entertain the beautiful Queen Kaitlyn, while he travels to Inchaiden, the day of the dawn of the Tempus Omegas. Kaitlyn will be my incentive that he goes.”
Then he said, “Did you hear that, Zach Greene? Will you tell Magnus where his wife will be? And tell him that if he does not go to Inchaiden, if his wife is not an enticement for him to fulfill my request, my men are going to jump to the beginning of the Tempus Omegas and start killing Campbells. There is a whole castle there, full of them — what would happen to the history of Magnus if my bloodthirsty men kill his great-great-grandfather, his great-great-great-grandmother?”
Zach said from behind the wall, “Yeah, um, can you repeat that? I had trouble hearing it over the asshole talking.”
Reyes repeated it. “Tell him if he does not go to Scotland and do what he agreed to, then people start dying as soon as we land.”
He yanked my arm and I stepped to the glass-covered deck in my bare feet.
Fifty-nine - Kaitlyn
I was led between two men down the decking of my boardwalk, their feet clomping down the boards, to the waiting soldiers on horseback. A really terrifying uber-violent male-gaze happening and I seriously regretted my rainbow-striped sweatpants and cut off t-shirt. Like seriously.
Almost enough to ask if I could go back and change clothes, maybe get some tampons, though this had been a light period and was almost over, but still, I needed my stuff. More pressing though I needed to get this asshole away from my family.
One of the guards behind me said, “I want a piece of that.”
Reyes laughed, unsheathed his knife, and with a yank cut the top triangle of the back of my thong off basically leaving me with no panties at all.
He sliced the small scrap in half and held them up. “First battalion, ready to go?”
/> “Yes, ready to go.” Reyes handed him a scrap of my thong and the man gave me a disgusting-pig look. He twisted the ends of a vessel and the storm rose above us. That man left with three others.
“Battalion two?” Reyes handed another man a piece of my thong. I couldn’t see or hear anything for the storm as groups of men and horses were all given directions to go to different places at different times and then Reyes twisted the ends of his own vessel. Our storm met the others to make a really big-ass storm and then with a slam I was kidnapped, hard.
Sixty - Magnus
“I need a horse. I could get past this on a horse. Drive down the grass there, Quentin.”
“I can’t they’d arrest me. If you were driving, maybe — thing to remember: I’m a black man.”
The policeman, directing traffic past the accident, waved us through, and the cars ahead of us set intae motion, verra slow. “They should go faster than this.”
Quentin remained quiet. Then he began weavin’ through the cars and I held ontae the verra convenient handle by the door. “We should have brought her, then he wouldna have her right now.”
“Yeah, but who would he have? Hayley, Beaty, Zach or Emma? Katie is the only one equipped to handle it. I’m glad she was there to get him away from the house.”
“He spoke of doin’ terrible things tae her…”
“Yeah, the last mother fucker that did terrible things to Katie is a dead man. She’s going to be fine.”
“Och aye, and Reyes is a dead man already. I winna allow him tae breathe much longer.”
Under the Same Sky (Kaitlyn and the Highlander Book 7) Page 19