Page 87 of Highlander's Wild Lass
Anthony waited to see if Auralia would respond, but she didn’t. They might have her gagged, he couldn’t see her.
He spotted a pile of unused brick under a scraggly bush and picked one up as he moved closer. His footfalls were quiet on the grass as he approached the man. His eyes on the back of the man with the pipe’s skull.
A brief glance toward Auralia told him that she had spotted him, and ever the smartest, she began wailing even louder. Anthony raised the brick overhead and brought it down against the man’s skull.
The man collapsed to the ground.
“Are ye hurt, lass?” Anthony whispered, rushing to her, pulling down the cloth that had been tied around her mouth.
“Nay,” she said, holding her tied hands out to him.
Anthony took his dirk and cut her loose. “Yer sister and Sebastian are here. Stay hidden in here until we come for ye.”
“Mr. Koll is around the front,” Auralia told him before she ran off to hide.
The distillery was a maze. He could not seem to make heads or tails of the layout. The McLean distillery was built to near perfection, and everything made sense from the beginning of the compound to the back. Perhaps that was another reason Koll wanted Celestia to fail so adamantly.
“Where is my sister?”
Celestia.
He hurried along quietly to where her voice had come from. Stupidly, the man had kept the door open from where Anthony stood to where Celestia, Sebastian, and Koll were.
“Ye willnae see her until ye hand over the books,” Koll said, leaning against a counter, looking at ease. “Ye must come to yer senses, lass. The books for yer sister or nay books and prison—it’s an easy choice.”
“I dinnae ken what ye mean by books, but I brought our one and only client book with me,” Celestia told him, Sebastian staying close by her side.
Koll laughed, launching himself off the counter. “Ye must think me a fool, lass. I ken about the other list. Yer faither wasnae the gentleman ye thought he was.”
Celestia almost advanced but thought better of it. “My faitherwasa gentleman. And a far better man than yerself.”
“I never claimed to be a gentleman, to be fair,” he said. “I see that bonnie cheek of yers has healed nicely.”
Celestia grimaced, gripping the logbook closer to her chest. “Ye will take care of each and every person in here, like they’re family.”
“Aye, lass, I intend too,” Koll said reaching his hand out.
Celestia stepped back. “Do ye promise?”
Anthony took this moment to rush into the room. He wrapped his arm around Koll’s shoulder and pressed the blade against the skin of his throat. Koll struggled minutely beneath the dirk.
“Robbie is here. He’ll hear us and alert the English.”
“I took care of Robbie, dinnae worry,” Anthony told him.
Koll sucked in a breath. “Ye would kill me, unarmed and alone?”
“Aye,” Anthony said, mouth beside his ear. “I would.”
“A member of yer own clan?”
Anthony huffed out a laugh. “Ye have never been a very good one, so it is nay real loss.”
Koll thrust to the side and connected his elbow with Anthony’s chin. Anthony lost his grip on the man and stumbled backward. Koll lunged for the book in Celestia’s arms, pushing her into Sebastian so that Sebastian had no way to put himself in front of her.
Koll ripped the book out of her hands, lifted it, and brought it down across her face, sending her crashing to the ground.
A searing hot rage took Anthony when he saw Celestia hit the floor. He was no longer in control of his own body, this primeval urge to protect his wife and his child had completely taken over.
