Page 74 of Captured By the Highland Devil
“Ruben!” she screamed. “Dagger!”
He leaped away from Angus just as the felled laird slashed as his heel and missed. Angus scrabbled to his feet, but couldn’t run before Ruben took him down with two vicious slashes and finally ran him through with his blade.
Grabbing at the blade, Angus tipped over and he crashed to the ground, gurgling for breath.
Ruben’s head fell back as he gazed at the rising moon. She could only imagine how it felt that such a heavy burden had dropped from his shoulder and how free he was of the years-long mystery.
“Go,” Elijah told her. “Go to him.”
Slipping away from his hold, she went to Ruben’s side and gently touched his arm. He turned to her and silently wrapped an arm around her middle, pulling her into his side and buried his face in her hair.
“Thank ye for being brave,” he murmured. “Ye managed to protect me and yerself. Thank ye, Paige.”
She wrapped her arms around him, bitter tears slipping from her eyes. “Take me home, Ruben. Please take us home.”
EPILOGUE
The moment she’d stepped through the doors to the McKinnon Castle, her mother rushed to her and wrapped her in a tight hug.
“Is it true?” Daisy looked heartbroken and distraught, “Did me husband really do all those evil things? Did he take the lass Norah and try to kill Elijah?”
Knowing how frail her mother was, Paige guided her up the steps to a room near their breakfast room. Guiding her mother to a seat she gently sat her down.
Reaching over she held her mother’s hand tightly while swallowing over her own grief. “I hate to tell ye the truth, Maither, but aye…” she swallowed, “Father did do those things.
She told her about her father admitting to kidnapping Norah, the bet he had lost, and how he had admitted to wanting to kill Elijah.
Tears trickled down Daisys’s face and utter grief darkened her face. Hugging her mother close, Paige allowed her tears to fall as well. The pain of feeling utterly betrayed by her father and the unneeded hatred she had built up for Ruben.
Both emotions crashed with the memories on fear and frenzy, only two hours collided into a ball of pain that poured out of her in tears. She held onto her mother’s shoulders as they cried together.
Pressing the back of her hand into her eyes, Paige wiped the tears away as Ruben stepped into the room. His astute eyes took one look at the two of them and stepped back out of the room.
He returned with Maisie in tow. “She’ll take yer maither to her rooms, and I need to take ye to ours.”
“Good night, Maither,” Paige said.
As her mother, she saw how Ruben have her a long look at her. Paige felt his eyes take in her haggard appearance, including her ragged, stained dress and tousled hair. He wrapped her up in a tight, warm hug.
“When I saw him hold that weapon to ye, I wanted to take his head off,” Ruben said.
“I was terrified,” Paige admitted as she pressed her face into his chest. “Me heart was beatin’ out of me chest.”
“But ye did well,” Ruben said, “Very well. For that one lesson in defense, ye took it well.”
His left hand slipped up to cup the back of her neck. He tilted her head up to face him, and kissed her on the lip, and in that moment she did not care about anything.
The kiss was amazing, and Paige found herself standing on her tiptoes, deepening the connection between her and this man who had saved her life twice…this man whom she loved…
“What ye do to me,” he muttered, tracing his finger along her jawline. “I never planned to fall in love with ye.”
The words washed over her and nearly made her swoon. Ruben loved her; he was in love with her. The love of her life was in love with her!
That was enough let her truth fall from her lips. “I…I am in love with ye, too. I dinnae want to believe it, but it is true.”
“I’ve sent for us to have a bath,” Ruben said. “Do ye wish that I’d only captured yer father for the crown to deal with him instead of killin’ him?”
She rested the side of her head on his chest, “The Crown would have imprisoned him or sentenced him to death. I ken they will make an enquiry when his death is kenned, but we can deal with it then.
