Page 20 of Savage Reckoning

I smile to myself. We’re headed for the Savage’s headquarters in Glasgow, the mansion which was once their family home, now serving as offices and accommodation for the organisation’s key lieutenants and their families. If I’m being allowed in there, that means I’m one of them, at least for now.

CHAPTER 5

Megan

“I’m needed at Caernbro Ghyll.”

The message from Jack was clear. The rescued women are to be temporarily housed at the mansion, and some of them are likely to need medical attention. Clearly, there’s no prospect of presenting any of them in a normal medical facility without inviting unwelcome questions, so it’s up to me to dole out the TLC.

Beth hands me a coffee. “Don’t worry about us, we’re fine.”

Aaron was transferred to the Richmond earlier today and is now ensconced in his own private room for a few days of recuperation while his injured shoulder settles down. Beth and I accompanied him in the private ambulance, and we’re both relieved to be back in Scotland. Magda is expected to be transferred here in a day or two as well, following the amputation of her right leg just below the knee. She’ll need more than a few days to recover and adjust, but I’m determined to be there for her. We all will.

“I’ll need a car,” I mutter, keying the number into my phone. I arrange to have one of the company vehicles dropped off in half an hour, which will give me time for final checks on Aaron before beginning the long drive south to Glasgow.

I take the opportunity to call Ethan’s consultant, Mr Renny, while I’m on the road, but there’s no change. His breathing is stable now, and there’s no longer talk of a ventilator. That’s a massive relief, but the brain scans are not turning up anything to explain his continued lack of responsiveness. I’m glad there’s nothing obviously sinister, but the longer this goes on the more worrying it is.

“Some patients just take their time,” the consultant assures me, and I know he’s right.

Even so, I don’t like it. The good news, though, is that Mr Renny is prepared to consider allowing Ethan to transfer to the Richmond as well, once it’s been established that there’s no specialist treatment required which can only be delivered in a major teaching hub.

“Let’s observe him for the next couple of weeks, then reassess.”

Sound reasoning. I agree and thank him. “Please, could you let me know at once if anything changes?”

“Of course.”

He ends the call, and I’m left with my own thoughts for the next three hours. It’s just me, with only the tedious asphalt of the A9 and Radio Two for company. A bleak prospect, no wonder my thoughts drift so easily to the handsome liar who I’d firmly believed was out of my life forever.

Still, I’ll be safe enough at Caernbro Ghyll. Small mercies, but I’m thankful all the same. I can do without the distraction.

I’ve decided to believe his tale about operating undercover, especially since Casey was able to corroborate his account of the reasons for my early release. Apparently, a ‘technical discrepancy’ arose, the exact nature of which was not specified in the confidential report she unearthed. She was also able to dig out details of the drugs ring operating out of the medical corps, and my old boss’s arrest and conviction. There was no record of Ed—sorry, Gabe—being discharged from the army, but neither could Casey find clear evidence of his current rank and status.

None of that excuses the fact, though, that he lied to me. However solid he might think his reasons were, he manipulated me, using me as part of his mission. I was just a means to an end. He wormed himself into a relationship with me so he could spy on my colleagues, and presumably slept with me for no better reason than that he could. I was younger then, certainly more naive, and I fell for his charm.

Gabriel Sawyer is nothing if not charming. He always was, and mad at him though I am, I can see nothing has changed. Women gravitate to him; he’s a magnet, and I was just caught up. I was flattered because he seemed to choose me. I thought he genuinely cared for me, and when he told me he loved me… I never doubted him, not for a moment.

I was a fool. And I was in love. A bad combination.

Now, I’m just angry and bitter. The humiliation still stings, the personal and professional carnage still scattered about my feet like an upturned rubbish skip. My career was left in ruins, and my heart was broken. And now, here he is again, with that devastating, sexy smile, that sensual Southern drawl that still makes my insides twist and churn, and he’s saying he’s sorry.

And I’m saying, ‘So what?’ Sorry doesn’t fix anything, not that I even need fixing. I still have my medical licence and work I love. My medical career may be unconventional, but I work with people I like and respect and I make a difference here. I don’t need or want apologies, especially not from Gabriel fucking Sawyer.

Thus fortified, I bask in the glorious scenery of the Cairngorms and tell myself—again—that life is pretty good, all things considered.

It’s early afternoon when I finally crunch across the gravel in front of Caernbro Ghyll and roll to a halt. Exhausted, I climb out of the car and take in the scene of activity before me. A van emblazoned with the name of a swanky department store in the city centre is parked at the foot of the entrance steps, and two men are unloading what looks to be half their stock.

I skirt around them to make my way inside, to find Jack’s wife, Ruth, in the entrance foyer, her baby girl perched on her hip. Ruth is inspecting the delivery and issuing orders to the deliverymen.

“Take that pile upstairs. Yes, the east landing, just like before. Those can follow, but I need to check them first…” She pauses to nod to me. “They’re all upstairs. I put them three to a room, in the east wing.”

“Right.” I cast an eye over the piles of packages piling up in the hallway. “Been doing a spot of shopping?”

She scrapes her fingers through her loose blonde hair. “I’ve got seventeen semi-naked women upstairs, and Jack wants me to ‘look after them’.” She etches the speech marks with her fingers in the air. “I thought I’d better start with some clothes, given that this place is packed to the gills with horny men.”

“I see. Good thinking.”

“So, Jack gave me the number of a woman he knows in that posh shop in town, and I rang her first thing. We’ve got jeans, tops, underwear, shoes. Do you think it will do? Is there enough to go round?”

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