Page 48 of Savage Redemption

Which is more than can be said for poor little Andrej, fighting for his life, or so I’m told. Tony was right to ignore our usual protocol which absolutely forbids external aircraft approaching our island. That lad needs urgent medical care, the air ambulance is the only way, since both our helicopters are with me.

It’s not the first time I’ve been relieved that my senior team know when to use their initiative.

Andrej is a sort of adopted son. Originally from Belarus, he’s the little brother of Arina, married to Rome, one of my othercommanders. The family were orphaned, had no one, and were in danger from people traffickers. So we brought them back with us, and while Arina and Rome are based in Glasgow, the younger ones now live on Caraksay. It sounds as if it was their cottage, the home they share with Faith, my brother’s mother-in-law, that has burned down.

Faith was up at the castle for the day, helping with the younger children as Magda, our usual child carer, was on pilot duties with me. Andrej and Natalija were alone at the cottage when the fire started. Natalija’s fifteen, they should have been all right.

But they weren’t, and I’ll be needing to know why.

Carlos di Santo. What the fuck is he doing on my island?Not least as he’s supposed to be meeting me in Aberdeen.

Obviously, the so-called property deal was a ruse, a decoy to get me and several of my men off the island. It worked, and somehow, he managed to get past the depleted defences I left behind.

Fuck!

Luckily, Tony was on the ball. He and a couple more of my men managed to get the three casualties out, but the fire was beyond anything they could deal with, so he decided to let it burn. I’ll be getting a professional fire investigation team out tomorrow, another break with protocol, but I need to know what happened. This calls for experts.

I’ve instructed Tony to make sure no one except the air ambulance leaves Caraksay until I’m satisfied that I know exactly what’s been going on. If anyone else from that fucking construction crew isn’t who they say they are they won’t be leaving alive.

“Air ambulance to starboard.” Magda’s voice crackles into my headphones.

I glance out of the window and see the other helicopter, about half a mile to our right, heading for the mainland. At least Andrej is on his way to hospital.

Cristina squeezes my hand. “It’s bad,” she reminds me, “but it could have been worse. No one is dead.”

Yet.

I’m leapingfrom the chopper before the rotors even slow down. I cross the courtyard at a running crouch, Jack Morgan hard on my heels. Tony is waiting by the main entrance.

“Where are they?” I demand.

“Clinic. The other helicopter just left.”

“We saw it on the way in. How was he?”

Tony shakes his head. “Bad, boss. When we first got him out, I thought he’d gone. Megan brought him back with her oxygen, but he’s never regained consciousness.”

“I want to be kept informed of his condition.” That lad was in my care, and this happened to him on my watch. “If he dies…” I let my words trail off and spin on my heel. I need to get to the clinic.

The first person I see when I burst through the door is Tomasz, my stepson. He flings himself into my arms.

“Dad,” he mumbles into my shirt, fighting back tears. “It was awful. We were playing chess in Faith’s kitchen, and we smelled the smoke.”

I hug him to me. He may not be mine biologically, but it makes no difference. “It’s okay, son. You did your best.”

“It was in the bedroom, the front bedroom. Faith’s room. We tried to put it out, with buckets of water from the kitchen. But it was too much. The bed caught fire, it just all went up. It was so quick…”

It’s okay,” I repeat. “You did your best. No one blames you.”

“We… we decided to make a run for it. I thought the other two were right behind me, but when I got outside, it was just me. There was so much smoke. I was coughing, choking, but I knew I had to go back and find them. I would have, but that man arrived.”

“What man?”

“I don’t know his name, he was from the building site, one of the builders, I think. He told me to go for help, and he went in the cottage.”

I already know from Tony’s report that Faith spotted the smoke from one of the castle windows and she raised the alarm. Everyone, including the builders, piled out and charged down there. They met Tomasz halfway up the hill, heading for the castle to get help. He told them the other kids were trapped.

By the time they all arrived, the flames and smoke were near overwhelming, but Tony, Jake, and Nico went in. They found Natalija first, in the doorway, trying to crawl out. She told them where the others were, and they managed to drag the two unconscious forms into the fresh air moments before the roof collapsed.

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