Page 60 of An Enchanted Spring

His smile was gone in an instant. “You’re not listening, Emmaline. I hate it when you don’t listen to me.” He reached around himself and drew a gun from the back of his belt. He stroked it lovingly. “I want you, Emma. You’re mine. But you left to be withhim.That’s not all right, Emmaline. Nope, not at all. I told you. I was nothing but honest, you see.”

She froze, her eyes locked on the weapon held loosely in his hand. “How did you get out of the States, Ben?”

He laughed again, but this time it sounded desperate. “Oh, I owe some big drug lords a lot of money. They can do so much with the power they have. Getting me to you was easy! But you don’t want me anymore. I told you that no one else would ever have you. But you didn’t listen. You never listen, Emmaline.”

Her throat was dry and her body was shaking, but she slowly stood up.

He watched her dispassionately. “You gave yourself to MacWilliam. Now you’re used goods, and I can’t have you again. So that means no one can. But it never mattered, because I need that life insurance.” He raised the gun at her, and she opened her mouth to scream—

She was knocked to the ground at the same time the gun fired. Then someone hauled her to her feet and grabbed her around the waist, swinging her away from Ben.

“Run,” Aidan urged, and she didn’t have to think twice. She ran smack into a huge chest.

“Me,” Reilly said quickly, righting her before grabbing her hand. He pulled her deeper into the forest, running as fast as she could go.

“What about Aidan?” she wheezed.

“Right behind us. Keep running, Emmaline.”

She didn’t have to be told that again. She ran with everything she had.

Chapter 11

Aidan knew he wouldn’t make it to MacDermott in time to stop another shot, but he did know that he could melt into the unnaturally thick mist around him in an instant. Decision made, he took a swift step backward and listened for which way Emma ran.

The snapping of branches awakened his long-dormant tracking instincts.

She went north.

“You think to have her?” MacDermott sneered through the fog, his voice clear. “You know she’s mine, MacWilliam. I’ll find her, or die trying. Your money can’t protect her forever.”

Perhaps not, Aidan thought grimly.But my sword will.

He sent a prayer flying, and headed in the same direction he heard Reilly’s low voice a moment before. MacDermott’s insults were loud, and his threats were pathetic, but Aidan wasn’t stupid. The man had a gun, and a gun won out over a sword every time.

When he saw Emma heading into the forest, his heart nearly stopped. Aside from the danger MacDermott presented, and despite no trace of the man when he searchedthe forest last night, Reilly’s woods were notoriously finicky; the time gates located deep in its thickets produced people from all different time periods.

“It’s safe for me,” Reilly had explained once, “for I’m a Protector. I can make the time gate work as I need it. If you try to travel through my forest, there’s no telling where you’d end up, MacWilliam. And I’m not going to track you down through the ages, so you’ll have to just live where you lie.”

After meeting some of the shell-shocked travelers who ended up at O’Malley’s dinner table, Aidan believed him.

MacDermott’s slurs and threats faded behind him, leaving Aidan with only the sound of his own breathing.

Where is she?He reached for the sword on his back, comforted by the feel of steel in his hand, and strained to hear anything.

When nothing reached his ears, he carried on, hoping he would be able to find her before she landed in someone’s dungeon.

Emma grippedReilly’s hand so tightly she worried she might cut off his circulation. But he didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact that she was squeezing it as though it were her lifeline.

Which it was, but that was beside the point.

She noticed his clothing again. The léine wrapped around a really nice tunic, made of what looked like linen. And it had to be handmade, too, for his shoulders were larger than a linebacker’s, and his arms…huge wasn’t a big enough word.

She was glad he was on her side.

He pulled her alongside a tree and glanced around. His shoulders relaxed and he gently pried her fingers from his own.

“He’s gone, lass. All’s well.”

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