Page 117 of Promises to Keep

She nodded at the bag dripping in her lap, dolefully. “When will they be back?”

I said, “Three days. That’s all we have to wait for.”

CHAPTER 55 - KAITLYN

We waited three days, then at sundown the fourth day, we saw a storm. James drove the truck at top speed, with Hayley in the passenger side.

Zach and I stayed to guard the house.

I had been carrying a gun for days, trying to be a mother, cool and fun, also trying to be a security guard while there seemed to be threats all around us, scary, which made me uptight — those two were hard to jibe, so I snapped at Isla and then apologized. She cried and carried on and I truly regretted the whole conversation and only got out of it by being a bad mom and bribing her with candy. This whole thing was too complicated. I could not be all these things at once, and do any of it properly. But I had to guard well.

I got a call, I put it on speaker.

James said, “High alert, keep your eye on the house, only Quentin here.”

I looked at Zach. “Only Quentin.”

“Sounds like he thinks more people might have come, maybe they’re hiding some—” He gulped. “I’m going to check around the house.”

I stuck my head in the house and told Beaty, “Quentin just jumped home.”

“Och aye, thank the lord.” She climbed up from her knees where she had been praying for hours every day, with a plate of rice crispy treats beside her, ever since Quentin and Fraoch disappeared.

The truck drove up to the house.

James jumped out, went around to open the passenger door and help Quentin climb out, placing a shoulder under his arm to support him. “Steady buddy, come on, one foot after another.”

Beaty grasped Quenton’s other arm, “Quennie, will ye survive it? Please please survive it, Quennie.”

We held the front door and they carried him to the living room sofa.

He was gaunt, his clothes filthy. Beaty unbuttoned the top of his shirt and pushed the collar down to see his shoulder — it had healed with an ugly scar.

He groaned and held his stomach. “I’m going to hurl.”

Zach passed a bowl. Beaty said, “If ye hurl, Quennie, I will hurl with ye, I am nae—”

He retched, gagged, and threw up in the bowl. Beaty began retching and threw up in the bowl. Zach threw his hand over his mouth and groaned.

Emma said, “Are you kidding me, Zach, you’re being such a baby!”

He said, “You can’t blame me Em! He’s…” He put his hand over his mouth and groaned.

Hayley said, “Quentin, what’s going on, why are you alone, where’s Fraoch?”

He lay back, done throwing up. “They still have him, they sent me to Magnus with a message and told me they didn’t give a shit if I came back. Magnus sent me home.”

James sat down on the chair across from him. “Are we safe? Should we go further underground?”

Quentin nodded. “Yeah, we’ve got to get out of here.”

James stood. “Okay, peeps, you know the drill, grab your things.” People began rushing around.

Zach asked, “Where we headed?”

Quentin said, “Back to Balloch, year 1709. They have guards there, we need more guards, we are not enough.”

I said, “Do we have time to talk, what about Magnus, what’s going on…?”

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