Page 58 of Highlander Unraveled
“Answer him,” I demanded. “Did you see her?”
“Aye.” He didn’t expound on his answer.
I’d never felt the urge to shake an answer from someone more than I did at that moment.
“Where is she? How is she?” Ewan asked. “Is she the reason ye’ve come back?”
“She is fine.” But his voice held a note I’d not heard before. A falsehood that, had I not known him my entire life, I might not have been able to pick up on so easily.
He was lying.
“She is not fine,” I said. I fisted my hands at my side to keep from yanking on his torn jacket. “What has happened to her?”
“Ye’re right.” He met my gaze then. “And if ye dinna come with me, she might not ever be.”
“Why? Who has her?” Ewan asked.
“I dinna know.”
“How can ye not know?” Rory bellowed.
“Was Logan there?”
We fired question after question that went unanswered, and finally Mr. McAlister held up his hands.
“When I left… Her husband, Steven, had a gun to my head. And another barrel pressed to the head of the woman who brought Emma to your house. The woman who betrayed her.”
I let out a gasp, my hands slapping to my mouth. “No!”
16
Emma
Ididn’t know where I was going. And I’d never driven on the left side of the car, left side of the road before.
Vast expanses of highway passed us by. The city of Edinburgh disappeared into my rearview mirror and soon the view from the window was immense spans of dark wilderness. The shadows of trees, mountainsides, and the glow of the moon on the lochs.
The sun started to rise, purple in the distance, giving way to deep reds and orange, and the finally yellow, giving life to our surroundings. All in a myriad of colors. Green, red, yellow. Lush colors of autumn.
At first, I thought it was beautiful, and that it would be easier to navigate the roads to the Highlands, with the sun up, but that quickly changed. It was like I was learning to drive all over again. I was disoriented. Probably partly from the driving, but also because I was exhausted, hungry and I had to pee.
I felt bad for Logan who gripped tight to the seat as I swerved out of the right lane, nearing getting us both rocked by a semi-truck—and not for the first time since we’d gotten into the car.
“Love,” Logan ground out. “Why do ye not pull this thing to a halt.” He pointed at some woods a few dozen yards from the road, which also happened to be right next to a rest area. “We’ll go into the forest and see if we can’t figure out that black box.”
“Okay, good idea. I need to make use of the facilities anyway,” I murmured.
“I dinna know what that means, but I will follow ye.”
I pulled the car over, wrenching on the parking break as I did so. I turned it off and started to climb out. Logan let out a long breath, patted my hand and smiled.
“I’d be verra happy never to ride in one of these things again.”
I couldn’t help laughing a little. “It wasn’t fun for me, either.”
“Glad I’m not the only one.”
I showed him how to pull the lever to push open the door and he followed my actions. On the highway, one car after another whizzed past us. I walked to the women’s side of the rest area, and Logan opted to wait outside. When I was done, he still stood there, completely on edge. I don’t know why I’d been terrified that I’d come out and he’d be gone. But I was infinitely grateful to see that he was still there.
