A Howl for a Highlander

Page 43

Shelley pulled Duncan into her arms, breast to chest, and began kissing him. He jumped right in, not one to let a chance get away.
He smiled against her lips. “Ian must have said something that made you happy.”
“Oh, yes, Duncan. He told me what a wonderful, caring, loving individual you are.”
Duncan looked down at her frowning. “Ian did?
Then she laughed. “Oh, yes, and I already know I’m going to love him and the rest of your family.” If only she could get her own family to toe the line.
***
After speaking with Ethan Campbell, Ian called his little American werewolf mate into his office and pulled her into his lap. He nuzzled her soft neck and said, “Julia, you don’t happen to have any relatives named Ethan and Shelley Campbell, do you?”
“Not that I know of,” Julia said. “We have a connection to the Duke, but there are so many branches of Campbells that I wouldn’t know if we had any other ties. Why?”
“Duncan has mated with a Shelley Campbell.”
Julia smiled. “Here he was so grouchy about going to an island paradise. Sounds like it was just the place he needed to be.” Then she frowned. “You seem worried, Ian.”
“Her uncles and mother plan to live here.”
“Oh.”
“Aye. They were crofters forced to move away in the old days and still resent it.”
Julia’s eyes grew big. “Oh.”
Ian ran his hands over her belly. “Aye. Her Uncle Ethan is quite outspoken about it.”
“What happens when your mother and aunt learn of it?”
Ian sighed. “I want to see Duncan happy.”
She gave Ian one of her self-assured smiles. “He will be. Your mother and aunt can take care of the uncles. How many are there? Most importantly, do they have mates?” She arched a brow, and her eyes sparkled with an intriguing thought.
“Nay, do not even think of any of them making a match. We will be lucky if we have any peace around here at all.”
***
Duncan couldn’t decide what to do about Ethan Campbell, who was staring off at the ocean, no longer speaking to Ian, the phone in his hand at his side. Duncan didn’t think that if Ian had said Shelley’s uncles and mother could move in with them at Argent Castle, Ethan would just hop on a plane and return home to Texas. Which meant Uncle Ethan most likely would cause trouble once he learned Shelley was in danger and would want to take her right home.
Shelley seemed to be thinking the same thing, and she said, “We have to tell Uncle Ethan what’s going on.”
“He’ll take you back to Texas.”
“No, he won’t. Not any more than you’re sending me to Scotland with your brother. But I doubt he’ll go home right away. Cearnach will arrive, and how will we explain all this? Uncle Ethan needs to know. He is family after all.”
Duncan didn’t want to explain any of this to Campbell. Particularly how they’d lost their money to a master thief. He could just imagine Campbell being smugly amused that after all these years of owning the land, Duncan’s people could lose it because of a swindler of vast proportions.
“We have to tell him,” Shelley said.
“Tell me what, Niece?” Ethan asked, walking in through the back door, then shutting it. “That you need protection?”
Shelley closed her gaping mouth. He knew. Ian must have told him.
“That a woman might have ordered a hit on you for attempting to steal her mate? That the MacNeill is close to financial ruin? Tch, now it is the Campbell who will save the MacNeill’s arse.”
At that, Ethan Campbell set the cell phone on the kitchen table, folded his arms, and gave Duncan a conceited smile.
Chapter 19
“So what is the plan?” Ethan asked as Shelley served up the rest of the baked chicken wings at the kitchen table. She was hoping her uncle wouldn’t get into a fight with both Cearnach and Duncan once Cearnach arrived because they needed to be a unified force against Silverman.
Duncan couldn’t help being amused at the way the man had taken it upon himself to join the battle against Sal Silverman, as if the money was Ethan’s own. Already, he was offering his loyalty to the pack and clan.
That’s when he knew Shelley’s uncle was a good man, a lot rough around the edges but willing to make some concessions. Most of all, he wasn’t insisting that Shelley go home to Texas and out of harm’s way. Not that he hadn’t brought it up at once, but Shelley had, in no uncertain terms, told him no.
“After we finish eating, I’m leaving for the airport to pick up my brother. We can all go, or you and Shelley can stay here and wait for us,” Duncan said, picking up another wing and taking a bite.
Shelley stirred her soy beans, miniature corn, water chestnuts, and snow peas, thinking over what would be best. Neither Duncan nor Ian had been able to tell Cearnach that her uncle was here. It might be best for Duncan to have a word in private with his brother. She wasn’t even sure he knew Duncan and she were mated yet.
Ethan motioned with his hand as if waving away what was happening next. “I don’t mean with your brother. What are we doing about Silverman?” He shook his head. “Who would have thought the most newsworthy financial crook would be a wolf?”
Shelley was glad to see that her uncle seemed more interested in taking down Silverman than in saying anything further about her mating Duncan. “If he knows any wolves, they might not realize he has a residence here.”
“Aye,” Duncan said. “I imagine that’s the truth of the matter. Guthrie, another of my brothers, learned of it. The house is not in Silverman’s name but under some alias he must be using.”
“Maybe we should all offer to be Silverman’s bodyguards,” Ethan said. “While I’m guarding your back, you can get the money out of the bastard.”
Shelley didn’t like the idea that they would have to be dishonest in what they had to do, pretending to protect Silverman when they knew they had to eliminate him.
“Nay,” Duncan said. “Silverman has no one else to watch his back, save the human Kenneth. I wouldn’t take on the job of providing a protection service for him. The only reason I haven’t taken him to task yet is that he had a force protecting him. When Carlotta sent her goons after Shelley, she became my priority. Now that my brother is coming, you are here, and Silverman’s hired thugs are all gone, it should be an easy matter. After I pick up Cearnach at the airport, we’ll all see Silverman and talk to him about the money.”
“Along with Shelley,” Ethan said. “She can’t stay here alone.”
“Aye.” Duncan reached over, took her hand, and squeezed. “We’ll go together, all as family.”
Shelley’s heart nearly burst with pride to hear Duncan include her Uncle Ethan in the declaration. She knew he did it in part to please her. Her uncle was making inroads, too, just by offering to work on Silverman himself to ensure the money was returned. It might have something to do with him now having a castle to live in, but if they didn’t get the money back, then what? Maybe the MacNeills would all have to live with her uncles in the States. Talk about turning around the scenario of the crofter pushed off the land in Scotland. Then she was certain Uncle Ethan would rule the pack. Or at least try to.
Duncan glanced at the clock. “Nearly 9 p.m. Time to get my brother. Will you come with me or stay?”
“We can wait for you, if you think it will work well that way. Then you can bring your brother here first, and we can feed him a bite to eat if he didn’t get enough of a meal on the plane. We can talk over the plans to see Silverman, then call on him,” Shelley said.
Clasping her hand still, Duncan looked as though he didn’t want her to stay alone at the villa with her uncle, that he might say things to her that would upset her. She suspected Duncan also was worried about her safety. Even so, she thought that his having time to speak alone with his brother was important.
Despite looking like it was killing him not to butt in and make a decision for them, Ethan held his tongue.
Shelley turned to him and asked, “Uncle Ethan, what do you think?”
His eyes sparkled with admiration because she’d included him in the decision-making. “I think it will kill your young man if you stay here alone with me.” Ethan smirked. “He doesn’t trust me to protect you. But I fought just as well in the old days, like his kind did when the time came.”
He hadn’t fought like that in years, she suspected. Not like Duncan did in keeping up his swordsmanship skills to teach those in his clan. Duncan was a skilled warrior. Seeing how much it pleased her uncle, she was glad that she hadn’t left him out of the decision-making.
“All right. We go together,” she said.
They left the villa and climbed into the car with Duncan driving, Shelley seated beside him, and Ethan riding in the backseat. They’d barely pulled onto the road when a truck roared up behind them and, without warning, rammed them off the asphalt, barreling them past the villa and shoving them across the sand toward the ocean as if the truck was a tank in a battle zone and they were the enemy.
Anger heated Duncan’s blood instantly.
“You don’t happen to have a gun to blast them with, do you?” Uncle Ethan growled, glowering out the back window.
The vehicle was no match for the truck, and although Duncan tried, applying the brakes was of no use.
“I don’t know what they hope to do,” Shelley said. “They can’t shove us very far into the surf before the car floats off, and we’ll just get out of the vehicle.”
He knew what the bastards planned to do. Catch them in a more vulnerable position—unable to fight back as easily. “Can you see if anyone in the truck is wearing their wolf coats?” Duncan asked, his voice dark with fury.
“Can’t see any of them, just the driver, and he’s a steely-eyed bastard, itching for a showdown,” Ethan said. “Can you swerve out of their path and let them deal with the breakers?”