The Dark Highlander

Page 42

No wonder she’d fallen asleep. She’d not slept much the night before, nervous and excited about the decision she’d made to accompany Dageus to Scotland. Then the day had been crammed full, and the shock of the attack, alone, had nearly drained her of energy. She still couldn’t believe it had happened; it seemed surreal, as if she’d watched it on TV or it had happened to someone else. She’d been living in New York, in one of the less savory sections for almost a year, and nothing bad had ever happened to her. She’d never been mugged, never been harassed on the subway, in fact, hadn’t encountered any adversity, so she supposed maybe her number had finally come up. Unless, of course, the police determined some other mot—
That thought was slippery and abruptly vanished from her mind.
Though it troubled her that her assailant had killed himself (and if that didn’t demonstrate how crazy he’d been, she didn’t know what would), she knew he’d intended to injure her severely, if not kill her. Pragmatism tempered her emotion. The simple fact was: She was grateful she’d survived. Sorry the man had been so crazy that he’d attacked her, then taken a leap off the terrace, but glad to be alive all the same. It was startling how having one’s life placed in jeopardy reduced one to the basics.
Had Dageus not returned—that thought made her shudder—she would have fought to the death. She was discovering all kinds of parts of her personality she’d not known existed. She’d always worried that if someone attacked her, she might just crumple, or freeze helplessly. Had always wondered if she was a coward at heart.
Thank God she wasn’t. And thank God Dageus had forgotten the key.
She’d been so gullible. Giles “Jones,” indeed. What a tip-off that should have been. But she’d not given it a second thought because the man had looked and acted so darned normal, at first. Then again, she’d read somewhere that most serial killers looked like the guy next door.
When Dageus had walked in, the man had gotten the strangest look on his face. She couldn’t quite pin it down. …
Mentally shrugging, she pushed the grim thoughts away. It had been awful; she’d never been so frightened in her life, but it was over, and she would look forward, not behind. Dwelling on it would make her feel terrified all over again. A freaky, awful thing had happened right before she’d left New York, but she would not let it characterize her time there, nor cast a pall over her future. He was dead; she would not grant the man the success of making her feel terrorized. In twenty-four years, she’d been the victim of an attack once. She could live with those odds. Would live with them, would not let it make her frightened in the future. More cautious? Absolutely. Afraid? Not a chance.
She was on her way to Scotland, with a man that made her feel more alive than anyone she’d ever known.
And she was determined to enjoy every last minute of it.
She wondered what Grandda would have made of Dageus.
Chloe Zanders. Chloe … MacKeltar.
Zanders, she chided herself instantly, stop thinking like that! She was not going to romanticize things. She’d promised herself that earlier, while sitting in the airport with him, waiting for their flight to leave. He’d been so attentive, walking her to the ladies’ room, taking her for a snack, never leaving her side, yet with that eternal coolness. That infuriating reserve, that tight containment. It was no wonder women fell hard for him; such reserve challenged a woman, made her want to be the one who got inside Dageus MacKeltar. But Chloe wasn’t going to make that mistake. So far as she could see, she was woman-of-the-hour, nothing more. She was determined to be smart about things, to view the trip as an adventure, to take things purely at face value and not read any more into them than there was.
Still, Grandda would’ve liked it. …
Her thoughts returned to touch briefly on the morning again, but on a less disturbing part. After the man had jumped, Dageus had stripped her fast and frantically, the look on his face enough to mute any protest. Scarcely bridled rage had emanated from him, making her think her assailant might just have been granted a more merciful death by jumping. His strong hands had been shaking when he’d begun tending her. She’d never seen someone so filled with fury behave so gently. He’d sponged the wine from her, cleansed and bandaged her wounds, all the while resolutely ignoring her state of undress.
It seemed the stronger his emotions, the more rigidly he controlled himself. That was a hypothesis she was curious to examine further. But why the fury? she wondered. Because someone had dared to trespass on his property? Messed up his home? A woman inclined to romanticizing things might have read some emotion for her into it, but Chloe wasn’t going to be that fool.