Dual Release

by Tara Nina

  Gavin nodded. “Good work. This will come in handy. It be doubtful they moved them. It would present an opportunity for escape.”

  Jenny wanted to believe he was right even though she figured he was saying what he thought she needed to hear to make her feel better. She showed them on the screen where she’d seen the gap in the fencing and its location in relation to the barn. “I think an animal may have dug underneath. I saw a van go in there earlier but never saw it leave. It’s quite possible it’s a location to house their supplies.”

  “Okay,” Gavin said as he studied the screen along with her detailed account of their actions throughout the day. “This just might work.” He laid out their plan, leaving no possibility unturned. He checked what looked like to her to be an extremely old pocket watch he pulled from his pouch. “We’ve got exactly fifty-two minutes before the guards make another pass around this side.” He tucked the tablet in his pouch, along with Jenny’s notes.

  Ian removed one of two straps that lay across his chest from shoulder to hip and handed it to Dour. “Ye might be in need of this, mi brathair.”

  Dour’s face lit up as he took hold of it and slid it easily from its sheath. “Mi sword. How? Where?”

  Ian laughed as he slapped Dour on the back. “Ye can thank Akira for that one. She hid our weapons and prize possessions in Gavin’s tower and haunted it to protect it. No soul ever made it past her watchful eye.”

  She wasn’t sure how it was possible, but Dour’s smile broadened more. “That sounds like her.” He did a practice maneuver with the claymore before returning it to its sheath and situating it comfortably on his back. After he reached over his shoulder and relieved the sword of the sheath easily, he was satisfied with its location. He sighed. “Mi soul be whole again.”

  Looking around, she noticed each brother had a sword that seemed antique in quality except for Ian. “What happened to your sword? Did your sister not like you and let someone take yours? Is that why you carry a crossbow?”

  He grinned, lifting his weapon. “I prefer the bow and arrow to the steel. Milady Izzy gifted mi with this latest adaptation of the crossbow, and I have to say,” he winked at her, “I like it. It be quite powerful and the shorter arrows are accurate.” He wore a quiver of arrows strapped to his hip.

  “If everyone is ready, let’s get into position.” Gavin looked from one brother to the other as each gave him the okay nod. “May the gods be with us.”

  When Jenny moved to go with them, Gavin halted her. “Ye be safer here. Remain near the car and be ready to go the moment we return.” He dug in his pouch and produced another ear bud. “We shall be needing eyes at our back. That be your job.”

  “But—” A hand on Jenny’s shoulder stopped her from continuing.

  She turned to face Dour. His eyes were dark and his face showed concern. His hand cupped her chin. “I would never forgive myself if’n ye were hurt during this battle. Please remain here. Ye have been brave enough for one day. Ye protected me whilst I slept. Be assured we shall free your friend Cait and mi brathair Donnell and return unscathed.”

  The confidence in his words warmed her, but it was the way he sealed it with a kiss loaded with promise that touched her heart and convinced her to listen.

  Chapter Twelve

  Heat warmed her skin and a sort of electrical current sizzled around her. Cait sat upright on the cot, facing Donnell. The statue vibrated, dust thickened the air and she couldn’t help but smile. A glance at her wristwatch and she knew she was right. The gargoyle was awakening. The only thing she hated about this moment was the camera on the wall. Their captors watched this happen and possibly recorded it. That thought made her cringe. This was definitely something they didn’t want to end up on the internet. But at the moment there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  She blinked, clearing her vision. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of Donnell alive and breathing once again. She stood, uncertain as to what she should say or do. Her insides twisted into a ball of nerves as the moment lasted for what seemed like an eternity until he reached for her. His embrace squeezed away any indecision and made her respond by hugging him in return. This was nice. She had to admit his strong arms wrapped around her gave her a moment of peace in an otherwise stressful day of unrest. Cait hadn’t been sure if her gargoyle theory was correct and spent hours trying to deduce a plan of escape and a way to take Donnell’s statue with her.

  Now she didn’t have to worry. He was free to help them get out of there. A trickle of moisture ran down Cait’s cheek and she leaned back, touching her face. Red appeared on her fingertips. Looking up, she noted the cut under his eye had reopened.

  “Donnell, you’re bleeding again.”

  “’Tis nothing a kiss from milady wouldn’t fix.” He leaned as if to kiss her but she halted him by pressing her fingers to his lips and grabbing him by the elbow.

  “You need to sit so I can reach that cut before you bleed to death.”

  After making him sit on the cot, she carefully extracted the kit from her back pocket, keeping it hidden from the camera as she walked to the sink. She rinsed the cloth and used it to hide the kit. The items in it were the only tools they had to aid in their escape and she wasn’t about to lose it by letting them see it. With her back to the camera, she opened the zipper and eased out the foil packet of antibiotic gel.

  Cait positioned herself facing Donnell. He spread his legs, giving her room to stand between them. “Here be where I like ye,” he stated as he grabbed her by the hips and tugged her forward.

  Shaking her head, she couldn’t help but grin. “You’re impossible. Is sex all you think about? We really need to be figuring out a way to escape,” she replied in a whispered tone, hoping they didn’t hear them.

  One hand caressed her bottom, making it difficult to concentrate on tending his eye, while the other lifted his kilt, showing his rigid cock stood at attention. Looking at it made her pussy tingle, wanting another go with the sexy Scottish laird. It was all she could do not to touch it.

  “With ye, milady, sex be all I can think about. The vision of your beauty filled mi mind whilst in captivity. All I kept thinking of were your bountiful breasts, fine arse, tasty lips and sensual eyes. It be no wonder I woke ready to fuck ye.”

  His eyes darkened with passion and she nearly melted. Her fingers trembled as she tenderly stroked his cock but froze when she remembered the camera. She jerked her hand away. Her stomach churned. They’d had sex earlier and she didn’t doubt for a second they were watched—closely.

  “As much as I’d like to,” Cait stated softly, “we’re being watched. I’d rather keep our adventures private if you don’t mind.”

  He looked around the room as he spoke. “I no understand. I see no windows.”

  She cupped his chin and stared directly in his eyes. She kept her voice low as she explained. “There is something called a camera above the door. It acts as a portal into here so people on the outside can see in without windows. Don’t look at it. I don’t want them to know we know about it. Now hold still so I can take care of your eye.”

  Regretfully, Cait removed his hand from her arse and turned it palm up between them. “Here, hold this and be helpful instead of a distraction.” She laid the kit open in his hand so she could access it easily without being seen.

  The stern look in his eyes let her know he didn’t like being watched as he followed her lead and kept his voice quiet. “I no understand this camera.”

  Cait cleaned his cut and kept pressure on it until the bleeding stopped, then applied antibiotic to the wound. “There are a lot of things about this world you don’t know. When we get out of here, I’ll be happy to teach you.”

  His eyebrow arched and a mischievous gleam appeared in his eyes. “I promise to be a proper student if’n ye reward me with,” he replied huskily, “your body.”

  Heat ignited deep within her. It amazed her how easily the man turned her on with simply the words he’d spoken. “You want my
body as your reward to learn?” she questioned.

  “Aye.” He nodded. “Thinking of your body was the only thing that made mi prison tolerable.”

  “You thought of me? You were awake inside the stone?” Her heart pounded as his words from earlier sank in as well. He’d envisioned her breasts, her arse and her eyes and it kept him sane. This was awful. He was trapped and all he could do was think. “Could you move? Could you breathe?”

  He shook his head. “Nay. I could not move and I did not need to breathe for some odd reason. It has to be the magic of the curse. Only mi mind functioned.” He ran his free hand up the back of her thigh to caress her bottom. “Ye were mi savior, mi brèagha neamhnaid. I did not know what happened or why or if I would be free again. I sought solace in your beauty and was grateful for the night I had with ye. If it was mi final memory, then it was a wonderful one to last me for eternity.”

  A lump formed in her throat and her heart expanded. No one had ever said such to her. She’d be a memory to last forever.

  His hand slid from her rear up her back, slowly slipped around to brush between her breasts, then caught her by the nape of the neck and tugged her forward. “I need to taste your lips. If’n ye grant me this, I shall behave until we escape. I promise.”

  There was no denying him this one little pleasure, especially after what he’d just admitted. She wanted this kiss as well. Cait leaned in. Lip to lip they touched softly, tasting each other, gently nipping the tender flesh before unleashing the barely controlled passion, deepening the connection. If it were up to her, they’d stay lip-locked until they fucked each other into oblivion. But there were eyes upon them and here was not the place nor the time.

  Regretfully she pulled from the kiss and struggled to take a full breath. This man was one of a kind with a sexual aura she was weak to resist, but she had no choice. They had to get out of here and soon. Carefully she returned the remainder of the antibiotic to the kit and zipped it. Instead of tucking it in her back pocket, since it faced the camera, she slipped it into her bra and shifted her breasts to conceal it.

  Donnell’s eyebrow hitched and a devious look appeared. “Ye are a tease, milady. It no be fair ye get to touch the very part of ye I hunger to play with and suckle.”

  Cait shook her head. “You really are incorrigible.” He frowned so she leaned, pressing her forehead to his as she whispered, “But I like it. If we were anywhere else, your cock wouldn’t be lacking a riding partner right about now.”

  He cupped her chin and held her face in place, gaze-to-gaze. “Then let us find a way out of here. Mi shaft wishes nothing more than to feel the heat of your sheath wrapped around it.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips, then released her.

  “Ye have any notions on how we are to escape?” he asked quietly.

  His hands rested casually on her hips as if that were the most natural place for them to be. Cait had to admit, she liked his hands upon her but it made it difficult to think straight. She took a breath, determined to focus on the issue of most importance. Escape. Then she’d fuck him ’til his eyes crossed.

  Keeping her voice low, she responded, “No. I find it odd no one has come to take us for questioning. You’d think they’d want to know what we know.”

  “About what?”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged as she remained standing between his thighs with her back to the camera. It tore at her concentration knowing his cock was wanting and ready for her, but being an exhibitionist wasn’t her style. “I’m not even sure why they took us.”

  “They took us because of me.”

  “You? Why?” For a second, Cait was more confused than ever, until she thought it through. What did this have to do with Donnell? True, they’d tried to steal him from the warehouse when he was in statue form, so this really could be about him.

  “I am not sure as to the why,” Donnell replied. “The reason behind being cursed eludes me. One minute mi brathair and I were asleep, the next it’s hundreds of years later. I have no answers for ye but we are locked in here because of me. And I don’t plan to be locked in here much longer. Does that little pouch of yours contain any sort of weapon?”

  “There’s a small pocketknife.” When she started to slip her hand inside her shirt, he caught her wrist.

  “If’n anyone be searching your luscious bounty for treasure, it be me.” He released her, then gently slid his hand under her shirt and went straight for her bra. Every brush of his fingers to her flesh sent chills down her body to stir trouble in her pussy. As if she needed to be primed for action. She’d wanted to fuck him since the moment he woke, and now with his hand inside her bra, caressing her nipple, the need intensified and almost fried her brain. She grabbed his arm.

  “That’s not the kit.” She gave him as stern a look as she could muster with her thought pattern stuck on sex.

  He grinned. “Mi mistake.” He released her nipple. He managed to cup her breast, caressing it as he carefully removed the kit, keeping it hidden from the camera.

  Cait cleared her throat as she undid the zipper and laid it open in his large hand. Whispering, she explained the items. Like a typical man, mischievous excitement shone in his eyes when she touched the firecracker and told him what it did.

  “Here’s the pocketknife.” She pulled it out and showed him how it worked. It had a slender blade a couple inches long, a corkscrew, a screwdriver and a spoon. He palmed it, keeping it out of sight, then tucked it into his kilt.

  She realized the flashlight was missing, then checked her front pants pocket. It was there. A quick touch of the switch let her know the battery still had some life, so she replaced it in its spot in the kit. For some reason, she removed the firecracker and matches, then tucked them in her pocket for easier access. She wasn’t sure what she planned to do with them but had a feeling they might come in handy. As an afterthought she grabbed the hand sanitizer out of the kit as well and put it in her other pocket. Once done, she replaced the kit in her bra and had to swallow the laugh at the look of disappointment on Donnell’s face.

  “I promise,” she leaned close and reassured him, “as soon as we are out of here and safe, my breasts become your playground.”

  His face brightened. “I hope that means what I think it means.”

  “It does.”

  He cleared his throat. “Then let us take our leave. Ye say they have not been in since they brought us here.”

  “No.”

  Donnell held her waist, guiding her backward as he stood. “Then it be time that they do.”

  He walked to the door and pounded on it. When there was no response, he pounded again and yelled, “Anyone out there?”

  This time he got an answer in the form of a male voice shouting, “Hold it down in there.”

  He pounded harder then replied, “We no be holding it down, as ye say, until ye feed the lass. She be faint.”

  Cait pressed her ear to the door but heard only muffled voices. She couldn’t make out what they were saying until the same guy yelled back. “I’ll see what I can do. Just keep it down in there.”

  She looked at Donnell and whispered, “Now what?”

  He grinned and got close to her ear as he answered, “We wait, then ye shall follow mi lead.”

  *

  Waking had been a relief to his soul. Doubt and fear had clouded his mind on and off throughout his imprisonment. If it had not been for him concentrating on the beautiful Jenny, he might have given up hope on the possibility his entombment was temporary. That sliver of insecurity, of not knowing, nearly sent him mentally over the edge but Jenny was the rope that bound him. She’d been his salvation and he’d left her behind.

  Dour hated leaving Jenny but had no choice. Where they were headed was not safer than where she was hidden. Gavin gave her specific instructions to make the car ready to leave at a moment’s notice and she’d agreed. He’d given her an odd-looking item she’d placed in her ear. Apparently it kept her in contact with them. She was to keep watch wit
h the binoculars and warn of any changes as they tried to enter the compound unnoticed. She was their lookout. Knowing she had his back gave Dour a sort of inner peace. She wouldn’t let anything happen if she could help it.

  He forced his focus on following his brathairs. They were heading into battle to free his twin. In his heart, he knew Donnell was alive, thus Jenny’s friend Cait had to be as well. It impressed him how Gavin handled the oddities of this time. A thing that glowed and gave Gavin a map of the area made no sense to Dour. Something in Gavin’s ear kept him in contact with Jenny and someone named Charles, who apparently was standing by to fly in and pick them up. Fly in? He really didn’t want to try to think about that one. Since when did a man fly and how was he going to pick them up?

  Gavin showed no confusion over it. Nor did any of his brathairs. How long had they been released that they accepted and understood these strange things? In the past Gavin led and they followed his orders without question. He was the head of their clan. But now in this new era things were different. Were families still considered to be clans?

  Questions he’d not thought to ask speared his brain. Did his brathairs suffer the same as he? When the sun rose would they turn to stone, become a family of solid-rock statues? Did they too suffer this temporary relief, man by night and stone by day? Was this a repetitive sequence? He didn’t know. Would he shift again in the light of day? If so, how many years were the MacKinnon brathairs deemed to live this harsh cycle?

  Most importantly, was there a way to defeat this curse? To be completely free? Och, he wished there had been time for such a talk. Dour breathed in deeply, trying to squelch the tumble of thoughts, ideas and questions. Now was not the time for talk. Now was the time for action and he had better remain focused on the battle. Donnell needed him and he would not fail. He logged those questions away until later and fell into step, bringing up the rear.