Questions for a Highlander

by Angeline Fortin

  Her triumph faded when he dropped back and kicked up into her ribcage, leaving her gasping for air even as she saw him rise with the gun in his hands. Hayes’ eyes narrowed down at her, now filled with frigid hatred as he leveled the gun toward her. “You whore,” he spat out, holding his injured wrist against his middle. “You slept with him?”

  “Freddie, I…” Kitty begged as the gun swung toward her, catching her temple and knocking her back dizzily into the hay.

  “Enough!” he roared, spittle spraying from his mouth, and fired the gun into the air, drawing the attention of the three combatants. Both his cohorts were lying on the ground holding different parts of their bodies while Jack was still on his feet, dusting himself off. They turned to Hayes, all breathing heavily from their exertions. “Lord Haddington,” Freddie snarled as he waved the gun at the would-be rescuer. “Into the stall. Now.”

  Chapter 33

  Jack curled his lip, disgusted he hadn’t been able to incapacitate the scrappy little fellow quickly enough to turn his attention back to Hayes. He had assumed that the bastard had been sufficiently provoked into joining the fray rather than searching for the gun once more. The bigger thug had landed a blow to Jack’s shoulder wound, slowing him down a bit. Clearly, Hayes was more apt to stab one in the back or shoot an unarmed man than fight as God intended.

  The gun pointed at him wavered as Hayes panted in anger and pain. “You bitch! I think you broke my wrist.”

  “Good!” Kitty spat at him.

  But Freddie turned his rage on Haddington. “I should kill you now for touching my wife, but I know it’s her fault. She’s a flirt. A temptress. She drives a man insane.”

  “Undoubtedly.” The earl crossed his arms across his chest, assessing the situation and trying to find a way to get the gun away from the crazed scoundrel. He needed to rattle the fellow once more. As unstable as he was, it was simple to goad him into losing control. “I must confess that you shouldn’t hold it against her too much though. While her skill with flirtation is beguiling, the execution was not worth much note.”

  “Why you!” Hayes started to leap forward again in attack just as Jack hoped, but managed to catch himself. He waved the gun again. “Stall. Now.”

  Disappointed, Jack waltzed into the stall and sank down where Hayes pointed. Kitty sat across from him, giving him his first real look at her injuries. Rage boiled in him as he noted the blackened eye and swollen cheek. Her lip still bleeding. The sight of that blood sent him to his feet once more only to find the pistol pointed straight at his forehead. He sank down once again, his blood pounding for vengeance in his veins. He would kill the bastard for this.

  “Tie him up,” Hayes ordered, waving the gun from Kitty to a length of rope hanging from a hook in a nearby stall.

  Kitty sniffed with hurt. Jack’s insult of their lovemaking compounded her lingering anger from the previous night and she stared across the stall at Jack. “Why should I?’

  “If you don’t tie him up, I’ll shoot him.”

  Her brows shot up with malicious glee. “Really? Please do.”

  “Kitty!” Jack ground through his teeth.

  “Please do?” Even her ex-husband looked at her in amazement. “Are you mad?”

  “No actually, I would love for you to shoot him right now,” she gave Jack a considering assessment. “Yes, I’m feeling very good about it.”

  “Kitty!” Jack bellowed again.

  “Yes?” Her head tilted to the side with innocent inquiry.

  Hayes looked confounded, as if he couldn’t determine whether she was serious and how he might tie Jack himself. Perhaps she might offer to hold the gun for him? “Fine then,” Freddie bit out finally. “Tie him up or I’ll shoot you.”

  “Well!” She stumbled to her feet and flounced over to get the rope before stomping back toward Jack. “If you put it that way. Fine.”

  She wrapped the rope around his wrists, pulling tightly and burning his skin against it, making him inhale in pain. “Hey, watch it!”

  “Sorry,” Kitty drawled sweetly. “Does that hurt?”

  “What are you thinking?” he hissed at her as he mocked her words. “‘Please do!’ You could have had me killed!”

  “I’m not seeing that as a great loss right now, Jack Merrill.”

  “Hurry up, Katherine!” Hayes tapped his foot impatiently.

  “I’m working on it, Freddie,” she bit out sarcastically.

  When she finished, Hayes came around and inspected the job with a satisfied grunt. “You always did know how to tie a good knot, Katherine. You father taught you well.”

  Her father had taught her very well. She had knotted the ropes, weaving them in and out of Jack’s wrists in such a way that to the untrained eye they appeared very tightly knotted, but with just a few simple twists the whole of it would become easily loosened.

  Obediently, she sat where Freddie indicated and let her own hands be bound while she and Jack glared at each other across the small stall.

  “You won’t get away with his,” Jack ground out, taking his frustrations with Kitty out on the villain whose blood he already wanted spilled. “The others are not far behind. They will be here in moments, no doubt.”

  “Jasper! Meany!” Hayes yelled as he trotted out of the stall. “Get up! Get out there and look around! Make sure there’s no one else coming!” His voice faded as he followed them out.

  “What is wrong with you?” Jack bit out the moment Hayes was gone, knowing it wouldn’t be long before he learned the truth of Jack’s solitary rescue attempt and returned to deliver whatever revenge he had in mind. “What were you thinking?” he hissed at her as he mocked her words. “‘Please do!’ You could have gotten me killed, you daft woman!”

  “What is wrong with me?” she spat out incredulously.

  “You’ve been angry ever since we made love last night.”

  “Oh, it was making love now was it?” Kitty snapped sarcastically. “I thought it was merely a noteworthy experience for you? Isn’t that what you said last night? Or didn’t you say just now it was not worthy of any note?”

  “Is that what’s had your back up all this time?” he gaped in surprise. “I didn’t phrase it right for you?”

  “I’m sorry I haven’t the skills to please you!” Her eyes shot daggers at him across the space.

  “I was teasing you, you thick-headed lass!” he bellowed, his blood reaching boiling point. “How could you not see that?”

  “You said we would have affection! And you didn’t even…” she clamped her mouth shut, glaring at him.

  “Damn you, woman,” he swore. Damn, but she knew how to get to him. All this because he hadn’t used a descriptor for their love making that pleased her? What did she expect him to do? Grovel at her feet, slavishly? Confess to her he’d never had an experience that touched his soul so deeply, so she might mock him or keep him panting after her for the chance to experience it again? He was a man, not a lap dog! By God, if he didn’t even have control in this, what did he have left to him?

  “What did you expect of me?” he ground out rashly. “Confessions of undying love?”

  “God, no!” she snarled at him, to mask her aching heart as it cried out, Yes! Yes! That was exactly what she wanted from him. Oh, perhaps not immediately, but she hoped that maybe someday! But this was Jack Merrill she was talking about, her mind argued. He didn’t take women seriously. That was why she offered to be his lover to begin with! She wanted to experience something meaningful that she might tuck away in her heart to cherish when he moved on to his next lover. Her heart clamored to tell him the truth and face his rejection now before she spun even more absurd fantasies about him. “Why would I want you to do that?” Her heart clenched in her chest.

  “Then what on earth do you want from me?”

  “What I want, Jack Merrill,” she growled at him, “is for you to twist your damn wrists around, all right?”

  “What?” Haddington moved his wrists experimentally and
was amazed when the ropes loosened just enough for him to slip his hands out easily. “How did you do that?”

  “Shush! He’s coming back.”

  Jack slipped over the wall of the stall, leaving her to face Hayes alone when her ex-husband returned. Freddie glanced in amazement around the small space, finding himself short one captive. “Where’s Haddington?”

  “Haddington?” Kitty repeated innocently, as if she had no idea whom he was referring to. “Oh, yes, big man? Grey jacket? He’s not here.”

  “Where did he go? You tied him up right there.”

  “Did I? I don’t remember.”

  “Don’t play with me.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” this with deadpan sarcasm he missed.

  “Of course not. You know who’s in charge here.”

  “Naturally I do. He is.” She nodded her head past Hayes and he whipped around to face a grinning Jack.

  “Hello,” he drawled, before knocking Hayes out with a hefty right to the jaw.

  Finally feeling some satisfaction, Jack bent to retrieve the pistol Hayes dropped then nudged him with his toe until the man moaned. With the other two thugs still presumably lurking nearby, there was no time to bring Hayes along. The best they could hope for was to bind him and trust he was still here when they sent the authorities back for him. He shot Kitty an inquiring look as he bound Hayes’ hands with the ropes. “So I’m in charge now?”

  “Not at all,” she shrugged innocently as Jack returned to untie her bindings. “I had to tell him something, you know.”

  “Come, let’s get out of here.”

  “You’re not just going to leave him there?”

  “I would like to kill him for touching you, but I don’t think you’d care to have me do it right in front of you.” Jack raised a brow. “Or would you?”

  Kitty tilted her head, considering, even as Hayes roused himself and caught her eye. “You’re truly a sorry woman, aren’t you?” the injured man moaned.

  “Come on! We need to leave,” Jack reminded Kitty, but Hayes continued as if he hadn’t spoken.

  “At least I was honest with you. I wanted you for yourself, loved you for yourself yet you throw yourself at this one like a common whore.” His eyes were bright with obsessive jealousy. “He’ll never love you like I do. He only wants your money.”

  “And you didn’t?” Kitty sneered scornfully.

  “She’s with me now,” Jack cut in.

  “You think you can steal my wife? I have put years into her. You think I’m going to give it all up now?” Hayes flashed a hateful look at Jack before turning back to Kitty. “And you, I would take you without a penny, even now, after you whored yourself to this man. I always wanted you. Ever since we were children. I would do anything to have you. When you disappeared, I was out of my mind with worry. I was crazy to have you back.”

  “I’ll say,” Jack muttered, earning a frown from both of the others.

  “I was trying to be patient, waiting for you to come back, but you took too long. Much too long. But I knew,” Hayes ranted on, “I knew when I couldn’t find you, when the detectives I hired couldn’t find you fast enough, there was one thing you would come back for.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I knew if your father died, you would come home,” the bound man continued his raving. “No matter where you were, I knew you’d come back, and quickly – faster than I could ever find you. And I was right, you came right back home, didn’t you?”

  A thousand thoughts spun through her mind and Kitty gaped at her former husband with wide eyes. “Freddie?” she whispered in horror. “What are you saying?” She turned to Jack with dawning comprehension, hesitant to know if he heard the same thing. Jack’s golden eyes were filled with pity and Kitty swallowed painfully. “Oh, no!” she moaned, closing her eyes against the realization as pain welled up within her.

  “You killed Lelan Preston?” Jack voiced the question Kitty could not, staring down at the crazed man.

  “It was nothing really,” the man shrugged, as if he hadn’t just confessed to murder. “I went to his office to find out where you really were after he sent me on that goose chase to the Carolinas. Caught him napping at his desk. He was just tipped back in his chair, snoring and…”

  Kitty staggered around in a near faint before bending over and throwing up into the hay. “Oh, my God!” she moaned falling weakly to her knees. “It’s all my fault!”

  Hayes sneered a bit at that. “Well, of course it was! If you hadn’t run off like that, I would never have even been there! You were out whoring yourself to this man while your father died, Katherine! He died because of you!”

  “NO!” Jack ground out. “He died because you are an obsessive son of a bitch!” Jack picked the man up by his lapels and shook him like a rag doll. “You couldn’t understand she didn’t love you, didn’t want you, and you set off in a jealous rage! You are insane!” Haddington pulled back a big fist and threw it into the man’s nose, spurting blood. He drew back and hit him again, and yet again. When Hayes fell to the ground, Jack went with him, pounding his face repeatedly until the murderous villain was lying limp and bloody. Still Jack beat him.

  “Jack,” Kitty whispered hoarsely from behind him. “Jack, please!”

  Jack shot her a look over his shoulder, finding her leaning bonelessly against the stall wall now. Her face was ashen and tears streaked down her battered face, enraging him all the more. All this pain because of the pile of offal at his feet. “He deserves it, Kitty! He killed your father! He needs to die as well.”

  “Not by your hand, Jack,” she rasped out. She came forward and took his bloodied hand in hers. “You are not that man, Jack. This is not a hand that deals death and pain. You are not him. Let him hang as he deserves.”

  “Kitty…” He traced the knuckles of his unbattered hand against her cheek.

  “Wot’s goin’ on here now?” a gruff voice interrupted, and they turned to find Jasper and Meany at the barn door, staring at their employer who was laid insensible at Jack’s feet.

  Jack retrieved the gun from his belt and pointed it at them. “Don’t think about it, fellows.”

  “Eh, and he ain’t even paid us yet!” Meany protested.

  “And he never will,” Haddington announced. “So admit defeat now, or I will shoot you without hesitation, I promise you.”

  “You threatenin’ us?” Jasper asked, with eyebrows to his hairline.

  “Good guess.”

  “There are two of us, you know?”

  The earl pulled his arm slightly to the left and fired a shot into Meany’s arm. The man flinched away, crying out and staring at Jack in amazement. “I have several more shots and a deadly aim. Now sit.”

  Handing the pistol into Kitty’s shaking hands and praying she wouldn’t accidently shoot him, Haddington bound the pair of accomplices hand and foot, and tied them at opposite sides of the stall. Taking the gun from Kitty, Jack turned back to Hayes who still lay unconscious in the hay and thoughtfully pointed the pistol at his head.

  “It would be so easy.”

  “If anyone should do it, it should be me,” Kitty sobbed. “He killed my father to lure me home, Jack. How can I live with that?”

  Lowering the gun, Jack wrapped his arms around her as she buried her face in his chest. “It’s none of your fault, my love. Surely, you know that? He was insane, that much is very clear.”

  “Because of me!” She beat against his coat in frustration and tried to twist out of his arms but he held her firmly. “Let me go!”

  “No!” he replied inflexibly. “You must realize this was not your fault, Kitty. One cannot predict the whims of a madman.”

  “He killed my Da!” She pounded his chest angrily.

  “Aye, he did. He did!” Jack emphasized, trying to pull her to him, to comfort her even while she continued to struggle.

  “Wouldn’t be blaming yerself fer anything Hayes done, mum,” Jasper offered, drawing the eyes of h
is captors. “He’s fair peculiar, that one. Be happy, I would, to tell the judge to what he confessed if ye’ll have ’em go easy on us. Just trying to make a bit of coin, ye know?”

  They looked from Jasper to Meany, who was currently shooting daggers at his cohort. “Would you now?” Haddington asked.

  “Yea, didn’t know nothing ’bout no murder till he blabbed about it earlier,” Jasper insisted. “Thought the man just wanted his wife back.”

  “You’ll wait here, then, until the authorities arrive to take a statement?” Jack asked ridiculously, since both men were bound. “I’ll put in a word for you if you do.”

  “Certainly, sir.”

  “Very well.” Jack turned to Kitty, wrapping an arm around her to lead her away. “Come, let’s get you home. Your mother is worried sick for you.”

  “Oh, what will Mother and Eve say when they find out?” she cried.

  “We do not have to tell them if you choose.”

  “I don’t know, Jack…” Kitty shook her head. “No, I want Freddie punished. I want him to pay.”

  “So he will. Come now.”

  “Tie his feet first,” she choked out. “So he cannot get away.”

  Chapter 34

  Nothing is more perplexing to a man

  than the mental process

  of a woman who reasons her emotions.

  - Edith Wharton

  She felt as if she had been run over by a freight train, both physically and emotionally, Kitty thought as she lay in bed late that night, alone by herself at last. She had been in the same state for all the hours since Jack carried her back home and into her mother’s arms. Maggie proceeded to coddle her within an inch of her life as her wounds were cared for, only to pass her off to Sung Li to do the same. Between the pair of them, her sister and the doctor, she’d had about all she could take, but add into that Jack Merrill who hovered in the doorway as if he truly cared when all his words indicated differently!