“Five minutes after I met ye.”
“You what?” Shaking his head, Tavis accepted a drink from Rick. “What is this guy? A clairvoyant?”
“You’ll learn soon enough that you rarely have to tell Elliott anything,” Rick said.
Tavis took a deep breath, tossed back his drink, and stood down. “I’m just surprised. That’s all. So what time are we leaving?”
“After breakfast,” Elliott said. “It’ll be cold and windy at Jarlshof, so bring a jacket.”
Heading for the door, Tavis glanced over his shoulder. “Is that your six o’clock breakfast, Dr. Fraser? Or Irish and Ranger’s nine o’clock one?”
Elliott grinned. “We’ll leave at ten. Give the lads a wee bit of time to run off some energy before they’re stuck on a plane for several hours.”
Rick’s arm encircled Penny’s neck in a teasing headlock while he whispered, “I’ll need time to run off some of my energy, too. But I prefer to do it prone with you on top or bottom.”
She cocked her head and gave him a side-eye that had him up and ready. “We better start right now. Or tomorrow we’ll have to get up close and personal with the plane’s lavatory.”
“Oorah,” he crowed, hustling her out of Elliott’s room. “Good night, all.”
78
Jarlshof, Shetland Islands—Penny
The next morning they checked out of the Thorskogs Castle and drove back to Göteborg Landvetter Airport. Northbridge flew in its corporate plane to take its two teams home after a short layover at the Sumburgh Airport, and both jets were wheels up by noon.
Jarlshof, their ultimate destination, was only a mile from the airport, but Tavis nixed the idea of a short hike. He didn’t want anyone out in the open for the fifteen-minute walk around the airport on the road that bordered the sea.
As soon as the Montgomery Winery jet shut down, everyone stood, ready to deplane, but Elliott played traffic cop, standing in the aisle. “I don’t know what’s going to happen when we get to Jarlshof.”
“No one does,” Rick said. “We have to be prepared for anything.”
“That’s why we’re limiting this excursion to only those who need to be there,” Elliott said. “David, Penny, and me.”
Rick’s jaw dropped, his chiseled features pinched. “Fuck that. If Penny goes, I go. Period.”
After a brief stare, Elliott gave Rick a curt nod.
Remy inserted himself into the aisle directly in front of Elliott, crossing his arms. “If you’re going, Boss”—his deep Cajun voice rose almost an octave—“I’m going! That’s why you hired me.”
Elliott clasped Remy’s shoulders, staring at him as if his gaze alone could trap Remy in place. “Not this time, lad. Three of my grandsons are on this plane. They’re yer priority. We’ll take four bodyguards with us and position the rest around the perimeter of the plane.”
“But—”
“No buts. No arguments.”
Pete removed a Glock and two mags from his duffel and glanced at Rick. A shadow of anger or impatience flitted across Pete’s features so quickly Penny wasn’t sure she read him right.
“Dad,” Churchill said. “I’ll be fine here if Grandpa Elliott will let you go with Uncle Rick and Aunt Penny.”
Penny’s heart skipped a beat at Churchill calling them his aunt and uncle, but after spending weeks with the twins, it was only natural that Churchill used the familial terms, just like he called Pete and Sophia his mom and dad and Elliott, his grandpa.
Pete hugged him. “I’m staying here with you and the others.” Pete handed the gun and mags to Rick. “Take these. It won’t hurt to have a backup for your backup. I’ve got my backup, and Lady McBain has her arsenal.”
Rick bumped knuckles with him. “I’d feel better if you kept it. We’re going in with enough firepower to fight that damn battle again.”
“Got it.” Pete inserted a magazine and holstered the gun.
With those two little words, Pete said more than he could have written if he’d had time to write a battle plan. Neither one of them knew what was going to happen, but they both wanted the other to be as prepared as possible. Penny was just relieved Rick didn’t have to argue with Pete again.
“Grab your jacket,” Rick said to Penny.
“It’s July.”
“It’s also windy and fifty-five, and always unpredictable this far north.”
“Fifty-five? I don’t need a jacket.”
He smirked. “You’ll get cold out there next to the sea and start shivering. I’ll be a gentleman and give you my jacket. Then I’ll get cold. So save us both the trouble and take it, even if you only tie it around your waist.”
“Anything to make you happy, sweetheart.” She had enough sense to know when she needed a jacket and when she didn’t, but this was a small battle, not worth fighting. She grabbed a windbreaker out of her duffel and an elastic tie for her hair. “Okay, let’s roll.”
Kenzie followed them to the door and kissed David goodbye. “Be careful out there. Elliott said we’re stopping in the Highlands for the night, which means we get the cottage.”
David’s eyes smiled.
“Get your mind off sex for now,” Rick chided.
David laughed. “Only if ye do the same.”
Rick squeezed Penny’s shoulder, smiling at her. “Then, never mind.”
After the landing party cleared the steps, Elliott yelled, “Close the door and don’t let anyone in.”
The wind blasted off the sea. Okay, it’s frigging cold out here. At least Rick had the decency not to say, “I told you so.”
Penny zipped up her jacket and donned a pair of aviators. Both teams of Northbridge bodyguards crossed the tarmac toward the Montgomery Winery plane. Tavis and three others broke off and jogged toward Elliott.
“I’ve booked two cars,” Elliott told Tavis. “We’ll split up—two of yer team with two of mine. Since David and I both travel with Scottish passports, we’ll take care of the rentals.”
Penny quickly eyeballed the area before they entered the airport to the sounds of fiddle music playing over the PA system. She removed her sunglasses and carefully scoped out the terminal. No one seemed to be paying attention to them, which was odd, because all the men in their party were swoon-worthy.
The car rental office was next to the luggage carousel, so while David and Elliott took care of the rental arrangements, she and Rick found a bench against a wall to sit out the wait.
“That’s Shetland fiddle music. Do you like it?” Rick asked.
“Are you kidding? For the past several weeks, your crooning has spoiled me. Nothing comes close, especially”—she glanced up at the ceiling, looking for the speakers—“that kind of music.”
“As soon as we go home, you can snuggle up on the sofa naked, and I’ll play my grand piano and serenade you until you beg me to stop tickling the ivories and tickle you instead.”
“That will never happen.” She closed her eyes and visualized him playing the piano naked—but those evil men and the damn torc invaded her thoughts. “What do you think will happen when we get to Jarlshof?”
“I was trying to take your mind off that place. It looks like I failed. My best guess is that the torc, brooch, and pendant will weld together, sparks will fly, and we’ll all go home.”
“That seems kinda anticlimactic,” she said.
“What do you want? Those creeps from the past to show up again?”
She licked her lips, trying to calm the sudden upwelling of fear. “Hell, no. But after all this, something should happen.”
He took her hand, kissed it, then held it tightly in his lap. “Maybe Elliott will put on the torc and age as Charlton Heston—playing Moses—did when he went to the mountaintop and returned with the Ten Commandments.”
The thought of Elliott all gray with a long, bushy beard and wizened by age made her chuckle. “I feel like something momentous will happen.”
“Are your spidey senses acting up?” Rick asked.
“Yep, they are, and I never ignore them when they do. Yours aren’t?”
“The adrenaline isn’t pumping yet.”
“The feeling isn’t as sharp and needling as it was in New Orleans, but there’s a sense that something is about to go down. I wish I knew more. We need to stay alert, though, like Tavis over there. He’s not missing a thing that’s going on in this terminal.”
Rick glanced in Tavis’s direction. “Is he like his brother?”
She cocked her head. “Why? Does having him around bother you?”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“No,” she glanced at Tavis. “He’s very different. But does it bother you having him around?”
“Lafitte bothered me because I knew you cared about him. I know you don’t care about Mark now. So having Tavis here doesn’t bother me.” The slightly tense look on Rick’s face sharpened, even with its three-day-old scruff, and he looked almost threatening. “But, I’m curious how the brothers are different.”
“Tavis has a sensitive spot. He shows empathy with others. Mark doesn’t or didn’t when I knew him. It’s like they gave Mark’s sensitive gene to Tavis.”
Rick shot a glance in Tavis’s direction again. “Empathetic? Maybe. Hot-tempered? Definitely. So maybe Mark and Tavis aren’t full brothers?”
“They don’t look like twins, but they resemble each other. Their grandparents raised them, and Mark rarely talked about his parents. They were both well-known archeologists and were always traveling around the world, moving from one dig to another. Mark wouldn’t have taken the time with Churchill that Tavis took when we rode scooters. Tavis cared about Churchill’s success, and his safety wasn’t just a job.”
“You see something in him that I don’t,” Rick said.
“I guess so, but after we finish here, we won’t be around him unless he comes to Napa with Elliott.”
“I don’t know Elliott’s plans for him. I mean, he’s offered him a VP of Global Security position. That implies Tavis will be traveling around to all the properties unless Elliott only wants him at the farm, and that doesn’t make sense. I hope he stays away from Napa. I don’t trust him.”
“Does Elliott know how you feel?”
“Nope. It’s Elliott’s decision, and he hasn’t asked my opinion.”
“And you’ve never given him unsolicited advice?”
“Sure, lots of times, but I’m staying out of this.”
Elliott and David returned with the keys. “The rentals are this way. Let’s go,” David said.
Rick and Penny followed them out. “I’ve got your back,” he said.
“And I have yours.”
Rick’s anxiety didn’t help Penny’s spidey senses. His tight hold on her hand almost cut off the blood supply to her fingers, and more uncertainty welled up inside her.
Two Northbridge bodyguards drove and rode shotgun with Penny and Rick squished together in the back seat of a small four-door vehicle. Their driver had been on the second team, so Penny didn’t even know his name. He drove along a two-lane road that ran parallel to the runway on their right, the sea on their left, and the small village of Sumburgh behind them.
The sun glinted off the turquoise water, and while the landscape was bleak, it was also extraordinarily beautiful.
Penny slipped on her aviators. “It’s so bright.”
“People go a bit nuts up here this time of year because of the light. The sun never entirely slips below the horizon,” Rick said.
“That would drive me nuts too.”
“Keep your eyes open. You might see some Atlantic puffins.”
“Puffins are those birds with orange feet and a bright red and yellow bills. They sound like chainsaws,” the driver said. “I’ve seen them. They’re fun to watch.” He pulled into a car park at the Sumburgh Hotel. “We’re supposed to park here and walk over to the ruins.”
Penny and Rick climbed out to the whipping of the howling wind and the briny scent of a roaring sea. The bodyguards took up positions in the front and behind them, and they all followed David and the others as he led the way down a steep ramp that ended on a cobbled path.
“This is the visitor center,” David said. “I’ll go in and get the tickets. Stay here.”
Penny remained on high alert, shivering. “It’s bleak, cold, and there aren’t any trees.”
Rick put his arm around her and tugged her close, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. “That’s why the ruins are all made of stone. This site overlooks an arm of the sea called the West Voe of Sumburgh.”
“How do you know that?”
“I Googled it during the flight,” he said.
She smiled up at him. “Oh, collecting intel, huh?”
He pushed her blowing hair out of her eyes. “Yeah, intel. Stick with me, kid. I’ll tell you everything you need to know.”
“Roger that.”
She stopped to read a sign. “This says the main part of this settlement dates from the Bronze Age, which lasted in Scotland from about 2000 BC to 800 BC.”
“There’s a lot of history here.” Rick pointed. “The ruins of the Laird’s House over there dominate the site and dates back to 1600 AD.”
“The colonel was murdered near ruins older than that,” she said.
“How do you know?”
“I don’t know for sure. I just have a feeling.”
She stepped away from him to free up his right hand in case there was trouble—and freeing up both of hers. Wishing she had a ball cap, she dug out the elastic band and tied back her hair. With all the wind, the hat would already be floating out to sea.
As she looked across the small promontory at the multi-period settlement, it was hard to imagine people living in this cold desolation since before the time of Christ.
David returned a few minutes later with a few brochures and passed them out. “Let’s go this way.”
She resisted the urge to elbow her way around everyone and forced herself to breathe past the thump in her chest and the nervous anticipation in her gut. She wanted to run ahead to find the spot and get it over with, but she also wanted to run back to the plane and avoid this shitshow altogether. A sheen of cold sweat broke out between her shoulder blades, plastering her T-shirt to her skin.
“Thanks for telling me to bring a jacket. Just call me stubborn.”
He bumped shoulders with her. “I realize I acted bossy and overprotective, but I knew you’d need it.”
They followed David along a stone path. To one side was a wire fence to keep visitors off the rocky beach. On the other were grassy knolls that covered the tops of thick stone walls and foundations, many of which were several feet deep.
As they entered the site, they looked out over the remnants of Bronze Age houses dating from 800 BC. “I think the colonel was tortured and killed in a circular stone chamber. I’ll recognize it as soon as I see it,” Penny said.
At least she thought she could. But after scanning the entire site, she decided it looked like stacks of dominos had once been artfully arranged, then someone pushed the first domino, and the community collapsed, scattering the stones.
“It looks like most of the buildings were circular.” Rick studied the site map in the brochure, then pointed. “Let’s look at the smithy.”
She walked across the spongy grass and peered down into the foundation. “That’s not it.”
Rick studied the brochure again. “We can climb up to the top of the remains of the Laird’s House and see the entire site. You might recognize something from up there.”
They climbed up to a viewing station constructed for visitors, and Rick was right. From the top of the Laird’s House, the entire site was visible, and so was the sea for miles around. The whitecaps looked cold and angry. The wind whipped her ponytail. She tried tucking it into the collar of her jacket, but it wouldn’t stay put, and kept slapping her cheek.
She pointed. “I think that’s it over there.”
Rick rechecked the map. “That’s t
he wheelhouse.”
“Let’s go take a look,” she said.
Rick waved to David and pointed in the direction of the wheelhouse. David signaled okay and led the others there. Rick and Penny climbed down, crossed the spongy grass again, and met David, Elliott, and the bodyguards at the wheelhouse.
“Tavis, ye come with us,” Elliott said. “Position yer three guards above so they can make sure no one comes down here.”
Tavis gave the guards their orders, then followed David, Elliott, Penny, and Rick down a narrow path. They ducked under a stone arch and proceeded through a low, shoulder-width, stone-walled passage and into a small room open above to the bright, cloudless sky.
She shivered from a bone-deep chill. “It was here!” She pointed to the dirt floor. “They murdered him right here.”
David squatted and scooped up a handful of dirt. “This isn’t packed down. They’ve added a layer of dirt.” He stood and blew out a long breath. “Let’s put the brooch, pendant, and torc together and get the hell out.”
Remy had returned the torc to Rick before Rick deplaned, and he removed it from his pocket. David had the pendant, and Elliott had the topaz brooch.
Tavis stood back out of the way.
David handed the pendant to Elliott, who inserted the brooch into it. “Okay, I’m ready for the torc.”
Penny’s heart throbbed in her throat. The wind picked up and howled overhead, and a dark cloud shadowed the sun. She reached around her hip to touch the Glock holstered at her waist.
Elliott looped the pendant to the torc.
“Now what?” Rick asked.
“I need to put it on,” David said.
Elliott shook his head. “No, I will.”
“I was wearing it in the vision.”
“In the future, ye will.”
“Elliott should wear it,” Tavis said. “He’s the Keeper.”
Rick tensed, and his hand automatically went to his holstered Glock. “No one told you that.”
“I did, Rick,” Elliott said.
Rick didn’t relax. He kept his hand right where it was, and he remained standing slightly in front of Penny.
The Topaz Brooch: Time Travel Romance (The Celtic Brooch Book 10) Page 88
