Embrace the Highland Warrior by Anita Clenney Page B

out his knife, put it to his arm, and stopped. He’d cut something, all right. The master said it was crucial that they not have children. He couldn’t kill her yet, even if the master wanted him too, but he could get rid of the warrior. The master would like that.
    After the men entered the house, he pulled closer and parked his car behind a thick maple covered with red leaves. He glanced at the house. All clear. He approached the man’s truck and lay down beside the wheel, holding his knife and an empty 7-11 coffee cup. It didn’t take long.
    Hurrying back to his car, he moved out of sight and wiped the fluid from his knife blade with a dirty handkerchief. He heard an engine start, and the warrior’s truck backed out of the driveway. It wouldn’t be long. As the truck sped by his hiding place, he saw Shay in the driver’s seat.
    “No!” he screamed.
    ***
     
    “Get your hands off me—” Jamie said, bristling.
    “Shut up! Both of you,” Faelan shouted, pulling Jamie and Cody apart. “Where’s Bree and Shay?”
    An engine roared to life. “That’s my truck,” Cody said. “Damn it, that’s my truck!” They sprinted outside in time to see the Toyota pull away with Shay and Bree inside. “Stop!”
    The truck kept going, spitting dirt and gravel. Cody ran to Shay’s rental car and yanked open the door. “No keys.”
    “We can take my truck.” Jamie ran into the house and returned with keys to his grandfather’s faded green Chevy. Faelan shoved Cody in the middle and climbed in beside him. The old engine thundered and grumbled. Jamie threw it in drive and pulled onto the road. The men bounced along, jammed shoulder to shoulder, as the truck whined and climbed the winding mountain road.
    “If you two weren’t fighting, they wouldn’t have run off,” Faelan said.
    Cody didn’t know Jamie as well as his brothers did, but he always considered him a friend. A few weeks ago, Marcas told Cody they’d had Jamie keeping an eye on Shay for the past several months, since he lived in Scotland, not far from Shay. They hadn’t bothered to tell him Jamie was her bloody boyfriend. Cody had gone to Scotland to find her as soon as his duty was over. He’d felt as nervous and excited as a teenager… until he saw the ring on her hand.
    “Why didn’t you tell me you were engaged to her when I saw you in Scotland?” Cody asked Jamie. He’d sat next to Jamie at the castle, never dreaming it was his ring Cody had seen on Shay’s finger.
    “Marcas told me to keep my mouth shut. And Shay and I weren’t together then anyway,” Jamie said, his voice tight.
    They reached the top of the mountain, nearing the entrance to Skyline Drive. “Any idea which road they took?” Faelan asked.
    “Call them,” Jamie said.
    Cody and Faelan looked at each other. “My phone’s in the truck,” Cody said.
    “Mine too. Use yours,” Faelan said to Jamie.
    Jamie grimaced. “It’s in the house.”
    “Shay’ll take Skyline Drive,” Cody said. “She likes the scenery.”
    “I know that,” Jamie said.
    “I see them. Won’t this thing go faster?” Faelan grumbled as they turned onto the scenic mountaintop road. He shifted, knocking Cody in the ribs, and peered out the window. “Nandor was quicker than this.”
    “This truck’s probably just as old,” Cody muttered.
    ***
     
    “I should have connected the dots,” Shay said as the truck moved along the scenic drive. “Those blasted necklaces—talismans. But I grew up around men who wore necklaces… wait, are the tattoos part of all this?”
    “Yes. All warriors have them.”
    Shay thumped her palm on the steering wheel. “Is there anyone who hasn’t lied to me?”
    “I don’t blame you for being angry, but keep in mind that warriors are sworn to secrecy,” Bree said. “They can’t reveal clan secrets without permission from the Council.”
    “But the man asked me to marry him and never bothered to mention he was a warrior sent to baby-sit me!”
    “Men