The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance by Katherine Logan (comprehension books .TXT) 📗

me he wants, but Joseph. Arne would never hurt my son, but he’ll bide his time and eventually get rid of me.”

“We have to confirm whether or not Arne has them first. Ye know the people and the land. How should we deploy our troops?”

Before Tavis could answer, a call came in. “This is Dead-Eye. I need a sitrep,” Kenzie said.

David clenched his hands. It was the strangest feeling he’d ever had. The person he loved most in the world was on the other side of the handheld radio. He had no idea if she had a knife at her throat, although if her hands were free, good luck with that. But he had no idea if she’d make it out or if they’d ever see each other again.

He unclenched his hands, trying hard not to show the anger and fear taking control of him since hearing his bride’s voice. It was thick, like someone with a plugged nose or someone punched in the nose. His anger snapped, hardening, intractable. He’d kill the son of a bitch who touched her. He’d kill with his hands. He’d kill slowly like the Council killed the Colonel—finger by finger, toe by toe. He’d rip the asshole apart.

He snatched up his handheld radio and took a deep breath, another one, and then another one. “This is Six Alpha at Command Post. I need a sitrep.”

“Six Alpha, we’re at Arne’s longhouse. He’ll exchange us for Tavis and Joseph. Be here in an hour, or he’ll stake us out on the ground, and…”

Tavis started stripping off his uniform. “Tell Kenzie that I’m on my way.”

Robbie’s eyes bored into David. “If you’d looked for her earlier, Da, she wouldn’t have been captured. You did the same stupid thing you did the first time. I’m going with Tavis and Joseph.”

“So am I!” Henry said, almost snarling. “Whoever this Arne is, he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. My mom is a supernova.”

David signaled Connor, then Pete. They approached the twins from behind. Before the boys knew what was happening, Connor took Robbie down. Pete took Henry down, and the former cops had both lads cuffed within seconds.

“Shut the hell up!” Pete said. “Acting like this could get Kenzie and Cullen killed. Is that what you’re trying to do, you assholes? I’ve never been so embarrassed for anyone in my life.”

“You’re not acting like a McBain,” Connor said. “It’s time to grow the hell up! Both of you.”

The lads glared at David with the same eyes that gazed at him in moments of passion, in fits of anger, or during a romantic tango. And then their look softened and was replaced with helplessness, and it nearly broke David’s heart. But right now, he was at a loss for words to give them hope. Whatever words he could dredge up, he was keeping for himself.

Then from somewhere outside his consciousness, the words came, “I’ve been here before—when I was much younger. Ye must trust me.”

David signaled Elliott, and they huddled with Tavis, “I need a hiding place for the brooch,” David said. “I plan to get us out of here without leaving ye and Joseph behind, but just in case, we need a backup plan.”

Tavis wrapped his cloak around him and tied it with a leather strap. “Joseph and I have a secret cave.”

“That won’t do,” David said. “Arne’s smart. He’ll figure we left a brooch to bring ye both home later, and he could trick Joseph into revealing the location. It needs to be a place he doesn’t know about.”

“There’s another cave on the cliff, maybe twenty feet east of the one Joseph and I have used before. It’s harder to access, so I’ve never taken him there. I’ll draw a map.”

David gave Tavis his map of the area and a pencil, and Tavis marked the locations. “I can’t promise I’ll ever use the brooch, and leaving one behind will mean it’ll take you longer to fill the slots around the door at the castle. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“There’s no choice to make,” Elliott said. “If we never have enough brooches, so be it. We want ye and Joseph to have every opportunity to come home.”

“There’s something else,” Tavis said. “Arne will demand a pledge from me that I will stay for the rest of my life. If I give my word, I can’t go back on it.”

“Aye. I can see that would be a problem for ye,” Elliott said. “But it’s bullshit. No one can hold ye to that promise. It’s like a POW promising never to attempt an escape. Ye have a son, so any agreement ye make to stay here and raise him in the twelfth century is one ye can break without dishonor.”

Tavis’s jaw tightened, but then he nodded.

The handheld radio beeped. “This is Dead-Eye. Tell Guardian to bring Six.”

Kenzie. Tavis. Elliott.

Elliott started stripping off his plated body armor. “I’m not going to meet with the Council dressed as a warrior. I’m the Keeper, protector of the stones, but not a warrior.”

David grabbed Elliott’s arm. “Damn it. We have to go in with our strongest hand, and that’s as warriors.”

Elliott glared at David’s whitening fingers as if his eyes alone had the power to release the grip, and David slowly released one hot finger, two fingers, and then the rest.

“I’m the Keeper, lad, and that comes with rights, responsibilities, and protections. I don’t know what they are, but I’m about to find out. Let me handle this.”

What Elliott said awakened a memory. It was a portion of his vision, previously too elusive to see or hear or comprehend. It was trying to break through now, to come into focus, and he knew from experience he couldn’t rush it. It would come in time, yet he’d gotten a whiff of it before. But when? Ah. It happened the moment he entered the cave on MacKlenna Farm and even earlier in another cave, in a much earlier time, but he’d been dealing with