Page 53 of Highlander’s Curse (The Daughters of the Glen #8)

Thirty-seven

I t’s no far now.”

If Abby didn’t hurt so bad, Dair’s words might have made her smile, wondering if his not so far was anything like Colin’s.

As it was, the best she could manage was catching her next breath without passing out.

“Halt!”

Dair and Simeon both pulled their mounts to a stop as two men moved out of the forest to block the road ahead of them.

“No,” she managed between pants. It couldn’t be. She blinked slowly, struggling to focus on the men ahead.

What couldn’t be, was.

Jonathan Flynn sat on one of the horses, his gun pointed directly at them.

“Abigail, dearest,” he called. “I’ve found you at last. And with new friends.”

How wrong was this? She’d traveled seven hundred years to escape staring down the barrel of that bastard’s gun, suffered more than she ever had in her whole life, and how was she ending up? Staring down the barrel of the bastard’s gun. Again.

“You ken who this man is, do you?” Dair asked.

“Yes. He has a gun. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Gun?” Next to her, Simeon snorted. “That wee bit’s hardly bigger than the knife you had stuffed down yer front, my lady. It’s of no consequence.”

They didn’t know about guns. They didn’t understand the danger they were in.

“Not big,” she panted. “Bad. Very bad. Trust me.”

“You’ll climb down off that man’s horse now, Abigail, and join me over here. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to start eliminating your new friends.”

“The lady stays where she is,” Dair growled.

“Wait.” She remembered all too well what Jonathan was capable of when he started carrying on about not having any choices. “You don’t know what he can do.”

“I say we show him and that wee gun of his what we can do, aye?” Simeon grinned and kneed his horse forward.

“No!” Her warning was too late.

With a loud crack , Jonathan fired his weapon and Simeon jerked back. Disbelief colored his face just before he doubled over and slid from his mount, crumpled on the ground.

“What in the name of the saints . . .” Dair’s arm tightened around her waist.

“On second thought, Abigail, you stay on the horse. Tell your friend he needs to get off so you can join me.”

“I canna allow—”

There was no point in letting him continue. “Get off. Now.” She wouldn’t be the cause of another man’s getting shot. “Find Colin. Stop him. Keep him safe.”

As soon as Dair dismounted, Abby pulled on the reins, encouraging her horse toward Jonathan. When she reached his side, he took the reins from her hands, leading her horse as he headed back into the forest.

“You’ve no seen the last of me!” Dair called out from behind them. “I’ll hunt you down.”

Ahead of her, Jonathan chuckled. “I doubt that. Not unless he has his own little time-traveling woman, eh, Abigail? Not once you whisk us back home where we belong.”

That was what he expected? If she could just catch her breath, she’d laugh. Or cry.

If that’s really what he expected, they were both in a lot of trouble.