Page 99 of Taken By the Vicious Highlander

The old councilman stood tall, without his cane, in the middle of the chaos, his sharp eyes filled with cold calculation. He moved with the confidence of a man who had been wrongfully kept from war, with something to prove. His movements were ungraceful and clumsy, but effective.

Damon’s lips twisted into a snarl.

So, this is the bastard behind it all.

“I should have kenned ye’d try something like this,” he growled, raising his own blade.

“Aye, ye should have, but ye didnae. I win,” Sebastian sneered, venom dripping from his jowls before he lunged.

Before their blades met, something flashed across Damon’s vision, halting his attack. Tristan, bellowing with fury, swung his sword at his soon-to-be father-in-law’s blade.

Damon stepped back, his face contorting with irritation.

What is it with these two?

Another attacker jumped out of the smoke rising from the burning stall, yelling obscenities as his blade came crashing down on Damon’s raised dagger.

The four men parried in the middle of the square, Tristan against Sebastian and Damon against the other attacker. Blow for blow, these men were trained by the best. Any one of them could have bested even the assassin Damon fought on his wedding night.

Lilith…

But that brief distraction earned him an angry wound on his forearm.

“Shite,” he hissed, switching hands with flawless ease.

The attacker’s eyes, which were narrowed with confidence, widened with terror. Having thought he had the upper hand in the fight, he now realized just how outmatched he truly was.

Damon sidestepped another lunge, cutting the man’s legs out from underneath him. The man let out a blood-curdling scream before he started to crawl away.

“Ryder!” Damon called out. “Ryder!” he yelled again, his voice cracking with worry.

“Me Laird,” Ryder called back, running toward him with a blood-soaked tunic and matching tartan.

“Are ye injured?” Damon asked as he drove his blade into the retreating attacker, ending the man’s suffering.

“Nay, it’s nae me blood,” Ryder declared proudly.

“I left Lilith in the woods, just beyond the tree line. Christ above, help me if that woman moved even an inch. Find her and protect her.”

“Aye,” Ryder said, before tearing through the glen and disappearing precisely where he needed to turn.

“A little help here?” Tristan gritted out.

Sebastian, standing a foot taller than him, was using his height to try and knock him off balance. “I dinnae wish to kill ye,boy. Leave the swine to me!”

“Never!” Tristan yelled, twisting his younger body out of reach.

Damon pulled his revolver out of his holster and took aim. He pulled the hammer back until it made the undeniable clicking sound. Both men froze.

“Ye’re good, Morris. I’ll admit that. But I’mmuchbetter,” he growled.

Tristan dropped to the ground, leaving Sebastian exposed to not just one bullet but two. His body jerked twice at the impact and collapsed into a heap on the ground.

Fionn and Hunter charged at two more attackers running toward him with their smithing hammers. Both culprits went down beneath their matching blows, their skulls cracking with a sickening crunch.

Cameron raced toward them, with Kerry close behind, both blood-soaked but smiling.

They had clearly won.