Page 7 of Utterly Dauntless (Return to Culloden Moor #3)

CHAPTER SEVEN

I n Fort William, he stopped for petrol and checked his phone for any messages from Kitchens. It was then he noticed he'd missed a call the day before from an unknown number. His heart stuttered to a stop, stunned by the possibility it might have been from her.

His fingers fumbled to open his voicemail. There was a single message. When he pressed the button and heard her voice, he nearly wept.

"Grey? Listen. If this guy in the blue van is one of yours, call him off, would you? He's freakin' me out."

He immediately returned the call, hoping against hope she would pick up. If she was all right, she wouldn't want him worrying after leaving him such a message.

The phone rang and rang.

A man answered. "Aye?"

"Who's this then?"

"Tristan Bain. Is that ye, Number 25?"

"Aye, it's me." For a few hundred years, while haunting the battlefield on Culloden Moor, Grey and 78 others had known each other by their numbers, from when Reveille was called. "She left the phone in the car?"

"Aye. Not as empty as I expected."

"Tell me."

"There's an old doll, a tin of half-eaten cake, and a cup and saucer wrapped carefully. Found a packed bag in the boot. I reckon maybe yer woman wouldnae have left them behind if she'd have had a choice in the matter."

"No, she wouldnae." He told the man about the phone message. "So we’re lookin' for a bastard in a blue van."

"There's an officer here now. I'll pass the word."

"I'm grateful. And Number 10?"

"Aye?"

"Guard that demitasse and saucer like yer life depends upon it, would ye? And the doll as well, I suppose."

"Done."

Grey dialed Kitchens and got back on the road.

"Grey?"

"Aye. I just spoke to Tristan Bain. He found the car. She left her phone behind."

"A burner?"

"Aye. But that's not all." He told him the rest, including the phone message.

"So we'll assume she's been taken."

"Aye."

"Any idea who, besides you, would do such a thing?"

"Not the first idea."

"Right then. We're looking for a poor bastard in a blue van?—"

"Poor bastard?"

"Aye. He'll need all the pity he can get after takin' a woman who belongs to The 79."

"Pity him later. Find him first, would ye?"

"We'll find him, Grey. And we'll try to save a few pieces of him for you, if ye like. And dinnae fear. She'll be all right."

Grey nodded, though the man couldn't see it. Then he thanked him, even though Kitchens was lying to keep him from worry. They didn't know the threat or the motivation behind the move, so how could they know Aries was even alive?

Well, other than the fact that he would know, in his soul, if it were time to lie down and die...