“He left. Do you see a note anywhere?”
Broch’s head swiveled and he leaned forward to snatch a piece of paper from the kitchen counter.
“Here.”
Catriona glanced at it.
Went to see Luther.
She sighed. “Good. I guess Luther couldn’t make it because of car trouble or something, so the mountain went to Muhammad.”
“Eh?”
“It’s an old saying.”
Broch rolled his eyes. “Ah ken whit ye think yur sayin’. But it goes, ‘If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.’ That makes Sean Muhammad, not the mountain.”
Catriona stared at him. “How do you know that?”
“It’s Francis Bacon.”
“If you say so. But how do you know that?”
Broch frowned. “Ah had schooling. Ah remember things, too, ye know.” He tapped his skull. “It’s nae just a rotten potato up ’ere.”
“Can you see things that happened before in your head like me? Relive them in detail?”
Broch shrugged. “Nah. Ah dinnae ken sae. But ah remember written things better than most.”
“Hm. I did not know that.” Catriona leaned against the counter and felt her knees beginning to weaken. Part of her wanted to grab Broch and kiss him for being so damn sexy and smart, but a much larger part of her screamed for sleep.
“We should go to bed.”
“Aye. Ye’ve black under yer eyes.”
“I do?” Catriona dragged a finger beneath each eye to find mascara on them. “Was I like that the whole time?”
“Much of it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Catriona moved to the bathroom and washed her face. She grabbed one of Sean’s t-shirts from his room to use as a sleeping shirt and pointed Kilty to her childhood bed.
Another good reason not to jump him right now. This is just weird.
“We can sleep here. Luckily, I had a queen mattress as a kid so it won’t be too bad.”
“A queen?”
“The size of the mattress.”
“Och, richt. Ah ken that.”
He slid into bed and she slipped in beside him. Broch pulled her against him to spoon, his flesh warm in the chill of the sheets. Again, she felt a heat ooze through her body and her aches seemed to evaporate.
“You feel good,” she murmured, barely able to keep her eyes open.
“Sae dae ye,” he whispered. “Wifie.”
She swallowed. She’d almost forgotten about the accidental marriage.
What am I going to do?
Overwhelmed with worry, she closed her eyes and pushed it all away until tomorrow.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Sean,” Luther hissed, as the tip of Sean’s gun settled against his chin.
Sean unclenched his jaw and lowered his weapon.
“That’s a good way to get shot, Luth.”
Luther huffed. “You were the one in trouble, sneakin’ up on me—”
“I’m not sneaking up on you, I’m looking for you, jackass. There are two men downstairs.”
“Two sounds right.”
“Who are they? I saw one through the downstairs door who looked like Rune.”
“Yep. It’s Rune and somebody I don’t know. Little guy, built like a bowling ball.”
“What are you doing in here?”
“Seemed like a place I could lose them. I’m not the greatest runner these days. Couldn’t go on forever before they caught me.”
Sean put his hands on his hips. “How long you been here?”
“You mean how long until they find me? They’ve been running around down there for a while. They’ll come upon the door leading up here soon enough. I got it hid behind a papier-mâché monster.”
“You were supposed to be at my house hours ago.”
Luther grimaced. “Don’t hit me with the guilt trip. Like I don’t have enough going on here.”
“Point is, you couldn’t have been hiding up here for four hours.”
“I was already late, okay? I admit it. And then this.”
“You should call when you’re going to be late.”
Luther held up his hands as if he were Atlas supporting the planet. “What are you, my girl? I would have called if I’d realized I was late but time got away from me.”
“That doesn’t happen to you.”
Luther looked down and rubbed a spot on the floor with the toe of his shoe. “Yeah, well. It did this time.”
Sean decided to let it go. He could circle back after they got rid of Rune. “Fine. These the only two ways up?”
“Yeah. Pretty sure. I had a boy from that kid show they shoot on seventeen run in here when I spotted him with a joint, so I know the place. Spent over an hour looking for that little brat.”
“Which kid?”
“The one with the pug nose.”
Sean clucked his tongue. “I knew that little prick was up to something.”
“Yeah, he is. Dealing to some of the other kids and a few of the adults, too. You should probably know that.”
Sean was deep into his disapproval before Luther’s comment struck him as odd. “Why do I need to know about it if you’re on top of it?”
Luther heaved a sigh. “Because I’m not going to be here much longer.”
“What are you talking about? At the end of the world there’ll be nothing left but you and the cockroaches.”
Luther shook his head. “It’s time for me to go. It’s your turn.”
“My turn?”
“It’s why you’re here. You came here to take my place when I move on.”
“Here in this warehouse?”
“Here in this time.”
Sean shook his head, feeling uneasy and unsure how to deal with it. “Luther, what are you talking about? Where are you moving to?”
Luther grinned. “Not to. Up. I’m movin’ on up the food chain.”
“Could you make an ounce of sense, please?”
“I’m ready to join the Angeli.”
“A jelly?”
“An AN-jell-ee”
Sean frowned. “Did you join some sort of cult?”
Luther’s low chuckle, so familiar and reassuring, almost made Sean forget men were below them, hunting. His friend
