“The same dress?” asked Fiona, horrified.
Pete nodded. “I helped her pick it out.”
He sounded wistful.
“So you two are pretty close.”
Pete seemed to blush. “Yeah. I mean—”
“Until he showed up.”
He looked away. “She’s been busy.”
Fiona put out her hand and traced the back of Pete’s ear, letting her fingers trail down his neck. He shivered. Leaning forward, she whispered.
“You’re too good for her.”
Pete giggled and then cleared his throat. “I don’t know about that.”
“I do. Come on. Let’s go.”
Fiona slipped her arm through Pete’s and led him toward the gate.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“I don’t care. You can pick it.”
“I don’t want to take advantage of your kindness.”
“Oh please. Take advantage of me. I want you too.”
Fiona watched for a reaction and spotted Pete swallowing hard.
Too easy.
“So...” Pete seemed to search for a way to break the sexual tension only he was experiencing. “Did you hear about Dixie?”
“Who?”
“From the new craft show. She went missing.”
“Really?” Fiona feigned interest and picked up her pace as they approached the gate house.
“Hold it.” The gate guard stepped out to block the door as they approached. He pointed at Fiona. “She can’t leave.”
Fiona eyed the chubby guard with her best glare but he refused to wither. Too full of misplaced pride for the tiny bit of power he wielded.
Here we go.
Pete’s brow knit. “Come on Don, what’s up?”
“He’s my doctor,” added Fiona. She slipped her arm out of Pete’s to make it seem more likely she was under medical care and not skipping down the yellow brick road.
The guard pressed his lips together into a hard line. “I dunno. Cat said you weren’t supposed to leave under any circumstances.”
“Cat said?”
Pete’s voice changed as he said her sister’s name. It sounded as if he’d just found out the Queen would be stopping by for tea.
She scrambled.
“My sister meant without a doctor’s supervision. But I’ve got Dr. Noseeum—”
Pete looked at her. “Roseum.”
“Right. Dr. Roseum.”
Pete leaned close and spoke in her ear. “What’s this about supervision?”
She whispered back, careful to be sure her lips brushed his ear. “It’s a joke. Catriona told them I was insane and not to let me out.”
Pete chuckled. “Really? She’s so funny—”
Fiona felt her mood darken. The boy was hopelessly smitten with her stupid sister.
Time to work on the guard, currently staring at her tits. “Let us through, Dan.”
“Don,” said the guard and Pete in unison.
“Don. We’re going for dinner to discuss my, uh, medication and then I’m coming back. Cat will never know.”
Don scowled. “Why do you have to go to dinner for a checkup?”
“My pills have to be taken with food.”
Ridiculous, but it was what popped to mind. Fiona did her best to keep a straight face.
The guard looked to Pete for confirmation, and he nodded. “It’s okay. I’ll be with her the whole time. I’ll bring her back.”
The guard shrugged and stepped back into his little house. “Go ahead. But if there’s any blowback, you talk to Cat.”
“Will do.”
Fiona wobbled a little as she and Pete walked into the parking lot. Catriona’s shoes were loose on her feet and had started to rub. It didn’t help Pete’s car was apparently parked in another state. The lot was big, but soon it felt as if they’d been walking forever with no end in sight.
“So where’s your car?” she asked, trying not to sound as impatient as she was. She still had to talk him into driving her to her house.
“It’s that one right—” Dr. Pete’s face fell slack.
“What’s wrong?”
The life in Pete’s eyes seemed to dim.
“Pete?”
The doctor dropped to his knees and then face-planted on to the asphalt. Fiona sucked in a breath, horrified at the sound it made.
“Pete —?”
Fiona noticed what looked like a dart sticking from his back, complete with feathers flowing from the back of it as if she’d stumbled into a jungle movie.
“What the—”
She felt a sharp prick just below the base of her neck and reached up to slap it as if it were a mosquito. Her fingertips brushed the side of something hard, but she couldn’t quite reach it. Her spine seemed to give way, as if the tension support holding up the structure of her body had collapsed like a tent on a windy day. She folded her legs to drop straight down and avoid dropping to her knees or face like Pete.
It still hurt when she hit the ground.
Fiona threw out her hands to protect her head as she folded to the pavement. She felt the sharp bark of skin tearing from her elbow and then slipped into darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“We hae tae gang.”
“What?”
Catriona opened her lids, but it was as if her eyeballs had rolled back in her head and she couldn’t get them straight. The world flashed in staccato bits. Someone sat beside her on the bed, shaking her shoulder.
“We hae tae gang.”
Catriona rubbed her eyes until they centered. “Go. The word is go, not gang. And why? Go where?”
“Back home. It’s Sean. He’s in trouble. Ah hae tae gang. Go.”
Catriona sat up and looked at her watch. It was four-thirty in the morning.
“Did he call?”
“Nae.”
“Did someone call?”
“Nae.”
“Then how do you know he’s in trouble?”
Broch took her face in his hands, placing one palm against each of her cheeks until she could see nothing but his face.
“Ah kin feel it.”
Catriona squinted into his eyes and found him convincing. “Fine. Let me try to call him.”
He released her and Catriona fumbled for her phone. The cord she’d used to plug it in the night before was too
