For a moment, his healed breast swelled with elation.
No matter, Maddie. Her house could come in handy. He could hole up—
No.
His mood darkened.
The gun shot.
He couldn’t stay. The neighbors might already be calling the authorities.
I have to leave. Now.
Rune ran out of the house and jogged towards Parasol Pictures.
Fiona. He had to find her.
His daughter had told him she’d been at that girl’s apartment on the studio lot. She’d probably gone back there after she tricked him.
Catriona.
The name bounced through his head. It meant something but he wasn’t sure what.
I’ll find Fiona. I’ll get the list and I’ll kill her.
No. He was thinking bigger.
I’ll kill them all.
He’d found a rhythm jogging. It felt as though he could run forever. He was almost disappointed when he spotted a sign on a wall that signified the space behind it as the property of Parasol Pictures.
Jungle foliage peeked above the fence line.
It wasn’t the front gate, but maybe that was a good thing. He could sneak in, undetected, and make his way to Fiona. He leapt up and grabbed the top of the fence, pulling himself up with a rush of strength he didn’t know he had.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The moment Catriona walked into her apartment she jumped at Broch, throwing her arms around his neck.
“Take me to bed or lose me forever.”
“Whit?”
“Sorry. It’s from Top Gun. But you get the idea.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and she stared up at the gold flecks in his hazel eyes. She felt as if her chest might explode with love for him.
How had this breakthrough happened? Is this what true love feels like?
She’d had crushes before but nothing that made her feel the way she did now. She wanted to envelop Broch. Every blink of his eyes or twitch of his lips made her ache with love. Not just desire, though there was plenty of that as well.
Thoughts of divorcing him had been stomped to death and thrown out the window into a fiery volcano of no.
No. wait.
A volcane-no.
She giggled and he peered down at her.
“Whit’s so funny?”
“Nothing. Making myself laugh.”
“Ye dae that a lot.”
“I know. Sorry.”
He shook his head, smiling, as she marveled at him.
I want to eat you alive and keep you inside my chest. Is that weird?
“Aye,” he said as if he’d heard her thoughts.
“Ah git yer meaning,” he said, stroking her hair back from her face.
Whew.
If he could read every odd thought that ran through my brain he’d be running back to ancient Scotland.
“Bit are ye okay? Ye’ve been a wee nutty since the thing.”
She grinned. “Listen to you. Okay, the thing, you’re starting to use all the modern slang.”
Adorable. You’re like some giant gorgeous Scottish Sasquatch. A Scotchsquatch.
She shook her head.
Stop it.
“Ah’m serious, Cat. Dae ye feel well?”
She stood on her toes to steal a kiss and he retracted his neck.
“Blether tae me,” he insisted.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m fine. It’s just, all that man’s...” She struggled to find the right word. “Power...life force...whatever, into me. I feel like I’m running off of two batteries instead of one, if that makes sense.”
“It doesnae.”
“Oh. Of course not. Um, it feels like I have twice the energy as usual. And I feel a little drunk almost. But not drunk-drunk. Giddy.”
“Ah. That doesn’t sound sae bad.”
“No. Not at all. I’ve been racking my brain for a way to use up all this energy...” She hoped she’d said the line suggestively enough and whooped as he bent to scoop her into his arms.
“Ah hae an idea.”
Mission accomplished.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. Never in her life had she dreamed a man could sweep her off the ground like that.
“How do you do that? I’m not a tiny girl.”
“Ah’m not a tiny man.”
She tittered. “No, you are not.”
He took her into the bedroom and dropped her to the mattress from a little higher than necessary, setting her to laughing all over again.
As she bounced, her phone rang and she pulled it from her pocket.
“I’m unavailable,” she announced, glancing at it as she moved to place it on the bedside table.
It was Sean.
“Damn.”
“Whit is it?”
“It’s Sean. I better answer. He’s already furious. Hello?”
Sean sounded annoyed from his first word. “We’ve got an intruder on the Amazon Death Step set. Motion alarm went off and the camera’s picked up someone.”
“Who?”
“It was just a flash. Couldn’t see a face. Another one of the lead’s groupies, more than likely. I’m going to have to do something about that wall along the eastern perimeter. Teenage girls are shockingly inventive when it comes to stalking their idols.”
“Maybe it’s a jungle cat.”
“I don’t think so.”
Catriona flopped her free arm across the bed. She wanted to scream.
“Send one of the guards.”
“There’s no one available I can trust to handle an actual intruder.”
“Where are you?”
“Home with Luther. I wanted to talk to him about everything that happened and I owed him a dinner. Jeeze, Cat, will you just go check please? What’s the problem?”
Broch had pulled off his shirt and stood beside the bed, tight and deliciously lumpy in all the right places.
She closed her eyes.
The timing.
“You owe me for ignoring my rules earlier,” added Sean. “Oh, and it’s your job.”
Hard to argue with that.
She sighed. “Fine. I’ll run over there.”
“Take Broch.”
“I will. I’ll let you know in a bit.”
She hung up, grit her teeth and released a quiet scream of frustration.
“Whit’s he want?”
“The security
