What was that?
A grinding noise crunched somewhere behind the waterslide on which she perched.
Oh no.
Rune hit the pump.
She heard the water before she could see it.
“Catriona!” screamed Broch.
Catriona stared at him, helpless. She scanned the area around her looking for anything to which she could brace, but there was nothing. She looked behind her at the pool below.
How far is that? Thirty feet? Forty?
“Stupid, stupid—”
She’d never dreamed Rune would know how to turn on the waterfall. It never occurred to her he’d even know about it. Why would he? The studio must have had the button clearly labeled on the catwalk panel.
Damn OSHA work safety standards.
Above her, she saw dribbles of water cresting the edge, the whole tank readying to spill, and she knew she only had two choices.
Wait until the water knocked her from her tenuous perch, or jump.
The pool below was too narrow to risk being swept off the angled ramp. She’d have to jump to clear the wall and have some control over where she splashed down.
Catriona took a deep breath and pushed off from the wall.
Now she just had to pray the pool was deep enough.
She fell, arms flailing and legs slightly parted to keep from hitting the water like a spear and plunging too deep to the uncertain bottom. She smacked the water’s surface, wincing, praying her spine wasn’t about to be slammed through her shoulders.
Her feet hit the bottom and her knees bent, absorbing the landing easily.
Deep enough.
She would have heaved a sigh of relief if it didn’t mean drowning. She launched herself upward.
That wasn’t too bad—
The waterfall crashed on her head as soon as she broke the surface.
Catriona went spinning to the bottom again. Disoriented and dizzy from the blow of the water she struggled to find up. When she thought her lungs would explode, she felt her hand touch air and gave one last hard stroke to reach oxygen, praying water wouldn’t tumble from the sky and into her lungs.
She gasped and felt her lungs inflate with air.
“Catriona!”
She heard her name as she swam for the side of the pool, Broch’s scream muffled by the roar of the waterfall continuously flowing from the top of the artificial mountain.
She waved her arm above her head to let him know she’d survived the drop and dragged herself, sputtering, onto the gravelly bank surrounding the pool. After taking a moment to cough and catch her breath, she stood and scrambled toward the stairs.
Stairs that would have been the better choice the first time.
Catriona began to climb. Above her, Broch had reached the top. She couldn’t see Rune. She doubled her efforts to speed her ascent, wishing she’d spent less time at the gym kickboxing and more time on the Stairmaster.
By the time she’d reached the top, winded and spent, Rune and Broch were nowhere to be seen.
“Broch?”
She called, but could barely hear herself over the roar of the water and the pump. Starting across the catwalk, she stopped to slap the waterfall’s clearly labeled red emergency stop button. The thunder of the water ceased and she heard voices echoing from somewhere on the opposite side.
She sprinted towards them.
Rounding the corner of a crumbling ruin, Catriona saw Broch had Rune cornered against a stucco wall. The metal ladder mounted to it seemed to lead to the outside world. Rune stood crouched like a wrestler, his hands curled into claws.
“Stop!” Rune screamed at Catriona as she approached. “I’ll drain you both in seconds if you touch me.”
Broch looked at her. “Ah kin tak’ him afore he gets far.”
Catriona grimaced. “You probably can, but I don’t know if the damage will be permanent.” She’d been meaning to ask Anne about that but didn’t get the chance. She put it on her mental to-do list.
“Let me handle this,” she said reaching for her gun.
She found her holster empty and tilted back her head, groaning.
Arg.
The gun had to be in the pool. She’d never thought to check if she still had it after her tumble.
She huffed and stared at Rune, feeling stuck.
“We’re at a stalemate.”
Rune placed his good hand on the nearest ladder rung. “No. I’m going to climb this ladder and you’re going to stay there.”
“We cannae let ye gang,” said Broch.
“You can and you will.”
Rune’s blazing gaze shot from Catriona to Broch and back again as he began to ascend the ladder. Broch took a step forward and Rune swiped at him, demonstrating how he’d be able to touch him should the Highlander come after him.
Broch looked at Catriona. “It tak’s awhile,” he argued.
She knew he meant he thought Rune wouldn’t have the time to drain him before he was able to tie the monster into a knot. “It took Joseph time. Who knows with Rune?”
Broch clenched his jaw and looked up at Rune.
As she watched her father climb, an image flashed through Catriona’s mind of a pile of rubble she’d passed on the way to find Broch. Bolting back down the path she’d traveled, she found the bricks around the corner, just a few steps away. She grabbed one and hefted it, feeling the rough surface beneath her fingertips.
It felt like real stone, and not Styrofoam, as she’d feared.
Perfect.
Broch had once before demonstrated his uncanny throwing accuracy. Collecting five, she ran them back to Broch and dropped them at his feet.
“Remember that crazed kid you hit with a rock right after you arrived?” she asked, grabbing one shaped most like a baseball.
Broch took the rock and tossed it in the air to catch it again. “Aye.”
He smiled and looked up at Rune. The skinny goon was a good twenty feet above them now. He stared down, sneering, clearly feeling
