Fire Maidens Scotland (Billionaires & Bodyguards #6) - Anna Lowe Page 0,25
structure was collapsing on them.
“Mungo!” she yelled.
She lost hold of the leash, and the dog disappeared around a corner, barking madly. Holly stumbled and fell in the path of the collapsing stones.
“Move! Move!” Lachlan pulled her to her feet as the rest of the wall gave way. He steered her behind a sturdy mausoleum, then leaned over her, protecting her with his body. Stones hammered into the ground, and a few tumbled across the churchyard, rolling through Holly’s narrow field of vision. A cloud of dust filled the thick air. At one point, Lachlan grunted, and Holly nearly cried out. Had he been hit?
Then the slamming slowed, and everything went silent. Dead silent.
Lachlan remained hunched over her, holding her close. Then they stood slowly and stared at the wreckage. The church and ancient yew didn’t seem to be damaged, but the wall was reduced to a pile of rubble, opening a clear view of the adjoining field. A cow stood there staring, as shocked as they. Somewhere out of sight, Mungo was barking, and panicked hoofbeats faded into the distance.
“Time to go.” Lachlan gestured toward the car.
“Not without Trevor.”
She hurried toward the rubble, praying the urn had survived the rockfall. Heaving massive stones aside, she extracted the urn. It was dinged and dusty, but the duct tape had held the lid on tightly. Whew.
“Come now.” Lachlan motioned for her.
She took his hand and picked her way over fallen stones. Mungo loped into view and stood by the car, wagging his tail.
“Good boy.”
As she bent to pet Mungo, Lachlan ran to the road. There, he pressed his back against the church. After a cautious peek around the corner, he darted around and ran out of sight.
Holly’s heart raced at that glimpse of him in soldier mode. This was rural Scotland, not a war zone.
Then she glanced back at the ruined wall, and images of their near miss on the highway rushed through her mind.
War zone, her dragon growled in warning.
But the first drops of rain were falling, so she focused on raising the roof of the convertible. She’d just finished when Lachlan came trotting back. His eyes were a cold, steel gray, and his nostrils flared as if his inner dragon was demanding to be released.
He jerked a hand at the car. “Let’s go.”
Holly took one last look at the collapsed wall, still petting Mungo. Then she let out a slow breath. “Whoa. What are the chances, huh?”
She wanted to believe it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time. But that was a stretch, and she knew it. What were the chances of a wall collapsing on them barely an hour after they’d nearly been hit by a truck?
Lachlan snorted and studied the sky. “Aye. What are the chances?” Then he waved her to her side of the car. “Let’s go. Now.”
Chapter Seven
“New plan,” Lachlan growled the moment they were back in the car.
His initial check of the area hadn’t revealed any sign of foul play or suspicious vehicles speeding away. But someone could have knocked over that vulnerable wall, then hidden among the numerous hedgerows. On the other hand, he hadn’t picked up on any fresh scent other than that of the cows huddled in the neighboring field. One of them could have been a shifter, but he doubted it, judging by their blank, innocent stares.
“Uh, what new plan?” Holly gripped the box containing Trevor’s instructions tightly.
He glanced over. Trevor had certainly picked the right person to carry out his last wishes. Holly was a woman on a mission. Funny, that. He’d always seen her as a whimsical, carpe diem type, flitting from place to place and job to job. More of a golden retriever than a stubborn bulldog, in other words. And yet, once she set her mind to something, she refused to be deterred.
Like the best soldiers, his dragon murmured.
Until that moment, he would have laughed at the suggestion. Spontaneous, footloose Holly, with her flouncy clothes and messy hair, a soldier? Never.
But then there was that fierce loyalty, that never-give-up attitude.
He shot her a sidelong glance. The woman was a study in contrasts. No wonder she’d always confounded his attempts to puzzle her out.
So, let’s spend a little longer trying. His dragon grinned. A lifetime.
He leaned forward, trying to ignore the beast, and peered through the windshield wipers. The first drops of rain were turning into a steady patter, soon to be a deluge.