Page 83 of Deception of a Highlander

“Will you allow me to join you?” she asked.

Her voice was soft and carried with it an intimacy that brought back memories he preferred to forget. He scrubbed his face to clear his mind and focused on his original purpose in coming to see Mariel. To discover the truth.

“I will agree to let ye come, but first, I want ye to answer my questions.”

“You trust me to tell the truth?”

“Ye dinna lie, remember?” He searched her eyes, challenging what he wanted desperately to believe.

She did not turn away. “No,” she replied with an earnest expression. “I do not lie. I’ll answer any question you ask.”

He pulled the chair from outside her cell door, settled it in the small prison and motioned to it. “Ye can sit if ye like.”

“I’d prefer not to.”

Kieran shrugged. “Ye mentioned a meeting point. Where is it?”

“There is a large manor on the outskirts of Inverness. The exact location is difficult to find unless you know where to look. The man who owns the manor, the man you will need to stop, is Aaron.” She pursed her lips.

Was she afraid to say more?

“Is he the man you feared when I met you?”

“Yes.” She searched his eyes. “He runs an operation of spies, assassins and whores. People pay him, and he has his people carry out the tasks without ever getting his hands dirty. He’s hard and ruthless. Had you not allowed me to join you, he would have killed Jack and probably me as well.”

“Who hired him?” Kieran pressed.

“Given the instructions I received, I can only guess.”

Kieran’s body instinctively tensed. “What instructions?”

Mariel hesitated. Her gaze flicked to the sword at his side. “Remember our agreement. You can’t kill me until after Aaron is defeated.”

Fear rippled through him. “What instructions?” he repeated through clenched teeth.

She looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “They wanted to know where Blair and Dougal were hidden. If I couldn’t discover their whereabouts within three months, I was to kill you.”

A chill tingled at the base of his neck. She had been sent after Blair and Dougal, not him. Kieran heard himself roar. He clenched a fist at his side and stared at Mariel in horror. Rage twisted dark and ugly within his gut. If she were a man…

Mariel shook her head. “I didn’t know, Kieran. I thought they were grown men when I took the assignment, political refugees.”

Kieran unfurled his hand and then balled it into a fist again, focusing on the action to control himself. “Ye dinna ever consider they were a woman and child?”

“What would you have thought?” she demanded, turning a hard gaze on him. Her expression softened. “You’re angry, and you’re hurt. If striking me will make you feel better, do it. I can take the hit.”

Her invitation caught him off guard, as did the subtle shift in her weight as she braced herself for the blow. He had never intentionally hit a woman in his life, and he refused to do so now.

He moved back a step, but her body did not relax.

“Was the attack from the MacLeods part of Aaron’s effort to get to Blair and Dougal?”

“No, Aaron is far too subtle for that.”

Kieran took another deep breath to calm himself before he asked the question that weighed heaviest on his heart. “When did ye send word to him of Blair’s location?”

Mariel’s chin lifted. “I never would do that.” A look of pain crossed her features, and the words trailed off. “I knew you would sacrifice everything for them, and so I thought to…” Tears sparkled unshed in her eyes. “I couldn’t do it.”

She had meant to kill him.