Page 98 of Blood & Claw

“I’d say so.” Dale lifted the grouse to check the cooking before lowering it over the embers once more. Yet he didn’t comment further, didn’t explain himself.

He wouldn’t meet her eye.

Reaching up, Ailsa tentatively prodded at her tender skull with her fingertips. She then hissed softly. That oaf’s elbow had been like a battering ram.

However, that wasn’t what mattered right now.

Something had occurred to her just after the warrior had attacked; something had finally clicked into place, and she wouldn’t let it go.

“That’s two of them now,” she said, fixing Dale with a hard stare. “And I don’t think they’re part of the group we’re hunting. They’re assassins … they were hunting you.”

He stiffened, still not looking her way. “Ailsa—”

“Just be honest with me, Dale,” she cut him off. “Before the attack, you were about to tell me something. What was it? Who wants you dead?”

Silence pulsed between them, broken only by the crackling of the fire and the hiss of sizzling grouse fat.

Eventually, Dale heaved a heavy sigh and reached up, pinching the skin between his eyebrows with forefinger and thumb. He then, finally, looked her way, gaze shadowed. “My brother.” His words were growled, like he’d just uttered a curse.

Ailsa jolted. “Your brother sent killers after you?”

“Aye.”

Her frown deepened. “And when were you going to tell me this?”

“I hadn’t planned to.”

Ailsa’s skull still pounded, and queasiness churned in her belly, but she was too vexed now to care. “What else are you hiding?”

His jaw tightened, but he didn’t answer.

“Tell me the rest of it, Dale … or you’re fired.”

His expression turned incredulous. “You can’t take on those men alone.”

“I’ll find a way,” she shot back. “I’d prefer to work alone than with someone I can’t trust.”

Shit.

Why had she hired this man?

Another silence followed before he grimaced. “All right … my name isn’t Dale,” he ground out. “It’s Darach … Darach mac Lachlan … brother to King Niall of Braewall.”

Ailsa sucked in a sharp breath.

Whatever she had imagined her bodyguard might reveal, it wasn’t this. She looked at his now-familiar face with fresh eyes.

The arrogant bearing. The strong jaw and wavy brown hair.

She’d never set eyes on the prince who’d disappeared nearly six years earlier, but she’d caught many glimpses of his elder brother, Niall. The king’s good looks were more chiseled than his brother’s, but the family resemblance was there.

Aye, on the evening they’d met, she’d felt a tickle of recognition but hadn’t been able to place it. Of course, she hadn’t. Never would she have thought the man who’d agreed to help her rescue Kayla was the king’s missing brother.

“But you’re supposed to be dead,” she said finally.

He snorted. “Aye, and that’s how Niall likes it.” He paused then, something ugly moving in his eyes. “But he knows I’m not.”

24: ALWAYS TRYING TO GET FREE