Page 53 of Guarding Salvation

Bram began gently feeling her leg, making her wince as he slipped off her boot, the limb already swelling. Great, she wasn’t getting that boot back on now.

“It might be a sprain but I think you may have fractured your metatarsal and twisted your knee.”

“Great, just what I need.”

“We need to get back before we get soaked through and the least of our worries will be your leg. Can you walk if I help you?”

Aoife gritted her teeth with the pain and nodded as Bram helped her to stand, taking most of her weight. They hobbled at a ridiculously slow pace and she knew she needed to pick it up or they’d be stuck in this freezing cold all night and most likely die of exposure.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“Ruining our lovely day.”

“Don’t be silly, it was an accident. Unless your plan all along was to get me alone in the woods so you could have your way with me?”

Aoife laughed through the discomfort. “Shit, you’ve seen through my nefarious plan.”

“Nefarious, hey?”

“Oh yes, complete evil genius mastermind here.”

Bram raised an eyebrow at her, and she was glad he was distracting her from the cold and the pain.

They finally reached the quad and Aoife thought she’d never been so relieved to see a death trap.

“Here, hold on tight and I’ll get us back to the castle and then we can get your leg x-rayed.”

She would’ve argued but she didn’t want to waste precious time when she could be in the warm. With fingers she could hardly feel from cold, Aoife held on to Bram, her teeth chattering as he drove them through the now dark woods toward the castle.

Chapter 22

“I can walk you know.”

Bram ignored Aoife’s protest and swung her up into his arms. “I know, but this is quicker.”

He settled her into the back of the vehicle, at least now she had dry clothes on and had warmed up from the drenching they’d both got. He shouldn’t have taken her out there, but he’d been eager for her to see his favourite spot on the estate. The last three weeks being there with her had changed things for him. He’d never been in love before, but he was certainly headed down that road with Irish.

Warning her about the man he really was underneath the one she saw was as much for him as her. She made him forget the bad he’d done, the lives he’d taken and would take. He knew he wasn’t a psychopath, but it took a certain type of person to be in Shadow and he was happy with who he was. He just needed her to understand who that was before she got more involved.

He pulled up outside the hospital in Inverness, Snow and Titan in the car behind, making sure they didn’t pick up a tail and watching his back while they got Aoife’s injury looked at. He knew they were armed with the latest in weaponry and he could see just by the shift in their demeanour that they were alert for any threats.

Bein walked to the desk and smiled down at the young receptionist. “Hi, my girlfriend hurt her ankle and knee.”

The blonde smiled back a flirty look on her face as she completely ignored Aoife, which irritated him no end, and if the steam coming from Irish’s ears was any suggestion, then she was pissed too. It made him want to smile but as he didn’t have a death wish he remained perfectly proper.

“Oh, poor thing. Name?”

“Debbie Smith.”

He’d already had Watchdog build in a fake identity that would be perfect for this situation.

“Address?”

Bein rattled off the address they’d decided on, answering the rest of the questions quickly.

“And how did it happen?”