Page 51 of Laird Of Her Heart

He turned to Liam and his nose curled. “As for you…”

“What are you going to do to him?”

Dominic stilled and glanced down at Maggie. The tone of her voice, her panic, the despair, made his blood go cold. He hated the fear in her eyes…because it was on Liam’s behalf.

“Why do you care?”

She tugged his sleeve. “Please don’t kill him.”

Hell. This was more than a soft-hearted woman’s worry over someone being hurt. This was more. He didn’t like it in the least. “Why not?”

She went up on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear, “Because Dominic. He’s my ancestor. If he dies…I will never be born.”

He froze.

Oh. God.

Oh God, oh god oh god.

He couldn’t bear such a thought.

“Doona worry. I willna kill him. But the punishment must fit the crime.”

“I understand.”

He turned to Liam, surrounded by a circle of his once-friends, a criminal, an outcast. “Liam MacBain Macintosh. For your crimes of betrayal, I sentence you to—”

“Nae!” Liam issued an inhuman snarl. He lurched forward, breaking the hold the men had on him and, grabbing a fallen dirk, he ran toward Dominic. There was a crazed light in his eye. One that made clear his intention to commit murder.

His intention to murder Dominic.

* * *

It all moved in slow motion. Liam racing toward Dominic. Dominic raising his blade. The two men colliding chest to chest, falling to the ground, rolling. The shouts of the others, a flurry of action, of panic.

Dominic’s men converged on the tussle and peeled the two men apart. They were both covered in blood and breathless.

To her horror, Liam collapsed to the ground, with his eyes wide, staring, unseeing at the sky.

And Dominic?

Dominic had a blade buried in his chest. He lay there, still and silent. Limp.

Maggie stared at the horrific scene, unable to speak or move or breathe.

Her mind spun. Her pulse slowed. She felt her field of vision shrinking, shrinking, closing in. Her muscles began to crumple. Her soul shriveled. She could feel herself lightening, as though she might waft away into nothingness.

No. No. No!

She fought to retain consciousness, presence in this world. She would not allow this to happen. She could not.

But she couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t stop the wheeling of the earth or the racing of her broken heart.

Darkness descended and took her.

She did not know whether to be grateful or to grieve.

CHAPTER ELEVEN