The Rescuer Read online

  “A something-is-about-to-happen itch?”

  He nodded.

  “Fair enough, so have I.” She went to the wardrobe, got out a pair of his trousers and a jumper, and put them next to him. “Get dressed, and I’ll get what I think I might need. Can I check if it’s still raining?”

  He laughed. “It will be.”

  ****

  “Why the hell did you choose somewhere up a hill?’ Lila panted as she and Euan made their slow way along a narrow gap in the gorse bushes that he laughingly called a track. At least it meant their footprints wouldn’t be easily found or followed. “I mean, why not down a pothole or underwater?”

  “We’re underwater, anyway.” Euan panted as he blew his wet hair out of his eyes and leaned heavily on the walking stick he’d remembered was in a cupboard. “Once we’re there, I promise you, if not all mod cons, at least a modicum of comfort. See that rock?” He pointed a hundred meters or so to their left. “It’s just round there. Five minutes, no more.”

  “If you dare tell me that normally you’d do the whole distance in that time, I might hit you,” Lila warned. “If I’d realized your just a few hundred yards was more than half a mile, I might not have agreed.”

  He grunted. “That’s why I lied. We need to get there.”

  Lila stopped dead and stared at him. “You what?”

  “Look Lila,” he said urgently. “It’s safe, it’s secure, and it’s a good lookout. With a bit of luck, it’s warm, dry, and you can get a phone signal, the net, and track a boat on the loch. And a plane and helicopter, but not a diver or a hang glider. But I reckon that puts us in a good position. If we get a move on.” He made sure he sounded serious, and she shivered.

  “Then move.”

  “Are you sure you haven’t switched to being a Domme? You’re bloody bossy.” It was an intriguing thought.

  She gave a short bark of laughter. “Definitely not. But nor am I a sub. I’m a Lila, no more no less. Where now?”

  Pity.

  “Round that bush and you’ll see a sort of an indent in the rock,” he said haltingly. He was knackered. “It looks nothing like what it actually is.” He stopped talking to navigate the tight turn and pointed. “If you fiddle under that bit that juts out, it will open.”

  Lila did as he asked and grinned. “Ooh, very James Bond-ish. Now what?”

  “We go in and shut it behind us. We can secure it so no one can get in, but we can get out. Not that I think we will need to, but I like to know we have every eventuality covered.”

  “That’s a relief. Okay, let’s go in.”

  All those silly rhymes of his childhood about in out and shake it all about hit him, but he refrained from saying them. “After you.”

  Lila grinned. “Not sure if that’s good or bad, but here goes.” She ducked her head went out of view and her bloody wow floated back to him.

  Euan allowed himself a mental high-five, followed her under the craggy doorway, and remembered how to shut and secure the opening behind him. They didn’t need any unwanted visitors.

  “Well?” he said and did his best to see the surroundings through her eyes. It might be a cave but it was more than bare rock and a couple of candles. It had its own generator, which powered any electronics within the cave. A tiny fridge, a small but basic two-ring stove run on bottled gas, a laptop on a compact desk, and a folding chair beside it. Plus, a settee that could turn into a bed with the bedding hidden under it. A cupboard hid the crockery and cooking utensils, another locked for things he thought might be needed—or not. Plus, in what Euan considered a masterstroke, a tiny room, just big enough for a chemical bathroom and a bowl to use as a washbasin had been hewn out of the rock. It even had a door to ensure privacy. The only problem was enough fresh water. Euan made sure the hidey-hole of a cave had enough water in cans and bottles to serve two careful people for the best part of a week, and had managed to set up a complicated system to harvest rainwater—of which, it being the west of Scotland, there was generally plenty of—and so it was copeable with. Darke kept it well-equipped and supplied so Euan never had to make excuses to go there if anyone else was around.

  Best of all was the way a window had been carved and set into the stone so a Wi-Fi signal could be picked up and anyone inside could see out, but it wasn’t visible from outside. It had taken him and Darke a lot of cussing, bruised knuckles, and trial and error to create it, but they’d managed a perfect safe room.

  Or as Darke’s wife, Astrid, once said, “A wee boudoir, and where was the kink box?”

  Euan grinned inward as he remembered that. He had no idea where Astrid and Darke’s was, but his was probably gathering dust and cobwebs inside the locked cupboard along with another locked box with a weapon in it.

  “Will it do?” he asked, trying not to sound anxious and or needy. He wasn’t sure he’d succeeded. “It’s as safe as it could be.”

  Lila surveyed the surroundings and turned to him. “I guess.” She laughed. “We can cope, eh?”

  “I bloody hope so.” Euan took a deep breath and marshaled his thoughts. “This is the only room apart from a loo, behind that door in the corner, but we can cook, eat, rest, and well, you name it in here.” He winked and Lila rolled her eyes. “All eventualities covered.” Except, he thought with a wry grin, condoms, but as he couldn’t see any flying pigs, he reckoned that wouldn’t be a problem.

  “You wish.”

  He nodded. “I really do. How I wish I could turn back time and explain why I did what I did.” He was silent for a moment. “God, I so wish it could have been different.”

  “A helluva lot of wishes in there,” Lila said. “Why didn’t you explain? Even say you didn’t love me anymore. Anything except that sodding can’t marry you. Do you know how I felt?” Lila exploded as Euan sank onto the settee, uncaring how it appeared. “Do you even fucking care?”

  He hurt both in mind and body, and for once, he wasn’t going to fight the need to rest.

  “Oh, I care and I don’t know, love, no, but I do know why it had to be done. I felt like I’d cut my heart out, but I had to say it. I couldn’t say, ‘Hey Lila, I’m in line to be killed and I don’t want you involved. Because of that, I’m telling you we’re over to save your life.’ I mean, what would you have said?”

  She was silent for so long, Euan thought she wasn’t going to reply. Then she sighed, sat next to him on the settee, and hugged him carefully.

  It was as if he’d come home.

  “I have no idea,” Lila said softly. “Probably get a grip, I’m not going anywhere without you.”

  Euan nodded. “Exactly what I was worried about and I couldn’t risk you. So, I left and spent the best part of twenty years regretting it. Even after I was told you’d met some bloke, changed your name, forgotten me, and got pregnant. I fucking hated that. I was told it was best I didn’t ever try to contact you and upset your new life.”

  He sighed. “So, I didn’t search for you, didn’t try to trace you, and never forgot you or what I’d given up for my country.” He looked around the cave. “And at times I wonder for what? It’s still a massive fuck-up in places, we still have people who will do anything to get what they want, and I still love you.”

  Chapter Five

  Lila rocked on her heels, hardly able to believe what she had just heard. Talk about half a story. “You,” she said sternly, or she hoped she did. “Sit and listen. Who told you I had a name change, bloke, and a child?”

  “Jenna, who got it from a bloke she went to school with and met up with again round here. Rod someone.” He stopped short and blinked. “I’m sure now she said he was a local doctor, but don’t quote me. By that point, I wasn’t in a fit state to pay much attention.”

  “Rod?” Was she really hearing that? What did Rod have to do with it all? He knew less than most people. They’d only shared the surgery for a year or so. Ever since he’d answered her application for another doctor. At first, it was part-time, and then gradually his hours had increas
ed. “Rod Asquith?”

  “I think that’s the name. To be honest, like I said, I was so knocked aback, I stopped listening. After I heard what Jenna had shared, I did wonder why she said it, because I’d never mentioned you or anything, but was too…” He paused. “Upset, angry, confused, ready to scream? All of that, I guess. Why did you tell him about us?”

  Lila started. “I didn’t. Why the hell would I?”

  “No idea, couldn’t think you would, but…” Euan put his hand to the lump on his head. “Fuck, I wish the local pipe band would stop their drummers practicing in my head. They’ll be tuning up the pipes and playing Flower of Scotland next, and I’ll be wanting to sing along with them.”

  “Don’t,” Lila begged. “You can’t hold a tune, and it’ll only make your head throb worse.”

  Euan went to nod and stopped himself. If he did that too often, he’d get another headache on top of the one he already had. “Bloody weird.”

  “Tell me about it. How do you know him? Rod?” Lila asked.

  “I don’t,” Euan replied. “Never met the bloke. I was told he’d been Jenna’s pal since they were kids. She ran into him and she said pretended she was on holiday up here. He told her he worked in the area and he knew you a few years ago just after some loser got you pregnant. That you’d a wee girl, who was the most important person in your life.”

  He stopped speaking and went white. “Shit, Lila, she could be in danger. Where is she? We’ll need to get someone to keep an eye on her. Because as sure as God gave us little green apples, someone will eventually put two and two together and come up with enough to see how to intimidate you.”

  She sighed. “She’s not my daughter, she’s my sister, and she’s not wee. She’s safe and not around this weekend. None of this makes sense. If Jenna knew I knew you, why bring me over here… Hold on, Rod was supposed to be back yesterday and got sick. Said he ate some dodgy seafood. Which now means my theory that, as no one knows I’m here except you and Jenna, if I get to surgery on Monday and no one else will is shot to hell. It would have been reasonably straight forward as I’d intended a weekend all on my ownsome with the phone switched off.”

  Spiders crawled up her spine and she shivered. “My sister. I wonder why Rod thought to tell Jenna that lie?” she said out loud. “Apart from the fact it’s only half-true, what’s it got to do with Jenna? I mean, it’s not even interesting gossip. I’ve not got a daughter, I have a much younger sister, end of.”

  Not quite, but she would like to decide how best to give Euan all the information. “Plus, if he and Jenna are so friendly, and she is or was around, why not say so? You know, hey Lila, I’ve met an old mate of mine who lives around here, or something. It all smells fishy.”

  And that telltale itch was getting more persistent with every minute that went by.

  “Yeah.” Euan sounded grim. “Maybe it’s just as well only Darke, Astrid, and I know about this place.”

  That surprised her. “How come?”

  Euan wrinkled his nose. “I dunno. It was Darke who created it and when he showed it to me, he said to keep it to myself. It was for me, him, and I guess if she was around, Astrid, to use as a command center or whatever necessary. It was way back when, to intents and purposes, I became caretaker here, well before Jenna arrived.”

  He smiled wryly. “She’s only been here a few months, and I would have said we got on well. I was a solitary bugger for a good few years while this island was made to appear redundant. Now it’s used for selective training purposes.” He paused and twisted his lips. “I can’t believe you were so close, but then if I left, I always went in the other direction or upward.”

  A little information was damned frustrating. Lila forced herself not to ask questions that Euan might have to refuse to answer. “Pity, we might have been able to clear a lot of stuff up. Water under the bridge now, I guess.”

  Euan nodded and groaned. “Shit and bugger, I told myself not to do that. I’m sorry to be a wuss, Doc, but is it time for a jab? One that doesn’t make me fuzzy-headed but one that dulls the bloody pain? I want to be alert and with it. I hate to admit it, but getting here took a lot out of me.”

  Lila shook her head and took his pulse. “Not yet. Try to sleep for a while.”

  “Can’t. Need to take care of you,” he said stubbornly. “But…”

  His eyes closed.

  She grinned to herself. Now she could plan just what she wanted to say to him about her sister. First, though, she’d see if she could get the generator going, get onto the net incognito, and find out what the fuck was going on.

  Plus, check up on her sister.

  ****

  Euan surfaced feeling a hundred times better than when he’d closed his eyes “just for a moment” to gather his thoughts.

  “Welcome to the world of the awake.” Lila’s voice was laced with humor. “Do you feel better for that sleep?”

  “Sleep? I only just closed my eyes,” Euan protested as he knuckled his eyes and shoved his hair back from his forehead. “Five minutes max.”

  “An hour and a half. It’s almost dark.”

  “What?” Euan struggled to sit up. It appeared he’d slipped down and Lila had swung his legs around so he was across the settee, and had put their coats over him. “Damn, is everything okay?”

  “I think so. I’ve got the generator working, made stew from your stash of tins, got coffee ready, sorted out the net, and checked what we can see every ten minutes. Made sure my phone doesn’t have find a friend on—it doesn’t, it’s new—and checked up on my sister, who is fine. Anything else?”

  Euan thought about it, surprised at how much better he felt. “Have you discovered the monitor for the house?”

  Lila shook her head. “Nope, where is it? Don’t get up, just tell me.”

  Euan pointed and rattled off a series of instructions. “I meant to and then I was out for the count. Mind you, I feel a helluva lot better for the nap. Almost human and no, do not ask me to define human.”

  Lila laughed. It was an old joke between them.

  “Once that’s turned on,” Euan continued. “You can see from the landing site to the house. Switch to the next channel and you get the inside of the hall, the ops room, and the community room. The audio covers the upper landing. That’s it, sadly.”

  Lila did as he said. “No defining and nothing untoward,” she said. ‘What now?”

  Euan half laughed and looked down at the hard line of his cock in his jeans. “I’d love to say make love but although my cock is willing, I’m not sure I could perform. Plus, no condoms.”

  “Aww, how sad.” Lila studied him. “Why do you want to make love to me? Just to scratch an itch?”

  He shook his head. “Nope.” He winked. “I’ve got a hand to do that. Because I’ve never stopped loving you and think, oh hell, if this is my only chance, I want to take it.”

  “Even if I tell you all about that stupid story of me having a kid? Who really is my sister?” she said in a strange voice.

  He swallowed. God, it hurt to think of another man with the only woman he had ever loved. “Even then. God, I wish she was ours.”

  Lila bit her lip. “She isn’t, but so do I.”

  The buzzing in his ears startled him as much as her words. “Say again,” he said hoarsely. He pressed his ears to dull the noise and stared at her. “Pardon?”

  Lila sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Silently, Euan found a tissue and handed it to her. “My mum had an affair, Tash was the result—along with a divorce. Mum worked two jobs, and I did most of Tash’s bringing up along with studying.” Lila shrugged. “She’s as much mine as Mum’s. Mum’s remarried and Sven loves both of us, but Tash is settled over here, at uni. Mum and Sven are in Portugal. I was told you didn’t want to know anything about me, or what I was up to. You weren’t interested and it was better for me to know and understand that.”

  “Fucking liars. Oh, I couldn’t contact you, but I wondered. Worried and wish
ed … well, you know.”

  She nodded. “I know now. Someone has been telling porkies and I’d love to know why. That so-called loser was you. The man I tried to contact and couldn’t find hair or hide of before I was warned off. I have a sister who has just started her second year after being a nanny and then traveling. You wouldn’t believe how many times I cried because you couldn’t watch her grow up with me. I knew you’d care.”

  Euan fell onto a cushioned bench. “We used condoms.”

  She patted his hand. “Not every time. I had to think of it as if it was you, me, cock in pussy, yee haa o my, as you used to say. I worried if it would be sperm, wriggle, wriggle, hit the egg yee haa again, oh my, thank goodness, no baby.” Why did she feel the need to cover her hurt in amusement? “I honestly can’t say if I was happy or not I didn’t conceive.”

  “So I could have had a child?” he said hoarsely. “And I would never have known.” He would have hit the wall with his fist if he had the strength to do so. Maybe it was well he hadn’t. Stone hurt. “Damn it to hell, someone has a lot of explaining to do.”

  Lila paled.

  “Not you, love, never you, but someone has fucked us up properly. Not even letting us know we were both alive. That is shite.”

  Lila nodded. “Sorry for being such a drama queen. Now I can see how it was. It’s easy to get lost when someone knows how. All down to my bloody father. I didn’t realize he hated me so much. He said I needed to say Tash was mine. He got us new names and said it was for the best, said it was due to him. Natasha Jessica Hogg, known to her friends as Tash. Natasha after the midwife who skied to me and Mum in the snow. Asshole was in Austria with his mistress. The midwife—Natasha—helped Tash into the world and we named her after her, and Jessica is after my godmother who helped us all along. Now in her second year at St. Andrews—Tash, not the midwife. Our next medic, all being well.”

  “And was your dad a…” He paused, not knowing how to go on. “A person who could change who you were, of course?”

  Lila scowled. “So it seems. A hell of a lot I don’t know, but I do know I couldn’t find you to tell you. However much I love Tash, she is my sister, not my daughter, and I wanted you to know that. Seems crazy now, but that was how it was.” She sniffed. “Anyway, after a couple of years, I finished my degree and here we are.”