Page 65 of Guarding Salvation

“Yes.”

“He’s going to make me rich. He’s paying me double for delivering you and Bram to him. I get rich and Bram will pay for his crimes.”

“So, it’s okay for someone to be hurt just as long as it’s not someone you care about?”

Boyd sat on the edge of a rock, his hands moving through his hair, and she could see the struggle inside him. This man wasn’t born evil, he’d become that way through grief and pain.

“My father allowed all his men to rape me. He’ll kill me and Bram and you think that’s okay?”

Boyd pulled at his hair, the strands coming out in chunks as his grip on things become less tangible. “He’s a murderer.”

Aoife titled her head “Your brother was a rapist.”

Boyd’s head shot up and he glared at her with hatred bordering on mania. “No, you do not say that. Ray wasn’t what they say he was. He loved Lana and she led him on. She toyed with him.” Spittle flew from his mouth as he began to pace again, and Aoife knew she should shut up and keep her head down.

“How much is my father paying you?”

“What?”

“How much is he paying you to hand me and Bram over to him?”

Boyd grinned, the money obviously making him happy, and she knew it had to be a lot.

“Five hundred grand for each of you and the promise that Bram will feel every ounce of the pain he inflicted on my brother.”

Aoife shook her head. She knew her father would never pay that kind of money. Boyd was as good as dead. “You’re a fool if you think he’s going to pay you that. My father would never waste that much of his precious money on me.”

Boyd grabbed her hair, dragging her close to his sneering face. Tears hit her eyes at the sting of pain in her scalp. “That’s where you’re wrong. Everyone thinks I’m stupid, that because I don’t speak a lot, I’m dumb but I listen, and I learn. It’s how I learned dear Bram and his little friends had killed his guards and pissed off your father even more. I knew then that was how I’d kill him. I’d leave it to the experts.” His lip curled up in distaste. “I don’t like killing, I’m not a murderer.”

Aoife would almost feel sorry for this man if he didn’t have her trussed up like a Christmas turkey, freezing her ass off in the middle of the Highlands in winter. “You will be if you hand me over to my father. He’ll kill me and Bram. I know you think you’re avenging your brother, but this isn’t the way.”

She knew appealing to his better nature was a long shot, he’d had years believing the things he did and letting his pain fester.

“Your father is paying five hundred grand upfront. I told him I’ll contact him first thing tomorrow to give him the coordinates where he can find you.”

“Is the money in your account yet?”

She’d never known her sperm donor to pay anyone upfront in her life, which meant he was serious about killing Bram and giving her to the Russian.

“I need to move up the hill to where I have signal and check.”

Aoife remained silent. She knew Boyd was dead either way—be that from Bram or Doyle. He was too far gone to see the monster he’d become. Some would think her a hypocrite for believing Boyd was a monster and Bram a hero, but there was a big difference in her mind. Bram killed to defend the innocent and Boyd was using an innocent to satisfy his thirst for revenge.

Before he went, Boyd tightened the ropes on her wrists and ankles and pulled the blanket tighter around her body. The cold was bone-deep now though, her teeth chattering hard, her fingers and toes numb, and she wondered if she slept if she’d wake up. Listening to Boyd walk away she wanted to call him back, but the gag had been replaced so she couldn’t even call out.

Most of her life she’d been a positive person, a fighter, and since meeting Bram and getting to know Lana, Snow, Titan, and Rory she’d felt more like herself as they let her be who she was and not what they expected of her, and that person was a fighter. She was a woman who loved adventure and the outdoors, who wasn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty finger painting with the kids.

She wasn’t the weak little caricature of a perfect daughter her father had tried to make her. She didn’t give a fuck if her nails weren’t done, or her hair wasn’t in sleek waves, or her face was made up with ten tonnes of make-up. She didn’t care if others loved that, but it was a choice and hers had been made for her enough over the last decade. She was finally finding out who she was and if she died out here in the freezing cold, she’d never get to see the beauty of the life she could have with Bram.

Fighting the sleepy feeling, Aoife looked around for some way to break the ropes on her hands but all she saw was rock. Knowing she had no other choice, she shrugged the blanket off her shoulders and leaned into the rock, trying to find a sharp corner to rub the rope against.

Pain made her whimper as the hard unforgiving stone cut not only the rope but her skin. Blood, warm and wet, oozed over her hands making her fingers slip as she tried to grip the rope to give her more leverage. She was almost through when she heard footsteps outside the cave. Desperation made her saw her arms faster against the hard surface as pain made her almost blind with agony.

“No, no. What are you doing?”

Aoife cried out as Boyd grabbed her upper arm pulling her away from the rock and shoving her to her side. For a second, hopelessness weighed so heavy she could only lie there and cry. He yanked the gag from her mouth and looked at her with triumph. She knew then the money was in the account as he’d asked and that her father would be coming for her soon.

“You stupid woman, look what you’ve done to yourself.”