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Kris headed first for Urquhart Castle, according to all the reading she’d done a favorite haunt of the beastie. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately for the tourist trade, the place was a zoo. She saw no evidence of Liam anywhere.
“This is insane,” she muttered. In more ways than one.
That she was even entertaining the idea that the man she’d had sex with, a man she had started to care for, to trust, was secretly a shape-shifting lake monster, or at least the guardian of one, had her mind scrambling so fast for any other explanation, she felt kind of dizzy.
The more logical explanation was that he was a protector, as he’d said. Sure, he’d told her he protected the loch, but wasn’t that just splitting hairs?
She couldn’t believe that she—Kristin Daniels—purveyor of truth, hater of lies, was making excuses for a liar. She should be crossing him off her to-do list and never seeing him again.
“Lied right to my face,” she muttered. Except it hadn’t smelled like a lie, and Kris had become very good at sniffing them out.
“His being so hot probably threw off your radar.” Although that had never happened before. She worked in television. She saw hot all over the damn place. What she’d discovered the first week she was on the air was that hot equaled “big fat liar” more than just about anything else.
Beautiful people seemed to believe they were above the rules of decent behavior. Probably because they’d been cut all kinds of slack since “Oh, so cute!” babyhood.
Kris knew she was considered attractive. However, she’d had the truth driven home to her as a teen. She wasn’t pretty enough, sweet enough, smart enough—she wasn’t anything enough—to keep her brother or her father from leaving her. So she’d thrown herself into her job, into a quest for success that would echo across the country, if not the world, and would force those who’d turned their backs on her to notice.
Had they? She didn’t think so.
Since searching for Liam at the loch was as pointless as grubbing through the proverbial haystack for that needle, Kris decided to see if anyone in the village knew where he might be. While she was at it, she’d discover if her brother had checked into any of the local hotels.
As Kris strolled into Drumnadrochit, she was, as always, assailed by the heavenly scent wafting from Jamaica Blue. Not only was she unable to resist coffee, considering she hadn’t had any, but she should probably quiz Jamaica about her tattoo. If she could do so without giving away what she was really asking.
Are you a guardian or a human-sacrificing witch? Maybe both.
Wait a second.… Kris paused with her hand poised to open the door of the coffee shop. Shouldn’t Liam have a tattoo?
She hadn’t seen one. However, she hadn’t looked everywhere. She’d kissed, she’d touched, but she hadn’t searched for anything specific.
Other than the specific thing she’d needed at the time. No sign of a tattoo there.
Kris opened the door to Jamaica Blue.
Well, no help for it. She was going to have to explore every inch of Liam’s body.
Poor her.
A young man—perhaps sixteen or so, with reddish brown hair and very bad teeth—stood behind the counter today. Kris ordered a cup of Blue Mountain and craned her neck to see around him. “Where’s Jamaica?”
“On a buying trip.” The kid handed Kris the cup.
“For coffee?”
He nodded. “She likes to do that herself.”
“When will she be back?”
“Few days.” The boy squinted at Kris’s bruised face. “You walk into a door or something?”
“Something,” Kris agreed, then paid and left the shop, haunted by a strange sense of déjà vu. It wasn’t until she saw the sign for The Myth Motel that she remembered.
Dougal had gone on a sudden buying trip, too.
Kris glanced toward the loch; then she turned and contemplated the motel. Did Dougal have a tattoo as well? Might these “buying trips” coincide with a guardian’s duty at—or perhaps in—the loch? How was she going to find out?
Well, she hadn’t gotten as far as she had in journalism—which wasn’t exactly far, but she was still pretty good at it—without knowing how to ask questions.
Kris stepped inside The Myth Motel. Dougal stood behind the counter. His gaze flicked to the mark on her cheek, then quickly away. But he didn’t apologize. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved not to have to address the incident again or annoyed that he’d decided to ignore it. She decided on the latter.
