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Just when Kris thought she’d have to leave the poor, shivering, in-and-out-of-consciousness woman alone in the mud while she went for help, Alan Mac and all his cronies arrived like the proverbial cavalry.

After giving her the same seriously, you again? glance, Alan Mac took over. The woman babbled about Nessie, but no one seemed to think this was odd. They all went about their business of helping the victim, securing the scene, then spiriting her away.

Luckily the EMTs, or whatever they were called in this country, had brought blankets. Kris grabbed two and tried to make her escape. But Alan Mac appeared at her side and took her arm. “What happened?”

“How did you know to come here? And with all of…” She lifted her chin to indicate the cavalry. “Them?”

He didn’t answer.

She turned her gaze to his, and she knew. Somehow Liam had gotten word to him. Perhaps Liam could shift back and forth at will, although why then …

Kris frowned at the slowly rising sun. Why had he said, “Wait for it”? Why hadn’t he jumped into the loch and saved the woman immediately?

Because he couldn’t. So how had he brought Alan Mac here so fast? Perhaps Liam was a talking lake monster.

Kris choked. This was all so ridiculous. Though nonetheless true.

She considered accusing Alan Mac of being a guardian, but that probably wasn’t the best idea. He guarded Nessie, had protected her—him—for who knows how long. What if protecting the monster included making sure that anyone who’d seen him change never saw that, or anything else, again?

Kris considered the chief constable. Did she really think he’d toss her in the deep to keep Liam safe?

Yes.

“The woman said Nessie saved her,” Kris blurted.

“Aye,” Alan Mac agreed, gaze intent on Kris’s face. “And what do you say?”

Kris shrugged. “I found her on the shore. She wasn’t breathing. I did CPR; then you showed up.”

“Mmm,” Alan Mac said. “I ken there is a bit more to it than that.”

“Said someone hit her on the head, dragged her to the water. Next thing she remembers, she was drowning.”

Alan Mac cursed. “I have to get back. I’ll drop ye at the cottage.”

Kris considered saying she’d walk, but her legs were still trembly, along with the rest of her. A September dawn in the Highlands was not the time to be soaked to the skin. If her lips weren’t actually blue, they soon would be.

So she climbed into his car, which smelled like old tennis shoes and bad coffee. Kris would have opened the window if she’d had the energy.

“What else is my victim going to tell me?” Alan Mac asked.

Kris sighed. Cops liked to have witnesses repeat their stories, see if anything new shook out, but this was tiresome. She was a reporter. She knew what he was up to.

She rapped her knuckles against her head. Then made her hand dive downward. “Splash,” she said, and used both hands to indicate just that.

Alan Mac rolled his eyes. “And then?”

“According to your victim, saved by the monster.”

“Yet ye saw nothing.”

Kris met his eyes. “Nothing but her.”

*

After the sun set, Liam climbed from the water and found the clothes he kept hidden for those times he waited too long and changed before he was able to disrobe. When that happened, the clothes he’d been wearing just disappeared.

Magic was like that.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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