Och, she could strangle him. “Must everything with you be a fight?”
A haunted look filled his eyes and he dropped his hand away from her cheek, leaving it cold without his warmth. “It’s all I know, Callie. Now stand aside.”
She saw the men coming outside. Her heart pounded even more furiously. She didn’t want him to do this.
“Aster!” she shouted to her uncle. “Stop them.”
“Nay, he issued the challenge and I will see it met.”
Before she could protest further, six men charged Sin. Callie crossed herself and cringed as they plowed into her husband and knocked him off his feet.
He rolled and came up standing and when the next man charged, Sin grabbed his arm and flipped him up and over, to land on his back.
Gaping, she watched as he single-handedly brought all twelve men to the ground. Over and over. Every time one came at him, the man ended up at Sin’s feet. Her husband never drew a weapon and none of her clansmen ever got a single blow on him.
She’d never seen anything like it in her life.
Still, her clansmen fought and with every move they made, Sin made a countermove that had them flat in the dirt.
“He is a devil!” Aster snarled. “No man can fight like that.”
After several minutes, all twelve men lay on the ground, panting.
“Do you yield?” Sin asked as he surveyed her fallen clansmen. He wasn’t even breathing heavily. The only sign of their struggle was the dust on his clothes. “Or shall we continue this?”
Her clansmen pushed themselves up slowly. They looked at each other in shame. She could tell none wanted to admit defeat, but likewise no one wanted to go at Sin another time either.
The only one of the men to approach him again was Tavish MacTierney. Not too much shorter than Sin, he was twice as thick, with beefy, muscled arms. The man had never been defeated in a fight before. He walked up to Sin slowly, calmly, then held his hand out to him.
“Tavish be my name, lad. It was a fair fight and I’ll be holding no grudges. One day, I’d really like you to show me how you did that.”
Sin stared at the proffered hand. It was a gesture he hadn’t expected.
“I’ll be glad to.” He shook arms with the tall man who reminded him quite a bit of his brother Ewan.
Tavish nodded, dusted his clothes off, then headed away from them, toward the castle gates.
The other men curled their lips while their eyes spoke loudly of the hatred they bore him.
Sin walked straight toward Aster who glared his open hostility at him while the rest of the men dispersed. Their Gaelic insults were mumbled, but Sin heard and understood them all.
Aster didn’t even try to mask his feelings. So be it. He didn’t need the old man’s help to find The Raider.
Sin feigned a warm, taunting smile at Aster. “Looks like I’ll be staying, then.”
The old man looked as if Sin had just offered him a piece of excrement and told him to eat it.
Callie breathed a sigh of relief even though she knew things were far from fine. In time they would see the man her husband was and hopefully then they would learn tolerance.
She took a step forward, wanting to take Sin’s hand.
Faster than she could move, Sin grabbed her roughly, shoved her in front of him and held her at arm’s length. His grip was so tight on her upper arms, that she protested audibly. Still, he refused to let go.
Aster’s glare turned murderous.
Sin took a step forward, his gaze turning dull as his grip tightened even more. The familiar tic returned to his jaw.
Then as quickly as he had grabbed her, he let go.
