AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t like it,” said Colby, “but you might be right. Hamish, I’m sorry, but I want her rattled. I don’t think your Trudy is cut out for the spy game. I don’t think it’ll take much to break her. And the easiest way I can think of doing so is if she’s frightened and then sees you. I think she probably has wanted to tell you for the longest time. I’ve seen the way she looks at you. The woman is in love with you.”
“Then why not ask me for help?”
“Because you thick-headed Scot, you’d have run off to challenge the Master to some kind of chivalrous duel.”
“Does Hamish know the Master is a dragon?” asked Nora. “My guess is Trudy doesn’t. Most don’t.”
“He’s a dragon?” asked Hamish.
“Yes, and we think he may be trying to recruit others, including the Phantom Fire,” said Colby. “I don’t think he can get them. For him, the best he can hope for is that they remain neutral.”
“Damn that bastard to hell,” snarled Hamish.
“I’m pretty sure he was one of the architects,” quipped Nora. All three men stared at her. “Sorry. Gallows humor. But if Hutch and I are going to snatch her, we need to go now. If she even suspects Hutch is alive…” She let the sentence trail off. She didn’t need to spell it out for any of them.
“You’ll not hurt her,” said Hamish.
“Not unless we absolutely have to and then only as much as we need to subdue her. She’ll be fine, Hamish. I give you my word,” said Hutch.
Maya was able to round up better clothing and footwear for Nora. They bundled it up in a packet Hutch would carry. Colby would send a driver into town to pick up something. He would then rendezvous with Hutch and Nora and bring Trudy back to Windsong. The plan was to try and bring her back to Windsong unobserved, but if someone saw her, she would appear to have been forced.
Nora and Hutch shifted in their room. Hutch picked up the packet with their clothes, and they used the cover of the encroaching darkness to make their way from Windsong to the far side of town where The Refuge was located. They kept their distance from the B&B until they were sure Trudy was in for the night. Then they shifted and quietly made their way inside.
“I knew it,” Trudy hissed. “I knew you weren’t dead.” She focused her attention on Nora. “He’ll kill you. He’ll kill him. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Nora nodded coldly. “Far better than you,” she said. Without further warning, she punched Trudy in the chin, causing the Tasmanian devil-shifter to go out like a light. Nora caught her and eased her to the floor.
“I thought we weren’t going to hurt her,” scolded Hutch.
“What’s a little love tap among friends? Besides, she’s been spying on all of you for years. And as much as she might have been doing so under duress, I have no doubt she would have told the Master if she hasn’t already.”
“Is it a bad thing that I find you incredibly sexy at the moment?”
Nora stared at him and then began to laugh. “You’re a sick bastard.”
He laughed. “But I’m your sick bastard, and you love me.”
She smiled. She wondered if he really knew just how much. “I do, indeed. Now let’s get her back to Windsong.”
Hutch picked Trudy up off the floor and cradled her to his chest, he and Nora skulked out the back way and located Colby’s driver and car, who had them on the way back to Windsong in short order.
None of them knew about the figure in the hoodie that watched them speed away before initiating a cell phone call.
CHAPTER17
HUTCH
They made their way back to Windsong, where Hamish met them at the foot of the back stairs that led up to the house and into the kitchen.
“Why isn’t she moving?” asked Hamish, clearly concerned.
Before Hutch could stop her from responding to Hamish’s question, Nora said, “I bopped her on the chin. Oh, don’t scowl. I’m a professional. I know what I’m doing.”
For some reason that struck Hamish as funny and he chuckled, lifting Trudy out of the SUV and saying to Hutch. “Like I said, you, Sean and Colby can keep the warrior princesses. That one’s going to give you hell for the rest of your life.”
“Good thing I like it warm,” quipped Hutch, following Nora’s sweet ass as it bounced its way up the stairs in front of him.
Hamish set Trudy in one of the chairs in Colby’s office and then bound her with a length of silken cord. “Devils don’t like to be bound. It really sets them off.” He looked at Colby. “I still don’t like this.”
