Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
The picnic blanket was scratchy beneath my palms, and I remembered where I was.
I’d fallen asleep by the water. Water that was now farther up the rocky beach and a moody blue beneath a darkening sky.
Shit.
I scrambled for my phone and gasped at the time.
It was four o’clock. I’d fallen asleep for three hours!
There was no way I’d make it back to the ferry in thirty minutes.
Shit, shit, shit.
Feeling my panic rise, I shook my head.
No.
There was no point in panicking.
With no phone signal, I was stuck on Kiln.
I sighed heavily at the thought of knocking on the door of one of the very few homes on the island and asking for shelter for the night. It freaked me out too. I mean, I was pretty sure they were all very nice, but this felt like the beginning of a bad horror movie.
The bothy.
I suddenly remembered.
There was the free bothy for hikers.
Hearing the water hit the rocks harder than before, I glanced up at the sky. It was growing broodier by the second. I needed to get to that building before those heavy purple clouds poured down.
I stuffed everything into my backpack, rolled and reattached my blanket, and hurried away from my picnic spot and onto the track that would lead me over the bridge to the main road on Kiln.
By the time I found the sign for the bothy, it was ninety minutes later and the rain that had hit my skin in spits of water was a sheet on the sea in the distance, headed straight for shore. I needed to reach the bothy before the downpour landed and I had to spend the night in wet clothes.
The sign for the free bothy explained the building had only cold water and no electricity, but I didn’t care. I needed shelter. And I at once realized the people who lived here hundreds of years ago must have felt the same. I followed the directions down toward the water, winding around a narrow footpath carved into the grass until I saw the white building looking out toward Glenvulin.
Just as I reached the door, the rain started hammering down. There were two solar lamps sitting outside, and I had the presence of mind to grab them before I darted into the building and slammed the door behind me. I took a deep breath of relief as the solar lights flared to life.
Then I wrinkled my nose.
The bothy smelled musty and damp. There was a two-seater couch facing a disused fireplace and two armchairs on either side of that. Along the back wall was a sink and some counter space.
A look through the door on my left revealed a bedroom with bunk beds against one wall and a double bed in the center of the room. The blankets and pillows appeared clean and fresh, so someone was obviously looking after the place.
A spider scurried across my foot and I hurried further into the room. I shuddered as the lamps barely lit my way, but I caught the trickle of water flowing down the brick wall opposite the sofa.
The roof was leaking.
Chilled air blew over my skin and I shivered.
I was in for a freezing, miserable night.
15. Ramsay
Iwas finishing up for the day when I heard Cammie’s familiar voice frantically shouting my name.
Hearing her distress, I jumped off the platform I’d been working on in one of the bedrooms as Cammie burst into the room. “What’s wrong?” I demanded.
Her brows drew together, concern glimmering in her blue eyes. “It’s Tierney. She wasn’t on the ferry back from Kiln. Donal said she never showed, and he’d warned her to get back in time. It’s lashing down out there now.”
An image of Silver on the island by herself in this weather caused me discomfort, but I merely answered, “She’ll find shelter.”
Anger flared in Cammie’s eyes. “There’s someone threatening her, Ramsay. I tried to tell her not to go alone, but she was convinced since no one else got on the ferry, she’d be fine. But who is to say someone else didn’t follow her out there? Maybe she missed the ferry because whoever is threatening her found her.”
“Fuck.” The word hissed between my lips as I considered Cammie’s concern. If there was even a remote possibility … “I’ll take the boat over.”
“The water is rough.”
“I’ll go now before it gets worse. I’ll let you know if I find her.”
“I’ll come.”
“No. Quinn would have my head if anything happened to you. Anyway, I need you to watch Akiva.”
Twenty minutes later, I left Akiva behind on shore with Cammie and headed out toward Kiln. The rain battered down, so I’d pulled on waterproof trousers and a hooded jacket to make the crossing. As the waves rocked my small boat, I cursed Tierney Silver and whatever this fucking hold was she had on me.