A Time & Place for Every Laird (26 page)

Claire looked at Hugh.  “No, it’s back at the terminal.  Bainbridge side.  Why?”

Danny was silent for a moment, and Claire had to wonder what was going on in his head.  “That was pretty stupid.”

“You don’t know the half of it.
”

“Listen, I want you to come over here,” her brother said.  “But don’t get in a cab.  Just wait there and I’ll come and get you.”

Glancing around at the thickening traffic, Claire knew they couldn’t stay put even in the crowds that would soon be filling the sidewalks.  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Strangely, Danny didn’t even question her
, and that worried Claire more than anything else.  “You’re right.  Start walking south and I’ll get you along the way.”

“Danny, what’s going on?”

“Walk. I’ll explain when I get there,” was all he said.

“Danny, you don’t have a car.”

“Minions.”

Danny hung up on her
, and Claire turned to Hugh with a frown.  “Danny’s coming to pick us up.  Let’s go.”

“What’s going on?” he asked, falling into step beside her.

Claire chewed her lip.  “I don’t know.  Maybe nothing.”

“But ye dinnae think so,” he said perceptively.  “I told ye I should leave ye.”

“You leave me now, you leave me to the wolves,” Claire predicted grimly.

“Okay, spill it,” Sorcha commanded her brother the moment they were seated in the backseat of one of the vehicles she had previously identified to Hugh as a van.  Their walk of almost a mile in the shadows of the towering buildings had passed in silence between them but had been filled with the raucous noise of hundreds of cars driving by them.  Sorcha had clung to his hand, clearly apprehensive once more, but Hugh did not even consider reiterating the need for them to part.

Sorcha was the only thing he had a care for in this time, the only thing that made his life worth living each day. 
He had no other family, no home.  In comparison, nothing else mattered, not even his own future.  On and on she had gone these past days, preparing him for a life without her, when Hugh was certain that he would have forsaken any life at all to protect her.  He would have killed that agent to assure it, and he would take on a hundred more, if need be.  All that truly mattered was her safety, and if it was better guaranteed now with him at her side then that was where he intended to be. 

Safe fo
r the moment in the speeding van that rattled and groaned in a manner quite unlike Sorcha’s virtually inaudible vehicle, Hugh waited expectantly with Sorcha for Danny’s explanation.  But Hugh should have known even from brief acquaintance with the young man that a simple answer would not be forthcoming. 

“Maybe you are the one who shou
ld spill it, Claire,” Danny retorted, his voice more direct than Hugh had thus far heard.  The lazy drawl of days past had been replaced by crisp tones.

Sorcha
shot Hugh a wary look and answered, “I don’t know what you mean.”

That
earned her a snort of disbelief from her brother, which Hugh thought was understandable.  He wouldn’t have believed her either.  His Sorcha was a horrible liar.  Hugh met Danny’s gaze in the little mirror once more and saw the young man roll his eyes dramatically.

“She does know how to push a person’s buttons, doesn’t she?” Danny directed this at Hugh
, who was able to comprehend the colloquialism well enough to quip in return,  “Aye, a fellow might think such an ability tae be her …” Hugh paused, searching his mind for the correct modern expression.  “Special gift?  Do I hae the right of it?”

“Dead on.”  Both men looked at Sorcha, who just crossed her arms irritably.

Ahh, she was adorable in a pique.  Hugh returned his attention to her brother.  “What vexes ye, Danny?”

“You do, my friend.  You do,” Danny said, looking over his shoulder to cast a
n accusing glare at Hugh before looking at his sister.  “Be glad you didn’t drive into the city, Claire.  There’s a BOLO out on your car.”

“A
BOLO?” Hugh and Sorcha said at the same time, but for different reasons.  Understanding his question, she looked at him worriedly, and explained.  “It means that the police, the authorities, are looking for my car.  How did you find that out, Danny?”

“Oh, I was doing a little light reading into that Fielding’s project and found out any number of interes
ting facts, including exactly why the NSA is involved.”  Danny wove through the traffic, turning on to side street after side street to avoid the rush hour traffic with all the skill of a lifelong resident.  “Got the name of one NSA Special Agent Phil Jameson and poked around in his files a little as well.  Lo and behold, it is
you
the NSA is looking for, Claire.  Not Hugh, as you said before.  Why is that, do you suppose?”

“They’re
idiots?”

“Beside the point,” Danny said
but didn’t push the issue.  “Anyway, I saw a report that says they spotted you on a traffic cam not far from here last week.”

Chewing on her lip
, as she tended to when worried, Sorcha looked at Hugh steadily for several long moments.  He could see her thinking, plotting, planning, but he was doing some thinking of his own.  “Is it only yer sister they search for, Danny?”

Danny met his eyes in the rearview mirror.  “Who else would they be looking for? 
Hugh Urquhart, perhaps?  Your name is nowhere in the files.  But it wouldn’t be, would it?”

“Nae, it wouldnae.”

“Because they aren’t looking for you at all, or they don’t really know who they are looking for?” her brother asked perceptively.

“Danny!” Sorcha protested, but Hugh took her hand and squeezed it comfortingly.

“Dinnae fash yerself, lass,” he said calmly.  “Yer brother isnae looking for an answer from ye.  I would wager that he already knows all, perhaps more than we do.”

Hugh met Danny’s gaze once more and the young man nodded.  “You are pretty smart for a ‘
bloody, unintelligible savage of unknown origins given to rage and violence at the smallest provocation.’  I’m thinking they didn’t mean bloody the way the Brits do.  Had them fooled, didn’t you?”

“Nae really,” Hugh shrugged, for he was all that and more while imprisoned.  He had tried to kill them, he had raged against his imprisonment
, and he had threatened to dismember them limb by limb even if they hadn’t understood his words. “When did ye figure it out?”

“Suspected something was amiss when you looked at my setup as if you’
d never seen a computer before … or was it the pizza?” Danny said.  “Knew for sure when I read the files.”

Hugh nodded.  He had known from the moment he
had met Sorcha’s brother that he was a sly one.  Danny O’Bierne truly was a bit of a mastermind and would have made a troublesome adversary, but he would be an even greater asset if he were to assist them.  “I appreciate yer silence on the matter.”

“Oh, don’t get too excited,”
Danny cautioned. “I haven’t decided if I trust you enough yet to keep that silence.”

The warning didn’t concern
Hugh.  There was no doubt in his mind that Danny would do anything to protect his sister, even if it meant extending his trust to Hugh by necessity.

“So what
now?” Sorcha asked worriedly and slanted a glance at Hugh, whispering, “I knew I shouldn’t have left him those reports.”

“You sound like you’d be surprised if I offered my help,” Danny said over his shoulder as he turned into the parking lot next to his warehouse.  “Even knowing my feelings on government oversight. 
Shame on you.  Besides, you’re my favorite sister.  Why wouldn’t I help?”

Sorcha sighed and shook her head as if she would never understand this brother of hers. 
She accepted Hugh’s assistance out of the van and went to her brother, giving him a soft peck on the cheek. “Only sister,” she whispered.  “Thank you, Danny.”

“D
on’t thank me yet,” he said and waved for them to follow him inside.

“Okay, here we go.” 
Danny rocked back in his chair and gestured to the bank of monitors.  “May I present Mr. Rupert Waldroup.  Environmental consultant.  Resident of Inverness.  Age thirty-four … sorry if I overshot, man.  I had to take a ballpark guess.  Nothing personal.”

“No offense taken
.  It was a good guess.”

Sorcha looked at him in surprise.  “I c
an’t believe I never asked.  How old are you?”  Hugh tilted his head toward the monitor and raised a brow.  “How old are ye?”

“Twenty-nine.”

“So she says,” Danny interjected. “Seems to me you’ve been stuck there for a while.”

“Don’t pay attention to him.  I’m not one of those women who hit twenty-nine and stopped count
ing.”

Sorcha was studying the information on the screen
, and Hugh studied her in turn, trying to see something he might have missed.  It was surprising to discover that Sorcha was nearly thirty.  She certainly did not appear so old to him. Her skin was fresh and unlined, her magnificent body firm and youthful.  Naturally most women of his time did not “exercise,” as Sorcha did, but all had used any means to retain their appearance of youth with not half her success.  At Frederick’s court, many would have pursued the young widowed beauty, begged her to become their lover.

A quick calculation told him that Sorcha
had been widowed at twenty-six, and he wondered how long she had been married.  Had she married young?  Given the many young, unescorted women he had seen on his two excursions into Seattle, Hugh didn’t believe that was the case, but he was reluctant to raise any topic that referred to her lost husband again.

Her blatant
elation when Hugh had arrived at her brother’s office building had been all for him, her kiss his only.  In that moment, Sorcha had belonged to him, and Hugh had savored the moment.  He wanted more, so much more.  Even when he was sure he would have to let her go, he only wanted her more.

Hugh unconsciously reached out and placed a possessive hand at the small of her back.  She looked up at the gentle pressure and smiled, leaning into him before turning back to her brother.

“So this is the temporary guy you made up for us?”

Danny snorted at that. 
“Even with my excellent imagination, I couldn’t come up with a name like that.  No, Rupert Waldroup, poor guy, already exists in the records.  Arrived in Vancouver from Glasgow last Thursday.  His blog says he’s there on business for the next two weeks or so, traveling all through British Columbia and Alberta.”

“But that’s Hugh’s picture,
” Sorcha said, pointing to Hugh’s image on the screen.

With a nod, Danny rocked back in his chair. 
“For the next couple days, yes it is.”

“I don’t
get it,” she said with a frown, but oddly enough Hugh did, and he offered a nod to her brother.  Aye, he was a cunning lad.

“Yer brother has offered me an alias
.  A legitimate means of traveling incognito.”

Danny nodded.  “That’s right.  Hugh gets to go to Scotland as a real person with a personal history, Facebook page
, and blog that would have taken me weeks to create.  The bonus is that this guy has already come into Canada.  I didn’t even think about it before, you know?  Getting him out without record of him ever having come in?  That might have raised a few flags.”

Sorcha
pursed her lips as she glanced up at Hugh, and he had to wonder what she was thinking.  “So, what now?  If we have the guy, can’t we just forge a passport?”

“Perhaps Danny isnae any more familiar
wi’ the seedy underbelly of yer country than ye are,” Hugh offered with a smile.

“Oh, I’m sure he is.”

“I am,” Danny said agreeably.  “I am getting to that.  It is all part of the grand plan.  Hugh will go home as Rupert Waldroup, nice and legal-ish, but when he gets there, he’s going to become someone else entirely.”

“Myself,” Hugh said.

“Right,” Danny said, nodding with approval.  “Really not a savage, are you?  Too bad.  That might have been more interesting.”

“Ye would hae done nae more than fear for yer sister if that were the case
.”

“
Who says I’m not?” Danny shrugged and turned back to the screen.  “So, you’ll go to the British Consulate—thought you would have to do San Francisco before.  Linear thinking and all that.  Forgot that there is one in Vancouver. You’ll get some emergency travel documents as our guy and off you’ll go.  Poor old Rupert might have a hell of a time later explaining how he needs to leave Canada twice when he only arrived once, but, hey, that’s the challenge of life, right?”

“And then?” Hugh asked.

“Soon as you are safely in Scotland, I can erase all trace of your photo from the system and voilà,” Danny waved his hands in the air.  “The journey is as if it never happened.  You’re a ghost, a vague image on bad airport security footage.  Best part is, you never even have to pass through American customs, where the NSA is probably watching.”

Hugh was impressed by the lad’s skills
, which clearly were abnormal even in this time of technological wonder.  “Yer brilliant, Danny. Really, ye hae my thanks.”

“No problemo,” Danny said with a modest nod.

“No,” Sorcha countered.  “Big problemos.  Mondo huge problemos.  I could fill a supertanker with them.”

Hugh looked curiously between Sorcha and her brother
, to whom he said, “We speak the same language but sometimes I dinnae comprehend a word she says.”