Fire on the Island (22 page)

When they
arrived back at the cabin, they climbed out of the car and Isla opened the back
door for Marduk, who bolted into the woods. She figured that was probably for
the best, since she was hearing the sounds of cars approaching, gravel
crunching under the tires.

Forgetting the
wolf, Isla smiled and waved at Callum and Jack who climbed out of their ragtop
jeep. Needing to be among friends and touched that Jeremiah had sensed that,
Isla teared up a bit as she hugged her boys.

Callum squeezed
her tightly and rubbed a reassuring hand on her back. “There now, me love.
Don’t cry.”

Sniffling
bravely, Isla turned to hug Jack as well. “How did the search go?” she asked,
feeling a shadow pass across her face before she steeled herself.

Jack gave an
angry jerk of his head. “Not a damn thing turned up. It’s like those people
just disappeared into thin air.” He narrowed his eyes with the look that passed
between her and Jeremiah. “You think this was the work of those demons, don’t
you?”

“Unfortunately,
yes,” Isla answered. “All of the other disappearances and deaths this summer
seem to have been. We’ve got no reason to assume otherwise.”

“It’s probably
a ploy, trying to draw us out and separate us. They want to get Isla alone so
they can take her. Damned if I’m going to let that happen,” Jeremiah said.

“Makes it
doubly stupid that they don’t have our best tracker on the island out there
looking for those people. Not only would you be able to pick up their trail,
but you’d possibly be able to save them once we found ‘em,” Jack said with an
apologetic look at Isla.

Isla clenched
her fists and shook her head. “Those people shouldn’t have to suffer because of
the stupidity of the local police. I say we launch our own search tomorrow at
first light. It’s Sunday and the season is ending, so we’re clear of tours for
the day. I was going to use the day for housekeeping at the office, but I think
the Expeditions crew should form our own search party.”

“We could get
in a whole heap of trouble for that, Isla,” Callum said, “interfering with
police business and all that.”

“It won’t
matter to anyone
what
we did if we find them. Plus, that terrain out
there,” she said with a broad gesture at the forest, “is our
office
.
It’s where we work. No one knows it better than us, and if we don’t want to be
seen, we won’t be.”

Jeremiah looked
from Isla to the two other men and nodded. “I’m in. Y’all just need to prep me
on what we’re going to be dealing with, trying to go stealth,” he said with a
grin.

Jack and Callum
shared a look between them, obviously communicating without words in the way of
longtime lovers. “We’re in too,” Jack said. “We’ll talk the others into it when
they get there. But we have to agree that there’ll be no hard feelings if
someone doesn’t want to risk it, aye?”

Isla nodded
this time and leaned into Jeremiah when he placed a comforting arm around her
shoulders. She was feeling much steadier now that some of the control was back
in their hands. Smiling, she waved at the newcomers driving up to them.

Amy and Brynna
climbed out of the Expeditions van as Kieran pulled up behind them and unfolded
his coltish legs from his compact. Kieran received handshakes from each of the
men, and then flushed to the tips of his ears when he received a hug from Isla.
The girls doled out hugs across the board, and Jeremiah yelped when Amy reached
around to squeeze his bum, sending Isla into a fit of giggles.

Jeremiah slid
closer to Isla and stepped a little behind her, causing everyone to laugh.
Kieran hauled a large cooler out of the back of the van and dropped it proudly
at their feet. “We brought steaks and beer!” He jumped when Jeremiah clapped
him on the back and shouted, “My kinda man!”

Isla stepped
back to watch them all tromp into the house, laughing and joking with each
other—the younger ones leaving the two older men to drag in the cooler—and it
caused her heart to swell with pride.
There they are
, she thought.
My
family
. She had gone so long without a family that she hadn’t realized that
they had created one of their own, here on their little island.

A cold breeze
wafted in through the trees from the west, ruffling her hair as it swirled
around her, causing her to shiver. Fall was coming. Samhain. This will all be
over soon, one way or another, and Isla was going to make damn sure that her
family made it through, even if she didn’t.

Feeling a
tingling sensation at the scruff of his neck, Jeremiah turned back to face Isla
from where he stood on the porch. He was struck by the look of her. Her mane of
ebony curls swirled around her, and her eyes sparked with hellfire that lit a
jade glow in their depths.

He took her in
from her tense, muscular body, to her chin lifted defiantly toward the trees.
She was a lioness, guarding her pride. And he had one fleeting thought before
he turned to join the others inside.
There she is.

Jeremiah, Jack,
and Callum spent the next half hour contemplating the steaks on the grill, as
men often do. When he managed to extricate himself from the steak summit, Jere
came back inside to find Isla. In the living room, Kieran and Amy were learning
an Irish card game from Brynna that he was ninety-eight percent sure was
completely made up.

Jeremiah found
her in the kitchen, smiling to herself as she chopped vegetables for the salad
dish. "Should I be jealous of those carrots?" he growled in her ear,
and she jumped and shivered.

"No,"
she said, turning and allowing him to cage her against the counter. "I was
just thinking about how I've been alone most of my life, and now all of a
sudden," she made a sweeping gesture toward the living room, "here
you all are. That makes me smile."

"Good,"
Jere said, kissing the tip of her nose. "You deserve to be happy for a
change." Callum and Jack reentered the house, both carrying plates piled
with steaks, and joined Jere and Isla in the kitchen to help finish prepping
for dinner. Jeremiah was absently washing the cooking utensils while staring
pensively out the kitchen window.

He jolted when
a big hand clamped down on his shoulder and squeezed. “Something’s on your
mind,” Jack said in a low voice in Jere’s ear. It was more of a statement than
a question. Jeremiah gave him a short nod, tossing a wary glance over to where
Isla and Callum were rummaging through the fridge for condiments.

Jeremiah
motioned for Jack to join him on the front porch, under the pretense of
cleaning the grill. “What’s up?” the older man asked.

“I’ve been
thinking…"

Jack let out a
snort. “That’s your first mistake!”

“Yeah, yeah.
Look, the last two searches we’ve gone on have gotten pretty risky. And not
just in a dangerous terrain,
Man Vs. Wild
kind of way. In a demon
possession, murder/suicide kind of way. I just feel that it wouldn’t be right
to ask these people”—he gestured toward the house—“to risk life, limb, and
sanity without knowing fully what they’re up against. You know?”

Jack nodded
slowly, scrubbing a hand across his two-day-old growth of stubble. “I see your
point. Their normal defenses for protecting themselves may not work against the
threat they’ll actually be facing.”

“I believe that
we need to tell them as much, or as little, about all of this as they need to
know to protect themselves. I just don’t know how Isla is going to feel about
it.”

Jere turned
worried hazel eyes to Jack’s face. “I love her, you know.”

“I know.”

“I’m gonna do
everything I can to keep anything, especially me, from hurting her. But you’ve
known her longer than I have. How’s she going to handle this?”

"Looks
like we're about to find out, mate," Jack said in a low voice as Isla and
Callum came out on the porch. Both of them were smiling and chuckling as they
came through the door.

"Oi,
what's takin' so long out here?"

Focusing a
shrewd gaze on Jeremiah, Isla's face fell when she saw his expression.
"What is it? What's happened?" she asked nervously.

Leaning back
against the railing, Jere ran agitated hands through his hair, causing it to
stick up at odd angles.

"Nothing
new has happened. Jack and I were just talking about this search we're
planning. I still agree that we should do it, but we were wondering if it's
really fair to drag the others into this without giving them some sort of idea
of the...dangers they'll be facing."

He watched as
the emotions flickered across her expressive face. Her eyes widened with shock,
and he saw her stubborn jaw clench in defensive anger, and underneath it all
was stone cold fear. But the wheels were turning, so he pressed his point.

"If we're
searching for these missing folks, we can't keep an eye on Kieran and the girls
every second. While they may be outdoor experts, they have no idea how to
defend themselves against demons!"

Finally, he saw
reluctant acceptance in her strong features, followed by a fierce
determination. She straightened her shoulders and pierced him with a smoldering
gaze. "You're absolutely right. I promised myself that I would make sure
no one else got hurt because of me. They need to know what we're dealing
with."

Enfolding her
into his strong arms, Jeremiah rested his chin on the top of her head. "I
know this won't be easy for you, but the three of us are behind you. Those kids
in there love you, and I know they'll find a way to deal."

Callum rubbed
her back briefly before returning inside to set the table. Jack gave her arm a
reassuring pat. "Let's just have a nice dinner, forget about everything
for a little while. Then we'll deal with the hard stuff, yeah?"

Isla nodded and
allowed Jere to lead her back into the cozy cabin.

The spread was
laid out on the thick cedar dining room table, and the seven of them sat down to
tuck into it. They talked about their respective days at work, the impending
end to the travel season—they even had a heated debate about who was going to
take it all in the Women's World Cup.

Any mention of
Isla's recent incarceration and the missing people was strictly avoided. Isla,
Jeremiah, Callum, and Jack had been able to relax and enjoy the food and
companionship shared with their friends. But as dinner was winding down, the
tension crept back into the room and back into their bodies as they anticipated
the discussion they had to have.

While Jeremiah
and Isla cleared the table and did the dishes, Callum and Jack discreetly
ushered the others into the living room under the guise of planning the search.
They kept an eye on their friends from the kitchen as Callum spread out terrain
maps on the large coffee table. The five of them had begun arguing about the
best starting point and the spots they needed to cover by the time Isla joined
them.

Jeremiah
brought in a round of ice-cold beer for everyone, then lowered his big body to
the rug, sat cross-legged and leaned over the coffee table to study the maps.

"I think
we need to concentrate on the area of the King's Caves," Amy said.
"What better place to hide, or hide someone, than a cave system?"

"I agree
with Amy—" Kieran started. Brynna cut him off with a snort. "Yeah,
you would!" It had been glaringly obvious to everyone but Amy that Kieran
had been nursing a huge crush on her since the day he started at Expeditions.

Two red spots
appeared over Kieran's sharp cheekbones and he kept his eyes on his hands, but
he shook his head vehemently. "I'm serious. We definitely need to search
the caves. There are so many crevices and dark corners that people could hide
in. My vote is to follow the bluffs from Blackwaterfoot to the caves, and if we
find nothing, we head back over Machrie Moor."

Interested now,
Brynna tapped her chin with a hot pink fingernail, a color that clashed
strongly with her fiery red curls. "The bluffs would be a good path to
take if we don't want to be seen. We'd be above the beach but below the trail,
and all of the brush and boulders will make for good cover."

Kieran
straightened his shoulders a bit, happy that the women were agreeing with him
for a change.

Jeremiah looked
up and smiled at Isla as she walked round him to sit at his left side, his arm
automatically drawing her closer to his side. Giving him a weak smile, she
looked down at her hands as she flipped her grandmother's coin through her
fingers. Jere could feel her body trembling lightly, and he wished like hell he
could protect her from whatever her friends' reactions might be.

Ever the
observant one, Brynna narrowed her eyes at her friend and frowned. "What's
wrong, Isla? You look like you're about to jump out of your skin."

Taking a deep,
steadying breath, Isla leaned into Jeremiah for strength and made eye contact
with first Brynna, then Amy and Kieran. "There are some things that you
all need to know about what you may be up against going on this search. Once
you hear it, if any of you aren't comfortable being involved, there will be no
hard feelings."