There With You by Samantha Young
Regan
Waves crashed.
They were so loud.
As it pulled me out of sleep, I wondered why the sea sounded closer, louder than usual. Had I left a window open? My head throbbed painfully.
What the hell?
Groaning as the headache became overwhelming, I pushed my eyes open, blinking into the dark of my bedroom. Why did my pillow feel weird?
Wait.
What?
I sat up slowly, my hands sinking into brittle winter grass. The moon streamed across the sky and the sea beyond. Harsh, icy wind buffeted through my hair and seared through my uniform.
I was sitting on a cliff top.
“I thought you would never wake up. It would have ruined everything.”
That voice.
Suddenly, my night came back in a flash. Eredine’s attack. The children missing.
It was him.
What had he done with Eilidh and Lewis?
Fear and wrath coexisted within, distracting me from the headache and consequent nausea. The bastard had knocked me out. Was I concussed? I felt concussed.
But I couldn’t think about that. I had to find Eilidh and Lewis.
Turning slowly to face the man belonging to the voice, I searched frantically around him, but there was no sign of the children on the cliff with us. The waves were choppy tonight, crashing dramatically into the rocks below.
Austin Vale stood bathed in moonlight, fields stretching behind him and hopefully toward Ardnoch. I didn’t know how long I’d been out and thus how far he’d taken me from my home.
“Where are they?” I glowered at the son of a bitch. “What did you do with Eilidh and Lewis?”
Bitter wind ripped across the cliff, and I shivered violently.
Austin lowered to his haunches several feet away from me, wearing a thick sweater with a jacket over it. Bastard.
“Eilidh and Lewis?” I demanded.
“They’re fine, beautiful,” he replied just loud enough to be heard above nature.
“Where are they? Why did you touch them?”
Oh my God, I’d put them in danger. Tears sprung to my eyes and I trembled harder.
“You make it sound sordid. It’s not,” he sighed heavily. “When I got here, you weren’t staying in the house anymore. You were supposed to be in the house. Instead, you were stuck behind the security gates of that estate, and you never left. I got impatient.”
I’d only been behind the gates for forty-eight hours. Which meant he’d not long arrived in Scotland.
“When I saw them leave the children behind with just that waif of a woman, I took the children to lure you out. Plus, I knew taking them would hurt you. And I want to hurt you a little, even though I love you so much.”
I ignored the words that repulsed me and concentrated on the kids. How did he know what Eilidh and Lewis meant to me? “How do you know anything about me?”
“You think the occasional tail from your sister’s cop friend was enough to stop me from finding you?” he scoffed. “I’m a determined man, Regan. I couldn’t just sit back and let you think I didn’t care. When a man loves his woman, he has to show it. No one would tell me where you went, so all I could think to do was keep running an image search. Nothing. You were like a ghost. I was low on cash for a while, which is a problem when it comes to resources, but I came into some money a few weeks ago, thanks to my brother. I hired a PI, and she did some digging for me. Found out about your sister and her engagement to that actor. From there, she found you. So I hired another PI here in Scotland. He emailed over photos and information about your life here. He couldn’t get too close to the house because you had security on the kids, but he did his digging elsewhere and got what we needed.
“Last I checked, you had security on the kids for that attempted kidnapping.” He tsked. “It’s a good thing I’m here to end this, Regan, to take you from these people. Bad things keep happening around them.”
I huffed in disbelief.
“By some twist of fate, when I got here, the kids weren’t protected anymore. Not that I planned on using them, I swear. But the idea just fell into my lap when I couldn’t get to you.” He laughed. “And it needed to be tonight, beautiful. It’s our one-year anniversary.”
Horror and shame and self-reproach filled me.
Why had I let my guard down?
Why hadn’t I realized that New Year’s Eve was a night to stay alert?
Probably because you thought Autry or Dad would tell you if Austin tried to leave the States.
Why hadn’t they?
“I was going to take them and leave a note for you to find me, but suddenly you were in the house. Like it was fate. There you were. It was easier to just stash the kids somewhere it might take your boss,” he spat the word, “time to find them.”
“Where?” I demanded, my heart pounding. “I swear to God, if you hurt them, I will fucking kill you.”
His teeth flashed in the dark. “I love it when you’re feisty.”
I loathed him.
I loathed him with every part of my being.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t hurt them. I tied the kids up in the guest house. Everyone will be so busy trying to find them while they’re right under their noses that we’ll have time to do what we came here to do.”
Eilidh and Lewis were physically okay. Traumatized, but alive. I took a deep breath.
“And what did you come here to do?” I dreaded knowing, but I was determined, despite the almost debilitating, pulsing ache in my head, that I wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Tears suddenly thickened Austin’s throat. “Die,” he whispered hoarsely. “Tonight we’re going to die together.”
My breath came in harsh pants as terror tried to seize control of me. “Why? Why?”
“We’re meant to be together, Regan. But you’re too hardheaded to see that. I can’t spend my life chasing you, trying to convince you of something I already know!” His voice got louder with his agitation. “And if I can’t make you see it, then the only way for us to be eternal is to die together. We’ll be together forever in death.”
Oh my God, he’d lost it completely. “Austin, you’re not thinking straight—”
“Don’t tell me what I’m thinking!” he yelled, standing up to pace.
I scooted back a little, careful not to retreat too close to the cliff’s edge.
“Do you know what it’s like to believe something, to know something deep in your soul, and have everyone else call you a fucking psycho for it?” he spat.
“Austin—”
“It’s like you’re already dead!” he continued. “I’ve been grieving you for a year, and no one understands! And I can’t take it anymore. I can’t live like this anymore.”
Hearing the loss in his voice, I shivered harder. He really believed that. His pain was real, even if his delusions about us were not. Needing time to think, time for someone to find us, I stalled. “What about your family? You mentioned a brother.”
He’d never mentioned his brother while we’d been backpacking together. In fact, he’d definitively told me he was an only child.
Austin scoffed. “Like he gives a shit about anything beyond his addictions. He’s an alcoholic and a gambler. Won big, though, a few weeks back. I took the money. I’m not sorry. He’s weak. He doesn’t deserve good things.”
“What about your parents?” During our trip, he’d told us all about growing up in Oregon. His dad was a cattle rancher and his mom a schoolteacher. Austin’s childhood sounded idyllic.
He gave a bark of bitter laughter. “What parents? Are you referring to the mother who took her six- and eight-year-old sons in hand, told them they were going on a trip, and then abandoned them at a bus station? Or the father I never met?”
“But …” I trailed off. He’d lied about his life. About everything.
“No one wants to hear that shit, Regan,” he said, as if he’d read my mind. “They just want you to tell them you had a good life. That you and your brother weren’t abused by a sick fuck of a foster father.”
Renewed tears sprung to my eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It made me a better person. Smarter. Harder worker. More intuitive. I mean, women came and went. Always giving me mixed signals. Always untrustworthy and making me work for it. But you … the first moment you smiled at me with those incredible dimples, it was like being hit with a ray of sunshine. And I could tell you were lost. A lost angel who needed guidance.” His voice hardened. “But you’re so damn stubborn and such a typical woman. You don’t even know your own mind. You can’t be trusted with your own feelings.”
Any sympathy or compassion I’d felt died. “You know”—I pushed up onto my knees, the world spinning a little—“I’m getting a little sick of people saying that to me.” I wobbled as I stood up straight, but I forced myself to focus past the dizziness. “I know my mind. My heart. And while I’m very sorry that your life has been difficult, other people have gone through similar shit, and they don’t resort to rape and kidnapping.”
“I never raped you!” he shouted.
“You tried!”
“That wasn’t rape.” Austin tore his hands through his hair. “God, how could you think that, this whole time?”
“Because it’s true! You held me down and you tried to have sex with me against my will. That’s attempted rape, Austin. Never mind the fact you continued to threaten to rape me in your emails.”
“No, no, no.” He started pacing frantically. “No, you’re mixed up. You’re remembering things wrong.”
As he continued to rant, I glanced over my shoulder, and my head spun dangerously as I saw how high up we were.
Turning back to him as he paced and disagreed about what occurred between us last January, I knew there was no arguing with him. He saw things his way, and there was no showing him differently.
Austin stopped rambling and looked over at me, his expression feral in the moonlight. “I’ll just have to show you. Remind you that for us, sex is about making love. Yeah.” He strode toward me. “We should have that from each other before we go.”
“No.” I stumbled sideways and then tried to dart past him. We grappled, me pushing at his face, clawing at his neck, trying to escape. Yet he was so much stronger than I was, and I was so dizzy from the blow to my head.
Robyn’s voice roared in my mind, instructing me, demanding I not let him get me on the ground, but my limbs wouldn’t obey.
My foot slipped, hitting nothing but air, and I cried out in fright.
“Careful!” Austin gripped me to him. “We don’t want you going over the edge just yet.”
Suddenly, I knew why he’d brought me here.
He intended to send me over the edge with him tonight.
And I was not dying in the North Sea.
Tears of fury and desperation streaked my cheeks as he hauled me into his arms so tightly, I could barely breathe.
“God, I’ve missed you.” Austin buried his face in my neck.
Every inch of me was repulsed by his hold.
“Please,” I whispered, “don’t do this to me.”
He lifted his head to stare down into my eyes, and I saw nothing but belief in his.
I had no idea someone’s faith could be so terrifying.
“This is how it’s meant to be. You’ll see that soon.” He curled his foot around mine and I fell.
My back slammed into the ground, my head wound screaming with the impact.
And then Robyn’s commanding voice was in my head again, reciting instructions as Austin fell to his knees and tried to grab at my hands.
Focusing on Robyn’s voice, I forced my left knee into his gut to stop him from coming down on top of me as I wrapped my hand around his right wrist. Then I pulled back my right leg and planted my foot hard on his hip … and I ripped at his hold on my arm and shoved him away from me with all my might, using the strength in my legs. He toppled backward as I rolled out from under him and scrambled to my feet. Eyes darting to him, I froze in shock as his arms windmilled at his sides.
And then he was falling out of sight.
His scream wrenched through the night air, chilling me to the bone.
Finally, I heard him crash into the waves below, just as they pounded against the rocks.
Nausea crawled up my belly as I tentatively walked over to the cliff’s edge.
There was nothing but white froth in darkness under the moonlight.
No sign of Austin.
Shaking so hard my teeth rattled in my head, I stumbled back from the edge and sobbed. A sense of unreality descended over me.
Focus, Ree, I heard Robyn whisper. Come back home.
“Eilidh, Lewis,” I murmured into the night. No one knew where they were. They must be scared out of their minds.
Rushing forward, pushing through what I was sure was a concussion, I ran from the edge and into fields sparse with winter grass. I had no idea where I was, how far from Ardnoch he’d taken us.
But as I followed the coast, I saw lights in the distance. Hurrying toward them, it took about ten minutes before a sense of overwhelming familiarity rushed over me.
I was near Gordon’s trailer park at Ardnoch Beach.
Loud music thrummed from the park, and I could see shadowy figures outside the trailers, partying together.
Of course. It was still Hogmanay.
“Help!” I yelled hoarsely, running harder now. “Help!” The fields eventually gave way to a path carved by people trekking up onto the cliffs. The path sloped down toward the trailer park, and I stumbled on a large pebble, going over on my ankle. The jarring thud of hitting the ground on my hands and knees made black dots cover my eyes.
“No!” I shoved myself back onto my feet. I had to stay awake. I had to tell someone where Eilidh and Lewis were.
Rushing down onto the gravel, I saw two people sitting on the deck of their trailer watching everyone else dancing and drinking on the road that cut through the park.
“Help!” I yelled, trying to be heard over the music.
But I had to run right up to their deck before the older couple turned to me in surprise. I didn’t know what I looked like, but the man broke out in a curse at the sight of me.
“Please, help!”
“What on earth?” the woman cried out, and they hurried down their deck steps to catch me as I swayed.
Focus, Regan, focus.
It all came out in a rush, and I got agitated as they made me repeat it. We drew attention from other people, and I was aware of the music fading out. Police were called, but I rambled off Thane’s number, insisting they call him to tell him where Eilidh and Lewis were.
“The children are fine,” the woman, Betty, said sometime later when I repeated the demand. “They’ve already found them. Your friend is on his way.”
The news that Eilidh and Lewis were safe made me sob with relief. It was only when Betty said, “Your friend is here,” that I became cognizant of the fact that I was inside their trailer with a blanket around me.
I didn’t realize how much time had passed.
“Where is she?” I heard Thane demand loudly outside. He sounded frantic.
Launching myself off the trailer’s couch, I pushed hands away that tried to stop me and hurried outside. Thane and Robyn stood by his SUV, glaring at two of the partygoers.
“Thane.”
His head snapped toward me. Our eyes caught, his blazing with everything.
It took him less than two seconds to cross the distance between us and haul me into his arms. The feel of him, his scent, all of it overwhelmed me, and I melted like an ice cube by the fire.
“Mo leannan.” I felt his lips on my temple.
I smiled just as the black dots scattered across my vision.
“Regan?” Thane’s voice turned sharp with concern. “Regan!”
I couldn’t answer.
It was like the whole damn world switched off the lights.