It was clearly directed at everyone in attendance, and Keegan yanked on her arm when Willow did not immediately get into action. She was pulled behind him toward his horse. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw the Brahanne men go to each of hers and knock them unconscious with a strike from the butt of their swords.
Willow instinctively moved toward them, but Keegan grabbed her around the waist and hastily thrust her up onto the steed. When she looked down at him, shocked, the intensity of his stare burned into Willow’s soul, and she could not stop the tremble that slithered through her.
Worse, the man smirked as he climbed up behind her on the horse and seated himself right against her back.
She reeled. “Ye cannae expect me to ride with ye like this. I can employ one of the horses that accompanied us.”
Still, as she started to move, Keegan grabbed hold of her waist once more, his fingers biting into her sides and forcing her to halt in place. He leaned, the ghost of his breath touching her neck. Gooseflesh rippled over her skin, and Willow let out a strangled exhale as Keegan held her still.
“Now, now, ye promised to behave,” he whispered. “Ye cannae be looking for punishment already.”
Her thoughts emptied, the swirling inside her like a storm as her mind and body fought against each other for control. A terrible burn etched through her core, but fear still clung to her. Willow had given herself as a prisoner to one of the most vicious men she’d seen in her life.
If he was anything like her brother, Willow would need to remain on Keegan’s good side until she could take all this up with the Laird of Brahanne Castle.
As she stilled, chewing on her lip to keep the words locked behind her lips, a sadistic chuckle left Keegan, the motion rocking her gently.
“There now.” He gripped the reins around her, squeezing his legs around the horse to get her moving. “That’s me good lass.”
3
Creating space between herself and her captor was impossible on a horse, but it didn’t keep Willow from trying. She was familiar with the gentle sway of riding on a horse, but she’d yet to share one with a man like this. It was a constant invasion of her space, and Willow was desperate to force her thoughts away from the feel of Keegan pressed up against her back.
It, too, proved futile. Willow was intimately aware of the firm muscles that surrounded her, and an odd pleasure accompanied it that made her cheeks burn fiercely.
Traitorous thoughts, body. Ye cannae get aboard the ship with the rest of yer parts. He is the enemy.
The remainder did little, however, and Willow forced herself to take a deep breath, seeking the clarity it usually brought. Unfortunately, all it did was pull Keegan’s scent into her nose, and she could not think around the unique scent of him.
Willow squirmed all the more in the saddle, shifting this way and that in an attempt to distract herself. But then Keegan let out a gruff groan.
“Will ye desist, lass? If ye keep brushing against me like that, ye willnae appreciate the outcome.”
Flames licked inside her cheeks, her blood, and Willow immediately froze.He couldnae possibly mean…Oh, hell.
Limited experience though she had, Willow had talked enough with the servants and other women in attendance at the clan gatherings to have heard at least a thing or two about men and how they…worked. Panic set her heart rate up, and Willow’s eyes squeezed shut as she imagined being at fault for thatparticularreaction.
Silence flooded back in around them, and the horse continued forward in the line of Brahanne men. Keegan rode with only Damon at his back and the remainder of the men before him. It gave her the perfect opportunity to study them, and Willow set to it forcibly.
There arenae many of them. A small unit. It had clearly been a targeted attack against the carriage.
Willow was no fool when it came to the workings of the world. She took every chance she could to learn and observe her brother’s dealings. Ignorance would not serve her in any life, and that was truer now than ever.
They were a burly crew as well, rough around the edges and capable of taking down her men rather quickly. Apparently, her brother’s men were not the stuff of legend that he made them out to be. Still, it would be like him to have given her protection detail to his least favorite men.
Ye need to see a weakness, Willow. A clue that may yet help ye to survive all this.
However, she did not know what to look for precisely, and her time on the road for the day was quickly coming to an end she realized. Keegan called out, stopping the men at the side of the road. As they gathered around the horse, Willow’s eyes flicked to each of them, unable to settle on any one man.
“We will ride separately from here forward. It will keep the McCallum from tracking down the correct trail. Set off in twos for the castle using varied routes. Ye all ken the land well.”
Willow swallowed down her gasp. Keegan was more intelligent than she had given him credit for, which, of course, infuriated her. Rescue by her brother or men would be delayed quite a bit if they could not find her, and reaching the castle would make her return to Magnus that much more difficult.
“I will ride with ye, Brother,” Damon offered, but Willow felt Keegan shake his head behind her.
“Nay. I willnae leave one of the others without a partner. I will meet ye all back at the keep. Understood?”
Her mind spinning, Willow went over the grouping of warriors once more. Groups of two would create such an arrangement that left one rider alone. There were seven of them in total if she did not count herself.