The Wicked Ways of Alexander Kidd (The MacGregors: Highland Heirs) Read Online Free Page A

she nocked her arrow and raised her bow. Taking aim, she waited with a pounding heart. It could be a deer, or it could be something else. Her heavy breath thundered in her ears and she fought to control it. She kept her eyes on the shoreline and her ear inclined for any sound of her kin returning. She couldn’t lie; part of her wished they were there, at her back.
    Being afraid caused her no shame. Acting on it would though.
    She braced her legs and narrowed her eyes against the brisk wind. A moment passed with the parting of clouds and the full, milky moon spreading its light upon the darkness, and for an instant, on a man prowling along the rocks.
    He was dressed in breeches and a long coat; she knew he was no inhabitant of Camlochlin. Neither did the long, curved cutlass dangling from his hand and catching light from the moon prove him a Highlander.
    He looked up, but Trina didn’t have time to catch sight of his face beneath the wide brim of his hat. Heart pounding, she released her arrow, wishing she could look upon him and either recognize him or kill him.
    His tricorn flew off his head, stabbed by her arrow and carried off into the loch. Mist shrouded him when Trina looked again. He disappeared. Her breath came hard and heavy. This was no deer she was hunting. Who was he? What should she do? Did he come by ship? Dear God,her kin could be under attack right now and here she was wasting moments on questions.
    She leaped a few feet down the slope and landed on bent knees and legs ready to fly her to where she wanted to go.
    “What kind of coward seeks to kill at such a distance?” A deep, downy male voice called up to her. “Meet me on less foggy ground and let us draw swords on more equal footin’.”
    His challenge was issued with arrogance, as if he feared nothing. Not even MacGregors. Fool.
    She moved forward, nocking another arrow in place. “Who are ye?” she called out.
    “Ah, a woman,” he said, his smile evident behind the silvery curtain that concealed him. She didn’t need to see him to feel the effect his rich voice had on her. He wasn’t Scottish. English perhaps. His clipped cadence was softened by a slow, deep drawl that coursed through her and down her spine like heat on a sultry summer night.
    “A dead man,” she countered, ignoring how he sounded, “speaking but saying nothing that will convince me not to shoot him in the face this time.”
    He laughed and the heat returned for a moment.
    “We have a law at sea.” His warm breath fell against her lobe, causing her to twist around, stunned to find him right there behind her. She hadn’t sensed his movement. Now, he was so close she could see the contours of his face, the shape of his mouth over her as he came in close and took hold of her bow. “If ye’re goin’ to kill a man, look him in the eyes when ya do it.”
    Trina tried not to show her fear, but that didn’t mean her knees weren’t knocking together. She’d never killed a man before and doing so at close range, close enough to look him in the eyes, would be difficult, mayhap impossible. Shewas thankful for the mist. Getting a good, clear look at this man might slow her reflexes, but she had to do something. She blinked and rammed her knee into his groin, or rather, because of the blinding dimness, his upper thigh. She was about to run when a familiar voice stopped her.
    “Back away from her or ye’ll suffer a dozen arrows. We never miss!”
    Relief flooded through her at Kyle’s confident declaration breaking through the fog and the sound of rushing waves. No one
ever
saw Kyle coming.
    “I surrender peacefully,” the intruder called out with a graceful sweep of his cutlass before him and a gallant bow.
    “Who are ye?” Kyle demanded.
    “I be Alexander Kidd, captain of
Poseidon’s Adventure
, and only son and heir of William Kidd, most infamous pirate to sail the high seas.”
    A pirate? He was a pirate? Trina didn’t know whether to believe him or pick up a rock