Highland Protector (MacCoinnich Time Travels #5)(13)
Author: Catherine Bybee

Jake held up his palm as he spoke into the phone. “Hello, Matilda.”

Matilda?

“Don’t you wish! No. I have a…visitor. Someone I think you should meet.”

Jake paused again and huffed out a laugh. “No. His weapons look scary but for all I know they’re toys.”

Kincaid was half tempted to shoot the old TV into tiny pieces of dust to demonstrate the power of future firearms. He didn’t. Seemed Jake was having a pointed conversation with someone who knew about Druids. From Jake’s relaxed state, so was he. “Hey! You’re the one who moved across the country and told me to call you if anyone showed up. Someone showed up, Selma. So wipe the green shit off your face and get your skinny ass over here. I’m paid to put away crap from this time, not deal with nomads from the future.”

I’m not a nomad. I have a cause…dammit!

“Drive your broom or twinkle your nose…or hey, take the bus, just get here.” Jake hung up the phone and crossed his arms over his chest. “You know…you guys need to develop a warning bell or something. You’re bound to give a guy a heart attack.”

Kincaid was tempted to crack a smile. The man reminded him of Rory, even looked like him a little now that he thought about it. Same dark hair, same eyes.

“I would have knocked if I knew how,” Kincaid told him. “I take it you’ve had visitors before.”

“Round about. I’ve seen more shit in the last couple of years than I can explain.” Jake nodded toward Kincaid’s weapon. “That thing work?”

Impulsively, he moved the hip where he held his blaster away from the man. “It works.”

“Fire projectiles?”

He shook his head. “Not bullets, if that’s what you mean.” Instead of elaborating, Kincaid glanced around the room trying to pinpoint the time in which he’d landed. “What year is it?”

Jake narrowed his eyes. “You don’t know?”

Kincaid hesitated, unsure of how much to reveal. “Who has visited you in the past?”

“What year are you from?”

The two of them stared each other down…asking questions and not giving answers.

He lifted his own personal shield and prepared to wait the other man out.

****

Selma Mayfair twisted her fingers around the phone receiver and cursed Jake Nelson…again. The man aggravated her from the top of her head to the very tip of her polished toes. At least he called her and not his colleagues at the police station. She’d have to give him that. Apparently, he was going to keep the oath he made to the MacCoinnich’s. And the one he gave to his ex-partner, Todd, who was happily married and living in the sixteenth century with Myra and their bushel of kids.

Hitting speed dial, Selma waited through the rings until someone at Mrs. Dawson’s picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Helen…it’s Selma.”

“Hey there. How are you settling in?”

Selma had relocated to the west coast after Simon returned to the twenty-first century. She’d met Liz, Simon’s mom, less than two years ago, and felt it was her responsibility to stay close to the only two MacCoinnichs living in her century. Before meeting Liz, Selma thought herself a witch, hence Jake’s catty comments about flying brooms and green faces. Now she understood her heritage was deeply rooted in Druid blood. To those around her, she was still witchy Selma, which suited her fine. No one would think anything of her lighting candles and casting spells.

“I’m unpacked but the car is still in the shop. It really didn’t like the long drive.”

“Cars are picky sometimes.”

“Listen, I just got a call from Jake. Seems someone popped in unexpectedly.”

Helen sighed. “Popped in?”

“He wanted me to come over and check out his futuristically dressed visitor. I thought maybe Simon could come along.”

“Friend or foe?”

“Hard to say. You know Jake. He’s not exactly warm and friendly.”

“I don’t know, Selma. He’s always been nice to me.”

She snorted. “That makes one of us.”

“Hold on…” Through the phone, Selma heard Helen tell Simon about Jake’s visitor. When she got back on the line she said, “He’s on his way now to pick you up.”

“Good. I didn’t want to go alone. How’s Amber?”

“Not so good. We have to figure out something to shelter her. Every day she grows weaker. She hasn’t even left her room today.”

They talked for several minutes in joint misery over Amber’s plight before hanging up. There wasn’t anything they alone could do. It would take intervention from someone outside their circle, and they had a rather powerful circle.

Simon arrived within twenty minutes, idling his two-door Audi R8 in the drive.

Selma felt dwarfed at Simon’s side. The man was built for the Highlands and barely fit behind the wheel of his fancy car. “What did Jake tell you?”

“Just that he had an unexpected guest. One from the future.”

“Did Helen tell you about Giles?”

Selma shook her head. “Who’s Giles?”

“A visitor from the future. We think he may be able to find something for Amber.”

“Helen didn’t say anything over the phone.” The freeway was relatively free of traffic as they wove through the cars en route to Jake’s place in the valley.

“She’s convinced all telephone calls are monitored. Seems the government has stopped asking permission to tap calls, lately.”

Selma would like to disagree, but she couldn’t. Everything fell under the guise of national security, and the public didn’t put up much of a fight as their liberties were slowly being stripped away…for their own good of course. Or so the elected officials told them.

“You think Giles and this visitor are linked?”

“Might be. No way to know for sure until we meet this guy.”

She grabbed hold of the dash as Simon took an off ramp at high speed.

Two blocks away from Jake’s house, Simon pulled over and started to remove his shirt.

Selma tried not to stare while Simon instructed her about what he wanted her to do. “We need to find out if this guy is looking for Giles…for Amber…for me. We can’t take any chances that we’re bringing an enemy into the house. It doesn’t make sense he’d end up at Jake’s. Unless he can’t control his time travel.”