Guthrie shouted at the door, yanking and banging on it, sounding as though he was ready to break it down, but the door was solid oak. They would need a battering ram.
“Open the door, Baird. We’ll allow you safe passage if you leave in peace,” Ian said, his voice commanding.
“Calla, are you all right?” Guthrie shouted.
“Aye, Guthrie. I am.” She begged Baird, “Please, do as Ian asks. They’ll honor their words.” Baird ignored them completely, a wild look in his eyes that scared her. She was afraid he planned to hurt her if he didn’t get his way. She didn’t see that he was armed. He’d probably figured that if the MacNeill men caught him with weapons, it would go worse for him. But he could still hurt her with his bare hands.
She assumed that talking him down wasn’t going to work. The problem with wolves was that they watched a person’s slightest body movements—eyes, muscles twitching, changes in stance, mouth—and could assess what someone was about to do. So as soon as she tried to slip into the bathroom and slam the door closed, he was there in a heartbeat, his hand shoved against the door, his foot in place before she’d managed to get the door closed. He hit the door so hard that she jumped back to avoid it striking her.
Immediately, she began tugging off her sweater and kicking off her boots. But she only managed to get that far before he crossed the floor and grabbed for her. “Nay, damn it, Calla. I don’t want to hurt you. But I will if you attempt to shift.”
She was still wearing her long skirt and bra. The skirt would hamper her wolf’s hind legs, but nothing would obstruct her bite. She figured that if she shifted, he’d have no other choice but to back off and give up.
Unless he shifted too.
At least that was the plan, right before he slammed his fist into her temple.
***
Oran had run to get the master key to Calla’s bedchamber while Guthrie and his brothers listened, trying to figure out a plan.
Ian tried to call Baird on his cell phone. Baird ignored the ringing, but now they knew he had the phone on him.
Calla and Baird weren’t talking or fighting any longer, and that had Guthrie worried.
“He wants her,” Ian said, trying to reassure him. “He’s not going to jeopardize that by hurting her.”
“I don’t believe it,” Guthrie said. “Baird had to be desperate to come here like this and get stuck in such a dangerous predicament. There’s no telling what he meant to do.”
Oran raced down the hallway with a set of keys jangling. Ian tried the master key on the door and unlocked it, but the door was bolted. There was no budging it.
“Get a couple of axes,” Guthrie said to Oran, who ran off to get them. “Baird, open the damned door!” Guthrie turned to Ian. “It’s too quiet in there. What if he forced her out the window?”
“Bloody hell,” Ian said, and called someone on his cell as he motioned for Duncan and Cearnach to go around the back side of the keep where her window looked out over the gardens. “Jasper, get some men to Calla’s guest-room window pronto. Baird might be escaping from her room that way.”
Guthrie prayed that Baird wasn’t taking Calla with him that way. Fear consumed him. Everything was too quiet.
Then they heard movement in the bedroom.
“Calla!” Guthrie shouted, his skin sweating with worry.
“I’m coming,” she said, sounding weak, as if she was in pain.
Guthrie growled, wanting to kill Baird in the worst way.
Ian called Cearnach. “Calla’s coming to the door. Baird must have left.” Then he made another call. “Oran, forget the axes. Calla’s opening the door.”
The bolt slid open and Guthrie pushed the door slowly, not wanting to hit Calla with it and worried that Baird had injured her.
She was sitting on the bed, holding the side of her head and dressed only in a bra and her skirt. He helped her to lie down and covered her with a blanket, while Ian stalked to the open window and shouted down to someone below, “Baird’s not up here.”
Cearnach shouted, “Not here, either.”
“Gather men together to check all the grounds,” Ian said.
***
Logan kept cursing himself for his mistake. It wasn’t his job to guard the back gate, and he didn’t know whose job it was, but if he’d been wearing a sword, he would have stopped Baird from going after Calla. He didn’t know what else he could do once he saw Cearnach and Duncan headed for her back window and Oran returning to the keep with two axes. Logan was supposed to go back to the dogs, but he couldn’t until he knew Calla was all right.
What if Baird had already escaped?
Logan hid next to the tower that he was fairly certain Baird would hurry past if he managed to escape Calla’s room. Seeing no movement in the woods, Logan stripped out of his clothes, then shifted. His heart thundering, he stayed out of sight on the other side of the corner tower. His ears pricked in the direction of running footfalls headed out the back gate. He saw Baird bolt for the woods, but he waited. Once Baird disappeared into the trees, Logan took off after him. Baird continued racing through the woods so Logan followed, making sure Baird didn’t catch sight of him. Baird didn’t look like he was armed, but knowing him, some of his kin would be nearby, and they could be well armed or in their wolf coats.
Logan had stopped, hidden in the fir trees and watching, when he heard other men hurry to join Baird—one older brother, one younger, and one cousin. The cousin, Robert, said, “If we don’t get Calla back, we’re all dead men.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Baird said. “What the hell do you think I’ve been doing?”
His brother Vardon said, “We should have grabbed her when we were at her home. You had the perfect opportunity.”
Baird gave him a dirty look and stalked off, the men following.
“Trying to grab her when she had nearly reached Argent Castle was too late,” Robert said. “Hell, we nearly had a damned wolf fight over it.”
Logan heard the slightest movement behind him and jerked his head around. Guthrie, in his wolf coat. He’d nearly given Logan a heart attack.
Guthrie narrowed his eyes at Logan, telling him he shouldn’t be out here like this. But there were four men, and if they attacked Guthrie, he would need Logan to even up the sides.
Guthrie turned his head to listen to the conversation. He wanted Logan to return to the keep at once, but he didn’t want to alert the McKinleys that he and Logan were listening as the men stalked through the woods, heading for the road where they must have left their vehicle. They were moving fast, undoubtedly afraid the MacNeills would give chase, but they wouldn’t. They still had the fair visitors to watch out for, and they had to ensure that no more of Baird’s men had slipped inside the castle walls.