Luck was on her side when the guards placed her in a cage that hung from a rafter in the ceiling.
“Good place for you to watch the show tonight and know you’ll be next,” one guard jeered.
She spit at him again, and he gave the cage a whack with a heavy stick and sent it swirling around and around and around.
The two guards laughed as they left the chamber.
Storm held firm to the bars of the cage until it finally slowed. She had to focus her eyes since the spinning in her head had yet to stop. When she was finally able to see clearly she looked around the room.
She cringed at the various torture devices—metal pinchers, a stretching rack, prodding irons set hot with fire from the cauldron hanging over flames, and others whose uses eluded her. She refused to linger too long on them. Just the idea of what pain they could cause made her wince. She finally spotted a man chained to the wall, his head hanging down to his chest and his body slumped. He wore only a plaid kilt too soiled to determine the colors. He had long dark hair that was matted with blood.
That he had suffered endlessly was obvious.
“Cullen,” she called out, having heard the guards’ footsteps fade in the distance and feeling safe that no one would hear her.
The man didn’t move.
“Cullen,” she said more strongly.
He lifted his head, though barely, before it sagged again.
Storm knew what would get his attention. “Cullen, Alaina sent me to free you.”
His head shot up and she winced. One eye was almost swollen shut, and dried blood caked at the corner of his swollen lip.
“Alaina?” he asked, looking around.
“Over here,” she said, working to slip the knife out of her boot and get started on the lock.
Cullen looked about until he finally saw Storm. “Who are you?”
“A friend of Alaina. She waits for you near St. Andrew where a ship will take you both to America.”
“How can this be so?”
The lock was easy, and before she knew it, she was free and standing beside Cullen. Looking past his bruises, she could see the resemblance to Burke. She wished there was time to speak with him, but she had to make the escape plan clear. Between the two of them, they could incapacitate the men and make a swift departure.
“Your brother has come for you.”
“Brother?”
“There is no time to explain about your brother. Just rest assured you have one. This is what we must do,” she said, and outlined her plan of escape. “Are you strong enough?”
He looked her up and down. “Are you?”
She smiled. “You’re just like your brother.”
“We shall see,” he said skeptically. “Tell me of Alaina. Is she well?”
“She waits impatiently for you.”
“As I do for her.” He shook his head. “I do not see how you will be able to get the keys from the guard. You are but a wee thing.”
She grinned. “I’ve done this before. Trust me.”
Less than an hour later Cullen was shaking his head while chaining the gagged guards to the wall. “I can’t believe you overpowered him.”
“Believe it, and know we have little time to get out of here.”
His movement was remarkably agile for a man who had suffered such torture, but then Storm had seen men in worse condition respond with strength. The promise of freedom could give the weakest man courage.
It didn’t take long to free the older man, and though he stumbled, he made his way along with them.
Cullen saw to two other guards and Storm took care of another one herself. They were almost home free. Another twist, one more turn, and they would be out of the prison where Burke and her men waited to help them.
The older man faltered, and Cullen was quick to support him and keep him moving. Storm followed behind, ever ready for the unexpected.
Suddenly a guard came out of nowhere, charging at them.
“Get out of here,” she yelled at Cullen. “I’ll be right behind you.”
He nodded and took off.
Burke and Tanin stood behind the open door, waiting.
“They should have been here by now,” Burke said, his fear near to bursting.
“Give her time. Storm knows what she’s doing and we have time yet,” Tanin said.
Clouds scurried across the night sky as if running away from something just as Storm was surely doing. He couldn’t help but worry that the plan had failed and she was now being tortured.
A shuffle of footsteps interrupted his worries, and he and Tanin braced for attack.
Cullen flew out the door and looked around.
Burke and Tanin were on him in a second.
“You must be my brother,” Cullen said, shoving the older man at Burke. “We’ll talk later. I need to go back and rescue the woman that came for me.”