Free Secrets Dispelled by Raven McAllan

normal non-slangy voice as he climbed onto his quad bike. “Do you think I should stop here so no one tampers with it until the police come?”
    Coll thought quickly. He was well out of his comfort zone. Woodcarvers didn’t turn investigators except in books. “Might be an idea.” He ran his hands through his hair and realized it needed cutting badly. Once it got longer than an inch it went into a mass of tight dark curls and he’d look like the savage woodcarver of the wild woods if he didn’t chop it soon. “Hell, Lachy, I’ve no idea and I can’t even get a mobile signal here.”
    “Maybe not, but I’ve got a walkie-talkie and someone should be around to answer,” Lachy said as he took the instrument out of a pouch and proceeded to inform whoever answered what had happened.
    Coll listened to the voice at the other end and inwardly laughed. Jess had answered and had come out with such a vocabulary of non-curse words which were obviously intended to replace the words one would normally use to swear that he guessed her Sir, David, had carried out his threat to wash her mouth out. Not as everyone thought, with soap but with a certain type of cola she detested. The threat was usually enough to temper her language, but all of a sudden, ‘shit’, ‘bugger’ and ‘fuck’ slipped in between ‘darnation’, ‘scooberoony’ and ‘Mesopotamia’ and he guessed that these shenanigans had finally made her ignore David’s threat. Now she’d be paying for it. But oh boy, how he admired her fluent stream of words.
    “David has just gone to ring the police and says to say Aidan will be with you in five. Can you all wait ‘til then, please?”
    “Ask her if I can bring Finn back when Aidan arrives,” Coll said. Lachy forwarded the request.
    “Hel…p, I’ve no idea I’m not the copper. Can you wait until David… Hold on just a sec.” The walkie-talkie went silent. Coll beckoned Finn over and she rode Delilah nearby before she slid off and held on to the reins. The horse bent her head and cropped grass. It could be such a peaceful scene—except…
    It wasn’t.
    “Sir says the police will be with you soon, and can you all stay there.”
    “Tell her to get a message to Ronnie then, he’ll be imagining all sorts of scenarios. Not worried about me but about Delilah.”
    Jess snorted over the line. “I heard that. And it’s true. David will ring him.”
    “So now we wait.” Lachy switched the walkie-talkie off and sat on the seat of his bike. “I think I’ll go and check that stream out.”
    “No.” Finn and Coll spoke together.
    “It’s best to wait here like Jess said,” Coll told him. “Smell the good old country smells.”
    Delilah farted and all three of them burst into laughter.
     
    * * * *
     
    No one was laughing four hours later. The police had arrived with Ronnie, who was at last allowed to take his horse home—did they think Delilah had information to share?—and eventually Coll and Finn had arrived back at Coll’s flat.
    The message Coll had received from Jeff wasn’t helpful. Lachy had gone to get Donny to bring him to the castle and he’d been nowhere to be seen. Even his lady friend had no idea where he’d gone. All she could say was he’d had a phone call, gone white, dressed and left a few hours earlier. She’d heard nothing since.
    It looked as if he’d been alerted and fled. Even though Jeff vowed to find him or else, Finn was sensible enough to know if he didn’t want to be found, it wouldn’t be easy.
    Coll looked at the clock. “Hell, kitten, it’s past ten o’clock. I’ve lasagna in the freezer. How about you go and shower whilst I put it in the oven. Then I’ll shower and after we can eat? I think we’ll put the club off until we’re more with it.” He opened the freezer door and hunkered down to look at the contents. The position outlined the curves of his ass and the straight line of his spine. His hair with its sexy streaks of gray had a hint of a curl