Steph

 

Fury overtook Steph’s mind. Hearing that Mr. Watins didn’t care about the interests of their country, a sudden cold spread from her gut through her body. Raised a Marine’s daughter, being a Marine herself, loyalty to her country ran through her like her life’s blood. She spit out her resignation without thought and without care for her financial future. Steph didn’t care that her student loans wouldn’t get paid off, or that she had just shot her career in the foot. She couldn’t stand to be in the room with this traitor one more minute.

She turned and stalked toward the door, shaking in her shock and indignation.

“Wait!” called Ivan Kaur.

But Steph didn’t stop. She just made the door when Ryan’s father caught up to her and grabbed her arm.

She stopped in her tracks and gave him a frosty stare.

“Look,” he said dropping her arm, “I don’t like any of this either. My former lawyer here put me in the middle of some very nasty business.”

“Kaur,” said Watins in a warning voice, “you do not want to drop us as your representatives.”

Ivan Kaur turned to Watins who glared at the industrialist.

“I don’t? Why would I keep attorneys that lied to me and my wife and gave us a dragon child without revealing that little fact to us? Manipulate me, my son, and this blameless young woman here? To make sure we don’t develop weapons that work against dragons? Get your sorry ass out of my house, Watins.”

Watins face turned beet red.

“You’ll regret this, Kaur.”

“I swear to the Almighty, Watins, that if you do one thing that harms me or mine, you are going to find yourself at the other end of a government investigation. That I can promise you. Out!”

Watins stormed out to of the room. Kaur crossed the room and picked up his phone.

“Make sure Mr. Watins is shown off the property. Thank you.” He settled the handset into its cradle with a click.

Steph stared at Mr. Kaur. She saw a bit of Ryan in him, a bit of his brashness and take-charge attitude. Kaur huffed out a breath and then looked at Steph.

“Well, it seems I’m without representation, Ms. Brooks and you are without a job. Looks like we have a mutual need.”

For the second time she was shocked. “I’m just a first-year associate, Mr. Kaur. I’m not qualified to represent you.”

“I wouldn’t say that. You’re honest, which to me is an essential quality for the people I employ. And you aren’t afraid to stand up to the big guys, which is another one.”

“Stop doubting yourself. Besides which the role I have in mind for you is more as a liaison between Kaur Industries and whatever firm we hire. Believe me, when word gets out that I fired Peters, Watins and Roe, they will all come calling like the whores they are. No, I’m worried about Ryan. He’s in a hell of a mess right now. First fleeing the scene of an accident can potentially put him in prison. The reports of him kidnapping you have been hard to dispel.”

“Well, I’m here now.”

“I’ll call the governor and let him know that that is just the media latching onto a sensational story.”

“You can do that?”

“Sure. We play golf all the time. Hang on.”

Kaur dialed a number and Steph heard the voice of the governor on the other end.

“Yeah. The media’s gone a little overboard. Ms. Brooks is my employee and was with Ryan during the accident. He was more concerned about getting her help than worry about the car, so he called our helicopter service and airlifted her to hospital. We are terribly sorry for the misunderstanding.”

“The witnesses at the hospital were quite certain they saw a dragon,” said the governor.

“No. Dragon Helicopter service. I’m sure it was a miscommunication.”

“I’ll talk with the commander of the State Police and wave him off the kidnapping aspects, but Ryan has to turn himself in for the other charges.”

“I understand. He will. Thanks Governor.”

“Okay. Just as long as we meet on the links this weekend. I want the chance to win back that last thousand you stole from me.”

“Sure thing. See you then.”

Kaur looked at Steph and grinned. “Well, that was relatively cheap. All I need to do is suffer the indignity of letting him beat me at golf and giving back a thousand that I rightly won. But for Ryan I’ll suffer that.”

“Even knowing he’s a dragon, you love him?”

“Ms. Brooks, since the first time I saw his fuzzy little head I loved him. Regardless of his biological parents, he’s my son and always will be.”

“And is there a Dragon Helicopter Service?”

“Ah, there will be. Here,” he opened a desk drawer and handed Steph a folder.

“Your first assignment. Here is a shell company I incorporated about ten years ago.”

Steph took the folder and read the tab.

“Dragon Services?”

“Yes. I had no idea if Ryan being a dragon would come up but I wanted to be prepared. Find an office and set it up at one of the smaller airports in the state. I don’t care which one. I’ll call my accountant and tell him that you have power of attorney over the company. You draft the documents as well as your employment contract. We’ll start you at $250,000 per year, and include some performance bonuses on top of that.”

The elder Kaur was in full businessman mode, rattling off instructions and not giving time for Steph to be amazed at the money he offered. She grabbed at a pad and pen on Kaur’s desk and started writing furiously.

“We’ll need at least three helicopters to make it look good, so you are to order them and have them delivered to the new office, all with the Dragon services logo on them. We’re backfilling here, so we need to be quick about this. But order them through the Kaur aircraft division, and order the top of the line ones.”

“Any particular color?” quipped Steph.

Kaur gave her a quizzical look. “Order what you think is appropriate.”

“Blue then,” said Steph. “As a dragon, Ryan is blue.”

“Blue, eh? Well, blue it is.” He continued without missing a beat. “We’ll have you move in here.”

“Now wait Mr. Kaur. I don’t think Ryan will like that.”

“Why?”

“Because he left me,” she said bitterly. “Fired me and flew off with that other dragon.”

“Other dragon? I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Another dragon showed up at the hospital, the second time, and Ryan went off with him.”

“That damned rat Watins,” cursed Ivan. “He told me Ryan flew away the second time like the first.”

“Are you surprised he lied, sir? After the lies he’s told you all these years.”

“No. I suppose not. But this is news to me and concerns me greatly. Do you know where he is?”

Steph shook her head. “No. I haven’t heard from him.”

“Damn. That can’t be good.”