Harley was nice, Keeley decided. Still a bit freaked out by the way Maggie had decided his hand was all that stood between her and her siblings’ eggs, but… nice. Just like Lance’s other friends were nice, and his colleagues. His aunt was probably nice, too.

She felt sick.

Lance kept asking her how she was. She couldn’t tell him, so she just kept lying, and now the hairs on her neck prickled every time she felt him looking at her.

She looked across Lance’s desk to where she’d plugged her phone in to charge. Suddenly anxious, she checked it.

Still dead. Useless piece of crap. As soon as it was charged, she was going to get in touch with Sean and make sure that he got the hell out of whatever shifter cartel he’d gotten involved with.

She gritted her teeth. Ten years ago, she wouldn’t have had a clue how to convince Sean of anything. But that last job they’d done together was good for something, after all.

He’s in over his head. He just doesn’t know it yet.

And if there was anything that Sean liked better than money, it was keeping his own skin safe.

Keeley double-checked that her phone was still plugged in and forced herself to stop staring at it. At least it had progressed from the lifeless brick stage to showing the little flashing battery symbol on the screen. Maybe, by lunchtime, it would have enough power for her to make a call.

She clenched her fist in her pocket, then forced herself to relax. She would fix this. God damnit, for once in her life, she was going to fix things, not run away.

It was the least she could do for Lance.

She turned away from her phone to see Harley leaning over Lance’s desk. Maggie was perched right in the center of the desk, visibly and loudly enjoying being the center of attention.

“It’s Maggie, right?”

He seemed entranced by the dragonling—entranced, but keeping his distance. He flexed his scratched-up hand as Lance placed the carryall on his desk.

“Short for Magpie,” Keeley explained, and blushed. The more she had to explain that, the stupider it seemed. “Um, except her uncle’s probably going to give her a better name.”

“Magpie, huh? Can’t think of a better name for a flying menace who likes shiny stuff.” He took a tentative step closer to the desk, and then apparently decided that the far wall was a safer location.

He flashed Keeley a smile from the other side of the room. “How are you holding up?”

“What?”

Harley shrugged. All of his movements were small and quick: his smiles, his shrugs, even the way he glanced at Lance before focusing his hazel eyes on Keeley again.

“I had the whole story from Grant last night. Explosions. Shootings. He said you seemed fine, but honestly? The guy can’t see past his mate right now.”

“I…” Keeley broke off as her phone buzzed on the desk. The usual lie died on the tip of her tongue. I’m fine.

One buzz. Two. Finally, her phone was charged enough to turn back on.

Except now that the moment was finally here, why was her stomach filling with dread?

Harley moved his weight from foot to foot. “Well. There’s something I should say while Lance is in earshot.”

Lance lifted his head at the sound of his name, and Harley laughed softly and raised his voice.

“We’re all damn happy you’ve turned up. Can’t tell you how long we’ve been waiting for someone to help Lance pull the stick out of his ass.”

“I haven’t noticed any sticks,” Keeley retorted absently, and Harley snickered.

Lance glared at them both. “Come over and help me with this, will you, Harley?”

“Aye aye, cap’n.”

Keeley watched as the two men unlocked the carryall. Maggie was almost beside herself, alternately chirping and hissing with impatience. Her claws left tiny chips in the desk’s polished surface as she jumped back and forth.

“Looking forward to seeing them again, huh?” Keeley reached out one hand, and Maggie snuggled her head against her palm. Then she grabbed one of Keeley’s fingers with her stubby teeth and pulled her hand closer to the carryall.

“You want me to open it?” Keeley exchanged a look with Lance. Maggie looked at him, too, cheeping what sounded like an order. Lance raised his eyebrows.

“Both of us,” he said. “If you don’t mind, Harley?”

Harley raised his hands. “Whatever the tiny monster says.”

They’d already unlocked the carryall; all Keeley had to do was pull it open and lift out the rectangular case inside, with Lance’s help. Maggie watched them, her golden eyes intent.

Harley made a noise that was half-amused, half-annoyed. “Your aunt’s going to be pissed. This case is meant to be water-proof, airtight, basically a portable, shifter-proof controlled environment. But Maggie saw through it before she even saw it.”

Lance shrugged. “Dragons. The more I find out about them, the more I think they just don’t play by the same rules as the rest of us.”

Keeley’s stomach clenched as she and Lance took hold of the case’s lid. It was so similar to the one she’d found Maggie’s egg in.

The one she’d almost left her in.

She swallowed hard and pulled open the lid. There was a moment’s resistance, and then the case opened with a soft hiss of air.

A lump lodged in Keeley’s throat. The inside of the case was exactly like the box she’d freed Maggie from. It was lined with a black velvety fabric that was warm to the touch and split into three sections, each with an indented part for a dragon’s egg to nestle. Two were full, the eggs gleaming softly in the light streaming through the office windows. One was empty.

Maggie climbed into the case, cheeping and pr-eeping as she sniffed the two eggs. Once she’d checked each of them over, she shot her neck out and chirped an order to Lance.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, pushing her hoard box over from where he’d placed it on the edge of the desk.

He caught Keeley’s eye, and her heart flipped. He looked so… happy. Not that she hadn’t seen him happy before—certain window- and bed-related activities came to mind—but this was something more.

He wasn’t just happy. He was confident, assured, utterly in his element. In power, and using that power to help people.

Her heart ached. Lance was so… good. She had to live up to that.

Her phone buzzed again, and again, and again. She grabbed at it and jabbed the volume button until it was on mute.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “Must be work, telling me how fired I am.” She shoved the phone back in her pocket, where it sat like a burning coal.

Lance leaned over and pressed his forehead against hers in a feline gesture that was, to her surprise, strangely comforting.

“I have to call Maggie’s uncle and tell him the good news,” he murmured. “Will you look after Maggie and the eggs?”

“Sure.”

“And Harley—make sure no one’s going to bust down our front doors over that helicopter on the roof?”

Harley gave a mock salute. “On it!”

Keeley caught Lance’s arm as he turned to leave. She waited until Harley was out the door, and then tugged him closer.

He pulled her into a hug, which hadn’t been her plan—and then kissed her. Which was, again, definitely not part of the plan.

But still really, really nice.

Lance’s lips were soft and gentle. He teased her lips with his tongue until she deepened the kiss, relaxing into his arms with a moan of surrender.

“Prr-eep?”

“Damn it,” Lance murmured into Keeley’s mouth. She giggled.

“Not in front of the baby?”

“The baby who’s got her claws in my—aargh.”

Lance reached behind himself and unhooked Maggie from the seat of his pants. She chittered at him and then scurried back to the other eggs.

Keeley snorted. “Someone doesn’t like not being the center of attention.” Her stomach went tight. If she was going to stick around, she had to do things right. Especially if she could convince Sean to double-cross his new business partner. “Lance—can we talk? Maybe after your call with Maggie’s uncle?”

Oh, good one, Keeley. Put it off. Like an extra few minutes is going to make him hate you less when you tell him who you really are.

She drew a shaky breath. “There’s—there’s a lot of things I think we should discuss.”

“I know.” Lance grimaced, his eyes soft. “These last few days have been crazy. I promise you, as soon as Maggie is back with her uncle and we know who’s behind the kidnapping, we’ll have all the time in the world together to get to know each other properly.”

He pulled her close again, nestling her head on his chest. His heartbeat thrummed against her cheek, a steady tattoo that made some of the worry ease from her own chest. “How would you like to go away somewhere together? Just us. We can get to know each other properly. Talk about all of the things that we would have been able to cover if we’d met under any other circumstances. I know this great place in the mountains. My snow leopard can’t wait to show it to you.”

“I’d really like that.” Which was so true, it made Keeley’s heart ache. “But can we talk this morning, first?”

“Of course.” Lance kissed her again and left for his meeting.

Keeley waited until the door closed behind him, then collapsed into his desk chair. “Holy f—fudge,” she groaned, burying her face in her hands.

Right. She’d done it. Step one. Or Step one-half, maybe. Tell Lance the truth, contact Sean, and… fix things. Fix all the shit she’d gotten wrong.

Her hand went to her pocket. Her phone must be charged now, what with how much it had been buzzing as all the messages she’d missed while it was dead came through. Some of those must have been from work. She could only imagine the messages her manager would have left for her when she didn’t show for two shifts in a row.

But—it had buzzed a lot. Even the hotel wouldn’t have called her that many times, would they?

Her fingers twitched. What else? Notifications for the podcasts she subscribed to, sure. Maybe some app updates.

Something in her gut told her that wasn’t all.

Sean had found her workplace. He knew where she lived. How hard would it have been to find out her phone number?

Keeley was about to pull her phone out of her pocket when someone knocked on the door. She snatched her hand away from her pocket like it was burning.

“Um, hello?”

A familiar face poked around the edge of the door. Carol Zhang, the shark shifter with the strange, flat-looking eyes. Her lips curved oddly, and it took Keeley a moment to figure out that she was smiling.

“Do you mind if I join you?”

“No, sure, come in.” Keeley put her hands on the table, like she’d never even thought of pulling out her phone. Christ. If there was a message on it from Sean—well, it would have to wait. No way she was risking one of Lance’s agents seeing it.

“How is the dragonling? Oh—the eggs are here, too?” Carol hesitated at the door, then seemed to flow into the room, stopping again a few feet from the desk. And when she stopped, she stopped. “They’re beautiful.”

Maggie popped her head up and cheeped in protest. Carol quickly corrected herself. “But not as beautiful as you.”

Maggie poked her tongue out at Carol and dove into her hoard box. When she emerged, she was trailing the sparkly scarf. Keeley and Carol watched as she dragged the scarf up to the closest of the eggs, dangled it in front of it, then yanked it away.

“What is she doing?” Keeley wondered out loud as Maggie narrowed her eyes at the egg and chittered to herself. “Can you, um, understand her?”

Carol shook her head. “She’s too young to mindspeak.”

“Oh.” Keeley thought about the strange brushes of emotion that seemed to press against her mind sometimes when she was around the baby dragon.

I must have been imagining it, she thought. Except—didn’t Lance feel them, too? And talk to her? She shook her head. She had far too much else to worry about without adding more questions.

Carol stood as still as a store mannequin, her eyes fixed on Keeley. “I wanted to check some details about the night you and Lance rescued the dragonling,” she said, holding a tablet in front of herself like a shield. “Do you have a minute?”

Keeley’s stomach turned over. “Sure.”

Carol slid into a seat on the opposite side of the desk. “It says here you didn’t see any of the attackers at the station.”

“No, like I said last night. Just—Maggie, and then the explosion, and then Lance grabbed me and took me outside.” That is what I said last night, isn’t it? Oh, shit. Why is she checking my story?

“But you saw them when they were chasing you later?” Carol looked down at her tablet and scowled. “Mr. MacInnis’ report isn’t… clear.”

“I…” Keeley met the shark shifter’s eyes and froze. “The first guy? Who tried to smash my skull in? I saw him after Lance tackled him?”

Why am I saying everything like it’s a question?

“And you saw Mr. MacInnis then, too?”

“Yes?”

Keeley licked her lips. Carol’s eyes were so dark and still—all of her was so still—it was unnerving. Weren’t sharks supposed to have to be on the move constantly or they couldn’t breathe, or something? Hadn’t she seen that on TV sometime?

Carol’s eyebrows drew closer together. “So you saw Mr. MacInnis then, too.”

“Yes?” How could she forget? He’d charged in and saved her.

“But he was shielded, and you weren’t. That should be impossible.”

“Uhh?” Oh, shit fuck shit.

Carol leveled her flat eyes at Keeley. “Unless…”

She’s figured it out. I’m fucked.

Keeley’s throat was dry. How could she be so stupid? She had known all it would take was one person figuring out how many holes her story had in it. And now—

Hang on. What were the holes in this bit of the story? Shielding? She didn’t know enough about how the shields worked to lie about it.

Carol’s face went smooth. “Unless the hatchling is already able to shield.”

“Oh, yeah.” Relief crashed down on Keeley. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure? And the teleporting too, that’s… pretty crazy…”

“Just hatched, and she can already shield. And teleport.”

“It’s pretty nuts, yeah.”

Keeley relaxed. She was being way too jumpy. Carol wasn’t trying to interrogate her. She just wanted…

What does she want? Keeley frowned. Carol was still tapping at her tablet. Her movements were creepily fluid, but Keeley got the feeling she wasn’t really concentrating on the written report.

“Anything else you wanted to ask?”

Carol’s eyes flickered. “No. The hatchling’s abilities are all I was missing.” A strange, dark look flashed across Carol’s face, and Keeley felt suddenly uneasy.

Because that was wrong. Maggie’s powers weren’t the only missing piece in the report. Hell, not even Keeley’s half-assed lies filled in all the gaps.

From what Lance had let slip over the last three days, the theft—the kidnapping—had been slick. Professional. They’d known exactly where the egg would be. And while the subway transfer might confuse Lance and his agents, Keeley knew exactly what that part of the plan had been. A handy way to get rid of the human link in the chain.

And all the other kidnappers had been shifters. Shifters who’d known exactly when to grab Maggie’s egg.

It was too much of a coincidence.

Everyone’s been talking about this Harper guy and his associates, she thought, dread curdling in her stomach. But what if it was an inside job?

Maggie chirruped happily as she flipped Lance’s watch from her hoard-box to dangle off the tip of her nose. Keeley didn’t miss how Carol’s eyes immediately focused on the baby dragon.

“Hey, cutey, what are you up to?” Keeley picked Maggie up and cuddled her, trying to quell the suspicions rising in her gut. “So, uh, was that all, Carol?” she asked, trying to keep her voice light.

What the hell is taking Lance so long?

“Almost. There was one other thing.”

“Oh, yeah?” Keeley leaned back, keeping her arms wrapped around Maggie. “What?”

She’s between me and the door, she thought. Shit.

In her arms, Maggie went still. “Prrp?”

“I’m sure you’ve guessed already,” Carol said, her eyes still fixed on Maggie. “After I barged in yesterday. God, I really screwed everything up, didn’t I? I’ve been so stupid.”

You and me both, lady. Keeley glanced around the room. Shifters could move fast, right? But maybe if she got the jump on Carol, she could throw something at her and get away.

Yeah, and then all she needs to do is shift and suddenly you’re facing a giant angry shark. I don’t care what Lance said about her not shifting out of the water.

“What’d you screw up?” she said out loud. “Didn’t you say you were tracking Lance? You did that. Mission accomplished, right?”

Carol’s lips went thin. “I wasn’t expecting to find him. Not alive, at least.” She reached into her blazer pocket and pulled out something that glinted in the light.

Keeley tried to get a better look at it, but Carol dropped her hand into her lap. “I was looking for the egg, not him.”

“You were looking for Maggie?” As if attracted by her name, Maggie started to wriggle free of Keeley’s grip. No—damn it, stay here, I don’t trust her…

Carol’s lips were white-rimmed with tension. “Well, we didn’t know she’d hatched at that point. Though we should have guessed. The whole site where Lance disappeared smelled like dragon.” Her eyes reflected the light coming in the windows. “That, and blood.”

“Yeah, thanks, I remember the blood. You don’t need to bring it up.” Keeley’s voice was scratchy. What was that in Carol’s hand? She kept turning it over and over, and it looked… sharp.

She tensed, scrambling to keep hold of Maggie.

“I thought he was dead.” Carol’s fingers tightened around the object in her hand. “And so did everyone else! And, and—”

Maggie gave one last giant wiggle and flapped onto the desk, in between Keeley and Carol.

The shark shifter’s mouth moved, but Keeley couldn’t hear what she was saying through the adrenaline buzz in her ears. Carol started forward, and Keeley leapt into action. She darted around the desk, sending papers flying.

Keeley jumped in between Carol and Maggie, ready to protect the helpless dragonling. Light reflected in a flash from the object in Carol’s hand as she flung her arms around her—and dropped her head onto Keeley’s shoulder with a sob.

“What sort of a tracker am I? Sharks are supposed to know when people are dead or not! Aren’t we?” she wailed. “Maggie isn’t even a week old and she can already shield people, and I can’t even smell if someone’s still alive?”

Keeley stood motionless as her shoulder became increasingly damp. Carol’s whole body shook with heaving sobs. “Um… is that a bad thing?”

“I have to be good for something! Lance is the first person to let me keep a job after I told him that I’m a shark shifter! And I just gave up on him!”

Keeley relaxed. God, I’m such a dumbass. Carol wasn’t some crazy person, here to kidnap Maggie. She was just regular fucked up, same as everyone else. With a special shifter twist.

“Hey,” she said softly, easing Carol off her shoulder. The shark shifter sniffled. Her face was blotchy and red, and her flat black eyes were swimming with tears. “Look, it all turned out okay, all right? I’m sure you’ll have another chance to show Lance how much the job means to you.” Her mind raced. “Maybe your next mission will be underwater?”

Carol sniffed. “I hope not. I hate being in my shark form.” She wiped her eyes and blinked blearily.

“Well, that’s something you and Maggie have in common, then. She hates being in her human form.”

On a sudden instinct, Keeley reached out and gave Carol a quick hug. “You okay?”

Carol hiccupped. “Yeah.” She hunched her shoulders. “Sorry for freaking out on you. I just—yesterday, and thinking the boss was dead and now he’s not, and not being a good shark and now the rest of the eggs are here, and you know what people say about sharks and babies…”

“I really don’t.” Keeley shrugged as Carol stared at her. “Seriously. I only found out about shifters a few days ago. Whatever they say about shark shifters and babies, it’s news to me.”

“Oh.” Carol pulled a tissue out of her pocket, blew her nose, and then settled back into her usual stillness. “It’s just nonsense, really. You know, in the wild, sharks eat their siblings in the womb before they’re born? Some people think it’s the same with shifters. Except, bonus, we also eat other people’s babies, too.” Her face darkened. “If any of that were true, maybe I wouldn’t have seven brothers.”

“Is that why it means so much to you that Lance gave you a job?” A golden warmth fluttered in Keeley’s chest. Of course Lance would do something like this. He was just so… good.

Not like you, a nasty voice in the back of her head added. The golden light inside her flickered.

Carol grimaced. “It’s not like I have a lot of other options, with my face.” She indicated her eyes and mouth. “I used to work for my family business—Dad does fishing charters—but I always wanted more. And Lance offered me that.”

Keeley swallowed. If Lance was willing to offer a chance to a shifter that everyone else distrusted, then maybe—

She forced the thought back. Nuh-uh. The difference between you and Carol is that she hasn’t actually done anything wrong.

“Prr-eep?”

“Ow…” Keeley held back a hiss of pain as Maggie clambered up her back onto her shoulders, but part of her—a big part—was glad of the distraction. “Hello, you. Did we stop paying attention to you for a whole minute? That was so mean of us. I definitely deserve to be—ow—climbed up.”

“She probably smelled this.” Carol held out her hand. Something gleamed bright and sharp, and Keeley flinched back before she saw what it was: a fancy gilt pen. “I thought, you know, she’s a dragon, so maybe she’d like it…”

“I think she’d definitely like it,” Keeley deadpanned. Maggie was wrapped around her shoulders, her long neck stretched out as far as it would go towards the shiny pen.

“Oh, do you?” Carol’s eyes gleamed. She reached into her bag again and rummaged around. “It’s a calligraphy pen. I brought some ink, too. Gold ink.”

She held the squat inkbottle in front of Maggie and shook it so the ink swirled around. Maggie’s eyes glowed like it was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen.

“Pr-eep!”