Chapter Thirteen
Kase
That was too easy.
He eyed the door out of the bedroom. Michelle wouldn’t be coming back through it. He’d heard the front door open and close, knew that she was gone.
No, not gone. Her car hadn’t started up yet, which meant she was still on the property. Kase had purposefully installed a gravel driveway for that exact reason. He liked to know if his enemies were approaching. Or friends, on the occasion he’d not felt like being bothered. It was easy for him to duck out the back and avoid any socialization he didn’t want.
Now it served as notice of when she decided to leave. What was she doing out there? More importantly, why had she been so agreeable to his suggestion that maybe it would be better if she left? What sort of agenda was she working on? It must have to do with his funding the lab.
“What else could it be?” he mused aloud, slipping from the bed and putting on some jeans.
Tightening the belt, he left the room, heading down the large curved staircase lost in thought, fingers tapping against the black powder-coated steel railing. Things didn’t quite add up.
First, there was the accusation from Michelle. While he had been in the lab that night, and Kase had been the one to erase the hard drives and cloud backups, that had been the extent of his intervention. The building was his, and everything inside of it was his. Breaking in wasn’t necessary. All he’d needed to do was use his key. He’d left the lab intact, which meant someone had come in after him and torn up the place.
Both the who and the why behind this mysterious player were still beyond Kase. His only idea so far was Jerrik. Could the Magistrate be the actual one behind that? In some sort of messed-up way, was he trying to play cupid to the two of them? Maybe he thought that with the lab destroyed, Kase would finally swoop in to save his mate.
“That’s stupid.” He discarded that theory. Jerrik had other things to occupy his time.
Then there was the thief who’d broken into his house. Another mystery. Or was it? What if they were related? What if they were the same person? Michelle had told him a little bit more about the break in. Of the desk through the wall, among other things. Whoever had done that possessed incredible strength.
Dragon strength.
Someone was following him. Watching him. Possibly even manipulating him. The problem was, Kase couldn’t figure out why. It was starting to bug him, but until he could figure out who the person was, there really wasn’t much he could do about it. That frustrated him. The strength of a dozen men or more, the ability to call liquid quicksilver from thin air, and in his dragon form the power to fly.
All of those gifts helped him exactly nil in his quest to understand what was going on.
Unless she’s right.
Kase snarled and turned away from the front door, moving deeper into his house as he cleared the bottom of the stairs. She wasn’t right. She couldn’t be right. Not about this. This was too real, too solid to be imaginary.
Just like the Outsiders in America had been real and solid.
“Shit.”
Kase no longer knew what he could trust, and what he couldn’t trust. Although he’d not lost complete control again since that fateful night, the signs were becoming clearer that maybe he wasn’t as in control as he’d hoped.
Michelle had seen that in him. Instead of running, however, she’d helped him. Calmed him.
He spun, looking back at the front door. Michelle. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so quick to send her away.
Long legs carried him quickly toward the door. Flinging it open, he called for her.
“MICHELLE!”
“I’m right here.”
“Holy shit!” he shouted, stumbling back into the house.
Michelle was still there. Right there. Next to the door, leaning against the stone wall.
“Ooooh, such a potty mouth. You are a bad boy.”
Now recovered, he managed to give her a reproving glare. “Ha ha.”
She grinned.
“What are you still doing here?”
“I was thinking.”
“Me too.”
“Bet that hurt.”
He glared at her again. “My, you’re in a mood this morning.”
“You kicked me out after we slept together.”
“You wanted to go,” he shot back, not willing to sit there and take her barbs. “Was it that bad?”
Her eyes sparkled. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to.”
Kase stuck out his tongue. “You don’t get a second helping of dinner if you didn’t enjoy it the first time.”
Michelle blinked first, turning away as her cheeks darkened slightly. He’d won that round.
“What were you thinking?” he asked, taking pity on her.
“That maybe I should stick around for a bit.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “If that’s okay with you, of course.”
He considered her proposition, pretending to give it deep thought. If he were to agree immediately, it would arouse suspicion in her, and perhaps make her less reluctant to stay near him. By taking his time, she would hopefully accept that he had given it thought, without realizing it was what he wanted as well.
Which was important because…because…
“Yes, I think I’d like that.” Screw it, he wanted her around, too. He enjoyed it, even. She was, after all, his mate. “I have to go talk to someone, if you’d like to come along?”
She shrugged, pushing off from the wall she’d been leaning on and standing upright. “Sure. I can drive.”
Kase tried not to laugh.
“What are you laughing about?”
Apparently his poker face wasn’t as good as he thought. “Just how do you expect me to fit in your clown car?”
She made a face. “So I have to drive in that massive behemoth of yours?”
“It’s a pickup truck. It’s not even lifted,” he protested. “Look at the size of me. I need something I’ll be comfortable in!” Since I can’t fly around in my other form.
“Fine, fine. Who are we going to talk to?” she asked. “And aren’t you going to put on a shirt?”
He glanced down. He was only wearing jeans. “Right. Let me get dressed.”
She followed him upstairs. Evidently they were now comfortable around each other in various states of undress. He recalled a fond memory from the night before, when he’d first seen Michelle completely undressed.
“Do I get to find out who we’re going to talk to before we arrive, or is this some sort of mystery I have to solve?”
He smiled into a shirt as he pulled it over his head. “We’re going to talk to a sort of parole officer.” Kase turned to look at her. “Because like you said, I’m a baaadddd boy.”
Michelle groaned. “No, seriously.”
“I was being serious,” he said, dancing around her and heading back outside, not waiting around.
“Wait,” she called.
He kept walking, forcing her to hurry to keep up with him. She caught up to him halfway to the truck.
“You are serious, aren’t you?”
Kase winked. “Real bad,” he teased.
“You’re impossible.”
“So you don’t want to come along?”
“You haven’t opened the door for me yet,” she joked, pointing at the locked truck.
He shook himself. “Of course. Your chariot awaits!”
Michelle laughed. “Giggled” would be closer. It was a lovely sound—light, airy, and lifted his heart. This wasn’t so bad. He could get used to this.
It would be dangerously easy.