Chapter 13
“Shelby.” Broderick’s voice broke into Daniel’s spinning thoughts. “I need you to look at something.”
His gut tightened at the fear playing in her eyes, but instead of crumpling, she blew out a steadying breath and lifted her chin slightly.
She slipped her small hand into his, leading him toward the massive communication area set into the corner of the cave. Dallas and Broderick shifted from their spots in front of the computer screens to give her room.
She glanced up at Daniel before she moved in, her hand still wrapped around his. He grunted his approval, pleased at the way she needed him by her side.
“Okay.” She sent both dragons a smile, before she leaned in. “What am I looking at?”
To Daniel’s surprise, Dallas stepped between her and the screen, his arms crossed over his chest as Broderick glanced over his shoulder at him. Stay close.”
Daniel scowled at them, a low growl rumbling in his chest as he automatically hooked his free arm around Shelby’s waist. The other hand still possessively held hers. He didn’t need to explain shit, and they knew better than to give him orders. “You have two seconds to explain what the hell is going on before I start knocking heads together for scaring her.”
While Dallas winced but didn’t move, Broderick spun in his chair so he was facing them. “I’ve compiled all the video footage of the shooting I could find, from every angle I could access.” He hesitated, his gaze finding Shelby’s. “I’m going to go frame by frame through this a couple of times. We’re going to start with the people you know, the people you recognize so we can start deleting them from the footage. From there, we’ll start narrowing down who doesn’t belong.”
Shelby nodded immediately. “Alright. Should I sit?”
“Yeah.” Broderick cleared his throat. Daniel watched as Dallas took the hint, moving out of the way, while offering Shelby the only other chair at the console. She smiled at him, but Daniel didn’t miss the way she warily watched all of them. For as little as she was, she had to feel like giants were overrunning her life.
* * * *
Shelby wasn’t naive enough to believe any of these mountain-sized dragon-men were harmless. They seemed nice enough, but the power they threw off was overwhelming. She could feel it in the air, a subtle shift whenever their moods changed. Daniel trusted them, though, and she trusted Daniel. If there was something she should be worried about, he’d have warned her by now.
So with a nod, she accepted the offered seat and looked expectantly at Broderick, a serene smile plastered on her face. “You have actual video footage of the shooting?”
“What the hell are you thinking, Broderick?” Daniel asked, quietly, the callused pad of his thumb rubbing lightly at the inside of her wrist, calming her. “’t need to see this shit.”
Broderick nodded once. “I edited that part out. I just want her checking out the crowd of people so we can start narrowing down suspects.”
“Daniel, it’s fine,” she murmured, lifting her head to see his darkened face. He looked close to violence. “I handled being shot. I can handle seeing it happen.”
“I don’t care.” He scowled at her, his feet planted in that stubborn, pain-in-the-ass way he had. “You don’t need to see it.”
She swiveled the chair so she could see him better without hurting her neck. His hand clamped down around hers. Though it wasn’t exactly hurting, his grip was tight enough to worry her. This was genuinely freaking him out.
“Hey.” She tugged on his fingers gently. “I’m not breakable, Daniel.”
He sneered. “Bullshit. Your body is still recovering, and you sure as hell don’t need to tax it anymore by being stressed out about this.”
“But I’m not stressed out,” she replied calmly, deciding not to mention the wound had completely healed over. She didn’t think it would matter.
His face was set like stone. “What good is going to come from watching the footage? If you can give me a solid reason, I’ll back off.”
Her nose wrinkled as she tried to think. Damn him, he would have to go logical on her. She couldn’t even come up with why she wanted to see the footage so badly. There was just a niggling suspicion it was important. “I don’t know,” she murmured honestly. “Maybe there’s something in it only I would be able to recognize?”
“Like what? We already know the shooter was in front of you.”
She pressed her free palm to her eye. This was too hard. If only she could remember…but she couldn’t. The information, the memory, whatever was gone. “I don’t know,” she repeated. “It could be important.”
He nodded once. “Then Broderick and I can go over it later. You don’t need to see it.”
“What about you?” she asked, as she shot to her feet and rounded on him. She pulled her hand free of his grip so she could plant her fists on her hips in an effort to make herself seem bigger, more intimidating. “You didn’t get any rest last night to recover from all the energy you gave me, plus you flew us how many freaking miles? You need rest right now more than I do. You think watching this isn’t going to tax your body? Like you can handle going off into a rage at the moment.” Not that he couldn’t, she was sure he’d be fine, but the problem was she had no idea how they’d stop him if he did decide to do something about what he saw. If he was the king, she didn’t know how much more power it gave him over the others.
“Yeah, well.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s different.”
“Really?” She snorted, mimicking his stance. “How?”
“I’m used to functioning under this much stress and energy loss, princess. You’re not.” She didn’t reply. She couldn’t. She wasn’t sure she wouldn’t hurt him if she did.
“Uh, dude,” Bain cut in. “She’s twitching. You might want to back off a little.”
“No.” Shelby seethed the word out as she glared up at Daniel, before she let her temper out on a low growl. “He’s worried about me. I get it.” She sighed as her hand reached out, her fingers tangling with his. “But you need to understand I worry about you, too. So I won’t dismiss your fears if you don’t dismiss mine.”
Daniel’s gr
a
e
y gaze bored into hers. “So how do we solve this?”
She went on her toes to kiss his throat. Unless he was leaning toward her, it was the highest she could reach. “We find a way to compromise.” She looked at Broderick over her shoulder. “Can you blur me out of the footage, but keep everyone else in focus?”
He nodded once, already at work at the keyboard. “Yeah. No problem.”
She smiled at him, before turning her attention back to Daniel. “You know,” she murmured, quietly enough only he could hear her, “you make it really hard not to like you when you keep scowling at me all the time.”
His lip lifted in a sneer, something in the depths of his eyes shutting off. “I don’t mean
to.”
“Hey,” she murmured, pulling his face down to hers, “I like it. I can’t explain it, but nobody scowls at me. Nobody argues with me. Nobody does anything but smile at me, then rush to do my bidding, even when I am just talking out loud. It makes me feel…I don’t know, safe, I guess, when you scowl at me. Like I’m in the realm of normal and don’t have to be perfect.”
“You’re not making sense, princess,” he said quietly. “How is this anywhere near normal?”
She let out an unladylike snort. “My last male co-star spends more a month on his hair than I do, and he has less than Bain over there. His studio contract has a clause that assures he gets daily manis and pedis, along with weekly facials. He has a stunt double because his face is insured for enough money to make you cry.” She let out a harsh laugh. “Trust me. Nothing about my life in Hollywood is normal. At least you guys act like men.”
He didn’t move for so long, Shelby started to worry she’d offended him somehow. Then he hooked his arm around her waist and lifted her, only to deposit her in the office chair. Leaning down, he growled quietly in her ear, the sheer power behind the sound making her shiver. “I like you too.” Then he turned the chair around to face the computer screen. “Let’s do this.”
Shelby nodded at Broderick. “You heard my mate. Let’s do this.”
As she waited for whatever Broderick wanted to show her, she reached her hand up over her shoulder. The second he wrapped his around it, she smiled, lacing their fingers together.
* * * *
Shelby didn’t know how long they sat there, going over every second of video footage, frame by frame, from every angle Broderick could find. Which, considering the sources he had to download from, were many.
Her head was hurting, her back was stiff from hunching over for so long, and her eyes felt gritty. Broderick showed no signs of wearing down, but Daniel’s impatient warning sounds were getting more pissed off by the minute. He hooked his arm around her waist, lifting her out of the chair and settling himself in it, before getting her comfortable in his lap. When she tried to wiggle into a more comfortable position, his large hands clamped around her hips, holding her in place.
She didn’t know what they were looking for. She’d pointed out friends, the people who worked for her, the paparazzi and journalists she’d recognized. Broderick took careful notes, but Shelby wasn’t sure they’d accomplished anything.
Shifting back on Daniel’s lap slightly, Shelby rolled her neck in an effort to work out the knots. She glanced at Broderick. “I don’t know. Can you play the first video of me being shot from the beginning?”
“Shelby--” Daniel started, his voice a low warning.
“I know,” she murmured. “I just can’t see anything out of the ordinary. No one’s acting weird before, like they were waiting for the bullet to hit, or standing out of the way.”
“Give me a minute.” One of his hands rubbed absently at the back of her neck as he leaned toward the nearest monitor. “Enlarge this.” He tapped the screen. “Who’s she?”
Shelby dropped her head so he could work out the knot at the base of her neck. “You don’t recognize her? Wow.” Her brow furrowed when she felt both men turn to stare at her.
“Okay, it’s Alicia Kincade.”
“You’re related?”
“She’s my half-sister, but we’re not close.” Shelby shook her head. “I don’t know her very well. She’s new to Hollywood, and it was her first part. Since I was the only person from filming she kept in contact with, she called a couple of days ago to ask if she could ride with me to the premiere.” She shrugged, aware of the way they were all gaping at her. “It was her first one. She was nervous.”
Daniel frowned. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“I have a couple. We’re not close.”
“Why do you think I’d recognize her?” he asked.
Shelby told herself it was ridiculous to be jealous. “”
“Fucking hell, that’s where I knew those--ah, her face,” Broderick chuckled. “She’s been on every billboard and magazine in the country for the last two years.”
Shelby looked up at Daniel, who was still watching the footage. “She has. She’s, um, well, she’s very nicely made.”
“I’ll say,” Broderick drawled.
Shelby ignored them, while doing her best to pretend she wasn’t watching Daniel’s face for a reaction to Alicia’s goddess-like body.
“Dallas, come here.” When the other dragon came up behind them, Daniel jerked his head at Broderick. “Play it back, but stop it before Shelby gets out of the limo.”
If any of them noticed the way Shelby’s body stiffened, none of them spared her a glance.
Instead, all three of them leaned forward in unison, watching footage replay.
Dallas leaned forward even more, his head cocked and his silver-green eyes narrowed.
“Again.”
Shelby did not need to be there while they obsessed about a woman who spent her time in nothing more than a bra or bathing suit. Even if it was her sister. When he let her go without so much as a glance as she slipped off his lap, she muttered something about needing the restroom.
She darted into the main area of the house just as they called for Luca.
She didn’t give in to the stupid tears burning at her eyes until the bathroom door had firmly shut behind her. This was so ridiculous. She knew it. Really she did. She’d experienced this with every other man she’d dated while being in Hollywood. She’d expected Daniel to
be…well…
Different. Better.
Because he was. She wasn’t naive enough to think he hadn’t risked his life by healing her yesterday. He’d barely been able to stand or hold his eyes open for most of the day, but he’d done it because she’d needed him.
Sniffling pathetically, she dragged the back of her hand under her eyes. Damn. He was such a good man. So what if he was drooling over her sister. No one was perfect, were they?
She should have known this would eventually be a problem. It always was, because people always found out she didn’t exist anywhere except for on the screen. She was pretty to look at, but she had no personality beyond what she’d learned in her various roles. She didn’t know how to be a mate, a wife, or a normal human being. Let alone the queen of an entire race of mythical beings. It was a rol
e
l
she’d never played, and it left her feeling empty.
“Shelby.”
She cursed at Daniel’s quiet voice, and dashed over to the sink. She splashed water on her face, pulled a Scarlet O’Hara and pinched her cheeks, then plastered her sweet, media-friendly smile on her face as she opened the door.
“We found the--what the hell, woman?” He bellowed. “Why are you crying now?”
Her mouth dropped open. No one ever saw past her smile. “What did you find?”
“The shooter. Why are you crying?”
Her hand snagged his as the jealousy that had been building in her chest faded. “Who?”
“Alicia. Why were you crying?”
A weird buzzing started in her head. Nausea welled up so fast, she had to reach a hand out to steady herself against the sink. “Daniel, that’s insane. She’s my sister.”
“We all watched the footage and we all saw the exact same thing. She didn’t pull the trigger, but she knew it was coming.” He took a step in, taking up all her space. The pad of his thumb gently wiped at her tears. “Why were you crying?”
“I was jealous. Daniel, are you sure?”
Real confusion flickered in his eyes. “Jealous of what?”
“Well...” she made a face, embarrassment staining her cheeks pink. “Of Alicia. I thought you were watching her just to watch her.” She shook her head before he could react, and just rushed on. “You’re sure it was her? Why would she want me dead?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure as hell going to find out. Stop crying, damn it. I couldn’t even tell you what color the woman’s hair is. No one else exists in this world for me except you, princess, so get used to it.”