Chapter Seven
This was crazy. Nic knew he should be getting Constance out of this place and home. She was terrified for her sister and emotionally distraught. He was a bastard for taking advantage of the situation. But he couldn’t stop.
She was shivering, so he wrapped his arms around her, surrounding her in his warmth. He hated the idea of her being cold.
Her lips were warm and soft, so soft. He licked at the bottom one and then the top, savoring her unique taste before delving inside. She tasted…perfect and right. He couldn’t explain why. It just was. She made a small sound in the back of her throat but didn’t stop him.
He knew this wasn’t the time or the place to act on his physical needs, but he couldn’t seem to stop. His dragon would keep watch, alert him if anyone came around.
Nic knew he’d already killed everyone else who was here.
And that brought him back down to reality with a thud. He didn’t want Constance around if the cops came, or in the more likely scenario that the Knights would send a cleanup crew. They wouldn’t want the local authorities to stumble over the bodies of their men. As careful as they were, there might be something to lead them back to Dent. That was something the high-ranking member of the Knights of the Dragon would not, could not, allow.
With great reluctance, Nic pulled away. Constance’s breathing was erratic, her face flushed. She raised her fingers to her lips. “Why?” She swallowed heavily. “Why did you do that?”
“Because I had to.” Taking her hand, he led her back to the main door. “Wait here.” He stepped outside and looked around. He almost growled in frustration when she ignored his instructions and stepped out behind him.
“They won’t shoot me.” She sounded calm and in control once again.
“Don’t bet on it,” he warned her. If the cleanup crew was out there, it was likely they’d take a shot and try to grab the statues.
“I am.” He glanced over his shoulder to find her holding the crystal dragon aloft, ready to drop it at the first threat.
He smiled. He liked the way she thought on her feet, able to adapt to a changing situation. “Let me check your van. Stay behind me,” he cautioned. Better to be safe than sorry.
“You they’ll probably shoot,” she muttered under her breath.
This was not the time to tell her it didn’t matter. They could shoot him all they wanted. It might hurt momentarily in his human form, but the second he shifted to his dragon, he’d be fine.
She did stay behind him, which proved she was an intelligent woman. The van didn’t look like it had been tampered with, but these guys were pros. Nic took a deep breath and inhaled, searching through the various scents that assailed his nostrils. He didn’t pick up the scent of any other males or females around the vehicle.
“I’m going with you,” he informed her.
“What about your car?”
“I’ll have someone pick it up.” That he’d even consider leaving his precious car in a random parking lot was a sign of just how much she meant to him.
She climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut behind her. When he was settled into the passenger seat beside her, she turned to him. “Tell me where you parked, and I’ll drop you off. You can follow me home.”
As much as he hated to leave her alone, her suggestion made sense. “You’ll let me know if you get another call from Dent? You won’t keep it from me, will you?” That was what worried him the most.
She shook her head. “No. I won’t keep it from you.”
He decided to trust her. The short drive was silent and uneventful. As much as Nic hated to leave her alone, it would be better if he had his own vehicle in case he needed to move fast. And his Charger would go a hell of a lot faster than her ancient van.
She kept the engine running when she pulled in at the curb. Nic leaned over and dropped a quick, hard kiss on her lips. “Wait for me.” With every instinct he possessed telling him to stay, Nic got out and walked to his car.
…
Constance watched as Nic checked over his vehicle before climbing in. Her lips were still warm from his kiss while the rest of her body was ice cold with worry. She knew in her heart that Dent had never planned to have her sister at the drop.
“Don’t think that way,” she told herself. When Nic waved at her, she put the van in gear and started to drive. If she started believing Dent would kill her sister, Constance would lose her mind.
Things couldn’t have gone any worse. Dent knew about Nic and wasn’t happy, he still had her sister, and most likely several of his men were dead. She didn’t want to think about that. What kind of a world had she stumbled into that men went around armed with sniper rifles ready to shoot an unarmed woman?
Sure, she knew bad things happened every day. All you had to do was turn on the news. And Las Vegas certainly had a dark underbelly of drugs, high-stakes gambling, and prostitution, but that wasn’t a world she lived in, even though she’d been raised here. Like any city, Vegas had good neighborhoods where folks raised their families. The Strip was only a small part of the community. It was the part that assured the financial solvency of the city, but there was so much more to the place than that.
Fingers wrapped tightly around the wheel, Constance drove home with the crystal statue in her lap. Better to be prepared if something happened. By the time she pulled into the driveway, her nerves were pulled tighter than a guitar string.
She was ready to snap at any moment.
Nic was behind her when she entered the house. Thankfully, Mrs. Karsh was nowhere around. She had to be out visiting friends or shopping, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to resist introducing herself to Nic, especially since this was his second visit today.
Constance found herself sitting on the couch with the statue tucked back inside her bag, not quite sure how she’d gotten there. Even with her sweater on, she was cold. It had nothing to do with the temperature of the house and everything to do with the chill in her soul.
“I have to get my sister back.” She looked at Nic, willing him to understand. “There’s nothing more important.”
Nic strode around the room, searching it and occasionally peering out the windows. “We will.”
She ignored his reassurance. He couldn’t promise her that. No one could. “What are you looking for?”
“Cameras, bugs.” He shrugged and kept looking.
Hadn’t she wondered the same thing earlier? “The workroom. If they are anywhere, that’s where they’ll be.” She stumbled to her feet and down the hallway, coming to a halt in the doorway. The place had been wrecked.
Fabric was strewn everywhere. Constance cried out and would have fallen to her knees if Nic hadn’t caught her. It was like seeing Abigail hurt to see her sister’s precious stock of vintage fabrics tossed around like garbage.
China and crystal had been smashed onto the floor. The worktable had been upended. Abigail’s sewing machine was in pieces.
Her gaze flew to the closet. The door was wide open. The safe. She practically ran across the room. The metal door was hanging off its hinges.
Nic looked around her. “They took a chance and blew the lock. Dent must be getting desperate. Old safes like this are tough. They could have potentially damaged or destroyed anything inside. This took skill.” He peered inside. “Did they get anything?”
She forced herself to look. Her grandpa’s watch was on the floor, the dial smashed. His cuff links looked as though they’d been crushed beneath someone’s boot heel, and his wedding ring was gone.
“Constance?” Nic’s tone was sharp.
“Um, Grandpa’s wedding ring is gone. The other keepsakes we had from him have been destroyed. The folder with our personal papers is here.” She told him the truth. “There wasn’t anything of value in there. I had the statues with me.”
Nic slowly turned and pinned her with his dark gaze. “There were four statues originally. They think you have more.”
She shrugged, trying to look confused. She wanted to run to her sister’s room and check on the statues she’d hidden there, but a part of her still didn’t trust Nic. While her instincts were telling her she could, Abigail’s life was too important to risk. “Why would they think that?”
Nic took a step closer, looming over her. The man certainly could loom. He was big and dark and very scary when he got this intense. “You weren’t surprised by the fact there are more statues.”
She shook her head. “The man, Dent, mentioned there were more when he first contacted me.” Neither man needed to know she had two more. They were the only bargaining chips she had to keep her sister alive.
Nic didn’t look as though he was going to back away. She needed something to distract him. She reached under her sweater and shirt. “I did get this at the same time.” She pulled out the necklace. The silver and emeralds sparkled in the sunlight streaming in through the windows.
As if in a trance, Nic reached out a hand and ran his index finger over the metal before touching one of the gems. He swallowed heavily. There was more emotion from him over the necklace than there had been over the statues.
No, that wasn’t true. The emotions were vastly different but just as intense. The statues made him angry. What she sensed from him now was great sadness.
“Nic?”
“Do you have any idea what these are?” His fingers grazed the gemstones, his manner almost reverent.
“Emeralds.”
He shook his head. “They’re so much more.”
She was totally bewildered. “Then what are they?”
“It was with the statues, wasn’t it?” Looked like he was going to ignore her question. Her brow furrowed. How could he have known she’d found the items together?
“Yes. They were all in a box in the basement away from the rest of the items for sale.”
Nic’s gaze sharpened. “Then how did you find them?”
Great, now he was suspicious of her. “Do you think I’m one of those damn Knights of the Dragon, or whatever it is they call themselves? I find things, okay?”
“What do you mean, you find things?”
“It’s a talent. I always seem to know where there is something special hidden in a vintage store, a thrift shop, a garage sale—”
“Or an estate sale,” he finished for her.
She nodded. “Yes. Grandpa was the same, although he said I was better at it than him. He also told me to use the talent sparingly. Expensive items usually bring trouble with them.” She fingered the necklace.
“Your grandpa sounds like he was an intelligent man.”
“He was.” Constance had made a decision. It wasn’t going to be easy to enforce, but she had to try. “You need to leave.”
Nic’s dark brows lowered, and his forehead furrowed. “I’m not leaving you alone.”
“What if Dent doesn’t call because you’re here?” It was a real concern. “He knows you want the statues.”
…
Nic was afraid that Dent knew more about him by now. Not that he’d find much beyond the fact that he was a gambler and a collector. “What’s to stop Dent’s men from grabbing you the second I’m gone.”
“There’s nothing to stop them.”
That bothered Nic. But they’d had the opportunity to do so when she’d originally come home. They could have taken her instead of her sister. There was something more to this situation. Something Nic knew he was missing.
Still, Constance might be right. He made a decision. “I’ll pretend I’m leaving and park down the road.”
“Dent will have men watching,” she pointed out.
“Don’t push me. I don’t want to leave.” He fingered the necklace one final time before tucking it back under her shirt. “Keep this safe.”
She slipped the double long chain over her head and handed it to him. “You keep it safe.” The gems glittered as they hung from her hand.
Nic stilled. “You’re sure?”
She shook her head. “Yes. Take it.”
Nic could tell she was conflicted. He sensed she had an attachment to the piece. He almost left it with her, but if he had it, it would be one thing she wouldn’t be worried about protecting.
Then there was the fact he didn’t like seeing another drakon’s tears wrapped around her neck. Jealousy wasn’t a pretty emotion. As much as he treasured the necklace of a fellow drakon, he wanted to destroy it rather than see Constance wear it.
Drakon tears were meant to adorn the body of the woman who’d caused them. A drakon cried only at times of great sorrow and only for love. Whatever woman this necklace had been crafted for was long dead, along with her drakon. There was no other possible explanation for why it had been with the statues.
But that wasn’t quite true. Nic himself had shed drakon tears once in his life. He’d still been a boy when his mother had cast him out of their home and village. She’d been afraid of him, of what he’d become. To protect her own place in the village, she’d shunned him along with the others.
He’d wandered out in the desert to die, but drakons didn’t die easily. The heat that would have killed a normal man had wrapped around him like a comforting blanket. He’d shed bitter tears for the loss of his mother’s love. Not that he’d ever truly had it.
When his brothers had found him, he’d been half buried in scorching sand and surrounded by precious rubies. They’d used those gemstones to get a foothold in the world, since they’d all been abandoned by their dragon sire and their human mothers.
It was conceivable that other drakons had sold their tears in the early years. Maybe the drakon who’d shed them was still alive.
He took the necklace from Constance’s hand and tucked it into the pocket of his leather jacket. “I’ll make sure it stays safe,” he promised. He’d ship it off to Tarrant as soon as possible. No one could get into his brother’s fortress. Plus, Tarrant was an air drakon. He should be the one guarding it. Emeralds came from air drakons.
“Promise you’ll call me the second you hear anything?”
She nodded. “I promise.”
He didn’t know if he could trust her to keep her word, but he had to leave, if only for a few hours. Because she was right, Dent would see him as a competitor. A dangerous one. If Nic hung around, Dent might become even more suspicious and suspect Nic was more than he seemed. Why else would he be so keen to get the statues? Why else would he kill for them?
Nic knew he’d made a tactical error when he’d killed those men, but his overriding instinct had been to protect Constance, no matter the cost. He feared the cost just might be his life.
She was standing there in her jeans and sweater looking more beautiful than any woman had a right to. In spite of the danger of the situation, or maybe because of it, he wanted to pick her up and take her back to his hotel room where he could strip her naked and make love to her all night long. He wanted to know what she looked like under her clothes.
He already knew her skin was soft and that her lips tasted like heaven. He wanted to learn the shape of her breasts, the color of her nipples. His erection was making his jeans uncomfortable. Every muscle in his body was taut and ready for action. His dragon was restless, wanting out so it could protect Constance.
She was the most dangerous creature he’d ever met. And the most beautiful. Other men might disagree, but that was because they were blind and foolish. There was something about her that drew him.
And she had a talent that most others didn’t have. His brothers and their women had speculated on that. All the women who had attracted his brothers had a psychic gift to some extent. And now there was Constance with her ability to find the special among the junk.
And look what she’d found.
Those statues had started all this. And now the Knights were involved, and he was on their radar. Was it fate? Nic didn’t know. What he did know was that he needed some space and time to think. And he couldn’t do that with her standing right next to him.
“Nic?”
He pulled himself away from his thoughts and focused on the woman who occupied them. He should just turn and leave. That would be the smart thing to do.
He grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her forward until her breasts were smashed against his chest. He’d never hated clothing as much as he did at this moment. He slammed his mouth down on hers and kissed her.
Years of loneliness, of want and need, came pouring out of him. There was no way to stem the tide once their lips touched.
She slipped her hand around to the back of his neck and kissed him back, their breath mingling, their tongues tangling. He tasted her passion and her fear. It was a heady combination. She might not trust him all the way, but she was starting to.
That was only fair, because he didn’t totally trust her, either. Unlike his brothers, he wasn’t about to jump into bed with a woman he’d just met, no matter how attracted to her he was, no matter how much his heart longed to do so. He was going to be smart.
He ran his hands over her back and cupped her sweet behind. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t being as smart as he should be. But he needed something to get him through the next couple of hours.
He was going to worry about her. If something happened to her while he was gone, he wasn’t sure he could live with himself. Maybe he should just find Dent and his men and rescue her sister on his own.
Tarrant could help him with that. Then he could figure out what to do about his overwhelming attraction to Constance.
Nic pulled away and struggled to catch his breath. “I’ve got to go.”
She gulped and nodded. “Okay.” Her eyes were unfocused, her lips moist, and her cheeks a pale pink. He wanted to take her to bed more than he wanted his next breath.
“Call me.” Order given, he turned and stalked down the hallway and out the front door. He didn’t look back. If he did, he knew he’d never be able to leave her.