“Darling, I know that you have Southern manners, but could you kindly use more caution on the plate?”

Sawyer looked up and scowled, deliberately dropping the fork on the china so it clattered angrily.

It had been three days since Anders had abruptly left without so much as a goodbye, and she had yet to hear a word from him. Her concern had dissolved into annoyance, which had become full-fledged ire, and Vander was the only one in sight to unleash it upon. She knew it wasn’t his fault, of course, but it didn’t stop her from being irrational.

“If my eating offends you,” she snapped, “I can retreat to my hole, and you can feed me through a slot.”

“Sawyer, I know you’re upset, dear, but this teenage rebellion thing is growing tiresome, especially when we have work to do.”

Sawyer glared at him balefully. “So now I’m just sitting around doing nothing?” she growled. “Maybe I should just go home, then.”

Vander groaned loudly and also placed his fork onto his plate, albeit with far more finesse than Sawyer had displayed.

“Is that what you want?” he demanded, his face losing its usually bemused expression, a cold look replacing it. “I can arrange for that.”

She was surprised by his tone and instantly checked her own.

“I brought you here for a purpose,” Vander continued, “not for you to sulk around. I warned you about Anders Williams, and you thought you were impervious to his charms. Look where that got you.”

Sawyer gritted her teeth, but said nothing, knowing that everything Vander said was true. She had been acting like a brat in the wake of Anders’ leaving, and she had no reason to expect her benefactor to accept it. She had agreed to find the dragons, and she had done very little research and too much moping about.

“Well?” Vander insisted when she did not answer. “Should I arrange for your flight?”

“No,” she sighed. “And you’re wrong. I have been working.” Just not at full capacity.

Gingerly, she picked up her fork and resumed eating as Vander eyed her curiously. “You have been?”

“Yes. I have been looking into the fires here in New York. The way we tracked the dragon in France was through the patterns of the fires. We managed to get a hold on the location based on the area, and I’m hoping to do the same here.”

Vander’s eyebrows rose. “And? What have you learned?”

“There’s no real rhyme or reason to the blazes,” Sawyer said. “They were all over the place and at different establishments. I feel like they were random targets.”

Vander exhaled in disappointment. “So you have nothing,” he concluded, and Sawyer bristled.

“I didn’t say that,” she replied shortly. “I’m looking at a different angle.”

Vander waited, but Sawyer suddenly wished she had not said anything at all. Some days, she felt as if she couldn’t trust the bald billionaire, as if there was something else going on beneath the surface that she didn’t understand.

Ever since he had told her the story about his lover turning on him, Sawyer could not shake the feeling that there was more to the whole ordeal, but it was not information she was going to get by asking him. She just needed to do what she did best: track the truth alone.

“What angle?” Vander grumbled, apparently not appreciating his own tactics being used on himself. He was the king of evasive answers.

“I don’t know if it’s anything yet,” she responded. “And I don’t want to jinx it.”

“Well,” he sighed. “Let me know how I can help. Obviously, all of my resources are at your disposal.”

Sawyer’s dark eyes darted downward, and she swallowed the question burning the insides of her mouth. A part of her wondered if Vander had driven Anders out of the house, but the notion was ridiculous. Anders was a grown man. He was not going to be bullied by Vander Kinrade, no matter what.

Nothing happened except that Vander’s prophecy came true, she thought. Anders must have been laughing at me when I told him that Vander warned me about him. I’m such an idiot.

“Sawyer, I know you’re upset,” Vander offered tentatively. “But the best thing you can do right now is put all that energy into something constructive. Like finding Hemming.”

Her head jerked up, and she looked at him. “You know it’s Hemming we’re looking for?”

Vander seemed to realize his gaffe and quickly shook his head.

“Well, no—I—ah, it could be anyone in his weyr. I just had Hemming on my mind, I suppose, in light of what happened with Anders.”

Sawyer’s jaw locked, and she continued to stare at Vander, her mind whirling. She had been right. Hemming broke Vander’s heart, but the similarities between Anders and Hemming ended there. Anders was not a cold-blooded dragon, a killer of the innocent. Hemming was a monster. Why would Vander ever compare the two?

Again, Sawyer was plagued by the sensation that there was much more going on than she understood.

“I’m going back to the guesthouse,” she announced, placing her napkin on the table and rising. “I just want to check on something.”

“Of course,” Vander agreed, appearing grateful that she was leaving. “Let me know if you need anything.”

She nodded and retreated through the back of the massive house toward the double French doors that led to the conservatory. The last of the afternoon sun had given way to evening, and as she burst through the doors into the yard, Sawyer inhaled the sweetness of the late spring air.

A pang of sadness swept through her, but she immediately silenced it, determined not to think about Anders in any form that night.

How hard would it have been to say goodbye if he had to go? How hard would it have been to send me a damn text?

“Stop it!” she growled to herself out loud, hoping the words would make her stop missing him. It seemed to help a small bit.

When she retreated to the living room of the guesthouse for her laptop, it wasn’t there.

That’s weird, Sawyer thought to herself.

A quick search of the guesthouse proved fruitless, but when she retraced her steps back out to the poolside, the silver device sat closed on a stone table.

Sawyer’s eyes darted up, and she looked around, her pulse quickening. She was certain she had not left it there. She hadn’t even been sitting on that side of the water that day.

Someone had been looking through the laptop.

A twinge of uncertainty slid through her, and she gazed about again, the hairs on her arms rising as she wondered if she was being watched. There was really only one person who would have any interest in what she was looking for, but she had already discussed everything with Vander. Why would he be spying on her?

Moreover, how long had he been spying on her?

A prickle of alarm coursed through her body as something else occurred to her. Was that why he had asked Anders to stay with them? To keep her distracted from the fact that he was watching her? He had confessed to having eyes on her for months, so why would he stop now?

Sawyer felt like a double fool, her mind weaving a conspiracy theory that involved Anders being a ploy all along, and she was finding it difficult to breathe. She sank onto the chair beside the computer and eyed the device, unsure if she wanted to open it again, but the need to learn what she had wrapped herself up in was too much to bear.

You’ve come this far, she thought, chewing on the insides of her cheeks to keep herself from screaming. You may as well go the whole way.

Slowly, Sawyer opened the laptop and began to read her history, pulling up the pages she had found regarding the fires. She had one more lead to investigate, and if her hunch was right, it could blow the case wide open.

Unlike the fires in Landerneau, there was no reason to the latest ones in New York City. She and Jericho had come to learn that the ones created in France had not been functional, but rather acts of rage, unfettered and unscripted. The dragon shifter, Ove, had apparently lost control, although what had caused it, she had never learned. In the grand scheme of things, she still knew nothing about what made the dragons tick or why they existed.

No matter what Vander says, I can’t get on board with the evil witch’s curse.

But there was something different about these blazes, and Sawyer could feel it in her bones.

I can’t use this computer, she thought, drumming her fingers against the keyboard, but what choice did she have? If Vander was watching her, he would watch her anywhere she went. The best she could do was cover her tracks the best way she knew how.

Sawyer opened a private browser window and pulled a tinted lip gloss from her pocket, covering the webcam, just in case. Then she continued the search into the eight places that had been set on fire. Well, she already knew about Anders’ building, so there were seven places left to check out.

The first had been a grocery store in Harlem. It was a small chain, owned by Parasol Foods.

The second place was a jewelry store on the Upper East Side, owned by Hummingbird Inc.

As she went down the list, she noted the names of the owners of each business or property that had been targeted. There appeared to be no relation between any of the companies involved, and Sawyer felt a sinking in her heart as she finished her search. She had been so sure there was a correlation between them all, but it was plain to see that she was wrong.

So I’m back to square one, she thought, her eyes scanning the list again to see if she had missed anything. The names were not related in the least. There was no connection. Unless…

Her heart began to pound, and she reopened the private browser, typing in a search for Parasol Foods. Instantly, her breath caught in her throat, but she was not finished. As she checked on each company that had been targeted, Sawyer grew dizzier.

This has to be a sick coincidence. There is no way.

But it was. The world wide web did not lie in this instance.

Parasol Foods, Hummingbird Inc., and two others were owned by the umbrella company, Williams Industries. The drug store and pharmacy that had been hit were owned by Williams Pharmaceuticals. And the penthouse was owned by Anders Williams.

“No,” she mumbled, jumping to her feet and backing away from the computer. “That’s a weird coincidence. Williams is a popular name.” She willed herself to sit down and look further, despite her desire to run away from the computer.

You just have Anders in mind, she reasoned. There’s no way he’s involved in this dragon mess. He wouldn’t have his own condo set on fire while you were in it… would he?

The rich had done much worse for insurance money; why should he be any different?

Swallowing the bile in her throat, Sawyer forced her fingers to search for the umbrella companies, and what she saw made her swoon.

“I have five brothers,” Anders had said.

The words ricocheted in her head like pellets, and there was an uncanny family resemblance between Titus, Marcus, and Anders Williams, the billionaire brothers who owned half the world. Cassius owned the other half, and…

Sawyer choked.

“Of course. Ansel Williams,” she muttered to herself. “The world champion boxer.”

She needed to talk to Anders, to understand if he was the target or the instigator. Had she been sleeping with a killer? Or was he somehow tangled up in this mess with her?

“I brought you some chamomile tea,” Vander announced from behind her, and Sawyer yelped in surprise, slamming the laptop closed. He eyed her. “I didn’t mean to startle you,” he chirped. “But I can see you need something to calm your nerves. If you need something stronger, I’ll have Susie bring you a Xanax.”

Sawyer thought about it for half a second before shaking her head. She had a very important decision to make; trust Vander and ask him about Anders, or continue her investigation on her own. Without contacts or resources, she had nothing but a computer and her suspicions. At least with Vander, she had some way to keep going… even if he was stalking her.

You both have your reasons for wanting to know the truth about what’s happening, she reminded herself. You can’t fault him for protecting his investment.

“What do you know about Anders Williams?” she asked.

“Sawyer!” Vander moaned. “This is becoming tiresome—”

“It’s important,” she interjected. “I think he’s involved in this somehow.”

Vander’s face twisted into a mask of confusion, first amused and then perplexed. “Anders? Why?”

“I found a connection between the fires. Every place targeted belonged to a company owned by one of the Williams brothers.”

Vander’s face registered shock. “You think they arranged to have their businesses destroyed for insurance?”

“It’s hard to say. They are such small places, and the trickle upward would be minuscule,” Sawyer admitted. “It seems like a lot of work for not that much of a payout. Not only that, but we’re talking about a family in cahoots. I think that the dragons are targeting them.”

Vander sank down, folding his hands over his lap, and Sawyer could see the wheels turning in his head.

“This… this is huge,” he mumbled. “But what about France?”

“Over the years,” Sawyer explained, “there have been rash fires like this one. When we found that dragon, he had gone mad. I suspect that when it happens typically, it is just a loss of control on the part of the beast. This is different. It’s in the city and widely publicized. Someone wants the brothers to know they are being targeted.”

“We need to find out why,” Vander said, sitting up excitedly. “And then we can find them and end them!”

“Do you know where Anders has gone?” Vander’s gaze darted away, and Sawyer had a feeling he knew exactly where the lawyer had gone. “Vander, Anders and his brothers could be in danger. We need to find them and get them out of harm’s way! We need to find out what they know!”

“He took his jet to England.”

Sawyer blinked and resisted the urge to ask him how he knew that, fearing the answer. “Do you know where in England?”

“I… I can track his GPS,” Vander mumbled, and Sawyer shuddered, partially grateful he was such a stalker but mostly disgusted with him.

This is for his own good, she thought. I need to find him.

“I’ll have my pilot get the plane ready,” Vander offered, leaping to his feet with renewed vigor. “We can leave—”

“You’re not coming,” Sawyer said flatly.

“What?”

“God forbid we see a dragon. What are you going to do?”

Vander’s eyes grew wide. “I told you, I was attacked by a dragon!” he snapped defensively.

“And you were protected by your guards,” she reminded him. “I have to worry about protecting myself. I can’t worry about you, too.” He stared at her through narrowed eyes, and Sawyer could see he was ready to argue, but she shrugged her shoulders. “You can either agree, or I’ll go home right now and find another way to talk to Anders. You are not coming with me.”

Vander’s irises shadowed, and he nodded stiffly.

“All right,” he agreed tersely. “I’ll let the pilot know.” He turned to leave her.

“Where in England has he gone?”

“A place in the middle of nowhere. It’s called Misty Woods, way in the north.”

Sawyer waited until Vander disappeared again and opened the laptop. Now she needed to learn everything she could about Misty Woods.