Chapter Six
Tyler
Aaaarrgh. What a day. Shopping for baby things while they were on sale was a nightmare. It was more of a battle trying to get diapers than it was rescuing Bernie from those traffickers.
Tyler rubbed his eyes and yawned as he got off his bike. The saddlebags on his bike were laden with new diapers and a couple little outfits that were just too cute to resist, but he needed a little more time. Xavier was especially cranky lately. They weren’t sure why, and he’d had the baby all morning while Polly gave Bernie a massage. He’d told Bernie that he was going to stop in at the club before heading home. Dragons didn’t get drunk, so a couple of drinks wouldn’t hurt.
He yawned again as he climbed the stairs to the second floor. Who knew that having a baby in the house would be so exhausting? But it was also rewarding.
When he entered the club, it felt like everybody stared at him. Tyler glanced at himself to make sure that he didn’t have diaper gravy on his jacket, then moved to the bar. Jackson hurried through the crowd and grasped his arm.
“You better get out of here.”
Tyler’s brows rose. “What, I don’t come around for a couple of days and suddenly I’m a pariah?”
Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “This isn’t a joke, Tyler. Bill is furious with you, he’s sworn to kill you.”
“What’s Bill got his panties in a twist for?”
“Don’t play games, Freeman. He knows that you stole his mate and he’s furious. You just need to lay low until he finds himself another woman to distract him.”
Well, there was a lot about that sentence that Tyler would have liked to argue with. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the chance. A bellow filled the air, the acrid stench of smoke hit him hard and a meaty fist struck him in the side of the head. Tyler tumbled to the ground and rolled a couple times. His vision pitched and swayed as Bill’s hiking boots stalked toward him.
“Hello, Bill.”
Bill grabbed him by the back of his neck and dragged him to his feet. “You have a lot of nerve showing up here. Do you think that your money’s going to save your scrawny little neck? I’m going to wring your head off your shoulders and burn your body to ash. And when I’m done, I’m going to make your charred bones into a marble slab and turn that into a toilet so that I’m crapping on you for the rest of your life.”
The sentiment was there. Tyler considered correcting him on a number of illogicalities but when he saw fire flickering in Bill’s mouth, decided against it. Bill hefted him up and threw him into the pool table. The thick legs held, but the bed of it cracked under his weight.
Tyler rolled, tucking his head into his chest and landed on the opposite side. The pool table was clearly dipped in the middle now. He pointed at it.
“I’m not paying for that.”
“You’re paying for everything!” Bill charged around the left and Tyler mimicked his movements to keep the table between them. “You stole my woman!”
Tyler snorted. “I didn’t steal anybody. You see, women aren’t property. Maybe you ought to take a woman’s study program at the local college before you start trying to get a mate.”
“I know what a woman is, I don’t need to study them!”
Fire lashed out with the last word. Tyler was just able to avoid it. In their dragon form, they were almost invulnerable to flame and heat. Human form was a different matter. Bill would be damaging himself by breathing flames like that. Tyler held up his hands and backed away. He had to defuse the situation before it got out of hand.
“Look, I understand you’re upset, but really you dodged a bullet. Bernie was put on that site against her will. Her father sold her to those people and they were threatening to kill her if she didn’t cooperate. So, if I hadn’t intervened, you know what would have happened? Every time you kissed her, she’d only be kissing back because she didn’t have a choice.” Tyler took a deep breath as the flame in Bill’s mouth died and uncertainty came to his eyes. “You didn’t want that, did you? Bernie didn’t want that, either.”
“You didn’t know that she was unwilling before you went and ruined my chances.”
“I did.” Tyler hesitated then shrugged. “I know Bernie. We met last year, she works for my brother at the dig he’s funding. I know her well enough that when you showed me her picture, I knew that she was terrified. It’s not your fault, Bill. You couldn’t have known.”
Tyler almost felt sorry for the big dolt. Bill’s chest heaved. For a moment, it seemed like everything was going to calm down and they’d just go their separate ways. But then Bill pulled himself up and sneered at him.
“I would have rescued her, then. I’ll still rescue her, from men who pretend to be on her side but really just want to use and abuse her.” Bill smirked. “I know you, Freeman. You don’t care about Bernice. You’re playing the white knight so that you can get into her pants and then you’ll leave her. Like you leave all your women. You just want to ruin her for her mate, the way you’ve ruined yourself for your mate.”
Tyler wasn’t certain exactly what about Bill’s accusation riled him most. But his flames roared to life and smoke billowed into the air. Every inch of his body felt overly hot. A howl tore from his lips and he charged forward. He leapt right over the table and punched Bill hard in the face as he came down.
Bill stumbled back from the blow, his eyes widening in shock. And no wonder. Tyler was known for his alternatives to flat-out fighting. The smaller dragon didn’t give him time to recover from his surprise, though. He drove his advantage, following up the first blow with two more to Bill’s solar plexus. The air left the big dragon’s lungs.
Tyler moved to hit him again, but one of Bill’s cronies grabbed him from behind. He used that grip to pull himself up and kick another of Bill’s cronies in the chest. It propelled them both back into the pool table. This time it collapsed under their combined weight and there were several cries of protest. Jackson lingered near the edge of the crowd, shouting at them to stop fighting. Tyler ignored him.
And so did Bill. By the time Tyler was back on his feet, Bill charged him. More smoke filled the air as the big dragon wrapped his arms around Tyler’s waist and threw him to the floor. He followed up, straddling him. Fists flew at Tyler’s face. His nose cracked and blood flowed. Tyler threw an arm in front of his face to protect it, while he drove his knuckles into Bill’s kidneys.
“You little shit!” Bill moaned in pain, hunched over Tyler. He braced himself with one hand.
Tyler took the moment to reassess. Would it be possible to talk Bill down now? He needed to get home. Bernie was waiting for him. They only had half a dozen diapers left for Xavier. What had he been thinking? He couldn’t take the time to get into public brawls!
“Okay, I surrender,” he ground out. It rankled to say but he needed to get back to Bernie and Xavier.
Bill narrowed his eyes at him. “So, you’ll hand Bernice over to me, then?”
Well, that wasn’t what he said. “Don’t be an idiot. Of course I’m not going to give her to you like a prize you’ve won.”
Bill snarled and rose his fist again. Tyler braced himself but several of the other club members dove in at that moment. Jackson yanked back Bill’s fist while the others wrestled him off of Tyler. Tyler got to his feet, groaning as the blood flow from his nose increased. This was not going to be pleasant to drive with. Hopefully, he’d have time to straighten his nose before it started to heal, though.
“I have to get home,” Tyler grunted. “Nice seeing you, Bill.”
“I’m not going to let you—”
“Seriously, enough is enough.” Tyler shook his head. “You don’t know anything about Bernie. How can she be your mate?”
“I know enough about her. She’s beautiful and a virgin and—”
Tyler snorted. “She has a three-month-old baby. She’s not a virgin.”
Bill’s jaw hung so low that he could probably taste the peanuts on the floor. He blinked rapidly, then shrugged. “So, she’s not a virgin. That doesn’t matter. I don’t care. We’ll get to know each other. I will be a father to her fatherless child. I’ll do anything for my mate.”
What if he really was her mate? Tyler glared at him for a long moment, all the while his heart crashed into his chest, over and over again like a yo-yo hitting the wall. He had never considered that. It was said that some dragons knew their mates at first sight. He had always assumed that it was one of those things where lust was mistaken for love. God knew he had plenty of those experiences under his belt. The beautiful woman that he was certain he was destined to until he got to know her better.
But what if that wasn’t the case with Bernie and Bill? What if he really was her mate, that there was destiny involved? What if when Bill and Bernie met, she’d feel that same draw and wrap herself up in his arms.
The thought of her being with anybody else was like razorblades on his skin. Tyler shook his head and turned away. There was no point in getting all worked up over something that, in all honesty, was never going to happen. There was no way that someone as gracious and intelligent as Bernie was destined to be with a doofus like Bill.
“I am coming for my mate, Freeman! I don’t care what you’ve done to her, what you’ve made her believe. She is mine and I will have her. Even if I have to burn down this whole world, Bernice will be by my side and we will laugh as the flames consume your body!”
Tyler didn’t respond to that. He left the club and hurried down to his bike. The throbbing in his face grew worse, making his eyes water, as the adrenaline faded from his system. The question what if kept swirling in his mind but he pushed it aside. There was no point in getting worked up over that. Bernie wasn’t Bill’s mate.
She couldn’t be.