Pyro had problems.

He strode the buzzing halls of the Onyx Corporation executive floor, buttoning his suit as his red scales receded from his hands. He’d intended to turn over a new leaf but apparently, Earth leaf-turning was harder than it sounded, and here he was, late again to the meeting he was intended to run.

His siblings turned to him in a very familiar gesture as he burst through the door.

He skipped the coffee and took his seat. “What did I miss?”

His siblings looked at each other.

Jasper finally cleared his throat. “As acting CEO, you start the meeting.”

“Nothing? Great. First item of business — Sard’s offer.”

Amber’s eyes narrowed, and she stopped him. “What about your wife?”

“That’s the second item.”

She blinked in surprise.

“But if you want to talk about her first, that’s fine.” He held up one hand and counted off the things he had done on his fingers. “I’ve married Amy. It’s fully legal according to human laws. All that’s left is to announce our marriage to my mother when she returns from her estate tour with Mal and Cheryl.”

“Amy spoke of divorce,” Amber said.

“When I left her last night, she was pleased to remain married.”

Jasper pointed at Kyan. “When he left her last night, she was hysterical and never wanted to see you again.”

Well, that explained why she hadn’t replied to his good morning texts. And here Pyro had thought she must be in class. Responsible Amy wouldn’t use her cell phone in class. Now her silence appeared more sinister.

He fixed on Kyan. “What did you say to her?”

“The truth.” Kyan stared back. “She asked where you were. And who was at fault.”

“And you didn’t consider that unnecessary information?”

He remained silent.

Pyro fought his irritation. The smoothed claw marks from his last frustration stood out to him from beneath the newly sanded conference table. It would be so easy to let them out to slice more wood.

He’d left Amy at the baths to clear up a misunderstanding. Deal with his outstanding warrant so he could be the kind of male who could walk her down a street, in any country, without worry. And Turkey was just the start. Ignoring misunderstandings out of laziness hadn’t done him any favors.

“I’ll talk to her. Again. But,” he held up a warning finger, “this is the second time she’s talked to one of you and then desired a divorce. Clearly, there is a problem with your communication styles. I need the rest of you to shut up and help or stay out of my way.”

His siblings stared in shock.

“Anything further on this topic?”

Silence.

“Next. Sard’s offer. We’ve had a day to consider it. What’s our response?”

They went over the offer clause by clause. In the end, nothing was certain except that they would get the use of his ports to distribute their clothing — under his label — and take on the very risky, possibly lucrative, but most certainly treasonous distribution of jewelry.

“It would be easier if he stuck to rings and pendants,” Jasper said. “Ordinary settings of gemstones like humans are so fond of wearing.”

“Gemstones are easily created in labs. We couldn’t compete with Draconis copies.”

If Draconis jewelers had the balls to copy these fake crests, liability for their distribution might not land only on the Onyx family. The further it spread, the more difficult it was to arrest just one family. Even the family that started it.

Amber must have been reading Pyro’s mind, because she said softly, “He was right that it’s larger than our companies.”

“Yes, it could go before the Palace.”

“The Empress wouldn’t execute us over jewelry.”

“Why not? We’re not aristocrats. She can’t strip our titles.”

“She could strip Mother’s title and estate. Where would she go? Earth?”

They spent a few minutes considering the grand matriarch of the Onyx clan, who spent most of her time in scaly, jewel-covered dragon form, living among humans.

Unfathomable.

Pyro called on Kyan. “Did you contact Flint?” A strategy this dangerous should be run past their youngest sibling.

“He was beyond the reach of my communications.”

So. Like Mal being gone, the decision was up to them.

They were going to save this company or destroy it.

Alex leaned forward. “We are not considering Sard’s risk. His family assumes ultimate responsibility for subsidiaries. If the Empire decided to enforce sumptuary laws, they will punish him, too.”

“Here’s the part I don’t get.” Pyro laid out his palm. “Is he so greedy? Why risk all?”

“His sister.”

Everyone turned to Amber.

She spoke quietly but surely. “Sard had an older sister. Her first marriage to a minor aristocrat was invalidated to force her into a different marriage. She committed suicide.”

No wonder Sard had been impressed by Pyro’s mother. Her marriage was invalidated seven times. If not for the early death of Pyro’s father, they might have had seven more siblings, each one a plea for her grandmother to finally recognize the validity of their marriage.

“What happened to her bastard son?” Jasper asked.

“I do not know. But Sard’s family is controlling. I do not think he was supposed to come here. And I think the only reason he was allowed to remain so long is because the company was number one.”

A ranking the Onyx Corporation had recently stolen. By hard work. But nonetheless.

Sard had lost the top rank and been recalled to Draconis. Now a younger brother was taking over the company intending to dismiss Sard’s “fallen” employees and install his own “pure” aristocrats.

Pyro almost felt sympathy.

Almost.

Jasper laid his palms on the table. “I want to do it.”

Shock rocked Pyro. Cautious Jasper, who never stated any opinions on products or strategy, wanted to merge companies and distribute a questionable contraband?

Alex stole Pyro’s question. “You do not fear the consequences?”

“I was working in an Outer Rim factory when Mal came to me,” Jasper responded. “I lived in dorms with many other males. I have thought of them many times since coming here.”

“And selling a false crest will help them how?”

“The factory is not bad work. No one is endangered. But we are interchangeable as the parts in the machines. Nothing is uniquely ours. No small piece or symbol in which to feel pride.”

Pyro forgot that difference between the human and dragon worlds. Why colorful human clothes were so popular and why exotic human spices and flavors evoked such cravings. In the dragon world, only utility and efficiency were prized. The rank of bloodlines, and, in a very few cases like Alex’s, the gem tone color of scales.

Having a small crest, even an unofficial one, would give Jasper’s former coworkers something they could never possess in any other way.

“There are many things we cannot do to help those males,” Jasper finished. “But this is something we can. I want to do it.”

Pyro sucked in a breath and rested both hands on the conference table. “Well, I’m not getting down on one knee for any aristocrats. You want this done, you come up with a counterproposal that keeps us in command.”

“In two days?” Alex asked dryly. He had the most experience with contracts, human and dragon.

“In as many days as it takes. I’ll inform Sard we have a counter-proposal. The rest is up to you.”

The meeting ended.

Pyro checked his watch as he strode down the corridor to his office. There was just enough time…

“Where are you going?” Amber asked, floating behind him. In human form, her legs were significantly shorter than his, which was odd because in dragon form she dwarfed the brothers. As females did.

“Thailand,” he said. There was just enough time to clear up one more misunderstanding. “Tonight, Amy will introduce me to her parents.”

Amber nodded in approval.

Not that Amy had agreed to introduce him. In fact, she specifically hadn’t agreed. But he wouldn’t wait. The last time he had waited the introduction had never come.

Amy wasn’t like the last time. She was completely different. Pyro willed himself to believe that.

“Then she is in class now?”

He stopped. “Why?”

“I wish to help.”

Great.

But it wasn’t like he could tell his sister not to do so. As a female, she had a short temper and could easily toast him with her natural fire-breathing abilities.

“Don’t say anything unnecessary,” he growled.

“I never do.”

He flew out of the office, leaving Amber behind and wondering what damage control he’d have to do this time when he got back.