by Jadyn Chase
Sweeney spun around and slammed his meaty hands onto the desktop. “You were the only person who administered Depthamol to him for the last three weeks. You must have reduced the dosage. You must have helped him. That’s the only explanation.”
“You can see on the security footage that I administered all the dosages on time and recorded the levels every time. You have no evidence that I helped him escape because I didn’t.”
“How do you explain it, then?” Sweeney boomed. “How do you explain him being able to shift like that when he should have been loaded with enough Depthamol to kill a horse? Huh? Tell me that.”
I dared to lift my eyes to his swollen visage. He’d been yelling at me for nearly two hours, but that didn’t bother me. I already knew he didn’t have a shred of proof that I helped James escape. I covered my tracks too well.
“I told you a thousand times we have no idea how much Depthamol we would have needed to give him to suppress his power. We don’t even know that the Depthamol even worked on him.”
“That’s because you never completed the damned tests!” he thundered. “You did this! You did this on purpose to sabotage me and this department. You let him get away.”
I remained calm and sedate in my seat. At all costs, I had to keep calm and continue to maintain my innocence. I couldn’t let him get under my skin. “That’s bullshit and we both know it, Sweeney. He’s a nice guy who cooperated with all our tests. That and that alone stopped him from shifting. For all we know, we could have killed him with the Depthamol and it still wouldn’t have been enough to stop him from shifting. He could have escaped at any time. He used the military transfer to break out. That’s all there is to it.”
He shoved off the desk and spun away. “I don’t believe you. You’ve been soft on him from the word go. You’ve been trying to get us to give him special treatment. Admit it.”
I stiffened, but I didn’t rise to the bait. “I won’t lie. I’m glad he escaped and I’m glad he killed all those soldiers doing it. I would have helped him if I could, but I didn’t have to.”
His chin sank onto his chest and he closed his eyes. His shoulders shook when he sighed. “Run through it again. What did he do in the stairwell?”
My whole alibi boiled down to this. The security cameras didn’t cover the stairwell. No one knew I’d given James the key card and let him get away.
“I told you before,” I murmured. “He attacked one of the soldiers and wrapped his chain around the man’s neck. He strangled him and the other soldiers rushed in and started yelling threats and ordering him to stand down. The soldier’s gun went off and the others opened fire. James used the man as a human shield while he shot back at them.”
“How did he get your key card?” Sweeney asked. “How did he get through the last door?”
“I had it in my hand after I let them into the stairwell. After he killed the soldiers, he snatched it and ran. I was too afraid to stop him.” If that didn’t convince him, nothing would.
“Well, we have to get him back.” Sweeney rounded on Tristan, who kept to his corner listening to my interrogation. “Get out the Acquisitions Team. The SOU and the SAS are joining us in tracking him down. He was last seen flying west. We’re going after him.”
I jumped to my feet. “Let me come with you. He trusts me. I can….”
“You’re not going anywhere.” Sweeney chopped his hand at me. “You’re lucky I don’t stand you down for the next fifty years after this. You’re not going anywhere near him, and if this plays out the way I think it will, none of our people will get close enough to even see his face. The military will take him back to their own installation and he’ll be their problem from now on.” He turned back to Tristan. “You’re in charge of the Acquisitions Team. Go fit them out and get to the chopper in an hour.”
Tristan rushed away and I sank back into my chair. This really was the ultimate humiliation—seeing hollow-chested Tristan put in charge of an operation that should have been mine. Still, I could stomach that if it meant helping James get away. That gave me comfort.
After Tristan left, Sweeney confronted me scowling under his eyebrows. “When we get back from this operation, we’ll conduct a full performance review of your work for the last six months. If we find any irregularities, you’ll be sent packing. Now go home. I don’t want to see your face until Monday morning.”
“Look, Sweeney. I just….”
His hand shot up and he clamped his eyes shut. “Don’t even bother saying it. You’ve thrown away every shred of goodwill you ever had in this department. I just can’t figure out why you did it. Go home and get your ducks in a row. You’ll need them come next week.”
He stormed off and left me alone. I didn’t have anything to worry about with any performance review. I already knew that. Neither he nor anyone else would find any irregularities in my work for the last six months or in the last ten years. I did my job—all except the part where I refused to complete the cattle prod test—and Sweeney already disciplined me for that.
I wandered down to the lab to get my stuff. The department loomed silent and empty all around me. It looked different to me now and not because no one was in it. What the fuck was I doing working in this hellhole, anyway? I didn’t belong here. I morally objected to the lab’s work. I continually justified my participation in projects that turned my stomach.
Why did I want to continue? Why not quit before the review? What did I possibly stand to gain by fighting to clear my name?
I got my handbag out of my desk and stood surveying the lab for a long time. This was my lab. I always considered it my lab. I defended it against incursion by Tristan and any other researchers who tried to horn in on my work.
Why should I care if I never saw it again? In a matter of seconds, it came to mean exactly nothing to me. I saw it as the house of horrors it really was. James taught me that. He made me see that I was something so much better than this. He didn’t belong here and neither did I.
Now he was free. If they sacked me, I would be free, too. I would be free to go anywhere in the world and get a job I could believe in. What would I do then? Would I go back to the States? I had nothing to keep me in England—nothing but this stinking waste of a job.
I meandered through the corridors to the car park and unlocked my car. I sat behind the wheel for over an hour thinking over everything that happened. I couldn’t bring myself to regret helping James—not for an instant. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I would have done it a lot sooner, but the military transfer offered the most perfect opportunity to get him out and it worked.
I kissed him and I was glad of that, too. I was glad I didn’t have to let him go without kissing him just once. I would never see him again. He was probably halfway to Patagonia by now. A lump stuck in my throat thinking of that huge dragon flying over the Atlantic and into the trackless mountains. He would be free forever now.
I, on the other hand, was still trapped here. As long as I kept trying to keep this rotten job, I felt like I was a prisoner myself.
I turned the ignition and drove home. I parked outside and stared at the house for a long time. That house meant nothing to me, either. It was another extension of my prison. I was a slave to this miserable existence. I hated myself for the things I had done. Helping James escape was the one thing I’d done since coming to England that I could be proud of. Now that was gone too.
At least I had the full weekend to make up my mind as what to do. Christ, I could be on a plane to Chicago long before Monday morning. I didn’t have to face any goddamned performance review, especially since I didn’t do anything wrong—nothing they would find out about, anyway.
I slammed my car door closed and stormed into the house. I barred the door and pitched my keys and handbag on the side table. Now I was alone with no one to talk to. I didn’t bother to turn on the light. I would crawl into bed and stew for the next forty-eight hours. I sure as fuck wouldn’t scramble to prepare for the review. If they can
ned me, so be it. Then I wouldn’t have to make that decision on my own.
I kicked off my shoes and padded through the dark house. I didn’t eat. I didn’t want to be alive. James was gone. That was the worst part. I would never find him if I spent the rest of my days looking.
I wished like anything I’d flown away with him. I wished now that I had climbed on his back and gone wherever he decided to go. At least we would be together then. I didn’t care if he was a dragon.
He was the one person who kept me sane through this whole thing. He woke me up to my own humanity. He made me realize what I was doing by working in that lab. Saving him and protecting him gave me my only reason for living, my only sense that I still had something to live for. Now that was all gone and I was alone.
I would never meet anyone like him again. I knew that now. In all the world, he was one of a kind and now he was gone.
I entered my darkened bedroom and shut the door behind me. My bed looked inviting. I unbuttoned my blazer and tossed it on the chair. I started to take off my blouse and earrings. I walked around the bed to the night table when a voice reverberated out of the dark. “Paige!”
I jumped away shrieking in fright. My hand flew to my heart and I leaped back five feet before I saw it. A shadowy figure huddled in the corner against the wall. In front of my shocked eyes, it raised its head. “Paige! It’s me.”
I gasped out loud. “James! Jesus Christ, what are you doing here?”
He cowered under a blanket. Only his head showed against the white wall. The rest of him blended with the gloom. “I…. I had nowhere else to go.”
I swallowed hard staring down at him. Yes, it really was him. He was the last thing in the world I ever expected to find in my bedroom.
I darted forward and knelt down in front of him. “What are you doing here? I told you to fly away. The military is looking for you. It’s not safe for you in England.”
“Yes, well….” He glanced around at nothing. “I told you before, Paige dear. I have no control over what the dragon does. I flew around for a while. Then things got very blurry and surreal, you know. I woke up stark naked in Richmond Park.”
I blinked down at him. All of a sudden, it was just him and me talking the way we used to in the lab. “How did you get here, then?”
“I walked. I didn’t know what else to do and I remembered you said you lived in Norbiton. I recognized Richmond Park and I knew it was just a short distance to Norbiton. I made my way through Isabella Plantation and…. I’m afraid I broke into your house, Paige dear. I’m sorry about that.”
“Don’t be sorry! I’m glad you’re here, but we have to be careful. The military is all over the place. They saw you flying this way. They’re hunting for you right now.”
He cocked his head and his eyes sparkled in the dark. “Why aren’t you with them? Did you get in trouble for helping me?”
“No one knows I helped you, but Sweeney is royally pissed off. If I stay with the department, I’m going to have to do a little song and dance to convince everybody I’m still on the right side of the law.”
He frowned. “What do you mean—if you stay with the department? Why wouldn’t you stay with the department?”
I grimaced. “I don’t know if I’ll stay to do a song and dance. It’s not worth it. I want to do some work I can believe in. I want to do work that I can be proud of, not some stupid government cloak and dagger shit. It’s not worth it, especially now that you’re not there. We should…..” I broke off.
He listened. “We should what?”
I sat down on the floor next to him. I was never so glad to see someone hiding in my house. I couldn’t contain my happiness that he was actually here. “I was going to say we should go off somewhere away from England, but we can’t go now. It’s not safe for you to leave the house, and if the military saw you flying around, they would know where you were. You’ll have to hide out for a while.”
“I don’t like putting you in danger, Paige. You’ve done so much for me already. I should go. I should….”
“Stop it!” I grabbed his arm. “You’re staying here, but you can’t sit on the floor like this. Come on. Get up here.” I steered him out of the corner and sat him down on the bed. “I’ll have to get you some clothes. I’m sorry I don’t have anything for a man.”
He looked around him. “Are you absolutely sure about this? I don’t like….”
“I’m absolutely sure. I want you to stay here. I’m glad you’re here.”
I sat down next to him and studied him. God, he was a sight for sore eyes after thinking he was gone forever! I wanted to kiss him all over again, but I didn’t.
He regarded me with his head on one side. A faint light coming through the windows glistened on his irises. For some reason, all of a sudden I couldn’t think of anything to say. I just stared at him and he stared back at me.
His lips twitched. “I can’t thank you enough, Paige dear. I owe you my life.”
My cheeks flushed. “Naw. It was nothing.”
“It most certainly wasn’t nothing,” he murmured. “It was everything. I don’t know how to tell you how I admire you for what you’ve done. I never imagined someone like you could exist.”
I wanted to look away, but his gaze captivated me. He riveted me to stare at him wondering what he would do.
“There is just one thing I need to do before you make your decision to let me hide here,” he murmured. “I don’t feel comfortable accepting your hospitality without it.”
“What’s that?”
He glided in and kissed me. His palm appeared against my cheek and his lips met mine in a glorious swirl of heat and silken softness. He pulled off in an instant and whispered. “This is how it should have been. It would have been if we’d had time.”
The next instant, he closed in and sealed his lips to my mouth. This time, he didn’t break away. He cradled my head and steered me into his kiss. I floated into another world full of his softness and warmth, his touch and his breath.
He was right. It should have been like this. Our first kiss shouldn’t have been so rushed and meaningless, but I couldn’t change that now. I could only revel in the sweet ecstasy of finally kissing him the right way, of feeling him close and safe and calm the way I always dreamed it would be.
How long ago had I started fantasizing about this moment? When did I know I felt this way about him? When did I start wanting him like this? I couldn’t remember. Maybe it happened decades ago, long before I met him. Maybe I dreamed about this moment in half-sleep.
Now it was all too startlingly real. He was here kissing me and I was kissing him. I smelled his skin and hair and breath. I felt his body seething under that blanket.
He twisted off my mouth and rested his forehead against mine. “Paige, my dear.”
I broke into a grin. “James dear.”
He snorted with laughter and sat up. His fingertips traced in my hair and his transported visage floated before my eyes. A beautiful smile lit up his features. “Do you have another room where I should stay? I’m happy to sleep on the floor in your lounge room if you don’t have one. I wouldn’t dream of intruding on you here.”
“You’ll do no such thing!” I cried. “You’ll sleep in here.”
His smile evaporated. “I couldn’t! I’m still a gentleman, you know, even if you didn’t treat me as one in your lab.”
“Cut it out.” I swiveled around. “You’re sleeping in here and that’s final. Now come on and get in bed.”
He reared back gasping in shock. “Get in bed! Are you mad? It’s out of the question.”
“This isn’t 1840 anymore, James. All those rules about men and women keeping apart outside of marriage no longer exist. You’re sleeping here and you’re sleeping with me. Don’t even think about turning me down or I’ll have your ass on a plate.”
He frowned. “Ass? On a plate? What does that mean?”
“It means get in the goddamned bed, James.” I jumped up and tore down th
e bedding.
He froze gaping at me. When I turned around, he sat fixed in the same position. He stared like I’d completely lost it. All at once, he shuddered and looked away. “I couldn’t, Paige. I think too much of you to insult you like that.”
I shook my head and smiled to myself. He and I would have to get a few things straightened out right now. I could see that.
I sat down in front of him again and kissed him just for good measure. “Listen to me, James. I thought I’d lost you. I thought I would never see you again. I thought that kiss in the stairwell was the only one I would ever get from you. Now you’re here and I’m touching you and kissing you the way I wish I had been from the beginning. I don’t want to lose you again. In this day and age, you won’t be insulting me if you spend the night in here with me. You’re in my bedroom and you’re naked under that blanket, aren’t you?”
His features spasmed and he opened his mouth, but I silenced him with another kiss. God, he felt so damned good sitting here on my bed. I wanted to do a hell of a lot more than kiss him. I didn’t want to let him out of my sight without feeling him.
The strength of my own desire overpowered me beyond belief. When I spoke again, I could barely whisper. “I want to. Do you want to?”
“Of course, Paige!” he breathed. “A man would have to be dead not to want you. I just….”
I covered his mouth again to stop him saying anything else. I wanted him. I wanted him so fucking much I couldn’t stand it. If he wanted me, then I didn’t need to hear anymore.
I slipped my hand under the blanket and touched smooth, bare skin—that skin I admired so much at the lab. He felt solid and vital and alive under there. His presence brought me back to life in a thousand ways. I needed all of him in contact with me right now.
He sucked in his breath at that touch, but I wasn’t anywhere near finished. I glided both hands inside the blanket and pushed it out of the way. His body melted toward me kissing all the time. I titled him over and pushed him down on the bed.
All our time in the lab led to this moment and I didn’t even realize it until now. How could I be so blind?