by Julie Wetzel
Patrick pulled his chair closer to Kyle’s bed and sat back down. “What do you remember?”
Irritation worked its way up the back of Kyle’s neck. He growled his displeasure but worked his battered memory until it gave him something he knew was real. “I was on my way to see Minister Lewis about some new laws he wanted to propose.”
“That was almost a week ago.”
Shock froze the anger riding Kyle. He stared at Patrick in disbelief. “A week?”
Patrick nodded. “Six days ago, I got the call that your plane had gone down over the Northern Sound.”
Chills ran down Kyle’s arms and his mouth went dry. “I wasn’t on that plane.”
“Obviously,” Patrick explained. “But for the last week, we all thought you’d gone down in the water, never to be seen again.”
Thoughts of his sister and her distress spiked through his veins, giving him strength. “Carissa.” He tried to sit up again, but Patrick’s hands caught his shoulder before he could move.
“She’s fine,” Patrick soothed. “Michael is taking care of her.”
Kyle relaxed again. Thoughts of the white-haired man swirled through his mind. Michael had been an Elite in Eternity before his change to dragon. Kyle was still irritated with the way the man had claimed his sister, but he knew Michael had a good head on his shoulder. Kyle was certain that Michael would see his sister through her grief until they could let her know he was okay.
“Your sister is strong,” Patrick said. “It only took three days for her to accept what we all feared and step up to take over where you left off.”
Anguish and pride warred in Kyle’s heart as he thought about what it took for Carissa to step into the mess he’d left behind. Things at Eternity were not very good right now. A tall stack of files came to mind. “Daniel!” he gasped. Patrick’s hand on his arm kept him from sitting up in his distress.
Patrick shushed him and patted his arm. “That was the first thing she found when she came in to pick up the pieces.”
Kyle groaned, knowing how incriminating the files looked. “What happened?” he asked dreading to know.
An evil grin spread across Patrick’s face. “I don’t think Carissa knew what to do with that stack of crap on your desk.” He snorted out a laugh before finishing. “She sent a SWAT team after Daniel.”
Shock widened Kyle’s eyes, and he stared at his laughing brother. Kyle wasn’t finding it funny at all. It was true that the lack of information made Daniel seem like the villain, but Kyle never dreamed his sister would take actions against Daniel. They had both known the man since they were young. Daniel was many things, but he was loyal to his king above everything else. “He’s not responsible.” Kyle grabbed Patrick’s hand desperate for the man to believe him.
Composing himself, Patrick patted Kyle’s hand. “I know,” he reassured his brother. “I’ve seen the completed files.”
Kyle raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve been helping Daniel with his investigation.”
Surprised by this, Kyle let some of the tension drain away. “You have?” Daniel didn’t say anything about this?
Patrick nodded. “Where did you think Daniel hid everything?”
Blowing out a breath, Kyle shook his head. “I didn’t ask.” He and Daniel had discussed many things during their time on wings, but Kyle had insisted that Daniel keep the location of the evidence to himself. All Kyle had asked for was reassurance that everything was safe and that it would be taken care of if something should happen to either of them. He never even entertained the idea that Daniel would get Patrick involved. Kyle considered his stepbrother. “So you have everything?”
Patrick gave Kyle a satisfied smile. “The necklace, the heart, the files…” he paused for a long moment. “And Kathryn’s been taking care of your missing agents.”
“Alex and Noah?” Kyle asked, awed by his brother’s actions. “Their mates too?”
“All safe,” Patrick reassured him. “And Daniel came in yesterday.”
Surprise made Kyle draw in a breath. He held it trying to form the questions that raced around in his mind. What damage was done to Eternity? “Explain,” he demanded, needing to know.
“Michael got Daniel out before things went south,” Patrick explained.
Kyle’s eyebrows pinched in as he thought.
Patrick went on. “I’m not sure what made Carissa call SWAT.” He shook his head. “I’ve been pondering this for a while, but I still can’t wrap my head around it. Daniel is as much family as I am. One would assume she’d call him in to explain himself before ordering his arrest.”
A possible explanation popped into Kyle’s mind. “Alan.” The governmental aid who had brought the files to his attention had to be responsible for Carissa’s actions.
Patrick raised an eyebrow in question.
“For two weeks now, that man’s been pushing me to arrest Daniel for treason.” The stack of files left on his desk had been the latest piece of evidence in Alan’s case against Daniel.
“Well, whatever it was didn’t sit well with Michael,” Patrick continued. “He called one of his buddies in SWAT and got Daniel out of the building just moments before Sanders sent his team in with shoot-to-kill orders.”
That stunned Kyle. “Wow.” He relaxed again. Things had really gotten bad. “What else did I miss?” he asked not knowing if he really wanted to know.
Patrick sighed. “A lot.”
Kyle braced himself for more bad news.
“After Daniel escaped, Sanders took over Eternity.”
A zing of fear raced up Kyle’s spine. “Not Sanders,” he whispered. Sanders was one of the men on Daniel’s short list of possible suspects, but there had been no hard evidence linking him to any crimes except an unnatural obsession with the whereabouts of Alexander Fied.
Patrick nodded. “Daniel was able to hack into the mainframe at Eternity and wipe the dragon databases and a large chunk of their system files.”
“That’s all backed up,” Kyle said bluntly. Eternity had been around for a long time before computers, and Kyle still didn’t trust the stability of long-term electronic storage. A good deal of the records was still kept in paper dossiers in the basement.
“This is true,” Patrick agreed. Amusement was thick in his voice. “But I happen to know that the librarian that keeps the records is out of town on important family business and won’t be back for quite some time.” He flashed air quotes around his word to emphasize his sarcasm.
Kyle’s mouth dropped open as he stared at his amused brother.
“Oh,” Patrick added. “And she might have taken the keys to the card catalogs with her when she went.”
Kyle snorted in amusement. It was impossible to find anything in that massive storage facility without access to the card catalog. “I doubt that anyone would know how to use that thing even if they could get into it.” The fact that the old organizational system was falling out of use saddened him.
“It’ll definitely slow them down for a while.”
“True,” Kyle agreed. His brow furrowed in frustration. “We don’t even know who these people are,” he grumped.
“We’re working on that,” Patrick assured him. “Alex’s mate has an old family friend who’s a statistician.”
“Really?” Kyle asked.
“From what I’ve been able to dig up on the guy, he seems like a paranoid nut case, but she assured me that he knows what he’s doing,” Patrick explained. “About three weeks ago, Daniel pulled a bunch of Eternity’s records for the guy to go over.”
Kyle nodded. He remembered Daniel making that request. Kyle had personally helped gather the information, not sure what Daniel would do with it. “What did they find?”
Patrick drew in a deep breath and let it rush out of him. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Alex had gone to meet up with the guy last night, but he and Brigs never made it.” He gave Kyle a very serious look. “A young woman showed up at The Dragon’s Wing with you in
tow.”
Kyle’s heart skipped as memories bounced around in his head. He raised his hand to his chest and touched the skin over his heart, trying to remember what happened. His fingers rubbed over the fresh scar marring his flesh. He recalled pain and the sound of a soft voice and the feel of gentle hands easing him through it. “What happened?” he asked unable to connect everything together.
Patrick squirmed in his chair. “They took your dragon.”
Steam curled up from the surface of Kyle’s coffee. Wrapping his hands around the warm cup, Kyle savored the heat while thoughts whizzed through his numb mind. My dragon is gone. Taking a sip of the cooling liquid, he prayed for the bright flash of scales that usually accompanied his first cup of coffee. His dragon loved the stimulating drink, but today, there was only a faint flutter inside him. The lack of activity disturbed Kyle, but he didn’t know what to do about it.
He stared down into his cup pondering the dark liquid. It didn’t taste as good as coffee usually did and he couldn’t help but wonder if he actually liked the drink, or if his dragon had. That thought struck a painful cord. He sat the cup on the table and turned his attention to the man sitting across from him.
Daniel looked awful. There were bags under his eyes that spoke volumes about the stress the man had been under. Kyle watched as his friend raised his hand and rubbed the scar over his cheek. “Rough week?” Kyle teased.
Daniel shot him a dirty look. “You have no idea.”
Kyle scoffed at him. “I think I might.” He touched the scar on his chest and rubbed it through his t-shirt. It didn’t hurt, but the raised welt was sensitive and the way his shirt laid over it acted as a constant reminder of what had happened.
One side of Daniel’s mouth turned up in amusement and he snorted out an ironic laugh. “I guess you do,” he admitted wryly. He dropped his hand down to his cup of coffee and leaned on the table. “Let’s see what we can do about it.”
Kyle nodded. It was high time they got down to brass tacks. “So what’s going on?”
Daniel shook his head. “I’m still trying to figure that out,” he admitted. “I’m pretty sure your sister knows something’s up, but I haven’t contacted her since Michael sent me on the run.”
This concerned Kyle. “Have you heard anything from inside Eternity?”
“A little,” Daniel replied. “Sanders raided The Dragon’s Wing twice looking for me.”
The amusement in Daniel’s voice made Kyle’s eyebrow raise in question.
“Michael managed to use the raids to slip Brigs messages on both occasions.”
Impressive. “What did they say?” Kyle asked.
“Well, the first said that Michael thought someone was tapping his phone and not to contact him by that means,” Daniel explained.
“And the second?”
Daniel sighed heavily. “Sanders has been making some major personnel changes in the Elite groups and the SWAT teams.”
Kyle’s spine went rigid with indignation. “He can’t do that!”
“As long as Carissa approved his position as head of security, he can,” Daniel explained.
Anger made Kyle want to pace but he pulled his cup closer and pressed his hands into the hot mug instead. “Why would she do that?” He hadn’t shared his speculation about Sanders with her, but Kyle couldn’t see the man in the job. Sanders was human. The head of Eternity had always been a dragon.
“Someone’s advising her,” Daniel speculated.
Kyle squinted one eye as he thought about who would have the audacity to convince Carissa to reorganize Eternity. Several names popped into his head, but none of them felt right.
Daniel let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair. “I bet it was Alan Meyer.”
Kyle sat taller in his chair. “Alan Meyer.” Surprise colored his voice. “He wasn’t even on my list of suspects.” He thought back to the many conversations he’d had with the aide. Alan had honestly seemed concerned about solving the case.
“He was on mine,” Daniel admitted. “But it wasn’t my short list.” He stared off into the corner for a long minute before meeting Kyle’s eyes again. “But I don’t think he knows he’s involved with the group killing dragons. I think someone is pulling his strings.”
Kyle cocked his head. “What gives you that idea?”
“Because he brought the incomplete files to you,” Daniel explained.
This confused Kyle. He narrowed his eyes and waited for Daniel to go on.
“If Alan had been with the groups killing dragons, he wouldn’t have been so gung-ho about solving the crimes,” Daniel said.
Kyle nodded as he recalled the stack of files Alan had gathered. “He could have been looking for a way to pin the blame on someone else.” He gave Daniel a pointed look. “There was some very damning evidence against you in that stack.”
“Point,” Daniel conceded, “But, I’ve been watching his investigation over the last few weeks. If he was intent on incriminating me, he would have just pulled the files I’d falsified, but he didn’t. He pulled everything on all the dragons murdered and all the records that might have been related to murders. My dragon tells me he is seriously looking for a solution to this case.”
Pain raced through Kyle at the mention of Daniel’s dragon. Normally his dragon would help him through things by filling in the missing pieces with hints and suggestions, but the few flutters in his mind didn’t give him any insight at all. His feelings must have shown on his face. When Kyle met Daniel’s eye again, he could see unease in his friend’s face.
Kyle shook his head and went on without addressing his issues. “So what option do we have now?”
Daniel jumped on the new topic. “First, we need to figure out what happened to you. What do you remember?”
Unable to give a decisive answer, Kyle shrugged. “I really don’t know,” he admitted. He’d pondered over the whole situation while he’d showered and dressed. Lots of vague memories jumbled around in his head, but he couldn’t put them into a linear timeline.
“How did you get off the plane?” Daniel prompted.
This part Kyle remembered. “I didn’t,” he explained. The furrow that bent Daniel’s brow amused Kyle. His kidnapping wasn’t a laughing matter, but it was rare to see Daniel caught off guard. “I never made it to the plane.”
Daniel’s mouth opened as he drew in a breath, but he didn’t say anything.
Entertained by his friend’s confused look, Kyle took a sip of his coffee before explaining. “I was getting ready to leave when one of the ministry aides stopped by.” Kyle paused as he pictured the man in his mind’s eye. He wasn’t sure which minister the man worked for, but he was familiar. Kyle turned his thoughts away from the memory and finished telling his story. “The man said he had something for Minister Lewis and asked if I could deliver it since I was already on my way.” He didn’t think the request was odd at the time, but looking back he could see how suspicious it really was. “I didn’t think anything of it, but I sure was surprised when I followed him into that office and found I was already there.”
Daniel jerked to attention in his chair. “What?”
“I met your doppelganger.”
Shock crossed Daniel’s face. “The one that framed Michael?”
“I believe so,” Kyle said. “I didn’t get much of a chance to ask. As soon as I was in the room, someone cracked me in the back of the head. I don’t even remember hitting the floor.”
Daniel rubbed his jaw as he relaxed in his seat. “And you don’t remember anything else?”
“Just bits,” Kyle explained. “I remember a room with wooden walls and exposed rafters.” He rubbed his forehead trying to get his battered memory to work. “I was lying in a pile of straw, but I couldn’t move. It was like I was asleep, but awake at the same time.” Kyle shivered at the memory. “It was weird.”
“That actually makes sense,” Daniel mused. “We found drugs in both Raven’s and Melanie’s autopsies.”
“I s
till can’t believe someone took Raven down,” Kyle said, shaking his head in disbelief. “I was sure she would outlive us all.”
“She was crafty,” Daniel agreed. He paused for a moment before going on. “But I think she knew something was going to happen to her.”
Kyle raised an eyebrow in question.
Daniel lifted one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug and let it drop. “It’s the only way I can explain Noah and Byrd.”
“So she kidnapped Noah because she thought something was going to happen to her?” Kyle pondered. He tried to fit this idea into his world, but it didn’t sit well. He’d been royally pissed off when she’d crashed his birthday celebration and absconded with Daniel’s man.
Daniel snickered. “No,” he admitted. “I think Raven kidnapped him because she was horny. But, I’m pretty sure she gave Noah his collar because she thought something was going to happen.” He paused and sighed heavily. “Unfortunately we may never know. Byrd won’t talk about Raven’s last days and Noah refuses to push him.”
“Cut them some slack,” Kyle insisted. “Having part of your psyche ripped away and being forced into a bond with another can’t be easy.” The weight of Kyle’s words smacked him in the gut and pain flooded his soul. He stared down into his coffee cup trying to get a grip on his emotions. The idea that his dragon was gone hadn’t settled into place. It was too surreal for him to accept even with the emptiness he felt.
Both Daniel and Kyle sat in silence, unwilling to broach the subject.
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Kyle changed the subject. “So tell me about the young lady that saved me.”
Daniel jumped on the new subject eagerly. “Angela Lewis. She’s the daughter of Minister Lewis.”
“A minister’s daughter?” Kyle asked as he pondered over how she’d come to his rescue. “What was she doing in a barn so late at night?” Memories of their hectic escape rolled through his mind.
“She claims she was sleeping there.”
Kyle’s brow furrowed in confusion. “In the barn?” Why would a minister’s daughter be sleeping in a barn?