She’d been to Cash’s home when she visited Baylee recently. It sat between the woods and empty fields. Ember found a kind of tranquility out there that she had been searching for her whole life. Part of that might have been the music drifting downstairs from where Cash hid. His scent had permeated almost everything, too.
She wished she could go back there and curl up on his couch while their little clan bickered. She wanted to listen to them as she drifted off to sleep somewhere safe.
Some of the Montoya shifters had defected from their family clan after learning about Gale and Baylee. Logan’s presence might have drawn them in, too. Yet, none of the Barnes shifters had done the same. Ember wanted to. She wanted to abscond from the constraints of her life and throw herself into the cozy comfort of Baylee’s new, smaller clan.
Among the Barnes family, it was easy to feel alone. They had no leadership. No one pulled them together to make them act like a family. There was no central hub where everyone convened. Each small nuclear family operated on their own. Sometimes the youngest generation visited their grandparents, but it seemed like they were all too busy lately.
Ember couldn’t help but wonder if they’d had a tighter knit family then maybe Callum wouldn’t have been so absent from her life as a kid. He might have gotten the support he had needed. Then she and Teagan would have had the father he promised he would be.
Cash had that kind of support. She knew that his family loved him. Gale treated him like a brother. Cash would be alright in their care.
She pinched the bridge of her nose. She was thinking too hard. Her mind swayed wildly from one subject to another. When she stopped and looked back in the direction she’d come from, she hoped that this path wouldn’t be the same one Teagan’s mother had walked.
There was a reason Teagan kept to herself.
No one could leave her if she left them first.
Ember sighed. She wasn’t going to leave her sister, and she wasn’t going to leave Cash. But she could only handle one situation at a time. Since Cash had turned her away earlier, she decided to give Teagan her attention.
Surely that would save Ember a bit of heartbreak. Right?
4
Books were stacked on nearly every surface of Teagan’s small apartment. The smell of tea lingered in the air but wasn’t unpleasant. Ember fingered a stack of books, turning the spines toward herself so that she could read them.
Though Teagan dressed like a grunge teenager, her book collection included poetry, history, and a sprinkling of romance novels. Teagan had always been the smarter of them. She’d had the top scores in school until her mother walked out on them. Her grades had taken a nose-dive after that, no matter what Ember did to fill the void in their lives.
Ember’s mother had died when she was young. Cancer stole too many people before their time. Ember had been so young that she hadn’t really understood it. Callum had waited to fill the empty place in his heart, but even then, Ember had seen just how badly the loneliness had hurt him. She encouraged him to start dating again when she was a teenager. That was how Teagan had come into their life.
Callum and Penny had lasted only a handful of years. Penny, a human woman, had given birth to a shifter and had no idea how to handle her. She’d turned to the dragon shifters for answers. For a while, it had seemed like a good idea. They’d seemed like a happy family.
Then, Penny vanished.
She didn’t say goodbye to her daughter. She didn’t offer any kind of explanation. She just left.
Everything good their small family had built together had come crumbling down around their ears. Ember did her best to pick up the pieces, but she’d been a teenager. It shouldn’t have been her job to fix what someone else had broken.
“You should come hang out at the bar more often,” Ember said as she looked up from the books in front of her. “Drinks are on me. All night.”
Teagan set a teacup in front of Ember. “Don’t risk your job for me. If they catch you giving out free alcohol, they might fire you.”
Ember waved off her sister’s warning. “They wouldn’t fire me over that. I’d have to do something outrageous to get the boot.”
Despite Teagan’s reserved demeanor, she laughed over the rim of her teacup. “Would you say you would have to set fire to the bar in order to get fired?”
The play on words would have made Ember laugh, but it struck an odd chord that made her face fall.
“I’m…I’m sorry. I should have used my brain before opening my big mouth.”
Ember gave her sister a reassuring smile and decided to change the subject. “I tried telling Cash about the letters.”
Teagan set her teacup down and sat straighter in her seat. “Yeah? How did that go?”
“Just about as well as you might think.” Ember scowled. “He called me a liar and stormed out.”
Teagan rolled her eyes. “Maybe Baylee found the only good Montoya man. The rest of them are probably trash and not worth anyone’s time.”
The words stung Ember, but she bit her tongue to avoid picking a fight with her sister. She wanted them to have a better relationship. She could point out that her feelings for Cash were inescapable, but starting a fight with her sister wasn’t what she’d come here to do.
So, Ember sighed and sank into her chair. Silence resonated between them. She could hear it, ringing in her ears. This couldn’t go on forever, or nothing would get done. She had to say something.
“How’s Dad?”
Teagan shrugged. “You probably know as much as I do. Marjorie says that he’s refusing to talk to her. I doubt Marjorie is all that bothered by it, though.”
Baylee’s mother had married into the Barnes family. She hadn’t been raised with the same prejudices and fears that the Barnes family instilled into their children. While Marjorie had upheld the feud, the moment her daughter’s wellbeing got caught up in the fight, Marjorie had tossed the old feud out the window.
Their father, Callum, refused to be swayed as easily. Ember had been dodging his calls for weeks. His voicemails were all the same.
Stay away from those monsters. They might look like boys, but they’re going to hurt you.
Don’t visit Baylee. She’s been brainwashed. I don’t want the same to happen to you.
Answer your damn phone, so I know those Montoyas haven’t kidnapped you!
Callum needed a nap. Ember sent him text messages that were always apologetic. She blamed work for her inability to answer her phone when she just didn’t want to listen to his preachy rants. He would never understand what had happened to her.
Eventually, her unintentional mate bond would drive a wedge between her and her father. Then again, Callum had been the first to push her away.
“How’s the bookstore going?” Ember asked, trying to change the subject.
Teagan had been saving to open her own bookstore for ages. But Teagan’s frown told Ember that it wasn’t going well. She listened to her sister go on about surprise bills and a mystery ticking in her car.
Why couldn’t either of them catch a break? Of all the people she knew, they deserved it the most.
Why could Cash remember her?
Images of the dark-haired Barnes woman flickered through his memories. The images were brief, like the dragon had taken snapshots to tease Cash with later. He remembered laughter, compassion, and disappointment.
What had he done to disappoint her? The idea left him stricken.
We disappointed her, the beast said. It was what you might call a group effort.
Cash pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. The beast’s rumble still vibrated his skull, as if to prove that the monster inside him wasn’t becoming more and more sentient every day. Cash knew that his dragon spoke to him more than any other dragon. No shifter experienced the fissure between man and beast quite like Cash did.
Letting out a ragged sigh, he sat up. The letters were scattered across his desk. When he opened the first letter and reread the line Ember ha
d repeated, he could hear her voice. He threw the letter down and growled. He needed to see her and set things straight.
There was no way he was going to let this woman take over his life. He couldn’t even keep himself together let alone manage a forbidden romance. Just because Gale and Baylee could do it did not mean that Cash was capable of the same thing.
If anything, he was the worst possible choice. The Barnes woman could court Adrien or Reece. They were assholes, but women liked to think they could change men. They would be better projects than Cash, who doubted he was even redeemable.
The beast slashed at him. He winced but refused to make a sound. Pain lingered in his chest, throbbing until it faded into a distant sensation. The beast gave another warning growl. Cash ignored it. They could not court anyone as they were.
See, he even referred to himself as they in the plural sense.
His mind had fractured. Nothing would ever put him back together again.
When he stood, another image flashed through his mind. The woman, with her arms crossed over her chest. A look of hurt marred her perfect features. Cash got the sense that he had been the cause of that hurt.
He grumbled at his beast for feeding him this bait. The beast wanted him to go to her, but Cash had to wait. He couldn’t stalk the woman.
Two hours later, he found himself in town, looking up and down the street in the hopes that he might see the Barnes woman. His guitar case sat at his feet. People gave him weary looks, as if they were afraid he might pull out an instrument and disturb the peace of their monotonous lives. In return, he gave them a glare that made them scurry past.
“Excuse me?” a familiar voice snapped.
Cash’s head spun in the direction of the sound. A male voice joined in, angry and demanding. The beast inside Cash snarled.
“I’ve been really good to you,” the male voice said. “You could be a little nicer to me. You know, touch my dick once in a while. Why else would I go out of my way to walk you home?”
Cash rounded a corner and saw the Barnes woman bristling. She glared up at a skinny man who was acting like he claimed the sky was blue. To the man, the moment he went out of his way for a woman, she owed him something. Apparently, that something was sexual.
The Barnes woman was so mad that she didn’t see Cash approaching until he put a hand on the man’s shoulder. He squeezed until the man squealed.
“Watch who you’re talking to.” Cash couldn’t help the territorial tone of his voice.
Anger sparked like dragon fire. If he wasn’t careful, the beast would take ahold of him and turn this situation deadly. He had no intention of killing this man, despite his obvious transgressions, but he did want to strike the fear of death in him. It was the least he deserved.
Cash’s own taste for violence should have scared him, but it felt right. No one could touch the woman. If they did, they should expect to lose a few fingers in the process.
The man jerked his chin at Cash. “Are you her boyfriend? I wasn’t trying to poach on your property.”
“Property?” The Barnes woman stomped on the man’s foot.
Cash released the nameless man when he howled and let him scurry away, out of sight. The beast’s ire banked, but only a little. When Cash turned back to the woman, the anger fled him altogether. He’d never felt such a rush of relief before. An entire ocean had crashed upon his head and reduced him to cold coals instead of an uncontrolled wildfire.
It was…refreshing.
Dangerously so.
“I cannot believe he had the audacity to assume that I would…That I might even…Gah, I hate men!” She threw her hands in the air.
Cash chuckled. He knew that her declaration didn’t include him, despite how rude he’d been to her the night before. Wasn’t he supposed to work towards repairing relations with the Barnes family, anyway?
The least he could do was make a friend. That was it. She could be a good friend, he reasoned.
“Look, I’m sorry for what I said the other night. I know Baylee put you up to it, but…”
She pressed a finger to his chest. Her eyes blazed when she looked up at him. “Do not start that shit again. I’m the one who used Baylee. Not the other way around.”
5
She stood by her statement. Men were utterly useless.
But Cash’s puzzlement was kind of cute, and she enjoyed it for a moment too long. His confusion melted away. Derision rose to replace it, which pissed her off. Her heart thumped wildly in his presence only for him to dismiss her without so much as a thought.
Yet, he’d come to her rescue. She truly did not understand Cash. Though she knew from the emotion in his music that she loved every ounce of this man, there was also a lot to learn about him. She knew the pain that lived in his soul, but not the ways his mind worked.
Or something like that.
Ember wasn’t a songwriter. She’d never been happy with any piece she’d written. Nothing quite reached the bar Cash had set for her. She could try and try all she wanted. She would never reach that perfect blend of emotion and prose.
“Don’t tell Gale that you used his mate,” Cash said, as if he were concerned that Gale might hurt Ember.
She snorted. “Gale was in on it, too.”
Cash scowled at her. “How did you get both of them to break into my bedroom? What do you have over them?”
“You really are stupid. Or are you just refusing to see what’s actually in front of you? Is that it? You don’t like the truth, so you rewrite it to be whatever you want it to be.” Ember wanted nothing more than to grab Cash by the front of his flannel shirt and shove him against the alley wall so she could silence him with her kiss.
She wanted to know the taste of his lips and feel his tongue slide along hers. This conversation wasn’t going anywhere. It certainly wasn’t going to lead to that.
Smoke curled from his nostrils. His beast was getting restless. “Are all the women in your family as infuriating as you and Baylee?”
“First of all, my name is Ember. Not you.” Then, with a shrug, she added, “Second, you’re probably right.”
Cash seemed taken aback. He blinked at her, his rage leaving his face. Then, to her delight, he laughed. His shoulders relaxed and a smile spread across his lips to reveal dimples she didn’t know he had.
She stared at those dimples, awestruck by their existence. His laughter stole her breath and scrambled her mind. The sound was so new and unfamiliar. And she had conjured it. Somber, serious Cash had laughed at something she said.
She almost told him she loved him right then and there. The words sat on the tip of her tongue until she swallowed them back.
“I, ah, have to go back to work.” She glanced at the door the line cook had entered a couple of minutes ago.
While working the bar, she wouldn’t have to deal with him much. They got off at the same time, though. She didn’t want to have to face him afterhours. It wasn’t so much that she was afraid of him, but that his motives now made her skin crawl. She didn’t want to have to deal with his probing and expectant gaze any longer.
Cash seemed to follow her gaze. “I’ll be in the area tonight if you want someone to walk with after work.”
Ember couldn’t help but smile as she looked up at him. “Do you actually have plans to be in the area, or are you offering to help me out of the goodness of your heart?”
“Don’t press your luck,” he warned, even though there was a ghost of a smile on the corner of his mouth.
Ember stifled the urge to grab the front of his shirt and drag him into a quick kiss. Turning her back to him was harder than she wanted to admit. The urge to cast off her bartending apron and run wild with Cash tugged at her mind.
A group of women passed by the entrance of the alley. One stopped and backtracked, her eyes on Cash. She excitedly called out to the others. Ember watched, defeated, as the women swarmed Cash. Recognition filled their eager faces as they flooded the alley.
Ember took a step
back. Cash noticed and glanced over his shoulder. Upon seeing the gaggle of excited women, his shoulders slumped. He cursed softly under his breath. Ember knew her time with him had come to an end. Fate kept pulling him away from her, for reasons she didn’t think she would ever understand.
The women surrounded him. They fired questions at him, sometimes talking over one another. Ember couldn’t tell them that Cash wouldn’t take the loudest one home with him tonight. They would have ignored her anyway.
If they thought they had any chance with the famous Cash Montoya, they would see all other women as a threat. Ember wasn’t even sure she had a real chance with him, mate bond or not.
She took another step toward the kitchen door. Cash met her gaze and gave her an apologetic smile that quickly collapsed when one of the human women grabbed his shirt. Ember’s beast snarled possessively. Her fists clenched at her sides. It took every ounce of willpower she had to keep her hands to herself. She wanted to rip the woman off him and shove her away.
Cash, however, seemed truly uninterested in them. He answered their questions in the driest manner possible, without ever looking one of them in the eye. Ember realized that she’d never seen him act open and honestly with a fan. He’d always kept his distance. Yet, when he talked to her, she saw true emotion in him.
She wanted to be happy, but she couldn’t watch these ladies manhandle him any longer. She couldn’t stand there while he allowed it to happen. After ducking inside, a trickle of guilt spilled through her. Cash probably needed help…
But he was a grown man. He knew how to tell those women no, but he hadn’t bothered at all. He let them hang all over him while Ember stood there and watched. She needed to get her mind in order because she had rent to pay.
A Song of Destiny (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 2) Page 3