His father had tried to be a good person. That man’s beast had been as unpredictable as Cash’s. His father had sought to use that powerful beast to overthrow Quincy once and for all. Unfortunately, Quincy’s cunning had won. Cash had been forced to watch his father lose to the beast in the middle of their fight. The man he’d admired and loved had turned feral right before him.
Then…
Then…
Cash watched Quincy put his father down. Quincy had wiped blood off his hands and told Cash that was what his father deserved. All because they had a dream of making the Montoya family better than they were.
That had been the moment that something snapped in Cash. He remembered the sound, like a guitar string giving way. While looking up at Quincy’s blood-stained fingers, Cash’s head reverberated with the growl of a beast far too large for his child’s body.
Since then, Cash had steered clear of Quincy. He’d done his best to avoid his father’s dream for fear that it would force him down the same path. A lot had changed since then, though. Cash wouldn’t be the one to face off against Quincy. He’d seen Logan’s beast.
That massive monster of a dragon had the best chance of surviving Quincy’s underhanded cunning in a formal challenge. Cash had wanted to avoid being there when it happened, but he didn’t know anymore. He wasn’t sure if he could stay out of it when the answer to his fears was within reach.
Cash added more than was necessary to the online shopping cart and finished the check-out process. It was not an apology, but a fresh start.
Inside, he heard Baylee on the phone with someone. Cash kept his nose out of her business and strode past her on his way upstairs. The letters awaited him. It was time for him to look for the truth in them.
Before long, Baylee shoved the door open. “My mom needs a favor from you. She says there’s a bottle of whiskey in it for you.”
11
Ember glanced over her shoulder as she wiped down the bar top. The line cook kept watching her when he thought she was distracted. She sucked in a breath through her clenched teeth when she caught him quickly looking away. He was going to leave the bar with a few broken toes if he didn’t straighten up.
Her mood hadn’t gotten any better. The pain her father had caused over the years roiled inside her chest like a nest of worms. She kept rolling her shoulders, hoping the unsettling sensation would eventually go away, but it never did. The anger fed her beast until it seethed. She kept catching smoke slipping out from her lips.
If someone caught her, she would have to make up a story about a vape pen. No one would believe her because the smoke didn’t smell like fruit or children’s cereal. It smelled like a wildfire, like her anger and her pain.
It didn’t help that her shift had been agonizingly slow. The bar was nearly empty. Tinny music drifted from the overhead speakers instead of the ones on stage, because there was no show tonight. She hated these nights, how empty and drawn out they were.
Someone claimed a stool at the bar while her back was turned. Turning with a fake smile plastered on her face, Ember faltered at the sight of Cash. He leaned forward, his elbows on the bar. He wore a hesitant smile.
“If my father catches you here, there’s going to be hell to pay,” Ember said under her breath.
“Well, I’ve been told that there’s a bottle of whiskey here for me.” Cash held out his hands, palms upward in a way that said I don’t know what to tell you.
She couldn’t believe he could be so flippant about her father’s threat. Showing up as a dragon wasn’t just a powerplay. Callum had wanted them to know just what kind of a powerhouse he was. Cash’s presence at the bar, while she was working, would get them both in trouble.
“Marjorie called and had it reserved for me,” Cash said.
Ember was taken aback. Marjorie had, in fact, called about an expensive bottle of whiskey. She hadn’t mentioned who it was for, only that it needed to be set aside for now. At first, Ember didn’t want to believe him. The more she thought about it, though, the more it made sense. Cash wouldn’t have overheard the reservation by accident. If the information made it from a Barnes dragon to a Montoya dragon, it was on purpose.
Ember reached for the bottle and a glass.
Cash’s half-grin warmed her heart. The unsettling feeling slithering in her chest finally stilled. She let out a soft sigh and smiled back, happy to be in his company once again even if it meant trouble.
The hours passed them by as they talked about anything and everything. When a customer came in, Ember would quickly serve them and retreat back to Cash’s end of the bar so she could ask him something new.
He seemed different. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it at first. About two-thirds of the bottle had disappeared before Ember finally figured out what had changed. Before this, Cash had always seemed to pull away from her. Now, he leaned into her. He looked her in the eye with a genuine smile on his face.
The sight of it stole her breath and made her heart flutter with tiny dragon wings.
But a question pinged around her mind. At first, she wasn’t sure how to ask it. She didn’t want to spoil their easy banter with her probing curiosity in case there was a line she didn’t know not to cross. Her hesitation didn’t last the night, though.
“Why did Marjorie buy you a bottle of whiskey?” Ember twisted the bottle. It was an expensive one, too.
Cash dragged in a deep breath and met her gaze. “Do you really want to know?”
She held back the desire to grab him by his shoulders and shake him. Of course, she wanted to know!
The bell over the door chimed. Ember didn’t look away from Cash. She held his gaze in the hopes that he would finally tell all.
“God fucking damn it!”
Ember’s head snapped up just in time to see her father grab Cash by the back of his jacket and drag him off the stool. She shouted, but no one heard her. Cash twisted, slipped out of his jacket, and landed on his feet.
Callum was left holding a jacket. Smoke billowed out of his nostrils. Ember cursed under her breath and glanced back to make sure no one was watching. The line cook stared at Callum with his mouth wide open as something burned in front of him.
She cursed and ran around the bar. Before she could get between her father and Cash, Callum had already thrown the first punch. Cash staggered back into a table. The chairs screeched against the floor.
“I told you to stay away from my daughter,” Callum growled.
“Dad!” Ember tried to intercept him, but Callum shrugged her off.
Callum lifted Cash by the front of his shirt and threw him across the room. He crashed into another table, snapping it in half. Ember let out a shout drowned out by the chaos. Those who had been drowning their worries in their drinks were dragged back to reality. Patrons leapt out of their chairs and rushed to the edges of the room, away from the fight.
“You and your family are tearing apart the little bit we have left. If you could keep your greedy claws out of everything, then maybe you wouldn’t have squandered your legacy. You wouldn’t have to destroy what others have just to feel something.” Callum shoved a table out of his warpath.
Cash, still in the wreck of the broken table, looked up at the towering Callum. Ember’s hand flew to her mouth. She knew she should look away. She shouldn’t watch this go down, yet she couldn’t bear to turn her back to it.
She forced herself to watch, as if that were her penance for daring to love a Montoya man.
Callum reached down, but Cash rolled away and jumped to his feet. He smoothed down the front of his shirt and ran a hand through his hair.
“You’re going to get your daughter fired, sir.”
Callum pointed a condemning finger at Cash. “You’re going to kill her.”
Before Cash could refute the accusation, Callum rushed him. Cash dodged Callum’s attacks by leaping over tables and chairs. Her father barreled through every obstacle like it wasn’t going to come out of her final paycheck in two weeks. W
hen Callum finally got ahold of Cash, the fight became real.
Her father’s oversized knuckles connected with Cash’s face. Cash careened backwards into the low stage, which sent him to the floor. Callum leapt on him. One hand in Cash’s shirt, Callum used the other to pummel Cash’s face. The sound of crunching bones turned the air into static.
Cash endured every blow. He couldn’t break now. The beast within him raged like a storm made of fury. This wasn’t one of his stupid cousins or even Quincy. The fist trying to cave in the side of Cash’s face belonged to Ember’s father.
So, Cash gritted his teeth and held his breath. The beast fought against his control. It demanded blood and filled his thoughts with everything it wanted to do once it broke free of Cash’s grasp—things that would jeopardize lives. He didn’t want to be that monster.
Cash didn’t want to be the dangerous creature lurking inside himself.
Callum snarled. “I can see you slipping.”
Cash didn’t fight back, afraid that if he started something, he would be able to stop himself. Callum’s blows landed, one after another.
“You’re close to breaking,” Callum said, voice quiet and menacing. “You can’t promise my daughter anything. You can’t even promise her safety when you’re the real threat.”
The words thrummed through Cash’s core. They shook him.
The beast inside him gnashed its teeth, eager for the taste of blood. Visions of his teeth on Callum’s throat filled his mind. His heartrate skyrocketed. The beast slammed against his ribs and knocked the air from his lungs. The beast shook him like the bars of a cage.
When would he break? How much longer could he hold himself together?
The tick of a countdown echoed in the back of his mind. His human half would fail. He would fall apart under the pressure of the beast’s violent desires. When Cash shattered and the beast took over, he would kill Callum. Then Ember would look at him with horror in her eyes.
“Do you--” punch, “get it--” punch, “now?”
Callum was doing Cash a favor. He was exposing Cash’s weakness. He’d brought the worst out of Cash. Though Cash could hold the beast back, he could feel just how tenuous his grasp on the creature had become. As the clock ticked down, Cash would always wonder when the last thread would finally snap.
Fire and blood. He could smell searing flesh. His breath trembled out of him. He would destroy everything, and there was nothing he could do to stop himself.
“Save yourself the trouble and fuck off,” Callum growled.
12
Ember couldn’t bear it any longer. She ignored the audience that had gathered in the kitchen doorway and stepped forward, grabbing a broken chair leg on her way. Someone behind her called her name. She ignored them. No dragon shifter scared her.
Closer, she saw the burning light in Cash’s eyes. It glowed bright even though he’d shut his eyes. He kept his fists, clenched tight and trembling, pinned to the ground. She didn’t understand why he wouldn’t push Callum off. Cash sucked in a ragged breath between each punch.
Callum seemed blind to Cash’s effort to avoid fighting. She hesitated, barely a moment. A rumbling growl grew louder and louder. It took her a heartbeat to realize the growl came from Cash. His face had twisted. Another heartbeat later, Ember realized what was happening.
She brought the chair legs down on her father’s skull. It broke over his head, but she knew it wouldn’t hurt him. It was just enough to get his attention.
Callum shook himself. His attention snapped to Ember. A snarl warped his features, but she looked at him as if to ask what do you think you’re doing? Realization softened his expression. His eyes drifted past her.
Ember looked back, too. Her boss stood in the middle of the very wrecked bar. Her stomach dropped to the floor. There was no case to plead, no explanation she could give that would exonerate her or the men on the stage.
Her father stumbled to his feet. He tried to run his hand over his beard, but noticed the blood on his knuckles and recoiled. Ember ignored him. She pulled Cash up and put his arm over her shoulder so she could walk him outside. Even though he was in his human form, she could have sworn he weighed as much as a full dragon.
By the time they reached the door, Cash found his footing and walked on his own. He didn’t take his arm off her, though. In fact, he pulled her closer. She was too stiff, too tense from the spectacle, to melt into him.
They walked around the side of the building to the small parking lot in the back. Cash leaned against a random car and shuddered. He covered his face. The muffled moan he let out turned into a threatening growl, but she held her ground.
Had she not acted when she did, Cash would have been swallowed whole by his beast. The dragon had been seconds away from seizing control of his body. She had an idea of what would have gone down had that happened.
“Why didn’t you fight back? He was going to kill you, but you didn’t raise a hand to defend yourself!” she fumed.
Fire filled her chest, so hot that she feared it might vaporize her from the inside out. Cash could have died right before her eyes. She could have been a witness to the worst thing her father had ever done. This was bad enough, as it was.
“I didn’t want to make matters worse for you,” Cash said despite his split lip. His eyes went distant for a split second before he sucked in a sharp breath and met her gaze. “That wasn’t enough to kill someone like me, anyway.”
Her heart shattered. She rushed inside, snatched a towel and filled it with ice before anyone could kick her out, and went back to press the makeshift icepack to Cash’s lips. He shuddered. When she pulled away, he gently grabbed her wrist to keep her close.
He leaned into the icepack, his eyelids fluttering.
Ember hated that she loved another man who had trouble with his beast. She feared what that would mean for her future. Would it be as lonely as her childhood? Cash’s control in the fight with her father was a sign that things could change. The fact that he’d been about to lose that control, well, that was a sign that nothing would ever be perfect.
She had yearned for the kind of romance that was infallible. Mate bonds were supposed to be perfect. She knew that Cash was her mate. Her love for him would never wane. But she didn’t know if that love would make life easier.
It didn’t feel like it.
Maybe when Cash’s fingers grazed her forearm as his hand moved to her elbow and a tongue of flame licked through her core, she could see a happy future. Other than that, logic warned her against hope.
She had never asked for this. She hadn’t lined up to listen to Cash’s music with the idea that she would find her one true love in him. It had happened over time, slowly but surely stealing her heart until she looked down and found it no longer in her possession. He held it, though precariously.
One wrong step, and he would crush it.
He was trying his best to avoid hurting her. She could tell. If Cash hadn’t cared, the bar would be in ruins. He and Callum could have brought the ceiling down upon everyone’s heads. A rescue team would have been searching for the humans trapped in the fallout.
She swallowed and tried to tuck her thoughts away. When she looked up, the swelling in Cash’s face had gone down. Bruises had bloomed and started to fade into blotchy yellow. Her father’s blood, from the knuckles he’d cracked open against her mate’s face, still marred Cash’s cheek.
“It only looks this bad because I didn’t raise a hand to defend myself,” Cash said.
It was more than that, though. When Callum had hunted Gale, the fight hadn’t been half as brutal. Callum had taken this one personally.
“I need to talk to my father,” she said, her voice low in the hopes that no one would hear, and she wouldn’t have to follow through with her words. But she straightened her spine so she could face what needed to be done. “Don’t worry. I’ll take my sister with me.”
Cash cupped her cheek. His chuckle was a little choked. “I’m not worried about
you. I’m more afraid of what you’ll do to him.”
“Thanks, but I’m barely even half the dragon he is. I might look like him, but that’s about all I inherited from him. I can’t even produce my own flame.”
“Dragon fire wouldn’t do much to him, but I’ve watched you tear him down with your words. It hurts him.” Cash stroked her cheek with his thumb.
Cash needed to go. Ember watched him leave with sad eyes. He wished he could stay, but his beast hadn’t stopped tearing into him since the fight began. Cash’s beast was pissed. It wanted out. It wanted to break something, to scream its anger to the skies.
How dare you.
Cash sighed and told the beast it would have killed someone important to Ember.
Our mate loathes him.
Cash knew that loathing and love could happen at the same time. There was no rule that said one ruled the other out. Just because Callum had done wrong by his daughter in the past didn’t erase the fact that they loved one another.
Had Cash unleashed his beast and killed Callum, it would have broken Ember’s heart. Her heart already seemed too fragile. He didn’t know what to do with love. Not this kind of love. Cash appreciated his cousin and would even fight to protect Baylee, but this kind of love had Cash on edge.
He needed to protect her, but the person he needed to protect her from was her father. The beast could not have its way without causing further damage. Cash had to hold back. He couldn’t give in to the violence simmering inside him.
“Hold up!” Ember called out. She tore off her apron and jogged to catch up to him. “You shouldn’t have to go alone.”
He pressed his lips together. He waited for the dragon to swipe at him for stopping, but the blow never came. The beast’s attention was on Ember and the red tips of her hair swaying in the breeze.
A Song of Destiny (Great Plains Dragon Feud Book 2) Page 8