by Abigail Owen
She searched for suspicion in his gaze but found none. Forcing stiff lips to function, she tried to answer as briefly as she could. “Car accident. It caught on fire, but I got out.”
Actually, she’d woken on the ground twenty feet away. She hadn’t been able to pull the others out before it burned to the ground. Please don’t ask more.
That assessing light in his eyes sharpened. “Did you lose someone close to you?”
How had he guessed? She forced back tears pushing at her eyes and tipped up her chin. “My parents and my brother.”
“I’m sorry.” He brushed over the scar again, soothing her, making her want to lean into his touch. “I lost someone to fire, too.”
He abruptly dropped his hand, like he was angry that he’d shared that with her. Frowning, he absently stroked the cat, who still twined around his legs.
Delaney stared at the man in front of her as a calm she’d never expected to experience in a moment like this settled over her. Maybe she shouldn’t resist this instinct to trust Finn. She had to confess to someone, or she’d only look more guilty.
Can I do this?
Before she could think herself out of it, Delaney grabbed his wrist. “I need to tell you something.”
He glanced at her hand, then raised eyes that had frosted over, sending a shiver of trepidation through her. Maybe she’d got it wrong.
“What?” he asked.
She glanced around at the busy area filled with people. “Is there somewhere private we can talk? Not here?”
He stood, towering over her, putting even more distance between them and turning into someone intimidating. Delaney’s heart sank.
Damn the man was tall. Six-three or thereabouts, unless she missed her guess, with broad shoulders. She had zero doubt that hard, lean muscles lurked under the soot-stained clothes, and again that uncomfortable attraction zinged through her, despite her churning stomach. The cat, losing Finn’s attention, wandered off, abandoning her with the firefighter.
“Is it about the fire?” he asked.
She swallowed. “Yes.”
Her heart stopped as he considered her, his expression remote, analytical. “Your apartment?” he suggested.
“Not enough space.” There was no way she could handle being cooped up in her tiny apartment with Finn. Not in the state she was in.
“What about an office?” He glanced toward the tasting room.
“Not here.” Not where Sera could interrupt or overhear. Her friend knew some details about Delaney’s previous life, but she didn’t want to expose her to the dark underbelly.
Finn let loose an aggravated sigh. “Fine. You can come back to our headquarters with us. We’ll talk there.”
Back to the headquarters? “Do I need to talk to the other firefighters first?” Aidan had explained about how Finn’s crew just happened by and stopped to help, so technically Finn wasn’t in charge.
“Yes.”
She grimaced. “I’d rather not.”
His gaze narrowed, and there was the suspicion she’d been dreading.
“If you can’t help me, then I guess I’d better talk to them anyway,” she said. “Forget it.”
He paused and ran a hand around the back of his neck. Then blew out a breath that sounded like annoyance to her ears. “Tell them the basics, what you told me. Then we can go. If I feel like what you have to say needs to be shared with them later, then I’ll take care of it. Fair?”
That was way more than she expected to get. She wasn’t out of the frying pan, but at least he was keeping her out of the fire a little longer. “Okay.”
Chapter Four
With more effort than he cared to admit, Finn dragged his gaze away from Delaney’s girl-next-door freckles and the sexiest lips he’d ever seen. Fantasy-inducing lips that had pinched white as she spoke of the incident that took her family.
She’d been scarred more than physically. Just like he had.
He shook off the odd feeling of connection that had tempted him to share even a little of his loss.
Fuck. He didn’t want to get involved. Every woman he’d been attracted to he’d eventually hurt, and this woman had already been hurt enough. The problem was, she knew something. With the involvement of a dragon in this fire, he needed to know what.
“Stay here.”
With that abrupt order, he spun on his boot heel and headed toward Aidan. He did his best to ignore that last image of Delaney as she sat, staring at the ground, her shoulders hunched—a bleak little picture of a woman.
Every reaction he’d had to her since seeing her surrounded by flame and smoke had been dead wrong. When he’d first approached her, intending to question her, he’d knelt and had completely derailed his train of thought as her sunshine scent swirled around him and he’d gotten lost in her wary gaze. He’d stared and struggled to bring his body back under his iron-fisted control.
Iron-fisted. What a joke.
Finn gritted his teeth and shoved that all out of his head. His unusual reaction to her didn’t matter. What did matter was what she wanted to tell him, and how that impacted him and his people.
Which meant digging into this strange fire from a dragon perspective. It also meant taking whatever Delaney had to say seriously.
Had she witnessed something she didn’t want to admit? That had happened before. Humans couldn’t process seeing a dragon and were terrified of admitting to it and what it might mean about the state of their mental health.
He’d take her to the headquarters, extract the information, and have her memory wiped. They could only wipe so much, hours or sometimes a day or two, before they risked breaking a fragile human mind. They needed to get this done, and fast.
He stalked over to the white truck that had pulled up while he’d been talking to Delaney. Titus had made damn good time. He signaled to roll down the windows and leaned over to find Levi in the vehicle with Titus.
Finn raised his eyebrows. Not his orders, but he hadn’t been specific, so he let it slide. “The witness is coming back with us. She has something she wants to discuss in private.”
Both men straightened, exchanging wary glances. Levi’s eyebrows winged high. “You think she saw him in dragon form?”
“Maybe.” But his gut told him something else was going on with her.
“Want me to put Aidan on it?”
“I’ll take this one.” The words were out before he’d consciously decided. Finn held back a scowl, frustrated with himself.
If he was smart, he’d let Aidan handle it and keep his fucking distance from her.
Levi grinned as he leaned around Finn to ogle Delaney. “I can see why you’d want to take it. She’s got a sweet little ass.”
Finn whipped around to face Levi, unable to suppress a growl of warning. His Beta held up both hands, frowning his surprise. “Easy there, boss. Just an observation.”
“Keep your goddam observations to yourself.”
Shit. Snapping the heads off his team—who were more than that, they were family—was not his style. Which meant he’d be a colossal idiot to allow Delaney any closer. The problem was, he couldn’t walk away.
“She seems to trust me.” Those words poked at something deep inside, something he didn’t want to acknowledge. Focus on the job, on protecting his people. Get her to talk, then get her out. “Maybe she’ll tell me more.”
Levi knew better than to grin or comment again. “Yes, boss.”
Finn stalked away, well aware Levi and Titus watched him go with speculative looks he didn’t need right now. Jumping on his men wasn’t the way to keep those stares at bay, that was for damn sure. They needed to focus and not question him.
Rune, the reason for the twofold increase in fires and skirmishes in the Americas colony, was still on the loose, gathering more followers every day. They had an unidentified dragon starting fires close to their home base in Northern California, basically under their noses. And now they had a potential human witness to deal with.
; He talked to the man in charge of the structure teams, feeding him lies to cover the team, then he forced himself to stand well away as Delaney was questioned. Her gaze slid to him more than a few times, and he crossed his arms against the inconvenient swell of protectiveness that threatened to have him walking over there and taking her away.
Because that wouldn’t raise any questions. Fuck. This woman was trouble with a capital T. His head, his gut, and his dick all agreed on that fact.
Once she was done answering questions, and the other crew started wrapping up, he allowed himself to go near her again, signaling Aidan to join them.
Delaney hopped off the back of the ambulance as he approached, expression cautious. Despite the tilt to her chin, big gray eyes practically begged him to wrap her up in his arms and tell her everything was going to be okay.
But he couldn’t do that. “Let’s go.”
She flinched, and he felt like an asshole, but didn’t change his expression.
“Delaney? Do you need me?” Sera called across the yard.
“Mama,” a small child’s voice cried from the direction of the house where Delaney lived.
Shock dropped cold into his gut. She had a kid? Maybe a husband? His gaze shot down to her fingers—ringless.
But the boy ran at Sera, wrapping his arms around his mother. A whisper of relief passed through him, one Finn ruthlessly squashed.
“I’ll be damned,” Aidan whispered beside him.
Finn tossed him a questioning glance, but the rookie pulled back his shoulders, giving his head a shake.
Delaney waved at her boss. “No. I’m going to go with Mr. Conleth to try to answer more questions.”
Sera’s forehead crinkled as she frowned like she wasn’t quite sure who he was. Likely she didn’t remember. After questioning her, Aidan would have removed those recent memories. In their world, the best tool dragon shifters had to remain undiscovered was their ability to remove a human’s memories.
Something he wished could be done to himself.
He hadn’t been with a woman since Phoebe burned to death in his arms. Every time he’d tried, all he could see was his dead mate’s face again. In his mind, that image supplanted the woman physically in his arms. He’d witness her pain, watch beauty turn to ashes, screwing him up for months afterward and hardening the edges of his soul where part had been ripped away with her.
It happened enough times that eventually he’d given up, running far and fast from any woman who attracted him, not that there’d been many. Delaney definitely fell into that category. He’d do damn well to keep his distance from her. The awareness tugging him toward her could easily turn into a riptide.
“Okay,” Sera said, still glancing between him and Aidan, who’d joined him. “I’m closing the winery until I’m told I can open it again, so don’t worry about rushing back today.”
He didn’t miss how Delaney winced. “Thanks.”
When she turned back to him, he got caught in the whirlpool of Delaney’s eyes yet again, sucking him in with both the fear and strength reflected there.
The strength he got. Anyone who ran into a burning building had that in spades. But why the fear? Finn focused, taking in other clues. The pulse at the side of her neck below the burn scar she carried fluttered at a frantic pace, the sound of her heart racing clear to his enhanced hearing. Her muscles were so tight, she was shaking.
She was terrified. But the way she held herself—head high, shoulders back, but stiff with the effort—told him she didn’t want him to know it. Whatever she had to tell him had to be bad.
Despite her visible, visceral reaction, Delaney held his hard stare, and his estimation of her went up another couple of notches. Most humans couldn’t stare down a dragon shifter. A subconscious inner voice they didn’t even know existed warned them of danger and they’d look away.
Not Delaney.
Still, he shouldn’t be admiring her or worrying about her or wanting to kiss those shadows from her eyes until she lost herself in him. He should only concentrate on doing his fucking job.
“Come on.” He took her by the arm and marched her over to the truck.
…
The phrase “between a rock and a hard place” came to mind as Delaney sat in the back seat of an unassuming white pickup truck between Finn and Aidan. A man she’d been introduced to as Titus drove in silence. Levi, a man with the most massive shoulders she’d ever seen and an infectious smile, sat up front in the passenger seat.
Delaney faced forward, pretending to watch the gold and green countryside of the mountain flash by out the front window. But really, her mind spun like a rodent in a wheel going and going and getting nowhere as she mentally rehearsed what she should say.
She was tired. Tired of worrying all the time. Tired of handling this alone, unable to share her fears and concerns with anyone.
Until today, she’d honestly believed the fires were not her fault, but the man she’d blamed was still on the other side of the country without any clue where she’d gone. As far as she knew, anyway. She couldn’t keep risking other people if she was responsible. The problem was, even she wouldn’t believe her stories. Blackouts, spontaneous fires, and a stalker.
She glanced at the unsmiling man beside her. Had she chosen her confessor too hastily? True, he’d lost someone to fire just as she had, and she’d thought there’d been a…connection. But then he’d closed off, gone all remote, and now he struck her as a by-the-book stickler for rules. Not the understanding, benefit-of-the-doubt type at all.
Worse, she couldn’t avoid the way she was plastered to his side, and his heat had her body buzzing. She crossed her arms, both as a shield and to hold herself in check. “Where’s the station?” A nerve-driven question if ever she’d asked one. Something to fill the silence.
Finn shot her a quick glance. “Not a station. More like a home base. Hotshot crews don’t have stations.”
“How’d you get my fire?”
Titus pulled up to a stop at a light as Finn turned to face her, that speculative gaze turned on her again. “Interesting choice of phrasing. Your fire.”
If she wasn’t already crossing her arms to hold her traitorous body in check, she would’ve done so now as a defense against his suspicion. “You know what I meant.”
No response, but she could feel that gaze on her, like a physical touch. She tried to ignore him but couldn’t, until exasperation had her turning her head to face him. “Has anyone told you that you have a very direct stare?”
Levi snorted in the front seat.
Oh, jeez. There went her inability to hold in words again. But the way he was looking at her, she just couldn’t help it.
His dark eyebrows winged high over hooded eyes.
“Do I?” he asked. In a blink he went from intense to knowing, the corner of his mouth lifting.
“Yes.” She faced forward. “It’s disconcerting.”
“Sorry.” Only she was pretty sure he didn’t mean that.
The light turned green and Titus hit the gas. The rest of the ride was conducted in silence. She managed to not turn her head to see if Finn still watched her. They drove farther east into the mountains, turning off at a spot where no town existed. Several more turns followed by long stretches of road eventually led to a gravel drive which they traveled for several slow miles, Delaney’s teeth rattling in her head.
It couldn’t be more than twenty minutes from the winery, but it felt remote. It didn’t take much to hit wilderness in this neck of the woods. Something that had wariness oozing through her. What if they kidnapped her and…
“Relax,” Finn said. “You’re safe.”
Her mouth dropped open. Was the damn man a mind reader now?
He chuckled. Actually chuckled. The sound was rusty, as if he hadn’t used it in a while, and it rolled over her and through her. “Your face is very…expressive.”
Awesome.
Finally, they rounded a turn and the road opened up to a large gravel space
set in front of what appeared to be an unassuming two-story wooden structure sporting a metal roof. Built into the side of the mountain, it was sort of like a cross between a cabin and a warehouse. A relatively flat open space out front extended around to the side where a handful of vehicles were parked. Most appeared to be personal trucks and cars, but one was a large green truck, more like a small bus, with large, rugged-looking wheels.
Delaney climbed out and eyed the place with interest. “This is headquarters?”
She didn’t miss Titus and Levi’s shared glance as they went around the back of the vehicle to unload gear, but Finn answered. “We train here.”
But where did they live?
“Levi,” he called over his shoulder, not taking his gaze from her.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Check on the guys.” The look the two men exchanged held more information, but she had no idea what. “Then I want you and Aidan to join us in my office.”
Delaney whipped around at that last bit. “I wanted to talk to you alone.”
His jaw hardened. “You can trust my men.”
Not the answer she wanted to hear, but Finn’s closed expression told her this was a nonnegotiable point. When she didn’t protest further, he glanced over her shoulder at Levi.
“You got it.” Levi didn’t salute, but he may as well have before he hustled away.
“Does everyone jump when you say jump?” she asked.
“They don’t even have to ask how high.” Again with the twitching lips, despite his eyes remaining serious. “They already know.”
Delaney stared at him with narrowed eyes. Maybe she’d been reckless in choosing this guy to help her. Listening to the awareness in her body rather than the sense in her head. Too late now.
His expression softened. “If they don’t, we die.”
Delaney glanced away at the harsh reminder that she was dealing with firefighters who put themselves between death and destruction and the communities they protected. Not just some curious guy about to judge her past or try to reveal her to be the monster she was terrified she might actually be.