by Donna Grant
Asher considered himself good at spotting those who might attempt to betray him. He hadn’t felt that with Rae. Was he such a sucker for a beautiful woman that he ignored such feelings? No. That wasn’t it.
There was more. And he was going to find out what it was.
Chapter Ten
Rachel looked at herself in the full-length mirror and nodded in approval. The form-fitting red dress was just the right amount of sensual and classy. It hit right at her knee, and the three-quarter length sleeves had black lace at the elbow. The boat-neck collar dipped low enough to show a hint of cleavage. The back of the dress pointed to a V halfway down before a row of black buttons stopped at the base of her spine.
Her favorite black Christian Louboutin’s with their famous red soles were the perfect additions. Choosing minimal jewelry with the diamond studs and her thumb ring, she grabbed the black clutch and headed downstairs to meet Asher.
On the elevator ride, she found she was nervous and impatient to see him again. It had been so difficult to watch him all day and not go up to him for a kiss. Now, she didn’t have to pretend not to know him or hide who she was. This was the time she could show him…what? What did she think she could show him? That she cared?
She closed her eyes and wanted to kick herself. She couldn’t care for Asher. He was her target. Nothing was going to stop her from writing her article once she garnered enough information. And after it released, he wouldn’t want to have anything to do with her.
But she could pretend. She was good at that. Except, for the first time in her life, she was pretending for herself and not her target.
The doors of the elevator opened and she walked out, her gaze immediately going to the bar. Her steps were light and quick as she made her way to the doorway of the bar. There was a smile in place as she expected to see him at any second.
As she walked into the bar, her eyes scanned each table and man for Asher’s face. But he was nowhere to be seen. She didn’t let that dampen her mood. She continued to the bar and perched upon one of the stools before ordering a glass of red wine.
As each minute ticked by, she began to fear that he wouldn’t come. Then she would admonish herself, because there was no reason for him not to. He didn’t know the truth about her or what her goal was. He only thought she was a woman who spent the night in his arms having amazing sex.
It was the first time she found herself sickened by what she was doing. Yes, she exposed truths, but what she was doing to herself and her targets was wrong.
“I hope that frown isna for me,” came a deep timbre behind her.
She turned with a smile, genuinely happy to see Asher. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he said and put his mouth on hers.
He lingered there, letting his tongue brush against her lips before he pulled back. “I’ve waited all day to see your beautiful face.”
“Another busy day?” Why did she feel as if she were floating upon pure happiness when he was near?
He shrugged and motioned to the bartender for his drink. “I’m just glad the business part of it is over, and I can have time with you.”
“I like the sound of that.” She told herself to ask him something about Dreagan, but the words wouldn’t make it past her lips.
“Let’s take our drinks up to my suite.”
More alone time? She was more than okay with that. “I guess that means you don’t want to take another walk through the streets,” she teased.
He leaned down until his mouth was next to her ear. “I doona want to waste another second sharing you with the world. And as good as that dress looks on you, I want you out of it.”
She actually shivered at his words, they affected her so. “Let’s go,” she said and slid off the stool.
Wine in hand, she walked to the lobby with Asher at her side. He smiled down at her in the elevator, but other than his hand on her back, he didn’t touch her.
Inside his suite, she marveled at the view of the city. She hadn’t remembered seeing it the night before. Then again, her attention had solely been on Asher. She turned to him as he took her hand and brought her to the sofa. There he removed his jacket and half-faced her as he sat.
“I like you, Rae.”
Her heart skipped a beat, because she hadn’t realized how much she wanted to hear those words until they’d been spoken. “I like you, too.”
“There are many women who attempt to gain my attention because of my affiliation to Dreagan.”
She sipped her wine, wondering where he was going with this.
“You doona seem to care what it is I do.”
Oh, God. Now she had to lie. And she didn’t want to. Then she realized there was a truth she could tell. “I don’t care what it is you do. I want to know you.”
“And I want to know you. Whatever this is between us is strong. Do you feel it?”
Did she ever. “Yes.”
“I doona know where this might lead, but I’d like to find out.”
“Yes.” The response was out of her mouth with no way to take it back. Her stomach fell to her feet. Why oh why hadn’t she stopped herself from answering?
But she knew the answer. She wanted to explore whatever this was with Asher. If only he wasn’t a job.
“You know more of me than I know of you,” he said. “Tell me about yourself.”
She looked down at her hands and spotted the thumb ring. It was a piece of jewelry she never took off, no matter what. That part of her life she didn’t speak of with anyone, and yet she found herself turning to Asher and saying, “My family is dead.”
“I’m so sorry,” he said, his face lined in a frown as he rested his arm on the back of the sofa.
“I’ve been on my own since I was seventeen.”
“What happened?”
She took a drink of wine, gathering the courage to say the awful words last spoken in her therapist’s office. “My parents were the typical strict parents. They wanted to know who we were with, their phone numbers, address, and names of their parents. We lived in a relatively small town, so my parents knew nearly all of the parents to mine and my sister’s friends.”
“Did you have a curfew?”
“Oh, yes. We weren’t allowed to date until we were sixteen. My sister was two years older than me, and it was torture watching her go out while I had to wait.”
Asher took a drink of his whisky. “I had an older sister and two younger brothers. I remember how that felt.”
She never imagined Asher having family. Now that he’d shared such information, he was moving further and further from being just a job. Making it even more difficult for her to do the task she’d come for.
She sipped her wine. “My sister, Rebecca, had a lot of admirers. She always followed the rules and never did anything that might go against what our parents wanted.
“When she brought Ted home, we thought he was perfect for her. He was a freshman in college, came from a large family, and knew what he wanted for his future.”
Asher’s brows drew together. “So what was the problem?”
“Nothing. At first.” She felt that same anxiety that once plagued her threaten to return. She drank deeply, letting the pinot noir settle in her stomach. “My once vibrant, outgoing sister began to retreat into herself. She stopped going to church, stopped being a part of conversations, and began failing subjects in school that she’d always maintained top grades.”
Rachel leaned forward and set aside her glass. After all these years it was still difficult for her to talk about it. Rebecca had been her best friend. They shared everything, but Rebecca hadn’t opened up to her.
She blew out a breath. “Nothing we said or did seemed to help. The more we tried, the more my sister would lash out at us. She wouldn’t eat and was losing weight rapidly. One night, I walked in on her undressing to take a shower. I saw the cigarette burns and bruises all over her. But it was the emotional abuse that had taken the most out of her.
“She finally broke down
and confided everything to me. The image that Ted showed us wasn’t really him. It was a ploy to get Rebecca. And once he had her, he threatened to do to me what he was doing to her if she left.”
Rachel glanced over at Asher to find him sitting very still as he listened. There was no pity on his face, just anger and revulsion for what Ted had done.
She flattened her hands together, rubbing them to help bring back some warmth. “I convinced Rebecca to tell my parents everything, and we came together as a family again. I stood by as my sister called Ted and told him it was over, that we all knew what he really was. Meanwhile, my parents called the sheriff, who was a friend. He met us at the station where Rebecca filed a restraining order against Ted.”
“A piece of paper is nothing to men like him,” Asher stated.
“It was her only step to take. We thought it would give us time. And for two weeks, it did. Rebecca was slowly returning to her old self.” She turned the thumb ring over and over. “The night of my birthday, she gave me this ring. We celebrated as a family. It was a truly wonderful night. We had suffered and got through a horrendous time.
“In the early hours of that morning, our house caught fire. Rebecca dragged me from my room, but I passed out from smoke inhalation. I didn’t learn until I woke in the hospital that the fire started in my parents’ room. On their bed.”
She had to stop and close her eyes. It had been so long since she thought of the way that her parents had so brutally died, that her stomach rolled.
“You doona have to finish.”
She shook her head and continued. “Ted broke into our house and set my parents on fire. The house was soon ablaze. He went after Rebecca, but she managed to evade him long enough to get to me. Since I was unconscious, I slowed her down. Ted killed her with a shot to the back of the head. I think he expected me to die in the blaze, but the firefighters got there in time.”
“You saw Ted?”
“No, but I knew it was him. When the police told me how my parents and sister died, there could be no one else. He had probable cause and motivation.”
Asher nodded slowly.
“Thanks to the photos taken at the police station and Rebecca’s statement along with the restraining order, the police went after him. That’s when the truth of Ted Montgomery came out.” She turned her head to Asher. “You see, Rebecca and my parents weren’t his first victims. He’d done this before, but he came from money and his father managed to pay off people to cover his son’s crimes. Had someone exposed the truth of him from the beginning, Rebecca and my parents would still be alive.”
“I’m verra sorry for what you’ve endured. You’re right. It was a senseless tragedy.”
She drew in a shaky breath and took another drink of wine. The retelling had taken a lot out of her, but there was a small measure of triumph for knowing Ted was behind bars for the rest of his life. No other family would be hurt by him.
“That’s not a story I wanted to tell you tonight,” she said and forced a smile.
“It’s part of who you are, lass. Why wouldna I want to know?”
“We barely know each other.”
His green eyes held hers. “This is how we remedy that. I, too, lost my family.”
She held her breath, uncertain that she wanted to hear this. Already she was finding it harder and harder to do her job. If she connected with Asher any more, she might walk away from it altogether.
And she wasn’t entirely sure what Sam MacDonald might do if she did.
“My father was a soldier. He died in battle,” Asher explained.
It was on the tip of her tongue to ask which battle, but she remained silent.
“My mother was inconsolable. My siblings and I did what we could, but nothing replaces a mate of the soul. My eldest sister married and had children of her own, and my two younger brothers followed in my father’s footsteps.”
“But not you?”
He looked down at his nearly empty whisky glass. “My path was different. I was a soldier of sorts myself. I was thrust into a position that I had wanted for a long time. I stepped into the role willingly, only to learn that it would eventually rule my life.”
She didn’t move a muscle. She was even afraid to breathe lest he stop talking. She wasn’t sure how much he would share, and part of her didn’t want to know anything. The more she knew, the more she would have to share with the world. It was the oath she gave herself when her family was murdered. She couldn’t go back on that now––for anybody.
His green eyes swung to her. “My mother died of heartbreak six months later, and to my utter astonishment, I had to send the rest of my family away.”
“Away?” she asked, frowning.
“In order to keep them safe, so they might live.” He tossed back the last of his whisky. “Let me tell you a story, Rae. It starts with the creation of this planet.”
Chapter Eleven
Asher watched as Rae’s face paled. She was physically shaken from sharing the story of her tragedy. That wasn’t faked. Of that he was certain.
Nor was her reaction to his statement.
He remained in his relaxed position––when he was anything but. She had intentionally deceived him. There would be a price paid for that. For now, however, it was time for his story.
After all, she knew what he was.
Before he’d gone down to the bar, Ryder had contacted him through their link. Thanks to Ryder’s ability to ferret out all information, he found a connection between Rae––Rachel––and Ulrik, with his alias of Sam MacDonald.
It hadn’t been easy, because Ulrik covered his tracks so well, but Ryder was that fucking good. Though it didn’t make hearing the news any easier.
He wished he had more whisky. It would take an entire case to get him through this night. He’d wanted Rae to be who he thought she was last night. Not who Ms. Engel and Ryder uncovered.
He wanted her to be special. To be…his.
That was looking more and more impossible.
“This realm is billions of years old,” he began. “For a large portion of it, there were no humans. Only dragons.”
If it was possible, her face paled even more. Her hands clasped together and she glanced at the door.
He wasn’t about to let her escape. Not until he told his side of the story. “Dragons no bigger than a house cat and larger than you could possibly imagine. The dragons were separated by colors, and the strongest of that color was their king. But the most powerful of all the dragons was King of Kings. During this time, the dragons roamed the sky, the land, and the seas, ruling over everything. Until one day mortals arrived.”
Rae didn’t beg him to stop or try to change the subject. A small frown puckered her forehead as she listened. And that was enough for him.
“The day the humans arrived, each Dragon King suddenly found themselves in human form. We didn’t know how, but it allowed us to communicate with the mortals. From then on, we were able to shift from dragon to human at will.”
The fact she didn’t seemed fazed by his words affirmed that Ulrik had indeed told her who Asher was. This was a new tactic from Ulrik, but one they should’ve expected.
He drew in a deep breath and released it. “We made room for the humans, giving them land dragons had occupied for thousands of years. But the mortals multiplied at an astonishing rate. They demanded more and more land, pushing dragons out of their homes and causing friction.
“Despite all of this, many humans found it beneficial to be near a King for protection. Females sought us out as lovers. It went on like that for years until one of us decided to take his lover as his mate, or wife.”
“And how was this wrong?” Rae asked.
“Dragons mate for life. Unlike mortals. This Dragon King was the best of us. Ulrik was kind and always had a smile. He loved to play jokes, but there was none more loyal. He could’ve been King of Kings.”
She shook her head in confusion. “Then why didn’t he?”
“Beca
use he was happy being a King to his Silvers. His best friend was King of Kings, and in order to gain the title, he would have to kill Constantine.”
At the mention of Con, her mouth went slack.
So she knew of Con as well, but obviously not all of it. He continued. “Ulrik believed his woman loved him as deeply as he did her. Days before their mating, Con discovered Ulrik’s woman sought to betray him. Con knew how deeply it would hurt Ulrik, and that Ulrik would feel he had to punish her. Con sought to save his friend such a horror and sent him on a mission. Then Con called all the Kings together and told us what he’d learned.
“Each of us became enraged for Ulrik and because this mortal would dare to betray one of us. We chased her down and killed her.”
Rae’s eyes widened, her body becoming so still Asher couldn’t see her breathing. “What kind of betrayal warranted such a reaction?”
“She was going to kill Ulrik.”
Her face crumpled into confusion. “Why? Ulrik was protecting her, loving her?”
“Why does anyone betray another? This mortal used Ulrik to get close to him. She wanted to start a war between the dragons and humans. Unbeknownst to her, only another Dragon King can kill one of us. Nothing she could’ve tried would’ve worked to end Ulrik’s life.”
Rae’s shoulders sagged. “But had she succeeded, Ulrik would’ve endured firsthand her betrayal.”
“Aye. We protected him and attempted to stop a war. Except it didna work. Ulrik returned and discovered what we did. He felt betrayed by his lover––and us.”
“You were helping him.”
Asher nodded. “It didna matter. He was engulfed with grief and rage. It was a horrendous combination for one such as him. He couldna control it, and with his Silvers, he began to attack the human settlements. The rest of the Kings went into action, either setting up our dragons as protection against Ulrik or attempting to stop him.
“The real heartbreak occurred when the mortals turned on the verra dragons protecting them. The dragons had orders to safeguard the humans, so they didna defend themselves. Dragons were slaughtered everywhere. And that divided the Kings. Many joined Ulrik, intending to wipe the mortals from our realm for good.”