by Lynn, Denise
Except for the grimoire. It had still been on the desk, busy filling in its pages for the day.
It was too bad he hadn’t taken the damn thing with him. Between the magical pages and the grimoire’s lousy timing, it couldn’t have picked a better moment to destroy by making its appearance to Cam last night.
There was nothing like savoring the aftermath of great, mind-blowing sex, only to have the book essentially scream its existence from across the room. She’d had her fill of the thing. As far as she was concerned, its complete disappearance wouldn’t prove upsetting in the least.
The sound of the fisherman driving off interrupted her musing. She glanced at her watch. There were a few minutes left before she had to contact Renalde. Since her search of the Lair had still proven unsuccessful, she dreaded making the call.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t tried, she had. Over and over she’d scoured nearly every nook and cranny. The only places left were the desks and cabinets in the Drakes’ offices.
Ariel had no clue how she was going to accomplish that feat, but she knew there’d be no getting around it. The biggest trick would be not getting caught.
After once again checking to make certain she was alone, Ariel pulled out her cell to call Renalde.
“So, Ms. Johnson…” His voice was in her head before she could finishing punching in the number. “Are you ready to make an exchange?”
She gripped the edge of the picnic table, knowing her answer wouldn’t be well received. “Not yet. I’m still—”
“Silence.” He cut her off, then declared, “It’s time you focus your search back at Mirabilus.”
“I can’t.” She was not returning to that place. Here at the Lair there existed only hints of dragons—paintings, statues and the like. But at Mirabilus, they were more than inanimate objects—they were real.
“Yes, you will.”
Ariel closed her watering eyes, cringing at the rage echoing in her mind. Before she could explain how hard she’d been trying to find what he wanted, and her plans to invade the Drakes’ offices, Renalde bellowed, “It’s time you start paying for your failure, my dear. Perhaps you need a little lesson to teach you how to do what you’re told.”
She nearly fell off the picnic table from the force of his departure. Pay for her failure? A little lesson? “No. Please, don’t hurt Carl.”
Brief flashes of growing up with her brother—Christmases, birthdays, summers at their grandparents’ lake cottage—ripped through her mind.
She’d always thought that one day their children would grow up in much the same manner—cousins creating their own memories together.
“Trust me, Ms. Johnson, you’ll be far more cooperative after today.”
His swift reentry made her head spin. Sick to her stomach with fear and worry, Ariel stumbled toward the Jeep. What was she going to do? If Renalde killed Carl how would she live with herself?
Blinded by tears and the murky fog of terror, she rooted through her purse, trying to find the keys.
“Stop.” A strong hand closed over her wrist.
The warmth of Cam’s familiar touch, just the sound of his steady voice, chased away her ability to reason. Ariel turned toward him, seeking something stable and solid—something reassuring to hold on to—and then buried her face against his shoulder.
Cam stared over Ariel’s head at the trees fencing the picnic area. She’d turned to him for something he couldn’t afford to offer—comfort.
Yes, she was terrified. Her fear seeped into him with a bone-chilling cold that nearly knocked him off his feet.
And yes, she was in danger. He’d felt the foreboding menace at the same moment he’d breathed in her scent.
Cam chased away the brief urge to tighten his arms around her to draw her close. She’d put herself in this position.
Still, no matter how much he denied it, there was a part of him that longed to drag her deeper into his embrace and willingly give her whatever she needed. Quelling that part of him was essential. Because giving in would eventually bring about her death.
Careful not to promise anything, Cam said, “Ariel, I can help, but you have to tell me what’s going on.”
She shook her head. He should have expected her silent response. Why had he hoped for more this time?
Cam grasped her shoulders and moved her aside. “Give me the keys and get in. I’ll drive.”
She dropped the keys onto his outstretched hand and circled to the other side of the Jeep. Ariel paused, a frown marring her brow as she scanned the park. “What about your car?”
“It’s in town. Harold can bring me back later.” Years of practice lent a ring of truth to his lie.
Cam ignored the vibration of the phone holstered on his belt. He slid behind the wheel and started the Jeep.
Again, the phone vibrated. And once again, he ignored it. Whatever it was could wait until he got back to the Lair.
Silence loomed heavy between them as he drove through town. Finally, more to break the deafening quiet than anything else, he asked, “Are you hungry?”
Ariel shook her head, keeping her gaze trained out the side window.
“Well, I am.”
“Can we just go back to the Lair?”
He ignored her question. “It’s a nice day for a drive. You haven’t been into the national park yet.”
“Please.” She took a shuddering breath. “Please, I just want to go back.”
Cam relented at the underlying tone of desperation in her plea, and at the next traffic light turned onto the side road that would take them up the mountain.
She apparently had something important she needed to do back at the Lair. It didn’t require a genius to realize it most likely had something to do with her phone call.
Sirens behind him caught his attention. He pulled over to let the police and emergency vehicles fly by him.
When they didn’t turn into the complex of condos, he cursed. Either there was an accident ahead, or they’d been called to the Lair.
His phone once again vibrated. Instead of answering it, he hit the gas pedal, cursing.
Ariel gasped as they lunged ahead. She grabbed the safety handle above her head, praying Cameron didn’t roll the Jeep in his attempt to keep up with the police and ambulance.
Renalde had said she would start paying for what he called her failures. Had he spared Carl only to harm someone at the Lair instead?
It would make a twisted sort of sense for him to have done so. If he murdered her brother right off, what would he use to force her to continue her search?
The Jeep careened around a curve on two wheels. Ariel shouted, “Slow down!”
When Cam ignored her, she closed her eyes against the blur of trees and rocks as they passed by at a dizzying pace.
Finally, just when she was certain they were going to fly off the road, Cam slowed down enough to pull into the Lair. Ariel’s breath escaped with a whoosh. She bailed out of the Jeep, thankful not to have died in a horrific, fiery tumble down the side of the mountain.
“What happened?”
The strained tone of Cam’s question to his aunt drew Ariel’s attention from the paramedics gathered around Harold. She followed Cam, trying not to shudder at the hate and rage in Danielle Drake’s eyes. How could the woman dislike anyone that much?
“It’s her fault.” Danielle pointed at Ariel. “She caused this.”
Cam edged in front of Ariel, putting himself between the wome
n. “What happened?”
The police officer interviewing Harold glanced toward Cam.
Danielle whispered, “She tried to kill Harold.”
“Nonsense. Ariel was with me.”
“You’d say anything to protect her.”
Cam refrained from rolling his eyes at his aunt’s certainty. “She doesn’t need protecting.” He grasped Dani’s elbow and escorted her away from the curious police, then once again asked, “What happened?”
With her glare riveted on Ariel, she explained, “Harold was on a ladder fixing one of her rose trellises when it exploded beneath him.”
Cam frowned at the impossible explanation. “Ladders don’t explode.”
Danielle shrugged. “Not exactly exploded, more like just fell apart while he was on it.”
Searching for a logical explanation, Cam offered, “Maybe it was old.”
His aunt disagreed. “We don’t have any old equipment here.”
“Then it was defective.”
“More like it was cursed.”
Ariel peered around him, her eyes wide. “Cursed?”
“Don’t play innocent with me, Ms. Johnson. You might fool my nephew, but my vision isn’t clouded with lust. I see you for what you are.”
“And that would be…what?”
Before Dani could answer Ariel’s half-serious question, he asked, “Is Harold injured?”
He needed to draw his aunt’s attention away from Ariel. The last thing he wanted was a catfight in front of the town police. Dani couldn’t be trusted not to resort to magic when she felt provoked. And for whatever reason, Ariel provoked his aunt just by breathing.
“He says no, but the paramedics insisted on checking him out.”
Cam nodded toward Harold. “Why don’t you go make certain. And if he isn’t injured, help him convince the authorities that he’s fine, and nothing out of the ordinary happened.”
“You want me to get rid of the witnesses.”
The censure evident in Danielle’s voice let Cam know she wasn’t pleased with the idea. He didn’t care. She wasn’t going to get the chance to get rid of Ariel like this, not before he found out what she was up to. “Yes. That’s the idea.”
Her disapproval of the idea showed plainly on her face. But to his relief, Danielle stomped off toward Harold and the paramedics.
Cam watched as his aunt engaged Harold and the authorities in a conversation. Her animated gestures and show of concern captured the officers’ attention, giving him the chance to inspect the area around the trellises.
He didn’t sense any magic whatsoever, not even on the broken pieces of the ladder. However, he did pick up an unfamiliar scent. Breathing deeply, he identified it as belonging to a human.
Cam glanced toward Dani, Harold and the others. Certain they were focused on their own conversation, he followed the scent toward the rear of the Lair.
“What are you looking for?”
He raised a hand, silently asking Ariel to be quiet, and paused.
Without saying another word, she closed the distance between them, coming up against his back. Even though she couldn’t have realized it, she’d instinctively sought his protection.
Her reaction dragged a rumbling growl of approval from his beast. Cam gritted his teeth. No matter what the dragon thought, or felt, this woman could not become its…his…their mate.
Somehow he was going to have to convince the beast of that before this interest went too far and they put Ariel’s life in danger.
Cam followed the scent toward the woods. He stopped at the edge of the tree line, unwilling to let Ariel follow him into the forest.
He turned to her, suggesting, “Why don’t you—” The insistent vibration of his phone interrupted him.
Cam pulled it from his holster, flipping it open as he did so. “What, Sean?”
While waiting for his brother to answer, Cam noticed the emergency vehicles leaving the Lair. Dani and Harold must have been able to convince the authorities that nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
“I’ve called for the chopper. You need to get ready to leave for Mirabilus.”
Even through the phone, Cam could hear the concern in his younger brother’s voice. “Why? Is something wrong?”
“It’s Brightworthe.”
An icy fist slammed into his stomach. He turned to stare at Ariel, asking Sean, “What about him?”
“He’s dead.”
Ariel took a step away from Cam. From the look on his face it was obvious that something was seriously wrong. He flipped his phone closed and just stared at her.
When he opened his mouth, the sound of a helicopter clearing the trees drowned out anything he might have said.
Cam grasped Ariel’s wrist and tugged her toward the Lair. She stumbled trying to keep up with him.
Once they were inside, he quickened his pace and headed for the elevators. The doors closed behind him and he punched the button for their floor, still hanging on to her wrist.
Ariel tugged in an attempt to free herself. “Let me go.”
He turned on her, rage and pain glittering in his eyes. She backed as far away as she could from the hard, frightening mask that turned his features into an unyielding glare of hate.
She swallowed before asking softly, “What’s wrong?”
“Shut up, Ariel.”
She cringed at the coldness in his tone. This was the same man who had kissed her and caressed her last night? The same one who had followed her to the park and driven her back to the Lair after her conversation with Renalde?
When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, she grabbed the bar on the wall with her free hand. The last thing she wanted was to be alone in his apartment with him.
Without turning around, Cam nearly snarled, “Your well-being doesn’t matter to me. Let go of that bar, or you’ll wish you had.”
He waited for half a heartbeat before he started for the apartment. Ariel clung with one hand to the bar for a split second before she realized he meant what he’d said. He was so much stronger than she was, and her fingernails scraped around the smooth wood as her hold slipped.
Cam didn’t pause to unlock the door, he didn’t even turn the knob, he simply shoved the door out of his way, walked through and slammed the door closed behind him.
Ariel struggled against his hold, digging at his fingers with her free hand as he dragged her toward the master bedroom. “Damn it, Cameron Drake, let me go.”
He did—just long enough to shove her down onto the bed. She quickly scrambled for the other side.
“Get off that bed and I’ll chain you there.”
She glanced over her shoulder only to see a pair of shackles hanging in the air between them. There was no doubt in her mind that he would make good on his threat.
Wary and more frightened than she’d ever been, she sat down on the bed. “What are you doing?”
He grabbed two duffel bags from his closet. After tossing one at her, he started packing clothes into the other one. “Packing.”
“For?”
“We’re going to Mirabilus.”
She held her breath. Her heart froze in her chest. No. No. She would not go back there. Not for Renalde, not for Cam—she’d even struggle to return to that place for Carl.
Ariel sucked in a deep breath of air, desperate to still the dizziness threatening to overtake her. “No. I am not going to Mirabilus.”
Before she completed her statement, she
was flat on her back with him straddling her. “Yes, you are. This game of yours is over, Ariel. Done. Finished. I’m not playing with you anymore.”
Unable to meet his rage, she closed her eyes and shook her head. “No. I can’t. You don’t understand.”
“Damn you!” He pounded the bed alongside her head. “Look at me.”
Mustering all the courage she could find, she opened her eyes and stared mutely up at him.
“Do you think I’m stupid?”
“No. But—” How could she explain her reasons without giving all away?
“Do you think I don’t know who you are?”
Her breath caught. Her stomach twisted into knots.
“You broke into the workshop at my family’s keep. The only reason you won’t go back is because you’re afraid of dragons.” When she didn’t say anything, he added, “You’re a would-be thief, following in the footsteps of your brother. Both of you work for the Learneds—my enemy.”
Ariel gasped. “How did you—”
He laughed at her. “Don’t you listen? I told you before that I’ve known who you worked for since the minute you walked into my office for your interview. Why do you think I hired you? It sure as hell wasn’t for your nearly nonexistent expertise with plants.”
The twisting of her stomach turned to agony. She felt as if he’d reached in and torn her heart from her chest. “Then this…this has all been nothing more than a…ploy…a game to get information from me.”
“What else did you think it was? Did you really believe you could come in here to play your own game without any retaliation? Didn’t your boss tell you that if you play, you pay?”
Shame and betrayal warred in her heart and mind, one as potent, as hurtful as the other. Ariel turned her face away. “I—”
“You haven’t begun to pay—yet. But you will.”
Is that what her life would always be from now on? A pawn in someone else’s game? Nothing more than an object to use as retribution? She bit her trembling lip.