“Why would he want to come into my home like that?” she asked, shaken, pulling her robe tighter around her.
Liam just shook his head. “I don’t know.” He was still looking in the direction of the window, deep in thought.
Kate tried to loosen her grip on his arm but couldn’t. She’d always been independent, but if he hadn’t been here… She let out a little shudder, not even wanting to think about it.
At once, Liam turned and held her closely, enveloping her in his arms so the safety and warm encompassed her, chasing away the adrenaline and fear.
She wasn’t alone.
Liam picked Kate up in his arms and carried her back to the master bedroom, closing the spare bedroom door behind him as he did.
“Now will you take the day off tomorrow?” he asked. “Please?”
“Yes,” she said. “But what are we going to do about that guy? I can’t stay home forever.”
“I know. But stay home tomorrow, and we’ll figure out the rest.” He pushed her hair back, twining a strand around his fingers. “I need to just be with you. Know you’re safe.”
“I suppose so,” she said. “At least, I’ll call in and try.”
“That’s all I ask,” he said.
He put her down on the bed and pulled the sheets over her, then came onto the mattress, thankfully leaving the lights on.
“What about Tank? Is he okay?” she asked, pulling the sheets up almost to her chin.
“I’ll go check on him,” Liam said. “And I’ll do something about the window. Something temporary, but it’ll keep anything out.”
“Okay,” she said, turning over in bed and trying to relax.
“I’ll be right back.”
And then he was out, creeping down the stairs quietly as if he were hoping not to wake her.
She sighed. If he was working so hard for her, it was asking really little of her to just take a day off.
Kate reached over and grabbed her smartphone with a resigned sigh. She opened a new email, typed in a quick message to her boss, and pressed send.
When Liam came back in, he walked straight to the bed and got in. “Tank seems fine. I’m glad you crate him at night.”
“It’s safest,” she said. “Do you want the lights off?”
He looked over. “How about you?”
“I can sleep like this. If I can sleep at all.”
“Okay,” he said. “Then I’m fine with it, too.”
“I emailed my boss to say I wasn’t coming in tomorrow,” she said hesitantly.
A smile lit his face, and he moved closer so they were side by side. “Thank you.”
“Do you think he’ll come back?” Kate asked, trying to suppress a shiver of fear. That thing had been in her house.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “But I can’t say for sure. Nothing’s as it used to be. But I can promise I’ll always be here to protect you, no matter what.”
“Because I’m your mate?” she said, knowing where he was going with this.
Liam just chuckled once. “Yes, because you’re my mate.”
Kate just nestled into him a little more, and he obliged. And even though it was many long, quiet minutes listening for every squeak and creak that sounded and fearing it was the intruder, Liam was there with her, awake and alert, watchful so she didn’t have to be.
And it was with that realization that Kate slowly began to fall asleep. For the first time in her life, someone else was here to keep an eye on things for her. She didn’t have to take care of everything by herself.
It was a very odd notion indeed.
Liam was happily watering the lawn and keeping watch on the area around the house when his ears perked at the sound of angry talking.
He turned to the porch where Kate had been sitting and watching him, enjoying the sunlight, and saw she was on the phone, holding it in front of her on speaker, talking with a concerned expression to someone on the other end.
Her face was annoyed, her brows furrowed, and when she hung up the call, she looked up at him with apologetic eyes.
Inwardly, he suspected he knew what was coming and groaned.
Just once, he’d thought she would listen to him, that it would be easy to make her take a break and stay where he could protect her.
She walked toward him, slipping the phone back in her pocket. “That was my work. I know I said I wouldn’t go in today, but I don’t really have a choice.”
Liam dropped the hose in exasperation. “You promised. And you always have a choice. It’s just a job.”
Her hands clenched into fists. “I’m trying to work around you, Liam, but you’re making it hard. And you brought this… thing into my life, and it’s messing up everything.”
He waved his hands in disbelief. “I’m messing up everything? Me? The one that fixed your yard and just wants you to be healthy and happy while you’re trying to work yourself into the ground?”
She folded her arms and looked at the ground repentantly. “I know. That wasn’t fair. I’m sorry. But I have to go. I know I promised, but that was my boss telling me I’m going to lose my job if I don’t come in today.”
“You could lose more than that if you don’t start listening to me,” Liam said. “You’re working yourself into the ground. Even if there wasn’t a rogue dragon around, I would want you to take a break. Just the fact that you would risk your own safety to go back into work says you have an unhealthy relationship with your job.”
“What would you know?” she said. “This job kept me alive. Gave me purpose and something to focus on when I had nothing else.”
He took her hands in his, rubbing lightly, loving their warm softness. “You don’t have nothing anymore. You have me and Tank. And heck, not all your neighbors are bad, if you want to get to know them.”
“I don’t,” she said. “Right now, I just want to get to work and save my job. Look, Liam, if you really want to mate me, you’ll try to understand that I need this.”
“To work yourself into the ground?”
“It’s the end of the quarter. My team needs me,” she said. She folded her arms and looked around her. “Liam, I would love to live in this fantasy world with you. I really would, but I’m not ready. And I can’t quit my job for you until I am.”
He sighed. “So nothing I can say will change your mind?”
“No,” she said.
“You’d be safer here.”
“I’ll be safe at work, too,” she said. “I was the other day. This is more about your insecurity. Your worrying.”
“No,” he said. “It’s about the fact that you are afraid to get too close. To really take risks with me and commit to this.”
“It’s only been like a week.” She scoffed. “You expect me to throw everything away and just jump into things?”
“Sometimes you have to take a leap,” he said urgently. “Please don’t go.”
She stepped back. “I’m going to be fine. I promise. Are you seriously saying this is going to affect us? If I just go to work on one day when I want to?”
He sighed. He was beginning to get irritated at the limited amount she let him get involved in her life. He wanted more of a say in things, but he supposed he wasn’t going to get one. At least not yet.
But hadn’t he proved himself trustworthy? Hadn’t he shown he always had only her best interests at heart?
“Look,” she said. “You’ve brought a lot of things into my life. New things that I’m trying hard to accept. Dragons. Mates. Supernatural things. But my work is the one constant in my life. I still need it, and I hope you can accept that.”
He let out a long breath. “It looks like I don’t have a choice. I just hope once I’m your mate, you actually let me protect you.”
“I do let you protect me, like you did last night. But I can’t just stop the world for you.”
“I would for you if I could,” he said. “I’d set everything else aside.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” she s
aid. “My last boyfriend, the minute he could, he just stopped trying. I don’t want that. I want us both to work hard and keep trying.”
“Then you relax and let me show you I’ll keep working,” he said, taking her gently by the arm. “Just like this morning, with you there watching. I’m happy to work. I’ll work for you for the rest of our lives if you want me to, just to prove I’ll do anything to win you. And keep you,” he added when her brows furrowed.
She sighed. “We aren’t going to have to fight about this when I get home from work, are we?”
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “Maybe we will. Maybe we’ll have to talk more about making decisions together about your work when it affects your safety.”
“You aren’t my mate yet,” she said, stepping back. “I know you want to be, but being super controlling isn’t going to help you.”
“I can’t mate you if you go and get yourself hurt, so I don’t see the point in holding back either. But if you are going to go, take this,” he said, taking her hand and slipping his steel bracelet off his wrist and onto hers.
“What is it?” she asked, looking it over. “Not exactly my style.”
“It’s my style,” he said. “It’s a compromise.”
She narrowed her eyes at him and then smiled. “You’re just being silly again, aren’t you?” She held her wrist with the bracelet up. “Is this some way of marking your territory?”
The tension was broken between them, and he laughed. “I suppose so.”
“Then I’ll wear it,” she said, stepping forward to give him a hug. “Thanks for understanding. Or at least not trying to stop me.”
“I wouldn’t do anything against your will,” he said, but he could feel reluctance in himself to let her go. Part of him wanted to carry her upstairs and lock her in the bedroom where she’d be safe, but he knew she’d never forgive him for that.
And besides, he could have Titus follow her again. She wouldn’t notice. And she’d been fine that way before.
Plus, while she was gone, he could put steel bars over every single window, he thought with a mischievous grin.
No, he probably better not.
He walked her to her car, feeling an ache at letting her leave him. But once again, it wasn’t his place to stop her, so he had to stand back, let her go, and just do his best to work hard so she had something good to come home to.
He waited until she was out of sight and then called Titus, on the phone this time. He told him to watch her again at work, and then hung up, watching off in the distance in the direction her car had gone.
An inexplicable urge to follow her struck him, but he remembered Aegis’s rule.
If he wanted to win her over, he had to go slow.
Fuck slow, to use modern vernacular.
He picked up the hose begrudgingly and began watering again.
15
Liam could feel his heart beating faster with each passing second he was away from Kate. He tried to tell himself not to worry, that Titus would take care of it, but it was easier said than done after what had happened last night.
He’d tried to go back to work, focus on putting in the azaleas he’d ordered in for Kate because she loved the color, but plants and flower beds seemed incredibly insignificant compared to the safety of his mate.
Even if going into work was what she had wanted, Liam just couldn’t be okay with it so long as Gold was out there, probably after her.
Any updates, Titus? Liam asked, his patience finally run out.
There was silence for a moment, and Liam began to pace, knocking over a shovel in frustration.
She’s not here, brother… Liam heard Titus say. And despite Titus’s incredibly calm, controlled demeanor, there was worry in his voice, perhaps even a little anxiety.
What do you mean she’s not there?
When I got to the parking lot at her place of work, I couldn’t find her vehicle. I even checked the side streets. It’s nowhere to be found.
“Dammit,” Liam cursed aloud. Maybe she had stopped somewhere for breakfast. Maybe she’d gotten sidetracked along the way.
Not that wasn’t like her.
Liam rushed into the house and pulled a small Post-It off the wall of Kate’s kitchen that had her work number on it in case of emergency.
This most certainly represented an emergency.
He dialed the number furiously, and a sweet voice picked up on the other side, introducing herself and asking where he’d like to be transferred.
“I’d like to speak with Kate. Kate Hinton,” he said, trying to calm the rage and fear in his voice. Humans didn’t respond well to strong emotions like that.
“I’m sorry, but it doesn’t look like she came in this morning,” she said, sounding nonchalant about the fact that Kate was missing.
“Then the man in charge. Her superior officer… I mean boss, then.”
“Certainly,” the woman said, not breaking character as Liam heard a beep, followed by ringing.
“Oscar Chavez, how can I help you?”
Liam wanted to fly off the handle right now, wanted to reach his fist through the phone and punch the bastard for forcing his mate into work when she didn’t want to, but right now, finding Kate was more important
“Kate Hinton, where is she?” Liam asked, trying very hard to suppress a growl.
“Oh, she said she wasn’t coming in today. I got an email from her first thing this morning saying she’d be out,” the man said with surprising calm.
“But didn’t you call her saying she needed to come in?” Liam demanded, starting to panic.
“Not at all. She’s been working so hard lately. I figured she could use the time off. She rarely uses it, and she’s more than earned it.”
Liam only felt shock as Oscar’s words came through the phone. An icy feeling that made his blood run cold. Surely he was lying. Humans lied all the time.
Except he wasn’t.
So who had been on the phone this morning, then?
“Hello? Hello?” Oscar said, but Liam just let his phone drop to the ground.
What the hell was going on?
Captain? Titus said patiently.
We have to find Kate. Now. Something’s terribly wrong.
Want me to tell Aegis and Opal? Magnus chimed in.
Yes, bring them. I’m driving to her work now. We have to find out what happened to her along the way.
Just text us the address and we’ll catch up to you, Magnus said.
I’ll meet you in the middle. See if I can find anything, Titus added.
Immediately, Liam sprang into action, picking up his phone and texting Magnus while he rushed out the front door and slammed it behind him before jumping into his truck and inciting the engine.
It still worked. Thank you, Magnus.
He typed in the address of Kate’s workplace and found that the map offered two different routes.
One purported to be shorter, even though it went along a small country road he’d never seen before, and he selected the route. Kate was always in a rush. Liam doubted she’d ever choose a longer drive when going to work.
Flooring the gas pedal, Liam weaved recklessly through the neighborhood, exiting the development and turning down quiet, abandoned roads lined with trees and shrubs.
And as pretty as it would have been on a normal day, Liam’s eyes were peeled, searching for any sign of Kate or her car.
Then up ahead, along a silent stretch of the road, he saw her blue vehicle sitting in the middle of the road by itself.
His truck came to a screeching stop, and he jumped out, looking inside.
The driver-side door was ajar, left open. But nobody was inside.
At the side of the road were several orange and white fence-looking things marked with the words “detour.” And in the air, he could scent Kate, could tell she had been here. But the scent was quickly diminishing, which meant she wasn’t nearby.
And there was another scent in the air. A scent that wa
sn’t human.
He turned and looked up the road. Ahead, it forked off in two directions. Simply choosing one meant he could be going the completely wrong way.
Liam swore out loud and kicked the side of his truck, not caring that he left a huge dent in the door where his foot had connected with it.
Why hadn’t Kate listened to him? She knew they were mates. She knew he could protect her. Why did she have to run off and not trust him?
As Liam fumed, the roaring of a loud engine came up, and he whirled around to see a green sports car pull up behind his truck, tailed by another car in black with red stripes.
Aegis popped out of the first car, and Magnus jumped out of the second.
“How did you get here so quickly?” Liam asked.
“Well, let’s just say human speed limits didn’t apply to us,” Aegis said, coming around and helping Opal out of the car that was precariously low to the ground.
“That and you’re sharing your location with me all the time,” Magnus said with a grin, holding up his phone, “so it was pretty easy to follow you.”
Liam wanted to punch Magnus right now, but it would be counterproductive.
“Is that Kate’s car?” Opal asked, coming forward and sticking to the task at hand.
“Yes, but I don’t know what happened. They could be anywhere right now,” Liam said, the fear of never finding his mate making him want to take off to the skies in his dragon form to search for her.
“Just hold on there, tiger. We’ll find her,” Aegis said, sensing Liam’s rage.
“I’m not a tiger.”
“It’s just an express—Ugh, forget it.”
Just then, Titus showed up in his truck, the newer one, pulling to the side of the road and getting out. But he didn’t approach, instead just folding his arms and watching intently in complete silence.
“I think I can help,” Opal said, running a hand along Kate’s car, appearing lost in deep thought.
Everyone went quiet and watched as she raised one palm to her mouth, then blew, a single bubble floating from the tip of her fingers and drifting lower until it popped on the hood of her vehicle.
Steel (Rent-A-Dragon Book 1) Page 10