How did the North American Consortium even know Cate had left him? He hadn’t notified the European Council yet. No one knew Cate had left. She’d certainly filed no divorce papers. Not that it would do any good. As far as anyone was concerned, she’d gone abroad to visit family.
He sensed David waiting for his response. The truth was the best course of action. “Cate needed some time away to sort out her feelings. The past two years have been especially hard on her. I’m giving her space.”
“Noble of you, considering you caused this situation.”
Grayson studied his bare feet. “I’ve bungled everything. Cate only did what she had to to survive. Please don’t blame her.”
“Oh, I don’t. I lay the blame squarely on your shoulders. As someone with a dragon mage lineage, it was your responsibility to prepare your mate before you shared vows. You were negligent. You’ve dishonored your race.”
“Understood. I regret my actions. I’ll win her back.”
“Have you learned to control the beast?”
“Yes.”
David’s eyebrow winged into his hairline. “We’ll see in a moment. First, I have a few questions for you.”
A test? The leader planned to test him? That’s okay, he was secure in his knowledge of his skill under pressure. Except where Cate was concerned. He never seemed to control the beast quite as well when dealing with her. He clamped down on that thought.
“I’ll answer what I can.”
“You hurt your wife?”
“Yes. In more ways than one.”
“You didn’t seek counsel when the transition came upon you. Why?”
“No. I thought I could handle it on my own.”
“You, better than anyone I know, understand what can happen when a dragon mage goes rogue. You were rogue for almost a year before the situation was brought to our attention. By your wife, I might add.”
“Cate?” A flush of heat crept up his neck. He’d been wrong-headed all along. God damned male pride. Thinking he could manage everything on his own and screwing it up royally in the process.
“Yes, she called me for help. I advised her to use her magic to trap you in an enchantment for a year to give you a chance to train the beast. It was either that, or the European Council would have assassinated you for going rogue. She saved your life, Grayson. She’s an amazing woman. I don’t think you know how lucky you are.”
“I do. And I will make it up to her.”
“You’ll leave her alone for now.”
He heard the hard edge of threat in David’s voice. It lurked quiet, deadly. He squared his shoulders, preparing for a fight.
“Stand down.”
Grayson tried to relax at the command. It was impossible. He bristled and chaffed under the mantle. Alpha mages were the same, no matter when they transitioned. They made great leaders, but didn’t take direction well. The best learned when to take direction from their superiors and when to ignore it. But this was Cate. His Cate. He could not leave her alone. He had to fix this situation. He breathed deep. The essence of his hoard swirled around him. Peace surrounded him. He’d take David’s suggestion. For now.
“What of this test?” Grayson asked.
“In a moment. You have a bigger problem. Cate said you tried to kill her and yourself. Is that true?”
“No. I’ve never intentionally hurt her. The harm that’s come to her resulted from my transition. From my inability to control the dragon.”
“I’m not talking about the residual fallout from the dragon change. She believes you tried to kill her and then yourself while you were in human form, but the whole scenario sounded wrong. You’ve never been suicidal. Cate woke, after being drugged, in the locked cabin of your yacht. When she escaped, she found the cruiser sabotaged and sinking and you with a gunshot wound to the chest, gripping a Luger 9mm P08.”
Grayson slumped into an over-sized armchair, rubbing his forehead. “I remember the day. I didn’t drug her.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“I broke out a bottle of 1985 Krug. God, it was a gift from Cate. Who’d have suspected a three-thousand-dollar bottle of vintage champagne? Not me. We both had a glass or two by the time I heard something on deck. We were celebrating our wedding anniversary. I told her to relax, I’d be right back. The champagne must have been drugged, because by the time I got onto the deck, gun in hand, my head was swimming, I could barely hold onto consciousness with both hands. Everything became blurry. I heard a gunshot. Not my gun, but someone shooting at me a second before I felt the bullet.”
“Did you see who shot you?”
“No.” Anger at what the bastard had almost gotten away with pounded through Grayson. “But I know who did it. My partner, Michael James.”
“How can you be so sure?” David circled Grayson, a quiet predator.
“I smelled him. His stink permeated every dragon sense I possess. He was also the one who recommended the champagne to Cate. Told her where to order it as a special gift to me. I don’t know how he pulled it off. But I plan to prove it. I also plan to find evidence he embezzled millions from our company. Right now he’s throwing hints that Cate is the culprit.”
David sucked in an angry breath. “He needs to be stopped.”
“Yes, I will stop him. As soon as I reconcile with Cate.”
“No. You’ll prove it before you beleaguer Cate.”
It was Grayson’s turn to glare at David. “The hell I will.”
“You will. And I’m here to enforce it. He’s a threat to you and your family.”
“You mean Cate? He’s a threat to her? She’s in America, safe from Michael’s machinations.”
“It takes only one plane ride, Grayson, and it could all be snatched away from you forever. You have much more to lose than your pride this time.”
A tingling foreboding crawled over his skin. The dragon caught scent of trouble and roused from its slumber, shaking its scaly head, groggy as if waking from a deep calming enchantment. “Tell me what’s at stake.”
“You’re going to be a father, Grayson. Cate will bear you a son by the end of the year. She and the boy will be in confinement for five years.”
Oh my God. The dragon bellowed inside. Raged.
A son.
Grayson harnessed the monster, yanking hard at the tether to keep control. He squeezed his eyes shut against the transition that threatened at the news. He took a deep breath. Then another. Pulled on his hoard. Added another element to his hoard. A son. Something else, no someone else, precious to him.
“I can’t see her?”
“No, Grayson. You know the rules. No adult males around mother or child for five years. Until the transition occurs or doesn’t occur.”
“I’ve mastered the beast. I won’t hurt them.”
“Stronger men than you have failed, Grayson. No. Sorry.”
Tears smeared Grayson’s vision. God, he just wanted to protect her and the baby. He needed them to be well. Safe. Provided for. He understood the restriction in his head, even if his heart couldn’t comprehend the need in this moment. Dragon males were a threat to their own children until the child turned five years old. They were predators like lions. If the beast perceived the child as an impediment--either coming between him and his mate, or between him and food, the dragon would eat his young. He couldn’t take that chance. Sadness and regret warred within him. If only he hadn’t squandered his time with Cate. Maybe they could have found a way to get through this together, instead of alone on two separate continents. “I understand.” No words had been harder to utter in his life.
“Good, then we’ve got work to do. Looks like Michael James also sent a letter to Cate waiving your custodial rights to the baby. The woman believes you’ve abandoned her in her time of need. Time to expose a rat and reclaim your life, old man.”
The bellow Grayson let out rattled the whole house.
It was a war cry, loud and clear. And if Michael James couldn’t hear it in London, the bast
ard soon would feel the brunt of Grayson’s wrath.
Chapter Five
Two Months Later (June 10) - London, England
“What do you mean he’s gone?”
“Disappeared,” David Pierson said. “Michael James vanished two nights ago. He entered Scala in King’s Cross at midnight, shook the Scotland Yard tail in the crowds. And voilá. Gone.”
“How is that even possible? How the fuck could he just up and disappear in the midst of one of the biggest corruption investigations the city has ever seen?” Grayson paced, pent-up anger rolled through him, threatening to capsize his tenuous hold on the dragon. “They planned to arrest him today.”
“Yes. Either someone tipped him off, or the man has a sensitive internal meter for impending trouble.”
“We found the diverted e-mail monitoring system a month ago. Any leads he got from my communications were planted.”
“Yes, but that isn’t the only way he monitored the investigation. I’m sure he had informants wherever he could find them. Women, mostly.”
Grayson stopped in front of his window and stared into the dark ribbon of the Thames from his office in Canary Wharf, the prestigious business district built on the old West India Docks where Cooper & James leased space. He clenched and unclenched his fists, rolled his neck first one way, then the other. Tight pain gripped his shoulders and squeezed his muscles. “How could Scotland Yard screw this up? And why are we just hearing about this now?”
“The constables were scrambling. They thought they’d let us know the bad news when they had a better idea where he’d gone.”
Grayson turned to his mentor, the man who had moved in two months ago and refused to leave until Grayson weathered this ordeal the right way and reclaimed his wife and child. “And?”
“No one can steal from your hoard unless you allow it. We’ll go after him.”
“We both know that’s not true after the last two months. Someone has been stealing hoards. Adjust that statement to no human can steal your hoard, and you might be closer.”
“Any leads?” David said.
“No. I’ve recovered property, jewels, and liquid assets for two of the three mages targeted. I’ve got a long way to go to find the culprit and make anything stick.”
“We’ve found one connection between all the mages--their offspring attend Chadsworth’s.”
“Interesting. I’ll look into it and see if I can find any tangible leads back to the school.” He scrubbed his face. “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to distract me from the topic at hand, Michael James. I can handle the news. Tell me. You’ve done your job well. My reformation is almost complete. Where’d he go? Fiji? Borneo?” The chuckle died on his lips at the sober expression on David’s face.
A prickle of fear washed over him.
“James was identified on a flight to Pittsburgh.”
Terror clutched his chest in a painful vice grip. “He’s gone to find Cate?”
He’d given her what she asked for, but he couldn’t afford any more time if Michael was on the loose. Cate was in real danger.
He’d always known exactly where Cate had gone, even without David’s confirmation two months ago. The mark he’d given her that earth-shattering day in February acted better than any Global Positioning System on the market.
Whether she knew it or not, she was part of him.
They were linked.
He felt her moods. Knew her intimate longings. Experienced the changes in her body. Could communicate with her, if he chose to do so. But he hadn’t. Out of respect for her request for space and time away from him. He’d known what she wanted, even if she wouldn’t admit it to herself. She wanted him. And it ripped him apart knowing he couldn’t earn her trust from an ocean away while he’d been trying to pin a crime on the slimy git, Michael James.
“Yes. I’ve booked flights for us later today. In the meantime, I’ve alerted her handlers in the area. They’ll be on the lookout for Michael until we arrive. He won’t take one step on her property without them knowing. They’ll apprehend him.”
Grayson jammed his fingers through his hair. How could he protect Cate from this distance? By the time they arrived in Pittsburgh, it might be too late. His wife and his child might be snatched away from him.
Michael could steal nothing away from him he didn’t allow. Grayson repeated the mantra to himself. And he’d never allow Cate or his baby to be stolen away from him. Ever. If he believed this, then why did fear bind him so completely and make him feel helpless?
Magick didn’t always cooperate. Hoards had been plundered in Europe in recent months. Mages’ lives wrecked. Their hoards ransacked and what they treasured most misappropriated like a magickal shell game where dragons, who were at the top of the food chain, found themselves at a disadvantage for the first time in millennia. Grayson had first-hand knowledge of the cases because he’d been cleaning up the messes all over the EU, taking on clients through Cooper & James, applying forensic accounting and legal investigation to recover what he could for other mages. Three cases in the last two months alone.
“Grayson, look at me.” David stepped in front of him, his quiet command snapped Grayson’s attention from the fear of what could happen back to the present.
He ground his teeth, the muscles in his jaw protesting.
“She can take care of herself,” David said. “Cate will be okay. Trust me. I’ve seen her handle you and you’re a helluva strong dragon. Michael James will not be a problem for her. He’s a human with no known magickal ability. She can deal with him.”
“James is a sneaky bastard. She doesn’t know he’s evil. He’ll do anything to get what he wants. And he wants her. This feels bigger than Michael.”
“Yes, but if what you say is true, that Michael wants Cate, then he won’t hurt her.” David stood looking out the windows. He whipped around as Grayson’s last comment sank in. “What do you mean, bigger?”
“I don’t know yet.” Grayson rubbed his jaw. “A feeling is all I have right now. But Michael’s been circumventing us at all points. A little too easily for my liking. Something’s not right. That worries me. And then the timing with all this hoard business . . . I don’t know. I don’t like it. I’ve never been one to believe in coincidences.”
“Neither do I. We’ll keep alert. If magick is involved, we’ll know it.”
Grayson didn’t voice his concerns that it might be more than magick, that it might be dragon magick. He wouldn’t impugn the whole Dignity of dragons or challenge the leader of the North American Consortium on a hunch. No, he needed tangible proof.
“Michael won’t harm her, Grayson. Cate is strong. Stronger than she was a year ago when she subdued you. I think she can control him until we get there. If not, Hattie will help her. Or Declan. Or Anu. She’s a gifted healer and spellcaster. She possesses great power in her own right. We’ll get to the bottom of this. We’ll find out what’s going on.”
“I know. And yet I worry. She can’t stop bullets. And if Michael finds himself trapped, he’ll strike out like a wounded animal. If he can’t have her, he’ll make sure I never do either.”
#
The Next Day (June 11)
Cate’s skin crawled. For the second time in fifteen minutes, she looked around to see who might be watching her. Someone magickal lurked nearby. She glanced over her shoulder, gripping her purse a little tighter. No one. The shop windows remained empty along Main Street. The closest pedestrians hightailed it to the golden-domed, limestone courthouse that dominated the square, obviously late for court dates in the hamlet of Mystic Springs, population two-thousand-one-hundred-ninety-five.
She’d driven the sixteen miles from Chatelaine’s Rest to Mystic Springs to get out and mingle with other people. Yes, she’d needed a few things, but she’d felt lonely. Even with Hattie, her midwife companion, around, she’d wanted to know she wasn’t the last human being on Earth. She never imagined she was an extrovert, but her seclusion over the past four months pro
ved how important her social network had been back in England.
She stopped, lifted her face to the early summer sun, and pretended to study the old wrought iron Victorian clock in the square while she scanned her surroundings through her dark sunglasses. The street remained clear, as far as she could see. The invisible threat worried her. The historical landmark chimed as the hands landed on ten o’clock.
Time to work a little magic of her own. Cate tugged at the chatelaine under the waistband of her jean skirt. She knew where each object hung on the magickal chain--charms that could easily pass for normal household items from a by-gone era. To the casual observer, she seemed to tuck her shirt into the back of her skirt. In reality, she’d retrieved an old pair of spectacles. Round wire rims with tinted blue glass.
She crossed Otterman to stand at the mouth of an alley straddling a bar & grille and a tea shop. At the corner of the bar & grille, she paused near an outdoor cafe table. She laid the spectacles on top of the table and rummaged through her purse as if she’d forgotten something.
Then she muttered an incantation. The language ancient and primal, tumbled from her lips, fully formed and without effort. The common translation? Expose the unseen. Keep hidden the obvious.
The hundred-year-old wire-rimmed reading glasses hummed, the tinted blue glass darkened to black like photo-chromic lenses. The gold metal rims rattled across the copper-colored table, then evaporated into thin air. A curtain of energy shimmered to life at her back, tingling the fine hairs on her neck. Time to move. Time for the rabbit to disappear into its warren and the fox to appear. The spell would keep her hidden, lulling her stalker into a false sense of security. Cate ducked into the alley and through the side entrance to The Tea Cozy. The rabbit had just become the fox.
#
Infernal bucolic area. Damn. At least England, even Cornwall on its worst day, had been civilized for hundreds of years. Not this backwater mountain region. Michael James stood in the darkened doorway of KnitPick, a knitting store on North Pitt Street in some Godforsaken town called Mystic Springs.
To Have & to Hold Page 4