Smoke and Fire

by Donna Grant

  “What I told you about my family was the truth. I merely left out that they were dragons.”

  That still didn’t make up for the other secrets he’d kept. And Kinsey didn’t even know why they were discussing it. There wasn’t going to be anything between them again. If all Ryder wanted was for her to say she wasn’t afraid, then she could do that.

  “I’m not scared of you.”

  Sadness flashed in his eyes before he turned away. “I’ll be in the computer room when you’re finished here.”

  She watched him walk out, wondering why he was so upset. He’d asked for something, and she gave it. That should be enough. But she knew it wasn’t.

  Kinsey dropped her arms and turned around. She found the bathroom and locked the door behind her. As she was turning the water on for a shower, it hit her that she really was in a bad situation.

  At least she knew Ryder. How much more awful would it be if she didn’t know anyone? It was because of her affiliation with Ryder that she was even in this situation. That should infuriate her.

  Instead, it just made her miserable.

  It was another reminder that she was alone. The one man who had been her everything turned out to be something else completely.

  She removed her clothes. Just before she stepped into the shower, she saw herself in the mirror and the tears that were falling down her cheeks.

  It had been well over a year since she cried for what she’d had with Ryder. Being with him brought it all back, shoving it in her face as if it had just happened yesterday.

  How in the world would she ever be able to get through it? She wasn’t that strong. When it came to Ryder she was as weak as a newborn kitten.

  She stepped into the shower, putting her face to the water. The first thing she had to do was wipe away the tears as if they never existed.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Ryder stared at the computer screen without seeing it. Kinsey’s unexpected—and entirely too quick—assurance that she wasn’t frightened of him told him that she was still very much afraid.

  He leaned forward, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. With a shift of his feet, he rolled his chair to the left and focused on a monitor that was running more extensive searches for Ulrik.

  “You look like hell,” Dmitri said as he handed a mug of coffee to Ryder.

  Ryder merely shrugged and gratefully accepted the drink. He hastily took a sip.

  “Where is Kinsey?”

  “Showering, I assume,” Ryder replied.

  Dmitri sat in the chair Kinsey had used the day before. “Did you tell her where the kitchen was so she could eat?”

  Ryder shoved back his chair and stalked from the room, furious that he’d forgotten something so important. He was so wrapped up in his feelings for Kinsey that he repeatedly forgot basic things that she needed—like food.

  He made his way to his room and lifted his hand to knock. Then he hesitated. The only way for her to stop fearing him was by being with him more, and seeing that he was just the same as he once was.

  Ryder rapped his knuckles on the door. A moment later it opened to reveal Kinsey. She wore a pair of black jeans and a V-neck burgundy sweater that hugged her breasts. She walked to the chair and sat to put on her boots.

  “I’m here to bring you to the kitchen,” Ryder said. “I figured you might still be hungry.”

  She zipped her shoes and stood. “I’m famished.”

  “Follow me,” he said and turned on his heel.

  They walked side by side to the stairs. Her hair was down and she wore no makeup, just as he liked it. Kinsey pushed up the sleeves of her sweater to her elbows and kept her face straight ahead, though he could see her gaze darting about at all the dragons decorating the manor.

  “There’s always plenty of food in the kitchen,” Ryder said, hoping to make her feel welcome. “The mates make sure of it.”

  “Mates?” Kinsey repeated.

  “Some of the Dragon Kings have found wives. We doona have wedding ceremonies exactly. The women and the Kings are mated for eternity.”

  Kinsey descended the last stair. “How many mates are here?”

  Ryder kept walking as he said, “Let’s see. There’s Cassie, Elena, Jane, Denae, Sammi, Shara, Iona, Lily, Darcy, Grace, Lexi, and Sophie.”

  “Twelve,” Kinsey said with a nod. “And Con allowed all of them to be mated?”

  “Con might be King of Kings, but he can no’ stop a King from falling in love.”

  “Really?” she asked acridly.

  Ryder could’ve kicked himself. He stopped at the doorway of the kitchen and motioned Kinsey inside. “I think Lexi and Elena have been cooking all morning.”

  Kinsey took a deep breath before licking her lips as if she couldn’t decide where she wanted to start first.

  “About time you brought her to us,” Lexi said as she closed the refrigerator and set the orange juice on the table. “Hi, Kinsey. I’m Lexi. One of the newest women at Dreagan.”

  The two shook hands. Kinsey’s smile was open and welcoming. “Hello. Are you from America?”

  “South Carolina. It’s my Southern accent that tipped you off, huh?” Lexi asked with a grin and got a couple of glasses down. A moment later and the smile was gone. “One of my best friends was killed by a Dark Fae in Edinburgh. Idiot that I was, I thought I could track him down myself. Thorn saved my hide several times. I, of course, was too much of a temptation and he fell in love with me,” Lexi finished with a wink.

  Kinsey chuckled. “You’re making light of what sounds like a dangerous situation.”

  Lexi’s demeanor became serious. “I tease and joke because it helps. We’re at war. But yes, it was a harrowing adventure, and I thank God every day that Thorn came into my life.”

  Ryder watched the exchange with interest. He hadn’t thought about Kinsey interacting with the mates as a means to help change her mind about him, which was stupid on his part.

  Who better to convince Kinsey he wasn’t a bad guy than the other mates who’d gone through something similar?

  “I heard my name,” Thorn said as he walked into the kitchen and immediately went to Lexi. They kissed and shared private words before Thorn turned to Kinsey. “You’re the talk of Dreagan.”

  “Am I?” Kinsey asked, glancing at Ryder.

  Ryder handed a plate to Kinsey and urged her to choose from the selection of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and donuts. He shot a glance at Thorn, hoping he would take the hint and talk about something else.

  “That’s right,” Thorn said as he took a chair at the table. “We’re all verra curious, lass. It’s no’ every day we get to meet someone Ryder knows.”

  Ryder looked at the ceiling and prayed for patience. When he lowered his gaze he saw a look pass between Thorn and Lexi. Ryder didn’t even want to know what that was about.

  “So he doesn’t get out much?” Kinsey asked nonchalantly.

  Ryder found his focus on her—as it always seemed to be. He watched the way she piled a little of everything onto her plate before walking to the table and taking the seat across from Thorn.

  “You can say that,” Thorn said with a smile as he rested his arms on the table.

  Ryder looked to Lexi for help, but she threw up her hands, telling him he was on his own as she turned away to get coffee for Thorn.

  “Hmm.” Kinsey poured some OJ into her glass before reaching for the syrup and drowning her pancake in it.

  Ryder rolled his eyes and leaned back against the wall. “I suppose you all are having fun?”

  “You know, he’s a right genius when it comes to those computers,” Thorn stated, as if Ryder hadn’t spoken. “We all have our talents, but I doona know how he does what he does.”

  Kinsey chewed a bit and swallowed as she regarded Thorn. “A genius, huh?”

  “Doona tell him I said that.”

  She gave a little snort. “You don’t have to worry about that. I think he already believes it.”

  Ryde
r pushed away from the wall. “Right here. Right. Bloody. Here.”

  Lexi laughed as she came to stand beside him. She leaned close and whispered, “It’s not worth it. Thorn has an objective. You know how he gets when he sets his mind to something.”

  “Aye.” Ryder grimaced when he saw Thorn’s smile. Thorn could be at it awhile, and though Ryder could take whatever was dished, he thought Kinsey might like some time alone with Lexi and Thorn. “I’ll be in my office.”

  Kinsey didn’t so much as look up as he walked out. Ryder tried not to feel the hurt that caused. It was as if he mattered less than a flea.

  What did he expect after the way he’d left her? Then showing up during the Fae attack and shifting? He’d always thought he was intelligent, but every time he was around Kinsey he felt like a fool.

  He was constantly saying or doing the wrong thing, even when he tried to do something right. Why was it so difficult? It wasn’t that he was uncomfortable around her. Quite the opposite, actually.

  No, his problem was that he was trying so hard to impress her and make her look at him as she used to that he looked like a wanker.

  Ryder made his way back to the third floor and the computer room. But as he sat in front of the monitors, for the first time in a very long time, he didn’t care what they showed him.

  All that mattered was the woman in the kitchen and the love within his heart.

  He squeezed his eyes closed and concentrated once more on finding a hint of where Ulrik was. So far, none of the scans across the entire United Kingdom had shown anything.

  Ulrik could be out of the country. Knowing that—as well as Ulrik’s affinity for the Dark Fae—Ryder focused on Ireland, which the Fae had proclaimed as their own.

  While those scans ran, Ryder looked back through the last day they’d caught Ulrik on camera near his shop in Perth. It ran on fast-forward. As usual, there were the normal visitors who came to the antiques shop.

  Ryder paused the recording and rewound it when he spotted a young woman in jeans, wearing a sweatshirt from the University of St. Andrews. With a backpack slung over one shoulder, she looked like any other student.

  But there was something about the girl that caught Ryder’s attention. The way she moved, the way she covertly took in everything.

  He played the tape three times as she walked from the bus stop to the door of The Silver Dragon. It was the way the young woman looked around that troubled Ryder. He’d seen someone do that quite recently. And that someone was Henry North.

  MI5 was known to recruit spooks at a very young age. Not to mention Ulrik’s past connection to MI5 was also a sign.

  Ryder fast-forwarded the recording to see how long the girl was in the store. Fifteen minutes later she emerged with the same backpack, but there was something different about it.

  Now focused entirely, Ryder split the screen in half. On one side was the girl when she arrived at the store, and the other when she left.

  Ryder rotated the image of her arriving and was able to take dimensions of the backpack. That’s when he realized it was sitting higher on her shoulders because it was no longer weighted down by something.

  He needed to find out who the girl was. While he ran facial recognition software on her, Ryder also sent her picture to Henry, their one ally within MI5.

  Henry had long been a friend of Banan’s, and during one harrowing battle with Ulrik, he had helped Banan rescue Jane in the middle of London.

  From there, it hadn’t taken long for Henry to learn who those at Dreagan really were. Henry helped them on multiple occasions after that. It was just a few months ago that he began living at the manor to help the Kings track the Dark Fae’s movements all over the world.

  Ryder set down his phone, thinking it would take Henry awhile to learn who the girl was, when Ryder’s phone dinged.

  He read the message twice he was so shocked.

  HER NAME IS ESTHER. SHE’S MY SISTER.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Kinsey knew the moment Ryder left the kitchen. She no longer felt his presence, which made her feel … unprotected.

  That couldn’t be right. She feared him. Didn’t she? Her feelings and her mind were all jumbled into a huge tangle that grew more convoluted as the minutes and hours passed. That’s what made it all the more difficult to keep her distance from him.

  “Do you hate him?”

  Thorn’s teasing words were gone. Kinsey lifted her eyes from her plate and met Thorn’s dark ones. His deep brown hair was long and loose about his shoulders. There was no compassion in his gaze, only an intensity that told Kinsey to speak the truth at all costs.

  “That’s not easy to answer,” she replied.

  The chair between her and Thorn was pulled out as Lexi took a seat. Her slate gray eyes were filled with sympathy. She then tucked a strand of pale brown hair behind her ear. “It might seem like a difficult answer, but it’s really not.”

  “You know what’s going on,” Thorn said as he sat back. “You saw it yourself in Glasgow. We willna have someone in our midst who is here to harm one of us.”

  Kinsey set down her fork, her appetite gone at his words. She gawked at him in wonder and stupidity. “That’s a joke, right? You’re dragons. You can shift. Who can harm who?”

  “Kinsey,” Lexi said and rested her hand atop hers. “What my husband is trying—badly—to say, is that though they’re immortal Dragon Kings who can shift, their hearts are as delicate as ours.”

  “Now, sweetheart, I’m no’ sure I’d use delicate,” Thorn admonished.

  Lexi raised a hand to quiet him without even looking his way. Kinsey watched in amusement as Thorn looked like a scolded toddler.

  The silence in the kitchen extended. Kinsey felt like she was on trial of sorts. Which she had been since she first stepped foot onto Dreagan.

  But this was different. This was focused on her feelings, feelings she herself hadn’t dared to look too deep into because she was afraid of what she might find.

  The truth was, even when she wanted to hate Ryder after he’d left her, she couldn’t. She told herself she did in an effort to stop wondering about him. But it didn’t work.

  “I see,” Thorn said in a low voice.

  Kinsey jerked her gaze to him. “Excuse me?”

  Thorn’s look wasn’t so fierce. “There’s no hate in your heart for Ryder. You care for him.”

  “I cared for him. Past tense. He walked out on me.”

  “And he told you why.”

  Kinsey shrugged, annoyed that something so private was being discussed with strangers. “That’s supposed to make it all better? That makes it worse, because he could’ve come back. He didn’t.”

  “He was there to protect you recently.”

  At this, Kinsey had to laugh. “Me? He was there because Con ordered him to Glasgow. He was there to protect a city, much like you were in Edinburgh protecting it.”

  “I wasna there to protect buildings. I was there to protect lives—human lives.”

  Lexi sat back in her chair with a sigh. “Not even coffee is strong enough for this conversation.”

  “I appreciate you trying to take some of the tension from the room,” Kinsey told her. “The fact is, this is my private life we’re discussing. Something I don’t even do with my sister.”

  “Sister?” Thorn asked in surprise, his brow furrowed deeply.

  Kinsey wasn’t sure what the problem was. “Yep. My sister.”

  “How many other siblings do you have? Are your parents still alive? Where do they live?”

  “Thorn,” Lexi chided. “One question at a time.”

  Kinsey looked between the two. Thorn was visibly upset. “Ryder knows I have a sister. She’s much younger than I am. My father died when I was four. At eight Mum remarried and they had my sister. My mother and stepfather live in Hong Kong because of his job. My sister is finishing up her last year at university.”

  “Shite,” Thorn said and pushed his chair back as he got to his feet.r />
  Kinsey looked helplessly at Lexi.

  “Your family is going to want to know where you are at some point,” Lexi explained. “They’re going to have questions about Dreagan.”

  “Everyone has questions about Dreagan from what I hear,” Kinsey said.

  Thorn paced the kitchen mumbling to himself. Kinsey tried to hear what he was saying, but she couldn’t pick up any words.

  Lexi shifted in her chair. “There are only five women here who have family or close friends outside of Dreagan. Jane has a half-sister, Sammi, who happens to be mated to a King as well. Darcy has family on the Isle of Skye. Shara is a Fae, so she doesn’t have to keep secret who she’s married to. Then there’s me. My parents have passed away, but my friends who came with me to Scotland have been asking a lot of questions. Oh, I keep forgetting about Cassie, but she and her brother don’t talk. I guess that’s why I leave her out when I think about this.”

  Now Kinsey understood. “You have to lie to your family?”

  “Yes. They can’t know anything. I’ll be able to see them for the next five years or so, but after that they’ll begin to see I’m not aging as they are.”

  “It’s not like I’ll be staying. As soon as my name is cleared and we catch who is behind sending me here, I’m gone.”

  Thorn made some sound that wasn’t close to a word. It sent warning bells off in Kinsey’s head that it wouldn’t be anything close to that easy.

  As if they would allow her to leave, knowing what she knew. She had been working side by side with Ryder seeing into a vast majority of their secrets and getting to know them.

  MI5 was prowling the estate. Helicopters and planes continued to fly over the land. Cameras from news stations from around the world were at the entrance of Dreagan. The only reason the distillery wasn’t crawling with visitors was because it was closed for the winter.

  Someone would pay dearly to learn a fraction of what she now knew.

  Perhaps it was a good thing they knew she had family. It would make it more difficult for them to kill her.

  As soon as the thought went through her mind she almost laughed. She knew for a fact Ryder could kill because she’d witnessed him doing it to the Dark in Glasgow. But her? He wouldn’t kill her, nor did she think he would allow anyone else to hurt her.