Dragon's Fake Bride MatchMate (Dragon's MatchMate Agency Book 6)

by Maia Starr

  “Thank you,” I said meekly.

  “We’re going to get her back,” Larry said.

  “How?” I asked.

  “We’re cops,” Wes said. “We find missing people and catch bad guys. It’s what we do.”

  “Well,” Larry said, “did.”

  Wes sighed. “Right. It’s what we did.”

  Ryan came over to help comfort me as Wes and Larry made calls.

  Larry hung up his phone and spoke first. “I got his address. That’s the most obvious place he would have taken her.”

  “Okay, then let’s go,” I said.

  “Look, this is procedure. It’s the obvious place to look, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up. This is a guy who knows the procedure, and so there’s a very good chance that’s not where he is.”

  “Okay…” I said.

  “But we need to check all our boxes. And we are going to keep looking until we find her.”

  “Right,” I said. “So let’s go.”

  “Okay,” Larry said. “Let’s go.”

  Ryan piped in. “No, no,” he said. “Glenn and I will go. You both need to get treated. You lost a lot of blood and you’ve been through enough today.”

  “We have a job to do,” Wes said.

  “And that job is to go to the hospital and make sure you’re fine.”

  “I feel fine,” Larry said.

  “Yeah, so did my uncle. He was in a car accident, felt fine, then boom, fell over dead the next day because of internal bleeding. Get to the hospital; we’ll cover the bills.”

  “Ryan,” Wes said.

  “That’s an order,” Ryan said. “But give me the address first.”

  Larry texted it to Ryan, and the two of us headed down to the garage to go get Amelia back.

  “We should have done something to stop this from happening,” I said.

  Ryan was driving. He shook his head. “There was nothing we could do before.”

  “Well, now it’s too late, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t think he hurt her,” Ryan said.

  “Based on what?”

  “Based on he wants her to take him back. It doesn’t make sense.”

  I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. “He’s an abusive asshole. He’s psychotic. That means that the things he does don’t make sense. You can’t use common sense with this guy because he’s not using it.”

  “Look,” Ryan said, “we can assume she’s dead or we can be optimistic. A little hope doesn’t cost us anything.”

  He sighed.

  “I want her to be okay just as much as you do. My cut of the inheritance is also dependent on you being married with an heir. Why do you think I’ve been pushing so hard?”

  I was furious with him. “My wife might be dead and you’re mad because you might not get a little money?”

  “That came out wrong,” he said.

  “Then what did you mean.”

  “Glenn, calm down. We want the same thing. Let’s not fight over it.”

  He had a point, but I couldn’t believe how quickly I had learned to think so little of him as a person.

  “This isn’t how it was supposed to go, you know,” Ryan said.

  “No shit.” I rolled my eyes and looked out the window.

  “No,” he said. “What I mean is this is specifically not what was supposed to happen, you falling for her like this. And I tried to warn you that it would only cause problems. It’s not a matchmaking service; it’s an exchange. She gives you a year of her life and, in return, she gets paid royally. It’s a very simple system and when you go and stick emotion into things, it mucks everything up.”

  “That doesn’t even make sense,” I said. “How are you supposed to live with someone as husband and wife for a year and not have any emotional connection to them? You’re either going to love them or hate them. What have other people taken out of this service?”

  “Well,” Ryan sort of drifted off for a second.

  “Well, what?”

  “Well, you’re kind of in the alpha group.”

  “Not yet, I’m not.”

  “No,” Ryan said. “Do you know what a beta test is?”

  “Sure, it’s when people test out software before it’s completely done.”

  “Right, it’s also for programs. But prior to beta, there’s an alpha test, which is when it’s really not ready for prime time.”

  “So you enrolled me in a program that wasn’t ready for prime time?”

  “Yeah,” Ryan said. “Actually, I’m one of the founders and major investors. Your father was getting sick and I knew that there was no other way you’d be able to get married and have an heir, so I put together a service just for that very purpose.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You had so little faith in me that you made an entire company?”

  “Well, it’s a service offered by Fiery Hearts. When I pitched it, they loved it. It’s not that we had so little faith in you, but the specifics would require an entire legal team and the kind of resources that only Fiery Hearts could provide. And you’re not the only one who could use such a service. Do you know how many people there are looking for a spouse using their matchmaking service that don’t actually want to be married?”

  I shook my head. This whole situation was ridiculous and seemed ridiculous from the beginning. The only reason I got involved is they sold it to me as the easiest solution. I was furious with Ryan. But he was the only help I had at the moment, so I had to channel that rage toward Xavier.

  Ryan pulled into the parking lot of a run-down apartment complex.

  “This is it,” he said. He pulled out his phone to check the address. “Unit 103.”

  “Okay, let’s go,” I said.

  “Wait,” Ryan said. “Do we have a plan?”

  “Yeah, I have a plan,” I said. “I turn into a dragon and tear his head off, then Amelia and I live happily ever after.”

  He looked dubious. “Aren’t you scared? You saw what he did to the guards.”

  “I’m terrified. And furious. But every second we waste in this car coming up with the perfect plan is another second that he could be hurting Amelia. He had the element of surprise on the guards, and now we’ve got the element of surprise with him.”

  I handed him my gun.

  “I don’t think this’ll be too much help, but just in case.”

  He took it and held it down, pointing away from us.

  I stepped out of the car and let my inner dragon start to flow through my body. It always started in the chest for me and spread out. It was a fire burning inside me that seemed to pulse through my veins, bulking up my muscles.

  I had it under control, though, at least for now. I stayed roughly human size, but my shirt and pants felt tighter on me. I knew from past experience that my eyes were yellow, and a bit of smoke came out of my nose when I exhaled. I couldn’t quite breathe fire yet, but if someone stepped in the way of me, they could still get badly burned.

  “Be careful,” Ryan said.

  I dismissed him and walked up to unit 103.

  No knocking, no warning. I kicked the door down and screamed a mighty roar, then bolted through the apartment, looking for any sign of Xavier.

  But neither he nor Amelia were anywhere to be found.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Amelia

  There’s not a lot to do when you’re tied to a bedpost. You can’t read or use your phone. You can’t even twiddle your thumbs. I tried finding a comfortable position to stay in, but nothing worked, so I couldn’t even rest.

  All I could do was think. And thinking led to worry. Where was Xavier going? Almost certainly back to the apartment to hurt Glenn. Maybe even kill him. But Glenn’s strong and smart and it was possible he could beat Xavier, even though I knew that Xavier fights dirty. So maybe Glenn could win.

  But then what? Then he wouldn’t know where I was, and I’d just stay here in the apartment that smelled of mildew until I eventually died of dehydra
tion.

  Even the most optimistic of my hopes seemed grim. I couldn’t come up with a scenario that didn’t end with one of us dead. And truthfully, I would rather it be me. If it was me, at least Glenn would be okay and it also meant that Xavier would never hurt anybody again. I know that meant that the baby wouldn’t survive, either, but I didn’t know how I could go on knowing that I was responsible for killing Glenn.

  I got myself in this mess and, if somebody had to die, it might as well be me.

  The thought filled me with dread. I could be okay with dying, but I wished it wasn’t like this. I heard you can live for two, maybe three, days without water. And I’d just be sitting here, probably unable to sleep, getting hungry and sore, and becoming more and more hopeless.

  I didn’t know if I could do it.

  I wouldn’t have much of a choice, though, would I?

  Be brave, Amelia, I told myself. Be brave.

  I heard the front door open, and I nearly screamed. It all went through my head instantly; if Xavier was back, it meant that Glenn was dead. He had killed him.

  I reminded myself what I needed to do to survive: act like I still love Xavier. Go along with him, then look for an opening and run for it.

  That meant sucking in my tears and mourning the loss later. There would be plenty of time. I had to stay calm for the baby. It’s what Glenn would have wanted. At the very least, I couldn’t let him die in vain.

  “Amelia, I’m home,” Xavier shouted from the hall.

  I wished I had a mirror. Anything to help compose myself. Were my eyes red? Could I fake being excited to see him? Don’t overdo it, I told myself. He’s not stupid.

  He walked into the room.

  “Hi, Xavier,” I said. I looked toward my wrists. “It hurts.”

  “I had to make sure you didn’t go anywhere. I don’t trust you right now. I may not ever trust you again.”

  “I know.”

  “But I still love you.” He walked over to me. “Next time we use rope in the bedroom, I’m sure it’ll be under better circumstances.”

  He laughed. I forced a chuckle out of my mouth. I had a friend in college who told me how to flirt with boys. She said it was easy. Just laugh at everything they say. It worked at least nine times out of ten.

  “If I untie you, are you going to run away?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “You would just catch me and tie me back up.”

  “That’s right,” he said. “I will untie you, but first, I need to take care of a few things, really quick, okay?”

  No! Not okay, I thought. I want to be untied right now.

  “It’ll just be a few moments,” he said.

  “Okay.”

  He left the room, and I listened carefully, trying to understand what was going on. I heard a quick grunt and footsteps. He walked out the front door. Then he came back in and the sounds repeated.

  He came back into the room.

  “You and I are going to go on a little road trip,” he said.

  “Where?”

  “Surprise.” He came over to me and started untying the knot. “You’re right, this is very tight.”

  He caressed my hands, and I instinctively recoiled.

  “There, there,” he said. “It’s just me. I’m not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you.”

  Except for all the times that he did.

  “I packed all your bags,” he told me. “Put a bunch of clothes in there. Toothbrush. All that stuff. And if I forgot something, we can just pick it up. I put in for time off from work; you would not believe all the days I had saved up for this.”

  He finished untying me.

  “Do you need to use the restroom before we go? It could be a long time in the car.”

  “Yeah,” I told him.

  I was scared he was going to make me leave the door open so he could watch me. He didn’t, but I feared he had his ear at the door, listening in. There wasn’t a window or anything in the bathroom, but I looked to see if there was anything that could possibly be useful.

  I looked for my razor. I didn’t think I would actually be able to use it. If I couldn’t even shoot Xavier, how was I going to hurt him with a razor?

  But it wasn’t there. He must have packed it.

  Then I saw the mouthwash. It was the best idea I could come up with, given the limited supplies and even more limited supplies. I knew once I got in the car with him and he drove, it’d be even harder for anyone to find me. Not that anyone would even be looking for me.

  I flushed the toilet and washed my hands, leaving the water running as I uncapped the mouthwash and put as much of it in my mouth as I could stand. It immediately began to burn, but I wouldn’t need to hold it too long. Only about thirty more seconds.

  My entire mouth was on fire. I wondered if this is what Glenn felt like in his dragon form. Focus, I told myself. Ignore the pain. This would be nothing compared to what I’d have to endure if I didn’t make it out.

  I opened the bathroom door, and Xavier wasn’t there. He was on the other side of the room.

  “Ready to go?” he asked.

  I nodded my head. We walked closer to each other. Ten feet away, much too far.

  Eight feet.

  When I couldn’t stand the pain anymore, I held it in just a little bit longer.

  Six feet.

  Five feet.

  My tongue felt like it was dissolving in the sharp, minty flavor of the antiseptic mouthwash. Cool mint, my ass. This was fire.

  Three feet.

  I spit it all right in Xavier’s face, aiming for his eyes. He screamed, and I bolted to the front door. I pulled it open, but the chain stuck.

  I heard growling coming up behind me as I shut the door and undid the chain. I opened the door, took one step out, and he tackled me, in wolf form, holding my head down with his jaw around my neck.

  He could kill me so easily if he wanted to.

  He shifted back, holding me down.

  “So that’s how you want to play it?”

  He lifted me up and brought me to a car. It wasn’t his.

  He pulled the key out of his pocket. It had a tag on it as if it was a rental, and he used it to open the trunk, then toss me inside.

  “This is why I don’t trust you,” he said. “One more thing. If you try anything like that again, I’m going to make sure that baby inside of you’s never born.”

  He slammed the trunk door shut on me.

  It was dark in the trunk, almost pitch black other than a thin sliver of light that slid through the cracks. At least my hands were free, though. I felt around the wrists of both my hands, sore but relieved to finally be untied from the bedpost.

  What I did was stupid, I realized. I should have been more patient. If only I had waited, gained his trust a little bit more, I could have gotten out of this.

  The car started out and eased its way out of the parking lot. I pushed against the trunk with my feet, hoping that I could somehow knock it open. It wouldn’t budge. The car was still going fairly slowly. We weren’t on a highway yet. I felt around with my hands. Maybe there was a latch, some sort of safety mechanism for just this purpose, but if there was, it wasn’t obvious.

  It was no matter, though; by that point, the car had picked up speed. We’d entered the highway. Even if I could get the trunk open, I’d be jumping out at seventy miles per hour.

  I’d run out of hope. If there was any way I was going to get out of this, I couldn’t think of it.

  “I’ve failed you, honey,” I said to the baby in me. “I’m sorry.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Glenn

  The apartment was a complete mess. Pizza boxes on the floor that spread roaches when I kicked them. Dishes piled up in the sink. I couldn’t believe that somebody actually managed to live here. It smelled awful, but through it all, I could detect that Amelia had been here at least fairly recently. And so had Xavier.

  But as to where they were now was anybody’s guess.

  Still
, there was a very good chance she was alive.

  I reverted to my fully human form to investigate, but I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.

  Ryan came in after me.

  “They’re not here,” I said.

  “But they were?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll look around and see if I can find anything.”

  I suspected that was hopeless. I took out my phone and called Wes.

  “Wes, how are you?”

  “I’m in the waiting room,” he said. “I feel fine, though.”

  “Good. I need you to do something for me.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Call your friend at the police station and see if they have any updated info from the red-light cameras that can track Amelia.” I imagined the precinct could only look within the city. If Xavier took her outside of San Francisco, we were going to have a really tough time finding them. Maybe we’d get lucky, though. Maybe they just left the apartment, and maybe they were spotted and maybe…but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

  “No problem. I’ll call you right back.”

  It was about twenty minutes before he got back to me.

  “Good news and bad news,” he said.

  “Always give me the bad news first.”

  “We couldn’t spot her using any of the red-light cameras.”

  I sighed. Of course not. That would be too easy.

  “What’s the good news?” I asked.

  “I had them run a database check on Xavier. I didn’t know his last name, but my connection certainly did. She’s none too fond of him. It’s Flores. No one around the department likes him. She ran the database check and it turns out that he just rented a car less than an hour ago. It’s a red compact sedan.”

  “Do we have the plates?”

  Wes laughed.

  “What’s funny?”

  “Sure, I can give you the plates, but I’ve got you one better.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The car has a GPS unit. I can give you its exact location down to the nearest square meter. You can follow it via a website. I’ll text you the link.”