Russ took a few moments to gather his thoughts, and then began speaking. “Jake hounded me pretty hard about helping you with the hearing. I didn’t want to at first, but he reminded me of how badly things could go when someone gets too much power. I decided that, as angry as I was at you, I had to help bring down Commander Hawkins. I didn’t know the man well, but from the one time I met him, I could tell that he was an asshole, at best.”
“I’d say that’s a pretty accurate description.”
“Yeah, I know that all too well now. When you saw me storming out of the locker room, I’d just been cornered by Jake, and was angry that he was trying to defend you. I owe you a big apology for the things I said. I understand much better now why you did the things you did.”
“You do?”
Russ took a deep breath, and looked Mandy straight in the eye. “I do. After I left the locker room, I couldn’t get Jake’s words out of my head. No matter how mad I was at you, I knew that I had to do something to help bring down Commander Hawkins. Jake was convinced that letting the man defy the High Council with no consequences was going to cause big trouble. The last thing I want is another war. I mean, I think the last thing anyone wants is another war, and so I agreed to help. Jake brought over my whole file. I read through all of the transcripts of the meetings leading up to your being chosen as the recovery agent for bringing me to Torch Lake. I also read through the rest of my file, including documents that no one had reviewed yet, like the equipment specialist’s report.”
“That’s how you knew to call him as a witness,” Mandy said, shaking her head in wonder. “That was brilliant.”
Russ smiled proudly. “Thanks. I was pretty happy when I realized that we potentially had another witness, even if it was just the guy who did your equipment rations. Every little bit helps.”
“I agree. And the character witnesses? That was your idea, too?”
Russ nodded, still smiling. “I read through the Torch Lake hearing procedures code before the hearing, because I wanted to know what to expect. I haven’t been part of a shifter clan since I was very young, so I wasn’t sure how High Councils usually run things. Besides, I’ve heard that every clan does things a little bit differently.”
“That’s very true. It took a while to hash out the official rules and procedures here in Torch Lake. We had so many people coming from so many different clans, that there was a lot of disagreement. Not to mention, this town joins shifters and wizards together, and shifters and wizards often have very different ideas about the best ways to do things.”
“Right. Well, I read the code, and found the bit about character witnesses hidden away in a long, boring passage. But I think bringing in a bunch of dragon shifters as character witnesses made a big impression. Even a lot of Commander Hawkins’ supporters looked impressed.”
Mandy grinned. “I don’t think there’s ever been a hearing here in Torch Lake where four dragons stood as witnesses for someone. It made quite an impression on the High Council. And I can’t thank you enough for that. I went from having no witnesses on my side to having a whole crew of dragons sticking up for me. And the equipment specialist. Let’s not forget him. He’s a wizard, not a dragon, but he was brave to come in there and testify against Commander Hawkins.”
“Agreed. But back to what I was saying about reading through my file. I read every last page of that file, and every last line on every transcript.” Russ paused here, and took a shuddering breath. The things he’d read had made him realize just how awful Commander Hawkins was. Russ wasn’t even sure where to start in telling Mandy how sorry he was for questioning her decision to take the job, despite the “seduction” orders. He understood now how horribly she’d been pressured.
“And?” Mandy prompted, when Russ didn’t continue talking for several long moments.
“And, when I was done with that, I was curious about how a man could get away with the kind of things Commander Hawkins got away with. So I went digging in other files.”
Mandy’s eyes widened. “How did you get access to the other files?”
“Jake. As head trainer, he has access to a lot of files. He gave them to me and wrote it off as a way to teach me more about the city of Torch Lake.”
Mandy laughed. “Clever. I guess, strictly speaking, reading files is a good way to understand the inner workings of this place.”
“Yes, and to understand the inner workings of Commander Hawkins. The man is a monster. Ironic, since he is supposed to be recruiting dragons to fight off the dark monsters.”
Mandy visibly shuddered.
“You’re not the first person he’s given false orders to,” Russ continued. “You’re just the first person to step forward and say something. Most people are too afraid to stand up to him.”
“Well I still wouldn’t call myself fearless,” Mandy said. “I was questioning my decision to file the complaint right up to the moment the hearing began.”
Russ shrugged. “You don’t have to be fearless. You just have to have enough courage to do the right thing when it matters most, and you did.”
“This time I did. I should have had the guts to stand up to him at the beginning of this whole mess, when he first ordered me to use seduction techniques. I knew in my heart that was the wrong thing to do, but I let him pressure me into thinking I was defying the High Council and would lose my job if I didn’t obey.”
Russ drummed his fingers together for a few moments before replying. “I’m not saying what you did was right, Mandy. I think that we all have a responsibility to stand up to the things we know in our hearts are wrong, even if our highest leaders are the ones telling us to do those things. Perhaps especially if our leaders are the ones telling us to do those things. In a perfect world, you would have gotten in Commander Hawkins face and told him that you weren’t going to use coercive, lying techniques. You would have told him that there was no honor in keeping a job that required you to compromise your morals.”
Mandy looked down at her hands, which were sitting on her lap. She shifted in her seat under the weight of Russ’s words, but then bravely looked up at him again, waiting to see what else he would say. Russ sighed.
“I also think that, in a perfect world, I would not have immediately written you off because of one mistake. I would have heard you out when you told me you were sorry. I would have believed you when you said that you weren’t faking our first kiss.”
“I wasn’t faking,” Mandy said, still holding his gaze. The heat between them was palpable now. The tension of their unacknowledged desire for each other made the air crackle.
“I know.” Russ’s voice, low and husky, sounded strange to his own ears. He looked deep into Mandy’s eyes, trying to make her see how far he had come from the man who’d yelled about her outside the locker room. “You made a mistake, but so did I. I shouldn’t have treated you the way I did. Even if you had been faking your attraction to me, a dragon should act nobly at all times. I shouldn’t have let my temper get the best of me like that. I was rude, and acted like an asshole myself.”
“It’s alright,” Mandy said quickly. But Russ shook his head.
“No, it’s not alright. I should have been kinder, no matter what I thought you’d done wrong. Will you forgive me?”
Mandy smiled and nodded at him, and Russ felt a fresh wave of heat go through his body. He hadn’t spent time alone with Mandy since they’d arrived in Torch Lake, and he’d forgotten how magnetic the pull between them was. Even when he’d been angry with her, that pull had been hard to resist. Now that his anger had faded away into understanding, he found it nearly impossible to focus on anything except how beautiful she was, and how much he wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her.
“So, what did you find in all those files that changed your mind about me so completely?” she asked.
“Pretty horrifying stuff. Not only does it appear that he gave false orders quite frequently, but there’s some evidence that he also made threats to bring physical h
arm to people who didn’t listen to him. He often threatened people with the loss of their jobs, and he also on several occasions told his subordinates that he was going to bring them before the High Council to be tried for treason.”
Mandy closed her eyes, and rubbed her forehead with the back of her palm. When she opened her eyes again, she shook her head sadly. “He’s been doing this sort of thing for years. Almost since the beginning of Torch Lake itself. He got his Commander position because he’d been some sort of head commander in his old clan, before it was destroyed in the war. At first, everyone loved him. He promised that he would never allow evil to get the slightest foothold in his department on his watch, which is quite a joke considering that his department is probably the most corrupted place in Torch Lake.”
“I’ll say. I couldn’t believe some of what I read. And that’s only what has made it into official transcripts. I can’t imagine what awful things he does off the record.”
“You don’t want to know,” Mandy said with a sigh. “I should have said something sooner. We all should have, really. But I was terrified of losing my job. It wasn’t just about the job itself. It was about the higher purpose that being a recovery agent represents. I could be doing something else here in town and making more money, but I wanted to help the town attract dragons. I wanted to build a strong, noble foundation that would make our new, hodgepodge clan stronger. I got so caught up in what I wanted that I told myself the abuse I was taking at Commander Hawkins’ hands was just part of the price I had to pay. His insults and threats got worse and worse over time, until I felt that I had no choice but to follow his commands.”
“But did you really think the order to use seduction came from the High Council? Or did you know then that Commander Hawkins was tricking you?”
“I thought the order came from the High Council. That’s the only reason I followed through with flirting as much as I did. I thought it didn’t sound like something the High Council would do, but I figured they must have their reasons and I needed to trust them. At least that’s what I told myself. Maybe I was in denial about what was going on, but I can tell you if I’d thought Commander Hawkins was lying about the orders, I would never have listened to him. I wish to god now that I hadn’t.”
Russ smiled. “Do you? It looks like everything might turn out okay in the end. And who knows. Maybe if you hadn’t flirted with me at that bar in Chicago, I never would have realized how damn attracted I am to you.”
Mandy blushed, and Russ thought his heart might break from how beautiful she looked right now. Her hair wasn’t as smooth and neat as it had been this morning, but he liked the mussed-up look her wizard hat had given it. And the purple of her robe emphasized the slight tan of her face. How had he ever hated her?
He was a dragon, of course, and had his standards as far as morals went. But he had misjudged her. He’d assumed that she was the kind of person who would do anything to get what she wanted, just because she’d agreed to flirt with him to try to lure him back to Torch Lake. But he hadn’t understood how complicated the issues had been. She’d been confused about what the High Council wanted, and she’d been under the constant pressure of Commander Hawkins’ threats. No, it didn’t make what she’d done right. But then again, she’d barely started to flirt before she’d realized she couldn’t go through with tricking him. She’d been brave enough to confess and apologize, and he’d met her brave apology with ridicule.
Now, as she smiled at him with that adorable shy smile of hers, the rest of the world seemed to fade to grey. She was everything colorful and beautiful in his eyes. His mind screamed at him that he was letting his heart run away with him in a completely illogical manner. After all, he was heading back to Chicago after he was done with training, and he was pretty sure there was no way she was going to come back with him. She sang the praises of Torch Lake all day long, to anyone who would listen. But Russ refused to think right now about the logistics of a relationship with Mandy. For once, he allowed himself to be reckless. He focused only on how warm and happy he felt in her presence right now. He would worry about everything else tomorrow. Right now, he just wanted to be with her.
“So about that do-over,” he said, standing and then leaning across her desk so that his face was right in front of hers. Her honey-brown eyes looked softly back at him, melting his insides and causing a fresh stiffness between his legs. He swallowed hard and licked his lips, resisting the urge to kiss her. He would kiss her soon, long and hard. But first, he wanted to hear her say that she wanted him. That she felt the same fire in her bones that he did when they were together.
“What about the do-over?” she asked.
Russ dropped his eyes to where her breasts formed two soft mounds underneath her robe. He wanted to unwrap her and see what was underneath that robe. Focus, he told himself. If all goes well, there’ll be plenty of time to enjoy whatever she’s hiding under that purple fabric.
“I want a chance to continue our kiss. The kiss I broke off too soon in Chicago. I want to continue that kiss, and continue on beyond that.”
He put a finger up to her face and traced a line down her cheek, her chin, her neck, and on to her collarbone. Before he could go further, she stopped him.
“Russ, no. Wait.”
He felt his heart drop, but he moved his hand back. Had he gone too far in his angry treatment of her for her to truly forgive him? Was he destined to always be only her friend?
“What is it?” he asked softly, afraid to hear the answer but needing to know.
“Contrary to what you might think from the way that we met, I don’t usually pick up men in bars. I like my first dates to be a little nicer. A cozy restaurant, perhaps, and a walk on one of the lake’s beaches.”
Russ stepped back and smiled, finally understanding. She wasn’t pushing him away. She was inviting him deeper into her world. “You want me to take you out on a real date, like a proper gentleman.”
“I’d like that, yes.”
Russ’s smile widened. “Well then, your wish is granted, my lady. How about dinner tomorrow night? I’d take you tonight, but I already promised Jake I’d meet with him to go over some of the more interesting files on Commander Hawkins’ sordid history.
“Tomorrow night is fine,” Mandy said, her own face breaking into a smile. “I should probably go home and rest now, anyway, after the day I’ve had.”
“Well then, you rest up, and I’ll see you tomorrow. You still have my number right? Do you want to text me your address?”
Mandy nodded. “Will do,” she said, biting her lip as her smile tried to break even wider.
Russ reached down to squeeze her hand that was resting on the desk, and then turned to leave. But he paused and turned back to her, tilting his head to one side to watch her for a moment, memorizing how beautiful she looked right then and there.
“Can I steal just one more kiss before tomorrow night?” he asked. “You look too wonderful right now to go unkissed.”
Mandy flushed pink with embarrassment, but she kept smiling. She nodded, and Russ leaned across the desk to put his lips on hers.
He was acting reckless and he knew it, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care right now. The only thing he cared about was that Mandy had forgiven him, and was letting him back into her life. And damn, did her lips taste good.
He had a feeling he was going to be tasting them a lot more often in the coming weeks.
Chapter Fourteen
Mandy knew that the majority of her coworkers hated her right now, but that didn’t stop her from happily skipping into the office the next morning. What did she care if everyone thought she was betraying Commander Hawkins? He was the one screwing over everyone in the Dragon Recovery Division. He’d brought this on himself. And, besides, Mandy refused to be anything but happy. She had a dinner date with Russ Porter tonight. Life didn’t get much better than that.
She’d been up half the night texting back and forth with him. She was paying for that this mor
ning. Despite trying to hide her exhaustion with undereye concealor and copious amounts of coffee, she was still dragging. She figured it didn’t matter much if she was tired at work today, though. No one was going to go out of their way to work with her on any assignments while Commander Hawkins was still technically in charge. He’d been stripped of much of his power, true, but he still held his position as head of the Dragon Recovery Division. Mandy supposed she couldn’t blame anyone for being careful not to piss him off.
Mandy went into her office and shut the door behind her, thinking how much better things were this morning than they had been twenty-four hours ago. She could hardly believe that it had been less than a full day since she’d stood in the office in her dress robes, sure that she was about to be soundly defeated in the hearing against the High Council. Not only had she not lost, but she also had set things right with Russ. Life didn’t exactly suck at the moment.
Mandy hit the start button on her computer, and the old machine slowly whirred to life. While she was waiting for it to finish booting up, Mandy reached into her purse for her phone, hoping to see a good morning text from Russ. To her disappointment, she had no new messages. She set the phone down with a sigh and started tapping her fingers absentmindedly on her desk. She glanced at the small desk clock in front of her, which read 8:37. With a frown she picked up the phone again, as though she might have magically received a text in the last few seconds without realizing it. It wasn’t possible that Russ was still sleeping, was it? They’d had a late night, thanks to their extended text conversation last night. But he should have been at training by eight this morning. If he hadn’t shown up, Jake or one of the other trainers would have been calling him, telling him to haul his ass out of bed.
Mandy’s frown deepened. She had an odd feeling that something was wrong. She wasn’t a needy girl, and it wasn’t her style to be upset over the lack of a good morning text. But she wasn’t sure how a man could be up texting half the night, and then in the morning neglect to send even a good morning text. Russ had been so eager to talk to her. The fact that he had gone so unnaturally silent worried her.
Dragon Returning (Torch Lake Shifters Book 1) Page 12