by Ashlyn Chase
“No. Not until you tell me what’s going on.”
Her phone rang again, only this time it was the Skype tone. Shit. “Hide!”
He ducked behind the couch.
“Stay right there. Whatever you do, don’t move,” she said.
“Hello,” she said to a black screen. The caller must have placed tape over the camera on the other end. “If you can see me, then I should be able to see you.”
“We’re calling the shots. Now walk around the room with the camera facing out to prove you’re alone.”
Doing as she was told, she panned the room from her vantage point.
The monster still wasn’t satisfied. “Move around. I want to see the whole place.”
“You want to see the whole room?” She took a deep breath, hoping Jayce would race to the bedroom. He didn’t, so she began walking around the room, avoiding the back of the couch.
When she had finished, the caller growled. “That’s not the whole place. Let me see behind the furniture and in the kitchen. Under tables. Under beds. In closets…”
“Yeah, fine.” She turned toward the kitchen, hoping to get there without revealing the hiding spot behind the couch. She glanced back over her shoulder and was surprised to see a pile of pink clothes on the floor behind the couch but no Jayce.
She panned behind the couch and headed to the kitchen.
“I guess you’re a slob, leaving your clothes on the floor like that.” He laughed. Heard through the voice modulator, his laugh sounded absolutely evil.
“I was getting the laundry together,” she said, wondering the whole time where Jayce had gone and realizing he was now naked. Did he strip, go to her bedroom, and try to find something that fit? How? He didn’t have time. She was just relieved she hadn’t exposed her man to the asshole who had her mother.
Since when had she begun thinking of him as her man?
After she toured the kitchen, she had to show the caller the bathroom, pull back the shower curtain, open the linen closet, and finally expose the bedrooms—including the closets and under the beds. Where the heck did Jayce go?
“Okay. I guess maybe you’re alone. Now go back to the living room and point the camera at the door. I want to make sure no one tries to sneak in or out.”
When she returned to the living room, the pile of pink clothes were still on the floor, but they looked as though they stirred slightly. What the heck?
* * *
Jayce tried not to move a feather under the pink sweat suit now that Kristine was back in the living room. With his supernatural hearing, he was able to follow both sides of the conversation. Piecing things together, he figured that somebody had something precious to her, or she’d never agree to do whatever risky thing she was being asked to do.
This afternoon she had said something about her mother needing her. Did her mother’s well-being depend upon Kristine carrying out some nefarious mission? Fuck. That was it. Someone was probably holding her mother hostage until she met their demands.
She was receiving specific instructions. She was to go into the building she had scoped out earlier and find a law office on the thirteenth floor. There was a file the caller wanted retrieved before the secretary or PA had a chance to transfer some sensitive information into a computer. The file was to be delivered the following day. That meant Kristine had to break into the office, swipe the file, and—what’s that now? They want her to light it on fire—with her breath? Oh, come on. It couldn’t be that bad…
Shock passed over him as he realized they’d chosen her for a reason. She wasn’t a mere human firefighter. Could she be like Ryan’s Chloe? A dragon?
When at last Kristine was able to disconnect the call, she spoke loudly, “Jayce? Where are you?”
A full-grown naked man rising up from under the pile of pink clothes would be a shock, but she had some kind of secret too. He mulled over his choices for another second until he heard her coming toward him. Just as she lifted the sweatshirt, he rose to his full six-foot height.
“Jayce!”
He stood in front of her motionless and allowed her mind to adjust to what she had just seen.
“Wh—What are you?”
He crossed his arms and said, “I’ll tell you my secret if you tell me yours.”
She hesitated, but didn’t fall over in a dead faint. He had to give her credit for that.
She pointed at the now-flat pile of clothes on the floor and then lifted her hand, indicating his full-size body. “Obviously you must be a shapeshifter of some sort.”
“Uh-huh. And you are?”
She worried her lip. “Also a shapeshifter. I—I’m a dragon.”
Instead of the shocked reaction she probably expected, a slow smile spread across his face. “So is my sister-in-law.”
“Really?” She sounded like the shocked one.
“Yeah. The family just found out recently. It was actually a relief. Because of our secret, my brothers and I have the worst time finding open-minded women, but Ryan finally got lucky. Chloe’s a great girl, and when we learned she was actually a paranormal too—”
“Wait. Chloe and Ryan? Wasn’t he the brother you were burying?”
Jayce winced. “Have a seat. I’ll explain.”
Kristine gazed at him doubtfully.
“I can put on clothes, if that’s what’s distracting you—do you have anything that might fit me?”
She chuckled. “I think I can do better than pink sweats. Give me a second.”
While she was gone, he strolled around the apartment, staying away from the windows. It was a typical older layout. Not the open concept that renters preferred now, but a separate kitchen and dining area off the living room on one side, and a hall that must have led to bedrooms and baths on the other.
When Kristine returned from one of the back rooms, she produced an FDNY T-shirt that looked closer to his size than hers and a pair of matching navy-blue sweatpants.
As he put them on, he wondered who they had belonged to but didn’t have the heart to ask. Maybe she’d had as poor luck with men as he and his brothers had been having with most women.
He looked down at himself. “Perfect fit.”
“Keep them,” she said.
He smiled, trying to lighten the moment. “I might keep them on your roof, if you don’t mind. The garage where I left my clothes and cell phone wasn’t the best place, apparently.” He ambled over to the couch and sat in the middle of it.
“Oh. Your stuff was stolen?”
“Yeah. I guess that qualifies as an accident. I didn’t plan on it happening. I’ll explain.” He motioned her over, extending his arm for her to cuddle under. Happily, that’s just what she did.
Her warmth made sense now. All women were warm, eventually, but Kristine’s hands and feet were always warm. Most women’s were not. Some had feet that were like blocks of ice until they’d had time to warm up under the blankets—or on him.
Jayce turned her face toward him and leaned in for a long, hot kiss. She reciprocated for only a moment and then pushed him away and said, “Not now. I have a major dilemma, and I can’t be making out with you instead of handling it.”
With effort, he tamped down his lust. “Let me help you,” he said.
“You can’t. The only thing you can do is get me into more trouble.” She raked her hand through her shoulder-length reddish-blonde hair. “How much did you hear?”
“Everything.”
“Both sides of the conversation?”
“Yup.”
“So, I guess whatever kind of shifter you are comes with amplified hearing?” she asked.
“And eyesight and strength and speed…” In other words, he could help her. Not just get in the way. He hoped she’d see it that way. “And the icing on the cake? I’m almost immortal. My kind live to be about five hundred yea
rs old. If we die before we’re supposed to, we can become reincarnated in fire.”
“Fuck. Is that what happened to Chloe and Ryan?”
“Ryan, yes.”
“That’s handy… Well, not for me.” Her shoulders sagged. “I’m being forced to do something against my will to save my mother. We’re fireproof and hard to kill, but we’re not immortal.”
“Your mother’s a dragon too?”
“Yes. That doesn’t mean she’s not in danger. Are you going to be some kind of justice-obsessed vigilante who insists I not give in to their demands? Will you try to talk me into getting the police involved?”
“Not at all.”
She scrutinized him carefully. At last she let out a deep breath. “Good. They have my mother, and she must be immobilized somehow. I won’t do anything to put her at risk.”
He nodded. “I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do, but I can help. For one thing, I can fly.”
“So can I, but in this case it’s not a help. It’s what they want. Because I can get into the building with the fire department proximity card and then fly from the roof, they think I won’t get caught.”
Jayce laughed. When she scowled at him, he said, “They think a full-sized dragon flying around New York City won’t attract attention?”
She dropped her head into her hands. “I know. It’s insane. I’ve had it drummed into me that most humans would never handle the fact that paranormals live among them. Now these asshats not only know about it, they want to use it.”
“Who are these criminals you’re dealing with?”
“I don’t know.”
Jayce stayed quiet for a few minutes. He wanted to give her time to scan her memory for possibilities before he started throwing all kinds of shit out there. She rubbed her temples as if she had a headache. He pulled her into a hug, then rubbed slow circles over her back.
“Do you know for a fact that they have your mom?”
“Yes. They let her talk to me earlier. I mean, she only said ‘I’m okay’ and ‘do whatever they say,’ and her voice was kind of shaky, but I have to believe they’ll keep her alive until I do what they want. It’s after that…” Her voice became very soft. “I wish I knew how to make sure they’d let her go.”
“Maybe that’s where I can come in.”
She gazed up at him with hope. He didn’t know what the hell he could do. He just wanted to do something. He felt helpless sitting there, listening to her confusion. Although that was all he could do for now. He had to take this slowly so he didn’t spook her. “Do you know when this is going down?”
“Tomorrow, I think. They said there was something being delivered to an office tomorrow, and they want it before it has a chance to get scanned or retyped into a computer. I’m supposed to use my fire breath to burn the lawyer’s office and whatever else is around it. If it were just the one file that disappeared, that would throw suspicion on them.”
“Got it.” He rubbed her arms, and she seemed to relax a bit. As long as he didn’t try to tell her to do anything heroic, she’d probably be okay.
“So, what can I do to help?”
She stared at him. “Help? Nothing! If you show up at all, they’ll know I told someone, and my mother will be killed. You can’t help!”
“Relax,” he said. “They’ll never know I’m there. As far as anyone thinks, a bird is just a dumb bird. As long as I cover up my colored tail feathers with some dirt, they’ll tune me right out.”
“Won’t that interfere with your ability to fly?”
“I’m not a normal bird, remember? Even in our alternate form, we’re stronger.”
“I don’t know, Jayce. If you see something happening to me, can you resist shifting in order to help me? Or are you just going to peck someone to death?”
He chuckled. “I can do either or both. Just don’t ask me to watch someone hurt you and do nothing.”
She shot to her feet and walked to the door. “That’s what I thought.” Opening the front door, she said, “It’s time you went home—to Boston.”
“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. But he had to leave without a fight. The woman had enough to deal with until he could come back to her with a solution.
* * *
Jayce flew back to Boston without the help of an airplane. He had to call a family meeting right away. The trip took him about an hour and a half, and he was exhausted when he landed on his parents’ roof. He shifted and then opened the attic skylight and slipped inside. They kept a pile of clean clothing in a trunk for just this kind of emergency.
At last he was dressed and took the stairs two at a time, locating his mother in the living room. “How fast can we get everybody here?”
“What’s going on, dear?” Gabriella asked.
“It’s better if I tell everyone at once.”
His father ambled into the room. “Hey, Jayce. I thought you went on vacation. Aren’t you supposed to be in New York City?”
“I was, but something came up. I need to call a family meeting as soon as possible. Can you get everybody here right away?”
“I think we can reach everyone but Ryan. Let me start the phone tree and see what happens.” Antonio left the room, and Jayce imagined he was using the old kitchen wall phone. His father must have seen many changes in his seventy-five years, and maybe that’s why he resisted some of them.
“Mom? You knew I was going to New York to see a girl, right?”
Mama Fierro smiled. “I thought it was something like that. Is she okay? Are you? Is everything between the two of you all right?”
Jayce chuckled. “She’s fine, I’m fine, and everything between us is fine, but not everything is fine.”
Gabriella Fierro shook her head. “I don’t pretend to understand, but I imagine you’re going to tell us what that means.”
“Yes, when everyone’s together.”
His father came back into the living room and sat on the sofa. “Miguel and Sandra are calling the others. They’ll be here in a few minutes. Now what’s all this about?” He patted the spot next to him, and Mrs. Fierro sat next to her husband.
“I’d really rather just tell you all at the same time. It’s a long story, and I don’t want to go through it again and again.”
Confusion etched his father’s forehead. “Okay. What can you tell us that won’t need repeating?”
Jayce paced the length of the living room and back. “Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is I found a special woman, and she knows what I am. She’s not freaked out, but she needs my help, and I don’t know how to help her.”
His mother gasped. “She knows you’re a phoenix? Already?”
“Yeah. She has her own secret, but it isn’t mine to tell.”
“She’ll fit right in,” Gabriella said, smiling.
“It sounds like you’re getting distracted from what you really should be doing, Jayce,” his father said.
“What on earth are you talking about, dear?” Gabriella asked. “Did you hear what he said about finding a special woman? What could be more important than that?”
“Oh, I don’t know…maybe learning to lead this family? I still want to move to a warmer climate one of these days.”
Jayce tossed his hands in the air. “I don’t know what’s so hard about running the family. You’d think we’re the Mafia or something.”
His father rolled his eyes. “There are seven of you. And now two in-laws. How often are nine people going to agree? There has to be a head of household to keep the peace.”
Jayce was just about to disagree when a knock sounded. He strode to the door and opened it.
His second-younger brother, Gabe, stepped into the entryway. “What’s going on? I heard there was some kind of family emergency.” Gabe hurried into the living room, kissed his mother on the cheek, and
shook his father’s hand.
Jayce was about to close the door when another Fierro jogged up the steps of the South End brownstone. Noah straightened his arm to prevent the door from closing and pushed his way in.
“What’s going on?”
“Come in. I’ll tell you when everyone is here,” Jayce said. He turned to his father and asked, “Is Luca home?”
Antonio hit himself upside the head. “Luca! I knew I forgot one.” He stood up, walked over to the basement door, and then yelled downstairs, “Luca, get up here. Something important is going on—not that I know what it is.”
“Do you really need to bother Luca?” Gabriella asked. “He has to study for school. He’s having his finals soon.”
“When are you going to stop babying him?” Jayce and his father asked at the same time.
Gabriella straightened. “I am not babying him. I just want him to do well in school, and whatever is going on probably doesn’t have anything to do with him.”
“In other words, you’re babying him,” Jayce said.
A soft knock at the door was followed by Sandra and Miguel striding in. “What’s the big emergency?” Miguel asked.
“Is that everybody?” Antonio asked.
Gabriella narrowed her eyes. “We have one more son…Dante, remember?”
Mr. Fierro smirked. “I knew I was missing somebody else. You see, Jayce? There are so many of you it’s impossible to keep track. That’s why the family needs someone in charge.”
“And why that someone needs a wife,” Mrs. Fierro added.
“Dante will be here in a minute,” Noah said. “He’s just getting a girl’s phone number.”
“Oh good,” Gabriella said.
“Oh God,” the Fierro patriarch echoed. Then he turned to her and winked. She poked him in his big, meaty arm.
“Let’s gather around the dining room table,” Jayce said.
Gabriella jumped up. “Good idea. I have some tiramisu left from Sunday dinner, and I’ll make coffee. Sandra, would you set the table?”
“Sure.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Jayce said. He slung an arm around Noah and another around Gabe and walked them into the dining room. Luca was just pounding up the stairs to join them as Dante was the last to barrel through the front door.