by Meg Ripley
“I’m not going to kill my son.”
“Then I’ll do it,” Vincent stated, his tone chilling her to the bone.
“No. There’s another way. There’s got to be.”
“You of all people know better than that. What is this?”
“It’s Jason’s phone.”
“Are you aware that it’s—” The phone beeped twice, signaling the end of the call and Tandy pushed pause on the recording app.
“Sounds like a couple of counts of conspiracy to commit murder to me,” he said.
“Not to mention the kidnapping and the previous count of murder. What do we do?”
“I take this to a judge and get some warrants. We storm the castle as soon as we can coordinate with NYPD. In the meantime, you’re going to stay right here. I don’t want to worry about Vincent sending a few thugs for you—or coming back for you himself.”
“Let me help.”
“There is literally nothing you can do to help me except sit right here and do not get into any trouble. Please. We’re dealing with very dangerous people...dragons...creatures. I’m asking you to please just sit tight.”
“Fine,” Mary conceded, though everything inside of her wanted to push back. But what could she do in a murder investigation that involved dragons, besides get herself killed? She needed to stay alive so she could tell Jason just how sorry she was when Tandy brought him back.
****
The suite was massive, more suitable for an honored guest than a dishonored prisoner. He paced from one end to the other, looking for something—anything—that would aid his escape, but he might as well have been locked up in an Alcatraz cell. There was no other door or window, no phone, no vent, no sign of the outside world or ability to signal to it. He was probably deep in the earth, near the center of his father’s vast fortress. Above him would be the garden. He might even be directly under the pool where Vincent idled away so many hours.
At least Detective Tandy knew where he was. If anybody should miss him or wonder about his disappearance, at least Tandy could tell them his last known whereabouts. He was really only thinking about what would happen if Mary tried to reach him and he never responded—just the thought of her potentially being worried about him raised his spirits considerably. It never occurred to him that Tandy might show up to rescue him. How would he ever get past the front door, much less find his way into the belly of the labyrinth? How would he ever compel Damian or overpower his will? It couldn’t be done and he had no expectation that Tandy would try.
Hours after his incarceration began, the door slid open and Vincent stepped inside.
“So, I was saying to the old man that we need to tie up all the loose ends. The girl. The detective. You. And he said, no, he doesn’t want to kill his ‘idiot son.’ He still has sentiment for you, I guess. I’m trying to tell him to look at the bigger picture, and what do I find sitting right there on the desk?” He revealed Jason’s phone—considerably more cracked and broken than the last time Jason saw it. “In the middle of a call. A long call. It had already been going on for like six hours. Now your father doesn’t feel so sentimental.”
“So, you’ve been sent to kill me? You’re my friend, Vincent.”
“Friend? Friend? After I find this, you have the audacity to call yourself my friend? You came here today to try to make me incriminate myself and that’s what you say to me?”
“I was trying to exonerate you!”
“Exonerate me? The police wouldn’t even know to look my direction if you hadn’t told them. What part of secret society do you not understand? It’s for our own benefit! For the safety of our kind.”
“I’m not the one who put our kind at risk. You are the one who indulged in that old man’s fantasies. You are the one who made him life-like replicas of dragons. And you’re the one who killed him. As a dragon! Good god, man, if you had to murder him, why not shoot him? Or poison him? Or anything but going at him in full-on dragon attack mode!”
Vincent bowed his head slightly. “Point taken. You’re right. I made an error in judgement. It was not premeditated. I didn’t go to his house with the intention of killing the man. I did consider him a friend.”
“Then what happened?”
“Neil had a very...irritating personality flaw. He couldn’t leave well enough alone. Perhaps I had been too indulgent with him over the years. I thought I was just humoring the fancy of a delightful old eccentric. But he got it in his head that maybe I knew more than I let on. Maybe I was even a dragon myself. And maybe he could get a glimpse of the truth if he tried hard enough.”
“What did he do? Goad you into turning and killing him?”
“I could withstand his words. What I could not withstand was the Dragon’s Tongue he put in my tea. Did you know at large enough quantities, it really does reveal a dragon? I don’t know if he knew it would work. He seemed quite shocked. Hell, I always thought that was a myth, myself.”
“And you just killed him right there?”
“Well, I had to, didn’t I? After all, not only did he have irrefutable proof of our existence, but he’d finally figured out the dosage to force us to reveal ourselves. Who knows how many times he attempted to poison me before he finally hit on the amount that would make me shift. At least he figured that out before he found the lethal dosage. But oh, you couldn’t do it, could you?”
“Kill a man in cold blood? No, I couldn’t.”
“It wasn’t cold blood,” Vincent snapped. “That’s the point. My blood was running hot and I reacted on instinct. The very instinct that has preserved our kind for thousands of years. The instinct you lack. Imagine if everybody were like you. We’d all be dead.”
“Do you really think that our friends, neighbors and coworkers would want to kill us all without exception?” Jason shook his head. “Look, I’m not saying we should hold a press conference, but you might as well call one if you go ahead with this plan. Killing me is not going to make all of this go away.”
“You’re right. It only starts with you,” he said, pulling a gun from his jacket pocket.
“Oh, right. The girl and the detective,” Jason spat. “You think Mary won’t be missed? You think a detective who mysteriously disappears during a high-profile case won’t be noticed? It’s a vicious cycle, Vincent, and it won’t end well for you. Think about it. You’re a loose end, too.”
His impassive mask flickered, and Jason realized he was getting through to the other man for the first time. Of course. He should have appealed to Vincent’s immediate self-interest from the start.
“The ultimate loose end,” Jason continued. “Not only the man guilty of the original crime, but the one who very nearly allowed a human to destroy my father’s entire empire. You let Simmons get that close to you, revealed our secrets, and left an actual scale at the scene of the crime. Hell, compared to you, I’m a fucking hero. And knowing my father, he’s already figured this out.”
“I guess you’re not such an idiot after all,” Damian said, stepping into the room, the gun in his hand pointed at Vincent’s head. “Put down your gun, Vincent.”
“What are you talking about?” Vincent shouted, his eyes darting around the room, his face flushing with anger. “We had a deal.”
“We had a deal for my son’s life? You must be delusional.” As Damian spoke, Jason slipped past him and into the hallway. “Stay here, Vincent. Think about your future.”
“If you think I’m going to let you hand me over to that cop—”
“No one is going to hand you over. You’ll be subject to the Ancient Law.”
Maybe Vincent was too enraged to hear Damian’s promise. Maybe he didn’t believe him or didn’t care to be subject to the primal court. Maybe he’d already made up his mind before Damian said a word. Jason sensed his intention to move before he saw it and shouted his warning, darting forward in an unconscious effort to put his body between his father and the inevitable bullet.
Both guns fired, the reports instantaneous.
It was the last thing Jason heard before everything went black.
****
As Jason awoke, he was surprised to discover that he felt good. Not just good. Great. Really great. Somewhere between warm and floating, his head far away from the pain saturating his right side. The pain didn’t even feel real. It was just heat and heat wasn’t so bad. Not when things felt this good.
“Jason? Are you awake?”
He lolled his head to the left and smiled at the pretty lady. The prettiest lady he’s ever seen. Mary, his groggy mind provided. But that couldn’t be because she thought he was a lying piece of trash. The memory obliterated the morphine high and he suddenly crashed back into his body, where the pain in his ribs was real, and the memory of her anger was still very raw.
“Hey, are you okay? Are you in pain? I’ll call the nurse.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Mary? What are you doing here?”
“Tandy brought me while you were in surgery. They let me sit with you, in case you woke up.”
“But why?”
“Because I’m so, so sorry Jason. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I’m sorry for what I said and I’m sorry you got shot.”
“No, you’re fine,” Jason said, so relieved that he was alive and that Mary was with him that nothing else mattered.
“No, that wasn’t fine. That wasn’t fine at all.”
“Mary, you had your reasons. I accept your apology but really, you’re fine.”
“I was...so scared when we realized your own father was holding you and how much danger you were in.”
“My father...where is he?”
“Tandy has him.”
“Tandy?” Jason sat up. “Call him. Get him on the phone right now.”
“Jason, you need to rest. You can talk to him in the morning.”
“No, if he has my father in custody, I want to talk to him now. I was never in any danger from my father. He was just trying to get Vincent cornered.”
“But he shot you!” Mary protested.
“If the bullet that hit me came from his gun, it was my own fault. I saw Vincent shoot and I was trying to protect him.”
“You jumped in front of your father?”
“Yes. He didn’t do anything wrong. Please, get Tandy on the phone.”
Jason was already feeling woozy and tired, but he held himself up until Mary pressed the phone to his ear.
“Is he awake yet?” Tandy asked, cutting straight to the chase.
“I am. Is my father with you?”
“He’s cooling his heels in an interrogation room.”
“Let him go.”
“Excuse me?”
“Let him go,” Jason repeated. “He’s not guilty of any crimes. Release him, apologize for wasting his time, and let him go home.”
“I don’t know who you think you are, Mr. Cross, but that’s not how it works. We’re looking at charges of kidnapping, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit two more counts of murder, and god knows what else.”
“No, you’re not. He didn’t kidnap me, or try to murder me, and there was no conspiracy. He was trying to out the actual guilty party. Bring him to the hospital and I’ll tell you everything.” He disconnected the call and fell back against the pillows, the world wavering around him. “I’m going to pass out now. Thank you for waiting. You’re the best thing I ever saw.”
****
Jason was allowed to go home three days after he woke up, his nurses and attending physician shocked by the speed of his recovery. His scar was barely visible, and there had been no infection or complication. He was ready to get right back to work, but Damian insisted he take a small vacation, no doubt so he could continue to manage the damage control. There would be no trial due to Vincent’s death, but that was a mess within the Darkblood Society. One Jason was happy to avoid.
He thought about Mary often, and in hindsight, her hospital visit felt like a dream. It probably was a dream. What were the chances she’d be there so conveniently to tell him everything he ever wanted to hear? It was unlikely, at best. At any rate, she never returned, and since his phone was broken, he didn’t have her number. He considered driving to her bar, but if his vision of her had been nothing more than that, then he wanted to respect her wishes and not contact her.
But he really missed the sound of her voice.
He missed it so much that he thought he was hearing things when he heard it outside his office door a week after he returned to work.
“No, I don’t have an appointment. I didn’t realize one was necessary. Is he really that busy in there?”
Jason shot up from his desk and hurried to the door. “It’s fine, thanks, Frankie. Come on in, Ms. Simmons.” He shut the door and added, “It’s great to see you.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”
“I don’t know. You weren’t answering any of my calls and I couldn’t get a hold of you here.”
“Your calls? My phone got busted that night. I got a new one and I didn’t have your number.”
“Oh. Oh, is that all? I thought...I thought I really blew it.”
Jason swallowed. “No. I wanted to come and see you, but I wasn’t sure if it was just a dream. It seemed like it.”
“They released my father’s body since the case was closed. I had the funeral and—”
Jason cut her explanation off with a gentle kiss. She moaned and parted her lips, the tip of her tongue glancing over his. The delicate touch sent a shock through him, and his arms tightened around her, his chest and groin both throbbing. She returned his embrace, her body fitting so wonderfully against his. Their tongues became more bold, their hands exploratory, each of them searching for skin, absorbing heat, raising goosebumps. They both came to the same conclusion at the same time, working together to tear away the barrier of their clothes.
He fell backward into the nearest chair, pulling her onto his lap. The position was perfect, giving him the best view of her gorgeous body as she positioned his hard cock between her thighs. He sought out her sweet, velvet heat, thrusting his hips forward, and she shifted to meet him, guiding him deeper and deeper.
With her hands on his shoulders, she met his gaze and began rotating her hips, grinding down on his dick, her juices making him slick, coating him from the tip to his balls. She groaned with each rotation, her muscles clenching around him, pulsing and fluttering, driving him crazy. His hands slid over her hips and up the curve of her back, then over her breasts. He cupped them with gentle pressure, teasing the nipples until they were hard and throbbing. With a moan, she cupped the back of his head, guiding his mouth to one pebbled peak. His tongue darted out, rolling over her skin before tugging the nub between his teeth. She keened her approval, arching her back and driving her hips down.
The more pressure he put on her nipple, the harder she fucked him, her nails raking over his shoulders and down his arms, her shouts getting louder and louder. He was sure everybody on the floor knew exactly what they were doing, but he really didn’t care. Nothing sounded as good as her shouts of pleasure, nothing felt as good as her body clenching around him, holding him down, taking and giving everything she could, everything she had.
His other hand slid between their bodies, finding her engorged clit. He pressed his finger to the throbbing flesh, moaning her name as he felt the first constriction of her impending orgasm. Lights flashed behind his eyes, and he pulled his tongue from her nipple, lifting his head to find her mouth. He kissed her hungrily, with the full force of his desire, his hunger, and his love. He did love her. From the moment he saw her outside his door, he knew it for a fact.
She broke apart, shouting his name as she shattered in his arms, which obliterated the last of his self-control. His cock jerked deep inside of her, and all he could do was hold her as he shuddered through the waves of pleasure.
“Oh, I missed you,” he sighed.
“I missed you, too. And I have something for you.”
“Something else?”
“Yes. I really can’t wait to show you.”
“Do I have to let you go?”
“I need my briefcase. I’ll be right back.”
With a sigh, he reluctantly released her. She crossed the room to where she’d discarded her brief case, pulled out a folio and returned to his lap, exactly as she promised.
“I had a friend of mine draw these up. They’re just suggestions. I’m not saying we have to go with any of them but I thought you might be interested, and well, here.”
At first, he didn’t quite understand what he was seeing. And then he didn’t quite believe it. It was Adventure Isle—now Dragon Isle—and each page held a new design; all taken from his original ideas, but expanded and perfected. The new rides, the Reptile House, the concert venue and park were all brightly, beautifully illustrated.
“What do you think?” she asked once he reached the last page.
“I think that’s a damn fine park. But I thought you weren’t interested in that market?”
“I want to honor my father’s memory and build the amusement park of his dreams. Will you help me?”
“It would be my honor. In the meantime, can I take you out to dinner?”
“What about round two?”
“Let’s eat and then we can have rounds two through eight.”
Mary grinned. “That’s what I like about you. You always have really good ideas.”
He kissed a line down her neck. “Is that all you like about me?”
She sighed, her head dropping back. “Among other things.”
“I could spend hours telling you about what I love about you.”
“Oh good. We’ll have something to talk about during dinner.”
Jason laughed and pulled her closer. During dinner, and then, for the rest of their lives.
THE END
Werewolf Baby Daddy
Sera Simpson’s fears become a reality when she learns that her sister Aiza has perished in a tragic accident. The case is quickly closed, but Sera’s instincts tell her that there is more to her sister’s untimely demise than meets the eye.