Titanium (Amber trilogy Book 2)

by Hati Bell

  He was almost relieved when his phone beeped. When he swiped the screen and read the message, it was as if someone had poured hot water over him.

  If you want to see the dryad alive, come to the factory in Exmoor. Alone.

  He didn’t recognize the number, but he could guess who the message came from. Knowing that Ravi didn’t bluff, he rushed to his car. Several scenarios went through his mind as he drove to the factory. He understood why Ravi had targeted Amber. His anger and hate went deep and Amber was the perfect way to hit him where it hurt. What he couldn’t figure out was Ravi’s endgame. He might be a vindictive hothead, but he was a smart one. He had to know that Drake would retaliate should he harm her. Then there was Lancaster. He wouldn’t let Ravi get away with harming a hair on her head. The more he pondered Ravi’s endgame, the less sense it made. Obviously he was missing a piece of the puzzle, which filled him with dread.

  He parked his car next to the broken, iron front gate of the rundown factory. He got out and ran over a path that had broken glass scattered all over it. His heart was in his throat and he kept his dragon side in check with great difficulty. Ravi would consider it a declaration of war if he stormed inside with his claws.

  The end of the hallway was lit by a single light bulb, as if it was left burning solely for him. He rushed through the corridor, and ended up in a large hall with a broken-down floor housing a production line.

  Ravi awaited him in the middle of the huge hall, sitting backwards on a chair. A knife dangled in his hand. Amber stood behind him, tied to a radiator, her back against a wall. She looked a bit groggy, but otherwise fine.

  Rage consumed him when he saw the fingerprints marring her throat. He instinctively knew Ravi was responsible for them. He looked away from him, trying to rein in his anger. This was not the time to lose his fucking control.

  “It might take a while before your little love can move again.” Ravi broke the silence, a smirk on his face.

  Amber’s face softened when she saw him. “I tried to call Matteo, but I don’t know where we are,” she said.

  Her words made him realize that, in his panic to get to her in time, he’d made a mistake. Not telling anyone what was going on was plain stupid. Shit.

  “She’s got nothing to do with this, Ravi. I came, like you asked. Let her go.”

  Ravi shot up from his seat, the knuckles around the knife white. “She has everything to do with this,” he snarled. “She stands for what you’re willing to do for the people you give a damn about. People I thought I was a part of, but I was wrong, wasn’t I?”

  Shit, shit, and double shit. Ravi was like a loose cannon looking ready to blow. “What do you want, Ravi?”

  “This isn’t about what I want.”

  A shiver went down Drake’s spine when the rage on Ravi’s face turned into a smirk. And he knew, just knew, that his old friend hadn’t shown all his cards yet. Bloody hell.

  Ravi pointed his knife to a door at the back. The door opened with a creak and a man stepped inside. His footsteps made a hollow sound against the worn floorboards as he crossed the room.

  Drake couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Malcolm appear in his tweed jacket, carrying a briefcase, and holding a rolled-up piece of paper in his hand. He felt oddly betrayed. He’d expected his aunt to stab him in the back, but in doing so, to face him herself instead of sending her husband as an errand boy. At the same time, a calm peace settled over him. Whatever it was that had made Ravi kidnap Amber, it wasn’t personal. Not if he had joined forces with Malcolm. Drake would rather deal with his aunt doing this out of anger, or whatever other pent-up emotion she held against him, than with someone out to destroy him.

  Malcolm carefully stepped over pieces of glass until he had reached Ravi’s side. He eyed the run-down factory with his nose scrunched, until his gaze landed on Drake. “Finally, you are exactly where you belong, bastard. Kincaid may think you are the future of his family, but I’ve always known you were rubbish. Worthless, just as your alcoholic father was. My son is the future of the Kincaid empire, not some mongrel that came crawling out of the slums.”

  A part of the tension left Drake’s body when he understood that Kincaid wasn’t behind the kidnapping. He internally shook his head. The poodle actually believed he was a pitbull. “This isn’t going to end well for you.”

  Malcolm put down his briefcase and took out a pen from his inside pocket. “You would do well to keep your threats to yourself. I’m the one holding all the cards here. I must admit I’ve had some setbacks, mostly because of incompetent hired help, but luckily I’m a patient man.”

  And there were the puzzle pieces he’d been missing. “You’re the one who hired Smith to kidnap Amber from the hospital.”

  “Very good,” Malcolm admitted, his voice condescending.

  “Where’s Aunt Liz? No Clyde without a Bonnie, right?”

  Malcolm pulled up his lip in a snarl. “Liz is enjoying a cup of tea dosed with Valium. Just as she’s been doing for the past few months. The time that bitch had any say over my life is over.”

  Apparently Malcolm was flying solo. Who would’ve thought he’d have the balls for that?

  “She truly believed she could just change my son’s surname into Kincaid. As if I would ever allow that! Henry is a Fitch!”

  Drake pulled a face. “A Fitch? No wonder she refused to carry your name, man. Fitch. Bitch. Snitch.”

  “You arrogant piece of shit!” Malcolm’s nostrils flared as he turned crimson.

  For a second there Drake caught a glimpse of the old Ravi, when he saw his lips twitch.

  “Why don’t you just tell me what you want, so we can wrap this up?”

  Malcolm rolled out the piece of paper he held in his hand and snapped it against his thigh. “You have something I want and I have something you want,” he claimed. “It took a while before I got my hands on the girl, since she seemed to be surrounded by phoenixes at all time. Then you had a fight and for a moment there I feared you wouldn’t come for her.”

  “He would’ve come,” Ravi assured him. “The idiot loves her.”

  There it was. The reason that had made Ravi work together with Malcolm. He wasn’t in it for just the money he would receive from Malcolm. It would be smarter to deny Ravi’s words, but when had he ever used his brains around her? “Yeah, I would have come for her. Always,” Drake admitted.

  A light appeared in Ravi’s eyes. He took the piece of paper Malcolm handed over to him and chuckled. “Afraid to approach the beast yourself, Fitch?” he taunted.

  “From the day this bastard came into our lives, he’s been nothing but trouble,” Malcolm claimed. “I blame Ariana Kincaid’s poor mental state for it. Had she been sane, she would have never left the Dome and her millions to this bastard. I also blame Kincaid. I expected him to prevent it. Surely an alpha dragon like him wouldn’t allow his own house to come into the hands of the grandson he had rejected? I waited for Kincaid to come to his senses, but he just went along with Ariana’s will. If I hadn’t known that her grave was empty, I would have spat on it.” He pulled out a pen from his pocket and gave it to Ravi, his eyes on Drake. “Sign this agreement to hand over your inheritance, and you and the girl can leave unharmed.”

  “No, Drake!”

  Drake kept his eyes on Ravi as he exchanged his knife with Malcolm for the paper and pen, ignoring Amber's outcry. Ravi walked towards him, pushing the stuff into his hands.

  “Please do sign every page, brother,” he snarled.

  “Don’t you dare sign it!” Amber yelled. He looked into her beautiful eyes and saw her swallow, trying to hide her fear from him. “Let him stab me. I will come back.”

  Really? He rolled his eyes. “I don’t think so, love.”

  “Don’t pretend like handing over your inheritance means nothing to you,” she said, sounding peeved.

  Malcolm pushed the knife against her throat. “Shut your mouth.”

  Drake quickly scanned the contract. He smiled when he
read that he rejected his inheritance on the day he turned twenty-one, because he wanted nothing to do with Kincaid. Moreover, according to the contract he handed everything over to his cousin Henry when he turned twenty-five. Until he reached that age, Malcolm would be handling the fortune that came with the inheritance. He didn’t hesitate when he signed it, giving her a look.

  “Do you really think this piece of paper means more to me than your life?”

  Malcolm snorted. “If you think you can challenge that piece of paper, as you call it, you are mistaken. It is written by the best lawyers money can buy. There’s no going back once you’ve signed it.”

  “So be it.” It would be fruitless to tell Malcolm that Kincaid was going to destroy him. His grandfather might not do a damn to return Drake’s inheritance that should have rightfully been his, but he wouldn’t allow Malcolm to get his claws on it either. Malcolm had just sealed his own fate.

  There was just one thing left Drake wanted to know. “Are we done now, Ravi? Please tell me we are, old friend. Tell me I won’t have a reason to come after you.”

  Ravi shook his head. “This is merely the first step. In a way, I perhaps should be grateful to you. You taught me to never depend on anyone. See, in the beginning, when they burned the flesh from my bones, I still believed you’d find me. That you would pull me out of that hellhole. As the days turned into weeks and then months, I figured that you couldn’t find me. I made up so many excuses why you’d left me there. You couldn’t find me; you couldn’t get inside; you were dead.” His eyes went to Amber. “Then I discovered the real reason why you had left me there. I always believed you were a mighty dragon, but you are nothing more than a bug. I’m here to pull out your legs piece by piece until there’s nothing left of you.”

  “As fascinating as that sounds, Sengupta,” Malcolm interrupted Ravi’s rant, “could you two fight about this later? I have an empire to claim.”

  Ravi snatched the contract from Drake’s hand and gave it to Malcolm in exchange for the briefcase. Without exchanging another word, the two left through the same back door.

  The minute they had gone, he went over to Amber, freeing her from the radiator and taking her in his arms. He cocked an eyebrow when he saw the smile on her face. Shit, was she having a shock reaction? “You okay?”

  “I am so relieved,” she exhaled. “When I came to, it was as if I woke up in a tomb. A tomb! When I opened my eyes, and felt my back pressed to a cold surface, all I saw was the concrete ceiling.”

  Her reaction finally began to make sense. “Your vision.”

  “I did it, Drake. No, we did it. We thwarted the vision of me being buried alive.” She took a deep breath. “I’m free. I’m finally free of the black cloud hovering over me.” Then her smile changed into a frown. “I’m so sorry you lost everything because of me.”

  He played with her long strands of hair. “You can’t lose what you never had.”

  “But…”

  “No buts. Wouldn’t you have done the same for me?”

  “Of course, but—”

  “No buts,” he repeated. “We’re a team, right?”

  Her eyes turned soft. “We are. I’m sorry I didn’t realize it before and…”

  “No regrets.” He pressed a kiss on top of her head. “I must confess that this wasn’t the way I pictured us getting back together. Speaking of confessions… Jade…” He shook his head. “She doesn’t even exist for me. Doesn’t even register on my radar. Yeah, she tried to get closer in the past year, but I wasn’t interested. Never gave her a reason to think I was, either. That night at the Oasis, when it hit me that you could’ve died and you were so casual about it, something inside me broke. I wanted you to feel a fraction of my pain. So I kept my mouth shut about Jade, letting you think something was going on between us. It was a shitty thing to do. I’m sorry, love.”

  A blush appeared on her cheeks, making her all the more beautiful to him. “Since we’re confessing stupid stuff… um, you were wrong earlier.”

  “About what?”

  “Your theory about me bursting into flames whenever I kiss a man. I kissed Logan and nothing happened.” She sounded elated. “I practically had to force him into it,” she quickly added.

  “Somehow I doubt that,” he said, feeling like punching his brother in the face.

  “Logan is an excellent kisser,” she continued, making him plot Logan’s demise, “but I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t burn at all. Not even a single spark. Not like when I kiss you. I think I know why that is.”

  Drake also believed he knew the reason. It was the same feeling he had whenever he saw her, a feeling that he literally could not put into words. Once again he cursed the fact that he had made a dragon promise to his grandfather. A promise to never speak those three words. Words he’d thought he would never want to use anyway. “Amber, I…” The burning sensation in his throat stopped him from finishing his sentence.

  She put her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss. “I don’t need to hear the words. They’re not what makes it what it is. I’m sorry I didn’t realize this sooner. I’m sorry I blamed you for not telling me something that, deep in my heart, I already knew, and will never doubt again. And since you’re for some reason not able to say the words, I will speak for both of us. I love you, Drake Kincaid. And there’s not a force in this world that can change how I feel about you.”

  The words burned in his throat, stayed etched into his soul, caught in the cage of his heart, but all he could say was: “I feel the same.” He pressed his forehead to Amber’s. “I’m sorry Malcolm used you to get to me. Ravi considers you my weakness. Maybe he’s right; maybe not. All I know is that I’ve never felt so strong and alive as when I’m with you. Yeah, I’ve got something to lose now, but I have even more to live for.”

  “I feel the same,” she repeated his words.

  “Promise me something.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’ve learned my lesson. I’m not going to set foot in the White Shark by myself again.”

  “Not good enough, love. Should you see Ravi again, walk the other way. No hesitation, no trepidation, just walk the other way. Call out to Matteo in warning and get out. It may take a while before I’ve dealt with Ravi and I don’t ever want you to get involved in my mess again.” It was time to take off the kid gloves. Somerset wasn’t big enough for both of them.

  She fidgeted in his lap and looked at him with her eyes pained. “I’ve had a vision about Ravi. There was a maze of caves, dark towers surrounded by barbed wire, and some sort of arena like the Colosseum. The worst however were the swarm of rats, crawling over the rooster Ravi was locked underneath. Trust me when I tell you that whatever awaits him is far worse than what you could do to him.”

  Drake thought about the blood he had shed at Turnpike. The way he had lost himself in his desire to avenge Amber. Would he be capable of tearing his former best friend, his mentor, into pieces to keep her safe? Absolutely. Still, he was relieved that apparently he wasn’t going to be the one doing it. It sounded like Ravi was going to make a trip to hell all by himself.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  It was amazing what a good night of rest, free from horrifying visions, could do for one’s disposition. Amber could finally move on with her life without having to continuously watch over her shoulder. The only black dot on the horizon was Drake losing his inheritance. Malcolm hadn’t wasted any time in ordering his lawyers to start a procedure to remove Drake and his grandfather from the Dome on the day Drake turned twenty-one, which would be in a few weeks. He’d told her to let it go, but she couldn’t help but feel responsible. It was something she would ponder about later because tonight was a time for tasting samples of wedding cakes and planning Cally and Benn’s wedding, all while sitting leisurely in a patio chair and sipping wine in the back yard.

  Amber put her empty plate and glass on the garden table. “So far I like the raspberry vanilla cake the best,” she said and she eyed the chocolate one.

 
Faey lay a few feet away on a mat on the grass, doing push-ups. So far she had refused to taste anything, pretending not to care about weddings in particular.

  “Thanks again for letting us use your house for the wedding,” Cally said. She sat next to Benn, who mumbled some thanks as well, while he shoveled cake into his mouth.

  “I’m happy to help,” Matteo said, as he searched for his glass of wine on the overly stuffed table. The table was stacked with piles of china, a small mountain of veils in every color of the rainbow, a pair of flutes, a drum, and—last but not least—an actual sword with a curved blade. “Whatever is mine is my promesi’s.”

  Amber still marveled at that. Matteo might be clueless at times when it came to human affairs and have a bit of an inflated ego about everything phoenix, but he truly meant what he said. Though she still had to get used to the fact that she was now basically living with a millionaire who’d practically handed her a blank check to do with as she pleased. She found it weird, but was thankful for it at the same time. It gave her the time to figure out what she wanted to do with her new life without having to worry about how to keep a roof over her head.

  “I’m starting to regret setting this up,” Logan complained as he shoved away his plate and tried to find his glass. “How much stuff are you going to keep piling up on top of the table, Benny?”

  Amber had found out that Logan had struck a deal with Matteo. He’d called in his favor for helping Benedict out, which meant that Matteo would pay for the catering of Benn’s wedding. Ever since, Benedict had been trying to stuff Logan full of pastry.

  “It’s just some ideas for the theme-wedding I had in mind,” Benedict explained. He had offered to be their wedding planner. Though ‘offered’ was more of an euphemism; he’d more announced it as a done deal. “I’m thinking belly dancers, acrobats, and baklava. Mountains and mountains of baklava.”

  “Dude, I’m no Aladdin,” Benn protested.