Jack felt like the breath was leaving in his body and he was a little dizzy now as he cradled Lucy’s chin in his hands. “You think I want this to be over?” He said, his voice cracking a little. “I only just found you.”
“Jack-”
Jack cut her off with a kiss, tugging her close as his lips met hers. The egg was an awkward lump between them and he shifted around, trying to hold her tight as she moved the messenger bag around while unwilling to break contact. He chuckled into her mouth and pulled away before resting his forehead against hers.
“Kids, huh?” Jack said, stroking her cheek.
“They’re so much trouble,” Lucy said. She grinned at him, biting her lip. She looked so happy as she stared up at him. He couldn’t quite comprehend that he could be this lucky and a sense of urgency overtook him.
He had everything he’d ever wanted now. It was his for the taking. All the money and all the success and the big tower with his name on it that had once seemed so important now seemed like so little to ask for next to a mate who he loved who would love him back and a child to care for, to pour yet more love into.
If anything ever threatened that…
Jack kissed Lucy once more, her lips warm and soft and wanting. He felt the fire of his dragon within him, a sense of rage filling him that anyone would ever so much as dare to threaten his mate and his kin.
“I’m going to keep you safe, Lucy,” Jack whispered, his thumb brushing her cheek, the scent of her filling him. There was nothing like a mate’s scent, he thought. His father had told him as much once after some whiskey. He’d told Jack how a mate’s scent filled you with desire, contentment, satisfaction and possessiveness all at once. Now he understood. “Then we’re going to be together for just as long you’ll have me.”
“You should know,” she said, pulling back and looking at him with a sparkle in her eye. “Once I get a hold of something, I’m not about to let it go.”
He growled under his breath and licked into her mouth, nibbling on her lip until she moaned. “Neither am I.”
Jack’s phone buzzed in his pocket. Their car had arrived. He took a quick look around and said, “C’mon. Let’s get to my place.”
“Then what?” Lucy asked.
That’s a good question really, Jack thought.
He couldn’t just keep Lucy and the egg locked away forever. They had to be dealt with sooner or later. He wasn’t exactly eager to deal with Sean’s killers. It wasn’t for any fear of confronting them. On the contrary, he was afraid of his own wrath.
Jack had been in fights before. He’d had his moment of being filled with the fiery rage of the dragon that could burn down entire cities. But nothing had ever gotten too serious. He’d punched guys out if he thought they deserved it. He’d fought in defense of himself. It hadn’t happened much since his younger years. But he’d defended a cocktail waitress or two from some letch, only to have to throw some money at them so they wouldn’t press charges. It all kind of went with the territory.
But this was different. This was about Sean’s killer. These were the people who had killed his oldest friend and were now threatening the lives of his mate and the orphan he’d adopted. If he met them in a fight, he wouldn’t leave them alive. It wasn’t that they even mattered to him. He’d be more than happy to see them dead. But he’d never killed anyone before. He wasn’t exactly eager to do it. But if something happened, and it came down to it, they would be dead or he would. Of that, he was sure.
Unfortunately, he would not be able to avoid a confrontation forever.
“Then I’ll find them,” he finally said quietly, once the two of them had ducked into that car that was waiting and now crawled down the strip to Jack’s Joker. “And this will be over,” he added darkly.
15
Delilah
Jack and Lucy had been looking out for gangsters, but they hadn’t been looking out for a petite, dark haired young woman all in black. Delilah had watched Lucy make her escape from the mansion and then she’d hightailed it over to The Four of Clubs, her Oracle device having hacked Lucy’s phone to see where she was off to. When Oracle was actually working, it was quite helpful.
She’d watched Jack and Lucy’s sweet reunion and their mutual confessions that they wanted to stay together even after the danger had passed.
Delilah had stood on the busy sidewalk as tourists rushed by with their gigantic cocktails and raised her fist in triumph under the flashing neon lights of The Four of Clubs.
The targets were in love! They were a whole little family now. They were even kind of cute with their little egg, as much as Delilah didn’t like to admit to such a thought. The thing was about to hatch any second, according to the Oracle. That was something they didn’t know.
They also had to deal with the gangsters.
Delilah watched them pile into the car that then crept down the strip and slowly lowered her triumphant fists. She’d gotten Lucy away from the killers, sure. But that was only a temporary solution. She needed to force a confrontation between Jack and the gangsters. The problem being that it would inevitably put Lucy and the egg in danger. If danger was coming, Jack was going to be there to protect them.
“Why do I care?” Delilah asked herself, clapping her hands to her head.
It was fine to want to complete the mission because that what she’d been charged to do. Completing the mission successfully meant she was another step closer to redemption for her sinful deeds back in her human life. But she cared beyond that. If she was honest with herself, it was starting to become a habit.
How annoying.
It was even more annoying that she couldn’t just go kill the gangsters herself. The thought of killing anyone was not particularly enticing, even if it had been an option. She couldn’t even scare them off. That would also be too invasive a move for an Angelic Agent.
No, she thought. She needed to force a confrontation between the gangsters and Jack.
But the only solution she could see seemed too crazy to be acceptable to someone who was trying to do good. It was perhaps even crazier than setting up a love interest to be kidnapped by the other.
“Delilah?” Katz appeared. He was looking wry as usual, smirking at her as he stood there on the sidewalk, a cocktail already in his hand, having appeared out of thin air. He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt that said: “I Love Vegas.” “What are you doing?”
“Hi!” Delilah said. Her heart gave a little leap so violent that she clutched her chest, clearing her throat. “Hi. Katz. Hi. Hello!”
“Hello?” Katz looked at her like she might be crazy. Perhaps she was, she thought. But it was more a problem of having had three of those orange creamsicle drinks in the giant cups and not being able to hold her booze any better than she had as a human. “How’s the mission going?”
“They’re in love!” Delilah said, bouncing on her toes.
“Very good,” Katz said, nodding. “And what about their lives being in danger due to the mob being after them…?”
“I’m...working on it,” Delilah told him, sighing.
It was at least not a problem of not knowing who the villain was. Oracle, on a good day, was entirely omniscient.
“Remember how I said this was an unconventional case?” Katz, narrowed his eyes. Delilah sort of hated it when Katz narrowed his eyes. She liked it better when he was jokey and fun...which tended to happen at the end of a mission unless it was going particularly well. She’d thought this mission had been going quite well. But Katz looked too serious, as if there was something she was missing. It put her on edge.
She wished she had another one of those orange creamsicle drinks. She could use something to take that edge right off.
“Yes…” Delilah narrowed her eyes right back at him and he gripped her shoulders. She ignored the resulting flip of her stomach.
It wasn’t that she had a crush on Katz per se. It was just that he was quite attractive. Sometimes she thought his inherently angelic nature gave him some
kind of glow or halo that made him more beautiful than he would be otherwise. Other times, she thought he was just plain beautiful and would be so even if he were perfectly human. She blinked up at him and tried not to get distracted by his kind, brown eyes and the sharp curve of his jawline.
“Well, you took a good calculated risk in setting up that kidnapping,” Katz told her softly, as the chaos of Vegas swirled around them. “I think you may need to take another calculated risk on this one. Even if it feels crazy.”
“Last mission, you made it sound like I was going to be in huge trouble if I saved my targets’ lives too intrusively,” Delilah pointed out. “This time I feel like you’re actually asking me to put them in danger.”
“Listen,” Katz said, sighing. “You’re moving pieces on a game board. You’re also moving human beings and it’s important to remember their humanity and that they matter. That’s the whole point. That’s why we have you doing what you’re doing. But you also have to think strategically. Sometimes a calculated risk is worth it. Sometimes...you have to go all in.”
“Have you played poker here yet?” Delilah asked wryly. “You might be good at it.”
Katz threw back his head and laughed at that. “No. I haven’t. But I promise you I’ll play some roulette if you complete this mission successfully.”
“Really?” Lucy said, feeling lit up from the inside. He sounded just a little flirtatious about it. “Will you have one of those orange creamsicle drinks with me? They’re really good!”
“With the glowing ice cubes…”
“Yes!”
“Okay, sure.”
“Thank you, Katz,” Delilah said, batting her eyes.
Katz just chuckled at her and then he vanished and Delilah took a deep breath, whipping out her Oracle device and hoping against hope that this would actually work.
“I need Mr. Marco’s number,” Delilah said to the Oracle. Immediately the number flashed across the screen.
Mr. Marco, one of those most powerful men in Vegas. A guy to whom Sean had become indebted...which had been really stupid of him. Then he’d killed Sean’s girlfriend, killed Sean and now he was after both the witness and the valuable dragon egg that came with her.
R.I.P. Sean, Delilah thought sadly. She hoped he’d get a nice spot up in the Angelic Dimension. Maybe get another shot at making up for his mistakes like she’d gotten.
Delilah dialed the number and cleared her throat. This would take a bit of acting.
“Who is this?” The voice was low and gruff. Delilah had half-expected a voicemail, and she felt a little flustered now as Mr. Marco demanded an answer. “Hello? Who the hell is this on this number? Nobody has this number.”
“Mr. Marco,” Delilah said, in a higher voice than she used normally. “You don’t know me. My name is Jackie.”
“Jackie, huh?” Mr. Marco said, sounding nothing but amused. “How the hell did you get this number, Jackie?”
“That’s not important right now,” Delilah said. “What’s important is that I know the location of a certain murder witness you might be looking for. And I know the location of a certain valuable egg as well.”
She could practically hear his ears perk up. His breathing changed, but he was quiet for a moment before he asked, “And why precisely would you be giving me that information?”
“Jack Damon,” Delilah said, spitting out the name as if it were poison. “He broke my heart right in two. The son of a bitch deserves anything he gets. He’s in love with that showgirl. Well, now it’s his heart that’s gonna be broken!”
“Scorned woman, huh?” Mr. Marco said, laughing. He was eating something and Delilah grimaced, holding the phone away from her ear at the loud smacking noise of his lips. “I get it. Alright, so where is she? And where’s the egg?”
“Jack’s with her,” Delilah said. They might know who Jack Damon was, Delilah thought. In fact, they’d be idiots not to. Vegas just wasn’t that big. But there was no way they knew he was also a dragon shifter. They wouldn’t know what kind of power they were up against. The plan was starting to seem pretty smart. As long as Jack saw them in time. “And the egg. You sent your men to his mansion, but she saw you coming. They’re on their way back to Jack’s Joker now.”
“Well, thanks for the info, little lady,” Mr. Marco said, laughing.
“It serves him right too!” Delilah said, and hung up the phone.
Immediately, her heart started to race and she began to make her way quickly down the sidewalk toward Jack’s Joker.
She hoped against hope that she hadn’t been wrong about this.
16
Lucy
Jack had stopped their ride-share at a tourist trap store on the way back to his hotel and now they ducked inside. He was carrying the messenger bag over his shoulder now as he led her over to the clothing aisle. He handed her a baseball cap that said just said “Vegas” in red sequins on black.
“Put all your hair under this,” Jack said. He found an ugly black Harrington jacket that also said Vegas all over it and handed it to her. “Put this on too, hide that cute figure.”
Lucy snorted a laugh at his commands but she followed them anyway. She looked like an undercover cop, she thought. But she managed to get her hair under the cap somehow. With the glasses and jacket, she was overly warm, but she also didn’t look like herself and he grabbed her hand, nodding to the cashier when he was done with their transaction.
“I look very conspicuously like someone trying to look inconspicuous,” Lucy said, smirking at him as they walked back out to the car.
“It’ll have to do.” They ducked back into their ride and he sighed, tapping her chin with his thumb. “I don’t know for how long.”
Lucy grabbed his hand and kissed his palm. “I don’t mind,” she said softly. “I like it when you buy me things.” She pushed the shades down her nose and winked at him.
“Oh, you better be careful saying that to a dragon,” Jack told Lucy as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “We looove to spoil our mates. I mean you read in that book about dragon shifters, right? We hoard gold, it’s an aphrodisiac… We’re pretty unapologetically materialistic.”
Lucy looked up at him. Her breath had caught at the word “mate” but she was pretty sure Jack had not even realized he’d said it. “Yeah,” she whispered. She decided not to call him out on it though. That was a more serious talk for later and they were now fleeing gangsters. “Well, I wouldn’t mind it,” Lucy said, leaning on his shoulder. “Not that your money is why I liked you. Not in the least. In fact, it’s a big reason I hated you before.” She blushed at the thought. She’d been so silly in hating him when he was just being a good boss really and putting on the face he needed to run his business successfully.
“That makes me want to spoil you even more,” Jack said in her ear, and she shivered. “I’m going to buy you everything. You already look like an old-fashioned movie star. I’ll buy you gowns and diamonds. And gold. God, you’ll look so good in gold.” She tipped her head, bearing her neck for him and he tongue kissed her there. Even with the looming threat to their lives, they couldn’t stand to keep their hands off of each other. “Do you like wearing gold, baby?” He asked.
“Listen, I don’t hate it,” she said, sighing when he raked his teeth along her neck.
She did like pretty things. She had never needed them but it had always been something to fantasize about when she saw the richer tourists go by in their designer clothes and diamonds. But really it was the thought that gold turned Jack on that turned her on in kind. She imagined seducing him, naked, wearing only a gold tiara. It was silly, but it made her moan a little as he nibbled on her earlobe.
“Hey, we’re here,” Lucy said, laughing, as the car pulled up to Jack’s Joker.
In the sanctity of their ride, she’d nearly forgotten about the danger. But now she felt herself tensing up as he helped her out of the car.
All I have to do is get to his penthouse, she thought. It was way up
at the top of the tower. He had security. She’d surely be safe there.
For one blinding second of panic, Lucy reflexively felt for the egg that she’d been carrying in the bag around her shoulder and felt only her purse.
“I have it, sweetheart,” Jack reminded her, his arms tight around her waist as he led through the front entrance of Jack’s Joker. “I got the egg.”
“Of course,” Lucy said, feeling silly.
She didn’t feel so silly when she spotted two men in very nice suits looking straight at her as they pushed through the crowd. She had been feeling somewhat protected in her hat and sunglasses but now she clutched Jack’s hand.
“Jack,” she breathed. “Those men. Do you see them? Jack…”
He held her tighter and she could feel a kind of heat radiating off of him in waves as if he’d just turned into a furnace. When she glanced at him, his eyes were darker and seemed to spark.
The dragon, she thought, marveling. He’s angry.
The men seemed to come from everywhere like a sudden swarm of bees. They were coming from all directions. They were easy to spot in their dark suits, a glare like murder on their faces.
“Take the egg!” Jack hissed, handing her the messenger bag.
“Jack, be careful,” Lucy implored him.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said, throwing her wink. “Just climb on my back when I shift.”
Then all at once he was shifting. Throwing caution to the wind, Jack Damon transformed into a dragon in front of all the tourists milling around the wide-open entrance to his casino. Some screamed and others gasped. How many people had seen the actual transformation, Lucy couldn’t guess. But they definitely all saw that there was now a real live dragon crouched there on the sidewalk on the strip where there had not been one before.
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