Chapter Four
Oakley
Roman shook him a little, getting Barney to meet his gaze again. “Now… do you really wanna try me? Or do you want to cooperate and have a chance at leaving here in one piece?”
“I-I-I… I’ll co-op-er-ate.” He was trembling now. Good. He deserved to be terrified, the disgusting, horrible man.
“Where are the missing kids?”
“I-I don’t know.”
Roman sighed. “And I thought you were going to cooperate.” He released him and grabbed a pair of pliers off the tray on the floor. “Guess we’re doing this the hard way.” He grabbed onto the man’s pointer fingernail with the pliers.
“Wait!” Barney started crying. “Wait! Please! I’ll tell you everything I know, I swear. I swear.”
Rome released the guy’s nail. “If I think you’re lying, I won’t hesitate—”
“I won’t lie. I swear. I swear I’ll tell you everything.”
“Let’s hear it, then.”
“I… I took them to this… warehouse where a witch met me and took them off my hands.”
“Where’s this warehouse?”
“It’s down by the harbor. I can show you on a map. I don’t have the address written down.”
“Okay. How’d you get the kids there? Didn’t they try to escape when they realized you weren’t taking them to your home?”
“I drugged them.” He nodded in my direction. “You should’ve been out of it by the time we made it to my car.” His brow furrowed. “Didn’t you drink your wine?”
Roman looked ready to murder the man on the spot. “You drugged my partner?”
The man winced. “I… um, they seem fine.”
A growl rumbled out of Roman’s chest, and I knew I had to calm him down before he lost it on the man and really did murder him.
So I stepped forward, placed my hand on Rome’s upper back, and started rubbing calming circles there as I spoke to Porter. “I’m a dragon. It takes a lot to knock us out, and if you used magic, it wouldn’t have worked anyway.”
The man sort of grimaced but didn’t reply. Probably for the best.
To Rome, I said, “I’m fine. Nothing happened. I’m safe.”
He leaned into my legs, and I felt him take a shuddering breath, gathering himself before he asked Porter, “Did you meet at the same place every time?”
“Yes, but they loaded them up into a van and drove away, so I know they’re not working out of that warehouse.”
Of course it couldn’t be easy. We weren’t dealing with stupid criminals, unfortunately.
“I need names, dates, descriptions, license plates, anything you can give me.”
Roman and I interrogated the man for three hours before we decided that we’d gathered all the information he had. It wasn’t as much as I’d hoped, but it was a start, at least.
We left the man, yelling after us, and closed the door on his screams. He wasn’t hurt.
We’d given him water and food, provided a bucket for emergencies, a cot to sleep on, and untied him from the chair.
He was still manacled to the floor, but he could move around.
We’d never said we would let him go free.
Rome had only agreed he’d leave him in one piece if he cooperated.
A fact the man was just now coming to realize.
We’d be sending him all the way back home—our home in the capital—and locking him in the tower’s dungeon for the foreseeable future while we untangled this web of trafficking.
Roman engaged the steel door’s lock, then set the wards, and we walked into the living room. We both plopped down on the couch, and when I saw him mirroring my action of putting one leg, then the other up on the coffee table, I couldn’t help but snicker.
“What?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Just… never mind. Let’s call Dad.” He’d been waiting for an update, so I had no doubt he’d take the call even though it was the middle of the night.
Roman pulled out his phone, hit call, and put it on speaker.
“Roman? Everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. We’re both safe.”
My dad sighed. “Good. Is Oak with you?”
“I’m right here, Dad. I’m fine, promise.” I managed not to roll my eyes, but only because I was used to this.
My dad was overprotective of me. I understood why. After I’d been stolen away from him as a baby and he’d spent my whole life searching for me, grieving and unhappy and scared, I got it.
But… he was still my dad, and it was still kind of annoying at times.
“Good. I’m glad to hear your voice.”
He was such a sap.
Tan’s voice came over the phone. “Did you guys get him? Did you find anything out?”
Roman and I told the two of them everything we’d learned from Barney Porter, and Roman added, “Oak and I are going to stake out the drop-off area tomorrow night. Barney said he knew others were getting paid to bring in people, so there’s a chance we’ll find the van.
It might take a few nights, but we’ll keep you posted. ”
Tan said, “So you’re not coming home yet?”
“Not yet,” Roman answered. “We have to follow up on this lead.”
Tan sighed. “I know. I just miss you guys. You’ve been gone over two months this time.”
I nodded. “Yeah, but this is the farthest we’ve gotten in the ring. Hopefully something will come of it.”
“My fingers and toes are crossed.”
“Ours too.” Roman let out a yawn. “Sorry, been a long day.”
My dad said, “Why don’t you two get some sleep. I’ll send someone to collect Mr. Porter tomorrow so you don’t have to worry about him while you’re staking out the site.”
“That’d be perfect,” I said. The last thing we needed was to have the criminal tag along wherever we went. “Make sure they know to pull into the garage. We don’t want anyone seeing Porter walk out to the car in handcuffs.”
“Will do. Call me with updates, and, Oak?”
“Yeah?”
“Make sure you answer the family texts.”
I rolled my eyes this time, unable to stop myself. “I always reply!”
“Yeah, hours later.” I could hear the teasing in his voice.
“I’m on a mission, Dad.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excuses, excuses. Answer your damn texts.”
I snorted out a laugh. “Whatever. See you guys soon. Love you.”
Dad and Tan both said together, “Love you too.”
Roman added, “Love you guys. Talk soon.” But he hung up before they could return the sentiment.
“You know Tan’s gonna text you a million I love you gifs and texts now, right? Like, you did that to yourself. You should know better.”
He chuckled and rubbed his hand over his face. “I wasn’t thinking straight.” His phone beeped, and he looked down at it. “And it begins.”
I laughed, but it turned into a yawn. “I’m exhausted.”
“You should go to bed. I’ll take first watch.”
I shook my head. “There’s no way I can sleep in my room with him in the house. I know he can’t get out with all the precautions we’ve taken, but I’d rather be out here where I’d hear him escaping… just in case.”
He sighed and stretched his arms up above him then out on the back of the couch. “Yeah, same.”
“Does that mean we’re both sleeping on the couch?”
Too bad I couldn’t get him to cuddle with me. It’d be awesome if I could snuggle up to his side. It was like he was asking me to with the way he’d positioned his arms. Damn. Too bad I wasn’t brave enough to just dive in there and hope for the best.
I grimaced at the thought. He’d freak out and push me away, I was sure, and I didn’t think my heart—or pride, really—could take the rejection.
“Yeah, I guess it does.” Rome hopped up from the couch and headed toward the hall that led to our bedrooms.
My brow furrowed. “Where are you going? Didn’t you literally just say we were both sleeping out here?”
“Be right back!” he called over his shoulder.
I frowned, but then I decided to take advantage of him not being here for a second. So I scooted over onto the middle cushion. Now he wouldn’t be able to avoid sitting directly beside me. Ha!
Roman came back a minute later, carrying a huge armful of blankets. When he noticed where I was sitting, he paused mid-step, but only for a second, and kept on walking over. He passed me a few blankets that I took gratefully, and then he just stood there, looking unsure.
With a roll of my eyes, I patted the seat beside me. He stared at me for half a beat before he sat down and started covering himself with his own blankets before he finally settled.
After a few good minutes of awkward silence passed, I decided that I just needed to get over it and go for it. So I… very slowly lowered my head to rest against his upper arm. He was tense as all hell, but after a few minutes, he slowly began to relax.
I smiled to myself and closed my eyes. Maybe this wasn’t snuggling the way I truly wanted, but it was a step in the right direction, so I’d take it.