Chapter 10
What the dragonfire was she thinking? That last thing Violet needed was to be putting her hands or her mouth on a Vega.
Again. Even if he was gorgeous and looked at her like…
she couldn’t quite pinpoint what she’d seen in his eyes, but it wasn’t lust. Or only lust, anyway. And that was even more worrisome.
Want.
Hush, she told her Dragon. Can’t have that one.
She and Kade headed out the front door, and she closed it behind them. Immediately she sensed a presence that didn’t belong there. She automatically put her hand out to hold Kade from stepping down the front steps. “Someone’s out there.”
His magick bristled. Gods, she’d never felt that before; she’d never been around Deuces other than in passing.
“It’s a Mundane,” she whispered, now sensing that kind of energy. “Smitty probably. Damned nuisance. He has this old video camera and he sneaks around with it.”
She spotted the telltale red light of his recording device way up in the tree and nodded subtly in that direction.
Yard lights gave off colored glows around her palm trees and foliage, but not enough to illuminate the man.
On a nearby branch sat a fire Elemental, crouched and clearly wanting to dislodge the intruder.
Of course, Smitty couldn’t see him. Flit, as she’d dubbed him, jumped to a closer branch, its eyes narrowed on its prey.
She gave it a shake of her head. Don’t freak out the human. It’ll be us paying for it.
Smitty had already caused them grief. If he captured a Dragon skirmish on video and sold it to the media, they’d be in a heap of trouble.
Crescents who worked in various capacities in the industry might discredit the footage as a hoax, but it would be the fighters’ death knell.
Once it hit the internet, thousands of people would be dissecting it.
And even worse, coming here to spot the gator ape itself.
Egads.
“Enough of this.” She reached into the house and grabbed the shotgun she kept by the door.
“I’d love to go Dragon and incinerate him.
” She shot Kade a look. “But I’d get into all kinds of trouble.
” She flew down the steps, found the spot she wanted, and aimed toward that light.
The bullet hit the branch just above the son of a bitch.
She saw the camera drop and heard it hit the ground.
He lost his balance and fell too, becoming a pile of ill-smelling, badly dressed old man.
“Off my property!” she hollered, stalking toward him with the shotgun pointed at the ground. She had no intention of harming him, but she wanted him to get the message: no friggin’ trespassing. “Now.”
He scrambled to his feet and searched for his camera. “I’m jus’ lookin’ for the gator ape. I know it’s here. I’m pretty sure it ate the skunk ape, ‘cause I ain’t seen that one since I saw the gator ape. I know you got it here. Maybe more than one. Jus’ let me have a picture, and I’ll be on my way.”
Yeah, right. And umpteen thousand others would be sneaking around taking his place.
“There are no apes here. Or anywhere. And no skunk apes either.” Before he’d caught sight of a Dragon, he’d been hunting Florida’s equivalent of Bigfoot.
As he reached for the camera, she let off another shot, shattering it into pieces. “Leave.”
With a stumbling gait, he took off into the dark. She tucked her pinky into her mouth and let out a series of whistles warning that Smitty was on the loose.
A second later, her phone rang. Jessup. “Was that why I just heard two shots?”
“Yeah.”
“Please tell me you killed him.”
“Not hardly.” She slid a look to Kade. “Not with a member of the Guard standing next to me. No, I don’t want to kill him, and neither do you.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Okay, you may want to but you can’t. He’s crazy, annoying, but he is a human being.”
“A crazy old coot who’s going to get us terminated,” Jessup said. “I’ll keep an eye out for him. He’ll probably come this way. Did you at least maim him a little?”
“Nope, but his camera is dead.”
“Well, that’s something.” His voice lowered. “How’s your investigation with the pretty boy going?”
“We’re onto something now, so don’t do a thing. Promise me.”
“I’m only going to hold out for so long, little sister. And if I see one of them on our property, he’s dead.”
That’s what she was afraid of, that everyone now had that attitude. Especially with her and Kade trespassing tonight. “I’m going to find the one who did it, who started all of this. And they’re going to die.” She disconnected, swallowing her own rage.
Kade was watching her, looking sultry in the shadows and colored lights. “You’re a damned good shot. Remind me not to piss you off.”
Her laugh came out husky. “Too late for that. Remember, you were an intruder too. You tasered me, fought me—”
“You fought me. I was trying to explain why I was here, and you went all alligator wrestler on me.”
Her mouth twisted into a smile at the memory of slugging him and grinding him into the mud. “I’ve tussled with smaller gators that were a lot tougher than you.”
“Why, thank you for that.”
“Just saying.” She jabbed a finger in his direction as they walked toward her car. “And you trespassed in my shop.”
“Technically it wasn’t trespassing; the door was open.”
“Technically it was, because you weren’t invited in.”
“You’re right. I’m a trespasser, a man who would sneak up on you while you’re grieving and tase you to boot.” He stared hard into the distance. “I’m a bad, bad man, Vee.”
She thought he meant that; all trace of that playful tone was gone. The man was mercurial. He kept his gaze on everything but her as they got into her Infiniti.
“You’re not so bad,” she said. “You’re helping me investigate. That means a lot to me.”
“I need to find out what’s going on for myself.”
She liked the idea that he was here for her, probably a little too much, so it was good that he wasn’t playing the white knight role. He sank into a dark silence as she drove toward the front of the property. When she passed the main house, her ma flagged her down.
She walked over to the driver’s side as Violet opened the window, but her sharp gaze was on her passenger. “I heard shots, thought you might have run him off.”
“No, Ma, that was Smitty.”
“Lord, I hope you didn’t off him in front of the Vega.
I’ve heard they’ll turn in their own grandmothers rather than go against the code.
” She leaned in and snapped on the interior light.
“I just wanted a gander at the guy who’s going to drag you through the mud and leave you broken on the other side.
Yeah, I see the attraction. He’s got that bruised, bad-boy look.
Bedroom eyes, and the kind of mouth that makes a woman think of staying in bed ‘til noon.”
“Ma,” Violet whined. Hmm, maybe her mother’s libido wasn’t dead after all.
Her ma shifted those discerning eyes to her.
“You didn’t listen to me about Bren, so I doubt you will on this one since he’s a helluva lot more appealing.
But remember how you felt after the fallout on that one.
There will be no pity this time either. The best we’ll do is not to say, told you so. Then again, I can’t guarantee it.”
“I understand. Now, if you’re done, we’ve got a murderer to catch so we can avenge Arlo’s death.” Much more important than getting this embarrassing lecture.
Kade leaned forward. “Ma’am, I’m not going to hurt your daughter. We’re friends, that’s all.”
She gave them a skeptical look. “Yeah, I can see just how friendly you two are.” She jabbed her finger in his direction. “Know this: I will hurt you.” She patted the window and stepped back, watching as Violet pulled away.
Violet shook her head. “Sorry, that’s how my family operates. Threaten first, assume next, and listen later.”
“They’re protective of you. Nothing wrong with that.”
“There is something wrong with it. When they thought Bren broke my heart, do you think they comforted me? Hugged me or even patted me on the back and said, Gee, that’s a shame.
Here, have a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
No, my brothers beat the hell out of Bren and sent me pictures on my phone. Cold comfort.”
“And if I hurt you, they’d probably send you a picture every time they cut off an appendage.” He gave her a wry smile.
“Yeah, exactly.” She pulled onto the road.
“At least you have family. They may be dysfunctional, but they care about you. I have the Guard. Talk about cold comfort.”
“And your sister. You have her, too.”
He kept his gaze straight ahead. “I do have Mia. She’s a good kid, but extremely emotional. Her way of comforting is to freak out.”
“I have a lot of family while you have respect.” She let out a sigh.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love my family. Arlo and I weren’t close, not since his addictions took over.
But losing him, especially like that…” She shot him a look, her grief reminding her of those minutes she let herself express her feelings.
“Well, you know. Damn you for sneaking up on me during a private moment.”
“I’m sorry.” Those words settled into the silence, and then he said in a soft voice, “You were crying alone.”
“No, I wasn’t. You were there.”
“I mean, you thought you were alone. Does cold comfort apply to grief as well?”
“Our family will kill if someone hurts one of our own, but we…don’t know how to hold one another or cry together. My brothers give me a hard time, tell me to buck up and be angry, not cry like a baby.”
“I can relate to that.”
Great, something else they had in common. They were supposed to be vastly different; so different, in fact, that there shouldn’t be one smidgen of chemistry between them. They should have anti-chemistry.
A few minutes later, they were passing the clearly delineated border between the Slades and the Stramaglias. The latter had a fancy concrete wall along the front, with a fence continuing between the two properties. She found a place to tuck the car out of sight from the road.