7. Chapter 7
Sienna stood out on the back deck overlooking the valley. Normally the sight calmed her. Today? Not so much. Yes, she had run for her life from poisoned arrows and a bomb. But that wasn’t what had her on edge. It was the male sleeping upstairs.
As clan leader, Sienna dealt with a lot of infuriating people. Even her overprotective brothers could push too far. And that was nothing compared to the other clan leaders. But John Baker? He was in a league all his own.
She tensed at the sound of the door opening behind her.
Her inner voice sang, You’re in trouble nah-ow.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Sienna braced herself for the lecture she would be receiving from her brothers and Marcus. She turned and blinked in surprise to find Megan and Tessa walking toward her.
“How’s John?” Megan asked.
“He’s doing better. He practically fell asleep in the middle of arguing how dangerous it is for him to stay here.”
Tessa snorted. “I’m not surprised.”
“How are you doing?” Megan asked.
“I’m fine.” Sienna sighed. “A lot of excitement.”
“That’s an understatement,” Tessa said, resting her hand on Sienna’s arm.
Megan stepped to her other side. “Are you up to telling us what happened?”
Sienna leaned back against the railing and recounted escaping from the cabin. When she finished, instead of bombarding her with questions, both women stared at her.
“What? Your silence is killing me.”
“Just trying to absorb it all,” Megan said. “Why did you go see John?”
That wasn’t the question Sienna expected. “Because you told me he was leaving. We need to break the curse. He can’t leave.”
“Right. But you ran off without letting anyone know,” Tessa added. “That’s something old Tessa would have done.”
Sienna blew out a hard breath. “All I saw was red, and I had to get to him and stop him.”
“And you landed in the middle of an attack,” Megan said.
“It’s a good thing I was there.” Sienna jerked upright from the railing. “I got John out of there to safety.”
Megan and Tessa looked at each other before Megan spoke. “That’s true. But you could have gotten him to safety with Ryan’s help. And he would have been there for added protection.”
Sienna gaped at them. “Wow. I was expecting my brothers to come out here and lecture me. Instead they sent in the big guns.”
“Big guns.” Tessa laughed. “I love it! Actually Eric and Adam were having a very serious discussion on what to say to you, and we told them to let us handle it or it would blow up spectacularly in their faces.”
Megan reached for Sienna’s hand and grasped it. “With everything that’s happened recently, we want our family safe. And that includes you.”
Sienna swallowed. “I’m the clan leader. I will do anything to protect our family and this clan.”
Tessa grabbed Sienna’s other hand. “You are the clan leader. And a grown-ass woman. And I know that most of the other clan leaders don’t take you seriously.
You have a trifecta of stereotypes working against you.
You’re a woman, you’re young, and you’re beautiful, so you have to work three times as hard to be taken seriously.
But the people that matter know the truth.
You are a brilliant, amazing leader. We just need you around to keep leading us. ”
“I know.” It chafed her somewhat to admit this. Years of being the baby sister with overprotective brothers had fine-tuned her independence, but she had almost lost both of them to this curse. She could understand why everyone was worried.
“Have you talked to Ryan yet?” Megan asked.
“No,” she grimaced. “But I need to go find him.”
Both women gave her a hug before she headed into the house to face her best friend.
Ryan not seeking her out and telling her off immediately had her nerves tingling.
And those nerves ratcheted to an uncomfortable sting when she didn’t find him in the office.
Instead, Marcus was there on his phone handing out assignments to the guards.
She waited until he’d finished his call to speak. “Everything good?”
“Yes. So far we haven’t seen anyone around the property.”
“Is your son in his IT cave fine-tuning the security cameras?”
He nodded. “Jonas is tweaking the cameras and the proximity sensors. I’ve also got a couple guards still watching John’s land, and no one has come back.”
“Good. Did you assign Ryan to guard the perimeter?”
Marcus shook his head before giving her a long look. “You’ll have a new guard starting tomorrow.”
Sienna’s stomach dropped. “What happened today is on me, Marcus. This isn’t Ryan’s fault.”
Another long look. “Never said it was.”
“Then why are you removing Ryan from my security?”
“I’m not. Ryan requested to be reassigned.”
Hell no!
For once she and Veronica were on the same page. Sienna stood taller. “Postpone that. Do you know where Ryan is?”
“Training center.”
She stormed out of the house toward the building, but once outside she slowed and took a deep breath.
Losing her cool and not thinking through things had gotten her in this situation to begin with.
She didn’t need to barge in there like a bull and bark orders at him, so she told the never-ending voice in her head to back off.
Ryan was just as stubborn as she was. Dragons weren’t known for patience.
In both their cases the stereotype held true.
She blew out another hard breath before pulling open the door to walk inside, but it was empty.
A thumping sound came from the right, and she walked over to the side door that led out to the courtyard and outside training area.
A heavy bag was attached to a pulley system that allowed it to be raised several feet in the air.
Ryan flew around the bag, landing hits and kicks to it with precision.
His emerald-green wings appeared to have a mind of their own, flapping and twisting so that he could bob and weave in the air.
He didn’t look down as she made her way to him, instead hitting the bag and then kicking it in some sort of move worthy of an action movie.
She stopped a few feet away and waited until he finished even though her inner voice was pestering her to get on with it.
Ryan lowered himself to the ground, breathing hard as he furled his wings.
He reached for a towel and wiped his face.
Hanging it around his neck, he turned to her and stared.
This was bad. He needed to yell at her. Anger she could handle.
“I’m sorry, Ryan. I was reckless. I shouldn’t have run off. I should have had you come with me.”
He started to remove his gloves.
She clenched her hands into fists. “I was so angry that John was leaving, and that was probably the reason that I reacted instead of thinking things through. I didn’t consider that my going to see him was dangerous. But that’s no excuse.”
He dropped his gloves onto the bench, reached for a bottle of water, and took a drink before finally speaking.
“I know it pisses you off that you can’t go places on your own, Sienna.
I understand. You have always been independent.
Hell, you had to be. And maybe you wouldn’t need security as clan leader in a world without witches, Templars, and curses. But we don’t live in that world.”
“I know.” Sourness filled her stomach. “Marcus said you asked to be reassigned.”
He set the bottle back on the bench. “I don’t think I should guard you anymore. I think me being your friend and your guard is a bad combo.”
“How can you say that? You understand what I’m up against. It’s my job to lead this clan and I know I can do it, but it’s hard when they don’t take me seriously.”
“And it’s my job to guard you, but you don’t take that or me seriously.”
His words were like a slap to the face. One she desperately needed if Ryan truly felt that way.
She took a step toward him. “I am so sorry. I’m sick to my stomach that you think I don’t take you seriously.
That I don’t respect you.” Her voice cracked.
“That is the furthest thing from the truth. When everything has crumbled around me, you have been by my side. And I want you to continue to be by my side.”
She swallowed. “I said that I can lead the clan, but I need your help. Please. I can’t lose the best damn PA on the planet. Or my best friend.”
A hint of a smile from him had her lungs filling up with much needed air.
He looked at her for a drawn-out moment. “You will never lose me as your best friend. But you have to let me do my job, Sienna.”
“I know.”
He held up his hand. “Don’t say that without thinking it through.
You are the leader of this clan, but when it comes to your safety, our friendship and your leadership have to be put aside.
I have to be in charge. In the future, if you’re in danger, you have to do what I say, no questions asked. Can you do that?”
She took a deep breath and let it out. She needed to give him the respect of truly thinking this through.
If she was honest with herself, she probably did push back on him more because he was her friend.
“I can. But I’m not perfect. You need to call me out when I’m being single-minded and not realizing that I’m putting myself in danger. ”
He wiped his face again before answering. “I can do that. And Sienna. Anyone who doesn’t respect you or thinks you can't do this job? Screw them.”
She barked out a laugh as tears threatened. Sienna opened her arms, and he shook his head. “I’m a sweaty mess.”
“I don’t care.”
He hugged her and she took a deep breath. Mistake! She backed away. “Sweat I can handle, but you are a bit ripe.”
His head tipped back as he laughed. Hearing that set Sienna’s tilted world back on its axis.
“Go get cleaned up. We need to get to work. Operation Get-John-Baker-To-Stay has moved up to the top of my priority list.”
He picked up his gloves and bottle. “How are you going to make that happen?”
“It’ll need to be a team effort. Multiple players involved.” She couldn’t do this on her own, and if her brothers could bring in the big guns, she would take a page from their book and bring in the really big guns to convince John to stay.