Chapter 7
Carly
I furtively rubbed the belt around my already painfully raw wrists against the sharp metal corner behind me as my two kidnappers paced the abandoned warehouse. It was clear that these two hadn’t thought beyond coming to my place and finding this elusive key because they hadn’t been prepared to deal with me at all.
The belt holding me captive had come straight off Knife Guy’s hips, and now he was constantly pulling up his pants. Luckily for me, the belt was made of fabric webbing and was relatively soft after years of use.
We hadn’t gone too far from my place—just around the corner, in fact, to an industrial area that had once been home to Darlington’s manufacturing sector. According to the large words painted on the side, this place had once been a fabric mill called Dragonscale Textiles.
The large brick building was lined with massive arched palladian windows that let in lots of sunlight, although some of the glass was broken or missing. The high ceilings were held up every thirty feet or so with thick beams, the paint on them long peeled away, except for a dark brown section near the floor. Overhead were large exposed vents, and the paint was in a similar state of disrepair.
Despite its state of disrepair, there was a certain charm about this old factory, which I’d place as being from the later nineteenth century, likely post-civil war. I wondered why some developers hadn’t turned it into an overpriced loft yet. But then I remembered how close it was to my apartment. I guess an expensive, modern, converted factory loft in a shitty part of town would be a hard sell, and this place would need a lot of work to come up to code.
As it was, one side of the brick wall was starting to cave in, and the numerous rods, chains, and pulleys attached to a large wheel overhead looked ready to fall down on our heads at any minute.
Okay, on second thought, maybe “charm” wasn’t the right word. But the historian in me appreciated the old building. What I did not appreciate was the way Knife Guy and Leonard were constantly pacing in between the cast iron machinery as they talked about how fucked they were. Every so often, I’d hear them mention the “Dragon Lady.” By the way they said it, I was pretty sure they meant an actual freaking dragon and not some boss lady.
That had me wondering again about Desmon and his title as the Dragon of Darlington. I was beginning to think I was about to miss a lunch date with an honest-to-goodness dragon.
How in the actual hell had I gotten myself caught up in some dragon turf war?
That sounded like a plot straight out of a movie, which sucked because I wasn’t main character material. Main characters, more often than not, made it out alive. Side characters? Not so much.
I was smack dab in the middle of side character territory. I wasn’t particularly beautiful, or particularly smart. I was just an average girl, kinda nerdy, and a little stubborn, with an independent streak. Definitely not main character material.
“This is all your fault,” Knife Guy grumbled to Leonard for the third time. “We have a woman here we don’t know what to do with.”
Deciding I needed to be more main character than side character if I wanted to survive this mess, I spoke up. “Look, why don’t you two just let me go? If I get into work now, no one will ever know I was here. I’ll just tell them I had some girl problems and was running late. But if I don’t show up at all, someone’s going to notice. I won’t say anything, I promise. I’m helping Desmon file a few things, I’ll even look in his office for you.”
That was a total lie. I’d never help them. The second I got anywhere near Desmon, I was going to rat this two-timing asshole out. And if Desmon really was a dragon, then I hope both of them got burned to a crisp. Not only had they fucked up my apartment, breaking everything I owned in an attempt to find this stupid key, they had also threatened to make rabbit stew out of my baby.
To make matters worse, they’d left my front door open. I could only hope that Q-Tip, ever curious about the outside, had gone out to the hallway, seen that there was nothing there but disgusting carpet and peeling wallpaper, turned around, and gone home.
“He let you in his office?” Leonard sounded shocked. “He won’t let me clean in there, and I’ve been employed at the museum for years.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Was this a good or bad thing? I didn’t want them to think Desmon and I were close because then they wouldn’t trust me at all. “Like I said, I went after lunch to give him the envelope.” I shrugged. “He asked me to help him file some papers. His office is a real mess.”
“Hey, this might work,” said Knife Guy. “If it’s in the office, she can find it for us.”
“Yeah, or she’ll tell Desmon the second she gets back, and we’d have two dragons on our asses instead of one.”
Knife Guy looked me up and down appraisingly. “What if we pay her? We’ve seen her apartment. This girl is broke. If she finds the key for us, we can give her a cut of what Gillisandra is paying us. Money makes people loyal. And I don’t think this bitch and Desmon are close-close, you know what I’m saying?”
That had Leonard eyeing me as well. I didn’t like it.
“Her face is pretty enough. But you’re right; she’s way too chubby and plain for a billionaire dragon. They ain’t fucking.” He laughed.
Great. Desmon and I aren’ t fucking, but I really didn’t need that analysis.
“Well, I ain’t cutting into my share. I’m the only reason we even have an in at the fucking museum. You can pay her from your share.”
“What the hell, man? You dropped the ball. You’re the one who lost sight of the package. If you’d just done your job, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.”
“Fuck you! You didn’t have a chance to make the mistake because you didn’t do any of the work.”
Knife Guy got all up in Leonard’s face at that, but his action turned out less than intimidating as he had to hike up his pants to stop them from falling down. “None of the work? I set this whole fucking thing up! I did all the meetings with the she-dragon because you were too chickenshit to face her.”
While the two bickered, I continued working the belt against the sharp piece of metal. I was so close. I’d be free any moment now. And if I was lucky, those two would be so busy squabbling that they wouldn’t even notice me sneaking out the back. Especially since they weren’t looking my way right now, and they’d moved a bit, so a large piece of machinery was blocking their view.
I could totally do this.
With one last jerky movement, the webbed belt finally snapped. Not expecting the force of my hands pulling apart, I bashed my already painful wrist against something hard and metallic. I stifled a yelp, but the reverberation of my hand against whatever it had hit echoed throughout the open factory floor.
Shit! Why? Why was I such a klutz?
“What the fuck was that?” Leonard asked.
I had two choices. One, I could pretend nothing happened and hope that they didn’t realize the sound had come from my direction and wait for a better time to bolt. Or two, I could make a break for it now, since there were several rows of heavy machinery between us, and while they didn’t have a straight line to the door, I did.
“What did you do, bitch?”
Okay, so they knew the sound came from me. That decided it: I ran.
I pulled my wrist free of the belt and bolted for the door. I pumped my legs hard, cursing the fact that I hadn’t gotten as much exercise in as I should for the past few years. Despite being in the shittiest shape of my life, I managed to get to the door as the other two were still looping around the big machinery. I shoved it open and ran into the sunlight.
Oh fuck.
Ahead of me was a concrete lot that seemed to go on forever, and beyond that, still more concrete and other buildings. I looked to the side and saw a closer building that probably also belonged to the fabric mill. I ran for that.
The goal was to be out of sight by the time my two pursuers made it out the door. I reached for the handle of the door and swore. It was locked.
“There she is!”
Shit! Out here, without the machinery blocking their way, they’d be able to catch up to me for sure. I was screwed.
Suddenly, a loud screeching sound had me covering my ears, even as a shadow darkened the sky. I looked skyward and froze. There, right above me, was the underbelly of a freaking dragon !
Its wings were spread wide against the brilliant blue sky, scales gleaming red and orange. It was huge, more like a small plane than any living being. It almost appeared to glow with fire as it looped around the building. Its eyes, reptilian but brimming with intelligence, glowed a molten gold as they landed on the two men chasing me.
Was this the dragon lady the two were talking about? Or was it Desmon? And should I be running? Or was it useless to try?
I peered up at the magnificent beast again, this time looking down its belly to the lower half. The scales seemed to lighten there, but I saw nothing that would give away its sex. Then, perhaps because of the stress of everything that had happened, I started giggling to myself like an idiot. I was actually trying to determine the sex of a dragon, which sounded just as ridiculous as I felt right now.
“Oh, fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck !” Leonard screamed as he turned tail and ran back toward the other building, with Knife Guy hot on his heels.
I could only hope that it was Desmon.
The two never made it to the building, because the dragon in front of them forced them to skid to a halt and trip over each other, landing in a pile at the dragon’s feet.
“How dare you!” boomed a voice. It sounded like Desmon but with something else as well, a growly quality that had my belly fluttering with…desire? No. I must be mixing it up with awe because I couldn’t possibly be lusting after a dragon, even if the man version of him was sexy enough to turn my knees to jelly.
This version of Desmon was raw, magnificent power. Every inch of him exuded danger. I never thought I found danger so thrilling and arousing, but—hot damn! I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stop myself from jumping him and humping him like a dog in heat the second he was back in his man form. Great. I’d embarrass myself even more.
“How dare you covet my treasure!”
My heartbeat quickened. Did he mean me?
No, of course not. That would be silly. He must mean—the key. Yeah. The key. These two must really be idiots to mess with a dragon’s treasure.
“It’s n-n-not like that, I-I-I swear,” Leonard stammered.
Desmon wasn’t listening. He took a menacing step toward the two.
The two asshats scrambled to their feet and ran even as a wisp of smoke left Desmon’s toothy snout. A forked tongue darted out, and his nostrils flared for just a second before he blew out a jet of flames.
Belatedly, I realized that they were between Desmon and me, which meant the flames were coming my way as well. They weren’t pointed directly at me, but I’d still be singed, if not completely toasted, if I didn’t move out of the way. I dove to the side, hoping I’d come out only slightly charred and not burnt to a crisp.
I heard the men’s screams moments before the flames engulfed me.
I opened my mouth, ready to scream as well, but instead of searing pain, all I felt was a comforting warmth, like Desmon was here surrounding me and hugging me.
What the hell!?