12. Drake #3
A stuttering sound from the man on the table drew our attention.
Tony trembled viciously as he rolled himself over.
He looked up through one swollen black eye, head swaying as he looked from me to Monty and back again.
When a broken, crooked smile stretched his busted, bleeding lips, a stone of unease settled in my stomach.
“The Dragon?” he rasped. “You’re Drake Graham then, aren’t you?”
Monty and I shared a glance. Apprehension tingled down the back of my neck and over my arms.
“The one and only.”
Fat Stacks lifted onto his elbows, head lolling under the weight of it. He flicked his bloodshot eyes upward, nose whistling with each inhale and several teeth missing in his battered mouth. Then he coughed and hawked up a bloody wad of spit in my direction.
Luckily, it landed beneath him on the carpet, or I would have knocked the rest of his teeth into the atmosphere.
“That makes you the Montgomery princess, doesn't it?” Tony eyed Monty, and I stiffened. Every inch of me sought to step in between them and keep her out of his eyesight. But Fat Stacks only gurgled a wet laugh and faced me. “I have a message for you, Dragon.”
I stepped closer, controlling my breathing and an odd unfamiliar weight in my chest.
“What is it?”
“I’ve already told your bitch’s men I don’t know who paid me to make the exchanges.
” Monty bristled at his insult, mouth curving down and a delicious anger in her expression.
My knuckles popped from the force of my shaking fist. Tony continued, “But I heard him talking about you, about you both. And he really fucking hates you, Dragon. He complained about all the international crime families, but the name Drake Graham came through the most in our conversations.”
“What does he want?” My anger strung me along, carrying me closer until my shadow eclipsed the beaten man. Perhaps his marbles were knocked loose because he barely flinched.
“Simple enough to figure out, ain’t it, you dumb fuck?
” He looked at Helen again and the salacious glint in his eye was enough to make my chest clench and my teeth grind together.
“He’s building an empire. And he knows I’m here.
You do anything to me, and he’ll know. The guy who paid me wants you dead. And your little bitch here, too.”
I shot forward, sprung like an arrow set loose from a bow.
A small hand on my arm leashed me back, halting me as if, from one soft gesture, I’d run into a brick wall. She pulled me back, glaring down at the undesirable cretin venting a mad laugh.
The temperature in the room dropped several degrees as the world bent to her mood. “Kill him.”
“But he’s just a messenger,” one subordinate sputtered. A younger man, still green in the gills in the face of death. He wouldn’t last long working in our world. He wouldn’t last long working for Monty.
“Then he’ll send one, won’t he?” Her voice was ethereal, like a goddess passing judgment over her court.
“Allow me, please.” Her adorable face twitched with curiosity as she faced me. She blinked as I removed the handgun hidden beneath my suit jacket. Everyone ignored Tony’s screeching and blubbering, a mix of blood, tears, and snot spraying from his lips.
Her head dipped in silent permission.
An arctic-eyed black cobra with her hood splayed and venom dripping from her fangs. A devil in a chic suit untroubled by inhumanity. An omen of death, hovering in the domain between mayhem and murder.
Why had I ever tried to keep the deadly part of myself separated from her? She knew what I’d been trained for and likely heard all the rumors of my exploits. She’d seen what her mother and father could do. It was her world as much as mine, and she was my world.
Her aversion to sullying her own hands didn’t mean she trembled before violence or gore. In fact, her eyes glittered, relishing in others' damnation. Some part of me recalled seeing that very spark in her so long ago, but the haze of time fogged over it.
Helen was terrifying.
And I was terrified… insofar as I wasn’t terrified at all and was actually quite aroused.
My anger on her behalf melted into something heady and warm.
The audience and half-dead man faded into the background, and my mind swarmed with the primal urge to bend her over the table and fuck her until she couldn’t walk straight.
Tony wailing for mercy dashed my lewd thoughts against the shore of my stormy mind. Don’t dwell on it.
I turned with a dopey grin on my face as I followed Monty from the house.
We had much to discuss and investigate after that titillating interaction.
Her shoulders relaxed and her gaze said well done, though she wouldn’t say it aloud.
Her silent appreciation of my handling of the cretin followed us back to the car.
Not for the first time in my life, I realized I wanted everything from Helen Montgomery. I sincerely hoped she would see how much she needed me. And that someday she’d give me the chance to apologize properly for breaking what we once had.