Page 25

Jacy

Jenkins smiled gently, his fingertips tapping the table. “Honey. Where’s your brother?”

“Gone.”

He pursed his lips, yet the mild smile never vanished. “Gone? As in how? Gone home? Gone for good? There’s a country song about the word ‘gone’. Have you heard it? No?”

I smiled stiffly. “Sorry.”

Avery poured more coffee from the pot, Declan’s voice shifting between ordering Wendy and Peter to telling them stories drifting from the TV room. As was his wont, Jenkins invited himself over a week after Carter’s unlamented demise.

“He most likely gave up,” Avery added, sitting beside me.

“Is that so?”

Jenkins’s sharp gaze never left my face. Nor did I try to avoid it, despite suspecting he pulled the information I kept from him from my mind. He knows. How he knows, I can’t imagine. His cop instincts, maybe.

“Tell me what I want to hear, Jacy.”

“Is that all?” I widened my eyes, lifting my brows, in feigned innocence. “All right. Carter wanted my oath I’d never tell the cops about what he did. I gave him my word. He went away.”

“That’s not what I wanted to hear.”

“Then what?” I demanded. “A confession that I killed him?”

Jenkins’s enigmatic smile grew. “Did you?”

Shit! He can smell a lie ten miles off. “Why would you think that?”

“Ah, the old answer the question with a question.” Jenkins chuckled. “You’re dancing, honey. But I know the beat very well. Come on, tell Uncle Truman what happened to big brother.”

“You have no proof I did anything.”

Dammit! That’s the wrong thing to say. I’m sure he noticed my inner wince, for he laughed.

“I didn’t ask for proof, honey. I asked what you did.”

“You can’t accuse her of anything,” Avery protested.

“I certainly can.” Jenkins leaned forward, his gaze intent. “I accuse you both.”

“Of what?” Avery snapped.

“Of being shifters.”

I froze. I dared not look at Avery, dared not look away from Jenkins. I swallowed, hating myself for showing that much weakness.

“Shifters?” Avery asked, his tone deadly.

“Dragons.” Jenkins sat back, his fingers tapping once again. “Fess up. You both are dragons, and you killed Carter, then burned his corpse. Don’t play innocent with me, children.”

Jenkins’s shape suddenly blurred. Reptilian eyes gleamed from a dragon’s face, a muzzle filled with sharp teeth. A split second later, Jenkins, in his human form, grinned.

“How’d you know?” Avery asked, his tone awed.

“Come on,” Jenkins snapped, impatient. “You kids may be blind, but I know a fellow dragon when I see one. Let’s stop the games. Who killed Carter?”

“I did,” I replied. “It was part self-defense, part challenge. I dropped him into a canyon in the mountains, then burned his body.”

Jenkins slapped the table with his open palm. “Now that’s all I needed to know. Why’d you make it so difficult?”

“Because you’re a cop?” I answered, shrugging. “You’ll want to toss my ass in jail?”

He snorted. “What jail can hold a dragon? No, honey. Your brother was an honest to goodness bad guy, and the world is better off without him. And you got your revenge? Yes? For your old man’s death?”

“I did indeed.”

“That’s what matters.”

Avery looked long at me, then at Jenkins. “You’re not going to arrest her?”

“Do I want Jacy dropping me into a canyon and burning my body? No thanks. My report will say I’ve no idea where Carter went and demand the feds find him.” He smirked. “I’m just a small-town cop, what do I know?”

I burst into laughter as Avery grinned and shook his head. “Ignorance is bliss.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Jenkins lifted his coffee cup with a wink.

The doorbell rang. Max went off in a torrent of barking.

I looked at Avery, who glanced at Jenkins with his brows up. “Expecting someone?”

“Not me,” Jenkins replied, sipping his coffee.

“At least it isn’t Carter,” Avery said, standing.

I followed him into the TV room in time to see Declan, Max barking up a storm, beside him, charging for the door. My first instinct was to yell, don’t open it!

The new lock broke just before he reached it.

As though in slow motion, history repeated itself. A man, armed with a gun, kicked the door open and stepped inside. For a moment, I swore I saw Carter, his mocking grin in place, lift the weapon and aim it at me.

The man wasn’t Carter.

He was Ian.

Max’s barking turned to snarls, perhaps recognizing the gun, the lethal threat. He lunged at Ian, fangs bared, and tore into Ian’s gun hand, yanking, shaking his head, in a repeat of what he’d done to Carter.

“Fuck,” Ian screamed.

He seized the gun from his right hand with his left and brought it down atop Max’s head in a heavy blow.

Max fell to the ground, twitching.

“You hurt my dog!” Declan screeched.

Before anyone moved, he shifted.

A dragon the size of a pony lunged at Ian, flames licking Ian’s clothes. Dancing aside, Ian avoided Declan’s fire, aiming his gun at a downward angle. Declan reared up on his hind legs, his front talons raking at Ian’s face. In response, Ian stepped back, turning his face to the side, but his gun was still aimed at Declan.

“No!” I screamed, running forward.

Avery, too, lunged into action, charging beside me as we both raced to save our child.

A gun barked.

Ian staggered, a small round hole appearing in the middle of his forehead. As though stupefied, he stood for several seconds, long enough for Avery and me to grab Declan and drag him away. He stared at us – then collapsed in a heap in the doorway.

Sobbing in relief, I hugged Declan around his long neck, Avery, his body shaking from reaction, seized us both in a tight embrace. Admonitions raced through my mind – what were you thinking – but I voiced none of them. Declan lived while Ian died.

Declan lived.

I lifted my head when Jenkins’s movement caught my attention. His gun in his hand, he strolled casually toward Ian’s corpse to gaze down. His lips pursed as though he tried to puzzle things out, he finally glanced at us. “My number one suspect.”

What? The word formed in my mind but failed to reach my mouth.

“Suspect?” Avery’s voice sounded hoarse.

Jenkins tucked his gun back in its holster. “Jacy’s shooting. Carter didn’t do that, Ian did.”

Declan’s shift back into his little boy form brought both Avery and me to our feet.

“What are you talking about?” Avery demanded.

“The council sent me a message,” Jenkins replied. “Keep an eye on you two. They had intel that Ian planned a rampage, yet they couldn’t stop him. After Jacy was shot, I did some poking around. Ian drove a dark truck. He matched the witnesses’ descriptions. Like with Carter, no one knew where he was.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” I yelled. “He could have killed us.”

“I was keeping a watch over you.” Jenkins smiled. “You didn’t need the stress of two bad guys wanting your hides.”

Max heaved his way to his paws. Declan ran to him, hugging him around his neck. “Good dog,” he said. “Good dog.”

Max wagged his tail in agreement.

I sagged to the couch, glowering. “You had no right to keep that from us.”

“What’s done is done.” Jenkins patted Max’s head, tousled Declan’s hair. “The council won’t have an issue with this, I’ll take his body to the mountains and burn it. He won’t be missed.”

Avery dropped to the couch beside me. “Fuck.”

“Language,” Jenkins commented. “Young boys have big ears.”

I started to laugh. Once I began, I couldn’t stop. Laughing wildly, tears rolling down my face, I laughed until my ribs hurt and I gasped for breath. A single glance into Avery’s confused expression set me to laughing all over again.

“Did I miss something?” he asked.

Jenkins sat in the armchair. “I missed it, too.”

I shook my head, unable to explain why the sheer relief, the absence of danger, the fresh freedom to start a family with Avery, to begin my life again brought me to such gales of laughter. Declan crawled under my arm, giggling along with me.

I armed my tears away, still chuckling. “I guess this is the best time to make an announcement.”

“What announcement?” Avery asked, sliding his arm around my shoulders.

I smiled at all three of them in turn. “I’m pregnant.”

“Wait. What?” Avery stared at me, his expression flickering between shock and awe, as if his emotions couldn’t catch up with his thoughts.

For a few seconds, he just pulled me into a silent hug. Then, his voice broke. “Thank you, Jacy. This is the best day of my life.”

Tears slipped down his face, and my heart ached at the sight. I knew he’d been through so much—more than anyone should. And in that moment, I wished I could go back and shield him from every ounce of pain he’d ever endured.

I closed my eyes and rested my head against his chest, letting the steady rhythm of his heartbeat sink deep into my soul. The warmth of his love wrapped around me, and for the first time, I felt completely home.