Page 70

ACE

T hree days after my meeting with Castille, I received the confirmation I had requested: a recording of Castille’s conversation with Sean, and a screenshot of the returned bank transfer.

On the call, Sean sounded both blindsided and furious.

Clearly he’d been counting on Castille’s guns and was running out of options to rebuild his joke of a clan.

Castille, to his credit, gave Sean zero indication of why he’d canceled the deal.

He just said it was over, let Sean rant himself into a frenzy, then hung up.

I was relaxing on the back porch of my home, about to message Castille back with my acknowledgment and thanks, when my phone rang.

“I wondered when I would hear from you,” I said coolly into the phone.

“You’re going behind my back,” Sean snarled into the phone. “You’re fucking with my sources.”

“What are you talking about? Start from the beginning, brother.”

“Don’t patronize me,” Sean said with a growl. “Meet me. Tonight. At the north side of the lake.”

“Gladly,” I said, ending the call without waiting for a response.

“Who was that?” Dylan asked as he hurried up the stairs to the back deck, tossing a baseball from hand to hand.

“Were you eavesdropping?” I asked my son with a playful quirk of my eyebrows.

“I can’t help it,” Dylan said. “Ever since I shifted, my ears have gotten crazy good. I can hear birds all the way up in the tops of the trees.”

“I know, I know, I’m just messing around. Here, come sit down next to me.”

Dylan plopped down in the chair next to me.

He glanced over at me, then mirrored my posture: legs kicked up on the low wire table and gazing out at the lake.

Dylan didn’t know I was looking out to the horizon, to the old mine where Sean wanted to meet this evening.

“I’ve got to do something for work tonight, Dylan. ”

“Does it have to do with the guys that took Mom?”

“It does.”

Dylan was young, but there was no point in lying to him, not anymore. He’d been through enough, witnessing his mom get kidnapped. He deserved to know what my plans were. Well, maybe not the full details, but enough to feel sure I was handling it.

“What are you gonna do?” Dylan asked.

“I’m not sure yet, but I want to make sure those creeps know they can never mess with us again.”

“Good.” Dylan crossed his arms over his chest. “Why are you telling me? Do… do you need backup?”

There was a twinge of fear in his voice. My dragon soared with both protectiveness and pride. Even though Dylan was terrified, he was still ready to come fight for his mom’s safety if I asked him to.

“Not this time, Dyl.” I reached over and ruffled his hair, and Dylan slumped down in his chair a little in relief. “But I do need you to hold down the fort here, okay?”

Dylan worried his lip between his teeth. “What do I need to do?”

“I’m going to leave Tank and Rome here on guard duty, but I need you to look out for your mom. It’s important that she stay safe while I’m gone, especially doing work like this.”

“I promise, Dad,” Dylan said, his face suddenly very serious. “I’ll make sure she’s safe. You can count on me.”

“I know I can.” Pride swelled inside me. My dragon could sense our son’s determination. He was young, but he was already proving himself to be a future leader. Just like his dad. “Let’s go inside and tell everyone the plan, shall we?”

Dylan stood up quickly, looking like a little soldier.

As we entered the house, Cassidy and Harley looked up from where they were both lounging on the couch with paperbacks.

“What were you two talking about?” Harley asked with a small furrow in her brow.

She had some kind of sixth sense for when I was about to go out on business.

Sometimes it was hard to believe she was human and not a dragon.

“I’m meeting Sean tonight,” I said.

Harley’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Seriously?”

“Hawk and Striker are coming with me. Tank and Rome will be here. And Dylan’s on guard duty, too.” I squeezed my son’s shoulder.

“Should I be worried?” Cassidy asked.

“Steph knows he can’t trust Sean,” Harley supplied before I could answer. “There’s a chance it’s a setup and he might try something funny while Steph’s away.”

“He wouldn’t.” Cassidy glanced between me and Harley. “Would he?”

“Honestly, I doubt it,” I said. “Even with me gone, he’s outnumbered here, and with the clubhouse close by, it’s even riskier.”

“Why are you meeting him?” Harley asked.

“Well…” I sighed. “I’m hoping he’ll challenge me.”

For a long moment, she said nothing, and I could feel the anxiety radiating off her. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way. I wish it could just be over.”

So did I. There was nothing I could say to soothe her.

He had to challenge me—it was the only way out.

I could only hope that getting in between Sean and his guns would be enough for him to issue one.

I was prepared to meet up with him and push all his buttons.

If I could get him to impulsively issue a challenge, I could end this tonight.

The guys arrived as the sun set. Striker didn’t look happy about leaving Cassidy, but I needed my most trusted enforcers at my back tonight.

Dylan and Cassidy were playing video games in his room while my enforcers strapped up with guns.

I didn’t need Dylan to see everyone like that. He was scared enough.

In the kitchen, Harley pulled me aside and stepped close. “Promise me you’ll be safe tonight.”

“I promise.”

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me. “I trust you, but don’t do anything stupid.”

That made me laugh. “Depends on your definition of stupid.”

Her hair was tied up in a ponytail, and, as it often did, my gaze dropped to her neck. My dragon still wanted to claim her, but now, a new hesitation arose in me.

A claiming bite would tie our souls together.

My connection to Harley would be stronger; my ability to sense her would be much sharper.

More than that, she’d be able to sense me, even though she was a human.

Right now, since we were fated mates but I was the only dragon, our connection was one-way.

If, God forbid, something happened to Harley and I lost her, I’d feel our bond severing like a physical wound.

If something happened to me , though, Harley would only suffer the familiar pain of grief.

She wouldn’t experience the pain of the bond breaking apart.

But if I did claim her, the bond would go both ways. And if I failed, and Sean and his hired lackeys somehow managed to hurt me, or worse, kill me…

Harley would feel the pain of the bond severing.

As a human and newly bonded, the pain would be even worse than it would be for a dragon. It’d be incapacitating. A part of her would die with me.

As much as I wanted to claim her, I realized now that doing it would put her heart at risk. My dragon, the selfish bastard, was not deterred by that fact.

“What is it?” Harley asked. “What are you thinking about?”

I couldn’t hold back my smile. She could always read me like an open book. I leaned down and pressed my lips to her neck to appease my dragon’s desires a little. “Just about how beautiful you look. I’ll be back soon.”

The corners of her lips turned down. She knew there was something I wasn’t telling her, but after a moment’s pause, she decided not to press. “Come back soon, Steph. And in one piece.”

Striker and Hawk hopped on their bikes, and I drove my Cadillac around the lake.

Sean had chosen the old mine on purpose.

The place had been abandoned a long time ago and was far away from Lakeview proper that the cops never went near it.

We’d spent a lot of time there as kids, learning how to extend our claws, how to fly, and how to fight.

I could only hope he wanted to fight now. Maybe he’d finally initiate the challenge.

The mine was carved into the mountainside right by the lake’s edge, and blocked off with old, metal gates, their yellow paint faded and flecked.

The old gravel road opened up to a clearing surrounded with ancient trees and lit only by the moon overhead.

Across the clearing, Sean was standing outside his truck, with two tall, broad men flanking him.

The men were unfamiliar. I climbed out of my car and slammed the door, the sound echoing in the quiet clearing. One of the guys flanking Sean flinched.

Sean was clearly trying to look tough in his leather jacket with a big bolo knife strapped to the front of his hip.

He curled his lip as I approached, like the sight of me disgusted him.

The scent of fear was thick on the air, though—fear and booze.

It seemed he’d only recently picked these guys up.

Maybe they’d come straight from the bar.

Castille had made it clear Sean was running out of manpower, and I wouldn’t put it past him to offer the biggest guys at the local watering hole a few hundred bucks to come stand here and glower.

The muscle clearly hadn’t been told what they were getting into. I was sure if I flashed my fangs once, these guys would high-tail it back to town.

“Here I am, Sean,” I said, spreading my arms wide. “Just like you asked. What, exactly, did you want to chat about this time?”

“Ace,” Sean snarled. “Glad you and your little lackeys could make it.”

“Cut the crap,” I said. “I’m getting real sick of you calling me out to these places to say the same shit over and over. What’s this about? Make it quick.”

Sean glanced sidelong at his hired guns, eyebrows raised like he was trying to include them in a little joke.

The guys didn’t react at all. They had their eyes on me and my crew, clearly waiting for shit to hit the fan.

Sean rolled his eyes and turned his gaze back to me. “You’re interfering with my sources.”

I didn’t say a thing.