Page 17

Chapter Seventeen

“Show me where it hurts,” I asked Abaddon, who kept turning in circles as if that would allow him to see the spot that bothered him.

He’d recently entered another molting stage, but, unlike the previous two, he barely ran a fever and remained alert. Then again, he’d been getting great sleep.

We both had.

Every night without fail, around eleven o’clock, my eyes would get too heavy and I’d barely manage to crawl into bed before passing out, sleeping right through until morning. Weird, because usually I only slept that deep after a big spliff and a few drinks. Then again, I’d never had such a comfortable bed to sleep in, and climate control. How nice to not wake up shivering because of an overnight frost or sweating because my trailer did nothing to stop heat or humidity.

Abaddon came to stand in front of me, a sturdy dragon who still fit in my lap, but I didn’t figure we had more than a few more months left before he got too big.

“Where is the ouchy spot?” I asked, eyeing his patchy scales. Part of his skin had flaked and showed his new layer of dark scales.

“It’s above my tail.”

I crouched down for a peek and noticed a small wound. “Looks like you scraped off a chunk of flesh when you were scrubbing your loose skin,” I remarked.

“I most certainly did not,” was his indignant reply.

“Your booboo says otherwise.”

“And how would I have done that when I can’t reach?” he argued.

“I don’t know.” I leaned closer and frowned at the missing section that formed a perfect circle.

“I was attacked in my sleep,” he announced. “Call my protector. Tell him he is to relocate here permanently to guard my rest.”

“Whoa, there, you can’t just tell Maddox he’s moving in.”

“Why not? He spends most nights here,” Abaddon reminded me.

True, still... “For one, you can’t order him to vacate his home because you hurt yourself. Two, he has a business to run. And third, we haven’t been dating long enough for us to be shacking up permanently.” I’ll admit, the third had more to do with me balking. I’d never lived with a guy before. This thing with Maddox where we spent every day at least partially together was the closest I’d ever gotten.

“Someone cut me in my sleep,” Abaddon insisted.

“Pretty sure you would have woken up if someone took a knife to you.”

“Not if I were drugged. Ever since we moved into this place, I’ve slumbered deeply and without interruption.”

“Sounds like a good thing,” I said even as I began to wonder about the fact that we both became comatose every night.

“Are you not listening? Someone attacked me. Perhaps it was that miscreant with the cage.”

“Don’t be paranoid. If that asshole knew you were here, he wouldn’t be sneaking in at night to cut a chunk from your back. You’d be in a lab somewhere, most likely being studied and dissected.” Something about trying to debunk Abaddon’s wild theory sent my mind racing, though. Could it be possible?

No, and I should not let Little Fella’s paranoia spread. Only, I couldn’t shake his claim. It made no sense. If the man in the suit knew we were here, he’d simply take Abaddon. However, that perfectly round wound, similar to those taken during biopsies, bothered me.

I would have picked Maddox’s brain about it, only he hadn’t been able to come over as he had an emergency plumbing issue in the shop. There had to be a logical explanation, the most likely being Abaddon had injured himself and didn’t realize it. However, to assuage Little Fella’s fear, that night I turned on both the camera inside the barn and those outside. I should have been doing that from the start when we went to bed. After all, I only worried about them recording when Abaddon wandered around.

The next morning, after another full eight hours of sleep—despite the several glasses of water I downed—after I emptied my painfully full bladder, I quickly scanned the footage taken overnight. Nothing. Nada. Not even a mouse scurrying by.

I told Abaddon but he remained mulish. “Something is amiss. We need to go.”

“Go where? We have nowhere else to hide that would be this well-protected.”

“It is not well-protected if someone can cut me in my sleep,” he insisted.

“Do you have any new booboos this morning?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean we are safe. We have to leave.”

“Not we. Me. I’m going to work.”

“You can’t depart now! I need you.” He clung to my leg, leading me to sigh.

“I’ve already taken too much time off, and I have appointments. You’ll be fine. The skylight is open if you hear anything and need to make a quick escape.”

Abaddon glared. “You are a most vexing servant.”

“Love you too,” I sang as I left, however, Abaddon’s worry proved contagious. I texted him throughout the morning and felt only slightly relieved each time Little Fella replied on his tablet.

Maddox noticed my unease when he came by to bring me some lunch—a submarine sandwich with steak, mushrooms, cheese, and barbecue sauce.

“What’s wrong?”

“Little Fella’s trying to convince me someone came by the other night and took a sample from him.”

“Why would he think that?”

“He had a wound above his tail that he insists he didn’t do.”

“I hear a but.”

“It was kind of odd. The spot is a perfect circle.”

“Odd, but not unheard of if he ripped a scale.”

“You’ve seen that before?”

“Sometimes the lizards rub a little too enthusiastically. Injuries can happen. But the real question is, what do you think?” Maddox took a huge bite of his sandwich and waited for my reply.

I shrugged. “I think the fact we haven’t seen or heard from that asshole in the suit has Abaddon imagining problems that don’t exist.”

“I could do a stakeout in the barn to ease his mind,” Maddox offered.

“Seems like a waste of a sleepover,” I grumbled. I missed him the nights he spent at home. “Besides, I turned on the cameras before bed. Nobody came by.”

“Show him the footage.”

“I already did,” I said. “It didn’t help.”

“I’ve got a new employee starting today at four, so I can leave earlier than usual. I’ll head over and check out the area for signs anyone other than us has been around.”

“Going to look for cigarette butts and coffee cups?” I joked.

“You forgot tire tracks.” He winked. “Think of me poking around as showing the Little Fella we’re not mocking his fear. We’d probably be nervous, too, if we were mythical creatures.”

Put that way, I guess I should be more understanding.

When I arrived at the barn on my bike, Maddox’s truck was already parked. I entered the loft and immediately spotted Abaddon sitting on the shag carpet, dragging a piece of string for Princess, who raced after it.

He glanced at me. “You’re late.”

“Sorry. My last client wanted a little something extra added to his tattoo.” Wait, why did I apologize?

“You are forgiven this time, only because my protector showed up earlier than usual.” With that, my dragon turned back to the cat.

I turned towards the kitchen where Maddox, with a welcoming smile, stood with a dish towel over his shoulder. “Hey, babe. Supper’s in the oven. Should be ready in half an hour. Made that dish you like with the chicken, rice, and garlic.”

Fuck, I loved that man.

I froze as the thought hit me.

“Everything okay?” Maddox asked with a creased brow.

No. I’d never had the L word pop into my head before. It terrified.

“I’m fine. Just a long day. Let me get changed and I’ll be right out.” While I took the time to remind myself it was too soon for love, I swapped my leather pants and t-shirt for a tracksuit. Sometimes a girl just wanted comfy cozy for lounging in and even better, Mads didn’t care what I wore.

I emerged to find him on the floor, wrestling with the dragon.

“I’ve got you now, you giant lug,” Abaddon squealed, wrapped around his neck, legs locked around the ankles.

“Oh, yeah? We’ll see about that.” Mads tickled the underside of Little Fella’s foot. You’d think a creature that went barefoot all the time would scoff.

My big and ferocious dragon giggled and squealed, “No. No more. Argh,” before slipping around into Maddox’s arms to be cradled.

So cute.

“Pip’s back. Should we tickle her?” Maddox asked in a loud whisper.

“Only if he wants me to get him healthy snacks and no more chips and cookies,” I warned, wagging a finger.

“My servant lacks a sense of playfulness,” Abaddon confided.

Not true. I just didn’t know how to amuse a dragon. Or anyone of a young age. I’d grown up an only child who’d only begun socializing in kindergarten—and poorly, at that. Granny raised me like a mini adult so I had little in common with other kids.

“Pip’s got a lot of things on her plate.” Maddox came to my defense.

“If her plate is too full, I will eat it.”

Mads opened his mouth to explain and I shook my head. “Thanks, Little Fella. Appreciate it.”

“As if I’d let food go to waste,” he scoffed as he hopped from Maddox’s arms. “I’m going to the washroom to make room for the meal.”

Because we all needed to know he was taking a shit.

“Good thing he’s cute,” I muttered. “Did he show you his wound?”

Maddox nodded. “Yeah, and it’s not a full scale like I thought it might be, but rather a neatly excised section.”

“Excised, as in cut?”

He hesitated before nodding.

“Don’t tell me you also think someone came in during the night and cut him.”

“He mentioned you’ve both been sleeping very deeply which led me to realize the same happens to me when I stay over. Usually, I wake once or twice, roll over and go back to sleep, but when I spend the night, I’m out hard until morning.”

“Sounds like you’re implying we’re being drugged.”

Those big shoulders lifted and dropped. “I don’t know. However, bud raised a few points that bear looking into.”

“The video footage showed nothing.”

“Last night. You’ve only recorded one night’s worth and not the one he got injured.”

“True, but I spoke to Leo. Told him I thought someone was skulking around the barn and asked if his security had caught anything. He’s got a team of four guys on at night, plus cameras, motion sensors, and he keeps track of everyone who goes in and out. Nada. The ranch is secure.”

“Assuming he’s telling the truth.”

“Why would Leo lie?”

“Can I see the videos you took?”

“Why? There’s nothing there.”

“I want to check the angles and make sure they’re properly aligned as well as figure out the gaps where we might want to add more.”

“More cameras?” I narrowed my gaze at Maddox. “You think there’s some truth to Abaddon’s accusation.”

“It doesn’t hurt to be cautious. And it will set his mind at ease.”

“I guess. Hold on, let me boot up the computer.” I sat down and logged in before dragging open the overnight videos. I ran them at their fastest rate while Maddox eyed them over my shoulder.

“Hold on. Can you rewind that slightly for me and play it slower?”

“Why?”

“Thought I saw something.”

I used the mouse to slide the play bar to the left and then let the clip run.

“There!” Maddox exclaimed.

“There what? I don’t see anything.” The screen showed the empty barn and the entrance to the loft. No movement. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“Rewind it again and watch the time stamp.”

My brow furrowed as I once more used the curser to drag the play point back. As it scrolled at only five times the normal speed, I saw it.

To be sure, I rewound and didn’t blink as it ran.

A low whistle emanated from me. “Well, shit.” The video showed a jump in the recording that went from one oh one am until one forty-three. “It’s missing a segment,” I murmured.

“Seems like the recording halted.”

“I wonder if the outdoor cameras have the same glitch.” Two of the cameras did but their time stamps were slightly different, beginning a few minutes before the interior glitch and ending three minutes after. The timing was just about right if someone had disabled it before approaching the barn and restarted it once they left.

I glanced at Maddox. “That offer to do a stake out still open?”