Red Hot Dragons Steamy 10 Book Collection
Page 34
“Just don’t tell him you’re with me. Just act like you couldn’t find me. I left the country, I lied to you. He doesn’t think you have an independent mind, after all.” It stung a little to say that, but her father did think of Mason as a faithful meat-puppet that followed Ellie around as per his instructions. Mason’s mouth thinned into an annoyed line. “I don’t think my father will hurt you.”
Not unless he really, really wanted me back. Rosen didn’t think that Ellie returning to Regal as a double-agent would be smart. She had a strong suspicion that Zaimov would arrange for a way to make Ellie and Mason disappear. He might even have some awareness of where Ellie went, or suspected she might have been a liability to defect for some time.
Ellie wasn’t entirely sure, but there was something about Zaimov that suggested maybe he could see all your secrets, including the ones you didn’t want to admit to anyone.
Like she’d be more sad in her life if Mason were to die, rather than her father.
“I want this job. Rosen’s shown me the contract; I get almost double what I was being paid before. I ain’t complaining.” He grinned, though the grin died almost instantly. “Though it does mean my time with you will be limited, once you settle. Because I may need to defend other targets in the future. We won’t be together like we were anymore.”
“Better than not seeing you at all,” Ellie replied, meaning it. “So I consider all of this worth it.”
Mason finally mustered the willpower to sit down, rather than stand and hover awkwardly. He rapped his fingers on the white, plastic table, ignoring the orange juice planted there for him. At that point, Talia passed, intending to head toward the pet cemetery to visit her favorite cat, Willow. Visiting meant something entirely different to a necromancer, of course. She stopped to look at them, a rather mischievous smirk upon her features. “Good news from my sister, right? You get to spend a lot more time in Mason’s presence. D’you know, I remember you talking about Mason when we were messaging and voice chatting together. How he’s the best, most wonderful bodyguard you could ever hope for...”
Ellie blushed red like a beetroot and violently motioned for Talia to shut up. Meanwhile, Mason just looked more and more amused.
“I don’t say any of this to him! Come on, Talia, that was private.”
“You two don’t seem all that private to me,” Talia responded, grinning. “When’s the wedding?”
At this, Ellie’s indignation expanded inside until it threatened to explode. “I’m going to murder you!” She dove after Talia, who sped away, cackling like a witch. Talia wasn’t quite as fast as Ellie, so they ended up in an ungainly heap upon the ground, acting less like adults and more like little kids. A brief surge of anger made Ellie contemplate just what it might be like to face off against Talia in a deadring, before she clamped down on that and let her friend get away with the teasing. The world of deadrings didn’t suit Talia at all. But maybe Talia was just a nice person, with a good upbringing, with no one pushing her into illegal activities.
When Ellie returned to the table, Mason’s drink was fully drained and his arms were folded as he regarded her in amusement. “You’ve not changed much, I see,” he said, now luxuriously stretching himself out, putting tension upon his muscles. “Still eager to wrestle people into the mud.”
“Excuse me, but did you hear what she was saying?” She turned to Mason, still puffed up indignantly. “We’re just friends, hanging out, doing friend things.”
“Of course we are,” said Mason. “Though we are definitely what you might call ‘friends with benefits’.” Just when Ellie thought she would explode with shock and embarrassment, Mason added, “Because I’m also your bodyguard, of course.”
“Oh. Yeah. Right,” she said, patting at her face as if it might cool down the heat in her cheeks. Only time did that.
“I couldn’t resist. You’re far too easy to wind up.”
“I hate you both,” Ellie mumbled, though she was able to see the funny side of it a moment later. She didn’t know why it bothered her. Talia knew that there was nothing between her and Mason. How could there be? He was just her bodyguard. A friend, too… but nothing more than that. She squirmed a little on the spot.
He’s just my bodyguard. One she was happy to have, happy to see by her side. She and Mason continued to engage in conversation, with Talia adding her own opinions when she passed back, though Ellie was unable to completely shake off the words from earlier. On the outside, though, she acted perfectly normal. Because things would be normal, even if circumstances were different. Mason was no longer under the control of her father. Neither was she. No longer did she need to go into deadrings and quietly stash money on the side—money that her father would never touch. It’d seemed so little at first, but it had piled up over the years.
Again Talia’s words came to mind, and again Ellie felt a burst of anger. Mason wasn’t—she couldn’t—it was stupid. That was all. Sure, Mason wasn’t exactly bad-looking. Ellie had definitely noticed that, growing up. Stoic, dark-haired figures with ethereal green eyes did tend to stick out, even without the shapeshifting behind it all. Sure, a part of her was surprised when Mason admitted that one time that he didn’t have room for relationships in his life beyond his job. Too many people depended on him, and a relationship required work as well, and he wanted to do it right. She’d been sad that Mason never got a chance to experience life the way he should have.
I’ll get him a girlfriend, Ellie decided. He shouldn’t have to avoid life anymore. He should have all the opportunities that were denied to him. Happy with her plan, the uneasy knot in her stomach lessened. Yes, this would work out just fine.
After all, there was no way she could be attracted to Mason. He was her bodyguard. She’d known him for years. He turned into a dragon, for Christ’s sake. She piled up reason after reason, until secure in her own mind again.
Chapter Six – Mason
Strange, to finally sign a new contract. One that offered so much more money, that he didn’t know what to do with it. According to the precinct, they were still paying him less than what a bodyguard should have earned, but he was hardly in a position to complain. In the wake of that contract, life went on, without being under Regal, though his shadow reached over, still. Since Mason was sitting on that phone call.
He needed to do it, and Rosen had recommended a clean break, since she didn’t think it a good idea for them to be double-agents. Best to cut things off while they were out of his grasp. He found himself delaying that phone call, though, because he didn’t want to experience the fallout just yet. Regal made no attempts to contact him, however, and Mason wasn’t sure if that was a good sign either. Perhaps something had happened. Or perhaps he just didn’t care about his daughter vanishing as much as he claimed.
When he told his family the news about his raised paycheck, they reacted with delight. He felt a little sour that his brother and mother had reacted with a sort of now you can buy us better stuff, because it made him feel like a piggy bank, but his youngest sister was immensely grateful. She kept offering to pay him back for everything he’d done, but he refused each time. Her love was payment enough. Her gratefulness, too.
I did foist this kind of situation on them, he thought sadly. I took all the bills upon myself, and my mother didn’t try as hard to look for a job as she could have done. But at least she wasn’t snorting it all down the drain like before, and was trying to clean herself up for her children. His dead father had left a huge hole in what should have been a stable, if low-class, working family. He was lucky enough to get his security job by bluffing, and then taking lessons on the side to train properly for it until he was fully fledged in the role.
A small pang of guilt went through him for having lied to get his job, and for potentially risking Ellie’s life until he became good enough at his job to look for security risks and protect her.
Her entire life was a security risk, in all honesty.
When he rode with Ellie to the precinct, she was
brimming with excitement. “They’re going to train me,” she said eagerly. “Just the basic junior program, so I hear, so I can have some more options in the future. I could become a necromancer in the police force, maybe, or I could go Talia’s route and become a paranormal archaeologist or whatever it is necromancers do with old things.”
“Archaeologist, huh?” Mason nudged her gently in the elbow, sharing her delight. “You wanna go exploring caveman caves and unearthing gravesites and ancient cities?”
“Sure. Sounds more exciting than sitting around doing nothing. There must be a demand for necromancers, right? Because we can sense the burial spots.” She rubbed at her chin thoughtfully, brimming with excitement, acting like her early teenage years all over again, when she thought she had a grand future and wouldn’t be sucked into the underworld where her father ran illegal deadrings, and she had to watch necromancers pit bodies against one another and viciously tear into each other as mindless animals. Being in that kind of environment damaged the soul. It degraded you, to be near that savagery.
Sometimes, he was surprised he could look at Ellie and not see a monster there. Somehow, she’d managed to keep something of her old self with her. Just enough for him to believe that she’d always be good and never turn into some kind of monster. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll come protecting you when you go into your dangerous jungles, exploring to the ends of the world.”
“Yeah!” She turned to face Mason, her eyes shining, clutching him by the arm. “That’d be super cool. I’ll have to ask Talia if her work will involve that sort of thing.” Ellie smiled so beatifically that Mason felt momentarily dazzled. Lord, that girl did have a beautiful smile. Not that he allowed himself to think beyond it being a smile, because Ellie was his charge, his responsibility. Always, always.
“We’ll see.” His smile came back at her, soft, and his heart did a funny lurch when she leaned against him, her head against his shoulder, hugging his elbow. She closed her eyes for the rest of the ride there, with Rosen, the driver, giving them an ever-so-casual glance in the rearview mirror. Mason didn’t have any words to say. Ellie had hugged him before, of course. Sometimes he felt that strange, tight knot in his stomach and throat, like now, but it was like that feeling you had with an animal trusting you, right? If a cat snuggled into your lap, you didn’t want to move, right? Because that little thing was there and with you, sharing warmth and trusting enough to put itself under your control.
That was what the tightness was. It had to be. Because Ellie trusted him, and laid her head against him, and he absolutely didn’t want to betray that trust. Not in a million-million years. She meant too much to him for that.
Still, when she left him and went for her induction session with Rosen, for some reason, it felt like a little bereavement of sorts. She was being trained, now… she wouldn’t need him around quite so much, and his own, new and improved job one day would take him from her. They were still together, but instead it’d be a slow decline, until finally there was no need for each other anymore.
That was always going to happen, he told himself, going for his evaluation, where the precinct wanted to determine how effective he was, and what risks he could go under. It soon became obvious to them that they could likely send him to high-risk zones, since he had a decent chance of survival, being immune to bullets and all when he shifted into his dragon form. One thing that pleased him significantly less was the fact that there happened to be a stern dragon shifter on the force as well. One of a higher class than him, and could transform into a blue dragon the size of a small truck. The second he encountered that man, he got treated to an aura of disdain and contempt, of a faint mockery of him because of the circumstance of his birth.
“You must be of the lowest caste, no?” Detective Gant had watched his transformation into a dragon and back with the faintest sneer upon his arrogant features. “With a form that tiny...”
Mason bristled at the words. “My size has nothing to do with my effectiveness to battle. Sir,” he added, since the dragon seemed to expect some kind of honorific from him. “I have defended my client efficiently for many years.”
“She is a child who barely left her home,” Gant pointed out with a sly smile. “Even if you shifted into the size of a cat, that job would have been possible for you. What does your family do, anyway?”
“I don’t think it appropriate to ask that kind of question, sir.” Mason bit hard on his words, not wanting to aggravate the hostile dragon more than necessary. He was the equivalent of a middle-class dragon, and they tended to be particularly nasty to their inferiors, as they wanted to feel better about everything, including the fact that they weren’t big enough to be nobility.
“Can’t be anything worthwhile, if you want to cover it up so much. Still, they’re letting you protect her for a little longer. Seems to be an adequate use of your talents, from what I’ve seen.” The detective stared at Mason eagerly as he spoke, as if waiting for Mason to retaliate, to lash out in anger, and therefore give him an excuse to fire Mason straight out of the precinct. Well, Mason was a better person than that.
“What’s my next lesson, sir?”
Gant regarded him for a moment longer, then beckoned him over to his next test—shooting down a range. Shooting wasn’t exactly Mason’s greatest skill, but he got enough body shots to only earn a light sneer from Gant. That was probably the best reaction he could hope to expect from someone like Gant. He waited for Ellie afterwards, still contemplating whether or not he should phone Regal. If he should cut things off once and for all, or wait until the man attempted to reach him.
A few more moments of waiting, tasting the foul coffee the precinct had, and noticing the acrid glare of Gant as he passed through reception, was about enough to conjure up Mason’s courage. He didn’t want to seem weak to something like that.
Being underestimated constantly grated on his soul, his pride, and ultimately his sense of self-worth.
Outside of the precinct, he found himself holding a crappy little plastic container with black swill sloshing around the bottom, grains sticking to the sides. Sunlight beamed down, more hot than warm, though he didn’t mind the heat. He dialed Regal’s number and waited intently for the response, sort of knowing what he wanted to say, but dreading saying it.
Regal answered after four rings. “What is it?”
“Hey, Regal,” Mason began, wondering just how he was going to stop this man from exploding all over him. His conclusion: probably not possible. He’d have to take the fury every step of the way. “How is it back there?”
A soft snort answered him. “Delightful, as always. I’ve more pressure being piled on my back, and I’m moving today. Today. Where’s my daughter?”
The moment of confrontation had never felt so sour in Mason’s throat. “She’s gone. Fled the country, left false trails. I ended up in Canada looking for her, but she’s shaken me off, Regal.”
Angry breaths huffed down the phone. Mason listened, preparing himself mentally for the wrath he knew was coming. “You… lost her. The one person whose sole job is to keep an eye on her, protect her, and make sure she doesn’t stray too far… and you damn well lost her.”
“That’s correct, sir.”
“How on earth did she get the money? She’s not been able to access my bank account, and I was taking her earnings.”
“Possibly she had enough scraped up for at least a bus trip, sir. You did allow her pocket money to eat and drink things of her own choice, after all. Buses can be very cheap if you book the right ones.”
Regal let out a little snarl, and Mason heard the man pacing up and down, in a place that echoed. “I should have known she was going to give me the slip. Wretched brat. Well, since she’s gone, that means I don’t have to employ you anymore, you useless sack of shit. You’re fired. Immediately. I won’t be giving you your pay at the end of the month.”
Mason sighed, expecting as much. “Don’t you want me to continue looking for your daughter, sir?”
They were finally free. Wasn’t quite as painful as I expected. Sure, having an extra month without payment might be hard for his family, but they should have just enough to be able to sustain them. He’d have to warn them, of course, and he did that via call, his mother accepting the result without too much resistance. She knew, after all, that her son would be raking in more money. No need to kick up any drama over it.
Free. Mason drew in deep, lung-filling breaths, observing the sun glint its light upon high-rise buildings, how the many cars racing along the streets were reflected in the windows of skyscrapers and office blocks, and how the few gray clouds in the sky promised rain later on. Wanting something better than the sludge inside his cup, he tossed it aside and searched for a better place for drinks, possibly hot snacks as well, if they ever ended up taking breaks and needing to stuff something down their throats. He found a promising place just around the corner, offering hot paninis with several delicious fillings, and a coffee that didn’t smell as if it’d been dug up out of a swamp. No more swamp-juice for him. He also brought back a ham and cheese panini and latte for Ellie, figuring if she rejected either, he’d finish off the rest himself. Win-win, either way.
She was out of her training when he came back, and accepted the goodies with much enthusiasm. “Oh, thanks, Mason! I was freaking starving. And I’ve smelled that coffee in their machine—it’s awful. They don’t have any decent ones in the kitchen, either. Mmm!” She sniffed at the food and took a gigantic bite out of it, leaving Mason to stare in amusement as she had entirely too much fun consuming what he’d brought. Also, the sounds she made were a little distracting, to say the least, but he was familiar enough with Ellie by now that commenting on this would only cause her to spit the food out at him and stubbornly refuse to take in any more, even if her stomach growled like a beast.