Gambling on Her Dragon

by Anna Lowe

  But no. He pulled out her black lace bra and held it out like a peace offering. “Yep.”

  She grabbed it and stuffed it into her back pocket. Patted the other back pocket. Where was her phone?

  “So,” he said, settling against the driver’s side door now. Blocking it, too, in case she decided to try for a quick escape. “Explain.”

  She summoned all the dignity she could. “I don’t owe you an explanation.”

  “No, you owe me ninety thousand dollars,” he said with no bitterness whatsoever. “You can give me that instead.”

  Her shoulders slumped, because he’d just laid the truth bare. She’d robbed an innocent man — well, a man innocent of everything except looking hot as sin and screwing her on the first date when he was drugged. She’d left him to his fate at the hands of a couple of thugs. She’d watched as he’d fought for his life against a trio of gargoyles…

  God, what had she done?

  “Why do you need a car when you can fly, anyway?” he asked. “And why were those gargoyles after the car?”

  She pushed her palms against her eyes, trying to evade reality once again. The gargoyles worked for the thugs who had her sister. They’d picked up Kaya’s trail the minute she entered Vegas, and she’d barely shaken them off. They must have been watching the car, waiting for her to return.

  A step sounded beside her, and when a gentle hand slid across her shoulders, it took everything she had not to lean in for comfort.

  “Hey,” he whispered. “What’s going on?”

  She gulped. Took a deep breath. Forced her chin up and the truth out.

  “I need the car to get my sister away. She can’t fly.”

  He tilted his head.

  “Half sister.” She shrugged. No need to tell him what the other half was…just in case.

  He nodded as though the words didn’t sound crazy to him at all.

  “She in some kind of trouble?” His voice went all low and rumbly, like the Lone Ranger about to saddle up and head off on his latest rescue mission.

  “You could say that.”

  She was sniffling now, and damn it, there was no reason for that. She straightened her shoulders and looked into his eyes — deep, looking past the compassion and concern, past the worried gleam. Could she trust this man?

  The eyes were ocean blue now. You can trust me.

  She fought them for another moment, then gave in. Who else did she have?

  “My sister came to Vegas a few weeks ago.” She shook her head at the memory of the first phone call, in which Karen raved about having such a great time and meeting such a great guy. “She won some money at the slot machines, then lost a lot more. And more, and more.” She winced. God, how could her sister have been so stupid? “Then she borrowed some from a guy she’d just met, and lost that, too…”

  Trey nodded as she explained. It was all so predictable, really. Except for the details, but she wasn’t about to share those.

  “I got a frantic phone call from her. She’s being held by the guy until she gets the money, and if she doesn’t get it by tonight…”

  Trey’s brow wrinkled when she didn’t go on. “Then what?”

  She fluttered her hands, wishing she could leave the rest out. “He says he’ll make her earn it back. The easy way.” She made air quotes around easy, shivering at the thought of her sister offered up as a sex toy to any paying man.

  Trey’s hand caught hers and squeezed just a little bit. “What about the police?”

  She shook her head. “These are shifters we’re talking about. We can’t involve the police.” She hurried on before he asked too many details, such as what kind of shifter was involved. “So I need eighty thousand dollars—”

  He groaned and rolled his eyes. “Ninety.”

  “What?”

  He scraped his palms over his stubbly cheeks. “They called this morning, and I had to bluff—”

  “You what?” she screeched, jumping away.

  He shrugged. “The phone rang, some guy demanded money, the girl screamed…”

  Her sister had screamed? Kaya’s gut clenched.

  “I had to do something, so I said they could have five more.”

  “Five more?”

  He nodded. “But the guy went to ten…”

  “You were bargaining for my sister?” she shrieked.

  His shoulders drooped. “What else was I supposed to do?”

  If he hadn’t looked so pained, she might have smacked him. She settled for a tiny slap to one muscled shoulder and tried to ignore the little zing the contact sent through her body. “What did he say?”

  He looked up, resembling a chastised puppy. “Midnight. We have until midnight.”

  She started. We. Had he really just said we?

  “So…” He nodded. “What’s the plan?”

  And just like that, she went from damsel in distress to leader of a rescue squad. A very small squad consisting of one dragon and one wolf.

  Make that one nervous dragon and one big, formidable wolf.

  She studied his eyes one more time. The same eyes that had held hers in that fairy-tale moment when they’d first met. The same eyes that thanked her for what she’d done to him — and what she’d let him do to her — last night in bed.

  The eyes looking at her now, promising he meant it.

  She might just have drowned in those eyes if it hadn’t been for him tilting his head and speaking softly. “I’ll help. I’m happy to help.”

  He was the one talking, but she was the one choking on the words. And if he was the one who offered a hug, she was the one who leaped into it and wrapped both arms around him tight.

  It was crazy, the pull he had on her. Crazy for her to trust him so much. But the whole situation was crazy, right?

  She took a deep breath, extracted herself from the hug, and held up one finger. “I’ll be right back.”

  The dreamy look in his eyes was promptly replaced by alarm. “Where are you going?”

  She started stripping again. Quickly, before she could rethink her crazy plan. “Hold this. And this.” She handed over her pants, then her underwear.

  “Um…”

  “I’ll be right back,” she said, trying to use that sure, cool tone he had down pat.

  She turned and sniffed the air, then jumped. Shifted in midair, caught an updraft, and soared over the hill, telling herself she was not completely nuts. Within five minutes, she was back from the nearby mesa where she’d stashed the loot. She thumped the canvas sack on the hood of the car and retracted her claws. Went straight back to human form, plucked her clothes out of his arms, and yanked them on. Fast.

  “Make you a deal, Hot Stuff,” she said, trying to sound big and tough.

  He crooked one perfect eyebrow and waited patiently, as if he fielded this kind of offer every day.

  “Not exactly a fair trade,” she admitted. “But it’s the best I can do.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Help me get my sister free, and I’ll give you the car.”

  “What if I don’t want the car?”

  It wasn’t a threat. It was a whisper. His eyes were locked on her lips, his expression wistful.

  The desert heat pulsed between his body and hers, and her knees wobbled. Exactly the way they had when she’d first laid eyes on him in the casino and felt the blood rush to her head, as if she’d been turning cartwheels or holding her breath too long.

  Trey leaned in a little closer, and she stretched up until their lips were only an inch apart. An inch too much, so she laid her hands on his chest and reeled him in for a kiss. A kiss that picked up right where they’d left off the night before, and it wasn’t long before her leg was climbing his, her hips shoving closer…

  It was every bit as good as their first kiss. Maybe even better, because both of them were clearheaded, or as clearheaded as two people could be with an invisible force zapping around them, pushing them together. A perfect kiss she was sure would be etched into her m
emory forever, if it weren’t for the sudden twitch in his ears. His nostrils flared, and his head whipped to the side.

  “We have company.”

  She blinked a little, and when her mind cleared enough to register anything but happiness and warmth, she heard it, too. The sound of a car engine. Several car engines, in fact.

  Three black Hummers appeared around the bend, and Trey took a step forward, blocking her view.

  He tossed the canvas bag onto the back seat of the car, then curled an arm back and shielded her in a protective stance.

  “Were you expecting someone?” she mumbled, craning to see past his shoulder.

  He shook his head. “No, but if they saw the gargoyle fight…” He trailed off, but she could fill in the rest. Maybe she wasn’t the only supernatural who’d seen the action and followed him all the way out here.

  She could feel his pulse race through his hand.

  “Do you know these guys?”

  He squinted at the logo on the side of the vehicles and stiffened. “I know of these guys.”

  “Good news or bad?” she ventured.

  Trey tilted his head left, then right.

  “I’m not quite sure yet.”

  Chapter Seven

  Trey kept Kaya close as half a dozen men slid out of the Hummers. Their nostrils tested the air exactly the way his did: wolf sniffing wolf.

  And not just any wolves, as the Lone Wolf logo on the side of the Hummers told him.

  If Trey hadn’t have been so busy holding the gaze of the oncoming shifters, he would have slumped in defeat. Everyone had warned him about this cross-country trip, hadn’t they? Keep out of trouble, his dad had said when he’d first left the East Coast. Keep out of trouble, his cousin Lana warned as she waved good-bye from the gateway of Twin Moon Ranch, where he’d worked for a couple of months before continuing his travels in the West.

  And here he was, squatting right in the middle of trouble. Thugs, car chase, dragon lady — he hadn’t stepped into trouble so much as dived into it, headfirst.

  He shook his head. The dragon lady part, he liked. The rest…the rest was a mess.

  An even bigger mess now, because the Lone Wolf Casino was run by Westend pack, who he’d been warned about. A pack he would have avoided entirely if he’d stayed clear of Vegas.

  But, no. There he was, standing firmly at the side of his she-dragon, pinned by an invisible force he wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge.

  How did the Westend wolves find him? He cursed. Hot-rodding a red sports car through Vegas would have drawn their attention, and he’d left a plume of dust on his way down this dirt road. Plus, if Westend wolf pack was as powerful as he’d heard, they’d have shifter spies everywhere. Eagles. Coyotes. Hell, maybe the goddamn jackrabbit he’d nearly run over a few miles back had gone and tattled on him.

  Eight big men wearing jeans and white T-shirts formed a circle around him and Kaya and folded their hairy arms. One grunted and showed the points of his teeth.

  “Follow us.”

  An order, not a request, so Trey got in the Jag with Kaya and drove out the way he’d come. Faking a casual yawning motion, he reached into the back seat and swept the bag of cash onto the floor, out of sight. They bounced all the way down that dirt road until they eventually rolled onto rough tar and finally onto the highway, all the way back to Vegas. He checked the pale desert sky for gargoyles, but they seemed to have given up on him.

  For now, at least.

  Kaya chewed on her lip. “Who are these guys?”

  “Westend wolf pack,” he said, trying to sound casual, as if they were driving along a scenic highway instead of toward an uncertain fate. Like he hadn’t been kissing her back there. And not just kissing, but consuming. Holding. Claiming as his own.

  Her brow was furrowed, her fingers busy pushing at the cuticles of her nails. “Good guys or bad guys?”

  Exactly the question he was asking himself.

  “According to my cousin,” he said, “somewhere in between.”

  She shot him that exasperated look she did so well. “So you don’t know them?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Not exactly?” She threw up her hands.

  “Look, I don’t know much about dragons,” he started. “But wolf politics get a little complicated sometimes.”

  “Complicated?”

  “Complicated.”

  He trailed off as they followed the lead car into an industrial area on the outskirts of the city and pulled up to a huge iron gate that rolled slowly, ponderously to the side. He kept the Jag in neutral for a good, long time, not in any hurry to enter, and every last hair on the back of his neck rose.

  Crap, his cousin Lana would flay his hide if she found out he’d crossed paths with the Westend wolves. Her Arizona pack and Westend were nominally allies, but it was a working relationship, at best. A rather strained relationship, as he’d gathered over the months he’d just spent working at his cousin’s place. If Lana — or worse, her mate, the badass alpha of Twin Moon Ranch — found out he was here…

  The Hummer behind him revved, signaling him to enter the fortresslike grounds.

  “Do you think they’ll help?” Kaya whispered.

  He forced his fingers not to jitter nervously on the wheel. “Maybe if there’s something in it for them…”

  He looked at her, and her gaze dropped to the floor.

  Right. Clearly, there was nothing in it for these greedy wolves.

  A stray thought crossed his mind. What was in it for him?

  As if reading his mind, she gripped his hand and whispered, “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

  Looking into her worried eyes, he realized he wasn’t sorry. Not one bit.

  “It’ll be all right.” He tried his best to sound confident. “We have the money…”

  There it was again, that heavy we. The one that made his wolf hum in satisfaction.

  “If they don’t notice it,” Kaya murmured, shooting a worried look at the back seat.

  He shook his head, trying to stay positive. “We have the phone number to set up the switch with the kidnappers — the money for your sister. All we have to do is satisfy this pack that we’re not here to infringe on their turf, and then we can concentrate on your sister. Right?”

  So easy to say, so hard to do. Because the wolves hustled him out of the car, up a grand staircase, and then frisked him in the hallway. They frisked Kaya, too, until he growled so loudly, the guy let her go. Hands off my woman.

  They were led down an ornate hallway hung with cheesy gold curtains tied back by strips of fabric and giant gold tassels — the kind he’d have loved to fray to pieces as a pup. Kaya brushed closer and closer to his side with every step they took. A set of massive doors opened, and they continued into a huge receiving room where the walls were covered in mirrors and even more gold curtains. A cheap nineties attempt to mimic the palace of Versailles that practically screamed, Look how rich and successful we are!

  Two steps led to a daislike rise, where a grizzled old shifter sat, glaring at him.

  About the only thing this place had in common with Twin Moon pack was the glaring alpha. But the Twin Moon alpha, Ty Hawthorne, exuded an unfailing devotion to his pack. This alpha, from what Trey had heard, had an unfailing devotion to wealth.

  The bulky wolf who’d led them in took out the wallet he’d confiscated from Trey and read from an ID card. “Trey Dixon.”

  Trey winced as the alpha’s eyes narrowed on him.

  “Dixon?” the man snarled.

  Okay, not a good start. He had no choice, though, but to nod.

  “Any relation to Lana Dixon?” The alpha crooked an eyebrow.

  “My cousin.” The less he elaborated, the better. This was already complicated enough.

  “And you’re here because…?” Roric, the Westend alpha, went on.

  Because your thugs dragged me out of the desert and forced me to follow them here? Because I was minding my own business until I met this
gorgeous dragon, and everything snowballed from there?

  “Well, um…” He fished for an answer.

  “Just passing through,” Kaya chipped in.

  Her hand shook in his, though she stood straight and proud as if she faced down powerful alphas every day. She gave his hand a bolstering squeeze that made his pulse race and his heart skip a few beats.

  He’d probably jump off a cliff for her, and he didn’t even know why. It was scary how quickly his wolf had thrown his lot in with her.

  “Just passing through,” the alpha echoed, oozing disbelief.

  Trey put his hands up. “Honestly. We’ve just got to take care of one little piece of business and then…”

  Roric’s eyes narrowed. “Business?”

  Kaya rushed to fill in the blank. “I just need to find my sister—”

  Find? the alpha’s skeptical eyes shouted back.

  “Meet! I mean, meet my sister tonight,” she hurried on.

  The way Roric studied them convinced Trey the less said, the better. No need to complicate things by mentioning bounty-hunting bears or indebted sisters or anything else.

  “And then we’re out of here,” Trey added.

  Roric glowered with a stare so intense, it just might have lasered a hole through Trey’s shirt if another wolf hadn’t stepped through the doors, approached Roric, and whispered in the alpha’s ear.

  Now, what? Trey exchanged glances with Kaya.

  “It seems I have pressing business to attend to,” Roric growled at last.

  “No problem. We’ll just get going and—”

  “You’ll do no such thing,” Roric snapped.

  Kaya took a step back while Trey glared. Not a smart move with an unfriendly alpha, but he was hardly in the mood to be polite to the guy who’d just snorted at his…his…

  Mate, his wolf supplied.

  Acquaintance, the human side of his mind insisted.

  His wolf snorted and shook his head.

  “You’ll enjoy the hospitality of Westend pack,” Roric continued, making the command clear in his tone. “I’ll deal with you…” He glanced at his watch. “After dinner. Four hours.”

  He clapped his hands, and two guards scurried forward to lead Trey and Kaya out a side door, where they were immediately intercepted by a curvy brunette. A wee little thing with hungry, appraising eyes that swept up and down the length of him.