by Jadyn Chase
He cocked his head. “So what if they are dragons? What does that have to do with you going out with me?”
“If you’re fighting the Longtails, that must mean you’re dragons, too.” I waited for him to react to that, but he didn’t. He just stood there in impenetrable silence. “Well? Are you?”
He hesitated for a second. Then he threw back his shoulders and his features hardened. “Yes, I am.”
“Then it’s probably not such a great idea for us to go out, is it?”
He cast a brief glance down the corridor. When he turned around to look at me, all the warmth and humanity evaporated from his face. I might as well have been looking at a countenance chiseled out of granite. “If that’s the way you want it…”
He swiveled and stormed into Anna’s room without another word. For a fleeting second, I wondered if I made the right decision. Should I really consider going out—with him, of all people?
No, that would be stupid. For one thing, he was in a motorcycle club fighting the Chinese Longtails. That told me more than I needed to know about him and his activities. His wife was killed in a drive-by shooting. For all I knew, the Longtails were after Roman and hit her. Any woman that came within spitting distance of him could expect more of the same.
Second, he was a dragon. He admitted it. At least he had the stones to do that and not lie about it.
The footage of those things didn’t seem real when I saw it on TV. It resembled something out of a movie. The reporters interviewed a few people who had seen them firsthand, but not even that made them real.
I didn’t want to see one of those enormous lizards up close. I would rather live in my normal little world where people are people and reptiles of massive proportions didn’t exist.
5
Roman
I exploded out of the hospital going a mile a minute. I fumed at Maya for…..for what? For turning me down? Naw, I didn’t blame her for that.
I didn’t blame her for not wanting to get involved with a biker. Hell, I had been trying to get myself and Anna out of the life for years. If I had a way to avoid getting into the club in the first place, I would jump at the chance.
I didn’t blame her for not wanting to deal with a dragon, either. So she saw the footage. Who hadn’t? That was why our people didn’t get mixed up with humans. They couldn’t handle the idea, much less the reality of a full-blown dragon. They had been taught all their lives dragons couldn’t exist. They couldn’t overcome a lifetime of conditioning to accept a different version of reality.
I was more mad at myself. That was the bottom line. I never should have let myself think that way about her. I shouldn’t have opened my heart to that. I should have stayed locked up in my iron box where Anna was my whole world. That would be the smart thing to do.
If I had done that, I wouldn’t be upset now about Maya turning me down. Christ, I asked her out on a date—nothing more. She said no. Woopty-doo. Billions of other women surrounded me on all sides. Of them, thousands of dragon women would jump at the chance to go out with The Boss. I could name several dozen I could call at a moment’s notice.
None of them made me feel that way before, though. None of them woke that sleeping part of me that wanted a woman. None of them made me want to put my arms around a woman and take her to my bed.
If I couldn’t have Maya, I didn’t want another woman. That pissed me off more than anything. I wanted her, and now I couldn’t have her.
I barged down the hospital steps ready to tear someone a new asshole when Carlos and two other lieutenants approached me across the street. Their bikes took up four parking places in front of the grocery store.
Carlos nodded to me.
I drew up to a stop and returned the nod, but I cast my gaze up and down the street to avoid making eye contact with any of them. They wouldn’t walk right up to me like that if they didn’t have something important to tell me, and I didn’t want them to see me angry. To them, I had to be a rock, immovable.
Carlos lowered his voice and mumbled down at the ground. “Our scouts reported back from the north. The Longtails are moving. It looks like you were right, Ese. Whatever they were doing in Vegas was a prelude to war.”
“What did you find out?” I asked.
“Logan recorded them making a weapons buy on Wednesday night. They brought in fifty assault rifles and seventy crates of ammo, and that’s not counting twenty new choppers from the works. They have ten prospects on the books, so it looks like they plan to hurry them through initiation the way you told us to do with Logan and Zander.”
“So what do they need the other ten for?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you, but Zander checked their bank statements and found deposits to the Department of Immigration and the Department of Homeland Security. The trail of breadcrumbs leads to at least five new green cards issued to Longtail members. It looks like they’re bringing in existing members from China and Canada, so we can safely assume they’re moving members here from other parts of the country, too. Shit, Ese, for all we know they’ve got their cousins coming down from Vegas to lend a hand.”
I kicked a clump of grass sprouting out of the pavement. “Son of a bitch!”
“I increased the rotations of our patrols around our perimeter boundary,” he went on, “and I posted a guard at your house. Kane here is on his way inside to post out the Chiquita’s room in case any of those pieces of….”
“No!” I snapped.
Carlos’s head whipped around. “What?”
“No guards in Anna’s room or around it. Cancel that.”
Carlos’s eyes bugged out of their sockets, and the other three brothers exchanged glances. I should have seen this coming, but now that I crossed that line, I couldn’t go back.
“You know as well as I do they’ll be coming after you any way they can,” Carlos told me. “If you leave her unguarded, she’ll be the first weak link they go for. I shouldn’t have to tell you this.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” I return. “She’s my daughter, so she’s my responsibility. No guards in her room or anywhere in the hospital. Those are my orders.”
Carlos stared at me like I had three heads. “You can’t do this. It’s insanity.”
I gave him one clipped shake of my head and shoved my way through the semi-circle of bodies. “Those are my orders. Don’t let me hear any more about it.”
I set my eyes on that line of bikes across the street. I had to get out of here. I couldn’t tolerate the questioning looks on their faces. What was I thinking? Did I really want to risk my daughter’s life on a whim and a prayer?
Maya already turned me down. She wasn’t interested, but the fact remained that she wouldn’t be comfortable with any patched Diablo anywhere in the hospital, especially not somewhere she would have to see him every day. Since when did her feelings come before Anna’s safety?
I got half a stride away when Carlos darted out his hand and grabbed my elbow. He whirled me around to face him. He might be the only man alive who could lay a hand on me like that without me breaking him in half.
“Listen to me, Ese,” he murmured. “Just listen for two seconds, all right? Whatever your reasons for not posting a guard, I don’t need to know. You don’t want a guard posted. I hear you. You can count on me to carry out your orders. You know that, but just listen to me. Don’t leave the chiquitita unguarded. For the love of all that’s holy, don’t leave her unguarded. Let me post a plain-clothes guard if that’s the way you feel about it. I can give him a cover so no one ever has to know he’s there. We can have him visiting some other patient on the same ward. Give it a chance. We’ll make it totally incognito. Trust me on this. Just don’t leave her unguarded. Please.”
I shot a menacing glare at him. If anyone else told me that, I might suspect he was trying to claim he cared more about Anna than I did.
I could never believe that of him—not in a million years. Of everyone on the planet, he alone loved Anna and me equa
lly. He wanted what was best for us all. He wanted Anna safe, but he wanted to preserve whatever reason I had for not wanting a guard. He didn’t even have to know what that reason was.
I looked away for a minute. My heart and soul warred in my chest. What should I do? I didn’t want to leave Anna unguarded. I knew better than anyone what the consequences could be.
I couldn’t send a patched Diablo into the hospital, though. I knew that now. I couldn’t shove it in Maya’s face. That would be twisting the knife.
I glanced back at his weathered visage. An undercover guard could do the job. Maya never had to know he was one of ours. She never had to know we were keeping her and Anna under surveillance.
“All right, Ese.” I breathed a heavy sigh. All this emotional turmoil was getting to be too much for me. “You can post a plain-clothes guard. Just make sure it’s someone who hasn’t been in the hospital before. Set up a cover story for him so no one knows what he’s really doing.”
Carlos relaxed and let his hand fall. “Thank you.”
I scanned the street. Should I tell him? Should I confide in my own cousin about what was going on with me? I certainly couldn’t tell anybody else.
When I checked, I caught him scrutinizing me with flinty black eyes. Did he see? Did he detect the new weakness interfering with my ability to make decisions on behalf of the club?
I never told him I wanted to get out. I never told anyone, not even Laura. I kept it to myself for exactly this reason. I didn’t want anyone questioning my authority or my competence until I succeeded in arranging everything.
If he found out I ever even remotely considered getting involved with a human—if anyone found out—I’d be in more danger from my own brothers than I ever was from the Longtails. That would be my worst nightmare.
Carlos turned away first. He whispered some orders to his compadres. They all nodded and dispersed to leave me and Carlos alone. Before I could make up my mind what to do or what to say, he clapped me on the shoulders. “Consider it done. Leave everything to me.”
He walked away and abandoned me in turmoil. I cursed myself for ever laying eyes on Maya, but how could I avoid it?
6
Maya
I strolled into Anna’s room and scooted around to the monitor. I pressed the big yellow button and the screen died. “Today’s the day!” I told her. “You’re going home today.”
She beamed up at me from the bed. “Yeah! I can’t wait.”
I took hold of one of the cardiac leads attached to her chest and unplugged it from the snap. “I bet you won’t be sorry to get unhooked from all this stuff. You’ll be able to sleep at night again without all these bells and whistles going off.”
“And don’t forget the food,” she reminded me. “I can’t wait to eat some real food for a change.”
I continued my routine, but I couldn’t stop myself from glancing around. Something was missing. “Where’s your dad? I thought he would be here to see you off.”
“He’s going to pick me up outside. He didn’t want you to be uncomfortable. That’s why he and the rest of the club stayed away these last few days.”
My eyes popped. “He told you that? He didn’t have to do that.”
“He said you were uncomfortable having Los Diablos around, so he stayed away.”
I turn my attention back to her chart, but a flush of heat rushed across my cheeks. Roman. He stayed away from his own daughter to make me feel more comfortable.
That was a big sacrifice he made for my sake. He loved his daughter more than anything. I didn’t think anything could come between them, but maybe I was wrong about that.
Could I be that one thing in the world that he would allow to come between them? Could I mean that much to him? How could I when we only just met? I was a nurse taking care of his daughter in the hospital. I wasn’t much more than a stranger. He asked me out once and I turned him down.
No sane person would let a total stranger come between them and their only daughter. The leader of a motorcycle gang certainly never would. Anna was everything to him and I was nothing. So why would he make that sacrifice?
I got a wheelchair, maneuvered it into the room, and parked it next to the bed. Anna arched an eyebrow at it. “I don’t need that. I can walk. I won’t fall over.”
“I know. It’s hospital policy. Everyone has to get wheeled out of the building. That’s the rule.” I couldn’t help grinning at her. “It’s some stupid insurance thing. It doesn’t mean anything.”
She laughed out loud. She sounded so light-hearted and innocent. No one would ever guess from looking at her that she knew the first thing about her father’s business.
She must be one of those dragons. Her father was one. Her mother was probably one, too. Why else would she marry Roman? I could think of a lot of reasons she would marry Roman besides that, but never mind.
I fished Anna’s bag of personal effects out of the cupboard and laid out her regular clothes. She stood up and started peeling off her hospital pajamas. She moved around with ease and confidence. No trace of her condition remained.
When she finished getting dressed, she rounded on the wheelchair. “I guess I have to ride in this thing.”
“Think of it like riding on the motorcycle,” I told her. “Just hold on and let me do the steering.”
She laughed again. She got lighter and more cheerful the closer she came to leaving this place. “You say that like you know what how it feels to ride on the back of a motorcycle.”
“I do. I had a boyfriend in college who rode a motorcycle. He used to take me for rides all the time.”
“Did you like it?” Anna asked.
“Sure, I did. What’s not to like?”
She looked away. “Nothing. I like riding motorcycles, too.”
“Do you ride with your dad sometimes?” A squirreling tendril of excitement niggled at my guts when I mentioned Roman.
“All the time.” She cocked her head to study me. “I didn’t think you would be into that kind of thing.”
“Why does that surprise you? I’m not so old that I can’t enjoy a ride on a motorcycle every now and then.”
Her little face burst into a brilliant ray of sunshine. “You should try riding a dragon sometime. Now that’s what I call fun!”
I wiped the smile off my face fast. In a fraction of a second, my blood ran cold staring at Anna. She was one of them. She looked like a little girl, but she was really a monster in disguise.
I better watch myself around her. She was just as dangerous as her father and all those other criminals hanging around.
Anna’s face fell. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean to scare you. My dad always tells me the humans don’t understand. I guess I never thought of you as one of them, Maya. I’ll leave now, and you don’t have to see me again.”
“I didn’t mean that, Anna.” I put out my hand to squeeze her arm. “I’m sorry I reacted the way I did. I’m just…. I’m just not used to it. That’s all. None of us are used to it.”
She raised her black eyes to my face. “Is that why my dad doesn’t want to hang around the hospital anymore?”
I studied my fingernails. “I guess so.”
“Just take me down to the entrance,” she muttered. “My dad will take me home and we won’t bother you anymore.”
“You’re not bothering me, Anna,” I told her. “I hope we can still be friends even after you leave here.”
Her eyes flew open. “Really? Could we?”
“Of course. Just don’t ask me to ride on the back of any dragon.”
She broke into that glorious smile again. “You should really try it. It’s ten times better than riding on a motorcycle.”
“I’m surprised you ride on their backs. I thought you would fly on your own if you could.”
“I can’t,” she replied. “We don’t get the ability to shift until we reach puberty. I won’t be able to fly for a few more years yet. I can’t wait!”
&nb
sp; Now it was my turn to stare at her with wide eyes. “Really? I didn’t know that. I watched that documentary on TV, but it never said that.”
“That documentary left out a lot,” she told me. “You know you shouldn’t believe everything you see on TV.”
“Yeah. I know.”
She swiveled around and sat down in the wheelchair. “All right. Let’s see what this baby can do.”
Her light-hearted air snapped me out of my trance. I seized the chair handles and guided it out of the room. My mind spun on the way down the corridor. What if she was right? What if that documentary didn’t portray the dragons accurately? Who would know that better than Anna?
I backed the wheelchair into the elevator and waited while the car rode down to the main lobby. I was relieved over the last few days when Roman didn’t put in any further appearances at the hospital. I didn’t want to deal with the fall-out of a patient’s father resenting me after he asked me out.
Now I questioned the whole incident. Did I make a mistake turning him down? What if all my reasons for rejecting him turning out to be baseless and misguided?
The elevator dinged. In a blur, I pushed the wheelchair through the lobby to the entrance doors. I emerged into the fresh air just as a large white Tesla nosed into the curb. The falcon wing doors glided up.
Roman got out of the driver’s seat and strode around the car toward us. He beamed from ear to ear. “Mija! My little sweetheart!”
He threw his arms around Anna and scooped her out of the wheelchair. He spun her around kissing her and laughing. She hugged him and exclaimed, “Papa!”
He held her up. “Can you walk? Do I need to carry you?”
“I’m fine. I can walk on my own.” She twisted out of his grasp until he set her feet on the pavement. Roman pushed her toward the car. “Jump in and we’ll take you home.”
