by Amelia Jade
“Did I do something wrong, Rokk?” Major Von Kemp was doing an admirable job of appearing calm.
“No.” Rokk sat heavily in one of the chairs, the wood creaking under the impact of his considerable weight. “But someone has.”
“Who?”
He briefly told him about the attempts on Linny’s life. “This is my mate, Major. I haven’t revealed that to her yet, because she’s not ready to hear it, but you know what that means. You know what I will do to protect her.”
The major sighed. “You know, I thought I’d gotten through our review meeting without a hitch the other day. This is going to throw a bit of a kink into that. The two men you just tossed out were—”
“I don’t care. Tell them to deal with me if they have an issue. You did nothing wrong.”
“Right. Well, I wish it worked that way,” the major said with a rueful smile. “Now, I will of course devote resources to finding this person. But you obviously had something more specific in mind when you came in here so calm and politely.”
“Lin—” He caught himself. This was her boss here, he needed to do this properly. “Sergeant Cantor mentioned that she disabled the security cameras in the hangar to prevent anyone from spying on her act. Are there any she may have missed?”
Major Von Kemp stroked his beard. “Unlikely. Sergeant Cantor knows the base well.”
Rokk swore.
“However, there are cameras on the outside of the building. They monitor the entrances.”
“Excellent. Show me.”
The pair got up. Rokk followed the major down several corridors into the Security section.
“Captain Lenard. I believe you know Rokk.”
It was the same officer who’d come and told him to stop harassing the women on the base before he’d found his mate. He nodded at Rokk, who returned the respectful gesture. Major Von Kemp explained what was happening and they waited while the videos in question were pulled up.
It was a tedious process, but the techs working under the captain’s command were thorough. Eventually they would have something.
“There, sir,” one of them said, freezing the camera. “Other than Sergeant Cantor and Rokk, this is the only person to enter the hangar within twelve hours prior.”
They all peered over the screen.
Rokk was the first to recognize the figure. “I don’t believe it,” he hissed angrily.
“You’re positive that this must be them?” Major Von Kemp asked as a nearby printer hummed to life, printing several pictures of the possible culprit.
“Who else could it be? At the least I will want to speak to him about this,” Rokk stated, doing his best to contain his anger.
“I’ll send a team to round him up,” Captain Lenard said, flicking his fingers at an aide. “We’ll have him in custody as soon as possible.”
“See that you do, Captain.” Rokk pulled himself up to his full, impressive height. “He has tried to kill my mate several times now. I will tolerate no delays in his punishment.”
He grabbed the pictures from the printer and left the room. It was time to show Linny that it wasn’t him, and that he’d done his job. He’d protected her, just like he’d said he would.
Chapter Seventeen
Rokk
With each step back to the hangar his mood improved.
He had proof now that it wasn’t him. Of course, if Linny truly believed he’d been the one trying to kill her, she would have called base security by then as well, ensuring that he was apprehended and kept away from her. At a minimum she would have told him to please leave her alone. So she knew deep down inside it wasn’t him.
The fact that the saboteur knew that he, a dragon, would be going after them had to weigh on her mind. By associating herself with him, she was making herself a target. He couldn’t blame her for wanting some distance if that were the case. Now though, the asshole was going to be arrested and punished, and Rokk could prove it. He could show Linny that he’d done his job.
A smile was actually working itself past his frown when he arrived at the door to the hangar. Rapping his fist against it loudly, he waited for her to answer.
“Who is it?” The voice was muffled through the door, but unmistakably Linny’s.
“It’s me.”
“Who?”
“Rokk,” he replied. “Let me in.”
There was a long wait. “I told you to go away.”
“I’m aware of that. I didn’t come back just to bug you. I have something to show you.”
“Rokk, please. Just leave me alone right now, okay? I can’t deal with this. I need to practice, to figure out what the hell I’m going to do now that all of my equipment is ruined.”
He counted to three, fighting back his angry retort. “Linny, I can prove that it wasn’t me.”
“Prove what wasn’t you?” He could almost picture the confusion on her face.
Speaking through the door was getting tiresome. “The sabotage, Linny.”
“I don’t care.”
Now he did get angry. “What? How the hell can you not care? They almost killed you, Linny! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” Now he was the confused one, trying to puzzle out just what was going on. Why was she so uncaring about this? They knew it, they had the person responsible. She was safe now! This wasn’t how he’d imagined the scene going at all.
“I don’t care. Go away, I don’t want to talk to you. It’s over.”
Rokk stood there dumbfounded. It was over? How was it over? He’d just fixed everything… Hadn’t he?
Where did I go wrong?
“You need to see this,” he growled and pulled on the door. To his surprise it wasn’t locked.
It slid open to reveal Linny. He started to hold up the pictures but she beat him to the punch. She hit something on her phone and held up the screen for him to see.
It was him, and Pyne, and Aric. In the cavern underground.
“Once you two find your mates, you will be,” Aric said.
“I’m so gonna find my mate before you,” Pyne teased. “Then you’ll be young and weak!”
Rokk growled. “Not if I find my mate first!”
“Not gonna happen.”
“You seem so confident. How about a little wager then? Say, a hundred grand?”
Pyne grinned. “Done!”
They slapped hands in agreement.
The video ended.
Linny crossed her arms, her eyebrows drawn low, a mask of anger covering the hurt he could see deep in her eyes. “I’m just a bet to you,” she whispered. “That’s why I don’t care. Now go away, Rokk. I never want to see you again.”
“That’s not it,” he protested.
She spoke softly. “I was just a hundred-thousand-dollar piece of ass. It’s right there for anyone to see. You pretend I’m your mate, you win the bet, boom. Done. And I fell for it like an idiot. You’re only concerned with winning, Rokk. You don’t care if anyone else gets hurt along the way. Only that you come out ahead.”
The sadness in her voice hurt, but it was the disappointment that stabbed him like a knife, over and over again.
“Just leave me alone. Please.” She pulled the door shut, and he heard it click locked.
A second later his acute hearing picked up the sound of someone sobbing quietly on the other side.
Rokk turned away, pictures in one hand, ready to just walk away like she’d asked.
Fuck that. I’ve already left her one too many times.
His dragon agreed, and the strength of it surged through him as he calmly walked back to the metal door and literally ripped it out of place.
Chapter Eighteen
Linny
Metal shrieked as the door was pulled away.
Linny screamed and backed up as Rokk’s towering form filled the doorway and entered the hangar.
“That’s enough,” he snapped, speaking in a tone she’d never heard directed at her before.
She clamped her jaw shut.
“Good. I’m not here to hurt you,” he said, stepping toward her.
Linny backed away instinctively. This was a side of him she’d never seen before, and it scared her.
“Sergeant Cantor,” Rokk boomed. “You will cease this ridiculousness this second. Do you understand me?”
Anger seared through her. “You are not my superior,” she spat.
“No, I’m not.” He stopped, and his upper body flagged. “I’m just a guy who cares about you. A lot.”
“How do I know you’re not going to hurt me?” She leaned to the side, pointedly looking at the missing door.
Rokk rolled his eyes. “Because if I wanted to hurt you I would have done so a long time ago, in a way nobody could track back to me. Ripping the door off and having you scream loud enough to set off the alarms is a pretty dumb-ass plan, don’t you think?”
She started to reply but he continued ahead. “I would have done something like sawing off the legs of your table, or electrifying your magic cage. Like this man did.” He tossed the pictures at her.
Linny grabbed them, recognizing the man on them. “Hey, he entered the talent show. I know him!”
Rokk nodded. “I know. His name is Corporal Singler, and he’s even now being arrested by base security. He is also, by the way, the same person who undoubtedly sent you that clip from the VR chamber, since that was his job.”
“He’s trying to sabotage us.”
“Now you’re using your brains. This wasn’t about just you. I’m sorry for your ego, but it has—or should I say had, since it’s over now—something to do with the two of us. Our relationship I would guess. Though how he expected to get you for himself after killing you I don’t know. That part confuses me.”
It confused her as well. In the wake of that came more anger and frustration. “I can’t believe you bet your twin brother about me!”
“Linny, I had no idea who you were when we made that bet. At that point in time you were just a snarky voice I heard in midair. Nothing more. That was before I realized what you were.”
“What do you mean?”
Rokk sighed, frustration evident on his gorgeous features. A tightening of his jaw, pulling the thick, light skin tight across his face. A twitch of his mouth. “Linny, you’re the assistant to the commander of a base populated by dragons, who are very important to your cause. There have been a lot of them here, yes?”
“Yes…”
“How many of them have slept around, played the field, pretended to be something they weren’t?”
She looked away, knowing full well where he was going with all of this, and hating that he was right. “None of them.”
“Exactly.”
She walked away from him, feeling embarrassed about her actions. “Nobody has ever talked to me like that before,” she whispered, hearing him follow after her. “Not even the drill instructors who were so arrogantly callous in telling me to cut it out.”
Rokk sighed. “I’m sorry, but I had to cut through to the core there.”
“Yeah.”
Everything came crashing to a head just then. The attempts on her life. Rokk. Her grandfather. All the pressure, the heartache, the headache and the fear. It washed over her like a tidal wave, and with it came tears. Tears of sadness, tears of joy. Tears of guilt and tears of terror.
At some point she opened her eyes to find herself curled up in Rokk’s lap on the ground, twin beams of steel corded around her. His arms held her tight while he kissed her forehead and told her it was going to be okay.
“It’s too much,” she whispered.
“What is?”
“Everything. It’s just wrong. I can’t handle this stress anymore. I’m going to quit the show. It was such a stupid idea in the first place, I can’t believe I suggested it.”
“Linny…”
“No, I’m certain. All it’s done is bring trouble I didn’t want.”
Rokk tried to speak, but she shook her head, committing herself to this course.
“I’m quitting, Rokk. I’ll find another way to get home to see my grandfather.”
Chapter Nineteen
Rokk
I’ll find another way home to see my grandfather.
The words hit him harder than a lightning bolt. He jerked as his muscles twitched.
“The other prize,” he whispered.
“What?” Linny looked up at him.
“The other prize was paid leave.” His face worked silently in irritation, mostly at himself for being so blind. “Leave you were going to use to go see your grandfather, since you don’t get any normally with this posting.” He pulled a hand from around her and slapped himself in the forehead. “That was why you got so upset with me when I said I was going to win instead of you. The talent show was your best hope, and between the sabotage and my comments, you felt there was no way you were going to get a chance to go see him.”
Linny looked down. She didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to. Rokk knew he’d hit the nail on the head.
“The answer is no.”
“No what?”
He slid her from his lap, pulling them both to their feet. “No to you quitting. You’re not going to do it.”
“Oh come on, Rokk. I have no equipment, and the contest is the dress rehearsal for the show. How am I supposed to be ready in time?”
He grinned. “Not you. Us.”
“Now you’re not making any sense.” She ran her hands over her head, pulling away the random strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail.
“Of course I am,” he exclaimed, feeling more excited as his idea became a plan inside his head. “You’re just not seeing things clearly yet. You’re still convinced that you’re going to quit and beg Major Von Kemp for some pity leave. Which he might grant. But what’s a few days compared to, what was the first-place prize again?”
“A full month. With pay.”
“Right. A few days, versus a full month.”
“So you want to do a tandem? How? With what?”
He grinned. “You haven’t seen what I’ve been working on, have you?”
“No, I haven’t, Rokk. Because unlike some people I can name, I don’t believe in spying.”
“Perfect.” His smile grew wider, ignoring the playful jab.
“I don’t understand.”
He turned away so she could only see a bit of his side profile. “Linny and…The Rock!” He turned his head sharply, raising one eyebrow while he looked around.
To his delight, she giggled. “You’re ridiculous, I hope you know that.”
“I know.” He reached out and took her hands in each of his. “What do you say? Want to work really hard and kick some serious ass out there?”
“You had me until you said work really hard.”
Rokk frowned. “I had you with ‘Want to?’” He scratched his chin. “That seems like a really odd pair of words to hook you. I’d never accuse you of being easy but…”
She pushed him. Or tried to. Mostly she pressed against him and moved backward, unable to make him move. “Not fair.”
“I know.” He picked her up and twirled her around.
“Hey! Gentle. I fell out of a steel cage a few hours ago, you know.”
He put her down immediately. “Listen, Linny. I’m so very sorry if anything I ever said hurt you. I never meant to do that. It wasn’t my intention for you to suffer by being around me, and I feel terrible that you have.”
“Maybe.”
Rokk watched his mate. She wasn’t done speaking.
“Maybe I have suffered by being around you. Though we don’t know that for sure. It could just be like you said, he’s trying to take out top talent. He’s scared of me, and not you.” Turquoise eyes danced. “Which means I should maybe reconsider teaming up with you.
“Ouch. You have wounded me, my lady. A blow struck trueth to my heart.” He clasped at his chest.
“Calm down, Shakespeare,” she said, shaking her head slowly, her eyes never leaving his.
“Alas, there is but one cure for the pain my mine heart.”
A foot started tapping on the ground. It wasn’t his.
“Let me guess,” she said dryly. “You want a kiss?”
Rokk grinned. “Pray thee tell madam, how is it that thou dost did learn of weakness mine?”
Linny shivered. “How did people actually talk like that? It’s painful to listen to. If I kiss you will you shut up?”
He shrugged. “For a moment.”
“Then I guess I’d better kiss you for a long time,” she murmured, stepping close and throwing her arms around his neck to put action to words.
They kissed for a very long time, her feet dangling above the floor as he held her gently to him, enjoying the soft caresses of her fingers down the back of his head.
The timing was right. Rokk knew the words; he’d spent a century rehearsing them, and a week making sure that they would sound right to Linny. She was ready to hear them. He could feel it in his bones. The stars might not be shining, but they certainly were aligned in this moment. It had to be now.
“Linny…”
“Yes, Rokk?” She pulled back from his kiss, looking up into his eyes with a seriousness he’d never seen before. She understood he was about to say something important. Something impactful. The signs were all there.
But Rokk faltered.
The words didn’t come. Like rotting wood they disintegrated as he tried to say them, blowing away like dandelion seeds in a late summer breeze. The bubble of warmth that had encapsulated them popped, and he set her back down onto the concrete.
“Is everything okay, Rokk?”
He couldn’t admit his weakness now. Improvisation it was. “Yes. I just was struck by you. You’re so very beautiful.”
She giggled the giggle of a woman flattered, but who also knew that he wasn’t saying what he’d originally intended. The nuances to the laugh were subtle, a slight forcing of it, mixed with genuine appreciation of his compliment. It was the eyes that said it all though. The eyes that watched him with hawk-like attention, trying to understand what had just passed through the mind of someone so close to her.
“Everything is going to be okay,” he said. “They’ve got the saboteur, and we’re going to kick ass in the talent show. You’re going to go home and see your grandfather. Everything will work out.” A sudden burst of confidence surged through him. “I promise you that.”
