Nina pulled off her hoodie, hanging it on the coatrack. “I told her she was fucking crazy. But why would she listen to me? Someone who has experience in the kind of crazy exactly like Frank!” she yelled, craning her neck over his shoulder to yell in his face.
Frank jumped, shaking the whole couch, the tremor of his fear so violent he vibrated from head to toe.
Tessa put her hand on Nina’s arm. “Please don’t scare him, Nina. Trust me.”
Nina narrowed her eyes at Tessa. “Fine, but when this all goes to shit, it’s on you, kiddo.” She stomped off to flop down on the section of the couch farthest from Frank.
Tessa took a deep breath, rolling her shoulders and taking a seat next to the terrified minion. “Okay, so tell me how you ended up a demon.”
“Minion,” he corrected. “I’m a minion. I’m stuck between upstairs and Hell.”
“Which is why you kept fading in and out in my bedroom and at the store?”
“Yes. I’m afraid I’m not a very good minion. I’m bumbly and awkward, and all I want to do is get out of there. It’s so awful.” He shook his head, tucking his chin to his rounded chest.
She decided a gentle tone was best. “How did you get there to begin with, Frank?”
Frank blew out a breath of air, his shoulders falling forward. “I wasn’t a bad person here on earth. I lived a modest lifestyle. Quiet, simple. I loved to garden and read. I read to the children at my local library once a week, because I realized I sounded like Winnie-the-Pooh, and the children loved it. Sometimes, as a hobby, I tinkered with ham radios—which is how I know a bit about antiques, and it’s also what led me to your store, Tessa.”
“We don’t fucking want to know if you like fuzzy kittens and The Bachelor, Frank,” Nina taunted from the opposite end of the couch. “We want to know why the fuck you were in Hell. Get to it—and hurry because I’m bored with your simple.”
“I don’t understand it very well. After I died, I woke up in a line. A line I think meant I was going uptown.” He used a pudgy finger to indicate the ceiling.
Tessa had to fight off the idea this was all impossible, and forged ahead. “How did you die, Frank?”
“It’s rather embarrassing.”
Carl reached his stiff hand over to Frank and thumped him on the shoulder to indicate that it was okay to tell them. He gave Frank a lopsided grin, his sweet face light and encouraging.
“I’d still like to know,” Tessa prodded.
“I was a gardener—roses were my specialty. They once called me the Rose Whisperer, able to take out aphids with just a glance.” Frank let out a soft chuckle at the memory, but his laughter soon soured when he continued. “I worked for many elite families in and around the tristate area, but as I got older, the workload became cumbersome. So I hired some part-time help. His name was Skeeter. Nice enough fellow, passed the background check—something I always do when I hire an employee for the safety of not just myself, but my employers. Skeeter was a thief, and I led him right to the doors of some of my most valued clients.”
“And this explains how you died, Frank? Get on with this shit before I beat you up,” Nina crowed.
“Nina. Please?” Tessa begged as Frank cringed again. “Finish, Frank. Please. I’d like to hear.”
“Skeeter, of course, knew all the schedules of my clients because I knew them. I had all the security codes to their mansions and such. One night, after work, he held me at gunpoint and made me open the home of one of my clients, who was away in Bali. All so he could steal a flat screen TV.” Frank shook his head in sorrow. “Long story short, one of the statues he’d cased was very valuable, but it was high up in an arch above their entry doors. So Skeeter got a ladder and made me climb it to retrieve the sculpture. My hands became quite sweaty, but I remember thinking there was nowhere for me to go. I lost my grip and the last thing I remember is falling. I assume I hit my head on the marble floor below.”
Tessa winced. If his story was true, Frank had suffered a misfortune similar to Darnell. “So, how did that land you in Hell?” Was the man upstairs really that unforgiving?
Frank’s breath shuddered in and out. “I was waiting in the line just like everybody else, waiting to see what was up ahead in the white, puffy clouds, and someone knocked me out of line—cut right in front of me. Next thing I knew, I was falling again—forever it seemed. I ended up in a big heap at Hell’s gates. I don’t remember much after that. Next thing I know, I was in a room with a bunch of other people like me. People who were granted only limited power until they’d proven themselves, is what they told me. My supervisor, Gary, told me I wasn’t a full-fledged demon. I was just a minion, and if I wanted to come back to earth, I had to perform tasks . . .”
“Like buy dragon scales?” Mick asked.
“Yes. I can’t tell you how long it took for me to locate you and your store. The Internet in Hell is slow, slow, slow. But I promise you, I didn’t know what they were for.”
Tessa sighed. One step forward, twenty back. “And you don’t know who wanted the dragon scales?”
“Oh, no. I don’t ask questions. I just do as I’m told. They promised me that if I did this one last thing, I was free.”
“Aw, now, you know that ain’t true, Frank,” Darnell said, waving his finger in the air. “They sellin’ you a bill of goods, pal. Ain’t nobody gonna let you outta Hell that easy. Likely, the best you could do is live here on this plane on the fringe like I do. Lyin’ low so nobody finds me.”
“Oh, dear,” Frank whimpered, his watery eyes looking to Tessa.
“So all you know is they want my egg because a baby dragon’s scales are powerful enough to unlock the gates of Hell. Is that right?”
Frank nodded. “Mixed with brimstone, they can create all sorts of havoc, as you saw back at your store.”
“So why were you at the store tonight?” Nina asked, her face relaxing.
He shook his head, his eyes sad and miserable. “They made me go with them. I swear that’s the truth. When I found out you’d laid an egg, and they wanted to take it, I refused to go. I told them to put me in the hole for good. But they knew the only way you’d show up was to use me as bait—because you’d want to know what I know about what’s going on down there and they assumed you’d all think defeating me was easy because I’d shown you my weakness. So they forced me to go—to draw you all out. There’s no getting away from their magic. You saw what they did.”
Perfect. “Any ideas who might want the egg, Frank? I mean, if you were guessing?”
“I don’t go past a certain point in Hell’s corridors. We’re not allowed. I don’t know any of the people in charge. I only hear rumblings about them. But whoever wants the egg has been pretty tight-lipped. It has to be someone trapped in there—against their will. Someone who’s played along long enough to get some rank, but can’t leave because they can’t be trusted.”
“Okay,” Tessa said with a nod. “Thank you for telling me.”
Nina’s mouth fell open. She clapped her hands on her thighs. “That’s it? No torture? No mutilation? You’re just going to say thank you very much, nice minion? What the fuck’s wrong with you?”
Frank leaned into Tessa, his lower lip trembling. “I’m so afraid of her.”
Tessa smiled. “Yeah. I know the feeling. Let her warm up a little before you judge, though. She’s not so bad.”
“So now what, Frank?” Mick asked. “What happens to you?”
“I don’t know. I can’t seem to access the portal to Hell like I could before. Believe me, I tried when those demons were chasing you around.”
Darnell rose and came to hover over Frank, sniffing him. “He’s still got minion on him. Maybe his powers are weak now? It ain’t over for you, Frank. I can tell ya that much. They’re gonna come lookin’ for you ’cus you failed the task.”
Tessa patted Frank’s hand. “Then we’ll keep him here with us.”
“Are you out of your Mothra mind?”
Tessa mad
e a face at Nina. “What, you can have a zombie, but I can’t have a minion? Why do you get all the fun?”
“Carl’s harmless, twit. He didn’t try to steal an egg!”
Frank suddenly grew a spine when he yelled back, “But I didn’t, either! I just came to pick up a package I ordered.”
“Is that you gettin’ in my face, Frank?” Nina asked, flashing her fangs and making Frank cringe into the couch. “I didn’t think so, nimrod. You stay the fuck away from me, got that?”
Frank sucked in a gulp of air, his bravado gone. “I promise.”
Wanda put herself between Frank and Nina. “Nina, cool off. We’ll make sure Frank stays put.”
“This is bullshit, Wanda, and you know it. And if you give me that crap about the client always being right, I’m going to pluck your arched eyebrows right off your face.”
“You’re emotionally invested now, and you’re not seeing things clearly, Nina. You know I’m telling you the truth,” Marty said.
“Oh, screw your mumbo-jumbo psychotherapy. This isn’t just a client anymore, Marty. We’ve got a kid on our hands. The fuck I’m letting Satan himself take a kid. This jackhole was in the mix. As far as I’m concerned, he’s under suspicion.”
Tessa tugged on the edge of Nina’s shirt. “Nina?”
She rolled her eyes. “What?”
“Please trust me.” She knew Frank meant no harm. Knew it. She just had to convince Nina.
Nina looked down at her and chucked her under the chin. “Who trusts a chick with wings? I’m goin’ in to hang out with mini-dragon. You dumb asses figure this one out without me.” She stomped off to the bedroom, leaving the room calmer.
Mick squatted down in front of Frank, looking him in the eye, his jaw hard, his face stony. “One wrong move, and it won’t just be Nina up your ass. I will kill you if you hurt Tessa or our egg.”
Frank swallowed hard, his jowls bouncing. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. I really don’t. I just want to go home,” he said on a weak whisper.
“Mick, let him be. I know you’re angry, and you think I’m crazy, but please, just let him be. If what he says is true, he ended up in Hell by mistake. I know we don’t know for sure, but we have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Just like everyone gave Darnell the benefit of the doubt.”
Mick’s jaw tightened, but he stood up, giving her hand a squeeze, and left the living room.
“So, quarters are tight here, Frank, but I bet you need some sleep.”
The minion hunkered down on the couch, shivering. “I don’t think I’ll ever sleep again. Not after tonight.”
Her heart shifted in her chest for Frank. “I have a really great blanket I always use, and if I didn’t set it on fire, you can borrow it. It’ll help you sleep. But before you go, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Back at the store. The first night we met, do you remember calling out a name?”
“I was trying so hard to stay on this plane, it’s fuzzy.”
“You said ‘Noah.’ Why did you say that?”
“Oh, yes! I do remember that. He was in the store.”
“Noah was in the store?” A little impossible, seeing as he was dead, but she didn’t reveal that to Frank.
“He was. Right there in front of me. A tall man, with brown hair and a nice smile. He said his name was Noah. But everything went haywire then and when he tried to keep me from leaving by grabbing my arm, I yelled, ‘No, Noah.’ I didn’t want to take him where I was going. I don’t ever want to take anyone there.”
Tessa couldn’t speak, and she had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from crying or asking more questions. For now, she’d have to let it go in favor of giving Frank a break. She began to rise from the couch, achy and sore, but Frank grabbed her hand.
“That wasn’t the real egg? You tricked them?”
She grinned. Still pleased they’d somehow managed to pull it off. “Yeah. We did.”
He looked up at her then, his shy, watery blue eyes actually staring into hers without looking away or cringing. “I’m glad. I’m so, so glad.”
Tessa smiled at him. “I’ll go get that blanket, okay?”
“Thank you,” he murmured, letting Carl show him the book Nina said the zombie never left home without.
She made her way toward her laundry room in the back of the house to grab the blanket, knowing she’d done the right thing by keeping Frank with them.
Not a doubt in her mind.
* * *
HE’D self-healed. Jesus Christ. As Mick pulled his torn shirt off, he glanced at his shoulders and chest in the mirror to be sure he wasn’t seeing things. Those demons had latched onto him for all they were worth, tearing at his skin, leaving gaping wounds that burned like the damn devil.
And they were almost completely gone.
He leaned forward on the sink, bracing his palms on it and stretching his neck. This dragon business was damn hard work. Probably harder than being a fireman ever was.
Flashes of Tessa, naked and willing, seared his brain. Of all the things to come of this, making love with her was worth what they’d gone through so far.
But Frank and what he’d said that first night they’d met the minion worried the shit out of him. What if Noah was stuck like Frank? Because of some crazy mistake?
What if the condolences and sympathetic words people handed out when someone died weren’t really true? What if there was no peace after all was said and done?
He gripped the sink. He couldn’t accept that. Refused to accept that.
Noah had been a good human being. He’d committed more than one heroic act in the time they’d worked together. How could a guy like that end up in Hell?
And how could you break your promise to your friend?
He had to believe Noah wouldn’t have objected to the reasoning behind breaking the promise—had to, or he wouldn’t be able to look at himself in the mirror.
And the future, Mick? What about the future?
There was that. No way was he letting Tessa go now—even if it meant fighting his personal demons forever.
Because he was in love with her. He’d always been in love with Tessa, and now they were going to have a dragon together.
He was so lost in his thoughts, the knock on the bathroom door startled him.
“Mick? You okay in there? Do you need me to help you clean those wounds?” Tessa asked.
What he needed her to do was not be so damn tempting. Not in the middle of all this. He opened the door to find her pretty eyes inquisitive and worried. “You okay?”
Opening the door wider, he pointed to his chest without saying a word.
Tessa drew her fingertips over his skin, her mouth open in a now familiar expression of WTF. “It’s just one freaky thing after another around here, huh? It’s like it never happened.”
“What exactly did happen? I don’t remember much after I told you to hang on.”
She let out a breath of air. “I had the worst yet most exhilarating five long, drawn-out minutes of my life is what happened. I got mad just like you did, and fire shot from my mouth and my wings popped out and there was flying and demons and all sorts of things I can’t explain.”
“You flew? That’s amazing. So I guess that makes you the expert?”
“I don’t know about expert. I do know we almost bought it crashing into a wall, but you can control it. You just have to focus. Maybe it was the adrenaline of the situation, but somehow I managed to pull it off.”
Mick ran his finger down the slope of her cheek. “You’re a bigger badass than I gave you credit for. Noah would be proud.”
She blushed, smiling up at him. “Speaking of Noah, more freaky news. You ready to hear it, or do you want to keep our pact and not speak his name till this is done?”
She didn’t look upset, so whatever she’d learned, it couldn’t be what he feared most. “Go for it.”
“Frank says there was a guy named Noah in the store that first night
, and that’s why he called out his name. He described him and everything. The description was a little vague, but it fits Noah. He said Noah was trying to tell him something—even grabbed him by the arm, but Frank shook him off because he was afraid he’d drag Noah back to Hell with him.”
Mick’s stomach tightened, so hard that he had to take a deep breath. What if Noah wanted to tell Frank to pass on a message to Tessa? What if that message was what they’d argued about the night he died? “Do you think Noah’s hanging around? I mean, Jesus—it’s possible, right?”
Tessa leaned against the doorframe, crossing her legs at the ankles. “I guess it is. But why is he hanging around? And how long has he been doing it?”
He put a hand at her waist, curving it around to her spine and pulling her close. “I don’t know, but I hope he saw you with that schmuck whatshisname—”
“Matt,” she offered teasingly.
“Yeah, him. I hope he saw you with him and was trying to tell you he’s a total dick.”
Tessa wound her arms around Mick’s neck, wiggling closer to him. “I agree. He was a total dick. But I have to doubt Noah would have much to say about it. He was pretty good about staying out of my love life. Unlike you.”
Mick hauled her upward, wrapping her legs around his waist, trailing kisses along her cheek and down to her earlobe. He bit the soft flesh with a gentle nip, making her shiver. “I was just trying to look out for you. Is that so wrong?” I was also trying to keep you from having a life, knowing I couldn’t have one with you.
Guilt stabbed his gut.
“Was it because you liiiked me?” she whispered into his hair, arching against him when he slid his hands under her sweater and cupped her breasts. He loved her breasts; soft, perfect, her dusky nipples tight and sweet.
“Maybe. Some secrets are better left secrets,” he taunted on a chuckle, moaning into her mouth when she captured his lips in a kiss.
“For the love of horndogs. Didn’t you two have enough of this back at the barn?” Nina said from behind them.
The Accidental Dragon Page 16
