Dragon in the Rough (Elders Enterprises Book 1)

by Jo Vanz

  Paul laughed. “Woman, you are going to be the death of me.” He walked over and opened the passenger side door for her. As Katie climbed in and sat down, she melted into the leather. If heaven was a car, it would be this one.

  Paul was quick about getting the keys and coming back. As Katie buckled up her seatbelt, he was climbing into the driver’s seat. The car started up as soon as he pushed the start button. “So, why this one?” he asked.

  Katie thought about it for a few moments as Paul pulled out of the parking spot and headed for the garage exit. “It just kind of called to me. Plus, my favorite color is purple.”

  “Well, it is a good choice. This will be the first time that I have taken her out. I only just got her right before I went into hiding.” Katie liked the idea that no other woman had been in this seat before. It made her feel special.

  “Ahhhh, speaking of you hiding, where have you been staying?” She had to know, it was in her nature to ask questions. Plus, he had stayed off the radar for so long, she wanted to know how he had done it.

  Katie looked over to see that same grin on Paul’s face that he had in the elevator. Suddenly, she was not sure she wanted to know the answer. “Are you sure you want to know the answer to that?”

  “Yes.” Truth was that even if she did not like the answer, Katie did want to know.

  “I had the apartment right under yours.” Paul wiped the amused look off of his face when he glanced over at Katie. This whole time he had been so close to her and she had no idea!

  “You mean to tell me that this whole time that I was searching for your ass, you were literally right under me?” She could not believe it. How had she not known? Was he the reason that she felt like someone was watching her? Katie guessed that was most likely reason.

  “It was a good place to be. I like being under you.” He winked at Katie. She smacked his arm then laughed as he rubbed the tender spot. She could not stay made at him. In reality, it was probably the best place to hide. She would have never thought to look so close to her.

  It did not take them long to get to the hospital. They spent the time talking, or more like Katie asking a lot of questions about the dragon race. She had so much to learn and was eager to get started. When the car came to a stop in a parking space, Katie sighed. She was enjoying just talking, but now it was time to get serious. There was work to be done. She opened the door and stepped out, a cool wind whipping through her hair, chilling her. A storm was moving in quickly. Katie hoped that it would hold off until they were done talking to everyone inside.

  Paul walked over and wrapped his arms around Katie. She leaned in, savoring the moment. It helped chase away the cold but the impending doom settled like a knot in Katie’s chest. She pulled out of Paul’s embrace and grabbed his hand. They walked silently toward the entrance of the hospital. As they reached the sliding glass doors, Mark walked up to them.

  “How are you two love birds this morning?” he asked with a huge grin on his face that made him look so much like Paul, it freaked Katie out a little bit.

  “We are doing good great,” Katie said, returning his smile. She could not believe that only a few days ago she was scared shitless of Mark, but now she stood here shooting the shit with him like it was nothing. Was she ever going to get use to this?

  “Any news on when you are going to make me an uncle?” he asked in a teasing tone that made Katie smile.

  “Mark,” Paul growled. “Can you stop pushing? Katie and I will decide when we are ready to take that leap. Until then, stop asking.”

  Mark looked amused as they walked through the front doors. “But if I do not ask, how will I know that it is happening?” Katie laughed. Paul might find his brother annoying but Katie liked the fact that he kept things light when everything else seemed so stressful. It was a nice contrast and evened everything out. Mark and Paul were like yin and yang.

  Paul seemed to blow off his brother’s remarks and instead asked, “So who do we need to talk to?”

  Mark was suddenly serious. No more smile, it was all business now. “We need to talk to the nurses up in the third floor nursery. The baby stayed there for two weeks before being moved to a foster home. Someone up there should know something.”

  Without another word, they all turned and walked up the three flights of stairs. Katie was glad that they did not take the elevator. She was already starting to feel a little trapped. She hated being in a hospital and usually avoided them, but now she really had no choice but to be here. She swallowed the lump in her throat and pushed forward.

  On the third floor landing, Katie stopped for a moment to calm herself before she opened the door and walked through. It was quiet. One family sat over in the corner of the waiting room, to Katie they looked as if they were waiting to hear about a new family member. It took Katie back the conversation she and Paul had the day before. He had looked so happy recalling finding out about his sister. She would give anything to be able to see that smile again. Maybe when everything settled down, they would decide to have kids. Katie shook her head at the thought. She wanted to spend time with Paul before she had to worry about a baby. The thought was nice, but she just wanted to wait awhile first.

  Looking around, Katie’s eyes came to a stop on a pair of double doors. There was a sign taped to the front of it stating that they needed to ring the bell for assistance. Katie figured that this was to keep strangers from wandering around all the infants and gave the parents a little piece of security knowing that someone could not just walk in and steal a baby.

  Katie walked over and rang the bell and then stepped back, waiting for someone to answer. After a few minutes, the door opened and a small brunette stuck her head out. “How may I help you?” she asked, sounding breathless. When her eyes landed on Paul, she straightened up and smiled.

  Katie wanted to claw her eyes out. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Paul and pulled him close. He chuckled a little bit which brought a smile to Katie’s mouth. He belonged to Katie now and was not afraid to show it.

  Mark stepped forward and reached out his hand. The brunette immediately placed her hand in his. “My name is Mark Ivers. This is my brother, Paul, and his soon-to-be wife, Katie.” He turned and winked at Paul. “We need to talk to whoever took care of a baby girl that was abandoned here a few weeks ago.” He gave the nurse a big smile and Katie hoped that the charm was working. They did not have to give them any information.

  The nurse’s smile faded. “I am sorry, but you will need to be a little more specific than that. We get at least one a week here.”

  Katie’s heart broke. How could so many people abandon babies like it was nothing? If they did not want to have a baby, they should have been more careful. “Why do you get so many of them?” Katie asked, not sure that she really wanted to know the truth.

  The nurse looked down, “It is easier for people to bring them right outside the city instead of driving further out. Most people are worried that if they went to a hospital inside the city that someone they know will see them, so they bring them here. The mother and baby are usually strung out on drugs. It is sad really.”

  Katie did not know if she could take much more. What right did people have to do these things to innocent babies? They did not choose this life, their parents did. But Katie thought it could be worse, they could just leave the baby in a dumpster or something. The best thing these parents could do was to leave them at a safe place like a hospital.

  Paul pulled Katie in close, hugging her tight, and Katie forced herself to listen to everything that was being said. As much as she hated the idea of these kids growing up like she did, she knew that it was probably better than any other options that they had.

  Mark glanced their way before he cleared his throat and continued. “This baby would have had an above average temperature, and was probably more mobile than others her age.”

  It was like a light bulb had come on in the nurse’s head. She snapped her head up to look at Mark with a big smile on her face.
“Oh, that little sweetheart. Yes, you will need to speak to Matilda. She was the one on duty when the baby was brought in.” She looked over her shoulder. “If you go have a seat, I will go find her. She might be in a labor room right now so it could be a little bit.”

  Mark smiled, “No worries, ma’am. We will be here.” The nurse turned and closed the door behind her. They all turned and walked over to the chairs. There were only two of them so Katie ended up sitting on Paul’s lap. She did not mind. She was enjoying having him wrapped around her, holding her close. He would bend his head down every now and then to give her a sweet, intimate kiss before pulling away and readjusting his pants.

  It was almost thirty minutes before the door opened again. Katie had to wipe at her eyes before she could focus on who walked out. She figured that with her eye color changing that it was messing with her vision, too.

  When her eyes finally cleared, Katie watched as a short red head walked toward them. She looked to be in her mid-forties, but in shape. Katie guessed that she needed to be to work in labor and delivery. The red head stopped in front of them and reached her hand out to Katie first.

  “My name is Matilda. I was told you wanted to talk to me about little baby Jane Doe.” A smile touched her lips but never made it to her eyes that looked so sad.

  Mark stood when she went to shake his hand. “Yes, ma’am, my name is Mark and this is Katie and Paul,” he said as he pointed to each of them. “We are investigating the circumstances that led up to the baby being left here.”

  Matilda nodded. “I have the file right here,” she said, holding up a file folder. “But I will need to see some sort of credentials first, please.”

  Katie did not hesitate, she reached into her purse and pulled out her badge. She handed it over and waited patiently until Matilda looked it over and handed it back to her.

  Matilda smiled again. “I am sorry, we cannot be too careful with babies.” Katie agreed and nodded her head.

  “What can you tell us about baby Jane Doe?” Mark asked with a smile. Katie knew that he was trying to charm the woman but got the feeling that it would not work. This woman seemed like she had seen too much in her lifetime.

  Matilda sighed and again, Katie could see the sadness in her eyes. “Baby Jane Doe was brought in a few weeks ago in the middle of the night. It was slow around here, we only had one woman in labor so I can assure you that I remember everything.”

  “What can you tell us about the person that brought her in?” Katie asked as gentle as she could as to try and not anger the woman. Katie got a feeling that Matilda could handle her own if she was pissed off.

  The nurse cleared her throat. “The lady that brought her in swore up and down that she had helped deliver the child, but that the mother had been strung out on drugs and could not take care of the baby. Something about the woman just made my skin crawl. So I just followed protocol and admitted the child.” She let out a long breath. “The thing was, after the woman left, we tested the baby for drugs but she did not have any in her system. It set off alarms for all of us. We called the police but after a few weeks, we had to release her to the foster care system.”

  Katie watched Matilda shake her head as if the movement would erase the memories. Katie wished that it was that simple. She did not know how the nurses and doctors dealt with this kind of thing so often.

  “Did you notice anything about the lady that dropped the baby off? Anything that stood out or struck you as weird?” Mark asked, stepping closer to Matilda.

  Matilda thought about it for a moment then a smile touched her lips. “Actually, I think I can do you one better. You see, when she was in here, she was real shifty. Looking over her shoulder, hands shaking. It was more like she was the one strung out. She ended up spilling her purse.” She paused as a huge smile touched her lips.

  “Well, when I bent down to help her clean up the mess, I got a good look at her I.D. Her name was Julie Embers.”

  “Are you sure?” both Paul and Mark asked at the same time, startling Katie.

  “Oh yeah, I am sure,” Matilda said. “I remember thinking how ironic it was that her last name was Embers, because her hair was fire red.”

  Katie almost fell on her ass when Paul suddenly stood. Thankfully he was quick and caught her before she hit the floor, swinging her up into his arms in one smooth motion. “Sorry, but we need to go now.” Paul turned to Matilda. “Thank you. You have been more helpful than you know.” They turned and headed for the stairs. Once outside, Paul finally sat Katie down on her own two feet.

  “Will someone please explain to me what the hell happened in there?” Katie asked.

  Paul looked at her and Katie froze. He was pissed. “I will explain in the car.” Paul then turned to Mark, “We will meet you back at Elders in twenty minutes. Call Dad and fill him in. He will want to call a meeting ASAP.”

  Mark stepped away. “Sorry, bro, but you will have to do that. I cannot call while I am on my bike.”

  “Fine,” growled Paul. “I will do it. Next time maybe you should think about that before you go speeding off on that bike of yours.” Paul turned and headed toward the Mustang. Katie had to jog to catch up. She did not say anything as she pulled the passenger side door open and jumped in. Paul already had the car started by the time Katie had her seat belt buckled.

  He threw the car into reverse and pulled out of the parking spot, squealing tires. If it had been another time, Katie would have been impressed but right now she just sat back and enjoyed the ride. Paul shifted the car into drive and hit the gas. They got lucky that there was not much traffic. They were on the highway in no time at all.

  Once they were a mile away from the on-ramp, Paul pulled out his phone and dialed his father.

  “Dad, we have an issue,” Paul said into his phone. “It was Julie Embers that dropped off the baby a few weeks ago here in New York.”

  Katie could hear Fabian cussing on the other end of the phone. She was really starting to get freaked out. All the men were running head first into something, guns blazing, yet she had no idea what was going on.

  “Yes, we are headed there now.” Katie did not hear the rest of what was said. One moment they were driving down the road, and then the next something was slamming into the driver side of the Mustang, sending them flipping off the road. She looked over to see blood dripping down Paul’s face, just as her head smashed into the window. Everything went fuzzy right before she blacked out.

  Chapter 15

  Katie woke with a throbbing headache. It took her a few minutes to remember what happened. When she did she sat straight up, looking around. Where was Paul? Why was she laying here on a cold, hard floor by herself and not in a hospital? A shiver crept up her spine as she looked around. She was in a small concrete room with only one door across from her. As she stood, Katie grabbed her head as pain shot through it.

  She wanted to fall back over and not move, but she knew that would not help anything. Using the wall to help her, she finally stood upright and made it over to the door. She knew that it would be stupid for whoever took her to leave the door unlocked but she gave it a try anyways, cursing when it did not budge.

  Turning around slowly, Katie inched along the walls, trying to find something, anything that would help her against whoever had abducted her. She may not know why anyone would even bother but she did know that she was not going to make things easy for them. She was born a fighter. She had finally found a place where she belonged, and she was not just going to lay down and let whoever held her hostage take that away from her.

  Katie thought about trying to contact Paul but her head was killing her. Plus, she did not even know if he was alive. God, all that blood! She sent up a silent prayer to the fates that he was all right. Her heart hurt just thinking that he might be gone. Katie did her best to push those thoughts away. She needed to believe that he was all right and that he would find her. In the meantime, she planned to fight like hell to make sure that she was here for him to rescue.
>
  Walking slowly, she made her way back over into the far corner and sat back down, her back pressed up against the hard surface helping to ground her and keep her head clear. The search had been a bust, but she had faith that she would find a way out of this. She had to. She would not accept anything less than success.

  After serving with the police and then the vampire council, Katie knew that people always made mistakes. They always thought of everything except their own egos. It was where most peoples’ weaknesses laid. So she would sit back and wait for them to make a mistake and then use it against them.

  But for now, Katie knew she needed her rest. She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. It did not take long before she was drifting off to sleep.

  ***

  Paul screamed his fury into the skies, cursing himself for not seeing the truck that rammed into them. For being on the phone and distracted from what was going on around them. By the time he even realized what was going on, he could not stop it. One moment, he was talking to his father and then the next, the Mustang was flipping. He had watched as Katie’s head slammed into the window, shattering it. He screamed for her but he was too late, she was already unconscious.

  He had tried everything to free himself but the car had folded itself around him, creating his own little prison that he could not escape. Then there was a gun shot and everything went black. Paul screamed again. How could he have let this happen to his Katie?

  When Paul had come to again, it was to his father and brother pulling him free. Katie was gone. They all tried to keep him calm but it did not help. As soon as he was free, he transformed and took to the skies, not caring who saw him. He needed to find his Katie. She was all that mattered. His father could bitch him out later but for now, he did not care.