by Cecilia Lane
“I’m not some doe-eyed virgin, Jaya. I’m not sure if he even knows what he wants. There’s a lot of push and pull with him.” He’d shooed her back downstairs after the kiss. The thickly sweet scent of a dragon filled her nose and puzzled her even more. But it was the feeling of his lips on hers that she couldn’t shake. Her jog had done nothing to burn off the excess energy that coursed through her.
Jaya chewed on her thoughts and Annika could hear a trace of amusement in her voice. “Maybe he’s impotent. That might explain it. He wants what he can’t have.”
She snorted. “That’s exactly the question I’m going to avoid asking. ‘Hey, Don, does your dick work?’ Fuck, Jaya. Are you trying to get me killed?” It was a thought, though. Dragons went into Heat in their twenties and had zero sexual desire before then. Maybe the files on Eoghan were wrong. Maybe he had a bit of dragon blood in him, after all. Maybe he couldn’t shift and never went into Heat and she only got a fragment of a scent because of it.
“I’m sure you’ll find a skillful way to bring it up. Now, what’s next?”
“He invited me to the barbecue this weekend. As a guest, not the bartender. His immediate family will be there and I think all the capos and their families as well.”
“That’s perfect. You should go. Get to know the sisters. They might be dying to gossip about their brother with his new girlfriend.”
A car drove past, slowed, then stopped. She eyed it as she neared, thinking she might cross the road to avoid it. It wasn’t the first time someone had stopped and tried to pick her up. The back window rolled down as she neared and Eoghan popped his head out. “Annika, I thought that was ya. Climb in, it’s about tae rain.”
Annika woke with a start and found Eoghan watching her intently.
“Bad dream?” he asked in a bland voice.
She blinked away the last of her sleep and took a deep breath to settle her heart. Eoghan didn’t take his eyes off her.
“Must have been. It’s all foggy and unsettling.” No lie, there. The memory of it was unclear and it did unsettle her. The more memories she regained, the more she questioned.
She thought Eoghan picked up on some of it. He’d been off since the first night of the fighting. Push and pull, like what she described in her dream. He said the right things a man would say to win over a woman but she caught him looking at her with more than lust in his eyes. Anger tinged with curiosity, if she had to make a guess.
But what was her role in all of that? She’d been talking about him to someone else and went out of her way to hide it. Why would she do such a thing? She suspected there was more to it that just banter between friends. And if she suspected it, how much did Eoghan know?
His hot and cold attitude made more sense if he was withholding secrets of her past.
“Yer mumbling sounded like another language.”
She smiled even though his eyes were chilly. Would she even know if she spoke in a different tongue while she dreamed? “Must have been gibberish. I don’t think I know any other languages.”
“Must have been,” he agreed too easily and rolled out of bed. He pressed the toggles on the wall and the thick curtains lining the windows folded themselves against the sides of the room.
Annika eyed the tightness of his upper back and shoulders. There was something bothering him and he wouldn’t let her in. She wasn’t sure what disturbed her more, not being given access to his thoughts or that she might have caused it by saying or doing the wrong thing.
She sighed and stretched in bed. “How many more nights?” she asked, knowing the answer. Three more nights of fighting, three more nights of not getting home until the early morning and sleeping until evening. She simply wanted to break the silence that had grown between them.
He turned cold eyes on her again, his arms crossed over his chest. After a moment and just before she started to squirm, his eyes darkened with the lust she was used to spotting when he stared at her.
Annika let go of a tight breath as Eoghan crossed back to the bed and settled above her. He slithered down her body, tugging the blankets away as he went. He lifted her shirt and planted a kiss on her stomach.
Hot and cold. Push and pull.
“Ya didn’t used tae mind coming home late and wringing the last bit of pleasure from the day.” He kissed her again. “Or waking late and starting the day where we left off.”
She tangled her fingers in his hair. Even trimmed up, the strands curled at the ends. “Did I mind not knowing where you slip off to for some of the night?”
He grinned against her skin and his thumbs rubbed at her sides. She swallowed hard. Heat slunk through her veins at every touch of his lips against her.
It was enough to make her question what she’d seen in his eyes and in her dream.
“That sounds like jealousy. You should know I only have eyes for ya, Ann. It’s always been ya. Never anyone else.”
He would broil her alive with his words. She’d be crazy to reject that sort of devotion.
She brushed her fingers over his cheek. The first night of the fights, he came back to their box with marks already healing. “Well, you did have someone stick their claws in you. Too bad it didn’t stay. Could have had matching scars on each cheek.”
Eoghan’s smile turned to a scowl and he pulled her hands away from his face. She sucked in a breath. “I’m sorry. What did I say wrong?”
He sat up, muscles bunching as if he were about to stand, then he glanced over his shoulder. Something in his eyes softened. “I got the scar after Maura died.”
“Your sister?”
He tongued his teeth and nodded. “Ay. Her shite of a fiancé stood her up at the altar. Pregnant. She thought we’d all hate her and turn her out. She went tae take care of the problem,” he sneered, “and bled out. Being a reasonable man, I got some fellas together and we took care of the shite.”
Annika trailed her fingers over his shoulders. Details opened up in her mind and filled in the parts he left out. He kept her locket. He toyed with it almost as much as she did with her bracelet. “You went to jail for it, didn’t you? You’ve told me this before.”
“Ay, we had it out about it.” He jerked away from her touch and stood. “Out of bed with ya. Business doesn’t end just because we’re putting on a show. We all have parts tae act out and responsibilities tae take care of.”
Eoghan leafed through the pictures sent to him by way of courier. He didn’t need to read the looping handwriting to know where they came from. Mariko took her time making her next move after trying to gun him down but it was expected.
Shots were taken of all three of his sisters entering and exiting the businesses they ran for him. But the ones that made him nearly foam at the mouth with rage were of the bairns playing in the backyard. From the angle, he thought it was pulled from the camera he fixed when he last visited.
Someone had gone as far as to infiltrate his security system. The threat was clear. Give up his territory or he’d be burying his sisters and the bairns.
He tossed the photos to the desk and leaned back in his chair. He played by the rules and left the innocents out of the fight. Mariko, it seemed, was no longer following those rules. “It’s time tae put our plan into motion and send a message of our own. We won’t roll over and we won’t give up what is ours.”
Gio rubbed his hands together. “The boys have been chomping at the bit for days. Not even the fights can take the edge off. They’re ready.”
Movement on the video feed caught Eoghan’s eye and he watched Annika descend to the open floor. He needed to get back out there with her, and not just to quiet her worry. Any Yakuza present would be watching for them both.
At one time, he would have shared his plans with her. Right or wrong, they were mated and he wanted her to know all he did to care and provide for her and his family. How much of that knowledge had she passed to others?
She pushed her way through the crowd, though most were smart enough to give her space once they re
cognized her. Only, she didn’t make it to the bar unhindered. Eoghan ground his teeth together.
Andon disappeared after the second night and Jaya appeared on the third under the guise of investigating rumors of a dragon not known to her Court appearing in Baltimore. After she made her private introductions to him, he spotted her watching Annika with far too much interest.
Jaya was rumored to be more than a simple representative for the Dragon Court. Donovan didn’t even need to look into files to spill her secrets once Eoghan described her to his little rat. He wasn’t stupid. He knew Annika’s reappearance must have drawn her to visit. Watching her approach Annika confirmed the rumor for him.
The spymistress had waited long enough and decided the time was right to bring her spy in from the cold.
He fiddled with the camera feed and watched Annika and Jaya leave the bar and settle back in the box.
It was smart, he had to give them that. No one nearby would overhear them. Even if he had every fooking inch of the warehouse wired for sound, he wouldn’t hear a bloody thing over the noise of the crowd.
“No one has seen Lenore since that slimy fuck Andon disappeared. Do you think she went with him?” Gio asked.
Eoghan shrugged. “Better if she did. He can deal with her trouble.”
Annika and Jaya dove right into conversation. One listened carefully while the other spoke. There was no surprise, no awkward pauses. They had the air of old friends.
“The shipping container filled with our surprise is here. Lure them down any of these pathways and show them what we bought just for them.” Gio drew his finger down a rough map of the shipping complex halfway between Baltimore and DC.
Eoghan tore his attention away from the video feed. A train from the port earlier that week had been unloaded and set aside for the upcoming meet. They needed to send a very loud, very clear message to the rest of the Yakuza. Don’t fook with the Shadow Mob. “Good.”
He glanced back at the video feed. Annika even held herself differently. He doubted anyone else would see the differences but they were there. Less aggressive, more regal. She wasn’t holding court for a bunch of ruffians and scoundrels anymore. She was chatting with an equal over matters of espionage.
He didn’t belong in that world and she didn’t belong in his.
“Ya speak any other languages?”
Gio raised an eyebrow but nodded. “Enough Arabic to ask, ‘how much’ and ‘it burns when I piss.’”
Eoghan cracked a smile. “Ann talks in her sleep. Never did it before but now she does. Woke me up with what sounded like Arabic today.”
“Think she learned it while she was in DC?”
“Nothing listed on the transcripts from the college she was attending or on the records we nicked from the shelter.”
“Maybe she knew it before and just never mentioned it.”
Eoghan shook his head. “This feels bigger. Andon and Lenore disappearing, Jaya turning up... there are moving parts I just can’t see yet.”
“Leave it. You can’t be distracted tonight. Those are problems for another day. Tonight, we take out Mariko.”
“Ya aren’t distracted every night? With yer wee bairns and the wench at home?”
“They’re why I know I need to focus. If I don’t and something goes wrong, who will care for ‘em? We don’t exactly have retirement plans in our line of work.”
“Ay, that’s the truth. Mariko tonight while the fights are distracting everyone.” He pulled out the whisky and glasses. “Luck in all our dealings.”
“Courage to see them through.”
They threw back the liquor and slammed the glasses on the table. Eoghan stood and pulled on his jacket. “Yer staying back tonight.”
Gio scowled. “No.”
“Ya are. The fight nights have drawn every fooker in the shadow world out tae play, including more than a fair few Yakuza. The crowds will hide the boys I’m bringing with me but it won’t look right if me and ya both leave in the middle of things. Ya stay back and take care of things if it goes wrong.” He glanced at the video feed. “I got something tae deal with first. Have the boys ready tae leave in two hours.”
The fourth night of the fighting was just as loud as the first. Even more so, if Annika was being honest. The slam of fists on bare flesh were followed by cheers and jeers from the crowd.
There were only a few more nights before the main event. The best fighters were all competing for a spot and everyone was enjoying the progressively more vicious bouts in the ring.
Annika took the opportunity during the middle of a match to slink out of the box and worm her way in at the bar. She could have one of the guards get her something but she wanted to prove to herself she could accomplish it without a panic attack or feeling claustrophobic. The thinner press of the crowd during a match was the perfect testing ground.
She was about to place her order when she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Annika?”
She turned and faced the woman behind her. Her head was shaved bare and her wrap dress was as bright and bold as the thick jewelry at her neck and wrists.
Jaya. The name sprang into her mind. The woman from her dream. They were… close. Friends? Colleagues? Somewhere in between, Annika thought.
A sweet, smoky smell rolled off the woman. It reminded her of Eoghan. She’d been picking it up more often when he was around.
“Jaya. Representing the Delphina and Pythian’s interests. Is there somewhere we can go to talk?”
Every word brought a new memory. Training in hand-to-hand combat with others while Jaya watched. Studying, so much studying. Books piled up on a desk and even without knowing the specific titles, she knew they were all different subjects she was expected to master.
Sitting at a table and looking at a face across from her. They told each other lies and questioned the stories in turn. All the while, Jaya whispered in her ear and encouraged her.
Give the enemy nothing. You know nothing. You are nothing.
What sort of mad game would encourage such dishonesty? Annika was afraid she knew.
“Get a drink with me. We can go back to the box. We should be alone there for a bit.”
She roughly pushed her way to the bar, all concern for the press of the crowd forgotten. She snarled her drink order and sent the bartender scurrying. No one wanted to risk Don Gilchrist’s displeasure by angering his mate.
Jaya stayed silent until they were settled back in the box and away from any prying ears. “I’ve been told you had some memory issues. Do you recognize who I am?”
Annika nodded. She was surprised her breathing remained neutral.
“Good. Do you know why you were sent here?”
“I… Not all of it. I remember pieces and can make guesses.” Like with Eoghan earlier, the simple reminder opened more memories. Her brain just needed a jumpstart pointed in the right direction and it filled in the rest. It would have been exhilarating if the things she found weren’t so terrible.
“You’re an operative for the Dragon Court. You were sent here to monitor Eoghan and the potential support he may give to our enemies.”
That clicked with her most recent dream. The questions were too probing and her answers too considering for it to be a conversation between friends.
War had been waged for her entire life. Both sides kept the fight alive, striking blows where they could, but neither had a clear path to victory. Annika grew up with a strong desire to fight for her people, and had been ecstatic when she’d caught the eye of the First General herself. She’d entered the service of the Dragon Court as soon as her formal education was completed and Jaya, one of Calla’s lieutenants in the intelligence office, taught her how to learn secrets no one wanted to reveal.
She was sent to spy on Eoghan and somehow became entangled with a mate. The details were fuzzy but were steadily coalescing in place.
More and more flashes and fragments of memory returned to her. They spiraled into place in her head, revealing bits of the puzzle of
her life. Scenes where she fought with faces she recognized but couldn’t put names to in what she knew to be a training yard. Scenes where Jaya instructed her to dodge and attack with two practice sticks in her hands while others in the Delphina and Pythian’s service watched from above.
Scenes with Eoghan. In the bar she tended, in the room where he held meetings above. In his bed. Their bed. Laughing, naked. Mated.
Jaya’s words hung heavy in the air and Annika knew there were consequences to supporting the Dragon Court’s enemies. Consequences she had been expected to carry out.
Annika studied her hands. She’d been quick to defend herself against the attack in Eoghan’s condo. She’d broken a man’s arm and sent him flying over the railing. It hadn’t felt new. She’d done that and more before. Eoghan would have added another red name in her memory if things had gone differently.
Instead, a mission for the Dragon Court transformed into not knowing exactly where to place her loyalties.
“How much have you told him?” Jaya asked.
“I don’t… I’m not sure. I came down hard off the drugs and he cared for me. I don’t know what was said or what he believes.” She took a gulp of her cocktail and embraced the burn of the alcohol. She turned toward Jaya and asked suddenly, “Do I know other languages?”
“Several.”
“I think I’ve been talking in my sleep. In a different language.”
Jaya simply nodded. “Okay, let’s start with what you remember.”
“Like I said, fragments. Mostly things from my childhood.”
“That can be a problem. We took your childhood and modified it, changed the details. Brothers became sisters, the wild forests became the Alaska wilderness. Different enough to avoid immediate detection if someone ran you through Powyrworld Affairs but similar enough to keep you emotionally connected so you don’t stink of dishonesty if questioned by shifters. How good is his memory?”
“Too good. If I shared something then, he’ll know if I contradicted it now.”
“You can always play that your drug-addled mind was confused.”
“No,” Annika said. The seemingly innocuous questions slid into place. “He’s clarified after I detoxed.”
