by Starla Night
He shrugged.
“A week? Or a year?”
His shrug came more grudgingly.
“The rest of his life?
He inclined his head.
“So you want Jasper to cower in exile, terrified of being discovered, in deep space, alone, forever. Wow. And he refused for no reason? Except me?”
“At least he’d be alive.” Kyan sat abruptly and crossed his arms.
“So that’s one solution. Anybody else?”
Alex leaned forward. “Larimar wants coin. Jasper should liquidate his assets and bribe Larimar to reveal Adviser Wrathmoda’s darkest secrets. He will then use those secrets as leverage to leave him alone.”
“First of all, I thought the adviser already got everything of his. That’s why he had to get kicked out of the building; so the adviser didn’t get his stuff.”
They nodded.
Alex crossed his arms. “Yes, but Larimar will never receive his assets. This is her only chance to partake from the match.”
“Great, so betraying her big, dangerous, scary mom is her only chance for some cash. What dangerous secret does she know?”
“We will find out.”
“Are you sure she and her mom are even close? Because I don’t know any secrets about my parents. I barely know the basic facts. In fact, I don’t know any secrets about anybody.”
“You’re just a human.”
“Well, thanks. But before you settle Jasper’s fortune on the promise that somebody might know something, you might want to double-check it’s worthwhile.”
He cleared his throat. “Of course.”
“And also, how do you know she wants to help you? At all?”
“She covets our company. We could offer a limited lease.”
“Oh, sure, you kicked Jasper out, but welcome her in with open arms.”
“She will not overstay. We have a plan.”
“You do? Let’s hear it.”
He glanced around the broken table, then laid it out. “We will make it more lucrative for her to set up her own company than to remain here.”
“You’re going to bribe her—again—to leave.” Rose could not believe these dragons made so much money being so stupid. “Have you ever bribed someone before?”
“Yes,” he said, clipped.
“Then you should know that once she knows there’s money, she’s going to come back. This Larimar has no reason to free Jasper, or else she already would have done it. Based on how you guys describe the adviser, I’m not even sure she can. In a fight between her and her mom, who’d win?”
Silence answered her question.
“And then, why should Larimar help if she just trades on promises? She promises she’ll free Jasper after the product launch. Oh, but she can’t. It’s after the next product launch. Oops, but not then either. Just let her have one more product launch, and one more, and one more, forever.”
“That won’t happen.”
“Okay, but you’re letting her into your building. Your space. Based on a promise! And you can’t beat her. Do you know how hard it is to evict somebody? Especially when they’re stronger than you.”
“She will leave for more money.”
“And she’ll be back when it runs out. Bribing is like opening a cash register because there’s no end in sight.”
Alex frowned.
“Never negotiate with terrorists,” she advised.
He eyed her coldly. “If you never negotiate with terrorists, the hostage sometimes dies.”
“Then we fight.” Pyro cracked his radioactive red-streaked knuckles. “I’ve held my own against females. Adviser Wrathmoda can’t defeat us all. Not with your black ops tricks and my fists.”
Kyan stared at him from under thunderous brows.
“Back to basics,” Pyro insisted. “Teeth to claws.”
“You defeated a young female in a war zone, separated by steep casualties and experimental armor,” Kyan returned. “Not an ancient female with her own private army.”
“Great, so they turn the Earth into a war zone. Sounds like fun.” His crazy grin gleamed. “Jasper’s my brother. Nobody beats on him but me.”
Mal roared and slammed the remains of the conference table into the ceiling. “You’re all useless!”
Pyro’s claws and teeth extended.
She raced to the door and watched the fight from the safety of the hall.
Pyro snapped at Mal. “You have no better idea.”
“Anything is better than your idea! You’ll wreck my company and Cheryl’s Earth for nothing!”
“Not for nothing. Our family is nothing! You’re the ones who want to sacrifice Jasper. Where is your pride as an Onyx?”
Kyan growled. “Sit down.”
“You sit down.” Pyro whirled on Alex. “Why are you so cool? Your brother’s in danger. You don’t even care. You care about nothing!”
Alex’s two-tone eyes glittered. “I don’t waste time talking. I act.”
“Well, I fight!”
“And your fighting days are long past you.”
Pyro screamed. Furious red scales exploded over his skin as he shifted. He flew at Alex, who dodged underneath, proving himself faster. Pyro threw a wild swipe. His claws caught Alex on the cheek. Long threads of blood splashed his perfect skin.
Alex stood.
Pyro stopped and made a surprised sound. “Oh.”
Alex touched the blood and stared at the red on his fingertips.
The room dropped deathly quiet.
His eyes glowed, turquoise and light purple, swirling with uncharacteristic fury. His lips peeled back from long, sharp teeth. He shifted, shredding his fine clothing, and all the dragons jumped back in surprise. His long snout snapped at Pyro. “You want to fight?”
“Ah…” Pyro cracked his knuckles. “Well, yeah…”
“Then, let’s fight.” Alex slammed Pyro in his injured chest.
Pyro collapsed.
Alex’s teeth closed around his throat.
The other brothers cried out.
Kyan knocked Alex aside.
His razor-sharp teeth snicked just above Pyro’s throat.
Alex scrambled out of Kyan’s hold and slashing his trench coat and Kevlar.
Kyan jumped back.
Pyro recovered and bounced, shifting the rest of the way to a radioactive red dragon. “Come and get me, little bro!”
Alex flew at him.
Pyro slashed.
Kyan dove between the two with a roar.
They both turned on him. Suddenly, Kyan was the defender trying to separate two furious dragons.
Mal burst into green scales and attacked the trio. “This isn’t solving anything!”
Okay, so this would take a while.
Rose vacuumed the hall while the dragons raged and broke the rest of the conference room furnishings. Then, she dusted desks, polished fixtures, and neatened frames.
Eventually, the noise died down, and she checked.
The dragons entangled each other, teeth lodged in tails, claws threatening to rake unguarded sides, deadlocked.
“So that was the least useful solution.” She crossed her arms like she was talking to Liam about bad choices. “Are you done?”
Mal made a gurgling noise and released first; the other dragons disentangled, and then they sat in scaly piles nursing wounds and muttering. Mal shifted back to human, nude and everything, and she whirled away and hid her eyes. He pulled suits from a closet and tossed them at his siblings.
While buttoning his shirt, he demanded, “What do you propose?”
“What do I propose?” she repeated.
“For saving Jasper, and our company, and Earth.”
She choked and faced away until after they belted their pants. Then she turned and gave them her best skeptical eye. “You know I’m just the janitor, right?”
“But you don’t like any of our ideas, so you propose one.”
“Me?” She shook her head. “I thought it was stupid, but even Jaspe
r’s idea to distract Larimar and the adviser by creating a successful company seems better than yours.”
“That was Jasper’s idea?” The dragons exchanged interested looks and Mal urged her to continue. “What else does he suggest?”
“Ask him yourself.”
“We can’t.”
“Yeah, and whose fault is that?”
“Larimar ate his phone.”
She waved the excuse away. “No, the instant he offered to marry that adviser for you, you kicked him out. Just abandoned him like you never cared.”
“What else could we do?” Mal demanded. “You said it yourself. If he’d stayed here, Larimar would have moved in. Adviser Wrathmoda would claim my company as her asset.”
“Yeah, better save your company over his life,” she said sarcastically. “Because you know Jasper would do the same.”
Mal frowned. “No, of course Jasper would sacrifice himself. He always sacrifices himself.”
“Well, now he’s trying to save himself. Too bad he doesn’t have a family that actually cares.”
Alex narrowed his eyes. “You accuse us of not caring, but you are the one eating his food, enjoying his lair, and spending his money while he suffers. You do not even miss him because you have his things.”
“You think I’m a gold digger?” Her heart beat faster. Just like when her coworkers had turned on her, and when Peridot had shut her down. Now Jasper’s brothers thought she was a bad person. “You think I don’t care about Jasper? I only want his money?”
“You don’t want to buy his freedom, yet you won’t fight for him.”
“You said fighting was suicide!”
“And you have no alternative ideas, but say we shouldn’t use Jasper’s money. Why? So you can have another solid gold bed?”
“I never asked for that.”
“His spaceship could save his life.” Alex focused on the ring peeking between the folds of her blouse. “You denied his love for years, and only now that he’s gifted you expensive presents, you’ve agreed to be his wife.”
“I never agreed to anything!”
The dragons stared at her in reproach.
Mal growled. “You’re living in his lair, carrying his ring, and yet you still refuse to marry him? I thought humans cared more for love than coin, but you are a real dragon.”
Blood rushed to her head. She grabbed the ring and yanked it off her neck; it burned where the thick chain snapped. “You want this so bad? Have it! Have his money! If you’re so sure this will save his life, I don’t need it. I don’t need any of it!”
She threw the ring in the center of the room.
They all stared at it.
Her hands shook. She glared at each and every one of them, daring them to challenge her, and one by one they looked away.
“Bring. Back. Jasper.” She stormed out of the conference room, grabbed her cart, and shoved it to the elevator.
The elevator opened.
Peridot stepped out, stopping in surprise. “Where are you going?”
She could not deal with him right now. She dropped her head. “I’m taking a break.”
“You were just on a break.”
“No, I was in a meeting.”
“It was not an official meeting on your schedule; therefore, it was a break.”
She dropped the cart handles. The elevator doors closed. “Are you serious?”
“Your attitude is poor. You never do your work.”
“I’m the only one who does my work!”
“You talk back. I have tried to guide you to exhibit proper workplace behavior many times.”
“No, you’ve gotten in my way, made the entire building unlivable, and ignored everything that makes sense.” She jabbed her hand at the conference room where she’d been pulled, against her will, into a meeting. “The toilets are spitting methane parasites, there are no refills for any cleaning supplies, you aren’t monitoring any of your employees—who refuse to work because you said you’re going to fire them—and you think I’m just here for the paycheck. You’re as bad as the other dragons!”
He stilled. “Did you just insult your employers?”
“Yes, and I’ll do it again. They’re the idiots who put you in charge!”
“You are fired.”
She gripped her hair and screamed. “You can’t fire me. I quit!”
A long silence fell over the hall.
Peridot held out his hand. “Your key.”
A sick, roiling feeling exploded in her stomach. Her heart thudded even harder than in the conference room.
She’d done this to herself. It was over.
Rose reached into her pocket. She pulled out the slim square that had been her first ever key. Her first real job. Her first responsibility.
Once, this key had been a symbol of respect. Her coworkers had looked up to her. Mal and the other dragons had occasionally consulted her on human things. Jasper had made her feel like a valued member of the team.
Peridot snapped the key in half.
She felt the snap in her spine.
“Leave your cart.” He called for building security and two dragons flanked her sides. “Security, escort her from the building.”
Her escort dragons followed Rose to her locker. She changed out of her coveralls and turned to go to the staff room.
The dragons blocked her. “The exit is behind you.”
“I wanted to say goodbye,” she said.
They were immovable.
She couldn’t quite see over their wide shoulders. Maybe one of her coworkers noticed? She walked through the front lobby, past a standing, open-mouthed Jeanine, and out the front doors to the burning hot sidewalk.
They left her and returned to the building.
She turned.
What was she hoping? That the sky would turn red and a white light would glow? Mal and the others would run after her and apologize, crying that it had been a mistake? She was right and Peridot was wrong?
It didn’t happen.
They all thought she was a heartless gold-digger.
Four years of her life, erased.
She turned and trudged to the bus stop, realized she didn’t have change, and walked under the relentless sun to Grandma’s moldy old apartment complex.
Along the way, her stomach rumbled. She’d forgotten her lunch in the staff room. Not that the security dragons would have let her get it!
The hotter she got, the sadder the situation left her. She relived her final words and wished she could take them back. Her tennis shoes felt heavy.
Peridot had been looking for an excuse, and she’d handed it right to him. The few instants mouthing off had felt great, but he’d manipulated her into what he’d wanted.
She had to start over. Without a reference. No prospects.
Ugh.
She’d have to start job searching right away. There was no time to waste. Liam was relying on her. And Grandma.
And she’d thrown the ring. What had she been thinking? That was Jasper’s ring! Alex had manipulated her into reacting, but she shouldn’t have thrown it. Once she stopped compartmentalizing at work, it had gotten harder to ignore the slights.
But it was too late.
It was all too late.
Oh, and Rose had to see if she could rescind her notice to leave the new apartment. But she also had to confess that she had no job! Would they let her stay on the lease with no job?
In the worst case, she’d move in with Grandma. The place gave her headaches and made Liam’s nose bleed, but a moldy shelter was still shelter.
She was a terrible parent. CPS would never let her keep Liam. Even Briar would question her judgment, and she’d be right.
Responsibilities made the last blocks drag.
It was just past Liam’s preschool pickup, so Grandma wouldn’t be home.
But when Rose turned in to the parking lot, Grandma’s whereabouts fled to the back of her mind.
The place had turned into Pyro’s war zone
. Couples strapped saggy loveseats into overweight sedans; families crammed boxes into trucks. Everyone moved at once, and the looks she got were less than friendly. One mother whose children always played with Liam put her baby on her hip and spit at the sidewalk as Rose passed. Why? Rose lowered her head, too beaten and confused to start anything, and hurried to Grandma’s unit.
Then, she saw the Jaguar.
What was left of it.
The frame smoked, a burned-out husk of metal. Shattered glass crunched in a halo around it; the windows had gone first. The tires melted around slashes. Sledgehammer dents interspersed with long scratches.
She gaped.
Luis stood behind her. “You want a picture? Send it to your boyfriend?”
“I can’t,” she said. “He’s being held prisoner, and the warden ate his phone.”
“I guess he deserves it, huh?” Luis ambled by his house. His front door was closed for the first time she’d ever seen in the daylight, and a beefy padlock cinched the handle. Luis kicked it hard enough to rattle the windows and then continued on his meandering way.
Rose’s world was ending, and she had no idea why.
A paper stuck to Grandma’s door. She climbed the steps, avoiding the mushy third, and tore down the paper. Eviction Notice. 72 hours…
Her vision blurred.
She hurried inside. “Grandma?”
Her grandma sat in her usual kitchen chair, a cup of water in one hand, a blank stare on the far wall. She shook herself and turned. “Rose?”
“Grandma, what’s going on?” Panic infused her. She’d already put in her notice. This was her safe hole. “I thought we had more time to pay off the washing machine!”
Her old eyes stared blankly over the kitchen. “Your boyfriend did this.”
“What?”
“I told you not to trust him, Rose. Money screws honest folk every time.”
The whole story came out while Rose paced in the kitchen and Grandma shared what she knew. Jasper had listened to Rose, gone over the ineffectual head of the local housing authority, and brought down the hammer of the state. Immediate eviction, and it was not their problem if you had nowhere to go and no way to get out.
Rose gripped the wobbly back of the second chair, dazed. “When do we have to be out?”
“People came in hazmat suits. They wouldn’t let Luis inside. He waited until they left, and they came again with a padlock.”
