DRAGON SECURITY: Volume 2: The Complete 6 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  Well, maybe not a mistake. But something that shouldn’t have happened.

  I stepped out of the shower and dressed quickly, but with care. I picked a lavender dress with a long skirt and a sweetheart neckline, a split up both sides of the skirt that showed off my legs with every step I took. I left my hair down, letting it fall into thick waves, framing my face the way my mother once showed me. I didn’t wear makeup, never had, but I added a little eye liner, a little lip gloss, just to highlight what nature had already given me.

  Kevin was standing near the back doors when I returned to the sitting room. I was about to greet him, anxious to see the look in his eyes when he saw me, but I realized as the words were beginning to tumble onto the tip of my tongue that he was on the phone.

  “I realize that, Pamela,” he said with some irritation in his voice, “but it was a family emergency.”

  He waited a moment, clearly listening to someone speak. Then he opened his mouth, ready to reply, but it was quite obvious that the person on the other end of the phone was not giving him the opportunity.

  Who was Pamela? And what did she mean to him?

  It hadn’t yet occurred to me that Kevin might have a girlfriend waiting for him back in Houston. It should have. But it didn’t.

  I walked over to the bar and poured myself a glass of my father’s aged scotch, sipping the smoky liquid, trying not to make a face as it touched my taste buds before sliding like fire down my throat. I was not a drinker, but tonight seemed like a night that would be a good time to try it out.

  “Sorry about that,” Kevin said a moment later, moving up behind me to pour himself a glass as well. I stepped back and watched, wanting to slug him when he took a healthy swallow without so much as a grimace. “Nice,” he said, holding the glass up to the light.

  “Where’d you learn to appreciate expensive liquor?”

  “You’d be surprised what you learn in the Marines.”

  I inclined my head slightly, remembering the one picture I’d seen—a photo that appeared in the local paper—of him in full dress uniform. He’d been quite a sight then, before time had brought out the bulk in him. I could only imagine he’d fill out that uniform even better now.

  He caught me staring at him, that charming smile touching his full lips. Our eyes touched for a long moment, a lingering moment more intense than anything I’d experienced in a very long time. But then he looked away as one of the maids came into the room with a silver tray covered in teeny crackers covered with some sort of cream cheese concoction.

  “Cook thought you’d like a little preview tonight, Ms. Kramer.”

  “Thank you, Beth.”

  “I don’t believe I know you,” Kevin said, sauntering over to the maid. “There was once a time when I knew all the household staff.”

  The pretty girl smiled, a blush burning over her pale cheeks. “I’m Elizabeth. I’m Tina’s daughter.”

  Kevin smiled large. “I thought I saw some resemblance. How is Tina?”

  “Momma’s fine. She’s enjoying only working part-time these days.”

  Kevin glanced back at me. “Tina still works here?”

  “Of course. Mother didn’t like bringing in new staff. You know that.”

  He nodded. “Tell Tina that Kevin said hello.”

  “She’ll be pleased. She talked about you all the time when I was a little girl.”

  That seemed to make Kevin happy. I wondered if he remembered how Tina—the housekeeper—used to chase him out of my room at night with a rolled up towel. It was funny to watch him, this scrawny eight-year-old, dash out from under the bed and stumble down the stairs, often two or more at a time.

  Beth held open the back door and allowed us to go through before setting the silver tray on the already set table. Kevin, always the gentleman, pulled out my chair for me.

  “Why the Marines?” I asked when Elizabeth had gone and Kevin was chewing on one of those crackers.

  He lifted one massive shoulder as he licked the cream cheese from his finger. “I liked the idea of being first in and last out.”

  “Yeah? What about the Army? Or the Navy SEALs? They do some impressive things over there, too.”

  “They do. I have great respect for all arms of the military. The Marines just appealed to me.”

  “When did you enlist?”

  He picked up another cracker and studied it in the dim light of the moon. “Just after your birthday party that February.”

  I tilted my head slightly. “Why then?”

  His eyes moved up to mine. “Because I realized that everything that was keeping me home had evaporated and I really had no interest in college.”

  “You could have gone anywhere. Everyone was offering you a football scholarship.”

  He shook his head. “Wasn’t interested in playing football anymore.”

  “Why not? You were good.”

  “It was just a game, Kirsten.”

  Just a game. It seemed odd to hear those words come out of his mouth. Football was all he talked about the summer before his freshman year of high school. He wanted things to be different in high school. He wanted to be big man on campus, wanted everyone to like him. He wanted to be more than the super smart boy who was attending our private academy because my parents were paying for it.

  I crossed my legs, watching the silky material of my dress slide away from my knees. When I looked up, he was watching it, too. For a brief second, I thought I saw naked desire in his eyes, a deep unsatiated need burning in those crystal blue depths. But then our eyes met and it was gone like it had never been there.

  Had it been there?

  Beth came out the door then with another tray, this one burdened with our salad plates. I picked up my fork as she left, pushing the arugula and spinach and kale around my plate, trying to remember the exact moment things had gone wrong between us. When had we become such enemies?

  “Were you surprised when I left?”

  I looked up, caught off guard by the intensity of his gaze.

  “What do you mean?”

  He reached up and scratched his cheek in this way he’d always had. It was like a nervous tic, something he did when he was anxious.

  “I wasn’t sure you would notice when I was gone.”

  “Of course I noticed,” I scoffed, setting my fork down. “You’ve always been this huge piece of my life and then, without a word to anyone, not even your parents, you just disappear the morning after graduation? Or course I noticed. Everyone noticed.”

  “You make it sound like I simply didn’t come home after that night. But I did. I spoke to my father about what I’d decided to do.”

  “But you didn’t come up here and speak to my parents. You didn’t tell Trevor you were leaving.”

  “Trevor was happy to see me go,” he said, waving his hand dismissively.

  “Your mother cried for weeks on my mom’s shoulder. Dallas refused to come out of her bedroom for nearly a month. And your dad—he walked around with his shoulders slumped, quieter than I’d ever heard him. No jokes, no nothing. Just silent all that summer long.”

  Kevin tilted his head, his eyes on his plate. It was clear he was getting what I was laying down, catching the guilt I was hoping to heap on him. I wanted him to feel the hurt we all felt when he disappeared. We were a family, the Kramers and the McKinseys. We didn’t just walk out on each other.

  “What about you?” he asked, glancing over at me. “I knew what my leaving would do to my family. But I’ve wondered for nine years what it did to you. You were the only one who never wrote me, the only one who didn’t seem bothered by my absence.”

  I couldn’t stand the heat of his stare. I turned in my chair, looking out over the garden where we used to play as children. There were a lot of nights when Tina and Michelle—the nanny—had to scour the bushes looking for us. We would hear them, calling our names, threatening punishments of all kinds, but we’d just huddle together and giggle until they finally found us.

  �
��You were my friend once.”

  “Once. But that was a very long time ago.”

  “Not so long.”

  He nodded, his eyes moving slowly over me. Not just my face, but my long neck that was like my mother’s, my full breasts, my narrow waist. I could almost feel his gaze on my legs, a caress like a lover’s touch, moving slowly over my thighs, along my calves, and down to my ankles. A shiver ran the length of my spine, causing a tightness in my lower belly I hadn’t felt in a long time.

  “Tell me about Dallas.”

  I’d almost forgotten about my sister and the whole reason Kevin was here. Thank God Beth chose that moment to exchange our untouched salads with the lovely Chicken Marsala Cook had prepared for us. It gave me time to catch my breath and focus on the real purpose here.

  “Like I said on the phone, she met this man in the emergency room of the hospital where she’s working to get her final teaching hours before she officially becomes a licensed RN. He was in a car accident and had a cut on his head and some bruising on his ribs. She did the initial assessment and, from the way she tells it, it was love at first sight. This was two weeks ago, and already they’re planning on marrying. They flew to Miami just this morning to arrange for a marriage license.”

  “They’re not here?”

  “No.”

  He narrowed his eyes, anger burning there. “Why did you have me come here then?”

  “I thought we could fly to Miami together in the morning. Then you could talk to her and convince her that this is a really bad idea. If it all works the way I’m hoping it will, we can fly back tomorrow afternoon and you can have a few days with your family.”

  He shook his head, clearly not pleased with the plan.

  “Kevin, Dallas is only twenty-one and this guy … he’s in his thirties and he’s got a criminal record. What kind of life can he give Dallas? She’ll end up supporting him, working long hours just to take care of her deadbeat husband instead of putting it toward her own future. She needs our support.”

  “This isn’t support. This is her older sister telling her what to do, like she’s still a child.”

  “If I don’t look out for her, who will?”

  “What about your parents? What do they think?”

  “They’re living it up in California,” I said, dismissing that idea with a wave of my hand. “They think it’s romantic just because they only had known each other a month when they got married. But that was a different time with different circumstances.”

  “Not really,” he said, picking up his fork and calmly taking a bite of his chicken.

  “What do you mean, not really?”

  He glanced at me. “Your parents were college sophomores who locked eyes across the student union. A month later, they were married and living in secret from their parents. At least Dallas told everyone what she was planning.”

  I shook my head, frustrated with the turn of the conversation.

  “Why did you come here if you weren’t going to support me?”

  “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to help. I’m just saying that your parents have a point, too.”

  I pushed my plate away and stood up. “I won’t let some stranger destroy my sister’s future. She’s worked too hard for it.”

  “Are you sure it’s Dallas we’re really talking about here?”

  “Don’t psychoanalyze me.”

  Kevin chuckled, taking another bite of the chicken.

  “What does that mean?”

  “What?”

  “That little snort?”

  He glanced at me. “It just means that you haven’t changed much, Kirsten. Everything still has to be your way or no way.”

  “That is not what’s happening here! I just want what’s best for my sister!”

  “Even if it means breaking her heart?”

  “There will be more men.”

  “I’m sure there will be. The two of you …” He looked over at me, his eyes once again sliding over every inch of me, caressing my flesh like a lover’s hand. “You’re both very beautiful. I’m sure there will be men coming out of the woodwork until the day you die. But that doesn’t mean she will find the man she loves in that stack. Maybe he’s her one and only.”

  “You believe in that nonsense? Soulmates and all that?”

  He seemed to think about it for a moment, touching his cheek again in that painfully familiar gesture. “Maybe I do,” he finally said a little sadly.

  “That Pamela? Is she your one and only?”

  He shrugged, averting his face so I couldn’t see his expression. “Perhaps.”

  A surge of jealousy tore through me at the thought. I wanted to smack him, wanted to know what she looked like and what she did for him that made her the only one he wanted. I wanted to know why I—

  And then I had to shut down that line of thought before I drove myself insane.

  “I don’t care. There’s more to life than love.”

  “Well,” he said slowly, dropping his fork and climbing to his feet, “I guess some things do change.”

  I turned just in time to watch him step down off the porch.

  “Where are you going?”

  He glanced back at me. “To my parents’. I think it’s time to call it a night.”

  “Let me drive you.”

  “It’s a nice night. I think I’d rather walk.”

  I went after him, catching myself at the edge of the porch when I realized how desperate I looked. “You’ll be here in the morning?”

  “Eight o’clock, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  He disappeared around an oak tree, disappearing like he’d never been there. Once again I wanted to scream, wanted to call to him and beg him to come back. I wanted to take him out into the garden and hide under one of the rosebushes, to pretend like we were children again and he was still my best friend. But he was gone and I was standing there all alone. You’d think I’d be used to being alone after all this time.

  I made my way into the house, avoiding the staff I knew would be headed out to clean up our untouched meal soon enough. I locked the door to my bedroom and threw myself down on the bed like a child denied her deepest desire. And that’s exactly how I felt.

  What had gone wrong? Why did things turn so desperately dark between us?

  I wanted to cry, but that was something I hadn’t allowed myself in a long time. Years. I was Kirsten Kramer, proprietress of Three Nines Ranch. I was the eldest daughter of William and Kathryn Kramer, the president of the local Food Bank. I was a respectable woman with a high position in this county. A woman like that doesn’t cry.

  No matter what ghosts might come out of her closet.

  I rolled onto my back, wondering if this Jason really was Dallas’ soul mate. Was it really possible? I couldn’t imagine, but what if it was true? What if I was standing between her and happiness?

  But then I thought of the things that had shown up on the background check my investigator had found. I couldn’t risk a man like that trying to take control of Three Nines. This place had been in my father’s family as far back as the Texas Revolution. I wasn’t going to be the one to allow it to fall into the wrong hands. If Kevin couldn’t convince Dallas Jason was the wrong man for her, then I’d have to find another way to stop them.

  Dallas had to understand that this was for her own good.

  Chapter 3

  Kevin

  Kirsten was waiting at the front of the house when I arrived. My dad insisted on driving me to the main house, saying something about not wanting to leave my SUV sitting there all alone and unobserved. But I thought it was because he didn’t want me to sneak away when I returned from Miami, and I could hardly blame him. I did have something of a habit of doing that sort of thing.

  It’d never really occurred to me what an impact my leaving might have had on my family. I was selfish enough to believe they wouldn’t care enough to miss me. But Kirsten was right. Everything we do has an
impact on the people around us.

  It was surreal laying my head down in the same bed I slept in as a child. My parents hadn’t changed my room much, just threw a few boxes in here. I lay under the same lame posters I’d hung on the walls when I was fifteen, on the same sheets my mother had carefully laundered every Wednesday my entire life.

  And I could hear Trevor snoring through the wall our rooms shared, just like I’d always done when I was small. I’d never realized it was that sound that I’d missed when I left home, that sound that my head still sought out late at night when I lay restless in the king-sized bed in my Houston condo.

  “Morning, Kirsten,” Dad called to her as he climbed out of the truck.

  “Jacob,” she said, coming over with a smile on her pretty face. “I didn’t expect to see you this morning.”

  “Just making sure the boy gets to where he needs to be all right.” Dad clapped his hand on my shoulder, his smile so proud it almost hurt to look at. “Don’t let him take off on us again, will ya?”

  “Of course.”

  Dad slapped my shoulder a couple more times, then turned and climbed into the truck, waving as he drove away.

  “I feel like I’m twelve, being dropped off for a playdate.”

  Kirsten smirked, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she tossed an overnight bag into the back of her truck and climbed behind the wheel, revving the engine as she waited for me to make my way to the passenger side.

  “You not going to let me drive?”

  “Why would I? It’s my truck.”

  We drove over the bumpy trails that crisscrossed the ranch to the airstrip, arriving just in time to watch a family of five climb off their private jet and climb into Jeeps waiting to take them to the restaurant. I watched them, wondering how much they paid to have the same experiences I’d had for free.

  It took a few minutes to get the jet out of the way and make room for another. I leaned against the bumper of the truck and watched, wondering when things had become this insane. I remembered standing beside my father and listening him talk about how wild this country still was and how it should remain that way forever.

  It’s our job to protect this land, son.