by Sadie Sears
“It was bad a few days ago, and I told you I’d be home for Christmas, not before,” I said in a tight voice. Anxiety pounded at my chest and guilt made my stomach churn. I should’ve gone home to prevent this.
Tears pooled in my mother’s eyes. “I was worried sick. I expected you home already.”
“Why didn’t you just call and check on me? I tried several times to get in touch with Father,” I said. “And you.”
“We were worried you’d been kidnapped. You’ve never refused to come home before.”
I glared at her. “Seriously?” Of all the bullshit.
“Yes, of course. If the kidnappers knew we cared, they’d demand a ransom.” She opened the limo door again as I stared her down. “Now, come along. Your father is at the Spruce Lodge. We went into your room and found it hadn’t been used in days. We were more convinced then that you’d been kidnapped or coerced in some way.”
“Mother, that’s ridiculous.”
She stuck her nose in the air. “It isn’t. Spruce is known for having a larger than normal dragon population, and everyone knows they’re greedy con artists.”
I thought about Vince standing behind me, probably silently urging me to walk back to him. As much as I wanted to tell Mother about him, I couldn’t yet. Glancing back, he was right where I expected. Beside Jessica, staring at me, both of them looking like they were pleading for me to walk away from my mom.
Mother seemed to recognize Vince. “Get in the car, Damini,” Mother said in a harder voice. “Your father is distraught, worried about you.”
“I find that hard to believe,” I said bitterly.
She straightened her spine and tossed her long, black hair back. “What is that supposed to mean?”
I sighed and shook my head. “Nothing. But I’ll meet you later for dinner. If you check your texts from me in about an hour, I’ll send you a location.”
Mother sniffed. “Why can’t you come now?”
“Because I don’t want to,” I said through my teeth. “There’s someone I want you to meet at dinner. I’ll talk to you later.” I turned on my heel and walked back to the truck. My knees wobbled as I went, my adrenaline going nuts. That was one of the only times in my life I’d defied my mother. Whew.
What an about-face this day had done. Perfect morning, and probably would be a shitstorm of an evening.
Super.
12
Vince
I couldn’t believe Damini had talked me into it.
Getting ready for dinner, I tried to keep Sophie’s words in mind. Meet them halfway, she’d said. I adjusted my tie for the sixth time. I couldn’t meet them halfway if I couldn’t even tie my stupid necktie properly. Damn it, I hadn’t worn a penguin suit in years.
Damini walked out of the bathroom, looking stunning as usual. She wore a long-sleeved blue dress with silver accents that highlighted her figure, and a shimmery silver clip pinned her dark, wavy hair back on one side. She’d done some fancy matching blue eye shadow that made her irises look even darker. My breath rushed from my lungs. I didn’t want to go to dinner. I wanted to stay and unwrap this gift from the heavens.
“Burberry looks good on you.” She smiled and walked up to me, pulling my tie from my limp fingers. “You’d think you would know how to do this by now.”
“I know how it ties,” I said. “I just can’t get the ends to line up right.”
“Nervous?”
I sighed as she tucked the end through the loop and tugged it neatly. Of course, it was perfect, just like she was. “I’m just not sure I see the point. They made their minds up about me years ago.”
“This is the best way.” She stroked her fingertips across my cheek, her gentle touch reassuring. “They need an opportunity to get to know you. They’ll see how great you are, and maybe it’ll shake the foundation of whatever bias they have against dragons.”
“You’re being very optimistic about this.” I forced myself to step away and retrieve the cufflinks from the tray on the dresser. Though I didn’t dress up often, both Cam and Taurus had insisted I have several pairs, and Damini had picked silver ones with a blue stone—lapis lazuli, she’d informed me— inlay. They matched her dress, she’d said.
She sat at the edge of the bed, fiddling with silver hoop earrings. “Cautiously. I’m cautiously optimistic. And you, my dear, are fully pessimistic.”
“Based on previous experiences, I reserve the right to be.” I smiled at her over my shoulder, so she’d think I was making light of the situation. It was the truth, but I knew it would only make things worse if I went into it with a bad attitude.
“They’ve always told me that whenever I finally settle down with a good man, I’ll have to put all of my energy into my new family.” Damini dropped her hands into her lap and folded her fingers together. “Tonight, it’s my hope that they’ll see this as my first move out of the family business. That I’m serious about settling down and starting something real.”
I appreciated her positivity, but I wasn’t so sure. Maybe I was just letting old grudges get in the way, but I was willing to give it a shot, for her sake. She did seem much more confident than she had that afternoon. I’d hated seeing her shrink under her mom’s scolding tone. It had brought back the memory of her threatening to have me framed and thrown in prison if I didn’t stay away.
Cufflinks finally in place, I leaned across the bed and kissed her. The agitation my dragon had been putting off settled abruptly, and I felt Damini relax as well. She ran her hands down my lapels and started to pull me closer, to which I would’ve had no objection, but then suddenly pulled away.
“We can’t be late,” she said. Her eyes said otherwise, but I didn’t press. I knew how important that dinner was to her, even if I didn’t think it would go well myself.
If we wanted a five-star restaurant without driving all the way to Burlington, Xavier Red was the place to go. The owner was a local chef who had gone on to greater things, like owning a Michelin-star restaurant in New York City. I’d heard from my elderly chess opponents that he’d wanted to offer a piece of the big city to his hometown, and so he opened the French restaurant in downtown Spruce. I loved the odd bits of info the older folks had to offer.
We arrived five minutes early, which was apparently not early enough. Damini’s parents were already there waiting, her father, Fred, staring at his watch angrily. Fantastic, I’d already started off on a bad foot.
Damini left her arm in mine as we approached, and it was the only reason I hadn’t bolted. It was unbelievable how nervous I was. Normally nothing intimidated me but tonight my dragon’s agitation was building back up, and I had to swallow it down hard.
“Dad, Mom, this is Vincent Orlando,” she said. She smiled, but it was forced. She was nervous, too.
“Mr. Walton, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” I shook his hand firmly and didn’t miss the way he wiped it off after. “Mrs. Walton, it’s lovely to see you again.”
I wasn’t sure why I’d expected them to insist on calling them by their first names. Perhaps I’d seen too many movies where the girlfriend’s parents actually liked the man. All I got in response was a withering glare from Fred and a disapproving glance from her mother, Aisha.
We were shown to our table quickly. The atmosphere in Red’s was always nice—we’d taken a few client meetings there, and they’d been generous with their subsequent contracts—but it didn’t hit me the same that night. In fact, it ratcheted up the tension in our group. While everyone around us laughed and had a merry time, our table sat silent and brooding.
After our server brought drinks and took our orders, Fred finally spoke. “Damini, have you fixed your mistakes on the merger paperwork?”
“I’m still working on it, sir,” she said meekly. Her hands fidgeted in her lap under the table. “I’ve been working closely with the legal team to understand what was done incorrectly, but they didn’t seem to have any clue.”
He curled his lip. “Perhaps you should have gone
to business school instead of wasting your time chasing daydreams. Then maybe you could be of more use to the family.”
Damini lowered her head. “Yes, sir.”
I clenched my fists under the table, but Damini’s hand on mine stopped me from speaking out. Fred glared at me as if he’d sensed a response and dared me to speak. I didn’t want to upset Damini by fighting with her parents, but I wasn’t sure how long I could keep silent if that was going to be a continuous thing.
“We need that merger completed by the end of the week or we are going to lose out on millions,” he said. “See that it gets done quicker.”
They talked around me and stayed on the topic of Fred’s business empire. I could only follow about half of it, and that made me feel useless. I hated not understanding things; I barely understood the stocks Cameron was always trading, though that was more because I wasn’t interested. When the food came, her parents looked at it in disgust. I saw it as an opportunity to speak on something I did know a bit about.
“This restaurant is owned and operated by a famous chef, who owns a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York.”
Fred grunted and pushed his food around. “He’s obviously not here tonight.”
I gritted my teeth hard against a snarky response. Aisha nibbled at a bite, then wiped her mouth and threw her napkin over her plate. She sipped at the red wine instead. Fred set his fork down and pushed his plate away.
“We’ll be meeting with the Triton agent on the twenty-sixth to discuss a new land deal,” he said to Damini. “After that, I expect you to negotiate a new contract with Perler & Sons to reduce costs on their manufacturing side.”
She looked up and frowned. “Our current contract with them doesn’t expire for another two years.”
He picked up his wine and swirled it in his glass, his tone growing sharp. “Then find a loophole and make a new one. Their labor costs alone are siphoning our wallets.”
I chugged. “Yeah, sure looks like you’re hurting for money.”
Damini squeezed my hand hard. Fred narrowed his eyes at me, and Aisha couldn’t maintain eye contact for more than a second, but it was enough to see the hatred in them. “Excuse me, I need some air.”
I couldn’t do it. It was torture to sit there and listen to them speak to her like that, and then watch her sit by and take the abuse. Having lived with Cameron, I was somewhat familiar with business-speak, but I didn’t make it my norm to keep up with things like real estate and mergers and the latest news on stocks like he did. There was nothing that I could add to the conversation, and they seemed intent on keeping me out of it, anyway.
Outside, I pulled my phone out and called Cam. He picked up on the first ring.
“I don’t know if I can handle this,” I confessed.
“What’s happening?” he asked. His voice was full of concern.
I peeked in the window I stood beside. Across the room, I could see Damini hunching her shoulders against whatever her father was saying. He looked angry, and she wasn’t speaking up for herself at all.
“I can’t stand by and watch the way they treat her, but she doesn’t want me to step in and say anything.” I huffed, running my hand through my hair before straightening it again. “Just because they’re her parents, that doesn’t mean they have the right to treat her like garbage.”
There was a shuffling noise in the background, then a door shut, and it got quiet. I’d probably interrupted his time with Sophie. A twinge of guilt trickled through the anger and anxiety.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
He chuckled. “It’s no problem, Vince. We’re always here for you. Now, talk to me.”
So, I did. I’d never gone into detail with Damini’s and my history before then, and I hadn’t realized what a huge weight it had left sitting on my chest. Before she showed up, most of the guys were aware that a girl had existed at one point in my life and that we’d been separated, but never the how or why.
It was poor timing, to spill my guts to my friend outside while my girlfriend sat at dinner with her parents, but it was such a relief to get it out. By the time I’d finished my rambling, explaining the lies, the bribes, the threats, their dismissive and haughty attitudes, I could practically feel Cam fuming through the phone. Did his empathy work through cell signals?
“Why didn’t you come to us with this before?” he asked. “Threatening anyone, especially a member of the military, with falsifications could’ve landed one or both of them in prison for conspiracy.”
I started pacing as people walked past on the sidewalk. “First of all, I didn’t record it so there was no proof. Second, I didn’t want her to hate me for getting her parents arrested, despite the freedom it would’ve given her. Third, it was my problem to handle back then, and I did a shit job at it.”
“Well, all of that aside, I’m going to give you a piece of advice, so listen closely.” I pressed the phone closer to my ear as he exhaled loudly. “Destined mates aren’t a certain thing.”
I pulled the phone away from my head and glared at it for a second, then put it back to my ear. “What? How can you—”
“You have to be willing to fight for her,” he continued. “Destiny will line up the opportunity, but it’s not going to do the work for you. If she can’t stand up for herself, stand up for her. It sounds like they’ve been doing this to her for a long time and she’s used to it, so she just accepts it as inevitable. It doesn’t make her weak, but you can show her another way.”
His words calmed me a bit. I needed to go in there and take control of the situation. “What if she tries to stop me again?”
“Nothing that needs doing is going to be easy,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it doesn’t need doing.”
I frowned at the slushy sidewalk. “I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere before.”
He laughed. “Stop talking to me and go rescue the girl. If they’re half as bad as you’ve described, she’s probably angry that you’ve abandoned her in the middle of dinner.”
My dragon agreed. “Thanks,” I murmured. I hung up, took a few calming breaths, then strode back inside. My plate was still the only one finished, Damini having likely lost her appetite. Fred had thrown a wad of bills on the table and they were all standing as if they were getting ready to leave…including Damini.
I gave her a confused look, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes. Her shoulders were hunched up nearly to her ears, and she was quiet, like a scolded child. Aisha took her by the shoulders and steered her around me toward the front door.
“We’re taking her back to the hotel with us tonight,” Fred said sternly as he passed me. “I suggest you make other arrangements for the remainder of your evening.”
Moving fast, I slipped past and beat him to the door, where the ladies were gathering their coats. I tugged on her arm gently, pulling her aside.
“What is happening right now?” I hissed. Panic bubbled up in my chest, and I had to fight to tamp it down. It felt just like last time, only there were no pretenses, no lies, only plain bullying. “Why are you going with them? You said you wouldn’t do this.”
“I have to do what’s best for my family,” she said quietly.
I glanced over her shoulder, where her father watched us coolly, waiting on his coat. “No, you’re an adult, Damini. You need to think about what’s best for you.”
“I’ve been selfish, staying here with you.” Her tear-filled brown eyes met mine for a second, then flitted back down. “I need to take care of business before I go running off on adventures the way I did. I’m sorry.”
“You’re not being selfish, you’re being—”
“I really need to go, Vince. I’m sorry.”
Damini pushed past me, but I grabbed her hand and she paused. She wouldn’t look back at me. “Will I see you again before you leave me this time?”
She hiccupped at those words, and I knew I wasn’t being fair, but dammit, the whole situation was unfair. “Meet me tomorrow for brunch at Snows
hoe Brew.”
I released her then and she made her escape, her parents a step behind her. My dragon itched to get out and follow them, steal her away when they weren’t looking, take her someplace they’d never be found. The idea was good in theory, but it wasn’t feasible. They’d have me arrested for kidnapping, and they wouldn’t even have to frame me for it. My stomach rolled at the thought that they might do something similar, keep her close, never let her off her leash for fear she might find me again.
The sidewalk was emptying, people getting indoors or heading home for the night. Snow fell around me as I walked over to the park, salty slush squishing underfoot in my nice dress shoes. I’d even worn the custom-tailored suit that Taurus had insisted I needed for special occasions, though that had cost a good deal more than I’d been comfortable with. At that moment, I didn’t care. I just needed to go.
As soon as I hit an open area in the park, expensive suit be damned, I shifted into my full size and took to the skies. I roared my heart out as I flew away from the small town. The mountains approached quickly, and I flew around, between, above, trying to settle my nerves. Turning away, I headed out toward the lake. The edges had started to solidify, but the entirety of Lake Champlain wouldn’t freeze until February or early March, if it did at all.
I flew low and close to the water, letting my speed kick up a wake behind me. It wasn’t enough. I needed to do something physical, something to release all of the pent-up tension that had built up the last couple of days. Damini was trying to leave me again—maybe not of her own will, but she wasn’t even trying to fight for me. Kicking up water wasn’t helping.
Tilting my wings, I flew back toward the mountains. I closed my eyes, feeling for the air currents through the trees down below. There was a small clearing, just large enough for me to land in, and no houses nearby that I could sense. I nosedived for it, picking up speed until my feet hit the ground with a resounding crack. The trees around me bent and groaned with the force of my landing, and it sent a shiver of satisfaction down my spine.
