too, and had even made an example of a few people. It was one of the reasons that had
made Baldwin give the okay for his daughter to marry the younger man. In his opinion,
the man was prime meat for working for him. Then he’d gotten his daughter knocked
up not six months after they said their vows. Baldwin did not want to be a grandfather.
“Children can change a man.” Baldwin nodded at Gentry when he’d told him he
was going straight, knowing that the man was full of shit if he thought he was going to
allow that. But then his daughter had come to him a few weeks later telling him the
same thing. They were out. No more deeds that were going to put either of them in
danger. Well, fuck that shit.
But no matter what he’d done to them, either of them, they were set on being just a
couple of people making it in the world. No amount of threats, stealing from them, or
even telling them that he’d never bail them out if they were ever caught being small
time would sway them. They would take it as it came.
Baldwin had recruited Bart almost as soon as the kid was old enough to point and
fire a gun. Turning him against his father and mother had been easy. Bart had high
tastes and also a taste for drugs. He was almost too easy to get to work for him. Then a
few years ago, he’d approached the boy about his father.
“I want you to kill your father.” Bart had told him he would. No hesitation either.
“You heard me? I want you to kill him for me.”
“Yeah, I heard. I’ll do it. He’s a pain in my ass anyway. Always going on about how
I have to be a better man and shit. Then he had the nerve to cut me off, like I’m a kid or
something. Being a man like him don’t get me what I want.” Baldwin asked his
grandson what it was he wanted. “All of it.”
He’d liked the kid a great deal after that. He knew that Anderson had had troubles
with the boy. But Baldwin thought she should have cut him some slack. He was just a
growing man, feeling his own feet right now. After that, Anderson forbade him to see
Bart. Nor was he allowed to give him any more money. But neither of those stopped
when she said so.
About a month after Bart had come to him with an idea to get his dad out of the
picture, Baldwin had gotten a call from him. He’d told him that things were a go. That
once his father was out of the way, he wanted to come and live with him. But it never
happened. His daughter had been killed, and no matter how often or how harshly he
asked him, Bart had always denied knowing a damned thing about it.
“Hit and run my ass.” And he had never seen her body either. Cremated. Who did
that to another man’s daughter? Gentry had had it done not hours after she was gone,
even before he could see his little girl. And though they hadn’t spoken in nearly five
years, seeing her one more time before he’d done it to her would have gone a long way
in forgiving the man almost anything.
Baldwin was ready to leave for the day when his phone rang. He nearly didn’t
answer it, preferring most of the time to have the service simply take care of the calls
now. But he picked it up and said his name. The silence at the other end had him
thinking he’d waited too long, and he nearly hung up before the person that had called
him laughed.
“You know where the ring is, Baldwin? I do. I know just where it is.” He asked the
caller where. “And what do I get if I tell you the information I have? Money, more than
I can spend in two lifetimes? Safety from you for the rest of my natural life? What
Baldwin? What will you promise me?”
“I’ll murder you and your family if you don’t tell me.” The laughter again, and he
was tempted to hang up but didn’t. Whatever this person wanted, Baldwin would
promise her. That didn’t mean he’d actually do it. “You tell me where it is and I’ll give
you five hundred thousand dollars. Cash.”
“That’s a great deal of money for a ring, don’t you think? For an ugly ring anyway.
Unless of course you know what it really is.” Baldwin did. It was why he’d had it taken
from the man who had it. “So you do know, do you? I thought as much.”
“Who is this and where is my ring?” The person laughed again, and he thought it
was a woman. There was something very familiar about her too. “I demand that you
tell me your name. And who has my property. You will or so help me, I’ll make you
regret it for the rest of your short, miserable life.”
“I don’t do well with demands. And the ring is right under your nose if you cared
to look hard enough. Besides, if you know the ring and its story, you also know that it’s
worthless but to the person who can bring it to life.” He started to tell her that he knew
who could do that, but she continued. “The dragon is awake now, Baldwin, and you
should know that he’s coming for you too. I have it on good authority that he’s a mean
bastard.”
“What do you mean, the dragon is awake? There are no such things as dragons.”
But he wondered about it. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly, realizing that he
had lost control over his temper for a moment. “You never said who this is. Tell me
now and we can work on the arrangements of you giving me my ring.”
“I never said I was going to get it for you, Baldwin. I only told you I knew where it
was. What fun would it be for me to tell you everything I know?” He wanted to tell her
to fuck off, that he’d find it himself, but he knew that after all this time, if the ring had
been in the shell of the building it would have been found by now.
“Then what is it you want to tell me? Why are you wasting my time calling me and
telling me this? Is it that you don’t know and think to extort money from me? It won’t
work. I eat people like you every day before spitting them out on the pavement and
moving on.” The laughter pissed him off, and he told her to shut up. “Don’t call here
again. I don’t know how you got this number, but don’t you dare call here again.”
“It’s a gold band with a pair of dragons holding a four carat diamond. Their wings
are the setting and the diamond is blue, as blue as the oceans where it came from.”
Baldwin said nothing. That description could have come from the man he’d taken it
from. “When all the jewelry is together, each piece is with their owner, the dragon
comes forth, taking those that dared thwart him to their fiery deaths. There is the ring, a
necklace, earrings, a brooch, and hair combs. And then there is the torques. Few people
know that they exist, do they Baldwin?”
“Who is this? Where did you get that information? She laughed again, and he
gripped the phone tighter in his hand, trying for a calm speaking voice. “Listen, I really
would like to meet with you. Talk over what you know about this.”
“Oh, we’ll meet, Baldwin, and soon.” He waited for her to say more, and then when
she did finally speak, he was afraid. “It’s really too bad that you won’t live long enough
to see it come together. I heard that it’s quite the sight to see. Until we see each other
again, Baldwin, watch your back. I’m going to come for you.”
Putting the phone back in the cradle, he staggered to his chair. He’d been on his
way out and wished now that he’d never answered the call. He was sure she might
have called him later to talk, but he wouldn’t have had to deal with it tonight.
He stared out the darkening window and tried to get his thoughts in order. She
knew too much, he kept thinking. She had to die too. But who? Where was she and how
did she know? The longer he sat there, the longer his list of unanswered questions
became. The one thought that kept circling around to him was: he knew the voice.
“I don’t trust her.” Kenton looked over at Emma when she spoke to him. He didn’t
either, but it was her mom and he wasn’t sure how to tell her. “Did you know that she
talked to your mom for hours yesterday about stuff? She asked about the ring too.”
“Mom is upset that she told her anything. I don’t think she likes her very much
either.” Emma snorted, and he felt his dragon move along his skin. He asked him how
he felt about her.
She is most dangerous, I think. And I too do not think she’s trustworthy. There is something
very sly about her.
Emma nodded.
I think she’s working with the other man, but there is really
no way to know for sure, is there?
“Other man? You mean the one that hired those people to come and take Kenton?”
He told Emma that it was. “Do you know who it is? I mean, I have an idea, but do you
know him?”
He is a man that she knows, but I don’t know any more than that right now. She had no idea
what I was either, other than the original family had had me for a great many years before I was
taken. I think…I believe that your mother is working with someone else and that she is trying to
get the young miss dead.
Kenton said nothing, wondering at the lengths that people
would go to just to have something that didn’t belong to them.
I believe him to be her
lover. There is some connection to her father, but I cannot know it just now.
“My grandfather.” Kenton felt the dragon move along his skin, and he felt
comforted by it. He did wonder if Emma felt him as well, and Dragon said that she did
but not as profoundly. “He’s never been in my life. I mean, maybe when I was younger,
but I don’t remember him well. I think Bart had a lot to do with him, but I’m not even
sure about that. What do you think about what she said about Dad and her looking for
me?”
“Why would they not know you were under their nose?” Kenton pulled Emma into
his arms and thought about some of the other things that Anderson had said. “What do
you think about her father not knowing that she’s alive? I don’t know why, but I do
think that part is true. I think he killed Bart for that very reason, don’t you?”
“Yes.” She looked around the room before continuing the conversation with him.
“Why have you done nothing with this room? It’s very…I was going to say empty, but
there is this couch. Where is all your stuff?”
He’d brought her to his home last night. After they had dinner with his family, he
felt it was time for them to be alone. He wasn’t sure what his mom would think about
them sleeping together now and he didn’t want to ask her. Kenton was a grown man,
but she was still and forever would be his mom.
“I’m not here much. I mean, I sleep here a few nights a week, but I’ve not gotten
around to getting any furniture yet.” She asked him how long he’d lived here. Kenton
felt embarrassment run over him when he answered her. “Two years. I told you, I’m not
here much.”
“Do you at least have a kitchen? Maybe a refrigerator?” He said that he had both
and slapped her gently on the bottom. “I know you have a bed and this couch, which is
extremely lumpy by the way. And what else? So you know, this place is sparser than
mine was.”
It was bad. While he did have a kitchen, there were only the basics in it. Not even a
table with a single chair. At least when he’d been in college, he’d had a table with a
lawn chair to sit on. He thought there was a microwave but wasn’t sure if it was even
out of the box, much less plugged in. He did have a mattress, but no bed. It had been
too much effort to get him one that he liked, so he never bothered. His clothing, his shirt
and pants for work, were supplied by a service, and the little bit of things that he
needed drawers for had ended up in numerous baskets all over his room. He was
almost ashamed of how little he’d done to the place since he’d moved in.
“Let’s go shopping.” She looked at him with a cocked brow and he laughed. “No,
you have no idea how much we need to. Not only is there no food in the house, but I
think that I only have a single towel and nothing here for you to wear. The only reason
my mom has some of my clothing is because she never changed any of our rooms after
we left home.”
“That’s just…sad really. Seriously? One towel? What do you do if you have it in the
laundry?” Kenton assured her she didn’t want to know. “Eww. Gross. I had two towels,
neither of them in good shape, but I had a backup. Going to the laundromat was hard
when you didn’t have a car.”
He stood up and sat her on her feet. This was going to be fun. As he dragged her
through the house and to the kitchen, she jerked her hand from him when they entered
the massive room. He was seeing it through her eyes and knew that she found him
lacking.
“This is amazing.” He nodded, thinking that he was going to buy every gadget he
could see just to fill the place. “Do you have any idea how much fun I can have in this
room? Oh, Kenton, please tell me that I can cook for us. And have an herb garden too.
Please?”
“You like to cook?” She told him that she loved it. “Then we have to get you
whatever you need. In case you didn’t notice, I have no desire to be in this room any