The Dragon's Heart (Dragon Lore) (16 page)

“I don’t want an act.” As he slid both hands into her hair he leaned down, brushing his mouth gently over hers. “I want you. The annoying spoiled brat who likes to boss me around, for the right reasons.” When she narrowed her eyes at him, he winked, kissing her again. He was hungrier this time, leaving her shaking, ready for more. “Damn it, woman, tell me you forgive me enough to be with me again.”

She blushed down to her toes. “We have a cave full of people trying to help us and no bedroom walls.”

A dark, violent sound rumbled in his chest. “I can kick them out for an hour, or maybe ten.” He nodded, already shifting his attention. “Ten hours should be enough, at least to start with.”

She laughed, blushing as a deep thrill ran through her. “Hey, I’m not going anywhere.” Going up on her toes, she wound her arms around his neck. She leaned up to kiss his chin. “Daniel.”

She shivered at the dark intensity in his gorgeous grey gaze. She’d seen men ogle her with lust and possession before, but it was always about owning her. With Daniel, she didn’t feel like a possession. She felt…wanted. She needed him to know she felt the same way about him.

Cupping his face in her hands, she held him still so he couldn’t look away from her, her voice quiet. Fierce. “There is nothing for me to forgive you for, alright? No way in hell do I regret that night. I was scared and confused, but I didn’t understand what happened. I never stopped trying to find you, just so I knew you were all right, that you’d escaped the ambulance alive.”

* * * *

“You say that,” he snorted, even as the pad of his thumb rubbed over her full bottom lip. “We both know the damage I did to your career the last time you let me into your life. Pretending it didn’t happen doesn’t make it so, Shel.”

She wrapped her fingers around his wrist and turned her face into his hand. “You think too much.” She slid her fingers up to wrap around his. “Yeah, the last year was hell. I’m not denying it, Daniel, but unless you set the whole thing up that night, including the intruder, it’s not your fault.”

He slid his hands into her hair and tilted her head back so he could press his lips to her forehead. He didn’t know how she did it, how she always saw the best in him no matter how much proof she had otherwise. While his life was one bleak, bloody battle after another, she was this brilliant light in the world. They didn’t fit together. He’d always known he was a bastard, but he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her that she hadn’t gone screaming from him. He was sure Seren would have told him if he’d needed to watch for a concussion.

No. Letting her go was the only way he could fix his mistakes. He just had to find the strength to do it.

He brushed a chaste kiss over her waiting mouth. “We can talk about it later, alright? Right now, we need to start figuring out who would want you dead.”

She made a face as her whole body shivered. “I keep hoping that was a nightmare.”

“Me too.” He growled quietly, unable to keep the beast fully trapped inside its cage. He could feel the insanity starting to rear its head again the more he thought about her being shot. “But we need to find this fucker so I can rip his goddamn fucking heart out of his fucking chest.”

She wrapped a hand around the back of his neck. “Hey,” she murmured, pulling his face back to hers. “I’m here, thanks to you. You saved me, remember? We’ll fix this.” She was smiling as she went up on her toes to kiss him lightly, as if she thought he needed it. “I have faith in you. I’ve seen what you’re capable of doing when you put your mind to something. If you want to find this guy, you will.” She smiled. Moving in, she rested her head against his chest, her arms wrapping around his waist. “I know you will.”

He closed his eyes and held her tight. She always knew the right thing to say. He didn’t know how she didn’t hate him, but he couldn’t make himself question it.

Ryuu,
he was crazy about her. She was the biggest pain in the ass he’d ever met, but she somehow made him feel like all the parts of him that no one else liked were okay.

13

“Shelby.” Broderick’s voice broke into Daniel’s spinning thoughts. “I need you to look at something.”

His gut tightened at the fear playing in her eyes, but instead of crumpling, she blew out a steadying breath and lifted her chin slightly.

She slipped her small hand into his, leading him toward the massive communication area set into the corner of the cave. Dallas and Broderick shifted from their spots in front of the computer screens to give her room.

She glanced up at Daniel before she moved in, her hand still wrapped around his. He grunted his approval, pleased at the way she needed him by her side.

“Okay.” She sent both dragons a smile, before she leaned in. “What am I looking at?”

To Daniel’s surprise, Dallas stepped between her and the screen, his arms crossed over his chest as Broderick glanced over his shoulder at him. “Stay close.”

Daniel scowled at them, a low growl rumbling in his chest as he automatically hooked his free arm around Shelby’s waist. The other hand still possessively held hers. He didn’t need to explain shit, and they knew better than to give him orders. “You have two seconds to explain what the hell is going on before I start knocking heads together for scaring her.”

While Dallas winced but didn’t move, Broderick spun in his chair so he was facing them. “I’ve compiled all the video footage of the shooting I could find, from every angle I could access.” He hesitated, his gaze finding Shelby’s. “I’m going to go frame by frame through this a couple of times. We’re going to start with the people you know, the people you recognize so we can start deleting them from the footage. From there, we’ll start narrowing down who doesn’t belong.”

Shelby nodded immediately. “Alright. Should I sit?”

“Yeah.” Broderick cleared his throat. Daniel watched as Dallas took the hint, moving out of the way, while offering Shelby the only other chair at the console. She smiled at him, but Daniel didn’t miss the way she warily watched all of them. For as little as she was, she had to feel like giants were overrunning her life.

* * * *

Shelby wasn’t naive enough to believe any of these mountain-sized dragon-men were harmless. They seemed nice enough, but the power they threw off was overwhelming. She could feel it in the air, a subtle shift whenever their moods changed. Daniel trusted them, though, and she trusted Daniel. If there was something she should be worried about, he’d have warned her by now.

So with a nod, she accepted the offered seat and looked expectantly at Broderick, a serene smile plastered on her face. “You have actual video footage of the shooting?”

“What the hell are you thinking, Broderick?” Daniel asked, quietly, the callused pad of his thumb rubbing lightly at the inside of her wrist, calming her. “She doesn’t need to see this shit.”

Broderick nodded once. “I edited that part out. I just want her checking out the crowd of people so we can start narrowing down suspects.”

“Daniel, it’s fine,” she murmured, lifting her head to see his darkened face. He looked close to violence. “I handled being shot. I can handle seeing it happen.”

“I don’t care.” He scowled at her, his feet planted in that stubborn, pain-in-the-ass way he had. “You don’t need to see it.”

She swiveled the chair so she could see him better without hurting her neck. His hand clamped down around hers. Though it wasn’t exactly hurting, his grip was tight enough to worry her. This was genuinely freaking him out.

“Hey.” She tugged on his fingers gently. “I’m not breakable, Daniel.”

He sneered. “Bullshit. Your body is still recovering, and you sure as hell don’t need to tax it anymore by being stressed out about this.”

“But I’m not stressed out,” she replied calmly, deciding not to mention the wound had completely healed over. She didn’t think it would matter.

His face was set like stone. “What good is going to come from watching the footage? If you can give me a solid reason, I’ll back off.”

Her nose wrinkled as she tried to think. Damn him, he would have to go logical on her. She couldn’t even come up with
why
she wanted to see the footage so badly. There was just a niggling suspicion it was important. “I don’t know,” she murmured honestly. “Maybe there’s something in it only I would be able to recognize?”

“Like what? We already know the shooter was in front of you.”

She pressed her free palm to her eye. This was too hard. If only she could remember…but she couldn’t. The information, the memory, whatever was gone. “I don’t know,” she repeated. “It could be important.”

He nodded once. “Then Broderick and I can go over it later. You don’t need to see it.”

“What about you?” she asked, as she shot to her feet and rounded on him. She pulled her hand free of his grip so she could plant her fists on her hips in an effort to make herself seem bigger, more intimidating. “You didn’t get any rest last night to recover from all the energy you gave me, plus you flew us how many freaking miles? You need rest right now more than I do. You think watching this isn’t going to tax your body? Like you can handle going off into a rage at the moment.” Not that he couldn’t, she was sure he’d be fine, but the problem was she had no idea how they’d stop him if he
did
decide to do something about what he saw. If he was the king, she didn’t know how much more power it gave him over the others.

“Yeah, well.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s different.”

“Really?” She snorted, mimicking his stance. “How?”

“I’m used to functioning under this much stress and energy loss, princess. You’re not.”

She didn’t reply. She couldn’t. She wasn’t sure she wouldn’t hurt him if she did.

“Uh, dude,” Bain cut in. “She’s twitching. You might want to back off a little.”

“No.” Shelby seethed the word out as she glared up at Daniel, before she let her temper out on a low growl. “He’s worried about me. I get it.” She sighed as her hand reached out, her fingers tangling with his. “But you need to understand I worry about you, too. So I won’t dismiss your fears if you don’t dismiss mine.”

Daniel’s grey gaze bored into hers. “So how do we solve this?”

She went on her toes to kiss his throat. Unless he was leaning toward her, it was the highest she could reach. “We find a way to compromise.” She looked at Broderick over her shoulder. “Can you blur me out of the footage, but keep everyone else in focus?”

He nodded once, already at work at the keyboard. “Yeah. No problem.”

She smiled at him, before turning her attention back to Daniel. “You know,” she murmured, quietly enough only he could hear her, “you make it really hard not to like you when you keep scowling at me all the time.”

His lip lifted in a sneer, something in the depths of his eyes shutting off. “I don’t mean to.”

“Hey,” she murmured, pulling his face down to hers, “I like it. I can’t explain it, but nobody scowls at me. Nobody argues with me. Nobody does anything but smile at me, then rush to do my bidding, even when I am just talking out loud. It makes me feel…I don’t know, safe, I guess, when you scowl at me. Like I’m in the realm of normal and don’t have to be perfect.”

“You’re not making sense, princess,” he said quietly. “How is this anywhere near normal?”

She let out an unladylike snort. “My last male co-star spends more a month on his hair than I do, and he has less than Bain over there. His studio contract has a clause that assures he gets daily manis and pedis, along with weekly facials. He has a stunt double because his face is insured for enough money to make you cry.” She let out a harsh laugh. “Trust me. Nothing about my life in Hollywood is
normal.
At least you guys act like men.”

He didn’t move for so long, Shelby started to worry she’d offended him somehow. Then he hooked his arm around her waist and lifted her, only to deposit her in the office chair. Leaning down, he growled quietly in her ear, the sheer power behind the sound making her shiver. “I like you too.” Then he turned the chair around to face the computer screen. “Let’s do this.”

Shelby nodded at Broderick. “You heard my mate. Let’s do this.”

As she waited for whatever Broderick wanted to show her, she reached her hand up over her shoulder. The second he wrapped his around it, she smiled, lacing their fingers together.

* * * *

Shelby didn’t know how long they sat there, going over every second of video footage, frame by frame, from every angle Broderick could find. Which, considering the sources he had to download from, were many.