Dragon Song (9 page)

Chapter Twelve

“I tried, boss.”

Noah grunted. “What the hell do you mean you tried?”

“I did everything you said, acted drunk,
drove
crazy. I was going to swerve at the last minute you know so I either broke a leg or just bruised her a bit.
Before I could do all of that, he came out of nowhere.”

“He?”
Noah spat. He knew whom the good-for-nothing referred to, but he wanted the details spelled out to him, to have it explained to him why he did not already have the dragon’s blood in his possession and wasn’t half way to awakening his own dragon.

“Yeah, trust me, boss, if I believed in that kind of thing, I’d say he wasn’t human.”

Noah gritted his teeth but waited in silence for the man to continue.

“I was coming at her at top speed, and then this blur came from nowhere like I said. I couldn’t figure out what it was. I thought maybe it was because I was going fast, but one minute she was in the street right there in my sights, and the next minute she was back on the curb. That had to be what five feet or more? You can’t jump that far, not a woman her size. And he was standing there holding her like she was precious cargo, know what I mean?”

Noah considered those words “precious cargo”. So he wasn’t wrong in choosing to get at his cousin through the woman. After all this time playing the field, had a little black woman won Stone’s heart? Noah didn’t believe it. She was just a good piece of ass. Either way, Stone had a hero complex. If he thought the woman was in danger, he’d protect her. Noah would play up on that.

“So he saved her,” Noah concluded. “Did you use his worry for the woman to catch him off guard later?”

“That’s what I meant when I said I tried, boss.” Noah heard the man swallow and knew he was nervous about his failure. “Something else might be going on with them. I followed him to the woman’s place, and he wasn’t the one to take her either. Her friend took her home. I think they had a fight. He left soon after getting to her place. Who knows, maybe they already broke up.”

Noah’s hand came down on the desk with a resounding boom. His hired man yelped over the line. “You had better pray that’s not the case, you simpleton! You better do whatever it takes to make this right, or you will regret the day you met me for the rest of your short, miserable life.”

He thought he heard the guy mutter that he already regretted meeting Noah, but then the man stumbled into apologies and pleading for another chance. He promised to do whatever Noah instructed him to do, but Noah waved him off.

“You have a few days. He and I need to return to our homeland for a few days. I will tell you what your next move will be. You need to use wisely the time we’re away, because there better not be any more screw ups. Do you understand?
None!”

“There won’t be, boss. You can count on me. I’ll do it. I’ll get it done. I’m the best at what—”

Noah disconnected the call. Let the fool wonder how he would get Noah’s next plan and torment
himself
with thoughts of whether he missed some vital information. After a few drinks and a wench in his bed, Noah would explain their next move. One way or another, this had to work. He was running out of options, and the longing to be all he was born to be
grew
with each passing day.

* * * *

Stone grunted and grumbled while he sat in a lounger at his apartment. He ran the cold drink James had made him across his forehead, allowing the condensation from the ice and the chilly temperature to cool him down. She’d rejected him. If the last hour hadn’t happened right before him, he’d never believe it was ever be a possibility. Not that he was the arrogant prick she’d accused him of being. Was he?

“James,” he barked.

His secretary bustled in from the back room.
“Sir?
How can I help you?”

“Do you find me arrogant?” Stone asked, not beating around the bush.

“Uh…I…not at all.
You are the kindest employer I have ever had. You care about—”

“Bah! I don’t need you to stroke my ego, James. I need you to tell me the truth. You will not get into any trouble. Just say what you think.”

James wobbled his weight from one foot to the other, ringed his hands, and looked everywhere but at Stone. “Well, sir.” He cleared his throat and tugged at the collar of his shirt. Stone had told him a million times he didn’t need to be so formal in his attire, but the man got some sort of pride from it. Stone gave up trying to change him. His secretary’s face reddened. “You sometimes behave as if you’re better than all the rest of us mortals, sir. And you are,” he rushed to say.”

Stone’s grip on his glass tightened, but he said nothing.

“You’re a dragon shifter after all. I am privileged to know you, to be one of the few who know your family’s secret. Besides that, I fear your father would have me killed should I ever betray you.” James gave a small shaky chuckle and spread his hand out in a plea. “You rightly conduct yourself as if you are above us. That’s to be understood. I find nothing wrong with it. At least you also have a heart, unlike…”

Stone knew who James referred to in the lack of heart department—his father. But James knew better than to badmouth the man. Even though Einin wasn’t an active dragon, he seemed larger than life to Stone for many years, and the man wielded his power with such acuity, he learned the secrets of others allowing him to manipulate them. James was right to be afraid. Einin Hughes was ruthless. By sheer will, Stone did not allow his father to rule his life.

“Thank you,” he told James. “That will be all.”

“Shall I refresh your drink, sir?”

“No, thank you.”

James disappeared from the room, and Stone settled back to consider Tielle again. The words that irritated him came to mind for the hundredth time. She’d told him no. He shook his head and closed his eyes.

“So, what’s the problem here?” he mused. Was it because he had always been the one to call it quits? Maybe his ego was bruised. Yet, if that were it, James’ obvious stroking would have soothed him somewhat. No, it was more than that.

He visualized her, her body, her face, the sound of her voice. He recalled the times they had gone out to eat and the way she tried to relay some joke to him. More often than not, she screwed up the delivery, and the punch line was either wrong or not funny. Watching how frustrated she got, the way she became flustered and screwed up her face trying to figure out what she’d done wrong had drawn him all the more. He enjoyed the jokes more the way she told them.

On top of her vibrant personality, the woman was dynamite in bed. He had never been so satisfied and still so hungry for more. He craved her day and night. Sure, his appetite for sex was huge, but it was monumental with Tielle. That was why he didn’t keep his cool when she rejected him, why he had followed her home like a lovesick puppy.

He slammed his glass down on the table causing the amber liquid to slosh over the side. His gaze focused beyond the tumbler to the bottle behind it. Hughes Irish Whiskey, it read. Stone chuckled without humor.
All that he was meant nothing to Tielle—all his money, his power, who his family was.
He should be glad about that fact, but years of lying, scheming women had taught him not to trust any of them. Tielle could be more skilled than his previous lovers. She might have understood from the first that if she showed too much interest in
who
he was, it would turn him off. He nodded. Yes, that explanation sat better with him. To think that Tielle was the perfect woman for him, the one to capture the cold-blooded heart of the dragon was too much fantasy to believe.

His mind more settled
,
he turned his thoughts to what had happened earlier. The drunken idiot had come close to mowing her down, all because she’d been absentminded. When he saw the car barreling down on her, the pain that had ripped through his chest catapulted him into action. He didn’t use his extra abilities often, and he would never have done so in front of others, but this was unavoidable. He couldn’t lose her—No, he would not think that way.

When she came to her senses and missed him, she would call. Meanwhile, he needed to return to Ireland for his uncle’s funeral and attend to some business there. At the earliest, he would be back by next week. That would give her enough time to stop this game. The loss of him in her bed would make her appreciate what she had.

He stood up and drained the last of his drink before heading to his room to pack. While he did so, he couldn’t shake the realization that he too would suffer not seeing Tielle. The days could not pass fast enough.

Chapter Thirteen

“He hasn’t called, huh?” Jamie asked Tielle.

Tielle looked up from her textbook which she’d been staring at for the last hour, taking not one single word in. Realizing that Jamie was asking about Stone, she tried to be offhand about him. “Who, Stone?” She sucked her teeth. “Girl, I haven’t been thinking about him. Easy come, easy go.”

“Uh-huh.” Jamie’s tone indicated her disbelief.

Irritated, Tielle went back to her book rather than argue. Getting worked up and trying to convince Jamie would get her nowhere. Sure, she hadn’t slept well since she drove Stone away, nor had her body given her a moment’s peace with its aching need to feel him rubbed up against it. This was her own fault, all because she felt like she had something to prove.

She wanted to leave him a thousand messages begging him to come back, not to dump her after what she’d said to him. But that would take her self-esteem to the toilet, and she had more pride than that. She’d phoned him once, but he didn’t answer, and she left what she considered to be a civilized message that she was open to seeing him. After the fact, she felt she sounded like an idiot pretending not to care.
Either way it was done, and
that had been three days ago. Stone didn’t call her back.

Tielle stood up and stretched. She shoved her book away from her. “I’m going to the bathroom and to get a drink of water.”

Jamie nodded, and Tielle headed toward the library’s exit. For exams to be coming soon, there were few people studying in the school’s library, but then she and Jamie had come early in the morning. During this time, the building had extended hours, just past the crack of dawn until eleven at night. She supposed most people were night owls and could study late. After eight, her brain turned to mush, and she could try to focus if she wanted, but nothing would be absorbed. That method was pointless. Early, when she was well-rested—or semi-rested nowadays—she had better results.

After she’d used the facilities and stood at the sink washing her hands, Tielle glanced down at her watch.
Seven-thirty.
Her stomach growled as if on cue to let her know she’d passed up the pastry Jamie offered her earlier. That kind of sugar would just pump her up for an hour and then bring her crashing down. In no time, she’d be snoring and drooling on her study notes rather than reading them.

As she left the bathroom, she tugged her cell from her pocket and texted Jamie.
“Hey, going to the vending machine for some crackers or something. Want anything?”

“Nope, sneaking cream cheese
danish
as I type.”

“I give up on you. You’re a bad influence,”
Tielle responded.

“Ha-ha and YUM!”

At the vending machines, Tielle searched her pockets for change. She hated using bills as they tended to either get stuck or keep rolling back out of the slot. She’d end up pissed and kicking it until she hurt her foot. Feeling someone behind her, she glanced over her shoulder. The guy who stood too close and had a creepy grin didn’t appear to be a nursing student, at least none she’d seen. People here were all ages as more and more men and women went back to school after twenty or thirty years, and some of them could get grungy during cramming time. This guy set off all kinds of warning bells of creep alert.

She stepped to the side. “You can go ahead. I haven’t decided what I want.”

Instead of focusing on the machine, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels looking at her. “Your name is Tielle, isn’t it?”

Tielle took another step back.
“Never mind.
I’ll choose something later.”

She started to walk away when his words stopped her. “And that rich dude is your boyfriend. What’s his name…
”

Her heart thundered in her chest. Breathing hindered, she tried to calm down and think, but she had no idea whether she should demand what he knew about Stone or if she should ignore him and run back to Jamie. All of a sudden the memory of the phone call came back to her, the one a few weeks back when someone had contacted her pretending to be Stone’s secretary. Now she knew Stone was rolling in dough. Was this person after him, trying to blackmail him or something?

Sucking in a calming breath, Tielle straightened and said over her shoulder while she walked away, “Get lost, jerk.”

“I don’t think so.” A hand smashed down on her shoulder and forced her backward. She fell into the man’s scrawny chest, disgusted at how much thinner he was than she’d assumed. Before she could wrestle her way free, something pricked her arm.

Tielle gasped. She threw all her weight back on him, making him lose balance and then wrenched forward. When he was still unsteady, she spun around, balled up her fist, and drove it straight into his crotch. His knees buckled and slammed to the floor. Tears flooded his eyes, and he cried out, but Tielle didn’t feel sorry for him. She pivoted and began to run back to the library.

After a few feet, the world tumbled sideways and then righted itself. She slumped against the wall shaking her head. Weakness stole over her body. “What the hell,” she mumbled, but her words were slurred. He’d drugged her.

Each step labor-intensive, she fought her way inch by inch along the wall. The impact of each foot coming down made the hall spin, so she closed her eyes. When she realized she’d never make it, she got her phone out and felt for the connect button. She pressed it, but nothing happened. The phone had locked.

Sobbing, she tried again, but it was too late. The man had recovered, and he brought his arms around her, dragging her to him. He whispered in her ear. “You’re going to bring me so much money, baby.”

He pinched her phone from useless fingers and put it in his pocket. All hope that she could escape left Tielle, and she sank into the man’s arms.

* * * *

Sunlight streaming in the window woke Tielle to an almost blinding headache. She tried to sit up but found she was bound to a bed, both hands tied together to one of the bedposts. The memory of what happened to her came flooding back, along with the knowledge that whoever that man was, he still had her. Panic hit hard, cutting off her breath and making her shake. She tried yanking on the bonds, but that only made them tighter until they cut into her wrists.

“Oh no, I’m in trouble.” She scanned the area around her. The place looked like a cheap motel room with dark brown threadbare carpet on the floor, matching curtains at the window and on the bedspread. A simple dresser which was scratched and chipped at the corners lay at the opposite wall.

Somewhere she couldn’t see, a toilet flushed, and a door opened. She guessed it was the bathroom. The man who had attacked her came out running a hand over his face. When he saw her watching him, he grinned. “So you’re awake, baby. Good. Now we can get started.”

Her throat dried. “Get started what?”

He eyed her breasts and lower to the vee between her legs, and Tielle started to scream, but he covered her mouth and burst out laughing.
“Kidding.
If the boss knew I went against his plan to do that, then I’d really get it. He’s not the kind of dude you want to play with.” The man scratched at drab brown hair that seemed not to have been washed in weeks. The grease was visible on his fingers when he lowered them. “Okay, the call.”

He gave her a warning look and removed his hand from her mouth. He bounced down on the side of the bed. Tielle watched him reach under the bed and pull out a black suitcase. He flicked the locks and opened it to pull out a device she’d never seen before. A cord plugged into the motel’s phone, and a headpiece went on the man’s head. He pressed a button on the black box in his hand, and Tielle guessed he would record the call along with blocking the person on the other end from tracing it. Tears welled in her eyes, but she blinked them away. If she was going to get free from this, she needed a clear head. Now if only the pain would ease in her temples.

The man finished playing with his toys and reached back inside the bag. What he brought out set Tielle’s heart to racing all over again. He tapped the gun on her cheek and slid it down the side of her face. She panted until she was sure she’d hyperventilate. The man bent over her with that horrendous grin splitting his thin lips.

“You’re going to be good, right?” he asked.

She sniffed, the tears no longer held in check. Under her head, the bedspread soaked through. “Yes, whatever you want.”

“Good girl.” He picked up the phone, flipped a few switches on his device and then dialed a number from the slip of paper in his other hand. “You keep your mouth shut until I tell you to speak. Got it?”

She nodded.

He waited a few minutes, and then someone must have picked up. “Hello, Mr. Hughes.
Mr.
Stone
Hughes, correct?”

Her eyes widened, both at the distortion in the man’s voice and in the fact that he was speaking to Stone. She quaked from head to toe. Everything inside her strained to get to the phone, to plead with Stone to help her, but getting shot was out of the question. What she didn’t get was why the man would use something to distort his voice, but let her see his face. The thought that maybe he planned to kill her after he got Stone to pay him made panic set in.

Tielle began to cry in earnest. She couldn’t hear the kidnapper over her sobs as she searched all around her for a way to get out of here. Forgetting that she needed to stay calm and cooperate, she began to kick and struggle against the bonds. She screamed for Stone. The man brought the gun’s butt down on the side of head. Darkness descended over her eyesight, but he shook her and forced her chin around so she had to look up at him.

He spoke into the phone. “I’m sure you heard that, didn’t you, Mr. Hughes? I had to hit your girl because she wasn’t behaving. You don’t want her dead. Follow the instructions I gave you.”

Tielle froze when she heard Stone’s voice over the line. She expected him to shout and curse, maybe threaten to contact the police or his lawyer, or whatever rich people did when someone wanted to take their money. But Stone’s tone could not be filled more with ice.

“Let me speak to her now,” he commanded.

“Sure, Mr. Hughes.”
Tielle thought she might start screaming again if he didn’t stop saying Mr. Hughes in that snaky way. He put the phone to her ear. “Go ahead.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but the gun barrel pressed to her forehead. Her stomach roiled.

“Tielle?”
Stone called over the line.

“Stone,” she whimpered.

“Stay calm. Keep your wits about you, and do what he tells you. I will get you,” he promised. “Do you understand? I will come and get you.”

Didn’t he care about her? Was she just an inconvenience that he showed no emotion? Why wasn’t he crying or pleading or yelling—anything to show she meant more to him than a piece of ass. She began to cry harder. She’d thought she was tough, could take any situation head-on, but no one could face this all bold and fearless like they did in the movies.

“Tielle?”

She tried to pull herself together. “What do you care?” she asked him in a low tone.

He was about to say something more, but the kidnapper snatched the phone away. “So we have a deal? Good. I will contact you again with more details. Be ready for me.” He disconnected the call and the equipment and then pulled a cell phone from his pocket.
“Now to update the boss.
He’ll be happy. Everything is going according to plan.”

The man gagged her this time, stood up, and went back into the bathroom. After he shut the door, blocking off his conversation, Tielle lay on her back with aching arms off to the side. She stared at the ceiling feeling no expectation whatsoever that Stone or anyone else would rescue her. She was on her own.

* * * *

“What are you going to do?” Jamie sobbed. “What the hell are you going to do to help my friend?”

She dragged on Stone’s arm, her face blotchy, eyes bloodshot. When Stone got her hysterical call an hour ago, he hadn’t been able to make heads or tails about what the woman was saying beyond telling him her name and that she was Tielle’s friend. That Tielle was in trouble was the second thing he figured out, and he’d been livid ever sense.

He might seem calm to all involved, but he’d practiced a poker face for years in order to come out ahead in business. To show the turmoil his emotions were in to the kidnapper was equal to allowing the man to kill Tielle. As it was, he’d had to dredge deep not to rip any and everyone within a city block to shreds when he heard that asshole hit Tielle. When he found him, he would end his miserable existence. That was a promise he made to himself and to Tielle.

She’d been terrified, and he’d done his best to instill confidence in her that he would rescue her. From her last words, he knew she didn’t believe him, but he would bring her home safe and sound.

Stone spun toward the door to Jamie’s apartment. He’d rushed over there to demand she explain what happened to him in person. Face-to-face, he’d managed to get her calm enough to give him the details. Now, he needed to get back to his penthouse and make arrangements. He could only hope that the man would wait until nightfall which was just two hours away. Then he could search for Tielle in his beast form with less of a chance of being seen.

“Where are you going?” Jamie screamed. She clung to him, but he threw her off. His reaction to her panic was on a whole different scale to what he felt when Tielle panicked. He decided not to delve too deep into those feelings right now.

“I’m going to do what I promised her. I will bring Tielle home.”

“Take me with you, Stone. Please. She needs me.”

“No, actually.
She doesn’t.” His clipped response drew her anger, but it did help her to gain control. “You would slow me down, and tracking her would be impossible. We’re on a time constraint. I will contact you when I have her safe.”

“You better, Stone Hughes,” she yelled to him as he left. “You better bring my sister back unhurt,” she sobbed. “Or I will hunt you down! You hear me?”