Kenton (7 page)

dead as well. Leave no witnesses behind, his grandda had told him.

Now here he was hurt, and Emma was out there somewhere living it up like she

had known all along that he’d be hurt when the building blew up. Well, when he found

her—and he would—he was going to make it so that she was slave to him, doing what

he wanted when he wanted for the rest of her days. And when he was finished with

her, once she’d served her time, Bart was going to enjoy blowing her fucking brains out.

Then there was the ring. He had no idea why that kept circling around in his head

since he’d realized that Emma had survived. He’d knocked shit off her desk all the time,

and she had never bent to pick it up before while he was there. But this time she did,

going after that fucking ring like it was worth something. He’d seen it, of course,

shining right there when she’d bent over, and he’d nearly kicked her in the head while

she was there too. But the rocking of the building had taken him, and he knew she had

something that belonged to him. Like that fucking bastard Sebastian Logan.

He had taken something that he’d wanted. Not at the time, of course, but later

when he’d heard from the one of the people that he did business with that a ring had

been removed from the building without his okay. Emma had vouched for the man,

saying that Bart had said he could have it. Like Bart gave a shit what she said. He was

the boss of her, and the sooner she got that set in her head, the better off she might be.

Bart had killed the man because he could, and had loved it every time his sister flinched

when he brought out his gun. He loved scaring the fuck out of her. Until that last day,

when she’d gotten uppity.

Bart was going to have to show her the error of her ways. Beginning with trying to

take what was his again. First there was the ring, then her running off like she had

something to hide or some shit. He wanted her here, making these people do what he

wanted them to do. She was his slave, damn it, and now she was fucking out there on

her own. She was going to die, and Bart was going to be the one to pull the trigger. No

one fucked with what was his and got away with it.

Emma heard the loud voices but didn’t respond to them. Whatever they were

talking about, it had little to nothing to do with her. At least she hoped not. Something

about an injured boy and his grandmother. Emma hadn’t really seen her grandfather

but a couple of times, so hoped that she’d not fallen asleep somewhere and was having

a bad dream. Why she’d dream about grandparents she had no idea, but she groaned

when the voice in her head started speaking.

There is a young man by the name of Jim that has been hurt several times, and now his

father is demanding that the good doctor tell him where he is.
Why would she even care about

that, she asked him.
Because it goes to show that he is a good man and one that you can get

help from when the time comes. But he has hidden the young man and his grandmother away.

Given them a fresh start is what he called it.

I’m sure that he’ll just be thrilled to no end to help me out.
Opening her eyes, she

realized that she was in some sort of hospital and looked at the two people standing

near her. Both were men and related, but other than that, she had no idea. “Where am

I?”

Just as one of them turned to her, she knew she’d seen him before. Where that

would have been was a little fuzzy, but she knew him. When he smiled at her, showing

perfect teeth, Emma could only think about the big bad wolf and how he’d gobble her

up should he want too. Shaking her head caused her some pain, and he came to stand

beside her to speak low.

“Kenton wants to you be quiet. He doesn’t think it will be a good idea should Mr.

Mason find out that we have you here. But I think if you went in there and kicked his

ass, it would thrill a lot of people to no end.” His breath was warm, almost hot on her

cheek, and she moved away from him. “Do you remember me?”

“Yes. You’re the man who found me in the clinic. When was that?” He told her.

“I’ve been here for five days? Christ, they’ll catch me for sure now.”

He grinned at her, and she wanted to hit him for some reason. Emma knew people

like him, thinking that if they were charming and sweet looking they could get

whatever they wanted. Well, she’d turned down better looking men than him. Not

many, but she had. She whispered to him that she needed to leave.

“Not just yet. My mom needs to speak to you first, and I’m not sure that Kenton is

ready to release you either.” She asked him why he had to release her. “He’s your

doctor. And he’s spent a lot of time patching you back together, Emma.”

Emma stared at the man when he said her name. She wondered how he’d figured it

out and who he had told when he leaned to her ear again and told her that she was safe.

No one was safe around her. She’d learned that the hard way over the last few weeks.

“Is my brother coming here?” The other man assured her that no one was coming

for her here. “Yeah, and how do you know that for sure? I mean, I thought I was safe in

the hotel, and someone came in shooting it all to hell to get me. Bart is not one to fuck

with.”

“Neither am I.” The man that was standing in the doorway was also someone she’d

met. The doctor. He’d told her that he was going to take care of her or some bullshit

when he’d come to the clinic too. “Mason is out in the yard. You might want to call

someone to come and get him. He’s becoming a nuisance. Again.”

The younger man left them. He was in a uniform, she noticed, and that frightened

her more than anything. Kenton sat in the chair and the other man stood by the window

looking out. She wanted to ask what was going on but was afraid to. Kenton cleared his

throat and she looked at him.

“What do you remember about getting here?” Emma said nothing, but that didn’t

seem to matter to him. He knew everything, it seemed. “Seven days ago you were

sighted in a hotel in Gilbertown. There you were hiding under the name Winder. Five

people, including the cleaning lady, were shot and you escaped. They’re not sure how

you managed that, but you did. Only to turn up in a convenience store several hours

later trying to shoplift some medical supplies. I’m assuming to help you with your

wounds.”

“I went to the hospital too. And while I was there, two people were killed. I’m not

sure if it had to do with me or not, but I left.” He told her that it must not have, because

there was no word that she’d been there. “And how the hell do you know this?”

“Cameras. They’re everywhere, and once word got out that you were being looked

for, Dalton, the cop that just left, looked into some of the programs and we were able to

track you all the way here. Well, not here, but to the convenience store that you were

almost arrested in. After that, you sort of disappeared until you made it to my clinic.”

Emma leaned back on the bed and looked over at the other man. “I’m sure you

remember him…it’s my brother Jorden. He and I share the building you broke into that

night. The other man, the one that left, is my brother too. His name is Dalton. He’s on

our side and is telling us when your name comes up on the wire. Which isn’t as much

as we thought, but then that could be because not everyone knows who you were when

you left your father’s building. We know because someone, a friend of Dalton’s, put in a

DNA order and it turned up you.”

Cameras. She remembered what the voice in her head had said about knowing her

but not. They were watching for her on cameras that were more than likely all over the

place just hunting her down.

“So the three of you, you think to turn me in for some sort of reward? If Bart is

putting one out there for me, you can bet that he has no intentions of paying you. Not

with money at any rate. I would imagine that he’d expect you to die, not necessarily by

your own hand either. He’s not to be trusted at all.” Jorden said that they knew him

well enough to know that was true. “Good, then I have nothing to worry about. I’d like

to go now. Please?”

“There are six of us, by the way.” She asked Jorden six what. “Brothers. Kenton is

the oldest, then me. Vance is third oldest, and then Dalton, Grady, and Lewis. Our mom

is going to protect you too. She wants to meet you when you’re up to it.”

“Why?” Kenton asked her what she meant. “Why do you want to protect me? And

more importantly, why do you even want to get involved with me? I mean, I broke into

your business and you took me in. No one does that without a reason. What is yours?”

“We’re all dragons.” Emma could have gone her whole life without hearing those

words. Not that she believed him, but she did wonder how he’d found out about the

voice in her head and his claim at being a dragon too.

They are. And I am as well. These are the people that I have brought you to
. Emma had no

idea what to do and closed her eyes against the pain of it all.
They can help you.

“There is this voice in my head. He claims he’s a dragon. Or a part of one. He said

that he’s in the ring on my finger.” Emma lifted up her hand and showed them the ring,

and noticed that it was now on her finger all the way instead of just the tip. And there

was something different about it. “He told me that I had to find someone for him and to

return what belongs to them. This ring, he said, is part of something that belongs to

you.”

“Yes, a set of six pieces that belonged to my family long ago. They are what holds

the dragon from us. What I mean to say is, because our inheritance was taken from us

long ago, we cannot shift into our other halves. He remains a part of us, but not

anything that we can pull. When the pieces are together, then he’ll be whole and we can

become what we always should have been.” She asked him what that was. “Rich

beyond anything we’ve ever dreamed.”

It all came down to money. She supposed it was necessary to get along. She

certainly could use a bit more now and then. Mostly now. Her rent was past due. There

wasn’t even a bag of Ramen noodles left in her bare cupboards, and she was pretty sure

that her heat had been turned off. She glanced down at the ring again and thought

about it and her brother.

“He didn’t see it the way I do.” Neither of them said anything, just looked at each

other like they were having a nonverbal war over something. “All he saw was a band,

worthless, and it pissed him off. Well, that’s not really saying much. Everything pissed

off Bart. But he told me that the man who he’d gotten it from said it was worth millions.

But I could see it wasn’t just a band.”

“What do you see now?” Emma looked at the ring and wondered if it had really

changed or did she just remember it wrong. “When you tell me, I have something I

need to share with you.”

“It was.... When I first saw it I remember thinking what a work of art it was. The

dragon sat on the gold band with his body curled around the diamond. I knew it was a

diamond when I saw it too. A whole carat, I think. But it looks different now.

More…well, just more.” Turning her hand, she studied the ring. “There are two

dragons now. Their wings are the stems that hold the diamond. Their heads lay in a

circle around the top, holding it securely. Not like before when I thought that it would

fall out. The diamond is different as well. Bigger now and bluer. Before it was like a

light blue, sort of along the lines of what people call baby blue. The blue of it now

reminds me of summer days when you can’t help but want to be out in the sunshine.”

She felt fanciful, something that she never had been before. Emma supposed it was

the pressure of her money problems and her family, but she felt stupid and wanted to

lash out at the men who were keeping her here. But even as she looked up to tell them

off, Kenton was looking at her like he was in awe over something. Money, she knew,

could make people strange as hell.

“I want to tell you something. Something I’m not sure you’re going to believe. The

day before yesterday I was coming out of the bathroom there when I heard…I’d been

taking a shower and I heard you saying something. I thought someone was here. You

were having an argument with them. I came out of the bathroom less than fully dressed

and you were thrashing around on the bed.” Kenton stood up and began taking his

shirt off. Emma knew that she should have told him to stop, but each inch he exposed

made her want to see more. “You touched me. Well, you hit out at me. With your right

hand. The one with the ring on it.”

“I’m sorry.” He nodded and pulled his shirt completely off. Her mouth dried up

and her heart rate tripled. Christ, did all doctors look like this guy? And if so, why the