Poison: A Dragonian Series Novella (The Dragonian Series) (7 page)

When I opened the shower taps, their voices muffled out. I closed my eyes and wished to be far away from this place, from who I was and what I was supposed to do. I wished that he was never mine to claim and I really did wish that I could free him. I didn’t want a dragon to be mine if he didn’t want to be.

Please, I’m begging you, stay out of my head.

.

HE NEXT OUPLE of days we basically had the same routine. Driving around on the jet skis and paragliding behind a speed boat. Emanuel left after the first day and the guy that tagged along with us now said it had to do with King Helmut sending him away to prepare for an upcoming event.

A part of me just thought it was an excuse. He didn’t want to be around me, scared that his will might break and we would step over that line. It made me want him more.

We left on the fifth day and I went to stay with Becky as the Leaf’s were staying at a hotel waiting for their manor to be finished.

I was glad that my father had left Sir Robert something. I was just excited about the manor as they were. He even said that he was going to build me a room too, it was going to be like my second house once…. I didn’t want to think about that once anymore. It was never going to happen and it felt like Blake and I were the only two that knew it.

Freeing him was still constantly on my mind, even though Becky told me not to think about it.

We pulled into
Longbottoms
and found parking easily which was seriously a miracle as it was always busy.

“Lucky us, I guess,” Becky said as she switched off the engine and grabbed her bag that was next to mine at my feet.

“I guess they knew Elena was coming?” Sammy said and we laughed. I’d tried to come to
Longbottoms
once after the news of who I was reached the entire world, but it was a nightmare.

Even in the private lounge everyone was constantly asking me questions about my life, wanting to know more, and at the end we left early as it’d gotten to be too much and we couldn’t enjoy ourselves.

I followed Becky and Sammy up the stairs and walked through the door that Becky opened up.

Light music was playing and only a couple of tables were filled.

“Okay, something’s not right,” Becky said.

Jimmy came walking out his office and smiled as he saw both of us. “Good evening, girls.”

Becky smiled but her confusion was plastered on her face, it was plastered over all of our faces.

“Something happening here tonight? We can leave if there’s a private function.”

He chuckled but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “
Longbottoms
isn’t doing so well lately. I’ve been trying everything I can just to keep this place open.”

We all stared at him. “Jimmy, when did this happen?”

He scratched his head. “It doesn’t matter, girls. I’ll somehow get through this. Go and enjoy your evening.” He nodded toward the VIP lounge.

We did as he said, although we were all wondering about what the hell had happened. Why didn’t people come here anymore?

There was no barman to give us our drinks.

“Okay, this is so not cool Where are all the staff?”

Sammy shook her head. “I don’t know but Jimmy’s not telling us everything.”

“I’ll go talk to him, just stay here, help yourself if you have to.” I giggled and saw Sammy going behind the bar, asking Becky what she wanted. I could hear Becky’s order but apparently it was out of stock.

I went to the place I’d seen Jimmy come out from and found him behind a desk paging through files. I knocked softly and he looked up.

He gave me a soft smile too and got up. “Shoot, I forgot. Charles is off tonight.” He smacked his hands together. “What can I get you girls to drink?”

“Don’t worry about it.” I walked in and put my handbag on the chair. “What’s going on Jimmy?”

“Elena,” he said softly and sighed.

“I want to know, please.”

He pulled a chair closer and gestured for me to sit. I did and saw him closing the door. He scratched his head as he walked back to me.

“Are you in some sort of trouble?”

He chuckled again. “I trusted the wrong book keeper. She left last week with everything. I have nothing left.” He took the seat right next to me in front of his desk. His entire body hunched over as he rested his arms on his thighs and stared at the ground. He even looked tired, stressed.

“Nothing! How is that even remotely possible? What about the money in the bank?”

“She had access to it, stupid, I know, but she said it would save me a lot of time if she had access to the account in order to pay the staff on time etcetera.” He sighed again.

“And I guess everyone stopped coming here because of all the Out of Stock signs.”

He nodded. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I tried to get a loan but the bank manager doesn’t want to take the risk.”

“Why didn’t you come to me, Jimmy?”

He looked at me. “Elena, I can’t. You’re just dealing with so much at the moment.”

“Stop that. I happen to love
Longbottoms
and I have to say it’s not a bad business deal. If I can have, say a percentage or something of it, I’ll help you get this place back on track.”

He stared at me. “Are you serious, just like that?”

I giggled. “It’s not like I’m going to have a normal life after everything that’s happened. And besides I’ve just got a shit load of money I don’t really need, so I thought about investing and this is the perfect thing to invest it in.”

He shook his head. “Elena, I can’t. It’s too much.”

“Jimmy.” I rolled my eyes. “How much is too much?”

“We’re talking about hiring new staff again, buying new décor.”

“You sold the saddles?”

“I couldn’t but they’re in a pawn shop and they’re phoning on a daily basis as they have a lot of interested buyers who are willing to pay more than what they are worth.” He pulled his hands through his hair again. “I’ve actually sold one, but it hardly covered a week’s worth of stock and the money…” he grunted. “It’s a hopeless situation.”

“How much, Jimmy?”

He looked at me with tired eyes. “It’s buying new stock, hiring kitchen staff….paying for gigs and entertainment. Paying overdue invoices. It’s not a couple of pagoleons, Elena. We are talking about at least a million just to function normally again.”

I sighed and started to laugh. “How does two million sound?”

“Elena,” he gave me a scolding look.

“I’m serious. Give me a percentage and pay me back as you can.” I touched his knee. “I meant what I said, Jimmy. This is your life and I wouldn’t think twice about helping you. You can’t let your brother come home to nothing now, can you.”

Tears welled up in his eyes as I said that. I meant it, even though I’d promised my father not to pursue it, I’d find away to get his brother out of there if he was still alive.

“Okay,” he smiled. “But I’m going to draw up a contract and everything. I don’t want you to think that I’m a cheat, you hear me. It’s going to be a normal business contract. How does thirty percent sound?”

I bit my lips and smiled. “Thirty percent. Are you serious? I hope you’re going to let me work here too from time to time.”

He laughed.

“Elena you are a princess, they’d lock me up or something.”

“By whose orders, mine?”

We both laughed and he reached out his hand. “Deal.”

“I’m glad we could do business together.” I giggled. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

He laughed too as we walked to the door. “Just give me your details and I’ll send the money tomorrow to your vault. This place needs a huge reopening. Go crazy.”

He laughed again and this time it reached his eyes. “Okay, partner, whatever you say,” he said and gave me a hug. “Thank you, Elena.”

“You are so welcome.”

“Go, I’ll join you in a few minutes. I just want to lock up and get horribly drunk.”

I laughed. “We got horribly drunk on my birthday, I doubt that we are the right crowd for that.”

“At least one champagne glass. I finally have something to celebrate again.”

“No, we have something to celebrate,” I said and went back to Becky and Sammy.

“We’re going to leave, there’s like almost nothing.”

“I know, and no we are not going to leave, Becky. We are going to celebrate because I just bought thirty percent of
Longbottoms
.”

Both girls gasped. “Are you serious?” Becky shrieked.

“It’s good to be a princess with a vault filled with money.” I fell backwards on one of the sofas.

They looked at me with huge eyes and gaped.

We sat down and I told them everything about what had happened to Jimmy. From tomorrow on, he was going to get everything back into place. Jimmy joined us with a huge bottle of bubbly and four glasses in his hand as I finished with the story.

“You seriously just went into business with Elena?”

“The girl’s nice and she gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse, so why not?”

I giggled. “You have to say that now.”

He popped the champagne bottle and poured us each a glass.

“To
Longbottoms
finally reaching its full potential,” he said.

“To
Longbottoms
!” we all cheered with our glasses and took a sip.

E CELEBRATED WITH everything that was in
Longbottoms
’ fridge. There wasn’t much but we could make us each a sandwich. Jimmy put the music on full blast and we started to dance after we devoured them. He let loose, as Becky said, and around one we said goodbye.

Tomorrow was going to be filled with a lot of things, item one was how to get two million pagoleons over to Jimmy’s vault.

I hoped it wasn’t going to take too much time. Jimmy said he would meet me at the bank and then we could sign the contract afterwards.

I slept like a baby that night without an arrogant dragon haunting me or a guy, the guy I really wanted.

I woke up when my alarm screeched inside my ear and took a shower. I couldn’t stop smiling thinking that I now owned thirty percent of
Longbottoms
. It was going to be awesome, and I felt awesome helping someone with my new-found fortune, someone who desperately needed it.

At nine, Jimmy’s car pulled up in front of the bank. I climbed out of Lucille’s Audi, which she let me borrow, with my hoody over my head, and greeted him.