Chapter Twenty

Jasmine

The broken stuff…yeah, I probably broke about a million dollars' worth of equipment in my panicked attempt to get away. From the spies. Who were my mates. As I lay under the heap of steel and plastic and glass, I could feel the wetness of blood on my arm and forehead, but I couldn't tell how much I was injured. Maybe I'd bleed to death before they found me. And maybe that was preferable to the humiliation of explaining where my brain had gone.

Why hadn't I trusted them? Sure, I'd walked into a room full of computer equipment I didn't understand, but they worked in cybersecurity. And of course they couldn't give me a lot of details. They'd opened their home to me and trusted me as much as anyone could outside of their specific working contracts, and awesome me had to push the edge of the envelope and sneak around.

Who was the spy here? Maybe Bluebeard had it right. No, that was the concussion talking. Murdering all your mates or wives in cold blood and stashing them in a room was bad. For sure. Ugh!

If I could take that last half hour back or however long it was, I would give anything. Cancel the bet. I'd find a way to pay off my debts eventually through hard work and determination. But I'd never find two men like these again, and when they found me, if I was still alive, they'd dump me so fast, my head spun even more than it already was. Damn. No wonder I hadn't met anyone before now. I'd just have screwed it up.

Trying to find an escape hatch, I'd spotted what I thought was a hole in the wall beneath a table holding five hundred pounds or more of electronic stuff—or at least that was my estimation now. I'd rushed over to it, alarms ringing and red lights flashing all around me. Those damn multiple-language voices shouting out their alerts or whatever they were saying, and in all the chaos, I missed spotting the only cord not carefully bound and tucked away and tripped. Next thing I knew, I was under all this, so I'd probably blacked out for a moment. Or longer. How did a person estimate how long they were unconscious? The clocks on the wall had all those different times, making me even more confused.

Next time I opened my eyes, I heard my name so I replied, hoping it was one of the guys. The chaos had not slowed or silenced, so I couldn't be sure, but hopefully any bad guys or gals who wanted to break in did not know my name.

I was the bad girl in this scenario anyway.

Then it all went quiet, and ordinary office lighting replaced the red flashing. The odd voices stilled, leaving only one.

"Jasmine." It was Drake. I wasn't sure if it had been him the first time. "Jasmine, Naga is coming to find you. Stay very still, please. From what we can tell, you're in a precarious situation with a lot of heavy things balanced above you."

"A lot of heavy things already hit me."

"This is much more." He spoke in a calm voice, but his words told me how serious it was. "Naga is going to deal with it, try to work things around and make it safe for me to get you out, all right?"

"Yes."

"You're staying still?"

"Yes I, ahhh!" A spiked head followed by a long spiked body appeared through an opening between table legs and broken glass. "Help me! There's something here."

"Don't move! It's only Naga. His serpent form. And he's going to help."

"He's green and has spikes all over him? You're sure that's him?"

Despite the situation, Drake's tone held humor. "Yes, and I'm purple in my serpent form. Why? Did you think there were other serpents around here?"

I tried to stifle my damned cough, but it broke out and rattled some of the things around me.

"Mate? If you can just stop for a minute and let Naga stabilize things, please? I know you can't help it, usually, but if you can maybe take slow breaths or think pleasant thoughts?"

I was facing a pretty scary serpent with round pupils and… "Those spikes?"

"Yes, mate?"

"Are they poisonous?"

"No, not in our families at least. Hang in there. We'll get you out."

"I'm sorry I did this. It's all my fault."

"Not sure about that, but either way, we have to save you then try to figure out what to tell the insurance company."

"That's not funny." I coughed a little less, but the faint laugh didn't really help. "I'm scared."

The green spiky serpent paused what he was doing, presumably stabilizing the equipment all around and over me, to gently nuzzle my arm. To my amazement, all I felt was love and other good feelings flowing from him.

"I'm not so scared now." But why? "I don't understand."

"If Naga touched you, he did that. He has the ability to take away negative emotions."

"Do you have a skill?"

"Yes, but it's more about being a hot lover."

The serpent next to me hissed, and Drake chuckled. "My serpent can read people and see if they are telling the truth."

Oh gods. And they still wanted me around?

But this wasn't a good time to ask any more questions. I just tried to stay unmoving and let the serpent known as Naga use the hand I hadn't even noticed he had to shift things around until Drake could reach in and get hold of me and drag me out. Unfortunately they were unable to save the equipment that tumbled down the second I was out of there.

I was, but… "Naga? Is he still in there?"

"Not sure." Tightness covered his tone now. He settled me in a chair across the room from the disaster I created and went back to find his friend.

If anything happened to Naga, it would be entirely my fault and I'd never forgive myself. Looking down, blood dripped over my eye, and I swiped at it only to see a series of cuts on my arm and a jagged piece of glass sticking out of one. But I would sacrifice anything to see the kind serpent shifter and his beautiful animal reappear well and whole.