17. Hannah

Chapter 17

Hannah

“ I feel like I’m going backwards,” I said as we sat in the living room on the opposite side of the building that evening after dinner. “I was so happy to have another bathroom finished this morning, and now I’m ordering new windows when I already replaced the ones on this level. Since they’re old, I’m replacing them as I renovate each room. The first floor was close to being ready to receive guests. The rest? Well, you’ve seen it.”

I wanted to snarl. And cry. So I did neither. I had a pad of paper on my lap, and I was making a list of all the things I had to do to fix this latest issue. The only way to get through this was by moving forward.

Reylor sat on the sofa beside me, his arm across my shoulders. While I was happy to stand on my own two feet, and if I was alone, I would’ve found a way to mentally deal with my grief, it was nice to have him sitting beside me, offering comfort.

Max lounged across the low table in front of the sofa, snoozing and looking unruffled from his rat closet and window shattering experience. If only cats could talk. Then he might be able to tell me who’d done this.

“What else?” Reylor asked, studying my list. “When I was in the office this morning laying out my schedule, I told Katar I’d be working with you full time until we’d solved this case. So I’m yours for the foreseeable future, either to provide bodyguard services or to install toilets and paint. Direct me, and I’ll do it.”

This was going to cost me a fortune, but what could I do? Without him here, I’d still be trying to hang plywood. I didn’t have the same upper body strength as a dragon shifter even though I would’ve figured out a way to do it.

“My dad would’ve come from Boston to help, but he’s out of town at a convention.” I’d called him earlier to chat. Okay, to hear his reassuring voice. Kids needed their parents at times like this even if they were thirty years old. “I didn’t tell him about the sabotage.”

“Why not?”

“Because he would insist I move back home. I’m not an eighteen-year-old freshman at college. I need to handle this myself.”

“No, you don’t, because I’m here with you.” He turned to face me and gently cupped my cheeks. “Remember that, sweetheart. I’m here for you from now on. And don’t think about the cost, which I suspect is haunting you right now.”

How could he know?

“I’m not leaving you to handle this by yourself,” he said.

“I can’t ask you to do any of this.” If I’d learned nothing else from my break-up, it was to rely solely on myself.

“I won’t make you take my help,” he said. “But I’m offering it. I want to help you for many reasons.”

I tilted my head, watching his face. “What’s on your agenda?”

“First, I’m going to install security cameras outside tomorrow. Shriek & Nail has some new systems arriving in the morning, and I only want the best.”

I couldn’t afford that—yet. And at this point, when I kept backtracking to redo things I’d already finished, I wasn’t going to be able to afford cameras for a very long time, let alone the best. But this was more important than the next bathroom update. I wouldn’t discover who was trying to drive me out of town unless I never slept and hid on the porch with a shotgun to catch them. Cameras might nip this off before it got worse.

I worried it would.

Would they try to burn down the building to make sure I was done for good?

“Then I’m going to have Shriek & Nail come out to replace the glass in each window. That’ll be quicker than ordering new and ripping out the trim. The frames themselves weren’t damaged.” He frowned. “After that, I’m going to clear the glass from your flowerbeds which probably means removing all the mulch along with it. Back to Shriek & Nail for new mulch, which I’ll spread.”

My eyes stung. “Why are they doing all this for me? This goes well beyond your detective duties.”

“It has nothing to do with my duties at Monsters, PI.”

“Then why?”

“Because they have an agenda, and I’m not letting them carry it out. We’re going to find out why and put a stop to it.” He sucked in a deep breath and released it. “And no pressure, but I’m doing this because you’re mine.” He lifted his hand, showing off the mark on his right wrist. “And this means I’m yours. There’s no in between in that.”

“I don’t . . . we just met.” Yet I felt like I’d known him forever. Maybe, in my heart, I had.

“Dragons mate for a lifetime and most never find the person who completes them. That’s you, Hannah.” He sounded so sincere. “You.” He thrust out his arm. “Touch it.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“You don’t have to, though curiosity is going to eat you alive if you don’t. You’ll always wonder.” The smile he flashed my way made my bones melt. “Touch it. You should.”

“Why?” I pressed my clasped hands to my chest.

“You’ll discover why when you do.”

“Is it going to burn me or something?”

“I actually don’t know.” A hint of vulnerability shadowed his eyes. “I mean, it won’t hurt you in any way, but you’re not a dragon shifter, so nothing may happen.”

“What would happen if I was a dragon shifter?”

“You’d already know we were meant for each other. But touching it may—and I stress may—bring about a reaction within you.”

“What kind of reaction?” I was surprisingly intrigued about this. A strange thrill shot through me.

“You’d bear the same mark.”

“Whoa.” Were we fated to be together?

And would a mark like that keep him from cheating?

Argh. I wanted to yank on my hair for having the thought. Reylor wasn’t my ex. Just because one guy cheated on me didn’t mean they all would.

I sensed I could trust him when I’d never felt that way about anyone else before. But having the thought showed me why I was having a hard time believing he might actually like me.

As he said, I was human. He was a monster, a completely different species. They had their own culture and social norms. If he said we’d only feel complete together, then he meant it.

I knew he’d never lie. I wasn’t sure why, but that feeling was imprinted on my soul.

So I reached out and ran my fingertip across the dragon’s head on his wrist.

It flared as if someone had planted a sparkler beneath his skin, the sprinkles of light tracing around the outside of the image before flickering across the inner parts.

And my own wrist blazed with light.

I yanked my hand back and gaped down at the matching tattoo on my inner wrist.

“How . . . ?” I gasped.

“Amazing,” he breathed, his gaze flickering from the tiny dragon to my face. “I didn’t know if it would work with a human.”

I rubbed the mark, but it didn’t smear or fade. He said this could happen, but how could I believe?

Leaving him, I hurried down the hall, into the kitchen, where I turned on the water and thrust my arm beneath the spray. I squirted soap on the mark and washed it with a sponge, but it remained.

“It’s not going anywhere,” Reylor said, leaning against the open doorframe of the kitchen.

Max got up off the floor and sauntered over to him. He sat and peered up at this man who was convinced I was his fated mate.

Reylor scooped up my cranky pet and draped him across his shoulders with Max’s fluffy paws dangling down each side of his chest. Even from across the room, I could hear his contented purr, and Reylor hadn’t even given him scritches beneath the chin, the only way I could elicit that happy sound from my pet.

“Please don’t tell me this mark solidifies something between us,” I said. “You used some sort of dragon shifter hoodoo to make it appear on my skin when I blinked. It’ll fade soon or I’ll scrub it off, and we’ll put this behind us.”

“Okay,” he drawled.

“Okay what?” After rinsing off the soap, I turned off the water and dried my arm. I shifted around to press my back against the counter.

“Okay, I won’t tell you.”

I growled.

His grin widened.

“You’re enjoying this.” I stomped across the room and stopped in front of him, tipping my head back to meet his eye. Damn, he was tall. This only reminded me of that fact.

Max blinked at me, watching, as if Reylor was his person, and I was some kind of interloper inside my own building.

“Not too much.” His face sobered. “I’ll be honest with you. Few dragon shifters find their fated mate. It’s so rare that I can’t remember when I heard of it happening.”

“What about your parents?”

“They love each other but they have no marks.”

I wasn’t sure if I should be sad or happy for them, though love didn’t need a mark to prove it was real.

“When the mark appeared on me,” he said softly, his warm gaze locked on mine. “I was incredibly happy.”

“Why would that make you happy when we’d just met?”

“The fates reveal the mark to make things easier for us. If you were a dragon shifter, you’d recognize it right away, and you’d be as pleased as me.”

“But you didn’t know me. Maybe I’m a nasty person.”

“You’re not.”

“Maybe I shove out bad farts.”

“Do you?”

I flung my hands up. “I’m not sure they’re worse than anyone else’s.”

“Then your farts won’t keep me away.”

That sparkle was back in his eyes again, and I liked seeing it there too much. “This isn’t about farts. It’s about this.” I swiped at the mark on my skin. It hadn’t faded one bit.

“This doesn’t mean we won’t take time to get to know each other before I take you to my nest.”

“Is that a dragon shifter bachelor term for your apartment?”

“Not quite. If you were a dragon shifter, I’d fly you there, where you’d shift and we’d . . .”

“You have sex as dragons?” Why did I find this intriguing?

“Wouldn’t you?”

“Not if I just met you.”

“Which is why we’re going to do this differently.”

“Alright, I’ll bite. What will we do differently?”

“We’ll go out for a flight tomorrow night and land in the back lot of the mall on the edge of town. We can walk to the exhibition hall from there.”

“Why the exhibition hall?”

“The orc king has come to town, and he’s brought some rare orc artifacts with him. They’re on display, under glass, of course. I’ll introduce you to him, and we can look at the treasure.”

“A date?”

“A date.”

“You know the orc king?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“Not me,” I said.

He sent me a smile that made my spine tingle. “Then now’s your chance.”

“Alright. We can do that. After that, you’ll take me to your nest?”

His gaze smoldered. “I’m seriously considering it.”