CHAPTER 13

Alex

To make things worse, I recognized one of the cops who showed up.

For any violent crimes involving Drakes, the Haventon Police Department always sent out Drake officers.It was just my luck that I knew one of the two guys who came in human shape, knocking at the door.

I had never forgotten — would never forget — the face of Officer Dylan Garrity.I would never forget either of his faces.Not his dragon face, growling at me while we both wrestled over his truncheon in that garage basement, before he got the drop on me with his tail.And not his human face, later at the Police Headquarters during my booking.He was in uniform the first time I saw him, but if you looked at him now, in plain clothes, you wouldn't have thought he was all that different from me.He was a Drake guy, a little older, probably in his mid-to-late thirties, with brown hair in a conservative kind of cut, and a goatee about as short as my own growth of fuzz on the face.He was built a little more heavily than Jake and I were, his age putting a few more pounds of muscle on him.I watched him watching me being fingerprinted and claw-printed, and posing for my mug shots, and he fixed me with this judging look, like I was personally a threat to Drake/human relations everywhere.His wardrobe had changed, but his look hadn't.To him, I was the same dragon punk now that he thought I was then.

Not wanting to start anything, and having learned my lesson from the stupid smack down that I'd just had with Jake, I didn't let on to Garrity that we'd met before.But after he and his partner, a big black Drake guy named Edgars, did an initial walk-through of the living room, Garrity looked me up and down and said, "I busted you for a Joust once, didn't I?"

Jake had this sudden deer-in-the-headlights look, and I stood there with scales breaking out up and down my back.Damnit, why did Garrity have to have as good a memory as mine?I would have liked it better if the two of us had been just two ships passing in the night.Not pretending to be happy to see him, I just said, "Yeah.You did."

He narrowed his eyes at me."Aidman's Garage, off the campus of Haventon University, wasn't it?"

"That's right," I said, keeping my cool.

"Disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, assaulting an officer."

"You got it," I replied, shifting on one foot.Since that night, I'd distrusted cops even more than I'd learned to do back in the gang days.

"Been keeping your snout clean since then, I take it."

"Clean as a whistle," I said.I wasn't liking this little moment we were having between us.I felt suspected of something and I didn't appreciate it.But under the circumstances, I checked my reaction.I'd learned always to feel guilty when a cop was around, whether I'd actually done anything or not.And I hadn't done anything since the night of that Joust.

Jake spoke up."Like our friend said when she called you, we were away when someone came in, probably through the terrace door.Whoever it was, they took our friend.It looks like she tried to fight back."

The other guy, Edgars, who had been examining the glass souvenir balls with latex gloves on, stood up from where he was crouching, looking at the one that had all the stars on it, and said, "We'll probably find human fingerprints on these glass pieces.Maybe traces of Drake body oil."

Garrity nodded at him.In our dragon bodies, our skin had small amounts of a special lubricant that kept our scales from getting dry and rough.Humans who touched us in our reptile shapes always said our bodies felt like well-oiled leather.Some humans who felt us that way thought it was a turn-on, but there was only so much we could do with a human in our reptile bodies.Having sex with a human in Drake form was an act that would get us busted by guys like Garrity and Edgars and put us behind bars for years.

Stepping closer to his partner, Edgars said, "We had some reports of noises coming from this place — including some screams — and there was one eyewitness sighting of two Drake males flying away from this building with a human female.We don't usually think anything about Drakes taking humans for a joy ride.That's usually all it is.But that sighting, along with those noises, was a red flag.Then when Ms. Turner's friend, Elyse Simmons, called about something going on here, we would have come over anyway."

Drakes taking humans for a joy ride.We'd taken Lily for plenty of "joy rides".Only a couple of them were in the air.But I pushed that thought out of my head.

I said to the cops, "Listen, we know who must have got her, or sent those two guys to get her.You've got to find Mark Reinhardt.He's got to be the one; he had his guys leave that note and singled me out in it.She didn't have any enemies or anyone who might be after her — except him.Reinhardt is bad news.She used to live with him.He hurt Lily — bad."

"He made her scared for her life," said Jake."This guy abused her and beat her and she got away from him to save herself."

"Got away from Reinhardt," said Garrity, looking back and forth between Jake and me, "and came to stay with you."

"Yeah," said Jake."She's been staying with us.We've been helping her."

The two cops traded a knowing look.They didn't say anything, but they were both Drake males and they knew about how we sometimes hooked up.These two had probably seen it all.While they didn't actually say, So you guys have been sharing Ms. Turner in bed, the words still hung unspoken over us.

All Garrity said was, " ‘Helping' her."

Defensively, I answered, "Yeah, helping her.She was in trouble.We brought her here because she didn't have any place to go.She was alone.She was scared.Reinhardt had cut her off from everybody else in her life.You must have heard about abusers pulling crap like that."

"Yeah, we've seen things like that," said Edgars.

"Well, that's what he did to her.He beat her and made her feel like she was worthless without him and kept her away from everybody else.She was in pieces because of him and we helped her."

Jake put a hand on my shoulder, an attempt at calming me.It only partly worked.I was glaring right into Garrity's face, as if challenging him to a rematch of the bout we had at the Joust — which would have been a seriously bad idea and Jake knew it.

"Okay," said Garrity, calmer than I was."What do you know about this Reinhardt, besides what kind of relationship he had with Ms. Turner?"

Cooling off a little, I said, "He's some kind of corporate boardroom type, with this drug company."The name of it escaped me.I turned to Jake."What the hell is the name of that company again?"

"Harbor Pharmaceuticals," Jake reminded me.

"Yeah, Harbor Pharmaceuticals," I said back to Garrity."He's just a few years older than Jake and me, so he must have clawed his way up the old corporate ladder pretty fast.Probably chewed his way through some other people to get there, knowing him."

There was a beat of silence.From the look that Garrity and Edgars traded just then, I could tell something was up.

"What?" I said.

Garrity said, "We have people undercover, working a case on a black market for untested, illegal steroids made to affect Drakes.The network traces back to an unnamed executive at Harbor Pharmaceuticals."

"Oh my God," Jake softly said.I felt the same quiet shock as he did.

"It's pretty dangerous crap," Garrity went on."It makes male Drakes bigger, stronger, more resistant to injury than normal.Also tougher — and meaner.It enhances the muscles, the strength, the reflexes.And it juices up the adrenaline.A Drake hopped up on this stuff gets wilder, crazier, and faster — way faster.Imagine a roid rage in a human, then picture that with one of us.That's what this stuff does."

I shared the horror in Jake's voice when he said, "And Lily's ex, this abusive lunatic, is the ringleader of a black market selling that kind of crap?"

"Our people undercover haven't been able to get the name from their informants," said Edgars."He's got people protecting him, like these characters always do.But it's somebody in that company."

Through clenched teeth, I said, "It's him.It's Reinhardt.It's gotta be him, I know it."

Garrity said, "Knowing it isn't the same as proving it.We've got to find this guy.We've got people looking for him to question him now."

"Question him, hell," I said."Get the bastard in titanium cuffs like you did me at the Joust.Get his ass out of the boardroom and behind bars.And find Lily and get her the hell away from him once and for all."

"One thing at a time," said Garrity."Like you said, from that note left on the piano, Reinhardt is the one who has her."

"He is!" I almost shouted, as sure of that as I'd ever been of anything.

Garrity made a palms-down motion, telling me to be calm."So, then, we start by finding him.If he had this abusive, possessive interest in her like you were saying, then where he is, she probably is too.And he has to know that you know he sent someone to get her."

I had too many thoughts clawing at my head, none of them good.Which is why Jake had to be the one to ask the cops, "Well, do you have any leads on where he might have taken her, or where he might be?"

"Yeah, we do," replied Edgars."Our sources say Reinhardt has a house on a property outside of town where there's not much else besides forests.Out of the way, isolated place."

"Like he ‘isolated' Lily," I grumbled.

"We think that's the most likely place for him to be, since he's tipped his hand to you.He won't have her at his place now.We're sending people to that house to look for him."

"Where is it, exactly?" I asked." ‘Forest land outside of town' covers a lot of territory.He could have her anywhere in all that.So where is this house?"

"We know where it is; that's enough," said Edgars."Our people are on their way there.You'll know something when we know something."

"Like hell!"And this time I did raise my voice to match my racing heart."I want to know where this place is!If Reinhardt has done anything to Lily, dammit, I want to look him in the face before I rip out his throat!"

"That's exactly why you're not going there," said Garrity."That, and it's police business.You've got no business in it."

I charged up to him, showing scales and horns on my face, ignoring who he was, just like I did back at that Joust."No business?Look, you're not the one who found her in the park, half out of her mind!You're not the one who took her in and took care of her!So don't you tell me what my business is…"

Garrity held up scaly, clawed hands as a warning."All right, calm down and back off or I'll get you back in cuffs."

Raising my own claws at him, I hissed and said, "Wanna try it?"

Jake clasped his hands on my shoulders, pulling me back."Alex, stop," he said."I'm scared too.I want to help Lily like you do, but this isn't the way."

"Better listen to your friend," Garrity warned.

I squirmed free of Jake and stood a few steps back from Garrity, where Jake had pulled me.With the look that I gave the cops, I could have had fire curling out of my nose.

"If we've got a grip on things now," Garrity said, "the two of you need to stay here and mind your phones.We'll contact you as soon as we know anything about Ms. Turner."

With so much anger and fear and nowhere to put it, I just turned away and clenched and unclenched my hands, letting them go back to human, while the dragon features disappeared from my face — but the scowl stayed put.

Jake did the talking for both of us."We'll be here.And we'll be listening.You guys can see yourselves out."

I turned to watch the two cops go for the door and exit the apartment, leaving Jake and me alone.Once they were gone, I faced Jake again — and took out my phone.

"What are you doing?" Jake asked.

"I'm calling my buddy Ross, from the Firewings."

Jake blinked nervously."What?Why?"

"Because he can do what we need now, that's why."

Now Jake looked off a bit, remembering his meeting with my old friends.Then, back to me, he said, "Wait — you mean Ross, the computer guy?The one that works in IT now?"

"You got it."

"Why him?" Jake wondered.

"Think about it.A guy who works in IT, who knows how to get into all kinds of computer networks.Ross can hack like an axe murderer in a thriller movie.If the cops can track down where this house of Mark's is, I'll bet so can Ross.I'm getting him and the gang over here now."

Jake looked and sounded seriously worried at that."Are you crazy?You heard what Detective Garrity said."

"Do I look like I care what Garrity said?" I snapped."I don't give a damn what he said or what he wants.Lily's in trouble.She could be hurt or worse.She needs us and I'm doing what I have to do to find her."

"Alex…," Jake started, ready to throw another worthless argument at me.

"Jake!" I snapped again."Suppose he's hurt Lily really bad this time.What if she's lying in that forest house of his, knocked out or worse?That son of a bitch, if he gets mad enough, could break her bones.He could break her head or her neck.What if the worst thing is happening to her out in the middle of nowhere and we never get there?How the hell are you gonna feel then?"

My old friend went quiet for a second while I held up the phone, waiting for whatever half-assed thing he'd say next.

"Call Ross," he said.