4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Tan

W hen I was about to leave for work, I got another email. I opened it, and my eyebrows shot up as I read, although I was happy he'd finally addressed it to Tan . So… progress, I guess.

Tan,

I know you're a busy man, but I have something important to discuss with you. Can you come to my office sometime today to speak in person?

Thank you,

Garrick

And he hadn't signed it with King or his full name, so yeah, definite progress. I pulled up my schedule and sighed, giving Orangelica, who was on my shoulder, a few scratches as I looked at my calendar. It was Monday, so of course, my schedule was packed. Guess I'd be having another working lunch.

Garrick,

I'll be there at noon.

Tan

He sent a reply back immediately.

Tan,

I appreciate it.

Yours,

Garrick

My eyebrows rose at the yours sign-off, but I figured he was just messing with me like he had last night. So I tucked my phone into my back pocket, made sure Orangelica was secure across my neck and shoulders, and headed out the door.

Remi was already standing outside, waiting for me, so I called over, "I have some appointments off-site today, so I'll drive my car, if that's cool?" Since we worked in the same office and lived beside each other, we always carpooled.

"Works for me."

We walked over to my car, got in, and off we went to work.

When I exited the elevator at the tower, Garrick's receptionist smiled at me. Like an actual big, real smile. I didn't think I'd ever seen Elvira smile like that before. Especially not at me.

"I'm so glad you're on time. His Majesty's waiting inside for you. He said to go ahead in."

Suspicion filled me, but I gave her a nod. "Thanks." Then I pushed through the door and shut it behind me.

When I lifted my gaze to find the dragon king already staring at me, the air left my lungs the way it always did whenever I saw him in person. He was just so damn handsome. I knew some people thought he looked too hard and almost rugged, but I kind of loved his strong jaw and harsh features. Looking at him just screamed dragon to me, and I… guess I really liked that.

I even liked his grumpy expression, although it made me wonder if he ever smiled, and, if he did, what it would look like. I bet it would light up his pretty gold eyes and be as bright as the sunshine. I bet he would—

I cut myself off because I really didn't need to be thinking about that right now. For all I knew, he'd called me in today so he could yell at me for being inappropriate with the whole Gar-Bear thing. He might've joked around about it last night, but after sleeping on it, he probably realized what an ass I'd been.

"What was so urgent you needed to meet in person?" I asked after I sat in the seat across the desk from him, and he'd stared at me for a full minute without speaking.

He blinked, seeming to come out of a daze.

When he still didn't say anything, I huffed as I gave Orangelica a pet since she was being so good and staying perched on my shoulder. "Garrick, what do you need? Why didn't you just call me? Why the crazy in-person emergency meeting? I checked all the reports for every one of your properties as soon as I got to work this morning, and no one is reporting a problem. Do you know something I don't?"

"I don't have your number." He stared at me expectantly, as if he'd asked me a question instead of stating a random fact.

"Um… okay…?"

"How can I call you if you don't give me your number?"

My eyebrows rose, and I smirked, deciding to mess with him a little. "Why, Gar-Bear, is this your way of asking for my number?" So apparently, I hadn't learned my lesson with the Gar-Bear thing, but whatever. He obviously didn't mind.

He blinked at me, and I stared in fascination as his cheeks pinkened a little. Oh, my Mother of All, Garrick Von Stein was blushing . "I… I…"

Without thinking about it, I lifted my phone and snapped a picture of his spluttering, blushing face. Holy moly, but I didn't think a dragon shifter could look adorable, but he really, really, really did. Hot damn.

"Did you just take a picture of me?"

"Yep." I popped the P, checking my photo to make sure it was a good one—newsflash, it was. I could really see all the pretty pink.

"Why in the world did you do that?" He sounded so offended that my gaze automatically snapped up to his.

"Because no one will ever believe me when I tell them you were blushing."

He scowled, his expression morphing into the all too familiar grump. "I wasn't blushing."

"I beg to differ, my friend." I held up my phone, showing him the picture, then used my free hand to zoom in on his face. "Them cheeks are looking mighty rosy to me." I grinned at him.

He scowled harder, and I couldn't help but laugh. His lips twitched like he wanted to laugh with me but couldn't quite manage it.

One of these days, I'd find a way.

"Don't worry, Gar, this can be for my eyes only, if you want."

For some strange reason, that seemed to mollify him, as if he didn't mind if I had a picture of him. Or maybe it wasn't me at all and he simply didn't care about pictures. Whatever. I'd take it. If he'd really been upset, I would've erased the photo since that wouldn't be cool, but he seemed fine now.

He murmured, "Only you?"

I tilted my head to the side. "If showing other people would bother you, then yes, only me."

He blew out a long breath. "I… honestly don't mind who you show." If I wasn't mistaken, his blush deepened when he said that. Would it be too much if I took another picture? I mean, he looked so damn cute right now, and maybe later when I was home, I could examine the picture and imagine just how far down that blush went and what he'd look like without a shirt and—

Nope. Not going down that road, brain. Or, er… dick. No, siree.

Ignoring my stupid brain, I tilted my head to the side. "Are you sure?"

"Mhm."

"You do know you've just given me permission to show literally every single person I know, right? Like, I'm going to be pulling this picture out at parties to show it off. Everyone is going to see it, and it's going to be fabulous."

His eyes widened, then he sort of snorted—without smiling—and rolled his eyes.

Garrick Von Stein rolled his eyes at me.

Well, wasn't this a day of firsts?

I liked it.

"I'm taking that as permission then."

He ignored me for a moment, then nodded, but it was more to himself than to me. "Now can I have your number?"

"Ohhhh, going with the direct approach. I like it." I shot him a smirk and a wink, then rattled off my number.

He entered it into his phone, then sent me a text.

This is Gar-Bear.

I couldn't help but laugh. "You're so going in my phone like that." I quickly entered his contact information, labeling him as Gar-Bear , then faced him. He looked rather pleased with himself, though I wasn't sure why. "You've got my number now. I could've sent it to you through email, though, so what's this meeting really about?"

"I want to hire you."

I blinked at him. "Uh… you already have…?" It sort of sounded like a question even though he had indeed hired us to run security for a ton of his properties. We'd been working for him for a year now. "Pretty sure we're up to about seventeen properties at this point." Okay, that was exactly how many, so not sure why I said pretty sure . I ran point on his account and knew it inside and out. "Do you mean you want us to run security on another building?"

He waved that away. "No, I don't mean your company at all. I want to hire you ."

I stared at him for a long time. "You do realize I already have a job, right?"

He huffed. "I know that, but I need to hire a security guard of sorts, and you—"

"I'm the person that assigns security guards to people. I oversee things. I don't actually do guard duty these days."

"I know that, but—"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I help run the entire company. I don't need or want another job. I love my job, and I plan on keeping it. And I certainly don't have enough time for another one."

Garrick sucked in a breath and moved to put his hands flat on his desk, leaning as close to me as he could with his giant desk between us. "I don't mean forever, and I don't mean all the time. I simply need… someone I can trust to watch my back."

I lifted a brow at that. Someone he could trust? Did that mean he trusted me? Why? He barely knew me.

He stared at me for a long moment, then blew out a breath. "I will have your promise that what I'm about to tell you won't leave this room. You can tell no one, not even Ellwood."

I narrowed my eyes at him because that was a demand, not a question. "I'll agree under one condition."

"What?"

"You ask me instead of demanding it like some pompous asshat." Holy shit, I couldn't believe I'd just said that out loud.

Did I just call the dragon king a pompous asshat? Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. Remi was gonna kill me if I offended Garrick enough he didn't want to work with us anymore. Freaking hell .

Garrick huffed, waited a beat, then huffed again. "Fine. Will you promise to tell no one what I'm about to tell you?"

"Will this information harm anyone I love or put them in danger?"

His face became even grumpier, if such a thing was possible. "No."

"Okay then. I promise not to tell anyone."

"Even Ellwood?"

I glared. "Garrick Von Stein, I have no idea what you have against my best friend, but you should knock it off right now. He's my chosen-brother, and yes, I normally tell him everything, but I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it. I won't tell him."

He sucked in a huge breath. "Thank you."

I lifted a shoulder, and Orangelica made a noise of complaint in my ear. It was unusual for her to be so quiet and calm around a person she didn't know well, but she hardly ever made a sound when we were around Mr. Sourpuss Majesty.

After a brief pause, Garrick stood and walked over to the window, staring out at the city as he spoke. "There's a… group of people who are determined to take my throne from me. In the past two weeks, they've sent three assassins to kill me."

My eyes widened. Three assassins? Holy crap on a cracker.

He glanced over at me as if checking I was still listening before facing the window again. "Last night, one made it into my condo. That's never happened before, not even once in all the time I've lived here. They're getting bolder and smarter, and I'm afraid that one of these days, they're going to figure out how to take me out."

There was a group of assassins after him? Holy shit, was he serious? Was this real life?

When I didn't respond, he turned to face me. "I need someone to watch my back when Roman can't."

"Roman? Who's that?" I didn't know why I'd asked that. I knew exactly who Roman was from all of my dragon king research. He was the king's right-hand man, and it was theorized that they were best friends, although I hadn't seen any true evidence to back that claim up. But people on the dragon king forum I joined had theories. Lots of theories about who Roman was to the king.

Mother of All, what would Garrick think if he knew I was on a forum dedicated to… him?

"He's my second-in-command and the only family I have left. He helps protect me whenever he can, but he can't do it alone all the time." Garrick blew out a loud breath before turning around to face me fully. "I know you have a job already, and I know you're busy, but I'm asking for your help, as a personal favor to me. I don't… I don't know who else to ask because I don't… trust anyone else."

Staring at his sad and desperate face made my heart lurch in my chest. Did he truly trust me that much? He didn't even know me. Sure, we'd been emailing regularly for the past year, but that didn't really mean anything, did it? I'd seen him in person several times as well, but again, how did that equate to this huge amount of trust he was claiming?

"What exactly would you need me to do?" I had to at least ask, right? And… honestly, how the hell could I say no to that grumpy, sad face? That frown got me every time. He was too… adorably grouchy for his own good.

Garrick searched my face for a long moment before he spoke again. "I need to have someone with me at all times, so I was hoping that you and Roman could make a schedule. I have plenty of room in my condo, so overnights should be fine. I was also wondering if you could take a look at my personal security system and upgrade it. The assassin got through my wards too easily for my liking so—" He abruptly cut himself off, staring at me. "What's wrong?"

I sucked in a huge gulp of air. "Overnights?" He wanted me to stay overnight with him? What in the world?

He didn't say anything for a full minute. Then finally, he simply said, "Yes."

"I can't just move in with you!" I said it so loudly he winced.

"Would living with me really be so bad?"

I glared. "I don't know you."

"You know me well enough."

My glare intensified. "I'm not moving in with you."

He huffed. "I don't expect you to, but Roman can't stay with me every single night—it's not fair to him. So I thought you could stay a couple of nights a week to give him a break."

Garrick Von Stein—no, King Garrick Von Stein of the Sedoba Territory in Gauhala—wanted me to spend the night in his condo.

The thought made my heart race so fast I was sure I was having a heart attack. There was no way his dragon ears couldn't hear it. My Mother, it was about to pound out of my chest.

What in the hell was even happening right now?

"Tanyl— Tan —please. I need your help. I don't… I don't have anyone else."

Gah, hit me in the feels, why don't ya, dragon.

I gulped and met his gaze, and I swore it looked like his eyes were swirling around like some kind of golden galaxy. And in those depths, I could see the grief—from what, I didn't know—I could see the desperation, the sadness, and the… hope. He was hopeful that I'd help him, and damned if I didn't want to make that hope grow. I didn't want to disappoint him.

"How long do you need me to do this?"

He sat up straighter. "Does that mean you'll help me?"

I wanted to say of course I'll fucking help you, you big, sad, adorable dragon. But what came out was, "It means that I'm thinking about it."

But Garrick obviously knew he had me because that hope in his eyes grew wide and far and turned into something that looked like happiness… mixed with a dash of worry. But we were talking about assassins, after all, so the worry wasn't a surprise.

Good lordy, was I really about to help protect the man, the king, from assassins?

What the hell was I getting myself into?