Her Dragon Protector, page 8
part #2 of Black Claw Dragons Series
“Char.” Ava closed the box she’d just filled with my toiletries and sat on my bed. She studied my face as I stood with the tape gun in my hand, waiting to see what she had to say. “I think going to the manor is the safest choice. But if that makes you uncomfortable in any way, Maverick and Maddox are more than capable of protecting you. We can have Jury stay here with Maddox more, too.”
Going to the manor was a little nerve-wracking. I didn’t know Maverick and Axel’s parents very well and staying in a stranger’s home always brought stress. “No. You and Mav just got back together, anyway. A houseguest is something you don’t need, even without all my extra baggage. If the manor is safest for everyone, that’s where I should be. It’s not likely he’ll even know to look up there anyway.”
Ava nodded. “I hope. It’s possible he could see us coming and going from up there, but if we come across him, I’ll tell him you heard he made bail and took off. Even if he misses our big dramatic play where we take fake-you to the bus stop, I would be able to tell him what bus you took and all that. We can even go so far as to buy a ticket on your credit card.”
“That’s a great idea!” I pulled my phone out and brought up the bus company’s website. “When are we doing this fake-out?” I asked.
The bed bounced as I plopped down beside my best friend. Ava hummed as she thought. “We’re going to get you up to the manor under cover tonight. Let’s do it this afternoon, assuming he’s already in the vicinity.”
“If Maverick doesn’t find anything in the woods or on the trail cams, should we wait another day?” I didn’t know how to pull off such a convoluted plan.
“Maybe, yeah.” She took the phone and scrolled through the departure schedule. “Let’s wait until he has more info for us.”
My stomach growled as we worked. By the time we finished my packing and stacked the boxes and suitcases in the hall, I was starving.
“Leave them,” Ava said. “Let’s make dinner.”
Neither of us felt like cooking, so we slapped together enough sandwiches to feed all the hungry men that would be in and out of the house soon. Dark wasn’t far off, and they’d all be back soon.
Axel was the first to return, slipping in the back door so quietly that I squeaked when I turned around with a fresh pitcher of lemonade to put on the table and discovered him standing behind me.
“You can’t do that to me!” I exclaimed. “That’s mean.”
He laughed and steadied my arms, so the lemonade didn’t slosh everywhere. “Sorry. I was trying to get in here without being seen.”
Maverick came into the kitchen next, from somewhere inside the house, probably Ava’s office beside the living room. “I can’t find a hint of anyone being in the woods except for us and Carlos’s family. They like to hike near here a lot. Nothing on the trail cams.” I wondered why he said it like that.
Axel nodded his head, furrowing his brow when his brother mentioned the cameras. “Good. If you couldn’t find anything on our cameras, then it’s very unlikely he’s been in the woods.”
“Wouldn’t it be easy to fool a camera?” I asked.
The sandwiches caught Maverick’s eyes and his face lit up. “Yes, but we have a lot of cameras, and they’re very good. Motion sensors, the whole shebang. And they’re very well hidden. Is this man particularly adept in the woods?”
Logan was good at a lot of things, but I couldn’t recall him ever mentioning anything along the lines of camping. “I think he likes to ski,” I said, not sure if that would help us here or not.
Axel shrugged and grimaced. “So, it’s possible, but not likely?”
I nodded and took a sandwich. The pimento cheese and ham combo was my favorite.
“That looks good,” Axel said, eyeing the food in my hand.
Without thinking, I stuck it toward him. “Try it.”
As soon as I did, I felt foolish. He wouldn’t want to eat after me. And there were three more sandwiches on the platter just like it.
Ava walked in as Axel took a big bite off of the sandwich in my hand. He’d grabbed my wrist to steady it, and the heat of his fingers sent electricity up my arm straight to my nipples. They hardened like the little pointy traitors they were. Thank goodness for a padded bra.
I took my hand and sandwich back from Axel’s grip and bit where he’d just had his lips while staring at Ava and daring her to say something. This was nothing sexy. It was a sandwich between friends. One that he’d dug into without a second thought about my mouth being on it. He’d probably thought of it as a yummy sandwich. Not like me, thinking about our lips being in the same spot.
Fuck.
“Honestly, I think we’re safe to put the bags in the SUV and take them up, though maybe Axel should escort you through the woods to be safe.” Maverick grabbed a sandwich. “I’m positive there’s nobody anywhere nearby.”
“Go get the bags and take them up now while you’re sure,” Ava said. “Then, Axel, sneak back and get Charlotte.”
They listened to her, taking their sandwiches with them. The sound of their heavy footfalls on the stairs told us they were doing what she’d suggested. “Do they always obey so quickly?” I asked.
She burst out laughing. “No. Definitely not. I think they’re on their best behavior for our guests.” She tipped her imaginary hat to me. “We need to keep you around at least until that wears off.”
We cleaned up the kitchen as they traipsed in and out with the boxes.
“Be back,” Axel called, then the front door slammed.
Ava and I had finished in the kitchen, putting all the rest of the sandwiches in the fridge for anyone hungry and cleaning it all up before they came back. Maverick came in the front door, presumably having driven the SUV back. A few minutes later, Axel came in the back door again.
“How’d you go so fast?” I asked. He wasn’t breathing hard in the slightest.
Blinking rapidly, it appeared to take him a few seconds to process my question; it wasn’t difficult. “I jogged.” He grinned. “Any more sandwiches?” He didn’t wait for a reply, he just opened the refrigerator to look. “Oh, excellent. I liked that pimento cheese and ham.”
Everyone usually did, once they tried it. Most people only ate their pimento cheese alone. Not me. I knew what was right.
“So, my stuff is there. I sneak up tonight, and sometime tomorrow your mom sneaks down in my clothes and goes to the bus stop?” It was going too smoothly. Something was bound to go wrong.
Axel nodded and looked at Maverick. “Yep.”
“Will you check the cameras again before we go in the woods?” I asked Maverick. “Please?” I was nervous about traipsing through the forest after dark, even if Axel would be there with me. “Aren’t there wolves and mountain lions?”
To say I wasn’t outdoorsy was an understatement. It wasn’t that I disliked being out in nature, it was more a lack of opportunity. My parents raised me in the city, and that’s where I’d lived my life.
“We make sure to keep this area pretty clear of predators.” Axel studied his sandwich. “As long as there’s no sign of your ex, we’re good to go.”
“Shouldn’t you have a gun?” I asked. If we did come across something or Logan, it made sense that a police officer would have his gun.
He looked up from his sandwich and winked. “I’m well protected.”
Maverick chuckled. “Indeed. Charlotte, try not to worry. We’re well equipped for this sort of thing. As a family of police officers, this is our forte. We’ll be keeping an eye on things.”
His words were a comfort. At least I’d run to a place where they were capable of helping me. “Thanks, Maverick.” I walked around the table and gave him a big hug. “You’re a great brother.”
“Brother?” he asked.
I pulled back and looked up—and up—at my bestie’s man. “You’re Ava’s soon-to-be husband, right? She’s pretty much my sister. That means I’ve finally got the brother I always wanted.”
He pulled me close again and squeezed me until I squeaked. I was still a little sore.
“Sorry,” he exclaimed. “I always wanted a sister.” Everyone laughed, but Axel’s tones drew my attention. I imagined how I would’ve felt right after he hugged me.
Definitely not the same.
“I think it’s dark enough,” Axel said. “You ready?”
Everything but my purse was already up at the manor. I grabbed my small backpack purse from the corner of the counter. “Ready.”
Ava pulled me into her arms. “You’re going to be fine.”
They’d made sure earlier that all the outdoor lighting was turned off. The motion sensors and all the outdoor electrical outlets were on the same breaker, so Maverick had switched it off. We turned out the kitchen lights and made a production about walking into the living room and settling down to watch a movie. After a few minutes, while I got kind of interested in the romantic comedy, Maverick got up and lowered the shades.
“Now. If anyone is out there that we missed, they’ll think we’re still in here watching this movie. But I’m confident this is overkill and nobody is there.”
I hoped he was right, because no matter their reassurances, going out the back door in the dark made me feel halfway panicked. I put my purse on my back and followed Axel out of the darkened kitchen into the dark backyard. The moon shone down on us, illuminating us as well as any floodlight. He took my hand and we rushed across the backyard into the woods.
The walk to the manor went faster than I expected. Not once did he let go of my hand. The trail was well worn, making it easy to stay quiet and walk soundlessly.
Until we’d been walking for about five minutes. He pulled me further into the woods, off the path.
“Where are we going?” I breathed.
Axel stopped and turned, towering over me. He leaned in and put his mouth close to my ear. “I thought I smelled something,” he said. “Stay with me.” His hot words washed down my neck, sending fear and desire through my body. Damn it. Now I was panicked and turned on.
I didn’t question his words. He couldn’t have smelled Logan. He wasn’t a bloodhound. He probably heard something, and I misheard him, or he misspoke.
After a while, we broke through on the trail again. Or maybe it was another trail, I couldn’t tell.
Whatever the trail, I was glad, because going through the woods had been nerve-wracking. Axel tiptoed over the brush like a deer, while I sounded more like a rhinoceros.
We reached a break in the trees and the house came into sudden view. It was beautiful in the moonlight, all regal and freaking enormous.
Axel moved close again. If he kept that up, I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions. “We’ll walk around to the back to be safe.”
I nodded and followed as he led me by my hand around the perimeter of the woods.
Our walk ended too soon. Even though I was nervous about being out in the woods, too exposed, my guilty pleasure of hanging onto Axel made me want to keep going.
We sprinted across their backyard. They had some sort of weird outhouse by the woods. “What’s that?” I asked.
“Just like a shower and changing room.”
Why in the world would that be out there? “Do you have a pool?”
He opened the back door. “No, but that’s something I want to put in, actually.”
The appearance of his mother stopped my train of thought. “Oh, good.” She pulled out her phone and typed off a few things before slipping it back in her pocket. “I promised your brother I’d text the moment you came in.”
Before we could say a word, she hurried across the kitchen and stuck her head out the door I knew to lead to the foyer. “James! They came in the back.”
When she returned, she was all smiles. “He was waiting in the foyer for you.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, but she waved me off.
“Oh, dear, it’s our pleasure. You’re family now, after all.”
Wow. These people really took Maverick and Ava’s engagement to heart. What if it didn’t work out? Would I still be family then? Probably not.
But, for now, I appreciated their hospitality more than I could ever express. If that meant they thought of me as family, then so be it. I’d never been close to my family, why not Ava’s new one?
“I’ll show you to your room,” Axel said. He took me on a quick tour of the place first. I’d seen the downstairs already, but not all of it, apparently. Tucked behind the foyer, across from the living room, was a formal dining room. “We never use it,” he said. “We tease mom that she’s waiting for the Queen of England. We didn’t even use it when we had all the family in town.”
He showed me the living room again, which I’d seen when I had dinner with them. “This used to be a library and a family room behind it, but we knocked down the wall.” Axel pointed out the beams where the wall used to be, and I couldn’t help but admire his arms as they moved through the air.
The last part of the kitchen was a huge pantry, laundry room, utility room combo. It featured dumbwaiters to the bedrooms upstairs and chutes for the laundry. “This was my mom’s insistence.”
I loved it. “I don’t blame her a bit.” The dumbwaiters were big enough for a laundry basket. It was genius.
Upstairs was filled with bedrooms. “The top floor is more bedrooms. Jury took them over and Maddox has also sort of half moved in.” Axel pointed to the stairs. “If you need Jury for something, that’s the stairs up there, but I can’t be responsible for the teenage guy smell.”
Laughing, I followed him through a bedroom door. Instantly, I knew it was his. It was relatively neat, with his police belt on a desk that looked unused. The rumpled bed drew my eye, but after that, I stoically refused to look at it again. “This is my room,” he said needlessly.
I backtracked out of the room into the hall as he moved my way, clearly not intending for me to stay in there long.
Fine by me. The longer I was in the room, the more I wanted to smell his pillows.
Geez. I needed a chill pill.
“Your room is right across the hall. It used to be Maverick’s and it’s bigger than the other rooms on this floor. There’s a larger option upstairs, but you’d have to dig out Jury’s old sports equipment and video games.”
Laughing, I opened the door. “I’m sure this will do.”
The room was perfect. It might have been Maverick’s, but it sure didn’t look like it. The walls were light gray with the same dark brown trim as the rest of the house. Bright teal curtains hung over the closed windows. Shades were pulled down, probably a good idea to keep me concealed in the house. “You have your own bathroom through there.”
I ran my fingers across the plush bedspread as I walked across the room to peer into the bathroom. The bedspread felt new and the room smelled like fresh linen. Carla had washed everything that day, I bet.
When I turned to face Axel, I noticed all my boxes lined up on the wall beside the door. He grinned. “Will this do?”
Laughing, I jumped onto the bed and lay back with my arms spread. “This is bigger than my first two apartments and smells a thousand times better.”
He grinned and walked into the room, by the sound of his boots on the hardwood. I sat up and looked down, realizing the gorgeous wood was protected from the furniture by a large area rug that matched the curtains and bedspread, dark brown with grays and flecks of teal. The colors were perfect for a man or woman, gender neutral. “I’m going to love it here.” I spotted a huge shower in the bathroom and smiled. “Yep.”
“Give me your phone.” Axel held out his hand. I held it out without question. I already trusted him more than most of my own family.
The phone in his pocket rang a few seconds after he typed into mine. “There. Now you have my number. I promised Carlos I’d help him with a domestic dispute tonight. Both parties are supposed to be in the same place at the same time so we can serve a court subpoena.” He gave me a sorry look. “I hate to leave.”
“Go,” I exclaimed. “I’ll be fine. I can go settle in with your mom.” And offer to help around the house. If I was going to be a burden, I’d do all I could to alleviate it.
“Okay. I’ll be back in a bit. Shouldn’t take too long.” He smiled at me and stepped forward as if to press a kiss to my cheek or hug me or something.
Then he whirled, thinking better of it.
I could’ve gone for a cheek kiss. Or more. Axel seemed genuine, but after what I’d been through, how could I know? It was too soon to be thinking all these things, damn it!
I waited a few minutes for him to get out of the house, then walked into the hall. My curiosity wouldn’t be sated, so I walked to the end of the hall where two more doors stood open. Exploring for a second on my own, I discovered one of them had to be James and Carla’s bedroom. I didn’t go in there.
The room behind the second door was generic. Not as big as the one I’d been given; it was meant to be a standard guest room. I peeked into the bathroom and found a standard bathtub and shower combo.
They had given me the nice room. Excellent. I didn’t want to be a burden, but I couldn’t help but feel a little excited about the nice digs.
Making my way downstairs on the plush carpet, I met Carla in the foyer. “Hello, dear,” she said. “I was coming up to ask you if you’d like to have some cake.”
Nodding, I smiled at her. “Always.”
Her face lit up at my answer. “My kind of woman. Come on.”
When we got to the kitchen, I found Axel standing with a bowl, eating some sort of concoction with tomato sauce. “Oh, hello,” I murmured.
“Hey. Mom delayed me with her hamburger in a bowl. You have to try some.”
He held out his spoon in a déjà vu moment of my sandwich earlier.
Feeling bold, I walked across the kitchen, stopping a few feet shy of the spoon and opening my mouth.
The corners of Axel’s lips twitched, and he arched one eyebrow as he stepped forward and put the spoon in my mouth.
Cheeseburger flavors exploded, complete with pickle, mustard, lettuce, and tomato. “Oh, my gosh.” I whirled around to look at Carla, who beamed. “That’s delicious!”
