'Til Dragons Do Us Part (Never Deal with Dragons) (21 page)

“Prometheus.”

The man inclined his head.

“I could have sworn you’d be taller.” An old line, but truth be told, I was having a little trouble thinking at all at the moment. I wondered just how long it would take me to get a layer of scales between me and his gun.

“If you’re thinking about shielding yourself with your scales, I’d recommend against it. Even if you manage to block my shot, I’d still have Emma, and then we’d be right back where we started. I want you to tell me where
Bright Seasons
has been moved.”

“What do you mean you have Emma? What did you do with her?”

“That’s nothing you need to concern yourself with right now. I need to get that painting, and I need to do it with the least amount of attention possible. My credibility, you know.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Yeah, holding a gun on someone is the surefire way to avoid attracting suspicion. Especially at a wedding that screened everyone for weapons on their way in. How did you manage that, by the way?”

He tapped the side of the gun with a free hand. “Plastic. Every piece of it is plastic. True, it’s only good for a single shot, but really, at this distance, I think that will be sufficient.”

“You know, if you’d just waited one more week before you poached our client, we would have just given him to you. We’re retiring.”

“I seem to have overheard that when I patched into the Manor’s audio. But where’s the fun in that? You don’t remain the number one art thief in the world by being passive. You two were starting to encroach upon my territory. I couldn’t just sit back and let that happen.”

“You mean Simon and I had the gall to show people that you didn’t need a lot of fancy tools—” I nodded toward the gun, “—to get the job done? You charge almost twice as much as we do just because you need additional help.”

“As much fun as it is swapping trade secrets with the girl on the
wrong
side of the gun, I’m afraid I’m on a schedule here. So how about you go find the canvas, roll it up neatly, and meet me in the south delivery bay? I have a van waiting for me there. If you’re back in ten minutes with the painting, I’ll send word that Emma is to be taken right back to her tea set. If you’re not...well, we’ll have to come up with another plan, and I’m going to take a wild guess that you won’t like it as much.”

David clicked the safety on the gun, and slid it back inside his pocket. Without a backward glance, he strolled back down the hall, completely convinced that he’d see me in ten minutes, painting in hand.

I gritted my teeth in frustration, but really, what choice did I have? Bending down, I removed the four-inch heels I’d paired with my reception uniform. There was no way I’d manage the trip to the cottage with them on.

The only break I had was that the reception was being held on the other side of the house, in the large field near the pond. It allowed the dragons and humans a chance to mingle without everyone feeling too crowded, and it allowed me to slip out of the house without drawing attention to myself.

I once again jimmied the cottage’s lock—this time with a hairpin instead of my normal tools—and had just managed to locate the painting and remove the canvas from the frame
once again
when I looked up to find Cameron staring down at me, a look of horror on his face.

A girl just can’t catch a break.

“It’s not what it looks like.”

“It looks to me like you’ve just removed a priceless painting from its frame, and have plans to walk out of here with it.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay, it’s exactly what it looks like. But let me explain.”

I saw the instant that Cameron decided not to give me that chance. His lips thinned, and my heart cracked inside my chest when the light in his eyes went out, leaving them cold and expressionless.

“Savannah. Put the painting down.”

I felt a fat drop of moisture fall from my eye and run down the side of my cheek. “Cameron, please. He has Emma.”

The abrupt change in topic made him frown. “Simon? No he doesn’t. She’s with April. They were in the kitchen making pastries about an hour ago.”

“No, David. Prometheus. I don’t know what his real name is. He has Emma, and if I don’t bring him this painting, he’s going to hurt her. This guy is one of the most successful art thieves in the world. But he’s also one of the most ruthless in the business. He’s not bluffing when he threatens somebody. I have to get this to the south loading dock. Now.”

Cameron ignored my panicked babbling. Instead, he asked the most damning question of all. “How did you get in this building?”

I considered lying. I really did. But I couldn’t go through that again, not with this man.

I felt my shoulders slump. “I broke in. With a hairpin.”

“To take the painting.”

“Yes.”

“Why? I mean—” He ran a hand through his hair as he paced the room. “You know how crazy this story sounds, don’t you? I mean, why would a world-renowned art thief kidnap your niece, only to force you to get the painting for him? Why wouldn’t he do it himself instead of sending the wedding planner out to find it?”

His tone was angry, but his gaze begged me to have a good answer to his question. Something that would help him believe that what he’d just seen with his own eyes wasn’t really what was happening. I ran my answer over in my head at least a dozen times, and finally admitted that no matter how I told him, my words wouldn’t satisfy.

“He wants me to get the painting because I knew where it was stored and he knows that I likely have things in place to make the retrieval easier.”

I couldn’t face him, couldn’t look into his eyes when I told him the rest. Instead, I stared at my bare toes, covered in mud from my walk down here. “He wants me to do it because when I first showed up here, it was because I’d been contracted to steal the same painting. Prometheus? He was my competitor. I’d changed my mind about taking the painting. I was just going to walk away from it all, find a job, and stay here with you.”

I took a deep breath, and almost choked on the sob that hung in my throat.

“But now, I need this painting. Because if I’m not in the kitchen delivery bay in two minutes, Prometheus is going to hurt Emma.”

I waited for his questions, but there weren’t any. And that’s when I realized that I’d hurt him in the worst possible way.

“Savannah, I’m sorry. I can’t let you leave with this painting.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Cameron? I could take it from you right now, and there wouldn’t be anything you could do about it. But I’m choosing not to. I don’t want to hurt you. I need you to trust me.”

He snorted, making it very clear that was the last thing he planned on doing. I allowed him to take the painting and stayed docile when he cuffed my wrists. Despite my bravado, it wouldn’t be a good idea to morph. If I did that, I’d have the entire flock of Relobu’s airborne security force down here to stop me.

And Emma would get hurt.

“Simon. Does he know about this?”

“Not about my run-in with Prometheus.”

“But the art theft?”

I nodded. “He was my handler.”

Cameron pushed the button on his two-way radio. “Jeremy? Yeah. Can you do me a favor and find a Simon and Jeanie Cavenaugh? They should be mingling with the wedding guests. I need you to escort them to the kitchen and wait until I get there. There’s also a little girl, Emma. She should already be in the kitchen, but if not, I need you to send someone out to look for her.”

But it wasn’t Jeremy’s voice that came through the speaker. Instead, it was Henry, the red-haired goofball who had escorted me home one late night.

“Hey boss. I’m just about to head outside. Something screwy is happening with our north-facing reception camera, and I wanted to go check it out. I’ll grab them on my way back.”

“That will be fine. Just make sure they stay right where you put them. I’ll be there shortly.”

Cameron sat me in a chair and went through the other paintings one by one, stacking the frames against the wall. I guess he was just checking to make sure I hadn’t stolen anything else, but I was starting to get impatient. Prometheus had given me ten minutes to obtain the painting, and we were well past that point now. My stomach burned at the thought of poor Emma.

Finally Cameron—still not speaking to me—seemed to decide that there were no other canvases missing from their frames, and he gestured for me to rise.

The handcuffs made it a bit awkward to get up, but he didn’t offer to help, choosing instead to stare at me stone-faced while I struggled to my feet.

The expanse of lawn between cottage and mansion had never felt so long as one-by-one, wedding guests stopped their conversation to turn and stare as I was marched through the crowd, my feet covered in muck, and my clothes mussed from digging through furniture. Even Amanda, who stood near the DJ with clipboard in hand, was rendered speechless by the sight.

On any other day, the idea of causing this much of a scene at one of her weddings would have been amusing.

We entered the house through the very delivery door where I was supposed to meet Prometheus, but while there was a sleek yellow sports car in the bay, there was no sign of the gray-suited man. Or his van. Or Emma.

Cameron looked at me, disgust in his eyes, and finally broke his silence. “Was everything you told me a lie?”

“No! I—”

“Just shut up, Savannah. I can’t take it anymore. I trusted you, I loved you! And you repaid me with lies.”

The canvas tucked up under his arm, he yanked open the kitchen door, moving aside for me to enter.

* * *

“Well, well, well. I didn’t tell you to invite friends to our little meeting. I thought I’d made it clear that this was to be a private party. But at least he had the decency to warn us beforehand.”

David stood just inside the door, holding a gun. He gestured to the two-way radio sitting alone on the steel counter. “I appreciate you deciding to go with this particular model. I’ve had a little practice hacking into these, and I didn’t have as much time as I usually did to get my electronic ears in place.”

He ran a finger along the barrel of his gun. But this time, the gun wasn’t the cheap plastic model. No, this time he held a mean-looking metal version. After we’d been judged non-combative, David had shifted his aim, and now had the weapon pointed directly at Simon, who glared at him from over the top of Emma’s head. The poor girl was sobbing uncontrollably with her head tucked against Simon’s neck, while Jeanie did her best to soothe her tears.

I felt Cameron close the door behind me, and I knew he’d tried to pull his gun when I heard another male voice emerge from the vicinity of the dry supply storage room. “Don’t touch the gun. Put your hands up.”

Cameron froze, his jaw tightening when he realized at the same time that the voice belonged to none other than Henry. His hands moved slowly into the air.

“Really, Henry? This is what you do after I put you in charge of the camera system?”

Henry stepped out of hiding and popped the snap on Cameron’s holster, smoothly removing the gun before stepping back to point it at the center of Cameron’s chest.

And now I realized how David had managed to get a gun through the metal detectors. Why he’d seemed to already know when I told him Simon and I planned to retire. With Henry’s help, Relobu had supplied all the guns he would ever need, and the dragon lord’s entire house was bugged by his own security team. Even though I hated the man right now, I had to admit I’d never seen that coming.

Henry grinned, and I realized that there were two things I hadn’t seen coming. All traces of the shy boy who’d mooned over the girls of Bridal Visions while he was on guard duty were gone. David wasn’t the only expert in the room. In fact, I’d be willing to admit that for sheer acting chops, Henry might even rival Simon.

“Sorry, boss. But you gotta understand, this one here,” he said, hooking a thumb in David’s direction, “hired me first. Why do you think it was so easy to find a guy with my tech skills on such short notice? I’m what you might call the Prometheus advance team. We’ve been eying this job for a while, but until a few days ago, all the details hadn’t quite been ironed out with the client. Now that they have, I sure appreciate you giving me a chance.”

Cameron didn’t respond to Henry’s jab. He only turned to Simon and Jeanie, who’d managed to take Emma’s screams down to a few tired whimpers. “Is she okay?”

Jeanie glared at David, then returned her attention to us. “She’s fine, just scared. Henry clocked April on the head and grabbed her. They wouldn’t let me check on her.”

David frowned as if he were offended. “Oh, please. She’ll be fine as soon as she wakes up.”

Cameron looked once more to Jeanie for confirmation, then nodded.

“So you brought company with you. Did you bring the painting too?” David gazed pointedly at the canvas under Cameron’s arm. While Cameron growled in frustration, he nevertheless pulled it out and unrolled it just far enough for a single member of the British Parliament in white sleeves and a red shirt to appear.

“Excellent. Thank you both. You’ve done a wonderful thing.”

Satisfied that the painting was indeed
Bright Seasons
by Bernard Tofegaard, David motioned to Henry, who stepped forward and took it gently from Cameron’s arms.

“We gave you what you wanted, now leave us alone and get out of here.”

David yawned.

What a drama queen.

“You seem a little upset, and I’m not sure why. I told Savannah that if I received the painting, I’d be happy to leave her and her family alone, and I intend to keep that promise.” David tapped a spot on his chest just below the collarbone, and turned to Cameron. “Just as soon as you let all your guards know that we aren’t to be stopped.”

“I’ll find you.” Nobody threatened my family and got away with it. It was one thing to step on another’s toes in business, but quite another to involve a child in the game.

“Oh, I seriously doubt that. You’re retired, remember?”

He pointed at Cameron. “Now go ahead. Speak with your security team, and we’ll be on our way. We’ll be driving a yellow pre-war Maserati. Tell them if there is even one scratch on the thing, I’ll hurt the girl.”

Now it was Simon’s turn to growl. “You’re not taking Emma anywhere.” He squeezed his daughter tighter, his eyes almost daring Henry to try.

“Oh, no. I’m not really a fan of children.” He glanced pointedly at the still-sniffling Emma. “They cry far too easily. I was talking about your wife. Come now, you’ll go for a little ride, and as soon as we’re clear of the gates, you’re free to be on your way. I’ll even leave you a sat phone so they can come pick you up. Don’t worry, Henry has all the numbers preprogrammed. See? I can be a very generous person as long as people follow my rules.”

“Not going to happen.” Simon reached for Jeanie, intending to pull her behind his body.

But Jeanie shook his hand loose and stepped forward. “No, I’ll go. But if you harm one hair on my daughter’s head I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”

“And if she doesn’t manage it, I will.” I could feel the burn in my fingertips as my claws begged to be set free.

Cameron definitely wasn’t happy, but he did as she said, instructing the gate team to allow David and Henry free passage from the estate.

The acknowledgment was short and sweet, and afterward, Henry cheerfully removed Cameron’s radio and smashed it to bits while Jeanie leaned down to kiss Emma on the cheek. She did the same to Simon, then turned, her head held high as she, David and Henry left the room.

* * *

As soon as the door closed behind them, I looked at Cameron. “Are you afraid of heights?”

“No.”

“Good. Grab your gun, we’re going after them.”

I shushed Simon’s objections before he could voice them. “Don’t worry, I’ll stay out of sight until Jeanie’s okay. But there is no way I’m allowing that man to strut out of here with no negative consequences. We may be retired, but we still know how to take care of our own. There’s a thing called street justice, and I plan on enforcing it.”

“I don’t want Jeanie hurt. But I want to be there just in case David decides not to honor his promise.”

I looked to Cameron, who was in the process of verifying the firearm Henry had left on the table was still armed and ready to fire. “And even if he doesn’t hurt her, I intend on honoring a promise I made. I’m getting that painting back.”

Simon tried to argue, but I shushed him with a swipe of my hand, my legs already carrying me from the room.

Instead of heading straight to the front door, Cameron grabbed my arm and led the way down the hall as we ran toward the security control room. He shouted out instructions for his gate personnel to stop the car without getting Jeanie shot. But we were too late, alerting the surprised security staff to lock down the grounds just as we saw the car zoom through the gates on the monitor.

“Shit. Come on.” I grabbed Cameron’s arm and we headed for the front door. A string of dainty electric lights had been wrapped around the door frame for the wedding guests. I grabbed them, ripping the tacks free on my way.

I was already half-morphed by the time we hit the driveway, and I had only enough time to explain to Cameron that the lights were to be looped around my neck to give him something to hold on to once we were airborne. He nodded once, and with an odd skill, created a makeshift harness from the light strand.

“Wrap them tight, you won’t choke me. Just as a warning, this is going to be a bumpy ride.” I didn’t even try to control the volume of my roar as I completed the change, ducking my head so Cameron could get the cord of lights in place. I waited until he had a chance to scramble into a spot just between my wings before I jumped.

I’d cleared the outer fencing of Relobu’s property, and had just gained enough altitude to skim the tops of the trees, when Cameron yelled.

“Looks like the control room sent us some help!”

I glanced behind me, and sure enough, two of Relobu’s dragons were speeding our way. Banking slightly left, I was careful to stay high enough that I could keep an eye on David and Henry in the car, while doing my best to camouflage myself with the tree-cover. I didn’t want to be seen and cause Jeanie to be injured. When I’d managed to find a sweet spot about a half mile back from the vehicle that allowed me a good view, I adjusted my wings to allow the air current to provide some lift and take a bit of weight off my body and settled in for a wait.

So I was shocked when something slammed into me with the force of a freight train. I heard Cameron yell, and then watched in horror as he slipped from my back to dangle one-handed from the string of lights.

“Cameron!”

I felt the lights grind against my neck as he reached up for a better grip, and was relieved when he managed to get both hands reattached to his only lifeline.

Car forgotten, I scanned the ground, looking for a place I could land that wouldn’t put Cameron in danger of being dragged through the limbs of a tree, but the options were severely limited. I spotted a small pond a mile or so to the east and changed my trajectory.

But the dragon beside me—the one we’d thought was part of the reinforcement team from the Relobu camp—didn’t give way. Instead, he deliberately angled his body in preparation for another attack.

Praying Cameron could hold on for just a bit longer, I snarled, snapping my teeth at the imposter’s neck. I made contact, and the dragon, his own teeth now bared, snapped back but retreated a few feet, allowing me to alter my course.

That must have been the sign for his partner to take over, because I felt a thump as someone hit me from behind, causing me to drop several feet before I was able to regain my balance.

Cameron was struggling to pull himself up onto my back, but every time he closed the distance, I was forced to make a sudden movement that sent him dangling from the length he’d twisted around his wrist.

Please don’t break.
Please don’t break
, I begged the wedding lights as I slipped, dodged and bobbed my way doggedly toward the tiny mass of water, doing my best to avoid the worst of the damage as my pursuers did
their
best to knock me out of the sky.

Finally, there was a lull in the attacks as the two dragons appeared to drop back and confer on their next approach. Whatever they decided, I knew it wouldn’t bode well for us. I checked the ground. We were still too far from a clearing. We weren’t going to make it to the pond. Thinking fast, I looked down at the cord around my neck. It was knotted tight.