The Dragon's Fate - Roxie Ray Page 0,22

name?” I asked.

“Kaylee Price!” She threw up her arms as she yelled, fists tightly clenched.

“What is your other name?” I grinned at my friend, happy I’d been able to lift her spirits.

“Kitten Kaylee!” she yelled and pumped her fists in the air.

“Damn right. Don’t let that fool get to you.”

She slapped her hands on the bar. “Get my friend a drink!”

The bartender asked me what I wanted, but I shook my head. I wasn’t ready to drink yet, if at all.

“Kaylee, have you seen Jace?” I asked as she watched the bartender, who I didn’t know, fill her glass.

She smiled and nodded towards the far side of the bar. I looked that way to find Jace sitting behind the bar with a laptop on his lap. He wouldn’t have been noticeable from the door.

The smirk on his face infuriated me. “I’ll be right back, ‘kay.”

She waved me off as she drank. Rounding the bar, I lifted the trap door, slipped behind the bar and circled the unnamed bartender, who stared at me in shock. Jace grinned wider as I approached.

With my hands on my hips, I stopped right in front of him. “Is your phone broken? You seem alive and well. If I hadn’t talked to Skye, I would’ve thought you’d died of a heart attack, or from the side effects of being a total asshole.” No matter how loud I yelled or how mean I sounded, he never stopped smiling.

And it annoyed me all the more because his smile was so much more beautiful than his frown.

“What’s funny?” I asked and stepped closer. “It’s not funny.”

“It’s cute that you care so much,” he replied.

“I don’t care.” I crossed my arms and tried to think of what I could say that would make it seem like I hadn’t been thinking about him all week after I’d made such a scene. Even Kaylee was staring with her mouth unhinged. “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t dead, but you didn’t bother shooting me a text or anything.”

“Liar,” he said quietly. “You care.”

I wasn’t lying. I didn’t care a whit about him. But the damn man wouldn’t stop smiling! Grumbling low in my throat, I shot him my most scathing glare. “I’m glad you didn’t die, anyway.”

I whirled and waved at Kaylee. “Come on, I’m taking you home.”

“It’s too early!” she retorted.

“We’re going anyway!” I yelled and gave her my best mom look.

She raised her eyebrows, but she got her purse. “Yes, ma’am.”

I opened the door for Kaylee to go through and looked in Jace’s direction. I couldn’t actually see him because of the sunlight streaming in behind me. “Since you’re not dying, delete my number!”

“Not a chance!” he yelled.

I had to fight a smile as I slammed the bar door shut and waltzed to the car. If I had an extra roll to my hips, it was his fault for making me mad. He was a jerk, and I couldn’t forget that. I wouldn’t fall for another set of pretty eyes. I’d done that once and that hadn’t turned out well at all.

8

Jace

The pain in my chest changed this week. I hadn’t seen Bri all week, but I’d spent most of my free time replaying the visions. Sammy had admitted to spelling me so that the next time I saw Bri, I’d see the visions.

The good ones… I couldn’t stop dreaming about them. And the more I considered them, the less the pain bothered me.

I thought about the bad visions, too. Analyzed them. Contemplated them and tried to figure out if I could live with that.

I had no doubt they were real. It wasn’t some projection of what Sammy thought could possibly happen. It was going to happen, one way or the other. I had a choice to make.

Even though I kept telling myself I was still going to leave Briana alone, the pain in my chest kept lessening. Then one morning I woke and wasn’t achy.

Then she came into the bar, and I watched her cheer her friend up, and something inside me settled. After that, nothing would wipe the grin off of my face.

She didn’t hate me.

She yelled, she postulated, but she cared about me. She’d been worried about me and despite my best efforts, I hadn’t pushed her away.

The bond wasn’t broken.

My grin cemented on my face and didn’t go away.

The next night, Bri came back in with Kaylee. She ordered water and sat with her back to the bar so I couldn’t see her face. Kaylee