What Fire Dragons Treasure - Cristina Rayne Page 0,60

same to Raphek, so she needed to confuse her scent trail as much as possible until six o’clock rolled around. Being able to take his own taxi or rideshare while Otaron also drove around lessened the effectiveness of her attempt to confuse her trail considerably.

Amber spent her time in the cab looking at pictures online of the park Garrett had designated as their meeting place. It looked to be a park full of trails surrounded by tons of trees and just off a lake. Fantastic. He had picked a place that was perfect for hiding a body.

But that was before you told him about the audio file proving his abuse.

Things could no doubt head south in a hurry this evening, but as long as the bastard believed that he could beat Matty’s location out of her, he had an incentive not to kill her. Concerning the hinted doctored video and her audio file, that put them at a stalemate.

Hopefully, that’ll be enough to keep Matty safe, to keep the firedrakes’ hard-earned reputation safe. To keep Raphek safe…

Amber’s hands were still shaking when she signaled for the cab driver to drop her off in front of the first bank that caught her eye. It was only then that she wondered if she were suffering from a mild case of shock. She should probably find a place to at least get a soda or something.

But first thing’s first.

The bank she had chosen was just a satellite branch of a larger whole, small and thankfully with only a handful of people inside. She made a beeline for the bathroom, and once Amber determined that it was currently empty, she locked herself into a stall at the very end. She sagged against the stall door, and with her heart in her throat, she selected Raphek’s burner phone’s number from her contacts.

He picked up before the first ring could finish.

“Amber! I’ve been going mad looking for you! Are you all right? Did that piece of Terran scum—where are you, dearheart?” Raphek demanded all in one breath.

The endearment nearly broke her resolve.

“Raph, you had to have heard what went down,” Amber said thickly. Keep it together, dammit! “That monster won’t give up until he thinks he’s won. Matty and I are just things to him. Trophies to prop up his political image. He doesn’t give a damn if his father burns down the entire world to give him that win, even if the senator is doing it more to protect his own financial interests rather than his son’s reputation. I’ll be damned before I ever let either of them near Matty again or to drag the Draknos’s good character through the mud.”

Ugh! Her voice because of the near strangulation sounded worse and worse with every word. No doubt it was driving Raphek to distraction, and that’s the last thing either one of them needed right now.

Nevertheless, Amber plowed on, “That’s why I’m going to meet him at the park at six and let him take me back to Houston.”

“No.”

That one word echoed in her mind and seemed to seep into her very soul like a warm embrace. Amber’s legs nearly gave out. What was this? More dragon magic? There was more power in that one spoken syllable than Amber had ever heard in her life.

“I have to,” she forced out. “For Matty. For you.”

“When dragon-shifters fall in love,” he said quietly, “they fall fast and hard. It’s just our nature for our souls, what we call our Dragon Fire, to flare up with our most powerful emotions and continue to burn bright without end, especially for what we treasure. You and Matty are what I now treasure most, the ones my Fire burns hottest for within the core of my being. Thus, I’ll see myself dead first before I will allow that creature that is an affront to all Terrans to extinguish the fire that was awakened within you both just in the short time we have spent together.”

Amber closed her eyes tightly, unable to speak for fear that she would begin to sob.

The universe was certainly playing a cruel joke on her.

“Then for the first time in my life, I picked the right person to love,” she said, her voice hitching.

Slowly, she placed a hand on her belly. What if? Would fate really punish her a second time with another pregnancy at the worst possible time? With a child, she realized in that moment, that she very much wanted to have with him, her kind