Dragon's Second Chance Romance - Riley Storm Page 0,23

about was that she was finally out from under Pete. The asshole may have put her there, but his leverage over her was gone. He had nothing to hurt her with anymore.

She was free.

Now just do your sentence and—

The door beyond her cell opened, and one of the deputies, a tall male with skin the color of night, came in. “On your feet Owens,” he said gently. “Time to get a move on.”

“To what?” she asked, confused, but doing as the deputy had told her. “I’m not scheduled to go anywhere.”

“You’re scheduled to get the hell out of my jail for now,” he said with a soft smile.

Claire frowned to herself at that. There had been a rotating cast of three different officers checking in on her and feeding her throughout the day, and all of them had treated her politely. Beyond polite, even.

To the point she would almost consider it friendly, if there weren’t three-inch thick steel bars between them.

“I am?” she asked, stepping forward as he opened the door. “But…how?”

“Your bail was paid,” the deputy said with a shrug. “I don’t ask questions after that. Not my job.”

Claire’s jaw dropped. “But it was set at a quarter-million dollars! Who in their right mind would pay that?”

The deputy shrugged again. “No idea. Some tall, bald dude with lots of muscles, short sleeve shirt. Looks like he means business.”

Things were getting weirder and weirder. Why would Pete put her in jail, just to spend money on her to get her out? Even more, where the hell had Pete gotten that kind of cash? He was not that well off, she knew. He and his crew always wasted their spoils from a successful heist.

Lost in her own confusion as she followed the deputy out of her cell and to the front, Claire nearly walked into someone.

“Oh, sorry,” she said, sidestepping them. “I didn’t see y—Pietro?”

“Hi.”

She stared up at him, covering up a giggle. The deputy hadn’t been lying. The man who’d bailed her out was tall, bald, and wearing a short sleeve shirt. He also looked like he meant business.

“You’re the one who bailed me out?” she hissed. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that you’re in danger,” he rumbled, not a trace of humor in his voice.

“From—wait,” she said, comprehension dawning. “You’re super-serious about that, aren’t you?”

Pietro just stared at her.

“They can get me? In here?” she asked, keeping her voice low.

“Easily,” Pietro rumbled. “Nobody truly lives here. Getting in wouldn’t be an obstacle. You aren’t safe here. So I had to get you out, take you somewhere I can protect you.”

Claire started to nod along, then shook her head. When she spoke, it was in a hushed whisper. “Hold on a second. If you’re always going to be with me, protecting me, how are you going to go about hunting this vampire then? So that eventually I don’t need protection to step outside every night?”

“I’ll worry about that once you’re safe. Behind a threshold,” Pietro rumbled, his blue-green eyes troubled, constantly moving.

Searching for threats, she realized, abruptly noticing just how on-guard Pietro was. His stance was spread. He was balanced evenly and ready to move. There was not a single relaxed thing about him.

“This is real, isn’t it,” she said mostly to herself, but Pietro nodded anyway.

“Completely,” he agreed. “You told me to tell you the truth. I did. Claire, we have to go now.”

“I can’t believe you did this,” she muttered, but that didn’t stop her from following him as he headed toward the front doors. “You really shouldn’t have Pietro, honestly. That is a lot of money for you to waste on a criminal.”

Pietro pushed open the door, peering outside, looking around thoroughly before he went out and let her follow. Claire followed, nervously glancing at every shadow, trying to tell herself that she was safe with Pietro nearby.

It’s amazing how being behind bars made me actually feel a little safe…

“A criminal,” Pietro said quietly. “Yes. I suppose you did commit the crime.”

“Thanks for the reminder,” she said, hurrying to walk alongside him as he directed her toward a large black pickup truck across the street and several hundred feet to the left.

“I also noticed in the video, that of everyone there, you’re the only one who looked at the cameras. Who didn’t seem to know when to keep your head down. Or to pull your shirt up to cover part of your face. I noticed that your ex-boyfriend, however, had no such lapses. Nor