Smoke and Fire: Read online

  Kinsey chuckled. “You’re making light of what sounds like a dangerous situation.”

  Lexi’s demeanor became serious. “I tease and joke because it helps. We’re at war. But yes, it was a harrowing adventure, and I thank God every day that Thorn came into my life.”

  Ryder watched the exchange with interest. He hadn’t thought about Kinsey interacting with the mates as a means to help change her mind about him, which was stupid on his part.

  Who better to convince Kinsey he wasn’t a bad guy than the other mates who’d gone through something similar?

  “I heard my name,” Thorn said as he walked into the kitchen and immediately went to Lexi. They kissed and shared private words before Thorn turned to Kinsey. “You’re the talk of Dreagan.”

  “Am I?” Kinsey asked, glancing at Ryder.

  Ryder handed a plate to Kinsey and urged her to choose from the selection of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and donuts. He shot a glance at Thorn, hoping he would take the hint and talk about something else.

  “That’s right,” Thorn said as he took a chair at the table. “We’re all verra curious, lass. It’s no’ every day we get to meet someone Ryder knows.”

  Ryder looked at the ceiling and prayed for patience. When he lowered his gaze he saw a look pass between Thorn and Lexi. Ryder didn’t even want to know what that was about.

  “So he doesn’t get out much?” Kinsey asked nonchalantly.

  Ryder found his focus on her—as it always seemed to be. He watched the way she piled a little of everything onto her plate before walking to the table and taking the seat across from Thorn.

  “You can say that,” Thorn said with a smile as he rested his arms on the table.

  Ryder looked to Lexi for help, but she threw up her hands, telling him he was on his own as she turned away to get coffee for Thorn.

  “Hmm.” Kinsey poured some OJ into her glass before reaching for the syrup and drowning her pancake in it.

  Ryder rolled his eyes and leaned back against the wall. “I suppose you all are having fun?”

  “You know, he’s a right genius when it comes to those computers,” Thorn stated, as if Ryder hadn’t spoken. “We all have our talents, but I doona know how he does what he does.”

  Kinsey chewed a bit and swallowed as she regarded Thorn. “A genius, huh?”

  “Doona tell him I said that.”

  She gave a little snort. “You don’t have to worry about that. I think he already believes it.”

  Ryder pushed away from the wall. “Right here. Right. Bloody. Here.”

  Lexi laughed as she came to stand beside him. She leaned close and whispered, “It’s not worth it. Thorn has an objective. You know how he gets when he sets his mind to something.”

  “Aye.” Ryder grimaced when he saw Thorn’s smile. Thorn could be at it awhile, and though Ryder could take whatever was dished, he thought Kinsey might like some time alone with Lexi and Thorn. “I’ll be in my office.”

  Kinsey didn’t so much as look up as he walked out. Ryder tried not to feel the hurt that caused. It was as if he mattered less than a flea.

  What did he expect after the way he’d left her? Then showing up during the Fae attack and shifting? He’d always thought he was intelligent, but every time he was around Kinsey he felt like a fool.

  He was constantly saying or doing the wrong thing, even when he tried to do something right. Why was it so difficult? It wasn’t that he was uncomfortable around her. Quite the opposite, actually.

  No, his problem was that he was trying so hard to impress her and make her look at him as she used to that he looked like a wanker.

  Ryder made his way back to the third floor and the computer room. But as he sat in front of the monitors, for the first time in a very long time, he didn’t care what they showed him.

  All that mattered was the woman in the kitchen and the love within his heart.

  He squeezed his eyes closed and concentrated once more on finding a hint of where Ulrik was. So far, none of the scans across the entire United Kingdom had shown anything.

  Ulrik could be out of the country. Knowing that—as well as Ulrik’s affinity for the Dark Fae—Ryder focused on Ireland, which the Fae had proclaimed as their own.

  While those scans ran, Ryder looked back through the last day they’d caught Ulrik on camera near his shop in Perth. It ran on fast-forward. As usual, there were the normal visitors who came to the antiques shop.

  Ryder paused the recording and rewound it when he spotted a young woman in jeans, wearing a sweatshirt from the University of St. Andrews. With a backpack slung over one shoulder, she looked like any other student.

  But there was something about the girl that caught Ryder’s attention. The way she moved, the way she covertly took in everything.

  He played the tape three times as she walked from the bus stop to the door of The Silver Dragon. It was the way the young woman looked around that troubled Ryder. He’d seen someone do that quite recently. And that someone was Henry North.

  MI5 was known to recruit spooks at a very young age. Not to mention Ulrik’s past connection to MI5 was also a sign.

  Ryder fast-forwarded the recording to see how long the girl was in the store. Fifteen minutes later she emerged with the same backpack, but there was something different about it.

  Now focused entirely, Ryder split the screen in half. On one side was the girl when she arrived at the store, and the other when she left.

  Ryder rotated the image of her arriving and was able to take dimensions of the backpack. That’s when he realized it was sitting higher on her shoulders because it was no longer weighted down by something.

  He needed to find out who the girl was. While he ran facial recognition software on her, Ryder also sent her picture to Henry, their one ally within MI5.

  Henry had long been a friend of Banan’s, and during one harrowing battle with Ulrik, he had helped Banan rescue Jane in the middle of London.

  From there, it hadn’t take long for Henry to learn who those at Dreagan really where. Henry helped them on multiple occasions after that. It was just a few months earlier when he began living at the manor to help the Kings track the Dark Fae’s movements all over the world.

  Ryder set down his phone, thinking it would take Henry awhile to learn who the girl was, when Ryder’s phone dinged.

  He read the message twice he was so shocked.

  HER NAME IS ESTHER. SHE’S MY SISTER.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kinsey knew the moment Ryder left the kitchen. She no longer felt his presence, which made her feel … unprotected.

  That couldn’t be right. She feared him. Didn’t she? Her feelings and her mind were all jumbled into a huge tangle that grew more convoluted as the minutes and hours passed. That’s what made it all the more difficult to keep her distance from him.

  “Do you hate him?”

  Thorn’s teasing words were gone. Kinsey lifted her eyes from her plate and met Thorn’s dark ones. His deep brown hair was long and loose about his shoulders. There was no compassion in his gaze, only an intensity that told Kinsey to speak the truth at all costs.

  “That’s not easy to answer,” she replied.

  The chair between her and Thorn was pulled out as Lexi took a seat. Her slate gray eyes were filled with sympathy. She then tucked a strand of pale brown hair behind her ear. “It might seem like a difficult answer, but it’s really not.”

  “You know what’s going on,” Thorn said as he sat back. “You saw it yourself in Glasgow. We willna have someone in our midst who is here to harm one of us.”

  Kinsey set down her fork, her appetite gone at his words. She gawked at him in wonder and stupidity. “That’s a joke, right? You’re dragons. You can shift. Who can harm who?”

  “Kinsey,” Lexi said and rested her hand atop hers. “What my husband is trying—badly—to say, is that though they’re immortal Dragon Kings who can shift, their hearts are as delicate as ours.”

  “Now, sw
eetheart, I’m no’ sure I’d use delicate,” Thorn admonished.

  Lexi raised a hand to quiet him without even looking his way. Kinsey watched in amusement as Thorn looked like a scolded toddler.

  The silence in the kitchen extended. Kinsey felt like she was on trial of sorts. Which she had been since she first stepped foot onto Dreagan.

  But this was different. This was focused on her feelings, feelings she herself hadn’t dared to look too deep into because she was afraid of what she might find.

  The truth was, even when she wanted to hate Ryder after he’d left her, she couldn’t. She told herself she did in an effort to stop wondering about him. But it didn’t work.

  “I see,” Thorn said in a low voice.

  Kinsey jerked her gaze to him. “Excuse me?”

  Thorn’s look wasn’t so fierce. “There’s no hate in your heart for Ryder. You care for him.”

  “I cared for him. Past tense. He walked out on me.”

  “And he told you why.”

  Kinsey shrugged, annoyed that something so private was being discussed with strangers. “That’s supposed to make it all better? That makes it worse, because he could’ve come back. He didn’t.”

  “He was there to protect you recently.”

  At this, Kinsey had to laugh. “Me? He was there because Con ordered him to Glasgow. He was there to protect a city, much like you were in Edinburgh protecting it.”

  “I wasna there to protect buildings. I was there to protect lives—human lives.”

  Lexi sat back in her chair with a sigh. “Not even coffee is strong enough for this conversation.”

  “I appreciate you trying to take some of the tension from the room,” Kinsey told her. “The fact is, this is my private life we’re discussing. Something I don’t even do with my sister.”

  “Sister?” Thorn asked in surprise, his brow furrowed deeply.

  Kinsey wasn’t sure what the problem was. “Yep. My sister.”

  “How many other siblings do you have? Are your parents still alive? Where do they live?”

  “Thorn,” Lexi chided. “One question at a time.”

  Kinsey looked between the two. Thorn was visibly upset. “Ryder knows I have a sister. She’s much younger than I am. My father died when I was four. At eight Mum remarried and they had my sister. My mother and stepfather live in Hong Kong because of his job. My sister is finishing up her last year at university.”

  “Shite,” Thorn said and pushed his chair back as he got to his feet.

  Kinsey looked helplessly at Lexi.

  “Your family is going to want to know where you are at some point,” Lexi explained. “They’re going to have questions about Dreagan.”

  “Everyone has questions about Dreagan from what I hear,” Kinsey said.

  Thorn paced the kitchen mumbling to himself. Kinsey tried to hear what he was saying, but she couldn’t pick up any words.

  Lexi shifted in her chair. “There are only five women here who have family or close friends outside of Dreagan. Jane has a half-sister, Sammi, who happens to be mated to a King as well. Darcy has family on the Isle of Skye. Shara is a Fae, so she doesn’t have to keep secret who she’s married to. Then there’s me. My parents have passed away, but my friends who came with me to Scotland have been asking a lot of questions. Oh, I keep forgetting about Cassie, but she and her brother don’t talk. I guess that’s why I leave her out when I think about this.”

  Now Kinsey understood. “You have to lie to your family?”

  “Yes. They can’t know anything. I’ll be able to see them for the next five years or so, but after that they’ll begin to see I’m not aging as they are.”

  “It’s not like I’ll be staying. As soon as my name is cleared and we catch who is behind sending me here, I’m gone.”

  Thorn made some sound that wasn’t close to a word. It sent warning bells off in Kinsey’s head that it wouldn’t be anything close to that easy.

  As if they would allow her to leave knowing what she knew. She’ll have been working side by side with Ryder seeing into a vast majority of their secrets and getting to know them.

  MI5 was prowling the estate. Helicopters and planes continued to fly over the land. Cameras from news stations from around the world were at the entrance of Dreagan. The only reason the distillery wasn’t crawling with visitors was because it was closed for the winter.

  Someone would pay dearly to learn a fraction of what she now knew.

  Perhaps it was a good thing they knew she had family. It would make it more difficult for them to kill her.

  As soon as the thought went through her mind she almost laughed. She knew for a fact Ryder could kill because she’d witnessed him doing it to the Dark in Glasgow. But her? He wouldn’t kill her, nor did she think he would allow anyone else to hurt her.

  But there were dozens of other ways for them to ensure she never spoke a word of what she knew.

  “It doesn’t matter that I have a family,” Kinsey said. “I’m not remaining here and neither are Ryder and I a couple anymore. Con can be happy in the knowledge that he won’t have another King mated.”

  Thorn stopped pacing and stared at her for a long, silent minute. Then he walked to the table and sat next to his wife, lacing his fingers with hers.

  It made Kinsey’s chest ache to see them so comfortable together. They reached for each other blindly, and the other was always there. She’d had that once—with Ryder.

  And she missed it terribly.

  Not just the intimacy, but the quiet times, the laughter, the sharing of everything. That kind of relationship was truly glorious.

  “Are you telling me that you’d walk away from Ryder today and no’ look back?” Thorn asked.

  Kinsey took a deep breath and slowly released it. “I had a past with Ryder. I thought it was something special. I bet my life on it actually. Then he left. For three years I didn’t see him until a few weeks ago when Glasgow was under attack.”

  She pushed away her plate and laid one arm over the other on the table. “The idea of dragons and shifting is common for you because it’s your life, but let me assure you that the idea of Fae and dragons haunt my nightmares. I saw so much death and blood that night. Wars are supposed to be fought elsewhere or on the telly. They’re not supposed to happen right in front of me.”

  “Ryder saved your life,” Lexi said.

  “He did.” Kinsey rose to her feet. “I’ll owe him a debt that will never be able to be repaid. But whatever was between us is gone.”

  Thorn raised a dark brow. “Are you sure of that?”

  “Positive. I’ve had years to get over him.” Another lie in an effort to make herself believe something she was more confused about than ever.

  Lexi got to her feet then. “What if Ryder still has feelings?”

  “Then perhaps he should’ve acted on them instead of allowing years to pass.” Kinsey gave them a nod and strode out of the kitchen.

  She wasn’t yet ready to go to the computer room, but no longer could she stand the questions Thorn posed to her.

  It wasn’t until she reached the third floor that she realized she had breakfast with a Dragon King and hadn’t thought twice about it. She was even curt with him, not worrying about him shifting or attacking her.

  That could be because she’d seen him and Lexi together beforehand. Regardless, it made her breathe easier.

  If only she could relax when she was with Ryder.

  * * *

  Con turned the corner into the kitchen and watched Kinsey walk away.

  “How much did you hear?” Lexi asked him.

  “All of it. I was about to come in for food when I spotted Ryder on the stairs. I decided to wait.”

  Thorn leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest as he stared at the doorway where Kinsey had departed. “I think she might still care for Ryder.”

  “I know she does.” Con saw Lexi’s eyes widen while Thorn’s head swiveled to him.

  It w
as Lexi who asked, “How do you know that?”

  “Just watch the two of them together. It’s obvious.”

  Thorn nodded slowly. “It’s true she went out of her way to stay away from him so they didna accidentally touch.”

  “While Ryder remains near her,” Con said.

  Lexi picked up Kinsey’s plate and brought it to the sink. “Are you going to try and keep them apart?”

  It wasn’t in Con’s nature to share such things. He was going to refuse to answer, but changed his mind at the last minute. “Kinsey’s fear of Ryder’s true nature will no’ allow her to accept him.”

  “She could get over her trepidation,” Lexi said, but Thorn was already shaking his head.

  “I agree with Con,” Thorn said. “Kinsey wasna just in the middle of a war with the Dark Fae who she didna even know existed until recently, but she saw the man she cared for shift from a dragon. Her mind willna be able to acknowledge such things easily. I believe Kinsey when she said that whatever might’ve been between them is gone.”

  Con saw the argument on Lexi’s lips, but she kept it to herself. This was another case of how different the Kings were from mortals.

  Humans were tenacious in their need to hold onto hope. Whereas a Dragon King realized the futility and let it go.

  Kinsey was a complication Dreagan didn’t need. The sooner she was gone, the better. It was why a handful of Kings were scattered throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland looking for Ulrik or anyone connected to him.

  Con heard Ryder’s voice in his head, heard the anxiety. He raced up the stairs with Thorn right behind him. They rushed past Kinsey before she reached the computer room.

  Dmitri and Henry were in the room as well. Con looked at each of them as Kinsey walked around them, a curious frown puckering her brow.

  “This can’t be happening,” Henry said, his English accent thick. His plain brown hair was sticking up at odd angles. His clothes were rumpled, and he had a full beard from not shaving. Lines of strain bracketed his mouth. Dark circles were under his eyes, but it was the stunned and shaken look in his eyes that caught Con’s attention.