Dragon Hunter by Charlene Hartnady

Chapter 25

Riley sat on the sofa. She had her head in her hands and was trying really hard not to freak out. Fog and Ashlyn were both gone. Both of them. When it came to Fog, it was all her fault.

“Tea?” Melina said, standing. “I’m going to make a pot.” She added, “My nana always said that tea makes everything better. Or in this case, we’ll go with a little less terrible.”

Tea.

Tea wasn’t going to help anything. It wasn’t going to bring Fog back. It wasn’t going to rewind the clock. It wasn’t going to take her words back. Why had she been such a bitch?

Of course, she knew exactly why; because she was scared shitless of falling in love, of giving control over to someone else. Knowing it didn’t make her feel any better. If anything, it made her feel worse. She made a noise of agreement anyway, since Mel was such a sweetheart.

Azure rubbed a hand up and down her back. “Fog is strong,” she said for the fifth or sixth time. Riley wasn’t sure if she was saying it to her or to herself. “Avalanche, too,” she added. “Very strong. I’m sure it’s all going to be okay. It’s all going to be fine.”

Okay.

Fine.

No!

It wasn’t.

“Don’t cry, Riley.” Azure rubbed harder.

Shit!Riley was crying again. She’d never cried this much in her life. Not when the kids teased her. Not when she went for the operation on her eye. Not when her dad died and certainly not when the bomb dropped afterward at his funeral. She’d never cried this much, ever. Her throat hurt. Her eyes stung. They felt puffy. Her nose was running, so she grabbed another Kleenex out of the box Melina had put on the table.

Riley could hear the other woman busy in the kitchen. Then a teacup crashed and broke on the tiled floor.

Azure jumped up, her gaze on the balcony. Come to think of it, Melina was staring in that direction as well.

Riley leaped to her feet just as the door leading outside opened, and a very naked, very pissed-off Fog blustered in.

“Time to go,” Melina said.

Azure nodded. They were out the front door in seconds.

“Fog!” She almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Couldn’t believe that he was here. “What happened? Did you find her? It seems too soon.”

“We don’t have Ashlyn yet. It doesn’t matter. I came to fetch…” He didn’t finish the sentence. He was flinging open the closet door and rummaging through the contents.

“What happened?” Riley waited, but Fog didn’t answer. “Where is Avalanche?”

“Still down there,” Fog muttered, digging through another closet. “Here it is.” He held up a vicious-looking blade. “I need to go.” He started walking towards the balcony.

“No! Wait.” He didn’t listen. “We need to talk!” she yelled.

“I promised I would save your friend, and I plan to make good on that promise. Looks to me like you’ve been let down before, and I’m not going to be another person who does more of the same.” He opened the door.

“No!” she half-yelled. “I’m releasing you from your promise. Is that even a thing? It has to be. Don’t go! Please!”

“Too late for that, Riley.” He turned; his eyes were so dark she barely recognized them.

“It isn’t too late,” she agonized.

“It is. I left my friend down there. That means that there are two of them in those caves now. I need to give Avalanche the backup he needs.”

“Okay, I understand.” She nodded, trying not to cry. “Please, can you hear me out before you go?”

“There’s no time. We can talk when I get back.”

“What if you don’t come back? What then?” Her voice hitched.

“Jesus!” he growled. “Not you, too.” He ran a hand through his hair; the gesture was agitated. “I will make it out. I’ll be back.”

“You might not, Fog. By all accounts, you’ll be grossly outnumbered by those creatures.”

“Dragons. They’re dragons, Riley.”

“It doesn’t matter. You’d be trespassing. There to steal a woman who they would consider to be theirs. You might not make it out. I need to tell you something now.” Her voice was animated. “Otherwise, it might be too late.”

“All of these facts you just told me about being outnumbered, etcetera, were all the same facts as this morning, the same as yesterday. The same as last week. Why are you trying to stop me now? All you’ve done is beg me to go. You keep asking me when I’m leaving. Now that I’m halfway out the door, suddenly you want me to stop. What’s changed?”

“Everything,” she whispered. “I’m in love with you.” It just came out. She hadn’t meant to say it like that. At least it was out. That part felt good. Everything else was terrible.

A whole array of emotions crossed his face. He just stood there for a good long while. “What about your rules? I thought I wasn’t your type.” He narrowed his eyes.

“You are exactly my type, and that’s why you’re all wrong for me. Wrong in every way. I…um…” She took a step back. “I wanted you to know. I thought it was important. I…that’s all.” She shook her head; her eyes were filling up with tears again. Riley did not want to cry, and so she turned and headed back into the apartment.

Fog followed her. “Wait.” When she didn’t listen, he caught her hand. “Wait! Always with the running.” He put the big knife down on the table right next to them.

She turned.

“I want to know.” He cupped her chin. “Why are you so afraid? You need to know that I’m afraid too.” His thumb traced her lower lip.

She rolled her eyes and snorted. “A big guy like you?”

Fog let her go. “Don’t! Don’t do that. Using jokes and silly comments to bolster that wall of yours. To stay in hiding. If you’re in love with me, let me in.”

Riley licked her lips. “When I said I was in love, I was probably exaggerating just a touch. We don’t know each—”

“Don’t do that either. Aside from running, you’re really good at backpedaling. Stop! Let me in. Tell me what’s going on inside that head of yours. Why are you afraid of me? Of us? I know why I’m afraid of us. I can tell you my reasons. I’m willing to bet that they’re similar to yours, only yours run deeper. Yours have you running scared.”

Her lip wobbled, so she bit down on it. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”

“Tell me so that I know why so that I can help you.” He swept some hair behind her ear in a gesture that was becoming familiar to her. “According to all of you, I’m not going to survive those caves, so you may as well tell me.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I don’t agree with it. I’ll be back. I swear. As I already told you, I have a whole lot to come back to. None of which has anything to do with work or my friends and everything to do with a certain human.” He took her hand and squeezed it. “Tell me already.”

Riley nodded once. “After my dad died, it was hell.” She pulled in a breath. “My parents were so in love. My dad was the most handsome man I’d ever known. He was a sales manager. He traveled a lot for work. We would miss him so much when he was away on trips. We’d long for him to come home. My parents were like teenagers. Always giggling. They had a healthy sex life; believe me, I had to hear them a couple of times. Scarred me for life.” She laughed.

Fog didn’t respond. He kept his expression neutral and his eyes on hers.

“My mom found him in the bathroom one morning. He’d been brushing his teeth, getting ready for work. She went nuts. I can still hear her screams. I performed CPR, they taught us how to do it at school. The ambulance arrived minutes later. They worked on him for a long time, but…” She shook her head. “It was the worst day of my life…only it wasn’t. I thought it was, but it wasn’t the worst. What I didn’t realize was that the worst had yet to come.” A tear slid down her cheek. Shit! She needed to stop with the crying already.

Fog leaned forward and wiped it away with the pad of his thumb.

“Turned out that his funeral was the worst day. That’s when we met them. Found out about them.” More tears fell, and she could do nothing to stop them. She sniffed.

“Who?” Fog asked, frowning.

Riley made this sobbing noise. “His other family. My father had been living a double life. He had two wives and two children. I have a half-brother. I’ve only seen him a handful of times over the last nine years since my father’s death.” She shook her head. “He betrayed us. Betrayed my mom in the worst way. She lost it, Fog. I had to watch my beautiful mother wither away. Fade into nothing. She had a breakdown, tried to…” She licked her lips. “She tried to kill herself. She’s never been the same since. That’s what love did to her. What the perfect man did to her. My father was smart, clever, attractive, charming, sweet, kind…and yet he was none of those things.”

“I can’t imagine.”

“No, you can’t. Do you know what it’s like to love someone, to miss them so much, and yet to hate them as well? It’s so confusing. My mom still loves him to this day. She still misses him. Pines for him. After all he did. All the betrayal. That’s why I run. Why I hide. Why I have my stupid rules. I know they’re stupid, and yet they’ve protected me. Because of what happened, I never wanted love. I never wanted love until you, and now I’m in the deepest shit.”

“You’re not.”

“I am.” She nodded.

Fog gave her the most beautiful smile. “No! I told you before, and I’ll tell you again. We’ll do this together. We’ll tackle your fears together. I’m going to love proving to you just how great we can be. How great we will be, Riley.”

“Only you’re leaving.” Fear rose up in her. It put an icy fist around her heart and squeezed.

His expression changed. It softened. “I have to,” he murmured.

“No! I only just found you.” She took both his hands. “We’ve only just…just started.”

“Have faith. I can do this. I can’t leave Avalanche down there on his own.”

“What happened down there? How is it that you’re back?” Riley asked.

Fog told her all that had happened. From their hike in to Avalanche knocking him unconscious.

She frowned. “A note? He left you a note?”

“Yep! He told me to go back to you. Told me that he could handle it. He’s such a dick!” She could see that Fog didn’t mean that at all. That he was worried. “I’m going to give him hell when I catch up to him.”

She felt her throat work. “And you need the knife to…to—”

“I prefer not to think of it. It’s not about the pain, although it won’t be fun either. It’s more about those tight spaces. I’m not looking forward to that.”

“I wish you’d reconsider. Avalanche might—”

There was a hard knock on the door.