Adriana’s heart sank. She had been trying to think of a way to tell him. At this point, her story was dead anyway. She’d already made up her mind to tell her boss that she was coming up empty-handed. Then again, if he kicked her to the curb, there was no reason not to go ahead with it.
“You don’t know what I do or don’t know. What you better know is that my patience is wearing thin with you. I was about to take the bitch home. I’ve had my fun with her. You’d be wise to get your scaly asses off my property and not come back.”
“Yeah, we’re going, but you better believe that we’ll be back.”
“Fuck you,” Dane retorted.
The two men began walking toward the truck to get in while Dane stood watching them. Adriana took the chance to scurry back into the back door and shift, dressing in her own clothes. She was putting on her shoes when he came back in the door, angry faced.
“What was that about?” she asked.
“You asking me as a friend or as a reporter?”
“I’m not a reporter.”
“What are you then?”
“A journalist.”
“A reporter.”
“I don’t call myself that. I work for a magazine, not a news outlet.”
“What magazine?”
“Transformation.”
His eyes widened as he looked at her. “Adriana Guerrero, not Lee. You’re the one that just wrote the expose on Parquo and then he ended up dead. What is it you were looking for with me? You think I’m crooked?”
“No. I . . . my current assignment had nothing to do with your business. I didn’t even know who you were when I accepted a date with you.”
“Do you know who I am now? Did you check me out?” he growled.
“I heard the man out there call you Jensen instead of Johnson. Is that your real name?”
“Yes. Dane Jensen.”
“So, you were lying to me as well?”
“No. You don’t get to be indignant here. I didn’t tell you my last name because I wanted to just seem like some normal guy for once. I wasn’t lying to you to get a story.”
“I told you my real name. It’s Adriana Lee—Adriana Lee Guerrero. As for the story, it was to be about online dating on Alpha Meets Omega. You just happened along.”
“You always fuck your source material?” he spat at her.
“Don’t be a dick.”
“Yeah, well, I get that way when someone lies to me and I find out about it from a rival dragon clan.”
“Well, I guess it’s time for this bitch to go home then.”
He winced as she spat his words back out to him. He started to say something else, but she cut him off.
“No. Don’t. I’ll take it from here. I don’t need a ride from you.”
“There’s no ride service way out here.”
“I don’t need a ride service,” she told him, not even bothering to strip off her clothes again. She couldn’t carry them anyway.
“It’s broad daylight. You can’t just fly home.”
“You forget. I’m not just a dragon. I’m also a lot of other animals if I choose to be. No one will notice another stray bitch trotting about. Bye, Dane Jensen.”
Without another word, she walked out the back door and shifted into a greyhound. That would get her back to her car quickly enough, and no one would look twice at her. Besides that, it might just help her run off the anger she felt.
She could feel his eyes on her as she turned and ran toward the path along the river, the quickest route back to the restaurant where they had left her car. Fuck him, she thought, but her feelings betrayed her, and her dog whimpered as she ran.CHAPTER FOURTEENDane
Dane was furious. He paced back and forth across the living room as the thoughts in his headed swirled into one indistinguishable mass. He needed answers, and he needed them soon. Pulling his laptop out of the backpack he’d brought up with him, he opened it to do some research.
He’d get to Adriana, but he needed to figure out this Black Talon situation first. He’d ignored it long enough, figuring they were a little miffed but would get over it. Now, they were spying on him, confronting him, and threatening a woman that he thought he could really spend some time with but now realized she wasn’t who he thought she was.
He felt a pang of something at that thought but pushed it aside. There was no time for heartache. Hell, had he even known her long enough for it to matter?
It took the better part of three hours researching the leaders of the Black Talon Clan before he got anywhere, but he finally got a lead. It was just a hint of something that might lead back to the construction company, and it might not pan out, but it gave him a place to start.