After everything was gone and only the screenshots remained, she closed the lid and leaned back, shutting her eyes again. Something was niggling at the back of her mind, and she tried to ignore it, because she didn’t want to think about the case again in that moment. The faces of the women who were being auctioned off were too fresh in her mind.
But whatever it was, it wouldn’t go away. The descriptions for each woman were playing through her head on a loop. She didn’t know what they meant, but there was a part of her that thought she should.
Trying once again to get it out of her head, for at least a little bit, she turned her thoughts to Noah. But instead of the connection blossoming between them or the eyebrow singeing heat arching back and forth from him to her, she started thinking about the ways he was different.
His eyes changed color—kind of. It was more like the light green glowed, but they lightened a little as they did. He healed completely from a devastating injury. He might or might not have superhuman strength. The jury was still out on that one. He’d carried their suitcases easily, but he was also heavily muscled, so that might be why.
Those were the main things off the top of her head, but there were so many other little things pointing to him being something else. To all the Enforcers being something else. To that end, maybe they weren’t a part of traditional law enforcement. Maybe they were the police for their kind.
Brow furrowing, she recalled him growling earlier. It hadn’t sounded like a human attempting to make a noise. It sounded real. Her frown deepened when she remembered the purring sound she heard the night before, too.
Maybe she was onto something with that. Her fingers tightened around the stuffed animal when she recalled the way he reacted when he heard the kid talking about a dragon festival. That was when he called Blake while she was in the truck, and he hadn’t been happy when he got back in. He hadn’t wanted to go to the mansion at all after hearing that.
Almost like he thought the dragon festival was a real thing. Like, that he thought dragons were real.
Eyes popping open, she jerked into a sitting position, looking down at the stuffed lion in her lap. Maybe that was it. Maybe he wasn’t like Edward in this story—he was like Jacob.
That might explain a lot. Especially why he was so worried about going to the festival of dragons, because dragons could be real. Maybe that was why they were there to begin with. Because they were watching a dragon.
And suddenly the descriptions for the women made sense. Purebred—pure dragon line. Gold and green color—the color of the woman’s dragon.
Holy. Shit.
She heard the sound of the keycard in the lock and she took a moment to wipe her expression. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with the information yet. It wasn’t that he suddenly scared her—he didn’t. But she wanted to think about everything some more, make sure she was on the right track, before she asked him about it.
Walking in, he shut the door and turned to flip the locks before looking at her. “You okay?”
“As fine as I can be, considering what I just saw on that website. Did you talk to Blake?”
“Yeah. The plan’s staying the same until we know more.”
She frowned as she straightened. “But those women are being auctioned off tomorrow. We have to save them.”
“We’re not even sure where they are. They might not be at the compound at all. Dmitri, Damara, and Liam will be here in the morning, and they’re going to try to get more information. Don’t worry. They’re good at what they do, and we won’t let anything happen to the women.”
Her eyes narrowed on him, unable to keep herself from digging a little. “Are you sure we shouldn’t call in some more help? The police, FBI, someone?”
He shook his head, his green gaze a touch wary as he looked at her. “No. This is what the Enforcers do. We can handle it.” He looked down at her laptop. “Did you find anything else?”
He was clearly trying to change the subject and get her to stop thinking about calling other agencies, and that made her think she was on the right track. “No, that was the last of it. I could possibly try to track down who bought tickets to the gala, but I’m not sure I could get it done before tomorrow night. I took screenshots of everything, though.”
“Could you email that to Blake? I’m sure he’d like to see it. I think tracking down who bought tickets is a good idea actually, even if it takes longer than tomorrow night. The kind of people who’d buy tickets and bid on women are the kind we want to watch, if not bring in. But you don’t need to start tonight. You look beat.”
“Seeing those images drained me some. I feel like I’m old and jaded now.”
Walking to her side of the bed, he reached for her hand, and she gave it to him, letting him pull her up. He wrapped his arms around her and it felt like her body revved up at the same time her soul sighed with relief. Snuggling in closer, she laid her head on his chest, listening to his strong heartbeat.
“I’m sorry you were dragged into this. I really am.”
Tightening her arms around his waist, she looked up a him, shaking her head. “First, you have nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t drag me into this. I insisted on coming. Second, I don’t regret it. If I helped to save even one of those women, it was totally worth it, and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.”
He gazed into her eyes, his green gaze radiating sincerity. “You already helped them, Lily. If you had
n’t been with me, we wouldn’t have been able to figure this out. None of us are hackers. You’re the one who figured out what was going on, and now that we know, we can work to get the women out and put away those responsible.”
“Then that alone makes it worth it. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine, so no more apologizing, okay? You have a bad habit of that.”
“I guess I feel like I have a lot to be sorry for.”