Iz gave her a tight-lipped smile that hopefully didn’t look as nervous as it felt. “I’m sorry, but we’ll need the check now, please. It’s a family emergency.”
“Of course. I’m so sorry. I’ll get you out of here as soon as possible.”
“Thank you so much.”
As the server swept off, Iz said, “Good service here,” to Logan in a slightly shaky voice. “She’s very nice. We could have had a lovely first date.”
They could have, but in the end, it had just been another one of their shared fantasies. It was vanishing into smoke before they could turn it real.
“I never liked porcelain dolls,” she continued. “They were too ...cold, and you always had to be careful with them. My mother used to secretly buy me Barbies, instead. I certainly never had a porcelain doll named Evelyn that I broke when I was twelve. But that’s the problem, isn’t it? If Sebastian wanted some piece of trivia about me to convince me he had Mom, he could have made up something vague. He could even have found something out himself.”
Logan nodded slowly. “We know he looked into your background enough to find out about your father.”
For the first time in years, the mention of her father didn’t cause even a quaver of pain or uncertainty inside her. She was too focused.
He had left her, and she felt like she had finally left him back.
“Exactly. It wouldn’t have to be something only my mother could have known, not really. He knows I wouldn’t want to risk leaving her in his clutches.” She found herself gripping the edge of the table like she was holding on for dear life. “But he came up with something wrong, somethingspecificallywrong. Because Momtoldhim something wrong. She lied to him.”
She could see the pieces click together behind Logan’s eyes.
“She wanted to protect you. To convince you that there was no way he really had her.”
Iz nodded. “The only way he would hit on something this wrong is if she said it to him.”
Her eyes were hot with unshed tears, and she didn’t want to risk blinking them out, not when she would have to see their server again so soon. This poor woman had already had to deal with a cryptic old-fashioned letter and a sudden departure; she shouldn’t have to handle a crying customer, too. No matter how distraught Iz was at the moment, she needed to make sure to leave their server a generous tip.
Besides, that was what her mother would want. Elizabeth Benoit was an exceptional tipper.
Iz carefully maintained her composure as she handled the check for their all-too-short and insubstantial dinner.
It wasn’t until she had unobtrusively slipped her phone onto her chair and stood up to leave that it struck her what she was doing.
She hadn’t even asked Logan if he would take the chance of coming with her. The realization shook her to the core. Yes, they were mates, and yes, she had seen the fire in his eyes as he’d handled Sebastian’s letter, but—
But the prospect of willingly walking into Sebastian’s trap had to be even harder for him than it was for her.
She watched him slide his phone from his pocket and leave it on his chair. As hard as it must have been for him to even consider this, he was doing it. Forher.
He didn’t even act as though not doing it was a real option, and that made something inside Iz snap into gear.
They left the restaurant and headed out into the pleasantly cool night air. Iz wrapped her arms around herself. Her brain felt numb, but her heart felt absolutely sure. She just wished they’d had more time together. She could count all the weeks they had spent in Sebastian’s cave, but to have only had one real day with him in the outside world, in these bodies ... to have only had one night in his arms ....
If she thought about it too much, she might weaken, and she couldn’t afford that.
“I can’t let you do this,” she said. She just barely kept her voice from breaking.
He only made it harder for her by wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. She could catch just a little of the scent of his skin, even underneath the cologne Theo had lent him. She breathed in as much of him as she could.
“We don’t have a choice,” Logan said.
“Yes, we do.” It killed her to do it, but she pulled back from him and wiped savagely at her eyes. “Youdo. I can’t let you take this kind of risk after everything you’ve been through.”
“Iz, that doesn’t matter. We can’t take the chance that he’s bluffing about having someone watching us. If thereissomebody, and I don’t stay with you, whoever it is will call Sebastian and he’ll disappear and take your mom with him.”
“No, he won’t. Not if you just stay here for a while, if you go back into the restaurant and make it obvious that you’re not going for help. Don’t pick up your phone again. Just wait until it’s been long enough that it has to all be over.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Sebastian won’t pass up the chance to have me back again, even if he doesn’t get you. You know that as well as I do. Nothing gave him a thrill quite like owning another dragon, and he’s not going to pass up the chance to have two of them.”
Besides, Sebastian almost certainly didn’t know that the only reason she’d been able to burn their way out of the cave was because Logan had boosted her dragonfire to an unheard-of strength. He probably thought she had done it on her own somehow, and he hated the idea that she’d gotten the better of him. He would want to put her back in her place.