Where My Demons Hide

Chapter Sixteen - Star

The rumble of thunder echoed around me as I scrambled to my feet in the rain and rushed forward to help Dragon. I picked up the gun that had fallen from his hand and stepped up behind the man slamming his firsts into Dragon's ribs and pressed the business end of it to back of the man's head.

Though my hands shook, I was prepared to fire if he didn't stop attacking Dragon and pay attention to me.

I wasn't sure how they got into the yard. Sure, they couldn't have walked up from the beach but very few people knew of the entrance on that side.

"You're not going to shoot me." The man said, turning toward me.

I cocked the gun. "Are you sure about that?" I asked, refusing to back away.

Dragon brought a fist into the side of the man's head and he slumped to the ground like a heavy sack of dirt. I crumbled forward into Dragon's chest after he pried the gun from my fingers and shoved it down the back of his pants. After he wrapped his arms around me for a moment, I stepped back to look down into my face.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"You're bleeding." I used a gentle finger to tap the corner of his bottom lip.

He groaned. "I'm okay."

"What are we going to do with him?"

"Well." Dragon looked down at the unconscious man like he would a bug he was about to squash. "We're not calling the cops, that's for sure."

"Um..."

"He gets arrested and whoever he's working for will just have him out again." Dragon hunched down beside the man's body and began going through his pockets. "No. This time, I have a conversation to have with him. Let's carry him to the back deck."

As we moved our captive, I noticed P'Nice's car wasn't there. That was strange, considering she had refused to leave. Once we had the man bound and gagged in the back, I rushed back inside. I stopped to check the room P'Nice had been using—her things were gone.

Deciding to speak with Dragon about that later, I changed, wrapped a towel around my shoulder and grabbed a fresh one before rushing back to the backyard. I stopped to set the coffeemaker, before dipping out the door. Dragon was standing on a section of the pool that was protected from the rain.

"Thanks." He said, accepting the towel.

"I'll watch him while you change." I told him.

"I'm good." He rubbed his head with the towel.

"Well." I sat in one of the chairs. "P'Nice is gone."

Dragon turned to stare at me. "Really?"

I nodded.

"Interesting." Dragon whispered and went back to rubbing his hair.

"Let me see your lip." I told him.

For a moment, I thought he would decline or tell me he was okay. Instead, he hunched down in front of me, gripped my thighs and pulled them apart. I swallowed the lump in my throat as he eased between them and knelt.

He was close, resting intimately against my body while looking up into my eyes. There was no way he didn't know what he was doing? How could he not?

How could he not know that even with his hair a mess, his clothing soaking wet and his lip bleeding that I was still attracted. Seeing the way the graphic shirt clung to his wide chest, his nipples poking at the material drove me crazy.

Still, I lifted trembling hands fingers to wipe the blood away to see the cut beneath. It wasn't deep but as I stared down into his face, I could see bruising starting to form at the corner of his right eye.