Pink Princess Fairytini (Fairy Files #2) (29 page)

His expression softened and he leaned in and took my hands again. “I care about you, Chloe. What you are or who your enemies are doesn’t matter.”

I lifted his hands to my mouth and pressed kisses to his knuckles. I let my wings out of my skin and loved the way his eyes widened before he smiled at the sight of them. He was learning to accept my wings, maybe he could accept everything else. “None of that stuff is just going to go away,” I said. “Getting to know me is getting to know the fairy princess of Rubalia, and it seems there’s always going to be someone wanting something from me.”

The hard set of his expression made it clear he wasn’t going to be deterred. He wasn’t going to accept that there were parts of my life, parts of me, he couldn’t have. “And I will protect you. I will be by your side any time you’re in trouble.”

Something caught in my throat and my head started pounding from lack of sleep and frustration, both sexual and mental. “Please tell me you aren’t considering taking the job with Frost because you want to be closer to me. Please tell me you aren’t trying to get closer to my trouble.”

His jaw ticked. “Are you saying you don’t want me involved, Chloe, because I can’t be with someone who’s constantly pushing me away. Who won’t let me help when she needs help.”

I just stared at him. Shocked and bewildered. “Look,” I said. “I’m really trying here, Harvey. I was against the idea of moving in with you, but I’m here. I am never going to be an easy girlfriend and I’m always going to have my own life, my own…autonomy. I just can’t let you dictate what I do or who I do it with.”

He threw his hands up. “I’m not asking to dictate anything. I just want you to let me in.”

I nodded, too tired to fight anymore. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll try.” I wasn’t lying. I wanted Harvey, and I wanted to make our relationship work, but I needed my space and he didn’t seem to understand personal boundaries. I shelved those thoughts, because I was too tired to fight anymore.

I let Harvey bathe me and then we cuddled up together in his big bed, but I felt lonely and sad for no reason I could name. We didn’t have sex, and we didn’t talk. He curled around me and fell asleep, while I lay awake and tried to figure out why I felt farther away from him than I ever had before.

I’ve trained myself to be able to read people pretty well, but I don’t think I’ll ever understand them
. –Chloe Frangipani

Understanding people is only about figuring out what they want most and manipulating that desire
. –Althea Frangipani

“You look like shit,” Frost said the next morning as I stepped onto the trail that wound around the lake. He sat on a bench, looking fresh and bright-eyed, in running shorts and a t-shirt that molded to his body.

“Fuck you.” I took the coffee he offered and sat down next to him. “Any sign of our suspect?”

“Not yet.” He leaned back on the bench, scanning the path, not saying another word.

I stared at the trail, glad Frost hadn’t decided we should jog along it looking for Ward. I was way too tired for that. “Why didn’t you call Harvey when I was kidnapped?” I asked, unable to stand the silence any longer.

“Ah,” he said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I understand now why you look like you didn’t get any sleep last night. I didn’t call Harvey because he’s a human. I’d never ask a human to go up against a dragon. He’d be insane to even think of doing such a thing. He’s blinded by love.”

“Love?” I asked, sputtering on my coffee. “He does not love me. He cares about me and he was worried, that’s all.”

“Okay.” He smirked.

“Okay? That’s all you have to say?”

“Yep,” he said. “Harvey’s used to being able to protect pretty women like you, and it’s going to be hard for him to accept that you are more likely to protect him. That you are more capable of taking care of yourself than he is.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, hating that he made so much sense. “So you think our relationship is doomed.”

“Didn’t say that,” he said, still not looking at me. “I think I heard relief in your voice, though, that you might be given an out. I’d bet Harvey is sensing it, too.”

“So our relationship is doomed, and it’s my fault?” I said, my hackles raised, because he was right. I had felt relieved at the idea of me and Harvey being over. My life was so much simpler when all I had to worry about was appreciating a fine body and taking it to bed. Maybe I really wasn’t cut out for relationships.

“Didn’t say that either.” He got to his feet. “There’s our suspect.”

I looked down the trail the way Frost was facing and saw Ward jogging toward us. It wasn’t our job to arrest suspects and interrogate them, but since the human cops didn’t and couldn’t understand the case the way we could, we didn’t have many other options. Frost let out a low growl and his hand went furry and sprouted claws.

As soon as Ward was close enough, I stepped in front of him and smiled. Maybe it was the bags under my eyes, but he didn’t smile back. He turned and started to run away. Except Frost was waiting for him and grabbed him by the neck, flashing his wolfy paw at him. “You can come easily or you can come hard. It’s your choice.”

“I always choose to come hard,” I said, low enough for only Frost’s wolfy hearing to catch. Frost’s lips twitched, but he gave no other sign of having heard me.

“Right,” Ward said. “What are you going to do? Kill me and lose the chance to get your answers.”

“Hard it is,” Frost said, winking at me.

I pulled my Taser out of my purse and hit Ward with a knock-out voltage. Ward went limp and Frost threw him over his shoulder, hurrying off the path and to the car he’d dug up somewhere. He threw Ward in the back seat, muttering something about heat stroke to an old man who looked at us sideways. I jumped into the passenger seat.

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

“We scare the answers out of him,” Frost said. “I’ve got my place all set up.”

As it turns out, Frost wasn’t kidding. He’d cleared all of the furniture out of his guest room and lined the floor and walls with plastic. He also had a table set with scary-looking pointy objects lined up next to a bowl of water.

“Wow,” I said, looking around. “This room isn’t overkill at all.”

Frost snorted. “You learned that in interrogation school? Fear is as effective as pain in getting people to talk. You play bad cop and I’ll play good.”

“What?” I asked, staring at him, sure I’d heard wrong.

“You’re the brains and I’m the muscle. Torture is scarier than death. You cause the pain, I cause the death.” He winked at me. “Unless you have any objections.”

“No,” I said, because his plan made sense. I rolled my shoulders and shook out my arms. “I’m ready.”

Frost grinned and something like pride sparked on his face. “Use the anger you have about him taking Buddy’s daughter.”

I nodded and Frost slapped Ward until his eyes popped open. He looked around the room and laughed. “Bit of overkill don’t you think, man?” he asked.

“No,” I said in a sweet, lilting voice. “I like to have plenty of room to work and my work can get really, really messy.”

Ward’s gaze shot to me like he hadn’t even seen me in the room. He gave me a cocky grin, but his face paled just a shade. “Well, hello, beautiful. I can imagine we’d have fun getting messy together.”

I picked up the largest, deadliest looking tool I could find on the table, a meat tenderizer. It wasn’t as intimidating as the butcher knife, but I thought his imagination, his fear of how I might use the tenderizer, might scare him more. “Sounds good to me, big boy. I just can’t wait to use this on your balls.”

Ward winced and Frost took a step forward. “At least give him a chance to answer our questions before you start hurting him.

I dropped the tenderizer on the table and pouted. “You promised I could hurt him.”

“Oh, you can hurt him all you want, but let’s get our answers first. Remember, the deal is the quicker he answers the less pain you cause.”

I picked up the cheese grater and grinned at Ward, who was trying to curl his upper body over his groin. “I hope you make this difficult.”

Ward scrunched up his nose, his curls bobbing. “Why do the chicks always go after the balls first?”

Frost winced in sympathy. “I’d hate to be you man. She’s got a lot of anger.”

I shot Frost a glare, trying to keep up appearances. “Answer my questions and maybe I’ll leave your balls intact,” I said. “You were seen kidnapping Buddy Baumgarten’s daughter two days ago. Where is she?”

Ward shook his head. “You’ve got the wrong guy. I don’t know nothing about no kidnapped kid.”

The poor grammar of that sentence would make anyone’s head spin, and I wasn’t in the mood for it. I grabbed Ward’s right hand, which was tied to the back of the chair behind him and rubbed his knuckles over the cheese grater twice. “Want to try that again?” I asked. “We know you left Missella’s rebellion last month. If you don’t want to answer our questions, maybe I should just drag you in front of my mother, Queen Althea Frangipani, and let you answer her questions about your work with the rebellion.” I let my wings fly free before I stepped in front of him again.

“No,” Ward said, his eyes watering from the sharp pain of the cheese grater against his knuckles. “I don’t know where the kid is. I just took her and handed her off.”

“I need names, Ward,” I said, hitting the grater against the heel of my opposite hand.

“I don’t have names.”

I looked at Frost and he gave me a small nod. I dropped the cheese grater on the table and picked up the meat tenderizer. “Then I guess I only have one use left for you.”

“Chloe,” Frost said. “Give the guy a chance to change his tune. How did he pick up a job from no one and deliver a baby to no one?”

“Not my problem,” I said. “You told me I would get to have some fun if he didn’t give us answers, and I’m going to have some fun.”

I stepped between Ward’s legs. They were tied by the ankles to the chair legs. Ward’s eyes went a little wild. “Aren’t you going to stop her, man?”

Frost shrugged. “I like my balls right where they are.”

I smiled at Ward and raised the meat tenderizer in one hand while I cupped his cheek with the other. “It will only hurt for a few minutes before you pass out. They all pass out…eventually.”

“Benny,” Ward said. “Benny the dragon asked me to take the kid.”

I took two steps back, the wind knocked out of me. It didn’t make sense. Why would Benny want to kidnap kids from Rubalia and the Non? I glanced over at Frost, but he revealed no emotion.

“Where is she?” I asked, my heartbeat pounding right out of my chest with hope.

Ward shrugged. “She’s probably dead by now.” He grinned at me and Frost, his eyes glittering with some craziness I hadn’t seen until that moment. “Benny’s got it all figured out. He’s going to have all the magic and all the power, and he’s going to rule the Non.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I asked, fear causing me to shake just a bit. They couldn’t have killed that sweet, sweet baby.

“It means I’m done talking.” Ward said. “I’ve told you everything I know.”

I believed him, so I turned to look at Frost. He nodded and we left the plastic-covered room together.

“Benny?” I asked. “What does Benny want with the kids? And how are the shadows connected?”

“Maybe they aren’t,” Frost said.

“But the dragon-headed women in the gingerbread house…Aw, shit. How did we not put it together before?”

“Because it doesn’t make sense,” Frost said. “Benny was one of the dragons expelled from the nightmare realm and everything I’ve ever seen or heard about him would suggest he has no connections with any of the other dragons, that there is only animosity between them all.”

“So maybe Ward’s lying,” I said, ready to go back into the plastic-covered room and beat some answers out of him.

“No,” Frost said. “I believe him, and I believe we’ll lose Buddy’s daughter if we don’t move now.”

“Move where?” I asked. “Where would he have taken them?”

“We need Brace,” Frost said.

Half an hour later we were bumping along a pot-hole filled driveway toward a pillared farmhouse. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

“No,” Brace said, “but you wanted my best guess and this is what I’ve got.”

Frost parked Sandra’s truck halfway down the driveway and we got out and walked the last half-mile to the house. I’m not sure how likely it was that me, Buddy, Frost, Brace, Sandra, Mercury, Vin, and Harvey would be able to sneak up on anyone, but I was happy to try. I was happy to do anything if it meant we had a chance of saving Buddy’s daughter.

Frost and Harvey had guns, I had a sword, Brace and Buddy had their fae gifts, and Sandra had a slingshot that she claimed to be pretty darn good with. Frost had been determined that Harvey should be kept out of our search for Benny, but I argued we needed to have a human police officer present to arrest Benny or confirm we acted in self-defense if we killed Benny. It was a weak reason, but Frost gave in, claiming that if Harvey wanted to get himself killed that was his choice. I explained to Harvey the danger he was up against, but he insisted he could handle it. I prayed that he could, because I was pretty sure Frost was right and Harvey should have stayed home, but I was also pretty sure that if I didn’t include Harvey our relationship truly would be doomed.

After an hour of searching the farmhouse, the two barns, and a couple of outhouses, it was clear that no one was home.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” I said to Sandra, who was driving, and Vin, who was sitting between us in the cab of the truck, as we headed back toward the city. The guys were sitting in the bed. “What does Benny hope to gain by kidnapping these kids?”

Sandra shrugged. “According to Brace and Mercury, very little is known about dragons. The fae were reluctant to let them stay in Rubalia and encouraged them to move to the Non. The dragons who stayed in Rubalia hid what they were. Many of them, like Benny, went to the Non, where they felt they were more likely to be able to assimilate. Because the fae pushed them away, no one really knows what they are capable of, except that they can shift between dragon and human forms, and they can’t breathe fire.”