Lolita Lopez: Dead Sexy Dragon

“In,” she said quietly. “I’m really in the shit.”

“Money trouble?”

“Kind of.” Her sheepish expression told him there was more to this story than he probably wanted to know.

Stig sighed and sat back in his chair. “No more ‘kind of’ or ‘sort of,’ Cora. Just tell me what’s going on, okay?”

“Okay.” She exhaled heavily and launched into her tale. “So you know how after Grams died, I inherited the bakery, right? Well it turns out Hector was in a lot of debt after he died. He’d started gambling, I guess. Underground stuff.”

“Shit.” Stig shook his head and rubbed his jaw. Hector had always been a little too fond of card games, races, and dice but Stig had never imagined he’d get himself in that kind of trouble. Then again, Stig hadn’t ever expected Hector to plow his truck into a telephone pole either.

“Yeah. Deep shit,” Cora clarified. “A few weeks after he died, these guys showed up at the bakery. They were so scary.”

Stig heard the fear in her voice. It rattled his core. He could just imagine what kind of lowlifes had shown up on her doorstep. “What did they want?”

“Money. Lots of it. And I didn’t have it, Stig. The bakery was barely in the black. All of the companies that we depended on for business were closing down or laying off their workers. My breakfast rush was hardly a trickle through the door. Lunch was even worse. Catering orders nosedived. And birthday cakes?” She shook her head. “When families make cuts, businesses like mine are the first to go.”

Cora went silent. Shame flickered across her face. Stig sensed her reluctance. “Cora?” he prodded gently.

“You have to understand, Stig. I’d just lost my grandmother and my brother within three weeks. I was so confused and swimming in grief. I was desperate. I just wanted them to leave me alone.” She blinked rapidly. A glimmer of tears obscured her soft green eyes. “They told me they wanted me to make some deliveries. They’d drop a box with an address at my back door. I’d hide their box in one of my bigger boxes of cookies or pastries and send my deliveryman on his way.”

Stig tried not to let the disappointment show on his face. Inside was a different matter. He wanted to shout at her, chastise her for such stupidity. He counted backward from ten to get a handle on his frustration. “What was in the boxes?”

“Drugs. Money. Guns.” Cora shrugged. “I don’t know. I was too afraid to look. What if the person on the other end of the shipment reported tampering?”

He could appreciate that fear. “I suppose something went haywire at some point.”

“My delivery guy was T-boned at an intersection during a rainstorm. The boxes of cakes and pastries and cookies went flying all over the damn road. One of them just happened to spill out a brick of cocaine.”

“For fuck’s sake!” Stig kneaded his temples. “Were you arrested?”

“No. But the story hit the evening news. At that point, I had, like, nine employees I hadn’t let go because of finances. All but four of them quit. My regulars were canceling orders left and right.” She gave a sad little shrug. “At that point, I figured my ass was already toast, so I told the cops the truth.” Cora issued a sarcastic laugh. “Needless to say, the people I’d been ferrying boxes for were none too pleased.”

More tears welled in her eyes. She sniffled loudly. “I went ahead and opened for breakfast the next morning. You know, burritos and pastries and all that. Right before eight, some jerk in a white cargo van drove by and tossed two Molotov cocktails through the front windows. We barely made it out alive. After the police were done questioning me yesterday morning, I grabbed my stuff and I ran.”

“To me,” Stig murmured.

“To you.” Cora dabbed at her face with a napkin. “You were the first person to pop into my head. I knew you’d find a way to help me, but that eight-hour drive here was the longest of my life. ”

Stig reeled with shock at Cora’s revelation of criminal misdeeds. “We’ll have to get you a lawyer.”

She nodded. “A friend of mine is an intern in the public defender’s office. Her boss was able to keep me out of cuffs but he thinks the district attorney will probably hold jail over my head in exchange for testimony.”

Stig cursed softly and wiped a hand down his face. “Why didn’t you come to me before, Cora?” He didn’t even bother to hide the aggravation in his voice. “I would have helped you! I would have given you the money to cover Hector’s debts.”

“There’s no way you have the kind of cash on hand these people wanted, Stig. You were a marine just like Hector. I’m sure your furniture business does well, but there’s no way you’re pulling in those kinds of profits.”

Of course, Stig thought with some sadness. Cora had no idea what kind of wealth he’d amassed over the centuries. To her, he was nothing more than a former marine and woodworker. She had no way of knowing the truth—that he was an immortal dragon. During his lifetime, he’d bought and sold property, invested in new technologies and pharmaceuticals and more. He wasn’t as wealthy as, say, Ignatius or Reynard, but his bank account showed a very healthy balance.

“I would have found a way, Cora.” He should let it go but he couldn’t. He fumed over the situation she’d gotten herself into because she’d been too proud—and silly—to ask for help.

“I know,” she whispered. “I just didn’t want to involve you in something so ugly.”

“I would have gladly mired myself in it. You’re very important to me, Cora.”

Her head snapped up at that revelation. Their gazes locked across the table. Stig couldn’t believe he’d said that aloud, yet he had no urge to take it back. It was the truth, plain and simple. Cora meant a great deal to him.

Other than the handful of marines he still kept in touch with via e-mail or phone, Cora was his last connection to humanity. She was something sweet and sassy and beautiful he wanted to protect. Her genuine love of life kept him tethered to reality. It would be so easy to shut himself away in his isolated fortress and live as many of his Brothers preferred: in solitude. Embracing the loner lifestyle had proven useful over the years. It kept him safe and his life free from complications. It allowed him to keep his mind on his duty and on protecting the dragon community from the Knights who wanted them extinct.

For Stig, it had always been easy to separate himself from the outside world. He liked living alone in the middle of nowhere.

Until Cora.

Sitting here in his kitchen, sharing a home-cooked breakfast, made him painfully aware of all the simple pleasures he’d been missing. There was something alluring about the idea of coming down to a kitchen filled with the smells of breakfast cooked by the woman sharing his life. He hadn’t realized just how lonely his solitary lifestyle was until then.

But those types of ideas were dangerous. Cora wasn’t the girl for him. The rules of the Brotherhood of the Green Hide were painfully clear. Other dragons in the general population might stray across species lines but it wasn’t allowed among the Brothers. The very act that had made the Brotherhood necessary and that had put the Knights of St. George on the hunt for them had been caused by a human woman and a dragon. It simply wasn’t done.

Even if Stig’s blood oath to the Brotherhood hadn’t stood in his way, Cora belonged to another world and deserved things he could never give her. To protect her from the danger that always surrounded him, he should send her away. His dragon was already sniffing around and trespassing into her dreams. It was only going to get worse.

Unfortunately, a very real threat to her existed outside the safety of his home. Until it was sorted out, he had to keep her close.