Dragon’s Mission (Dragon Blaze Ops Book 1) Read online

  “I hate that I was ever part of my father’s schemes,” she told Evan. “But I decided long ago not to let it destroy me.”

  “Yeah. I get that.”

  They lapsed into silence, focusing on their mission. Liam soon reached the others and they were almost to the holding cell when half a dozen men with guns entered the building. Fiona’s heart seized, but instinct took over through her panic.

  “Twelve men coming your way,” she told Patrick over the headset. “Evan, shut down the doors between them.”

  “Can’t do that and open the holding room.”

  Fiona opened her mouth but couldn’t give him an order to do one or the other. The risks on both sides were so great… But luckily, this wasn’t her call. Not this time. Patrick’s voice came over the line, strong and firm.

  “Evan, open up this door. Adam, Stephen, cover our six. Liam, with me.”

  They split up. Fiona typed rapidly on her own computer, wishing desperately that she could be there, she could be helping. But there was nothing she could do except watch as the Pack men rounded the corner. Adam and Stephen fired rapidly, forcing the Pack to take cover. Evan gave a strangled shout of triumph as the holding cell fell open. Fiona swiveled to check Patrick’s feed.

  There in the center of the room was Senator Alex Kinsman. He leapt to his feet, snarling with teeth sharp in his mouth. When he attacked blindly, Liam and Patrick quickly subdued him. Liam hoisted him over his shoulder and Patrick moved to the doorway, firing at the Pack men. He shouted orders that Fiona couldn’t quite hear.

  And in the next moment, the five men had shed their weapons. Flames shot down the hall. The bodycams fell to the floor. A clawed hand snatched them all up and then they were in the air, a smoking hole in the building below. Liam and Stephen swooped low to one side, presumably to grab the women.

  Fiona held her breath, leaning forward, knowing there really wasn’t anything she could do now. Her heart pounded, and her tiger snarled. It wasn’t going to be much longer. They should be here soon and then—

  The door to the van burst open.

  Evan yelped. Fiona whirled. She had a gun in her hand pointing at the intruder before she knew it; it was only a split-second instinct that stopped her from firing before she recognized who was standing there.

  Maura entered the van, looking spitting mad, while Cooper smirked as he followed her. Fiona lowered her gun, her pulse still racing. She was ready to spit right back at the two of them, only at that moment, Maura started to scream at them.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing? We already received intel that the Senator wasn’t there, and you go sneaking around behind my back and—”

  “Clearly, the Pack knew that we’d be looking for him,” Fiona shot back. She holstered her weapon and glanced back at the screens. They only showed forests now. But that was a good sign; it meant that the Blaze Ops was in the clear. Relief sung through her, and she couldn’t stop herself from grinning. Maura’s look of fury didn’t fade, but she did nod at Fiona to keep talking. “I had to trust my gut on this one, Maura, Cooper. I’m sorry I didn’t contact you, but I didn’t want you to end up in trouble if this went wrong.”

  Cooper stepped forward, eyes narrowing. “Whatever Colonel Sheen has convinced you to do—”

  “He didn’t convince me. If anything, I convinced him. And it paid off.” She met Maura’s gaze. “We have Senator Alex Kinsman back. The team should be arriving at any moment. And then you can decide how to punish us.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Maura was furious with them and Patrick couldn’t blame her, but she was also very clearly proud of what the team accomplished. He and Fiona would face a brief suspension for taking it on themselves to go when they were ordered not to, but having the Senator back eased most of the hard feelings that were there.

  The Senator was able to give the Academy a lot of information on the Pack, and the two women rescued by the team were able to fill in more blanks. It seemed that the Alpha was looking to control the shifting of others. Not only combining shifting abilities to create a super-soldier but also to turn humans into shifters and turn shifters into humans. That knowledge made it clear what the Alpha had planned for Fiona, which made Patrick’s fires roar until his blood boiled.

  The Alpha would get what was coming to him; right now, though, Patrick put that from his mind. They were celebrating, after all. Their second successful mission and a senator returned to them. He drank from a champagne flute, grinning at his men spread throughout the room. He’d been uncertain when Fiona suggested a fancy restaurant for their celebration, but it turned out to be more of a club.

  He grinned at her standing next to Liam and a blonde. The dress she wore… perfection. It made him harden to think about taking it off and having a celebration of their own.

  Quickly, he averted his gaze. The last thing they needed right now was for him to get a raging hard-on and for everybody to see it. He cast about for something to distract him until the appropriate amount of time had gone by to make an exit. That’s what they had agreed before, after all. That they would stay as long as was needed and then slip away together.

  Nearby, Evan sat at a table by himself, a hamburger on the plate ahead of him. He frowned at it moodily, lifting his eyes every now and then to look at Fiona but quickly looking away again.

  Patrick frowned as he joined the specialist. “Something wrong? You’re not still in pain, are you?”

  “Hmmm?” Evan glanced up and shrugged “No… no, it’s not that. I’m healing up fine. It’s something else. Something I’m not really sure that I should talk about but that’s bugging me.”

  “Well, if you want to talk about it, I’m here.”

  Evan continued to hesitate. His gaze flickered to Fiona again.

  “Is it about Dr. Tadfield?”

  Evan’s ears turned red, and he ducked his head.

  Was this because the specialist had a bit of a crush on Fiona, or was there something else to it? Had Adam told the team what he had walked in on? Was that what he was thinking he couldn’t talk about? Patrick hesitated a moment. That was something he was going to have to address, sooner rather than later. Not telling them that their mission was forbidden by Maura was one thing. That was for their protection.

  Lying about him and Fiona, though… well, Patrick always felt like it was important not to have major secrets in a team like this.

  “Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you, son?” he said gently. “What about Fiona’s got you all flustered like this?”

  “It’s just… during the mission, we got to talking. And she told me that she’s the daughter of a major drug lord. That she worked with him, helped him, for a long time. She was poised to take over this empire. And that she killed someone. And I just… I don’t know what to think, you know? I killed people in battle, but it was always people who were trying to kill me. I don’t know what their stories were. I don’t know what sort of people they were. But what if she killed someone…”

  He trailed off. Patrick put a hand on his shoulder, feeling his own heart sink with the weight of it. Now that he’d actually read Fiona’s file, he already knew that. “The fact that she told you speaks a lot to her character. She’s not trying to hide from her past.”

  “But… can we trust her?”

  “If we couldn’t, she wouldn’t have told you.”

  Evan shrugged and swirled his straw in his water. “Unless it’s the thing she does. Pretending, while having a hidden agenda. I don’t want to think this way. It’s just… I feel like I need to know the details of the person she killed. But I don’t want to ask…”

  Patrick grunted. “If it’s going to damage your relationship with her, ask her. We can’t have things coming between this team. But for what it’s worth, when a person spends that much time turning her life around, it’s only right for us to give her a chance to prove herself. And don’t you think she has proven herself?”

  Evan nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, okay
. Thanks, Colonel.”

  Patrick patted his shoulder. “Anytime.”

  He turned his gaze back to Fiona, but instead of seeing the beauty he was expecting, he saw Liam passing her a Pina Colada. And Fiona took it, laughing, and started to drink. His fires burned so hot that he nearly let them out right then and there. With rage clouding his vision, Patrick surged to his feet. Evan asked him what was wrong, but he ignored it.

  Right after he had stood up for her, she went and did something like that? What was she thinking? How could she? He stormed forward, glaring at her fiercely.

  Fiona noticed his approach and lowered the alcoholic drink. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she opened her mouth as he reached them. He didn’t let her speak, though. There was no way he was going to let this fly. He didn’t even care if she hadn’t asked for his help. One thing he knew was that sometimes people didn’t ask for help when they needed it most.

  With that in mind, he snatched the drink from her and shoved it back into Liam’s chest. The Captain took it with a startled grunt. The blonde next to him shrank back a little, her eyes widening as Patrick turned a scowl on her. He almost told her to leave, she being some random professor at the Magnus Academy, but on second thought, decided she could stay. The more people to hear this, the better.

  “Fiona is a recovering alcoholic,” he announced loudly enough to be heard over the music. “And I don’t want anybody offering her drinks. As for you,” he whirled on her. Her jaw was nearly on the floor, her cheeks turning red. Good. Let her be embarrassed. Why was she risking her sobriety for a stupid cocktail? “What the hell are you thinking? You’re risking everything! I know you think you’re too strong to have a relapse—”

  “Patrick—”

  “—Maybe you thought, this is a celebration, it doesn’t matter—”

  “Patrick!”

  “But it does matter!” he glared at her, trying to impress upon her just how foolish her actions had been. “It always matters. And for someone who is so careful with what they do, for someone who is always thinking ahead, I don’t understand—”

  “Because you’re not listening to me!” Fiona put a hand on his chest, glowering at him full force now. “You just thought you saw something and then started to freak out at me!”

  “I see that you’re drinking again. Not even trying to hide it. Do you want to kill someone again?”

  Fiona stared at him, humiliation and fury flushing her face. Even though the music kept playing, Patrick could feel all the eyes in the room on him and her. Good. Maybe if everybody knew, they’d be able to help keep her on track, too. What was she thinking? He wanted to ask her that but was afraid of all the excuses he was going to get.

  “That’s not what is happening here,” Fiona rasped out finally. “How dare you—”

  “How dare I?”

  Liam pushed in between them, his expression grim. “Colonel, with all due respect, you are way out of line here.”

  Patrick turned on him, but before he could start snarling, Fiona had seized the cocktail again. She shoved it in Patrick’s face, her eyes starting to blaze. Patrick opened his mouth to snarl, but she flung it at him; the cold, icy drink hit his tongue… and he could taste pineapple and coconut. No alcohol.

  The drink dripped down his front as he stood there in shock.

  “I don’t drink anymore,” she hissed at him. “But I never drank rum. I never had an alcoholic Pina Colada and as such, it’s safe for me if it’s virgin. I always make sure. Always. I can bring you to the next meeting so you can ask my sponsor if you want.”

  “…Oh…”

  Fiona shoved past him, then stopped and turned back. “But thank you so much for bringing up the worst time of my life again, in front of everybody I work with. You could have been discreet, you know. You could have come over and politely, quietly asked if I should be drinking that. Instead, you start shouting to everybody? Yes, I killed someone. I drove drunk, and I hit a person. And I haven’t had anything to drink since then. I don’t need you to swoop in and think that you can run my life just because we slept together!”

  It was Patrick’s turn to flush. Stephen and Evan muttered to the people near them. The blonde barked out a laugh and then hid her giggles behind her hand while Liam looked distinctly rattled. Adam turned bright red and ran for the bathroom door.

  “That’s not what I was doing,” Patrick protested weakly.

  “Isn’t it?”

  “Don’t you think we should talk privately—"

  “You gave up your right to privacy as soon as you started yelling at me in a club about my alcoholism!” Fiona threw her hands into the air. “Goodbye!”

  She strode from the club without another word. Everybody shuffled around. A few of them whispered to each other, a few gazed at him with either pity or anger. The team all avoided his eye. Liam coughed as he handed Patrick a handful of napkins, then quickly ushered his blonde off to one side. Patrick mopped up his front, then headed for the door to follow Fiona.

  How was he supposed to know that it was a non-alcoholic drink? He thought he saw her putting herself in danger and acted accordingly. Was that the wrong thing to do? No, it wasn’t wrong. Sure, maybe he shouldn’t have made such a spectacle of it, but she also shouldn’t have announced to everybody that they were sleeping together! Hadn’t they decided that they wanted to control how that came out?

  They hadn’t discussed her problem at all. He didn’t have any groundwork with how to approach it. So yeah, he understood why she was angry… but couldn’t she understand where he was coming from, too? He was concerned for her… that was all.

  And maybe they were both upset right now, but they had to lance this boil before it got bigger. They needed to start communicating… and while communication was difficult when angry… Well, he knew he could do it.

  It was just a question of whether she could, too.

  Chapter Twelve

  The night was chilly. Fiona wrapped her arms around herself as she sat on a swing, letting herself drift back and forth. If only her anger could remain strong enough to fortify her from the cold! But that wasn’t happening. Instead, her anger had drained away quickly, and her tiger curled up in her chest, grunting with disappointment and loss.

  Fiona wiped her eyes, upset with herself for crying, when the gravel crunched behind her. She turned, on high alert, but it was only Patrick. He had her coat with him, and she glared at him.

  So, he’d think about her physical comforts, but he’d still announce to an entire club that she’d killed someone while drunk driving? It didn’t matter if it was one of her father’s lieutenants and a terrible man himself. The fact that she lost control like that… it could have been anyone. She could have ended an innocent life that night. It was just luck that it was someone like the man she’d actually killed.

  Not that there was anything lucky about killing.

  Patrick slid her jacket around her shoulders then sat on the swing next to hers. His jaw was clenched stubbornly, and she gripped the cold chains tighter. What did he expect her to say?

  Luckily, he was the one who spoke first. “I did what I thought was best. I saw you putting yourself in danger, and so I reacted to it. Is that so bad?”

  She kicked off the ground, making herself swing faster. She wanted to scream and snarl at him, her anger coming back, but a blast of cold wind made her shiver and sapped some of that anger. She bit down on her lip hard and turned her head away. If he couldn’t see what was bad about what he had done, then telling him again wasn’t going to be much use.

  “Look. I’m sorry for being so loud about it. But I do what I have to in order to protect my team, and you are part of my team. I’ve seen too many people relapse over stupid things to take chances. And out of the two of us, I’m the one who isn’t an addict so—”

  “So that means that you have the authority to humiliate me in front of everybody I work with?”

  “That wasn’t everybody—” Patrick cut himself off and ducked hi
s head. “Sorry.”

  “Are you sorry for what you did or sorry for starting to argue about semantics.”

  “I did what I thought I needed to.”

  Fiona rolled her eyes. “Just because I’m an addict doesn’t mean that I need you to bulldoze me. There are ways to handle these things and that? That wasn’t one of them. Public shaming like that never works. I’m an addict. I know that. I am getting the help I need; I am going to the meetings; I am working every day to keep myself clean. And if that was alcohol? You know what you just did? You just proved that if I did have a relapse, you aren’t someone I can go to.”

  Patrick flinched and Fiona wondered if maybe he got it now. The tension in his shoulders started to sag, but a petulant look remained on his face.

  “Don’t give me that look,” she snapped. “It’s true. If you’re going to freak out at me like that, why should I go to you if I have a real problem? Just so you can humiliate me and make me feel like shit?”

  He kicked some gravel into the air. “I didn’t think about it like that.”

  “Yeah, well you never have thought about me that much have you?” Fiona turned her face away bitterly. Why had she been indulging ideas of the two of them together? It was clear from the start this could never work. Not with the way he acted.

  “You told Evan readily enough.”

  “Don’t you even try to act like that’s the same thing,” she snarled, turning on him again. Her tiger unsheathed its claws, and it took everything in Fiona not to slash at him. “I told him what I told him in a safe, secure environment. I made the choice. That isn’t anywhere near the fucking same thing as it being announced to a whole room! How did you even find out?”

  “I did what you’ve been wanting me to do… I read your file.”

  Fiona blinked in surprise. Then she turned away again. Of course. Of course, that’s how it worked. She ended up shooting herself in the foot. He hadn’t bothered to read her file until she pushed him to do it and now that he had… he was using it against her. Even if that wasn’t his intention. It still hurt. Badly. Now she just wasn’t sure what she should do about it. He hadn’t even really apologized for what he’d done yet.