“I’m not worried about the FBI. Even if someone above my contact’s paygrade wanted to try to make more of it than what it is, I’ve got damned good lawyers to take care of that.”
“Then, what is your concern?”
“I’m more worried about public opinion. It’s not like the FBI is going to do much to make sure I’m shielded from this in case they find out that I was more involved than I led on somewhere down the road. So, there will be speculation among the press, investors, banks, etcetera. It could really hurt me financially.”
“Well, that’s where I come in,” she told him.
“You?”
“Don’t forget that I’m the journalist who took down the great Alexander Parquo. I can clear a reputation just as well as I can expose corruption. Once all is said and done, I’ll get it out there that you had nothing to do with it.”
“I appreciate that, but I don’t know that it will be enough.”
“Just trust me. There are some things that I’m really good at.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of that,” he said with a wry smile.
“Well, that too, but I mean my job. You’ve yet to see me truly in action.”
Dane smiled at her and held up his glass in a mock toast. “You sure you don’t want a glass?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she said.
Dane finished his wine before helping her clear away the plates and following her down the stairwell back into his apartment. Adriana still didn’t feel up to par, which was unusual for her. She usually bounced back from any illness pretty quickly.
She found it even odder that she was able to eat such a heavy meal so eagerly, but still feel so bad. None of it made sense, but she’d never been dosed up on ketamine before, so maybe this was just the way it went when it was wearing off. Though she’d not said much about it to him, she’d never been more terrified in her life.
There were large swathes of time during which she was out cold, but each time she woke up, someone was there to dose her again. The only reason she’d come around was that she’d become so groggy that she forgot to react when she came to again. They thought she was still sedated when it was beginning to wear off. They would have probably realized it had been a while since they’d injected her if not for the commotion that had dragged them away and given her enough time to finally regain enough consciousness to shift.
The whole ordeal had made her even more grateful to be with Dane. Though she found his place to be mostly cold and without personality, she loved being with him. She felt safe with him in this glass tower of his. She realized that a twenty-story building was nothing for dragons to overcome if they really wanted to get to her, but the city was far too public, and Dane wasn’t exactly a dragon they wanted to mess with.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason. The more she thought about it, the more it became clear that she had feelings for him beyond what she’d even considered. She watched him as he sat looking over some work he’d pulled out for review. She admired the dragon that spread across his chest and back. It was an impressive piece of work, just like the man it adorned.
Nearly a week passed after that, and it was beginning to take its toll. As much as she enjoyed her time with him, she wanted to get back to her own life as well. She had begun to feel like she was being held in a very luxurious tower against her will. Though she knew he didn’t intend it that way and it wasn’t safe for her to leave just yet, she still felt caged.
At least he got to go out, though he limited his time, not so much for protection but in solidarity with her. She was lost looking out the window at the city below when the elevator doors opened behind her and he came bolting toward his computer.
“They’re doing it. Right now. They are raiding the construction company.”
“What?”
“They called and told me to send my guys away so they didn’t get in the middle of things, but I had already switched them off to a project out of town for the next few weeks so they were nowhere near this when it went down.”
“So, what are we watching?”
“They took a news crew with them. They want it all very public when they go in. My guy is a shifter, but most of his agents are human. He doesn’t want the Black Talons coming in on them. Cameras will protect them from that.”
“Does the FBI know he can shift? Or do they know about shifters at all?”