CHAPTER THIRTEENAdriana
Adriana was torn. Today was the third day she’d been at Dane’s, hardly answering her phone and wearing his old sweats between sexcapades. She’d mostly ignored her messages, other than responding to her editor, who was checking in to make sure she was okay. Apparently, the security detail the magazine had put up at her house had reported that she’d not returned home. They had been the farthest thing from her mind.
“I should probably be getting home,” she said. “My car has most likely been towed by now.”
“Nah. I took care of that. I called the restaurant and made sure they don’t bother it.”
“Really? When?”
“I don’t know. Yesterday, I think. Things have just all sort of run together,” he laughed.
“Well, thank you then. Still, I am going to have to get back soon. Work and all.”
“Of course,” he replied.
Adriana contemplated what to say next. She wanted to tell him the truth about who she was, why she was on the dating site, but she wasn’t ready to admit her dishonesty. It was even worse after having accused him of giving her a fake name and acting as if he had some sort of nefarious ideas in mind.
A sound from outside cut off her thoughts and sent Dane running toward the front door. She followed, curious as to what was going on, but he told her to stay back. He went out the front door, his exit quickly followed by raised voices. She recognized one voice as his, but there were at least two more. Peeking out from one of the windows, she could see two men, both looking like they’d stepped off the screen of a mafia movie. She knew the type from some of the people she’d dealt with in her career.
She could only make out bits and pieces of what was being said, not enough to determine what was going on. Walking toward the back door, she undressed and opened it slightly before shifting into the smallest thing she could muster. No one would notice a tiny mouse lurking beneath the car that was parked nearby. She scurried out and ran around the house, straight beneath the dark SUV the men had arrived in. Now, she could hear, though she shouldn’t be eavesdropping. It was her nature.
“You’re going to turn over the construction company to us or you’re going to lose a lot more than your shed,” one of the guys barked at Dane.
“So, that was you. Do you think burning down my workshop is going to make me cower and hand you what you want? You have no claim to the company. You were just as able to buy it as I was, and you didn’t.”
“Only because you outbid us at the last minute.”
“That’s the way bidding works. If you had wanted it so badly, you should have bid more.”
“Come on. We know that the great Dane Jensen would have only outbid us until he won.”
“Not true. I’m in business for profit, not ego. If the bid was more than the place was worth to me, I’d have backed down. I think the real question here is why it’s so important to you. I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is about a moderately successful construction company that warrants so much attention from the Black Talons.”
“That’s our concern, not yours,” the bigger of the two men barked at him. So far, the smaller, which was to say that he was still pretty damned huge, had not spoken.
“I’d say it is my concern if you are out here burning down my workshop while I’m away in the city and now you’re back to try to strong-arm me. Surely, you don’t think I’m scared of you.”
“You should be,” the big guy growled.
“How’s that? Tell me why you are still standing there in human form instead of shifting and just taking me out if I should be so frightened of you.”
“You know the answer to that too, Jensen.”
Adriana wondered why the guy kept mispronouncing his name but chalked it up to being more brawn than brain. She was too wrapped up in what they could possibly want with a construction company to dwell on it too much. Then he said something that made her blood run cold.
“We’ve been watching you, Jensen. We know all about that sweet little piece of ass you’ve got waiting in the house to hang off your dick again. Pretty little redhead. Hot. I bet she tastes really sweet and gets all juicy and wet.”
“Shut your fucking mouth!” Dane shouted at him. “Since when do dragons threaten innocent Omegas?”
“Innocent Omega? You really don’t do your homework, do you? I’d have thought a man of your stature would have checked into who he’s boning a little further before whisking her off to his country estate. She’s not like those big-city human chicks you fuck in your penthouse apartment. Nah, she’s a Beta bitch in heat. I guess it’s true that reporters really will do whatever, or whoever, they have to for a story,” he laughed.