Page 85 of Accidentally a Dragon Daddy

“Can I have a minute?” Damon asked Anderson. “I give you my word I will go willingly.”

Anderson hesitated, looking back and forth between us. “Very well,” he said.

I hurried over to Damon’s side. “I was coming back to you,” I whispered, keeping my voice low. “I missed you. I made a mistake in leaving.”

Damon shook his head. “No, you didn’t. You did the right thing. I screwed up. I should have told you from the start. Prevented all this,” he said, waving his bound hands at the cordon of officers around us.

“Why didn’t you?” I asked.

He looked down, shoulders sagging slightly. “Shame. Shame and fear.”

“Fear of what?”

He looked up, those deep, dark blue circles hammering into me with an intensity that made my knees falter. “Losing you,” he growled.

“Time’s up,” Anderson snapped, waving at the guards.

Damon smiled wryly at me. “Turns out I lost you anyway. So, I should have told you the truth. Then, perhaps, things could have worked out a little differently. I might still have you.”

Other agents grabbed his arms and wrists, turning and tugging him toward one of the waiting tactical vehicles.

“Maybe you still can,” I called after him as body-armor-clad agents gently but firmly shouldered me aside.

“I doubt it,” Damon said. “I think I’m going to be in prison for a long time.”

“Yes,” Anderson confirmed. “You are. That much I can promise you. We don’t tend to accept murderers walking around on our streets very well.”

I glared at him. “It was a very nice and noble thing for you to confess like this!” I said as Damon was forced into the back of the big vehicle with its sloped armored sides, bulletproof glass, and heavy tires.

“It was either that,” Damon said, suddenly resisting the officers just enough to stick his head out the door to reply. They shoved, but it was like trying to move a giant boulder. He didn’t budge. “Or come back and bust you out to abscond with you.”

The possession in his voice spoke to something deep inside me.

“Is it too late to choose that option?” I called just as the door was shut, locking Damon in the vehicle with a quartet of guards.

“Of course it is,” Anderson said with a sniff. “As if he could—”

A tremendous growl emanated from deep within the tactical vehicle, loud enough to be heard outside, overpowering Anderson’s words. The head agent whipped his head around in shock, just in time to see the entire vehicle bounce on its thick struts and springs.

“What the—”

The rear door exploded outward under a titanic blow that ripped it free entirely of the vehicle. It bounced once on its end, then embedded itself halfway into the engine block of the car behind it.

Weapons came up as something rumbled deep within the darkness of the back of the vehicle. Four bodies came hurtling out of the open hole. Other agents rushed to check on their fellows. I backed away as the half-circle closed in tighter.

“They’re alive!” someone shouted about the downed guards.

“Good, but when he steps out of there, he won’t be!” Anderson snapped. “Fire!”

I cried out and clapped my hands over my ears, scurrying back toward the house as gunfire erupted around me, overwhelming me. My dad flung open the front door, crouching in front of it and gesturing wildly for me to reach him as the agents poured lead into the interior of the vehicle.

Halfway to the safety of the house, my father’s eyes widened. I glanced over my shoulder to see something shoot out of the truck, bowling over several of the agents. It moved in a blur, disarming agents with casual ease. As the gunfire slowed, I could hear the shrieks and screams of pain as bones were snapped and guards hurled aside. I put my head down and ran for the house.

“Lena, look out!” my dad shouted.

A half-second later, my head snapped backward as someone grabbed my ponytail, bringing me to a screeching halt.

“Enough!” Anderson shouted, spinning me around. “Stop it, or I—urk!”

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