Page 4 of Mate For Hire (For Hire 3)

“Baby,” Declan warned.

She rounded on him. “What? You can’t tell me you aren’t curious. All this time, Gerard and Lachelle have been seeing each other, obviously getting serious, and here she comes?”

Lachelle’s temple throbbed. Just hours ago she and Gerard declared their love for each other. She hadn’t told her sister yet, but with the fact that she and Gerard had been living together, it wa

s obvious to anyone who knew them they were an item.

Kelly walked over to the window and peeked through the blinds. Not until that moment did Lachelle realize the noise outside had increased—shouts, sirens, and someone saying something on a bullhorn. Did they think they had a hostage situation on their hands?

“I have no problem talking about what happened during the civil war and afterward when Gerard and I ran away with a small group,” Kelly said.

Gerard gasped, and so did his brother.

Charles frowned. “Civil war? The civil war was in the eighteen hundreds. You don’t look older than twenty-five. You people live that long?”

Kelly preened, flattered. “I wasn’t talking about human history.”

Lachelle stared at the man she loved. He was obviously struggling, and this time she recognized the emotion in his beautiful eyes—guilt. Her heart ached for him, but she hesitated to take his hand and offer him comfort. She’d never felt so insecure in her life, and she didn’t like it.

“We need to get out of here,” Declan said. “My priority is to protect my people. If yours do something stupid, I won’t be responsible.”

Charles slammed a fist on his desk. “Aren’t you the monsters?”

The hostility in the room jumped a hundredfold.

“Now, now, boys,” Kelly chided them all. “Why don’t I calm things here, Gerard, Declan, and we can get together later to catch up?”

Again she left out the humans in the room. Lachelle wanted to smack her.

“Fine.” Declan signaled to his men and then turned to Charles. “Is there a back way out?”

“Back way?” One of his men sounded highly offended, but at a look from Declan, he clicked his teeth together.

Charles led the way to the rear of the building, but when Lachelle would have gone on as well, he stopped her. “Just a minute, Waverly.”

She tensed. “Sir?”

He let the others step outside. Gerard stood near the door, keeping an eye on Charles. Her commander probably thought he was out of earshot, but the dragons had hearing that far exceeded human range.

“I don’t want to do this…” Charles began.

Her stomach muscles clenched.

“Hand over your badge and your weapon.”

“S-sir?”

“I’m sorry. Just before you arrived, I got a call from the mayor. He’s demanding that I let you go.”

Tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them away before he could notice. She’d wanted to be a cop for years. To get to this point and have it snatched away—no, he couldn’t be serious. And yet, her commander wouldn’t joke about her job.

“I can talk to him, sir, and explain—”

“Explain what? That you knew about these deadly creatures? You took an oath, Waverly, and from where I’m standing you didn’t keep it.”

“They’re not monsters. They’re just different.”

“We don’t know anything about them except that they’re dangerous and powerful.”

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