Page 66 of Kidnapped By The Messy Dragon

ONE MONTH LATER

The elevator hums down through the mountain with the two of us in it, and the amulet sits small and heavy in my hand.

I’ve had a month to do this. For a month I found reasons not to. The truth is I kept waiting on Delilah to come back for it. I woke up ready every morning, and she never came. Then Stillwater shut down for good a week ago, every employee laid off, the whole building emptied out, including that bitch Whitney. I processed a lot of paper in that building. Karma didn’t need my help with hers.

The last of the soaps and cleaners came off every shelf in the valley too, between Malachi’s lawyers and Jay’s podcast, which turned the recall list into its own episode.

Today I’m ready.

The doors open on the fourth floor’s darkness, and I step into it without waiting for the lights. I know what’s beyond the dark now.

The lights come on ahead of us the way they did the first time, one long row after another, running down the hall until the far end blurs. We walk the length of it over the gold dragons inthe floor, and the steel doors stand at the end, tall as ever, built wide enough for wings.

“Open it for me,” I tell my mate.

Jalen leans into the seam and blows his smoke. The vents pull it in, and deep in the steel the locks start turning. The sound doesn’t scare me anymore. It sounds like family.

The doors swing wide, and I walk in first. Jalen follows behind me and doesn’t crowd me.

The gallery rail is right where I left it, and the gold goes down forever below us, tier after lit tier. I carry the amulet along the rail to the second safe. Jalen leans past me to open it, then steps back and gives me the room.

The amulet has been warm in my hand the whole way down. I set it inside, right where it was sitting when all of this started.

It feels strange, saying goodbye to it. Everything traces back to this one small treasure. The ghouls came for it, my stolen folder mattered because of it, and a dragon ended up standing in a Stillwater lobby right where I’d walk. It bought me my forever family, my home, and my mate.

Jalen eases the safe shut with a small click.

I stand there with my empty hand still open, and my eyes sting.

Jalen turns me into his arms while the click is still fading. “What’s wrong, baby?” His head tips, and he pulls a slow breath of me, reading what I can’t say fast enough.

“Nothing.” I put my hand flat on his chest, right over all that warmth. “I just realized I don’t have to worry anymore.”

He leans in and kisses me slow, and the warmth behind my heart fills up my whole chest. “Does that mean we can finally have our honeymoon?” His mouth curves against mine. “I believe we talked about this. Me and you, not getting out of bed for a while.”

I smile into it and kiss him back. “Yes. But only on one condition.”

He raises an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

I narrow my eyes at him.

He knows. He pulls away from me and grips the gallery railing with both hands, head down. “Here we go again with this podcast. I told you. I don’t need it. I have you now.”

I wave my hand out over the tiers of gold glittering below us.

“You don’t hoard treasure. That’s your brothers.” I point right at him. “You hoard information.”

He turns his head and looks at me.

I close the space between us and lay my hand over his on the railing.

“I got everything I ever wanted in life because of you,” I tell him. “A family. A home. Real love. But I had to trust you and your dragon to get there.” I squeeze his hand. “Now I’m asking you to trust me.”

He looks down at our hands. His thumb moves over my knuckles while he works up to it.

“I’m afraid my messy podcast will run you away,” he says.

I’m already shaking my head.