Page 35 of Dragon Tempted

Marcus shook his head. “We just tracked it flying over the house. You beat us to it.”

“We should have Jonas take a look and see what he can find from it,” Sienna said.

Ryan turned it over. “Give me a second.” He located the panel, opened it, and pulled out a small SIM card. “We got lucky. This type stores the recording in the drone and not the controller. But whoever was flying this would have seen what the drone was seeing. We can watch the recording to figure out what all the drone flew over.”

Heat bubbled under Sienna’s skin. “I don’t like these guys coming onto our land watching us. How do we stop them?”

“I’m going to double the guards, and I’ll have Carl increase his drives around our land in his sheriff’s truck,” Marcus said. “Jonas already has tech installed that’s watching out for intruders, which is how we were alerted so quickly about the drone. He also has some other tricks he told me about that we’ll work on implementing.”

Ryan narrowed his eyes at her.

Sienna recognized that look. “Don’t yell at me. I’m being careful. It was a drone not a bomb. Megan distracted it and I got it down quickly. Can you take the drone to Jonas so that Marcus can follow up with the guards?”

Ryan nodded before heading back toward the house.

She turned to Megan. “Now I really need to beat on something.”

Megan smirked. “Me too.”

A short time later Sienna finished wrapping her hands before shoving them into gloves and clumsily sealing the Velcro cuffs closed. Then she stood in front of the heavy bag and stared at it. Ryan said you needed to center yourself before you started your routine. To imagine the problem you’re dealing with is contained in the bag that you are about to pummel. Sienna wasn’t sure about that. But she was sure that life was unfair. Hearing John’s story was heartbreaking. And he’d only shared a sliver of what he’d experienced in the centuries he’d been alive. Yes, her father had resented her because she reminded him of her dead mother, but he didn’t kick her out of the clan or use her to destroy others, making her the scapegoat for it.

It had taken everything inside her to keep the emotions buried away in John’s cabin. From his jerky pacing and scowls, she could tell how hard it had been to answer Megan’s questions. And then they had to deal with the damn drone trying to spy on them. Sienna raised her hands in front of her and took a breath.

She struck out lightly, getting the feel of the bag and her stance before hitting the bag harder. The curse was like a monster octopus, wrapping its tentacles around them all and trying to pull them under. They needed to stop it. She needed to stop it.

Damn straight, Veronica growled.

For the clan.

THWACK.

For Bella and Lily.

THWACK, THWACK.

For John. Her leg jabbed up.

THUMP.

“Aww, you started without us,” Tessa proclaimed as she and Megan walked into the courtyard.

“Because you’re always late, Tessa.” Sienna walked over to the bench and grabbed the water bottle between her two gloved hands, taking a quick swig.

Tessa scoffed. “Five minutes after the time given is not late. Everyone knows that.”

Megan rolled her eyes. “Sorry. I tried to speed her up.”

“Don’t let her scold you, Megs. She looks like she has puppet hands right now. You can’t take someone seriously with puppet hands.”

Sienna shook her head and turned back to the bag, hitting it harder than before as she imagined the Templars as her next problem to eradicate. She zoned out for a bit, and when she finally stopped to catch her breath, she saw Megan had gloves on and both she and Tessa were sitting on the bench.

She backed away from the bag. “Sorry I was hogging it.”

“No worries,” Megan said as she stood up and walked over to the bag.

She sat down next to Tessa, who helped her pull off her gloves. Sienna wiped her face with a towel.

Tessa watched her best friend. “Megs, keep your hand up in front of your face while you hit with the other one. That’s it.”