Page 9 of Dragon Detective
“Why are you on a dating hiatus?”Boundaries, Reylor,I chided myself. It wasn’t any of my business.
Except that she was my fated mate. It was all I could do not to shift into my dragon form, a part of me that was much more primal than my current form, and sweep her up and carry her to my cave where I’d add her to my hoard.
“If you must know,” she said quite primly, her back a steel pipe in her spine, “I was engaged.”
“Where is he?”
“With my former best friend. In bed, most likely.”
“Fuck him and her,” I snarled. Spikes rippled down my spine, and I had to fight off my urge to shift and find and lay waste to her ex. “I’m sorry.”
The sadness in her eyes gutted me. They’d hurt her, and she was still in pain. “Thanks. But . . .” She sucked in a breath and released it. “It’s been six months. You’d think I’d be over it by now.”
“You were engaged.” Fuck, she’d probably loved him. How could I compete with that?
“Yes. Fortunately, we were able to get most of the deposits back.”
Another money suck. Damn asshole.
“Want me to rip him apart?” I held up my hand and let my claws form. They’d grow along with my body as I shifted.
Her eyes widened, and her lips twitched. I was grateful to see the sadness leave her face. “Would you really do something like that?”
“For you? Anytime.”
“Why me?”
“Not the time, sweetheart. Not the time.”
Her face turned a lovely shade of pink, and when her equally pink tongue dipped out to touch her upper lip, it was all I could do not to groan. My damn cock had no problem perking up, stupid thing.
“What flower beds were destroyed?” I asked in a professional tone, trying to draw the stiffness out of my cock and inject it into my voice.
I wasn’t giving up on Hannah. Hell, no. But the last thing I wanted to do was cause her any more pain.
“Right. Flower beds.” She glanced toward some in bad shape on the ocean side of the big patio. “Those right there.”
I followed her over to them.
“As you can see from the dirt on the lawn between here and the retaining wall, whoever did it dragged my bushes quite a distance. I found one of my hoes near them. They’d hacked off all the blossoms. Rhododendrons aren’t that easy to grow. I replanted them right away, but the poor things might not recover. I’ll probably have to buy more.”
“You’re sure it wasyourhoe?”
“One of my three was missing from the shed.” Her gaze traveled to a small, yellow-painted structure nestled in the lightly wooded area on the left side of her patio.
I walked around the wooden frame, though I didn’t find any evidence, as expected. Nor on her lawn. “Is the shed locked?”
“It is now. I bought a padlock the morning after the latest incident.” She nibbled on her thumbnail. “I should’ve done it after the first time, but I thought, like you and Detective Carter, it was a prank.”
“I don’t believe this is a prank any longer.”
“Thank you.” The words gushed out of her. “I appreciate hearing that.” She led me to the front of the shed and unlocked it, creaking the wooden door wide and stepping inside. “There’sno power out here, but you should be able to see well enough with light through the window.”
I turned on my phone’s flashlight and studied the interior. A metal roof with no openings near the eaves. No other door but the one we’d used to get inside. One window that was too small except for a child to slip through.
Tools hung from hooks while others had been propped against the wooden walls. An old red wheelbarrow held a few gardening hand tools and a pair of gloves. Other than a small trash bucket half-full of empty mulch bags, plus a few stacked buckets and a coiled-up hose, I didn’t find anything else inside. The dirt floor was smooth other than where we’d walked. “I assume you’ve been inside the shed since the last flower bed episode?”
“Yes, of course. I work inside until mid-afternoon, then in the gardens until it’s time to make dinner.”