Page 35 of Smoke

“Bluetooth. Remember, we had all the cars hooked up with it in case any of us got in trouble going up or down the mountain?”

“Right.” I could’ve kicked myself. Of course, all they had to do was call up the account on an app to locate the vehicle. “That’s a good thing, right? You didn’t have to wait for us to get back.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s a good thing.” Pierce shook his head. “Who are you right now?”

“Who were you when you first brought Jasmine to the cave?”

“This again?” Jasmine went to the bed and took Alina by the hand. “Come on. Let’s go to the other room if the boys insist on dredging up old news.”

“Wait. Don’t go.” I wasn’t about to let Alina out of my sight, ever again.

I had just gotten her back. My dragon agreed with me. I wished I could shake the feeling that we weren’t out of the woods, but the dragon was never wrong.

“Now you’re telling her what to do?” Jasmine asked.

Alina, on the other hand, was silent. Maybe she felt it, too. The sense that she wasn’t out of the woods.

I went to the window and looked out over the parking lot. I could see the Jeep by the office, and the rear of the SUV the guys had driven to the motel. Neon light reflected off the rain-slick pavement. Everything looked quiet. I knew enough to know that didn’t matter.

“What is it?” Pierce asked.

“I don’t know.” I glanced at him, at Gate. “Do you feel it? Something’s off.”

“I thought it was just me,” Gate admitted, taking his turn at peering outside. “My dragon’s been bugging me for hours.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Pierce murmured.

Gate scoffed. “Maybe because I was too busy getting my eardrums blown out by somebody else in the car. Who could that have been?”

Even with my instincts sounding a warning, I had to smile. Pierce mumbled something unintelligible.

“Is something wrong?” I hated to hear the note of worry in Alina’s voice when she stood behind us.

“I don’t think so. Just… a feeling.” My dragon roared at me to hold her. To tell her that I’d keep her safe. That she was mine now as she was always meant to be.

I settled for putting an arm around her waist. She leaned against me, ever so slightly but enough to show how she trusted me.

There were two options: stay or leave. Leaving would mean bringing Alina with us—I wanted to and had planned to, but I hadn’t planned on my brothers showing up. It was one thing to appear back at the cave with her in tow, but another to convince him that she should come with us.

Staying meant the treasure only being half as safe as it normally was. Even though only one of us ever guarded the entrance at a time, there were still five dragons waiting inside if there was ever a need for backup.

“I think we should go back,” I decided. “So what if it’s dark and raining? I won’t sleep until we’re back where we belong.”

“What about…?” Gate cut his eyes in Alina’s direction.

No hesitation. “She’s coming with us.”

“Don’t you think we should talk about this first?” Pierce asked.

“I thought you would be in just as much of a hurry to get back to the cave as I,” I said, shooting him a look. “We can talk about it once we’re there.”

“There won’t be anything left to talk about once we’re all there,” he argued.

“Exactly. So what’s the point of talking about it now? Let’s just go. We all know Alina’s coming with us, we all know she’s going to stay with us.”

“You mean that?” she asked. Her voice was soft with wonder.

I turned to her, taking her face in my hands. “Yes. I mean it. I want you with me, now and always.”

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