Page 61 of Siren's Gift

I nodded. "I’m so sorry for not explaining before we left."

She scoffed and waved a hand. "I don’t care what you think you did that would warrant leavin’. We’re adults. You’ll tell me what you did and we’ll fight it out and forget about it. Got it?"

I laughed. "Got it."

"Me too," Marissa chimed in. She scoffed when we both turned to stare at her. "Obviously not the fighting part." Her eyes widened. "But now we need to know—what the hell happened to the gym?"

Frankie groaned and motioned us toward a table. "I swear, those damned dragons are gonna be the death of me."

I gawked at her as we sat. "They tried tokillyou?"

"Me? Bah, no. They know better than to try somethin’ that silly." She turned toward Saul and yelled, "Three beers on me."

"Not a chance."

Frankie waved a hand dismissively. "Fine. Water then."

"I don’t—" I rubbed my temples, my thoughts tangling like seaweed in a storm. "That doesn’t make sense. Who blew up the gym?"

"Oh, that was the dragons."

"But not to kill you?" Marissa asked, her eyebrows pulled together. At least I wasn’t the only one not following. "They own the gym. Why destroy it?"

"They were tryin’ to get that red dragon of yours," the fae woman said while eyeing me.

Heat rushed to my cheeks. Not from embarrassment—well, maybe a little. Iwishedhe were my red dragon. "He’s not my—" My brain slammed into a wall of realization. "Wait, what? They tried to kill Nic?"

"You bet yer arse they did." Frankie leaned back in her chair, observing me. "I told you that granddaddy of his is nothin’ but bad news."

"But I thought everything was settled after he won the fight?" I asked, though even as I said it, I knew how naïve that sounded. Based on what Dominic had told me, Ichiro would never let things go that easily.

Frankie’s expression softened, and that scared me almost more than anything. "A lot’s happened since then, kiddo."

My pulse roared in my ears. It was bad enough coming home to find Subliminal reduced to rubble, the place I’d thought was untouchable now nothing but dust. But Dominic’s life was in danger again?

By the same man, no less.

I gripped the edge of the table, my nails biting into the wood. How had everything spiraled so fast?

I asked the question I was almost too afraid to ask, "Did he get hurt?"

"Nah. I don’t think the old man expected him to either. It was a challenge."

A challenge? That bloodsucking barnacle.

If Ichiro had challenged Dominic, then he must have gotten desperate. They would fight for dominance, and not just over the Sato empire. No, they’d fight for the right to live. Only the winner would walk away still breathing.

I had to get to him. I didn’t care what the challenge rules were, if there even were any. Rules didn’t matter. Not when Dominic’s life was on the line.

I had not fought this hard, lost this much, only to let him die now.

Certainly not before I could tell him how I truly felt about him.

My vision tunneled, the edges of the room blurring as I shoved back my chair. The thought of him bleeding out somewhere, alone, sent a slicing panic through my chest.

"Where are they?" I asked, pushing to my feet so fast I nearly knocked the chair over.

Frankie raised her hands like she was trying to settle a wild animal. Which, honestly, wasn’t far off. "Now, hold your fins, kiddo. I know you wanna barge in and help, but these’re dragons we’re talkin’ about. Two ancient, bloodthirsty beasts. They’ll rip you apart."

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