Breaking Her (Love is War #2) (48 page)

He turned his head until his cheek lay on the basement's concrete floor, a look of near bliss on his face.
 
"Mistress is so kind.
 
I live to please you, Mistress Jillian," he said.
 

I sent Caleb a wide-eyed, 'help me', kind of look.
 
Luke's kind of adoration made my skin literally crawl, and I didn't know what the hell to do with it, especially since I owed the strange hunky sub so much for his unexpected help.
 

Caleb gave me his little shrug.
 
That shrug said it all;
 
Who knows?
 
Who cares?
 
Not me
.
 
Deal with it
.
 
It was Caleb in a nutshell.

And Christian was even less helpful, of course, just clutching his belly and laughing at me.
 
If he'd been a few feet closer, I'd have kicked him.
 

"Get going, Luke," Caleb finally said, after an awkward pause.
 
"You know how to contact me if you learn anything useful."
 

I breathed a sigh of relief when he finally made his embarrassingly adoring goodbyes.
 

Caleb seemed unaffected by the uncomfortable exchange, getting back to the point after Luke had gone.
 
"We're as sure as we can be that Tianlong doesn't have Lynn.
 
And we're nearly positive that the Chinese took her.
 
That makes Drake our most likely suspect.
 
He's due in town in five days.
 
We need to have a plan for when he gets here.
 
I say we kidnap him, torture him for information, and get this mess figured out, once and for all."
 

I processed the information while he paused for long moments.
 

Christian showed considerable restraint, being that he was a dragonslayer and we were talking about an enemy dragon.
 
For all of a minute.
 
"And then we slay his ass!"

I sent him a baffled look, opening my mouth to retort.
 
Caleb beat me to it.
 
"No.
 
We keep him, until we have Lynn back.
 
After that, whatever.
 
Who cares?
 
But we use him
alive
, as a hostage, until we get her back."
 

Christian just sighed, not a bit surprised.
 
"A slayer's gotta try, yanno?"
 

I rolled my eyes.
 
"It's easy to say we'll kidnap him.
 
Harder to do it.
 
We have a plan for that?"
 

Caleb smiled, his cold, creepy smile.
 
"Yes.
 
You owe Tianlong a date.
 
It's time to deliver."

I groaned.
 
I had been a tiny bit busy since I'd made that promise.
 
I had completely forgotten the stupid thing.
 
"It's not a date.
 
I promised him a meeting."
 

He gave his little shrug.
 
"You need to set it up, in six days, with the druids to act as intermediaries.
 
I'm sure you can talk Dom into that, for your own safety and all.
 
Drake won't want to come anywhere near that meeting, being that he has to know that you'll suspect he has your sister."

"This will hopefully tie up Tianlong and the druids for a few hours, leaving Drake to Christian and I.
 
And since the druids clearly won't approve of kidnapping one of the few dragons that they aren't actively warring with, you need to get as many of them involved with that meeting as you can manage.
 
Make it real official, real political, and real long-winded.
 
Hell, work the jealousy angle with Dom.
 
If he knows that Tianlong wants you to have his dragon babies, that mess could last for days.
 
If we really luck out, the whole thing might dissolve into outright war. You just have to get your psycho ex mad enough.
 
You seem to have a talent for that.
 
The more time you give us to work, the better our chances are of snatching Drake."
   

Christian finally piped in, helpful as ever.
 
"We'll call it, 'Operation: Baiting the Bear and Snatching the Dragon.'"
 

"We're not calling it that," I snapped back instantly.

 
I closed my eyes, rubbing my temples.
 
Caleb's plans were usually solid, but this one already made me want to beat my own head against the wall.
 
There was no question that I'd rather be in on the kidnapping part, as opposed to the whole meeting fiasco.
 

"Fine," I said finally, "I'll talk to Dom."
 

"Good.
 
And while you're at it, get him to set up a meeting for us with their captured dragon."

My eyes snapped open.
 
Dom had mentioned something about that...and then promptly distracted me.
 
"Who is it?" I asked Caleb.

His mouth hardened.
 
Touchy subject.
 
"We don't know.
 
We don't know
anything
about him, and we haven't been allowed to speak to him.
 
They have him held in some sort of underground compound in the desert, but I haven't been able to get close enough to check it out.
 
Dom won't tell us a thing.
 
He wouldn't even discuss the prisoner with us, until he saw you again."
 

"Bastard thought we knew where you were," Christian piped in.
 
It
had
been an unusually long period of silence for him.
 
"He thought that we just weren't telling him."
 
He sounded disgruntled, his English accent growing thicker, at the thought.
 

I
 
had to smile just a touch at that.
 
Everyone in this room knew that if they
had
known where I was, and I hadn't wanted them to tell Dom, there's no way in hell that they would have, so him getting defensive about it was just good comedy.
 
And very typical Christian.
 

"I'll talk to him about that, too," I assured them.
 

"Make sure to stipulate that we
all
get to talk to the dragon," Caleb said, a hard glint in his eye.
 

I arched a brow at him.
 
He was very much overestimating my skills of persuasion, but I supposed I'd try.
 
"I'll see what I can do.
 
In the morning.
 
Dom didn't seem too happy with me when I left.
 
I'm going to give him some time to cool off, before I start asking for favors."
 

Caleb shrugged.
 
"No one knows how to play Dom like you do, so I'll leave it to your discretion."

I gave him a very hard look for that one.
 
"That's going a little far.
 
I do not
play
Dom."

Christian coughed slightly, muttering, "
Like a fiddle
," under his breath.

I didn't look away from Caleb, who had started it, but I suddenly had the strong urge to deck Christian.

Caleb met my eyes steadily.
 
"Just calling a spade a spade.
 
You can look at it through the filter of your emotions, if that makes you feel better, but I see it solely for what it is."

I felt my temper boiling, though I knew Caleb well enough to see that he could never understand my feelings for Dom.
 
"And that would be?"
 

"Extremely useful.
 
I don't see that as a bad thing.
 
On the contrary.
 
Wrapping one of the most powerful druids around your littlest finger is a very good play.
 
But we're getting off track.
 
If you won't ask him tonight, I have something else planned."
 

I stayed silent, just waiting for him to continue.
 

I was trying real hard not to be pissed about his assessment of my relationship with Dom.
 
I had never been so mercenary, never set out to make him utterly obsessed with me.
 
And I certainly hadn't chosen to stay just as obsessed with him, though no one ever seemed to notice
my
feelings.
 

I knew that the druids saw me as the cold bitch that had played with Dom's emotions.
 
Having my own friends thinking that...stung.
 
But that was just how Caleb's mind worked, so how upset could I get about it, really?
 
And Christian was, well, an ass, likely giving me grief just because it tickled his fancy.
 
I should have been used to them both, but I struggled for endless moments to stifle my rage and hell, my hurt.
 

Why was I being so sensitive?
 
Was it the dragon-trance, still keeping some hold on me?
 
Was I feeling a sudden bout of postpartum depression?
 
I really didn't know.
 

Finally, when I thought I had a good handle on it, at least enough to drop the subject for the moment, I spoke.
 
"What did you have planned?"
 

Caleb smiled his cold little smile.
 
"A surprise.
 
I'll ride with you in your car.
 
Christian, you follow us in yours."
 

Christian was nearly vibrating in anticipation.
 
"I love surprises."
 

"It's not for you," Caleb said coldly.
 

Christian shrugged.
 
"So?
 
I still like surprises."
 

I wondered, not for the first time, how these two men could be friends, spend significant time with each other, when they were very nearly polar opposites.
 

"I
don't
like surprises," I told Caleb.
 
He knew that.
 
Hell,
everyone
knew that.
 

He gave me his little shrug.
 
"This surprise is unavoidable, so you might as well get it over with."
 

I studied him closely, though I knew that was pointless.
 
Caleb was exactly as readable as he wanted to be.
 
It could have been a mimic thing.
 
I had no idea, since I'd never met another of his kind.
 
I mused that it may not have been a bad thing.
 
The thought of more than one Caleb in the world just boggled the mind.

Being enigmatic and hard to read was one thing, expecting me to go blind into some surprise situation was quite another.
 
"I'm not walking into anything blind, Caleb," I told him frankly.
 

In a way, I trusted Caleb.
 
He'd played reliable backup for me too many times to count, and he had obviously been actively involved in trying to find my sister, even without my having to ask.
 
I had also played his backup many a time, so you could say we were even-steven.

Yes, I trusted Caleb to do exactly what he said he would, but only that.
 
Him keeping secrets left too many gray areas for my peace of mind.
 
I wasn't playing along until the rules were very clear.
 
He knew me well enough to get that.

Finally, he caved, but he didn't look pleased about it.
 
Like I cared.
 
"Christian and I were in on the raid.
 
You know, the one that attempted to rescue you.
 
We found some of your goodies there, and we were also nice enough to scour the desert for you, at the spot where you were taken.
 
We recovered most of your weapons.
 
They aren't here.
 
I'm keeping them at another location.
 
Would you like to go get them?"
 
He showed me his teeth in what the twisted bastard probably thought was a smile. 33
 

Now that was more like it.
 
I nodded.
 
"Let's do it."

CHAPTER TWO

Sociopath Chameleon Alien

"I have a druid tail," I told Caleb as I pulled away from the house.
 
Christian was parked in the back of the house, where a small alleyway was attached to the garage.
 
I'd heard his loud race car speed away before we'd even gotten into my car.

"Of course you do," Caleb responded, his tone dry.
 
"And if I know anything at all about Dom, your gear is covered in tracking devices, and so is this car.
 
We'll take care of it."
 

I sent him a look.
 
Caleb's plans usually worked for what he intended them to, but I couldn't exactly count on him to take Dom's reaction into account.
 
In fact, considering their history, I could pretty much assume that pissing Dom off royally would make Caleb's day.
 

"Is there a reason why we have to lose them so fast tonight?" I asked.
 
I didn't like being tracked or followed either, but I wanted the trouble I would get for going straight off the radar even less.

"Your things are at a location that I would like to keep private.
 
The druids keep enough damned tabs on me.
 
My biggest weapon stash in town is not their business."