Dragons Prefer Blondes (20 page)

“Lourdes is in stable condition, but because of the baby they are keeping her in the hospital. Angel says she’s been sleeping a lot, but doctors say that’s to be expected, considering the trauma she suffered.

“There’s a—I don’t know what to do about Baron. He’s been trying to get in touch with Lourdes. Says he’d called her home and the club. I didn’t know what to do. Something told me that since he was in rehab that it probably wasn’t a good idea to tell him that Lourdes was hurt. Call it instinct, but I figured that might lead to a major setback for him.”

“You’re right about that, and I’m grateful you do have such great instincts.” I crossed my legs on the bed. “I’ll call the director at Harbor Springs tomorrow and ask his advice. To be honest, I know Baron would want to leave and rush to her side, but I’m not sure that’s the best thing for either of them.”

Penny bit her lip and shook her head. “If I found out someone didn’t tell me that a loved one was hurt, especially as bad off as Lourdes was, I’d be pretty pissed.”

I nodded. “Me, too. But I want to do what’s best for all involved. That baby has been through enough and needs a clean dad who can be there. I promise I’ll call the director in the morning and see what he thinks is best.”

My brain was beginning to hurt, but there was another thought niggling at me. “I almost hate to ask, but how is Aspen watch? I guess she told you that we settled on the bulk of the arrangements.”

Was that just yesterday? Time had no meaning anymore. I wasn’t even sure what day it was, or if it was day. I looked over at the bedside clock. It was three in the morning, and both Penny and Jake were here looking out for me.

“Yes, so grateful I didn’t have to be there for that one.” Penny interrupted my thoughts. “She sent me the list and a note that we had to set a time for you to see the castle.” She looked at my arm. “I’m thinking that may be a while.”

“Nah, I’ll be good as new in the morning.”

She gave me a no-way-in-hell stare. “It is morning.”

“Okay, maybe not good as new, but better. You know me—I bounce back fast.”

“That you do. Angel wanted you to know that the security teams have already begun the training, and I’ve even had my first lesson. I’m pretty damn lethal.”

I snorted. “One lesson and you’re pure ninja.”

“That’s right.” She flexed her muscle then made a karate chop. “You don’t want to be messing with the Pen. I can kick your ass.” She put her arm down. “Okay not
your
ass, but I could take down some fragile old woman or a toddler. I bet I could whoop up on a toddler.”

I laughed so hard it hurt. “Ouch.”

“See? Jake was right; you need to rest.”

I was suddenly very tired.

“That’s not such a bad idea.” I scrunched down in the bed and pulled up the covers. Peeking over the edge, I smiled at her. “Hey.”

“What?” she asked as she moved the chair back to its original position.

“Just thanks for being here.”

“Where the hell else would I be?” She winked at me.

“And, Pen,” I said softly, “don’t use those mad skills on old ladies or kids. They put you in jail for that sort of thing.”

“Man, you never let me have any fun.” She shut the door behind her.

My arm wouldn’t cooperate with the rest of me. I couldn’t settle, but I was too tired to turn on the light and do anything else.

So I thought about the things that made me happy.

Jake was at the top of the list. It scared me how much I wanted him.
I really, really need some naked time with that guy.

Now I just had to convince him of that.

CHAPTER 21

True to my own words, I was ready to go the next afternoon. My arm was stiff, and the stitches were tight, but I could use it. I checked the control room first in the hopes of finding Jake, but the guys said he was in a meeting with my mother.

That she was in the house made me want to jump anywhere else in the world—in the universe, for that matter. I thought about going in search of Ginjin so that I could tell him about Jene’s sister, but I had a feeling he’d probably been brought up to speed by someone in my family.

And to be honest, I was tired of dealing with dragons. I was already on the road to burnout, and the last few days hadn’t helped.

What I needed was to lose myself in the mundane, in what constituted “real life” for me. There were so many loose ends I needed to check up on, so I decided to make it an errand day.

This was something I did at least four times a month, when I used my awesome powers of teleporting to take care of business. Not exactly in the guidebook for being a good Guardian, but I figure we should get some perks. Being able to travel the world in a few seconds was definitely that.

The first thing on my to-do list didn’t mean making a jump, but I did have a tough question to ask.

I searched the addresses on my phone and found the number I needed. “Dr. Simonak, this is Alex Caruthers.”

“It’s nice to hear from you,” the director of Harbor Springs Rehab’s calm voice said.

“I wanted to check on Baron and see how he’s doing.”

“Alex, you know as well as anyone that I have to protect his privacy while he’s here.”

“Absolutely, but surely I can get updates, since I’m the one who sent him there. And I’m the closest thing he has to family.”

He laughed. “True. Let me check his consent form.” I heard a drawer open. “He does list you and a woman called Lourdes on here. I have a note that he also made a call to someone named Penny.”

“That’s my executive assistant. You know how it is with us. We’re all close. If I’m on the list, then you can at least give me updates. I know that you do that for family.”

“I can tell you he is in detox. All things considered, he’s doing well. Another twelve hours or so, and he should be ready to move on to the next phase.”

“Good to hear. Listen, there’s been a bit of a twist.” I explained to him what happened with Lourdes.

“I see.” Perhaps he did, but he wasn’t commenting on the situation.

“If it were me and a loved one was in a life-or-death situation, I would want to know,” I told him.

“Yes, anyone would, but if you were in his situation, would that be the best thing for you? To pull him out of detox now would not only bring him physical pain but could cause damage to his heart. Add to that the stress of the situation, and there could be severe consequences.”

I blew out a big breath. “I’m not arguing with you, Doctor; I just want to know what to do.”

“For now, we need to give them both time to heal. As you said, she is stable. Seeing him might not be the best thing for her. I had a long talk with him before we allowed him to be admitted. It’s more than obvious they had a tumultuous relationship, and she’d wanted him to get help for some time. If he suddenly shows up—”

“Hmmm. She’ll think he’s already given up.”

“Exactly. Now here’s what we should do. You keep a close eye on her status. If anything changes, let me know. In the meantime, I think it would be a good idea for you or someone close to her to let her know that he’s progressing. That he would be there for her if he could.

“If she wants him there with her, then we’ll make arrangements. We’ve had some extreme situations where one of our caseworkers had to travel with a client when there was a death in the family. If it comes to that, we’ll make it happen.”

“That sounds like a plan. I’m going to see her, and I’ll let her know the situation. Well, that is if she’s awake. The last time I checked, she was still unconscious.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Her body is caring for two, and it does what it must to heal. If she has family, I would suggest you make sure she has some kind of support there.”

She was a loner like Baron, but she did have Angel, who seemed to have adopted her as if she were family. He’d done everything he could to make her comfortable, and I was incredibly grateful to him for that.

“Doctor, thanks for your help.”

I wondered if the good doctor was right about all of this. I hated being the one to keep a man from his woman at such a time. And I was more than a little worried what Baron would do once he found out, but I’d deal with that when the time came.

What the doc said made sense. Baron couldn’t help Lourdes, and he was right about it being a stressful situation, which probably wouldn’t be good for either of them.

I hadn’t seen Penny, but she was next on my list.

“Hey, where are you?”

She yawned before answering. “Trying to get some sleep,” she said none too subtly. “My boss has this habit of almost getting killed on a regular basis, and she keeps me up nights.”

I laughed. “Sorry about that. Just wanted to let you know it’s an errand day. Forward all of Aspen’s calls to me, and get some rest.”

“You sure that’s smart, considering that a few hours ago your heart stopped? A couple of times.”

Huh. No one had mentioned that part. Weird, since I didn’t remember going into any warm glowing light to heaven.

Damn, maybe I wasn’t going to heaven.

I waved a hand, even though she couldn’t see it. “Please, that happens all the time. I don’t know what the healers gave me, but I feel great. So do what I asked, and I want you to take the rest of the day off.”

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Penny sounded alarmed. “You know I don’t take days off.” She was right about that. The woman was a worse workaholic than me.

“Ya know, now you’ve just pissed me off by calling me a slave driver. I’m going to insist you take the day off. Sleep, watch movies. Are you in the guest quarters on the third floor?”

“Yes,” she said warily.

“Cool. I’ll have Mrs. P make you a special lunch. You just ring her up when you wake up. Now go to sleep.” I hung up and laughed. Mrs. P was our personal chef, and she would definitely take care of Pen.

After touching the tattoos together, I landed in my office at SCOWL in Madrid. The place was closed up tight, since we were still undergoing the training.

Being in the office reminded me of the night Ginjin was there. I wondered if he was relieved to discover that it wasn’t Jene behind the kidnappings.

You don’t know that.
My gut said good old Jene was involved somehow, but I didn’t really have time to worry about that right now, though I’d bet many dollars that she wasn’t too happy with me for killing her sister.

It seemed strange, even though it was early evening, for there to be no one at the club in Madrid. That would soon change. I’d sent the managers an e-mail that once their staff was trained by Master Kanashi and her team, everyone could return to work.

Kyle had sent me a detailed e-mail about how amazing the woman was. Didn’t surprise me that she had it all under control. So far he hadn’t found any of the evil we were looking for among the employee pool, and that made me feel better about the universe.

I’d worn jeans, boots, a sweater, and a lined hoodie so that I could be as incognito as possible. I had a lot to do, and the last thing I needed was to be recognized.

Making my way out the back door, I pulled the hoodie up. It was chilly, and the cold made my arm and shoulder ache as I walked the two blocks to the hospital. I texted Angel when I hit the emergency room doors. He met me in the hallway just outside Lourdes’s room.

“What’s the latest?” I nodded toward the door.

Angel leaned against the wall. I wondered when he’d slept last. “She’s been in and out today. When she first woke up, she freaked about the baby, but the doctors say the little guy is doing just fine.”

“Guy?”

Angel nodded. “She’s about five months along, and they were able to tell the sex of the baby. They thought I was the dad.” He smiled. “I’m paying the bills, so I let them assume whatever they wanted. It was the easiest way to get the information we needed.”

“Wow. Five months?” I didn’t know many pregnant women, but Lourdes didn’t even have much of a pooch. “She’s so thin.”

“The doctors say it’s not unusual for a woman’s first pregnancy to go undetected by her friends until she hits the third trimester,” Angel informed me. “It’s also in this book.” He held up a copy of
What to Expect When You’re Expecting
. “They took measurements and say the baby is healthy. There was some fetal distress in the beginning, but he’s been doing great since. I’ve been worried about Lourdes, but she really does seem better today.”

I reached out a hand and squeezed his arm. “You really are a godsend. I just—you know she really loves Baron.”

He cracked his neck. “I know what you’re thinking, boss, but it isn’t that. Though, I do feel like a bit of an uncle to that baby. I’ve never prayed so hard in my life for something to live.”

I squeezed his arm. “Sorry. I just don’t want things to be more complicated for poor Lourdes. God knows she’s been through too much already.”

“You said it.” Angel frowned. “If it were me lying there, I’d want someone looking out for me, and I know you’d make that happen. I consider it a part of the job, but you know it’s all about the karma. That, and now I know it’s a boy, I’m going to insist they call him Angel, after his beloved and favorite uncle.”

I chuckled. “Listen, I have a couple of hours before I need to be anywhere. Why don’t you get some rest?”

“I’m fine.”

His face said otherwise. There were tight lines around his mouth, and his eyes were bloodshot. His poor ’fro looked like it hadn’t seen a comb in weeks. He’d gone from looking like Lenny Kravitz to some bum on the streets.

I’d run everyone into the ground the last few weeks: Jake, Pen, and now poor Angel. What kind of person was I that I used these people the way I did? I needed to make some serious changes, but I had no idea where to begin.

“I insist. And like you always say, I’m the boss. Besides, I’d like to spend some time with Lourdes. You know, girl time. Maybe I can convince her to name the baby Angel Alex. Or Alex Angel. Works both ways.”

This time he was the one who laughed. He gave me a curious look and sniffed his armpits. Guys all over the world did that. “Guess I could use a shower.” He glanced at his watch. “Oh, and she woke up about an hour ago and seemed to be doing much better. The doctors say she’s out of danger, but she’ll need to rest for several more weeks.”