Not ready to deal with that comment, he opened his door. “Come on. The sooner we talk with David, the sooner we can find you a place to sleep for the night.”
Without waiting for her reply, he exited the car and stood in front of it. Thankfully Tasha followed suit, and he guided her inside the security building. With any luck, he’d be free of the human female’s intoxicating presence soon enough and he could finally clear his head.
Tasha followed Brad inside a several-story building she couldn’t really make out in the almost darkness. So much for gawking at the inside grounds of Clan StoneRiver for the first time. Her curiosity would just have to wait until morning.
Inside the building, the halls looked like many other hallways she’d seen—tiled floors and neutral-colored walls that she could only describe as light brown-ish. It wasn’t exactly what she’d imagined her first impression of a dragon clan would be. It was almost…normal. For all the rumors and tales about the dragons, they might be a lot more like humans than most people believed.
Serving dragon-shifters at her bar had definitely opened her eyes to how similar they were to humans in public. But she still imagined something a little more special when it came to their home turf.
Brad guided her into a room—another nondescript place with a table and chairs—and motioned toward one of the seats. He said, “David will be here soon. Sit down and I’ll get you some water.”
She nodded and Brad exited the room. Tasha tapped her feet as she waited, trying not to let her mind run wild.
After all, she might, just might, have a hateful group bent on driving all dragons out of the country targeting her. She was safe for the time being, but that could change at any moment. Especially if the police ended up being sympathetic to the League guys who’d tried to shoot her.
And tough as she may be, Tasha wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t be able to fend off the League on her own if they were indeed outside the law. She needed help, plain and simple. And not just any kind of help, but from the dragon-shifters.
However, she had no idea how—or if—the StoneRiver dragons would be willing to help her. And if they did offer to do so, there had to be a price. No one would risk so much for free, at least in her experience.
The door opened, revealing Brad’s tall, broad-shouldered figure. She barely noted how much more at ease he seemed here than at her bar when another man entered behind him. The man with short, black hair, golden skin, and assessing brown eyes was no stranger. She’d met him before—StoneRiver’s clan leader, David Lee.
David smiled at her and sat opposite. Brad took the seat next to her.
Before she could say anything, David spoke up. “It seems you being nice to us has backfired spectacularly. Believe me when I say that I never intended for this all to happen.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I know that. You can’t control assholes and their actions.”
David snorted. “True. But you opened your bar as a favor to me and Ashley Swift. And while I can’t speak for Ashley, I can for me. And now that you’re in trouble, you’re under my protection.”
She frowned. “But only for as long as I stay here. You know as well as I do that dragon-shifters can’t stay full-time in Reno. I’ll just have to hire some human security guards.”
Brad grunted. “That won’t be enough.”
She had a feeling he was right. But for some reason, she wanted to push back against him. Almost as if she didn’t do it now, she might regret it later. “How do you know that? The League are human, so other humans should be able to stop them.”
David jumped in. “Except that in recent months, the League has been glorifying self-sacrifice. And that is a huge fucking problem for all of us.”
She resisted blinking at the statement. It was the first she’d heard of it. “What the hell are you talking about?”
David sighed. “Someone is trying to drive up the hatred of dragon-shifters again. And one surefire way to do it is to make sacrificing themselves for the cause as some fucking brave, patriotic act. Something like cleansing the US of dragons will make the humans the strongest, the richest, insert whatever you like here in the world. In their line of thinking, dragon-shifters only hold them back or drag them down.”
She blinked. “How in the hell are dragons holding people back?”
David replied, “They’re not. But most League members are looking for someone to blame for their problems, troubles, or whatever is wrong in their lives. And so dragons are those targets. They dismissed the League down in Florida, and now it’s chaotic there. I hope we can keep the same thing from happening here, but I’m still working on how to do that exactly.”
Tasha looked from David to Brad and back again. “Why haven’t I heard anything about this? I would think that a crazy hate group willing to commit suicide to kill a dragon would make the news.”
David shook his head. “ADDA is trying to keep it quiet, as are the officials of the human cities in Florida. I doubt even the other Tahoe clans know what’s going on.”
Great. So rather than a minor pain in the ass, the League idiots could possibly be out to sacrifice themselves for the cause. In that case, burning down her bar or using an explosive wouldn’t be out of the question.
Tasha was used to isolating a problem, figuring out the best solution, and bouncing back up again. However, she might not be able to follow the same strategy this time. Death was pretty permanent, and no amount of security guards could protect her from the crazies.
For the first time in her life, Tasha was glad her parents were no longer alive because if they were, then they’d become targets, too.
Taking a deep breath, she met David’s eyes again. “So then, what are my options?”
He nodded. “I like your levelheadedness, Tasha. I’m not sure many humans would be as strong as you.”