Dragon's Lair by Denise Lynn Page B

expense?”
    Braeden drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I’ve already made up my mind. She stays.” He looked pointedly at Danielle. “And you will leave her alone. Am I understood?”
    Immediately, his aunt’s entire countenance changed. She came forward and placed a hand lightly on Braeden’s chest. “I only want what’s best for you. Don’t get involved with her again.”
    â€œAnd I want what’s best for Mirabilus and Dragon’s Lair. Anything beyond that is between Alexia and me.”
    Alexia’s heart thudded heavily in her chest. Anything beyond that—such as?
    Danielle glared at Alexia before promising, “I’ll leave her alone. Just be careful, Braeden.”
    He waved Harold over. “Put her car in with the family vehicles.”
    The family vehicles? Alexia scanned the garage area. “Where’s that?” Not that she was planning a hasty exit, but she’d like to know where her car was going to be parked—just in case.
    â€œRight over here, ma’am.” Harold held out an automatic garage-door opener and hit the button.
    A huge door slid up, permitting entrance to a private garage within the larger parking area.
    Alexia’s breath caught in her throat. The hairs on her neck and arms rose.
    Her mind flashed back to her town house and the explosion. Perspiration formed above her upper lip.
    Parked inside the Dragon’s Lair garage was the same flashy red Rolls Phantom that had raced away from her home earlier.

Chapter 4
    A lexia’s stomach clenched as if she’d been slugged. Fear and confusion swirled icy cold around her.
    Had she not seen a Rolls Phantom at a car show a few months ago she wouldn’t have known what it was—or how rare it was to see two within a twenty-four-hour time frame. The vehicle was too new for many to be on the road yet—unless you had enough cold hard cash.
    Slowly, hoping he wouldn’t notice, she stepped away from Braeden.
    Would he have gone this far to get even with her? Was Braeden the one behind everything, including blowing up her town house? Had he expected her—wanted her—to be inside? Or had he done so knowing full well that he would be the only one she’d run to when she had nowhere else to go? The thought that Braeden could possibly be behind all this dried her throat. Shetried to swallow the bile that made its way up from her stomach.
    To her horror, it all added up. He had the manuscript. Obviously he had the wheels, too. He also had the ability to dance around inside her mind. Surely it’d be easy enough for him to change the sound of his voice so she wouldn’t recognize him. But wouldn’t his presence have felt familiar to her, instead of frighteningly strange and inhuman?
    Harold opened the trunk of her car, snapping Alexia out of her shock. She’d pulled over at the first rest stop on the expressway to exchange her boots for the sneakers in her workout bag and to unload and stow her gun in the trunk. “No, wait, I’ll—”
    Too late.
    He’d already pulled her gun from the holder anchored inside her trunk and handed it to Braeden while asking, “Your bags, ma’am?”
    â€œI…don’t…have…any.” Teeth gritted, she enunciated each word. The man had no business handing her weapon to Braeden.
    Danielle shot Braeden a look Alexia couldn’t decipher before muttering something unintelligible under her breath and storming from the garage.
    Harold looked from Alexia to Braeden. He cocked an eyebrow before turning to close the trunk. “I’ll just go park the car.”
    Braeden stared at the Beretta in his hand. “What is this?”
    While that most likely wasn’t what he’d meant to ask, she refused to supply him with any information other than the obvious. “A gun.”
    Braeden’s lips thinned and his frown deepened. Apparently her