Danburn: The English Dragon ― Erotic Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance (3 page)

“Like I keep saying, Kendrick is a really good girl. Polite to a fault. Never gets herself into trouble on her own, and the only time I saw her lose her temper was when Louisa wouldn’t see reason.” Jake laughed. “That’s something you should be made aware of. Louisa has this thing about her. She’s very set in what she wants, and will drive you to want to hit her until you just give in. I think that’s what happens with Kendrick. She just can’t fight against her anymore.”

“So I have these two women that my mom is looking for. One has been hurt, the other will be homeless soon. Do you know if they live together?” Jake said he didn’t know if Louisa had her own address or not, but he’d been told to use Kendrick’s. “You think they’re scamming you, and me eventually?”

“No. I really don’t. Kendrick might be blinded by her sister, but she’s far from stupid. She told me once she can speak ten languages. I’ve actually used her a couple of times when I had someone that I didn’t understand. She works hard and pays you back when she can.” Jake laughed again. “Louisa, however? I’d not trust her with money as far as I could throw her. I’d not lend her anything unless you never want to see it again. And if she wants something from you, walk away. She’ll make you nuts to have you see it her way.”

Danburn wasn’t sure he’d trust either one of them, but Jake had always been honest with him, and he didn’t doubt that he might feel this way about the two of them. His mom would have to leave them alone. He didn’t want any more trouble coming his way right now.

“By the way, those two men that we found in your lake. Do you know anything about them, other than that they’re dead? And you do know that they’re not the sort that goes hunting, right? Both of them were armed like they were going to war, but no ID, wallet, or even a cell that we could look at. Anything you can tell me about that?” Jake laughed. “I have a feeling that somehow, with you asking about her, Louisa is involved in this, and Kendrick might be as well.”

He knew he could trust the man. But did he trust him enough to let him know everything about the two men? He’d find out. Danburn knew that as well, so he told him what he knew. Not that he’d drowned the men, but that they’d turned up on his land and that Louisa had been shot.

“Christ love a duck. All right. But this is between the two of us.” Danburn told him of course. “The two men work for a man by the name of Bernie Bullock. I think you might have heard of him.”

“The guy who a few years ago started buying up land around the area and close to my land. And from what I’ve read in the papers, about six or seven months ago he moved in. Yeah, so?” Jake told him there was more to it, and that he thought the man was up to no good. “I think I might have tried to tell you that when you guys came out to tell me he was using the land with a government grant. And weren’t there some rules he was supposed to abide by? I’m guessing that he’s not, if they’re armed like you said these two were.”

“There were rules. And no, I don’t think he is. But he made some sort of deal with the big guys in office. Leasing the property for ninety-nine years, then it reverts back to the state. He has guidelines, like you said, that he has to meet and all, but they don’t have it in their budget to enforce these rules. So he pretty much does what he wants out there unless we have to be called in. Twice now we’ve been summoned out there for someone dying. And that’s only been in the last six weeks.” Danburn asked him what had happened. “What we’re being told—and the bodies do have the appearance of it—is that they hanged themselves. Too far from their families or something like that.”

“And this has to do with the Barrera sisters, how?” Jake told him he didn’t know as yet, but he’d bet anything that Louisa did. “Christ. They were both at my house. I wonder what sort of shit that is going to cause me.”

“Hang on.” When he was put on hold, Danburn started making a list of things he had to do to keep himself out of the middle of their drama. And he had no doubt there was a lot of it with these two. When Jake came back on the line, he sounded upset. “Danburn, if you want to just happen to drive by her apartment, you might see for yourself what kind of shit this girl is in.”

He wrote down the address and grabbed his jacket again. As he was telling his secretary he’d be back soon, she asked him about his appointments. Danburn did something he’d never done before. He told her to clear his day. She was as shocked about it as he was. And Connie Weeks was not one to shock easily.

~~~

Kendrick wanted to cry, stomp her foot, and simply burst into tears and have a hissy fit. But it wouldn’t solve anything, and she’d still be trying to figure out how to get out of this mess. Again.

“I’m real sorry, Kendrick.” She waved the man off. He’d been by her house five times over the last few months, collecting on her electric bill so she’d not have it turned off. But today there had been no money to pay him with. She didn’t even have the money to make a call had there been anyone she could have called. “I’ve called the cops. You know that they gotta be involved too. Especially since he wants you out right now.”

“Yes. I know. Mr. Dickface is having a cow.” He laughed and stood with her while they waited on the police. “I really don’t blame him for being mad at me. I would be too if he was behind in his rent for three months. I’ve tried so hard, Peter. I’m so tired of this.”

Peter told her again how sorry he was. She knew he was. He was the nicest collector she’d ever had to deal with. Once, when she was ten dollars short of paying the least amount she had to pay, he’d chipped in to help her out.

Her coat from last night was still soaking wet, so all she had to wear was her tattered sweater. Her shoes were wet too, from walking around for hours to find Louisa. So now she was standing in the cold with only a ratty sweater to keep her warm, and shoes that were so worn that she was surprised that they even stayed on her feet. Peter was dressed in heavy wool pants, a jacket that looked warm enough to keep her heated all winter, and boots that were so shiny that she’d bet he put something on them every time he got into his car to keep them looking so good. But the man had been nothing but nice to her since she moved here several months ago.

“Peter, you want something to drink? I have some tea brewing. It’s not that fancy stuff we serve at the restaurant, but I can fix you some.”

“No thanks, hun. I’m just sorry this has to happen now.” She wanted to tell him it was never a good time to have your power shut off, but there was little she could do now.

Louisa was asleep in her bed and resting well, thanks to the drugs that the nice doctor at the house had given her. For now, anyway. Kendrick, as usual, was dealing with the outcome of one or another of her scraps. She was so fucked right now. When Jake Ludlow showed up, his cruiser pulling up behind Peter’s truck, she wanted to beg him to take her to jail. She was sure that she’d eat better and be warmer.

“Miss Barrera.” He tipped his hat at her, and she gave him a watery smile. “I understand that we’re having some issues here. Do you have a heavier coat? It’s cold out here.”

“You’re damned right we’re having issues. She’s fucking four months behind in her rent. And now—” Kendrick told Donavan Phillips it was only three months and she was working on that. “Well, that does me little good now, don’t it? You’re not gonna be able to live there with no power in the place, and I can’t rent it with the mess you left it in.”

“I can too live here.” She looked at Jake, who cleared his throat. “I have to live there, Officer Ludlow. I have nowhere else to go. And my sister is hurt.”

“I’m sorry, honey, but he’s right. Since we got involved, I can’t let you stay where it’s not safe.” She felt the tears burn her eyes. “Where’s Louisa? Is she in there too?”

“Yes. But I can’t move her. She was hurt again, and they gave her something to make her sleep. She’s in my bed resting.” Jake nodded, and she had a feeling he already knew what had happened to her. That damned man, the king of the castle. “Did he call you last night, or early this morning?”

“This morning.” She turned her back to them all. It was that or let them see her crying. “Kendrick, I can take you to the shelter. And Louisa should be in the hospital. Why don’t you let me help you gather a few things and I’ll take you myself?”

“I can’t live there and you know it. The last time I was there Louisa got us into trouble, and I’m not allowed to darken their steps again. Or at least I think it was me they were talking to. And there isn’t money for a hospital, even if I could get her there.” Jake nodded, and she watched a big limo pull up across the street. She knew who it was even before he was let out of the monster thing, and wondered if Jake had called him in so he could have a show. “If you’ll call an ambulance please, I’ll figure something out. Just don’t let that man take over.”

“I want my money.” So did she, but Donavan wasn’t going to be put off any more. Not that he’d been all that helpful before, but now he was in the right and she wasn’t. “Right now, Barrera. Pay up.”

“You know as well as I do that if I had the money, none of this would be going on. Just sell my things. There’s not much there anyway, and I’ll get you the rest.” When Donavan came at her, she knew that he was going to hit her and tightened up in a sort of ball to take it. And it wouldn’t be the first time. But his fist was stayed by the man from the castle.

“Touch her and I will have you so tied up in knots that nothing will untangle you.” The threat, because there was no doubt to her that that was what it was, was delivered with a calmness that scared her. And it wasn’t even directed at her. “Get over there until I call for you.”

“You can’t talk to me that way. I run this place. And she’s out of favors as far as I’m concerned.” Donovan’s big beefy hand still covered the man’s fist. “Showing off for the bitch, are you? Well, got news for you, she don’t put out. Not even for a little rent money.”

Kendrick had no idea what she was going to do when she turned to the landlord, but as soon as she did, the pain in the side of her head exploded. Stars even did a little jig as she felt the world tilt at an odd angle and someone began to curse. Kendrick had to smile. She didn’t know why she knew it was the man from the castle, but fell forward thinking it was funny to hear him lose his temper, and it not aimed at her. Then she was out.

Moving hurt her head, and something about it made her feel woozy. She was sick too. There were no two ways about it, whatever had happened had affected her belly, and there was a rebellion going on there. As she held her head, ringing started just as she realized that someone was talking to her. Screaming at her really. In a surreal sort of way, she knew that her landlord was laying on the ground beside her.

“Can you hear me?” Nodding made her sicker, so she told the man yes. “What the hell were you doing stepping into my fist like that? Do you have a fucking death wish?”

“Yes, that’s it. I have a death wish. I’m pretty sure that any person would have the same sort of feelings when you’re around screaming at them like.... You hit me?” It was suddenly too much. Leaning to her side, she threw up. Three times. There was little on her belly since there wasn’t any food in the house, but her belly didn’t seem to care. When she leaned back to try and lay down, the man yelled again for her to wake up. “I’m not sleeping, you moronic fuck. I hurt.”

“You will not pass out on me again.” She glared at him as best she could, but he seemed out of focus. “You’re going to the hospital. I cannot believe that you made me hit you.”

“
I
made you hit
me
? How the hell do you figure that? Just go away. You’re not nice. I don’t like you, either. You’re a bully and a dick.” Kendrick thought perhaps someone laughed, but she didn’t really care. It was becoming more and more difficult to focus on things, and she was sick again. “Just let me die right here. I don’t know what you’ll do with my body, as I have no insurance nor the money to be buried with, but I want to just lay down and die.”

“You don’t have my permission to die.” That was the stupidest thing she’d ever heard, and told him that. “You are the most stubborn pain in the ass woman I have ever met. I want you to sit up and look at me so I can tell how badly you were hurt.”

“Right back at you, you good looking fuck wad.” It was getting to be too much. Her head was coming apart, and she was going to be sick again. Instead of doing as the moron was demanding of her, Kendrick let her body just slip away.

Chapter
3

“She’s pissed off, in the event you weren’t aware of that.” Danburn nodded. Of course she’d blame him for this too. “I don’t think I’m going to allow you to go back and see her. Not today at any rate. Kendrick is barely holding on now, and I don’t think seeing you is going to help her any.”

“Holding onto what?” Dr. Thomas Bailey, the ER doctor and Danburn’s good friend, told him she was trying not to lose it. “I’m sure that she’s thinking that’s my fault too. Did you hear her cursing me when she came in here? I have never in my life been called those names…I think she was making most of those up.”

“I’m sure she was.” Tom laughed. “I’ve seen her in here a couple of times over the last few months. She never tells me who it is that knocks her around, but I would imagine that it’s the landlord or that prick of a boss she has. Nice girl. But I didn’t have any idea that she could string words together like that. I think you’re bringing that out in her. Goes to show you that some people have an inner lioness that they keep hidden away until they’re backed into a corner.”

Danburn decided to ignore that. Everyone seemed to be blaming him for everything that happened to this woman. Sure he’d hit her, but she’d walked into his fist, not that he’d aimed for her. And she had been behind in her rent, several months’ worth as a matter of fact. But he had paid that off, hadn’t he? When were people going to realize that he was just an innocent bystander in all of this and stop making him the heavy?

“What else is wrong with her besides the concussion?” He’d hit her hard, he knew it. Danburn had used a little of his beast to make his point with the man threatening her, but he’d not beaten her. There had been no time at all to check his swing, and when he’d hit her at the side of her head, he knew that she’d be in pain. The fact that she’d sat there and spoke to him, cursed him actually, made him think it hadn’t been so bad.

But he’d looked at her when she’d fainted. He’d seen her arms and legs when she was out, and felt his beast roar out against it. He was going to find whoever had done this to her and make them pay. Then Tom spoke, bringing him from his fury.

“Malnourished. Underweight by a good twenty pounds. She’s been hit before today too. I’d say a couple of days ago.” Tom handed him a thick file. “She has a sprained wrist, not from today…ankle too. I’d say done about the same time as the wrist. Her ribs on her left side have some tenderness, and I think she might have two broken on the right.”

“You think?” He explained to him why he didn’t know for sure. That she had refused treatment due to lack of money and insurance. “I thought I made it clear that I was paying for her stay here. Her sister’s too.”

“She said…well, I won’t tell you what she said about that, but you’re not only not paying, but whatever the cost is so far, she’ll pay it off, she told me.” He asked him what she’d said. “Okay, but this is from her, not me. She said that the mother fucking lord of the castle can go fuck himself, that she is not going to be beholden to the man who closes down churches and throws orphans out on their ear. Where on earth do you suppose she got that from?”

“She knows what I do for a living.” Tom laughed and nodded. “Do whatever you have to do to get her well. And if she gives you any more shit, let me know. I’ll straighten her out. Christ, this is a nightmare.”

“I don’t think it’s going to get any better.” He asked Tom why not. “Your mom is here. And she doesn’t look any happier than the woman in my emergency room.”

Tom, the chicken, walked away. Danburn’s mom hugged him, then asked him what was going on. But before he could tell her anything, she moved past him to the desk, so he followed.

“Hello, my dear. I was wondering which cubical Miss Barrera is in.” Danburn started to tell her that she wasn’t to have visitors, but his mom turned to him and he shut up. She had that look that scared even his dragon. “You will keep that tongue behind your teeth or I will snap it off like a twig, do you understand me? She’s hurt, by your hand, and I will not have you adding insult to injury by you being a harpy with her. Do I make myself perfectly clear, Fletcher Danburn English?”

“Yes, ma’am. But I would like to point out that—”

Her hand coming up cut him off. Danburn had to bite his tongue hard enough to draw blood before he nodded that he’d shut up.

He went with his mom when the nurse said she’d take her back. Even before they got to the little curtained off area, Danburn could hear her. She was talking to someone, and he had a feeling it was to herself.

“Stupid moron hit me, and now I have to come up with seven hundred dollars to pay for an ambulance ride here that I don’t even remember. For all I know he dragged me here by my hair and had them charge me for that instead. And I don’t even have seven cents to my name, much less seven hundred dollars to pay a bill he caused me to have.” He heard her moan and took a step around his mom to see what she’d done now, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Let me do this. I have no idea what it is between the two of you, but she’s hurting enough without you going in there and pissing her off more. Did you really hit her?” He nodded and felt his face heat up when she tisked at him. “Danburn, what am I going to do with you?”

Before he could tell her, like he had everyone else, that it hadn’t been his fault, she was moving around the curtain. He stood close to it without leaving, wanting to hear anything she said to his mother that he might need to defend himself about.

“Oh my. Oh my goodness, child.” He couldn’t help it. Danburn moved around the curtain and looked where his mom was looking. “Danburn, you did this? Oh, you poor baby girl. Come on child, lay down and rest.”

“I’m fine, and it wasn’t his fault. Not entirely.” He wondered how the hell she was standing, and started toward her to insist that she sit down. “Don’t you dare touch me. I don’t know what it is about you, but whenever you’re close to me, I want to smack the shit out of you. And I’m too hurt right now to do more than cry.”

“Sit down.” He watched her struggle with his command. “Please. Will you please sit down before you fall on your ass?”

“You were nearly nice there for a second. I guess all that meanness can only let you be that way for short spurts before you revert back to your normal self.” She sat down and he noticed that she had her arms full of her clothing. “I just need a minute. Then I’m out of here.”

“You’re not going anywhere.” He glanced at his mom when she spoke. “Danburn, go and get that nice doctor friend of yours. Have him set up a lovely room for Miss Barrera, and see if he can get her something for pain, please. And Kendrick…can I call you that? I want you to get back in this bed and rest. You’re as pale as those sheets there, and I won’t have you falling down again. Not while I’m here. Danburn, why are you still standing there?”

Danburn wasn’t fooled. This was no more a request for him to do this than when he’d requested that Kendrick sit down. When he looked at the woman in question, he wondered again how she was even up and around.

The entire side of her head was swollen. Her eye was closed, puffed out so much that it looked like she had a growth under it. Her cheek was black and blue from the hairline to her chin, and even on her neck. The lower lip looked like she’d gone a few rounds with a prize fighter, and her upper one was split in three places, with neat stitches it in. Even her left cheek was puffed out, and he could see blood in her eye too. When she slumped forward in the chair, he moved to catch her before she fell, only to see that she was out. Danburn looked at his mom.

“I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I hurt her.” She told him he should be telling Kendrick that, not her. “Tom, he said that she’d been hurt before. I swear to you, if that fucking shit that tried to hurt her did that, he’s done.”

“Put her in the bed, dear, and we’ll watch over her.” He lifted her up as gently as he could to get a better grip on her. She still moaned, and he wanted to sit in the chair with her and hold her, keeping her safe from the monsters, ones like him. “I have some information on her if you wish it. Noah gave it to me when you called him to come to the hospital.”

He put Kendrick in the bed just as a nurse came in with AMA papers. He told her that Kendrick wasn’t leaving against medical advice, but he thanked her. He also requested a private room, as well as any medications that she had turned down before.

“There is a pain med, but she refused that. Lord English, if I was her, I’d be wanting it all.” He nodded and told her to do what she had to do. In ten minutes there was an IV in Kendrick’s arm, as well as some medications dripping into the bigger bag of fluids. An hour later he was with her when they moved her to a room and set her up for a longer stay. She was going to be pissed when she woke up. He asked his mom what Noah had told her.

“Her mother died about five years ago, alone in a hospital that she’d been checked into by Louisa. Not that Kendrick’s situation changed much. From what I understand she has been taking care of her older sister since she was about seventeen and Louisa got into trouble with her then boyfriend.” He asked why. “The mother, Nettie Barrera, wasn’t any better than Louisa is. Worse if you ask me. Trying one scheme after another. Couldn’t hold down a job, nor save a penny to pay the bills. The first five years of Kendrick’s life, they moved around more often than not to skip out on rent and other money that they might owe someone. They lived in cars, ate from trashcans, and did about every other thing you can think of to survive. Then Kendrick wasn’t a part of their lives for about four years. Wouldn’t even go to see her at the hospital when she died. And for all the years in between then and her death, very little contact was made between the two of them that Noah could find.”

He looked over at the woman and asked his mom if she knew why. He’d read a story about the mother and the attempted murder just this morning, he told his mom, but it hadn’t said who it was.

“It wouldn’t, I guess. Not back then. I’m still having Noah look into the details. I’m sure that whatever happened, there was money and drugs involved.” Danburn wasn’t sure what to believe about any of them. “You’re going to help her, aren’t you, Danburn? She is going to need you.”

“Me? Her family is in trouble and she just takes off and leaves them. What sort of person does that?” She reached into her purse and handed him a sheet of paper. He didn’t even look at it. “What is that? You’re going to tell me that she had her reasons? That family in this case didn’t matter?”

“Yes, I am. Kendrick was shot when she was ten, when her mother’s boyfriend had had enough of sharing his place with three people who weren’t giving him what he thought they should. She spent seven months in the hospital, and in that time, her mother and sister packed up and left town, without so much as a visit to make sure she lived.” He looked down at the paper. It was an arrest warrant for her mother. “Nettie was told, according to the police report, to shoot her daughters and she could stay with him. The only one that she was able to shoot was that woman there. Shot her in the head twice and left her for dead.”

He read the entire warrant, then looked at Kendrick again. Shot in the head. Broken ribs now, sprained wrist and ankle. A concussion, as well as numerus stitches in her beaten body, and still she came to the rescue of her sister when she needed her. He felt like a fool.

“‘Every so often, someone comes along that has the heart and will of a dragon. When you find them, protect them with your life. Because you never know when greatness will come for you again.’” He looked at his mom when he quoted the saying that his father had said daily to him. “Do you suppose this is the greatness he spoke of?”

“I don’t know, son. I really don’t. But I think that we’ve only scratched the surface on how her life has been up until now.” He nodded and looked back at Kendrick. “You go on back to work now. I’ll stay with her for a time.”

He didn’t want to, but knew that his mom was right. Even with a cleared day, he had things to get done. Sitting around watching someone sleep wasn’t going to get them done either. So, kissing his mom on the cheek, he left. Danburn wondered what the hell he was getting into, but made arrangements to have an entire background check done on the Barrera women. Including the mother. He was going to get to the bottom of this if it was the last thing he did.

~~~

Noah read over the papers twice more before he leaned back in his chair. He’d been working for the English family since long before either this Danburn or any of the others—except the first one—had been born, and this was the first time in his life that he didn’t want to give them the information that they wanted. Well, what the youngest Danburn wanted. He glanced at the picture of the little girl in the picture and shivered. She looked…dead.

It was a picture of Kendrick when she’d been found on the floor of the apartment. The neighbors had called the police when they’d heard the gunshots being fired, and then a woman and a child had fled the place. The first officer on duty had cradled young Kendrick in his arms until the ambulance had arrived, telling her to hang on, that he had her. The first medic had snapped several pictures when he got there. This one had been in her file.

The paperwork on the shooting of Kendrick had been difficult to find. And even what little he’d been able to unearth left more questions than answers. Then he remembered that Joe Bens, a man he’d known for years, worked in records at the same hospital that Kendrick had been taken to when she’d been shot all those years ago.