Page 28 of Red Dragon’s Heart

“What kind of deal?”

“You may not be able to convince human law enforcement that Chisholm’s done anything wrong, but I have contacts on the Shifter Council. If I give them the proof you’ve collected, and tell them your story, they’ll take him down without hesitation. And exonerate you to the FBI. They have contacts at the highest levels of the US government.”

They’d probably insist on wiping her memory of all trace of shifters, but he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.

She said, “And in return?”

“Same as before. Whatever Chisholm’s pet dragon did to me, I want you to undo it. Once you do, I’ll present your case to the Council.”

Madeleine protested, “That could take months!”

“You have something better to do?”

He jerked his head at one of the silent computer screens, where a local news feed was replaying footage from last night, of the ruined warehouse where Madeleine had set her trap. It was surrounded by cops and emergency vehicles. Her ID picture flashed on the screen as a suspect.

“And you do what I say,” he added. “I’m not having them find you, and drag you off or kill you before you’re done.”

She watched the screen for a minute, and then straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. He could almost feel the determination flooding through her, and his estimation of her went up. She was a fighter, and she didn’t give up.

He didn’t want to like her, but he was starting to.

“All right,” she said finally. “I’ll try.” She paused, then added, “It’s not right, what they did to you.”

Damn straight it wasn’t. “So we have a deal?”

She stood up and walked over to him, holding out her hand so they could shake on it. “We have a deal.”

He took her hand, and an electric current ran up his arm. She started, like she felt it too, and their eyes met for a timeless moment.

Fuck. Zak dropped her hand. “Okay,” he said, hoping he wasn’t going to regret this. “I’ll show you the lab.”

Chapter 14

Zakerek ushered Madeleine into the lab that he’d constructed and equipped during the time he was hunting her down and planning her capture. It was everything an evil scientist—or even a not-so-evil one—could want: temperature controlled, pressure-negative, state-of-the-art, with all the safety features humans required. It also locked from the outside, which he chose not to mention.

He’d spared no expense, since he wasn’t the one paying for it. He still had King Emon’s black titanium credit card, and it turned out Cazbek hadn’t been kidding when said the black cards had no credit limit. Although, Zak had been a little bit surprised that Emon had let the charges go through without question.

But he hadn’t called or messaged, which meant he still hadn’t forgiven Zakerek for what had happened with Kendra.

Zakerek forgot all that, though, when he saw Madeleine’s face as she entered the lab—she lit up like the proverbial kid in a candy store. She examined all the equipment, booted up the computers, ran her hands over the worktops as though imagining all the things she’d create there.

It gave him an odd feeling in the middle of his chest, watching her look like he’d given her the best present ever.

Finally she turned to him and said, “This is amazing. I’ve never worked in a lab this nice. It must have cost a fortune.”

Her happiness made him uncomfortable. “No problem. I robbed a bank.” He folded his arms and practiced looking dangerous and forbidding.

Madeleine said, “I thought you mythical dragons had caves full of gold.”

“We do. I just didn’t spend mine on you.”

Some of the shine went out of her face, which made him feel bad.

That pissed him off. He said rude things to people all the time, and he made it a point never to feel bad about the annoying shit he did. It took all the fun out of it.

If having this female around was going to make him feel bad about being a dick, then this whole deal was going to be torture.

Madeleine said, “Since you’re dictating the terms of this deal, I’m assuming you’re not going to let me live at home, and commute here every day.”