Ryder walked around her to his chair. He flipped the lid on the box and grabbed a donut. Before taking a bite, he said, “Working side by side, I can monitor you closely.”
Too damn closely for her peace of mind. She’d managed to keep her hands to herself so far, but how much longer could she do that with Ryder so temptingly close?
And that boyish smile? She had missed that so much. With as slow as it was gaining any information on Ulrik, she could be there for days. Weeks. Months, even.
There’s no way she could keep her indifference together that long. She didn’t want Ryder to know that she still pined for him. That would be disastrous. Especially since he’d so easily left her the first time.
Somehow she would have to hold it together. After all, she’d spent the last three years without him. It had been a little easier because he wasn’t in the same room with her just feet away talking to her, smiling at her … looking at her.
There had been a few opportunities for her to move on with her life. She’d met a couple of men who would’ve been good for her, but none of them compared to Ryder.
Now she knew why.
No mortal man could compete with a Dragon King.
Kinsey returned to her chair and sat. Then she grabbed the table and pulled the chair forward. She had to talk, to take her mind off wanting Ryder. “I don’t think Ulrik is in Perth. None of the CCTV cameras have spotted him.”
Ryder pointed to the screen to his far left. All the cameras were pointed at different angles, front and back, to a business called The Silver Dragon. “That’s Ulrik’s business. People have been visiting it all day. He’s there.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that’s where he spends most of his time. Though he has been known to slip out on occasion.”
Kinsey looked at the antiques store. “When was the last time you spoke to Ulrik?”
“Before he was stripped of his magic and banished from Dreagan.”
“Oh. So just a couple million years or so, right?”
Ryder chuckled. “Right.”
“Have none of you tried talking to him?”
“Aye. A few of us, but it doesna do any good. Ulrik willna be dissuaded from his path.”
Kinsey looked at one of the pictures of Ulrik. He was in a black suit and pale gray shirt. He didn’t wear a tie, preferring to leave the dress shirt unbuttoned at the top. His black hair was pulled back in a queue, and his gold gaze was directed off to the left.
The people on the sidewalk gave him a wide berth, as if they sensed the lethal, caged animal within. He didn’t have what she would call a cruel expression, just one that let others know he wasn’t to be trifled with for any reason.
She couldn’t imagine how it felt to have the one place she had always called home forbidden to her. How that must sting. But it couldn’t be as bad as having those she considered her family turn their backs on her.
“I wonder if I’d feel differently in his place,” Kinsey said. “We’re talking millions of years walking around as a human. The very beings he blames for everything. That was beyond cruel.”
Ryder made a sound at the back of his throat. “We couldna allow him to shift, Kins. He’d kill humans.”
“But to take away the one thing he was?” she asked as she slid her gaze to Ryder. “How would you feel if you were unable to shift?”
“All Dragon Kings are essentially grounded right now with MI5 on the property. We know exactly how Ulrik feels.”
“So you don’t shift at all?”
He looked away briefly. “We go into the mountain when we need to be in our true forms.”
It’s what she’d thought. “I’m not trying to take Ulrik’s side. I’m only attempting to sort through all of this.”
“There’s nothing to sort through,” he stated tersely. “You were no’ there. You didna see the slaughter of our dragons or watch them leave this realm, possibly forever. If Ulrik had only stopped killing mortals it might no’ have come to that.”
Kinsey turned back to her screen. She hadn’t meant to upset Ryder, and he was right. She hadn’t been there. However, that didn’t mean she couldn’t see when something was wrong.
Had the Kings been wrong to banish Ulrik?
Possibly.
Had they been erroneous in binding his magic?
Not at the time, no.
Had they been mistaken in keeping him away from Dreagan and all those who could possibly help mend the hate within him?
Definitely.
But she couldn’t tell Ryder that. He wouldn’t wish to hear it. None of the Dragon Kings would. Not to mention Kinsey wasn’t all fired up to piss off men who could shift into massive beasts who breathed fire. So, she would keep her thoughts to herself.
She decided to pretend Ryder wasn’t there. It was easier than thinking of how she missed the way he used to move her hair off one shoulder and kiss the spot toward the back of her neck.