“The hell you aren’t. I see the way you look at her. It’s the same way I look at Marian. I can’t live without her, Beck. And I don’t think you can live without Sierra either.”
Harrison had a point. A world without Sierra was about as pleasant as a mattress made out of vipers.
But it was still better than the alternative: a world where she was dead.
“At least stay here until you’re sober,” Harrison urged. “Don’t go drunk flying again.”
But it was already too late, Beck realized as he slumped through the door and out into the yard.
His dragon was coming out, and it would do as it pleased. As usual.
19
Sierra popped open a new box of tissues as the soft blue light of the TV filtered across her living room, showcasing the movie she had been watching.
It was a romance, one of her go-tos when she was sad. Her favorite thing about it was that all the characters got a happy ending. Now, however, the ending was tinged with jealously and longing for the cowboy she would never have.
Happy endings only happened in movies. Real life gave brief, fleeting moments of happiness, only to cruelly swipe them away without a moment’s notice.
That had been Beck. Her moments with him had been the most beautiful in her life by far. Dancing with him, sleeping with him, spending time with him.
With every moment, the wonderfully handsome, gruff man had infused her world with life and color that she had been missing for years.
And now he was gone, and as much as she respected him, she still couldn’t fathom his reasons for leaving.
Just as the credits were about to roll, Sierra heard a knock at the door. She wiped her eyes a few more times in an attempt to make herself look presentable, then got up to answer it, wondering who it was.
To her surprise, it was TJ standing there in his work jeans and flannel shirt.
“Hey,” he said, peeking through the door. “Seen Beck anywhere?”
She shook her head, tears still biting at her eyes.
“That’s odd. I was supposed to meet him at Dragonclaw, but he wasn’t there,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Well, I’m sure you could go wait for him there,” Sierra said, folding her arms and going to shut the door.
She almost succeeded, but he caught the door and pried it open. “Wait,” he said. “I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. I know you two care about each other. I promise to look out for him.”
That didn’t make any sense to Sierra. Beck changed his mind and left shortly after talking to TJ, so obviously, he had something to do with it. How could TJ watch out for Beck when he was taking him away from someone who loved him?
She didn’t have time to say anything, however, because he pushed the door open and strode confidently into her living room, looking around like he owned the place.
“I presume you won’t have problems from Ross anymore,” he said. “I talked to him.”
“Oh yeah,” Sierra said, uncomfortable. She still wasn’t at all sure how he could have done it. The Clarksons were as greedy as they were stubborn, and they’d been that way for generations. “How did you manage to convince them?”
He shrugged. “Gentlemanly chat. They came around after a while.”
Sierra didn’t believe it. “You must be thirsty. Can I get you some water? I’ll be right back.”
“That would be nice, thank you.”
She nodded and went into the kitchen, grateful to be away from the person that was making Beck leave her. But as she was filling up a cup from the refrigerator, her phone began to buzz.
Perplexed, she picked it up and held it to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Sierra? Thank goodness I could get ahold of you.” It was her friend Susan, who she often saw when she went to town. She sounded frantic. “Have you heard the news?”
Sierra frowned as she held the phone against her shoulder and went back to filling up the water cup. “Susan, calm down. What’s going on?”
“Ross is in the hospital!” Susan exclaimed. “They found him and his daddy severely injured. Someone tortured them, but they won’t say who. Seems like they got mixed up in something messy.”
Sierra blinked and lowered the phone from her ear, the pieces of the mental puzzle all clicking into place.
So that’s how TJ got the letters signed, she thought, ice-cold fear in her heart as she realized the same man was now in her house.
“But it could be someone or something bad is loose in town, so I wanted to let you know so you could stay safe,” Susan said.
“Thanks, Susan. I appreciate it so much.” She was about to go on, but she heard footsteps behind her. “I gotta go. Stay safe! Bye.”
She managed to end the call and stuff her phone back into her pocket by the time TJ walked into the kitchen, eying her curiously.
“Taking a long time to fill a glass of water,” he joked, moving closer to her. His easy smile turned to a frown. “You look pale. Is something wrong?”
Sierra stepped back nervously and feigned a smile. “No, nothing wrong. Just a lot happened today.”
“Ah, so Beck told you about the mudslide, then,” TJ said, nodding. “Did he also tell you about him being a dragon?”
“Yes, he did,” she replied, taking another step back. “But it didn’t matter to me. I love him either way.”
Was she just imagining it, or had TJ’s eyes almost looked gleeful when he had mentioned the mudslide?
“So you’re both dragons,” she said. “And you were there when it happened, right?” She hadn’t imagined it. As soon as the word “mudslide” left her mouth, a gleeful expression crossed his face, but it was gone a second later.
“I was,” he said, covering it with a solemn shake of his head. “It was a truly unfortunate day. I can still hear the screams of the townspeople.”
But the tone of his voice didn’t make it sound like it was unfortunate. No, he almost sounded like he was… wistful.
Sierra couldn’t take it anymore, and the words spewed from her mouth. “Then why weren’t you able to help him stop? Why didn’t you watch out the night of the mudslide? You saw it happen, or at least you say you saw Beck do it. But if that were the case, why didn’t you stop him? You’re the only one who knows, so how did it happen?”
He stared at her, his dark-blue eyes black and dead in that moment, but he didn’t say anything.
“Beck blames himself for everything.” She continued. “But if there’s one thing I can’t picture that man doing, it’s killing innocent people. Not even as a dragon, if he actually is one of those things.”
Suddenly, TJ’s eyes bulged with anger. “You know nothing! I couldn’t have stopped him even if I wanted to.”
Sierra took another step back, slowly growing more and more nervous by the minute. “But what did he do?”
TJ took another step closer, backing her up farther.
“Beck said you were also a dragon, but what kind are you?” she asked.
He laughed bitterly. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not the type that could’ve stopped Beck. His dragon is monstrously powerful. Giant, even compared to other dragons. I would never stand a chance going up against him.”