Doctor Dragon's Fake Bride (Irish Dragon Shifter Brothers Book 2) Page 5

  The man struggled harder, then finally started to nod. “Yes. Yes. Let me go,” he said. Quinn could understand him even though it was muffled.

  Quinn let his eyes go yellow. “Don’t push me. I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

  He let go of the man, and the man crumpled to a heap on the ground. Quinn stood over him, waiting. Eventually, the man got to his knees and then his feet. He shot a terrified look at Quinn and then took off running. It was a slow run, and he was limping, but at least he was getting the hell out of there. Quinn watched him go, listening to his receding footsteps to make sure he was really leaving. He must have parked his car far away.

  Once Quinn could no longer hear or see the man, he went back inside.

  “Juliana?” He could hear her breathing. Her heart was racing, and she was taking quick, shallow breaths, but he didn’t smell any blood. He found her sitting on the floor in the living area with her back pressed against the wall. He sat down in front of her but didn’t touch her. “Juliana. Are you okay? Do I need to call 911?”

  She shook her head. “No. I’m fine.”

  “Okay. You’re going to hyperventilate if you’re not careful.” Quinn put one hand on her forearm, hoping it would ground her. “I need you to breathe with me.”

  He inhaled, taking a long, slow, deep breath. Juliana copied him. She breathed in, getting more air than she had been.

  “I’m going to call Brennan, okay? He’s going to want to find that guy and arrest him.” Quinn said.

  “No. I don’t want to put Brennan in danger.”

  “He’s the sheriff. It’s in his job description.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “Not for this guy. Don’t call him.”

  Through his years as a family doctor, Quinn had learned when to back off and change tactics when dealing with terrified patients who were traumatized. “What do you need?”

  She closed her eyes. “I don’t know. To not have this happen.”

  “Juliana, we can still find this guy. It’s not too late. I need to know why you’re scared of him,” Quinn said, keeping his voice calm, even though he wanted nothing more than to stand up, roar, and punch a hole through the brick wall.

  “No. Please don’t. I refuse to put you in danger. I could never forgive myself.”

  It was supremely unfair that he couldn’t share who he was with her, and it wasn’t right that he couldn’t rip that guy’s head from his body, but he was going to respect her wishes.

  “Can we go sit down somewhere else?” she asked.

  Good idea. She was probably fucking uncomfortable sitting on the floor. “Why don’t we go over to my house? Is that okay?”

  “Please,” she said.

  He lifted her carefully to her feet and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He guided her through the front door, closing it as much as possible. It looked like he’d managed to loosen the hinges when he’d burst into her house.

  His own front door was still standing open. He hadn’t wanted to waste time closing it.

  “How’d you hear me?” she asked.

  “I got up to get a drink of water,” he said. It was a lie, but he could hardly tell her the truth—that his hearing was much better than a human’s because he was a dragon shifter.

  “Wow.” She looked over at the wall. “These houses are pretty well insulated, so that’s impressive. I’m so glad you have good hearing.”

  Quinn didn’t want to force her to talk about something she didn’t want to discuss, but he needed to know what was going on. “I want to know who that was and what he was doing.”

  She dropped her gaze to the ground. “Once we’re in your house, I’ll tell you.”

  9

  Juliana

  Was she really going to tell Quinn about her family? About Mihal and the arranged marriage? Yeah, she fucking was. He’d just saved her life and saved her from marrying that creep back in Boston. Having Quinn lead her to his house with his arms wrapped around her felt like a miracle.

  He risked his own life to save yours. He deserves to know the truth.

  That line repeated in her head every few seconds. He helped her sit down on the couch and brought her a glass of water, which she gulped down.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “First off,” he said, “I need to make sure you don’t have a concussion. Did you hit your head at all?”

  “I can’t believe you have to ask me this again. It was embarrassing enough the first time after I fell off a ladder.”

  “Don’t be embarrassed. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

  “No, I didn’t hit my head. I don’t think.”

  He shined a penlight into her eyes and ran his hands over her head. “No bumps,” he said. “What else?”

  She shuddered. “He didn’t hit me. He threw me over his shoulder, and I bit him, and—”

  “You bit him?” he asked.

  “Yes. I also tried to knee him between the legs, and I pulled on his ears, too.”

  “That’s amazing,” Quinn said.

  “It wasn’t going to be enough. If you hadn’t shown up, he’d have me in his car right now.”

  Quinn joined her on the couch. “Hey. You’re safe now.”

  “Maybe for now. But not for good.”

  “All right. Tell me. I don’t want to push you, but if I’m going to keep you safe, I need to know details.”

  “Will you tell Brennan?” she asked him.

  “No. I won’t tell him anything you tell me without permission.”

  “Thank you,” Juliana said. “I don’t even know where to start. I know I told you I’m from Maine, but that wasn’t true. I’m from Boston. My family is Romanian, as you can probably tell from my name. That guy in my house was working for my father. He sent him to bring me home.”

  “Your father sent that man?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why would he do something like that?” Quinn asked.

  “He’s in the mafia.”

  “What?” The disbelief was clear in his voice.

  “Yes. I know. It sounds like a soap opera.” It sounded crazy even to her, and she’d lived it. “My father and my entire family are members of the Romanian Mafia.” She rubbed her eyes. “I’ve never said that out loud before.”

  Quinn blinked a few times. She bet he wasn’t expecting that.

  “So why would your father send a thug to bring you home? Why wouldn’t he find you himself?” he asked.

  “He’s rich, really rich, and he’s got a position of power within our family. It would be beneath him to travel down to Texas and try to find me.”

  “You’re twenty-five. Why doesn’t he just accept that you’ve moved?”

  “My family doesn’t just accept things,” she explained. “Not if it’s not to their benefit.”

  “You’re going to have to spell it out for me. How is having you there to their benefit?”

  How the fuck was she supposed to explain this? “I’m seen as a valuable commodity within the organization. I’m the daughter of one of the upper-level mobsters, and I’m a virgin. Which you know.”

  Quinn seemed to need time to process that, too. To his credit, he seemed genuinely confused. It was as if he couldn’t imagine how her virginity could possibly matter.

  “What does that have to do with your family?” he asked.

  This admission brought nothing but total humiliation. “It makes me worth more.”

  Quinn swore.

  “I left because they told me I had to get married,” Juliana said. “They arranged the whole thing. I’ve met the guy, but I barely know him, and he’s fifteen years older than I am.”

  “No one can force you to marry him. I won’t let it happen.” He put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a brief squeeze. “I’m a doctor, Brennan’s the sheriff, Kellan’s rich as hell, and Liam’s a lawyer. I promise, whatever hold they have on you, we can figure it out.”

  Quinn was so sweet, and he was tough, and he’d shown that he coul
d beat the hell out of someone just a little while ago, but that wouldn’t be enough up against the brutality of her family.

  “That’s really nice of you, but I don’t know if it can be stopped. My family doesn’t care about the law. The threat of lawsuits and arrests don’t intimidate them, not in the same way they would other people. They will stop at nothing to get what they want. And that’s me.”

  “I won’t accept that there’s no way to stop this,” he said. “If we have to move you into a safe house and hunt every one of these fuckers down, we’ll do it.”

  Again, his commitment was noble, and she adored him for it, but she wasn’t going to let him ruin his life over this. “They aren’t all dumb like that guy was. Some will use other methods. They’ll destroy your credit. Or try to report you to the medical association. Or file fake police reports. They’re evil, and they know what they’re doing.”

  “Again, the benefit of having a billionaire friend. I don’t like to ask Kellan for help often, but for this, I’ll make an exception,” Quinn said.

  “I appreciate that. I really do. But they’ll just escalate until they get what they want.” She paused. She had an idea, but it was crazy. “There might be one way,” she said.

  “What is it?”

  “I could marry someone else. Once I’m off the market, the incentive disappears.”

  “Getting married will solve this? They won’t still come after you?” he asked.

  “Once I’m no longer a virgin, they definitely won’t want me.” She shrugged. “I won’t be worth any money to Mihal.”

  If she could find someone to marry her, then maybe that would be step one of her plan to escape for good. Her obvious choice for a fake marriage would be Quinn, but there was no way she was going to ask him for that, not after all he’d done for her.

  10

  Quinn

  His dragon roared at the idea of her marrying someone else.

  “We’re going to figure this out. I’m not going to let them near you again,” he said. Quinn was uniquely suited to deal with this threat. A bunch of human mobsters, no matter how tough, were unlikely to harm him. However, they could harm Juliana.

  Like hell, she was going to marry some other man. If she wanted to get married, then he’d be the one to marry her.

  Part of him thought his marrying her would antagonize them into coming after her again, but if he and his brothers were ready, they could thwart any threat that came to Cedar Lake. He knew what it was like to live in fear. He knew what it was like to be haunted by the past. He’d watched his entire clan be destroyed by witches when he was only seventeen. Again, recently, when Kellan had gone to Scotland for work, he’d almost lost Kellan, and Declan and Clara, too. Those same witches had kidnapped Clara and Declan and threatened their lives.

  He was not willing to allow Juliana to live that nightmare now. Not with him around.

  “I’ll marry you,” he said.

  “What?”

  “If you think a fake marriage will help, I’ll do it.”

  “Am I hearing this right? You want to marry me?” she asked.

  “Yes. We can get married, and I have some contacts that work in security. We’ll figure out how to stop this.”

  “That’s really nice of you, but I can’t put you in danger in that way.”

  Again, he cursed the fact that he couldn’t tell her the truth, but it was too soon. “We can apply for a marriage license tomorrow,” he said. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise.”

  “You’re really willing to do this?”

  “Yes.”

  “Even if it destroys your career and your medical practice?” she asked.

  “Yes. If your family sends others and it becomes dangerous for the residents here, then you and I will leave together.”

  When he said that, she put her head in her hands and started to cry.

  In all the weeks he’d known her, he hadn’t seen her cry yet. He longed to comfort her. He sat next to her and put his arm around her shoulders again and was rewarded with her resting her head on his shoulder.

  Finally, she sniffed and wiped her face off. “Our relationship can be fake, but the marriage has to be legal. So we will have to apply for a license.” She sat up, taking her head off his shoulder. “Tomorrow’s too soon. It has to look real. Believe me, they’ll look into it.”

  “What’s the most believable timeline?” he asked.

  “I think a month from now. I’ve been here for several weeks. We met right away, and you helped me after I broke my arm. So we’ll say we’ve been dating all this time. No one will know that’s not true.”

  People would believe they were dating because they really had acted as though they were dating. Quinn had even felt like they were headed in that direction, more than once. Now was not the time to press Juliana about her choice for them to remain just friends, though.

  “I’ll ask you to marry me. I’ll do it publicly,” he said, even though he found the idea of a public proposal distasteful.

  He was practical, more so than many of the shifters he’d grown up with who were driven by their emotions. He’d never liked watching public proposals. He knew some people loved them, but he’d always thought they should be private. None of his preferences mattered right now, though. Only Juliana’s safety mattered.

  “We can get engaged a week from now,” she said. “That could be realistic.”

  “And we’ll have the ceremony in one month.”

  She scrunched up her nose. “That’s really fast.”

  “You can hire a wedding planner,” he said. “I know Clara will help, too.”

  “I can do that,” she said. “But there’s a finance issue. I have a degree in accounting, and I used to work at one of the family businesses, so I had some money saved up. I took a lot of cash with me when I left, but it’s almost gone.”

  Quinn patted her leg. “Don’t worry about the cost. I may not be a billionaire, but I have plenty of money saved up.”

  “I’ll get a job again,” she assured him. “I’d planned to do something locally first, so I could get to know people. I didn’t think my family would find me so quickly.”

  His dragon rared up, ready to claw his way out. The shifter side of him needed to be able to provide for her. “Do not worry about money,” he said. His voice was way harsher than he intended, so he took a deep breath.

  Juliana sighed. “It’s hard not to worry about it. My family uses it as a weapon against everyone. Their enemies. Their relatives. Their own daughter.”

  “I can easily handle everything you need, but I will need to tell my brothers. Not about the marriage being fake but about the potential threat.”

  “As long as they don’t try to go after him.”

  Quinn still didn’t fully understand why she didn’t want him going after her family’s hired thugs, but he would respect her wishes. “They won’t. I promise. You can trust them.”

  Quinn had always been proud of that. He trusted his brothers completely, and she could, too.

  Quinn didn’t waste a second. At sunrise the next day, he texted his brothers.

  I need your help. Come to my house before work.

  They usually met at the cafe or the lake to hash out their problems, but there was no way he was going to leave Juliana alone. She’d gone to take a hot bath, and he started making coffee. Not all shifters liked the taste, but he’d grown to enjoy it.

  Within fifteen minutes, Liam, Brennan, and Kellan showed up. Kellan still had on a t-shirt and shorts, but the other two looked ready to face the day, even at this early hour. Liam had on the suit he wore to court, and Brennan had on his sheriff’s uniform.

  Brennan nearly yanked the door off the hinges. “What the hell is going on?”

  Liam walked straight to Quinn and put his hands on his shoulders. “Are you okay?” He paused to scent the air. “I can smell a woman.”

  Kellan tilted his head. “Is that Juliana? Is she here?”

  “Yes,” Quinn said
. “Everybody sit down.”

  After way more scuffling than was necessary, Liam sat on the sofa, and Kellan grabbed one of the kitchen chairs, but Brennan remained standing in the foyer.

  He crossed his arms. “Don’t fucking tell me to sit down. You texted us at ass o’clock in the morning with no explanation. I want to know what’s wrong. Is it the witches?”

  “No. It’s not the witches. I should have said that.” Quinn poured the coffee into four mugs, even though he knew only Liam would drink some.

  “What is it?” Kellan asked. “A problem with the vampires? The Fae? Do I need to go get Clara and Declan?”

  “No. It’s a human problem.”

  Brennan sank onto the sofa, sitting down beside Liam while Quinn sat down on the hearth.

  “Humans? Really?” Brennan asked.

  “Yes, humans.” Quinn pointed at Brennan. “Keep your voice down. First off, Juliana and I are dating.”

  “Congrats, man,” Brennan hopped up and slapped Quinn on the back. “Quick work.”

  Quinn punched him in the arm. “Show some respect, please.”

  Brennan held both hands up. “Sorry, man. You know we like her.”

  They had better like her. “Second, Juliana grew up in a Romanian family that’s an integral part of the Romanian Mafia in Boston. When she arrived here, she’d just escaped their control.”

  “Damn,” Kellan said. “That sucks.”

  “Yes, it does. As you know, Juliana lives in the house next door. Last night, I heard her screaming. I raced over, and I found a man inside her house. He was trying to force her to leave with him.”

  Kellan’s face went pale. Quinn nodded at him. “I know you understand what that’s like.”

  Kellan swallowed hard. “Yeah, I do.”

  “Is she okay?” Liam asked.

  “Mostly. She fought back, but he was huge,” Quinn said. “I got there, and I got rid of him, but she wouldn’t let me have him arrested. She thinks her family will come after us, too.”

  Brennan cracked his knuckles, and his eyes glowed yellow. “Just let them.”