Leif: Dragon Protectors, #3

By Ava Benton

Melanie Jacobs has transported hundreds of prisoners across state lines.

She has never, ever been taken hostage by a prisoner.

Until now.

When an emergency call is circulated about a cop in trouble, dragon shifter Leif pushes aside his own issues to get out there before it's too late.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ABP
• Release date: May 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393362401

Book preview

1

Mel

M elanie Jacobs, huh?

My eyes met his in the rearview mirror through the metal mesh that separated us. I could have corrected him. I could have told him that he was welcome to call me Officer Jacobs if he was going to call me anything, but instead, I chose silence. I wasn’t going to give this criminal the opportunity to try to get in my head.

My fingers tightened around the steering wheel so hard the leather squeaked faintly. I hadn’t become an officer to chauffer criminals around. This was easily my least favorite part of the job, but it needed to be done, and I’d done it time and again without issue.

I sped toward the setting sun in a race I could only lose as the clouds ignited into golden splendor. Usually, sunsets bored me. Sure, they’re pretty, but if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, right? But this sunset had me on edge.

Maybe I shouldn’t have told the boss I liked to drive when I’d hit my desk as a fresh-faced young woman excited for her new job on the force. In mind’s eye, I recalled the slight crinkle at the corners of his eyes as his bushy gray eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch. Since then, I’d found myself on transportation duty whenever there was a solitary person to transport.

Tonight, though… tonight was different.

Something in my stomach twisted up. Everything about tonight felt… wrong. I couldn’t explain it, but from the moment my partner, Ryder, came down with food poisoning, to this very second, everything seemed off.

Off in the distance on the road behind me, a pair of headlights peeked over a slight incline, and I studied them. I’d never made a trip like this alone, and nothing was sitting right. Not my chatty prisoner. Not the headlights behind me. Not the sunset burning like wildfire over the horizon.

I guess you’re the bad cop, huh? The criminal in the back seat shifted, his eyes so black I wondered if his pupils had somehow consumed his entire iris.

The little hairs on my arms stood on end, and I glanced at the lights behind us. But they weren’t catching up or falling behind. Still, with every nerve ending in my body popping off, I wasn’t about to discount anything.

I shouldn’t have made this run alone.

Still, keeping on schedule is something I’m very stubborn about. I said I’d get this guy there tomorrow morning around six am, and that’s what I’m going to do.

Where’s your partner? The guy shifted again, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror, a slight smile tugging the corners of his lips. "Or were you just dying to be alone with me?"

I ignored him, focusing on the road instead. The old highway wasn’t traveled much thanks to the interstate running parallel to it. And since the interstate had a speed limit of sixty-five and the old highway had a speed limit of fifty-five, most people preferred the interstate instead, of course.

I’d come across savvy truckers that knew about these roads having a lot less traffic and being much less eyeballed by cops, but casual traffic generally avoided this route.

Which made it perfect for transporting less than desirable persons.

I’ve seen how you look at me, baby. You like bad boys. Admit it.

I held back the urge to roll my eyes. Not only did I not like bad boys, but I also wasn’t sure what I liked. I never really dated and beyond a few chaste kisses in high school and the realization that I felt nothing for the boy kissing me, I hadn’t wasted time with anyone. Instead, I focused on my career. Now, at twenty-five, I wondered if it was too late to make up for all that lost time.

You’re pretty hot, you know. For a pig. His dark chuckle didn’t bother me. I knew he was trying to dig at me, trying to piss me off. I wasn’t going for it. The guy was a damned criminal being transferred to another jail for his sentencing. He’d been found guilty. What weight did his opinion really carry?

Not that it mattered, but hot wasn’t a word I’d use to describe myself. My thick brown hair liked to fall into loose, messy waves, and my large brown eyes were a bit too big and a bit too… well… brown. My blue-eyed sissy used to say I had mud-brown eyes, and I had to agree. But mud isn’t pretty, so…

Still, I didn’t give a damn what this guy said or thought.

The last bit of light at the edge of the horizon finally gave up and blinked out as the stars twinkled in the sky. The nearly-full moon hung low, bathing everything in a silvery glow as I switched to low beams.

A trucker rumbled past the opposite direction, and I checked the rearview. The vehicle behind me had closed a bit of the gap, and the tension in my neck wound even tighter. Flipping my high beams on again, I focused on the road.

How about some tunes?

I didn’t want anything to take my attention off the task at hand. If Ryder was here, we’d listen to music and sing loudly, off-key and generally enjoy ourselves. Ryder, typically stoic and reserved, had learned to cut loose with me, and I did the same. He was a nice guy, and his wife made the best pumpkin sugar cookies I’d ever tasted.

You know, you should be nicer to people. Otherwise, someone might remember you when they get out.

The barely veiled threat prickled across my skin, and I silently reminded myself that I was the one with the gun and that this bastard was likely never getting out of prison.

He leaned forward so close I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. And who knows what someone might do to a pretty little thing like you if they were mad.

I could have told him it’s a crime to threaten an officer. But something told me that the criminal in the back seat had little to no regard for the law… obviously. Why waste my breath?

Maybe you’re just a mute. Are you autistic? He arched an eyebrow. Retarded, maybe?

What a delightful human being.

Still, I knew he was trying to annoy me. It’s a common tactic. I’d had people beg me to let them go, threaten my life if I delivered them, or even make jokes about me, my partner, my size, whatever.

I kept my eyes on the road and exhaled as the trees on either side of the road closed in a bit too much for comfort. The shoulder disappeared, and everything narrowed as the trees pressed right up to the edges of concrete.

Trimmed branches jutted toward the white line, and I prayed that no trucker would come along right now, because being sandwiched between a trucker and the trees might be a bit much for me. I’d never made this drive in the dark like this, and I internally swore I never would again. Especially not alone except for a loudmouthed idiot in the back seat.

The trees opened up as quickly as they closed in, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

You look good when you exhale. And you’ve got me all locked up. He held up his cuffed hands. How about you stop this car, and you get on your knees and—

I tapped the brakes, and he slid forward on the seat before catching himself, the panic in his eyes warming something deep in me. A smile tugged the corners of my lips as I focused on the road. The vehicle behind me had fallen further behind, and a sense that everything would be fine washed over me.

You’re a bitch. I’ll remember that. His glare filled the rearview, but I shrugged it off. Sure, he was dangerous, but he was back there, cuffed, and I was behind the wheel with a gun on my hip.

My gaze swept the road, and the trees flying by as my high beams lit up both sides of the road. Something flashed off to the right and hit the car, like we’d collided with another vehicle. The wheel ripped right out of my hands as the whole dash came at me. I reached out as if I could stop the crushing by simply holding back the destroyed plastic as the whole world upended.

The sickening sensation of rolling over and over filled my throat with bile, and the deafening screech of metal protesting as it crunched in on itself screamed in my ears. As the world closed in tight like I was being locked in a metal box being crushed by monster truck, I struggled to breathe.

We hit something, and the destroyed shell of the car violently pitched to a stop.