Page 4 of Dragon Charmed

“I try.” Walter rubbed his hands together. “It’s settled then. Time to get you out into the world. Larry can hook you up.”

Ben couldn’t have heard him right. “What did you just say?”

Walter smiled. “When Larry comes up here to drop off supplies, I’ll have him take you back to town. He knows people who know people. They can set you up.”

“Larry Cooper who comes up here every six weeks or so with toilet paper and toothpaste knows people who know people?”

“Yep. I expect him to show up in the next few days.”

“And what are these people going to set me up with?”

“They can set you up with an ID.”

Ben shook his head. “No—”

Walter held up his hand. “Son, you don’t have any identification. You can’t do anythin’ without some sort of ID. Do you want to go to the cops and ask them to figure out who you are?”

Hell no. Even with Walter insisting he wasn’t a bad guy, Ben didn’t think it was smart to walk into a police station until he knew what his name was and why the hell he was hauling around fifty thousand dollars. He shook his head.

Walter continued. “I figured as much. At least you got money to help you get around for now. And before you protest again, I know you don’t want to use the money. Until you know who you are or where it came from, you have to use some of it to go out into the world.”

He couldn’t keep the grin off his face at Walter’s enthusiasm. He was an interesting guardian angel, if Ben believed in that sort of thing.

“Now put all that money back and go wash up for lunch.”

Ben’s grin slipped away as he put the stacks of money in the bag. Carrying around cash like this couldn’t be a good thing. And someone had tried to kill him—whether that was due to something he did or didn’t do ultimately didn’t matter if they came after him to finish the job.

Chapter 2

Tessa Stuart was a woman of action, or so she told herself on numerous occasions. Today she was going to have to “take care of business,” as her momma would say. Tessa stood at the side of the studio as the photo shoot slowly but ever so steadily spun out of control. Since Tessa had modeled from fourteen until the ripe old age of twenty-five, the signs of impending carnage were apparent to her.

The photographer was using his exasperated voice, and if she didn’t step in soon, it would escalate to helium-induced heights. The makeup artists circled the models, powdering any skin showing—which was considerable. The fashion assistants sewed and glued the clothes to the models to make sure that considerable didn’t turn into excessive.

Tessa blew out a breath and pasted a smile on her face as she made her way to the photographer. “Charles, what can I do to help?” Now Tessa knew what the problem was, but she wanted Charles to feel like he was weighing in before she addressed said issue.

Charles smile-grimaced at her. And that was a thing—most people called it fake smiling, but Tessa didn’t see the point in sugarcoating it.

“Kayla isn’t listening,” he hissed. “There’s a difference between looking sexy and looking like you ate something foul.”

Tessa coughed to stop the laugh that threatened to erupt. She patted his arm. “Let me talk to her.”

He nodded and turned to his assistant to converse about what filters to use for the next pictures. Tessa walked over to the set that was decorated like a seventies flashback. The raven-haired model Tessa needed to speak with sat on the couch, having her lips redone by the makeup artist.

Upon Tessa’s approach, the model sighed dramatically. “How much longer is this going to take?”

“Well, Kayla, that depends on you,” Tessa said in as even a tone as she could muster. Her inside-head voice was using a different decibel.

The model sat up from her slouch. “If I get to decide, then I would have called this an hour ago.”

Tessa turned to the makeup artist and smiled. “Can you give us a moment, Anna?”

Anna grabbed her brushes and headed at an impressive speed across the room—smart woman. Tessa had always liked working with Anna.

“Kayla, you don’t get to decide when this is over. But you do get to decide how you want the rest of this to play out.”

“Charles is being impossible,” Kayla announced before sticking out her bottom lip.

Seriously?