Free Finding the Dragon (Dásreach Council Book 1) by Josette Reuel

appeared to be headed back to the Jax Brewery. Thank the Great Spirit for small favors.
    Once back at their starting point, the tour was over and their tour guide made sure that no one was driving and everyone was okay to get back to their hotels on their own before going on his own way. The guys watched as the girls stumbled down the street, giggling the whole way back to the Melrose.
    ***
    As he followed the women back down Decatur, his thoughts returned to all of his failures. He was still steamed that the tire hadn’t caused the car to flip. He was sure it would work. What woman knows enough to properly handle a vehicle when a tire blows? Not to mention, the explosive that was supposed to have blown by the gas tank and make the car explode, which didn’t happen either. The device must have been defective. That’s what he got for trusting someone else to purchase his equipment. Live and learn. It wouldn’t happen again.
    The drinking tour would have been a great chance to get his target alone, but between all of the pedestrians and her friends, he couldn’t get near enough to her. When his nerves were beyond frayed and he was tired of waiting, he had pulled down the bill of his cap and approached her. When he had invited her to have a drink in the bar with him, she had declined. It would have been so easy to take her out the back door. He wasn’t the type to give up after only the one pass, but as he was about to work his charm on her, he noticed the man from the airport. What the fuck had he been doing there? He was with a friend that appeared to be pulling him back, but the man seemed determined to get to the woman, so he had taken her denial and pretended to go back to a table with some friends. Good thing people that came to New Orleans expected to be approached by strangers. They had welcomed him for a beer.
    As the night wore on, the airport man and his friend had continued to follow the women. It didn’t appear that he would get close enough tonight to finish the job, but he stuck with them. Maybe he would get a break when they hit Esplanade and he could grab her and drag her into an alley. With the women’s inebriated state, he could slit his target’s throat and be on his way before her friends even cried out.
    He searched for the two men, whom he hadn’t seen for the last half an hour. They had disappeared after the last stop on the tour. It was hard to believe they would give up after staying with the women for so long, but he didn’t understand the minds of other people. Most people worried about what others thought and how others felt. As a mercenary, he didn’t have that problem. It’s one of the things that made him so good at his job. The other was his ability to blend and hide in plain sight.
    Two men were approaching the women on the sidewalk ahead. If he timed it right, he could come up behind the women just after the men passed, which would hide his footsteps until it was too late for her to get away. But, just as he picked up his pace, the two men passed the women and promptly turned around to approach them. Then out of the shadows came two hulking forms. One form reached out with both hands and wrapped them around the necks of the men who were approaching the women. He couldn’t see what the form did, but the two men began to fall to the sidewalk. The two forms caught the men before they hit the ground and carried them into the very alley he had planned to drag his target.
    Fuck. The women had protectors. It had to be the man from the airport and his friend. They obviously were well trained to take out the two men like that. He watched and nothing came out of the alley and the women continued to laugh and stagger down the road to their hotel.
    This was going to be a problem.

Chapter 5
    Al stumbled into her and Rogue’s hotel room, too much to drink and too much talk of one sexy man with a brogue, had her falling to sleep with thoughts of him on her mind.
    *
    Al opened her eyes to a