Free Her Dragon Billionaire by Lizzie Lynn Lee Page A

flesh like worms from hell that sought new fertile ground to subsist and breed.
    She tried to speak again, but her mouth frothed with blood and saliva, making her speech garbled.
    As she sprawled on the wet June grass, she prayed the pain would go away. Minutes passed by and she still hadn’t died.
    Every nerve-tip in her body screamed pain.
    Darkness crept into her field of vision.
    Eva shut her eyes. A tear leaked down her cheek.
    Die already , she thought with exasperation. I’m ready …
    The man who shot her kicked her in the stomach and pushed her into the river. In the depth of the watery abyss, Eva felt the shroud of the angel of death slowly envelop her weak and broken body.
    She surrendered.

Chapter One
     
    Liam Caderyn wondered what was wrong with his dog. Hades, the rescued golden retriever he had adopted from a no-kill shelter a year ago had been restless since dinner time. He whined and scratched the back door repeatedly. Liam didn’t let him out because of the rain. When the downpour finally subsided, he opened the door to take him for his evening walk. Hades bounded to the backyard toward the wooded area like a loose arrow, not heeding his master’s calls.
    Rain had been pouring since morning, leaving the grass on his vast property soggy and squishy under his boots. Liam didn’t mind the wet. He liked the smell of the earth after rain: dense, musky, a cornucopia of steeped leaves and dirt tea, a scent of mystery and a new beginning. He just didn’t like the mud that Hades would track back into the house. The old pup would need a bath before bed time, and honestly, grooming a long-haired retriever was more time-consuming than caring for his sister’s toddler. Liam babysat Caitlyn’s son Brandon once in a while. To tell the truth, the two-year old was less of a handful than his spoiled dog.
    “Hades!” Liam called. “Come here, boy.”
    The dog whined somewhere far ahead. Liam silently wished that Hades wouldn’t go near the pond. Retrievers liked to swim, but now wasn’t a good time. Cutting through his property was an offshoot stream from Calumet River that ended in the pond. Even though it was small, the stream was quite deep. A couple years back, Liam had it dredged to encourage the growth of the wildlife.
    And from the sound of it, it seemed the dog had gone in that direction.
    Liam owned a forty-acre piece of land near the Whistler Preserve where he had built his sanctuary, the quiet place where he spent most of his days painting and photographing nature. He was thirty-five when he had finally got fed up with politics and the ruthlessness of the cutthroat business world, and the scandal his ex-wife had caused. He sold his six-billion-dollar telecommunication company that he had started right after he graduated from Stanford, gave half of his fortune to charities, and retired in modesty.
    Sighing, Liam ducked a low hanging apple branch and went deep into the woods to follow the eager dog. Cold, saturated sprigs of bushes smacked him vindictively as he cut a path to where Hades was. His jacket and jeans were stained with rain water. He squinted, trying to find the dog. The dark, gloomy sky didn’t affect his vision. As one of the rare few dragon shifters left on Earth, Liam was gifted with excellent sight. He blinked then caught the orange-brown movement darting under a willow tree. The retriever was restless. He kept barking and whining. Liam caught up with him. He reached for Hades and ruffled the fur behind his ear. “What’s the matter, boy?”
    The smell hit him before his dog gave away the source of his discontent.
    Blood.
    Liam’s sense of smell was as sharp as his sight. He hissed, following the scent. Rocks and gravel crunched underneath his soles as he took measured steps onto the slope. He saw a dark figure washed out on the side of the stream; the lower half of its torso submerged in the water. Hades shot past him and braked in front of it abruptly. He wagged his tail and barked