Dragon 7 Chapter 4

I parked the sports car. “Okay, this is the place.”

“Your care is not inconspicuous at all.” Scarlett crossed her arms in the passenger seat.

“It isn’t that expensive of a car.” Jadelyn emphasized the word ‘that’. “Besides, who is going to think the guy in a Maserati is spying on them?”

Scarlett frowned but leaned her seat back. “So, we are just watching this guy?”

“Yeah.” I reached into the backseat, where Jadelyn was holding the duffel bag up for me to dig through. “Can you get the parabolic mic setup?” I handed it to Scarlett.

“You know, you can hear and see better than these things using your magic.” She put the device on the dash anyway and pointed it towards the apartment across the street.

I frowned at her. “We are pretending to be normal. Stop with the magic talk.” The binoculars were dusty, and I had trouble focusing them.

But Scarlett was entirely right. Morgana could warp space, and I had eyesight better than an eagle if I shifted my eyes. But I was trying not to give off any king of the dragon vibes while I was very likely under surveillance.

After a few tries, I gave up on the binoculars and rifled through the bag for a small camera stand. I put it on the dash before focusing it on the apartment.

“So, this is an insurance scam case?” Jadelyn asked. “Why do they care?”

“They think a gallery owner stole the painting. They hire all this sort of stuff out so they don’t have any liability if things go poorly. Silverwing Mercenaries really only gets the big cases. Ones like insurance fraud on an eight million dollar painting. This is the level of theft where someone pulls a gun out when you accuse them.” I replied as Jadelyn racked a pistol behind me.

“Who gave you a gun?” Scarlett put her hand out.

Jadelyn raised her chin, putting it on the seat next to her pointing away from everyone, and adamantly not handing it over to Scarlett. “I know how to handle a gun. Calm down. We did those defense training classes together. Remember?”

“And how long has it been since you shot a gun?” Scarlett raised an eyebrow, clearly feeling like she’d backed Jadelyn into a corner.

Scarlett held out her hand again, wiggling her fingers, waiting for the weapon to be placed in them.

“A while.” Jadelyn admitted but crossed her arms, leaning back into the seat like she didn’t have a care in the world. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t get a gun. If I can’t use magic, I want a gun.”

Jadelyn crossed her legs, looking out the window like the conversation was finished.

Scarlett looked over at me, clearly wanting help, but I just focused all my attention on setting up the audio and video. Getting involved in their argument seemed like a bad idea.

I could feel Scarlett still staring at me. I fiddled with the equipment. “Don’t look at me to solve this. I’m bulletproof, so it doesn’t really matter to me if she has a gun.”

Jadelyn let out a little whoop of victory while Scarlett crossed her arms in the front seat. “Jade, do you still have the snacks?”

“Yep. I came prepared.” Jadelyn pulled something out from behind my seat and handed a bag of potato chips and a bag of chocolate coffee beans to Scarlett.

“Really?” I frowned.

“What do you and Morgana usually do on stakeouts?” Scarlett popped a chocolate covered coffee bean into her mouth. The bag instantly made the entire car smell like coffee.

“I bet they make out, and she bites him bunches. Then they just bust down the door when they get to the fun part.” Jadelyn’s voice faded off as she popped a snack into her mouth.

“No. Her bites make it hard to focus. Well, anything with her mouth makes it hard to focus.” I explained.

Scarlett snickered. “That doesn’t rule out the rest of her holes. Morgana is a dirty girl isn’t she?”

“You know exactly what she likes. And yes, we got a lot closer on our stakeouts, because we didn’t need to focus so hard. But right now we are normal investigators, doing what normal investigators do. We need to watch this building and when we have the right opportunity, sneak into the building and find the painting.”

A man walked past the window. He was wearing a dress shirt and pants, with his tie undone.

“What gallery does he manage?” Jadelyn had her phone out, scrolling through her contacts.

“The West Frame.” I remembered the name from the case details.

“Oh. Carla’s gallery. Well, not her gallery, but like eighty percent of it is from her collection.” Jadelyn hit a name on her contacts and held the phone up to her ear.

I blinked at her. She was entirely missing the point of a stakeout. I looked over to Scarlett, but she just shrugged.

“Hello, Carla!” Jadelyn put her full extrovert into her voice. “I hear there’s something at your gallery tonight?” The woman on the other end was quite enthusiastic in her response, clearly excited to be talking to Jadelyn. “Of course, it’s your gallery. Don’t let some manager say it is theirs. Most of the art is yours.”

I could hear the voice on the other end gushing as Jadelyn spoke sweetly into the phone. I knew her fake pleasant smile and tone by then. Others couldn’t pick up on it, but she was mine. I knew every inch of her.

“That’s incredible. I’ve actually been looking for a place to show a new piece of mine. ‘The Shipwreck’— yes that’s the one. Yes, perfect, I’ll be there tonight.” She chuckled. “Yes, I’ll bring my man. Though, the art world isn’t quite his scene, so you’ll have to forgive him. Yes, yes. Maybe an hour or two.” Jadelyn let out another melodic laugh before she ended the call.

“So. We are going to a gallery tonight?” I asked, not entirely following her plan.

Jadelyn nodded. “After we deal with this manager.” She reached over Scarlett and turned up the volume on the parabolic microphone.

At the same time, a phone began ringing in the manager’s place, and he dashed across the room to grab it.

“Carla! What a fantastic surprise. I was just getting ready.” He put the phone on speaker and sat down on the counter as he filled a glass of wine.

“You aren’t there yet?!” Carla’s voice was a little shrill. “Jadelyn Scalewright is coming tonight. The fucking Scalewrights! She’s interested in a home for a JMW Turner piece.”

On the camera, the manager stumbled and basically threw himself to prevent the red wine from getting on his tux. “Excuse me? She’s trying to sell a Turner?”

“That’s what she said. Now move it. Even if she doesn’t sell it, getting the Scalewrights into our gallery will make this night explode. I have work to do.”

The manager didn’t even clean up his spilled wine, throwing on his jacket and hustling out the door.

I turned to her in the car. “You’re a big deal, huh?”

Jadelyn tossed her hair and preened. “About time you noticed.”

“Do you really have that painting?” I asked.

“I think so.” She tapped her lip with a finger. “We have a lot of art. Sometimes it’s hard to diversify all your investments. We started to store some of our wealth in art. You’d be surprised how it can appreciate. Scarcity of top artists, and all that.”

Scarlett just shrugged. “Pretty sure my family even has a few big name pieces.”

“Really?” That surprised me even more.

“The Fox’s are quite wealthy. Just because her family has served mine for generations doesn’t mean they’ve been treated poorly.” Jadelyn narrowed her eyes on me, daring me to say otherwise.

Sometimes the conversation of their relationship was uncomfortable for me. It was just too old fashioned and from a bygone era. But it worked for them, and both families seemed happy, so I tried not to get involved.

“We’ve made our husband uncomfortable again.” Scarlett flicked Jadelyn in the forehead. “Stop that.”

Then she turned, leaning over to kiss my forehead. “Stop thinking about it. I love Jadelyn like a sister, and we work together more like partners. We just have different strengths and roles.”

“Besides, with you bridging the gap. Our kids will actually be sisters.” Jadelyn smiled.

“Are you going to raise them like the two of you were raised?” I asked, concern creeping into me. I wasn’t sure I was okay with that arrangement for my own children.

Scarlett pursed her lips, but it was Jadelyn that spoke first. “They’ll be raised like sisters, and I’ll let them go whichever way they want, but I’ll expect them to look after each other.” She crossed her arms. “If it ends up being that my child protects Scarlett’s, then so be it.”

The conversation was clearly leading to tension, and it was all hypothetical at the moment. I tried to figure out a way to shift the conversation, but then the garage in front of us opened up and the manager peeled out, speeding down the street.

Smiling at the helpful diversion, I focused on the house.

Jadelyn patted my shoulder. “Let’s go break into his place and snoop. Then we have an art gallery to get ready for. You’ll have to get all dressed up. Let me call Tulip and see if she can’t work with Pixie to get things ready.”

“I want—“ Scarlett started.

“A red dress. Yes, I know.” Jadelyn smiled. “You love red and he loves gold, so you are going to get a red and gold dress. I’ll do one that is blue and gold. Then we’ll both hang off his arms, looking lovely all together.” She had it all planned out.

I rumbled a little as I packed up the surveillance equipment and tucked them back into the duffel bag and got out of the car. I didn’t like getting all dressed up, but I did enjoy the dresses they often chose.

“What if the manager has nice security?” Jadelyn asked. “You said no m-word.”

Scarlett kept her tails and ears hidden as we walked across the street to his home. It was a typical three story brownstone squished between two others. They each had slightly different architecture to make them look different, but they were likely the same general layout on the inside.

My eyes scanned his place as we walked up. I couldn’t spot any cameras, but I’d be careful. “Come on. I doubt he’d have cameras inside unless he wants to have himself on a recording with the painting. We just need evidence and then send it to the insurance company.”

I moved up to his door and blocked what I was doing with my body before I shifted a finger on each hand into a long sharp claw, working to pick the lock.

The first few attempts were difficult, but on the fourth try, the lock clicked open.

“Oh. You are such a bad man.” Jadelyn bit her lip.

“Down.” Scarlett rolled her eyes and put on a pair of leather gloves to push open the door. “Don’t touch anything.”

Jadelyn put her hands up, showing off a pair of cashmere dress gloves. “I brought my own gloves, thank you very much.”

I put on my own leather gloves and wiped down the door handle. We weren’t burglars, but I’d rather not get caught. Technically, what we were doing was still illegal.

Morgana’s tactics would have been a little different. She likely would have shown enough interest to get invited back to his place, gotten him drunk, and then gone through all of his things.

I didn’t have that option or the patience. Morgana had been reluctant to use such tactics since I’d marked her. She took care despite her club and job not to seem like she was stepping out on me.

Scarlett took out a flashlight, but Jadelyn just flipped the lights on.

“Jade.” Scarlett grumbled.

“What? It looks more suspicious to go around with flashlights.” She defended her choice and went straight up the stairs.

“Why are you going upstairs alone?” Scarlett chased after her.

I smirked, letting them take care of each other as I went through the ground floor. There was no sign of a basement, but I stepped all over the wooden floorboards, seeing if any of them creaked. Nothing gave sign of anything below. The floor was solid.

I knew that the painting we were looking for was large. It was six feet tall by fifteen feet long. Even rolled up, it would be hard to hide.

I paused by one of the paintings in the hallway and took it off the wall, checking the back. A lovely little ‘Made in China’ sticker on the frame made me chuckle. It looked legit enough though. Running my hand over the back, I looked for any way to remove the back and hide it under an existing painting.

But I couldn’t find anything interesting.

“Zach.” Scarlett came down the stairs and hissed. “Need you up here.”

I nodded, put the painting back and made sure it was straight before hurrying up the stairs behind her.

“Look what I found!” Jadelyn was gesturing grandly at a hidden safe behind a bookshelf.

“Good work.” I pushed the bookshelf a little more to the side so I could get my big shoulders behind it and get to work. “How’d you find it?”

Scarlett groaned and Jadelyn chuckled. “He had a really good fake Codex Leicester, and I wanted to compare it to the original. The shelf shifted a little and I recognized the design. Personally, the secret safe behind a bookshelf is a little tacky to me, but it still is very popular.”

I got a good look at the safe. I wasn’t exactly an expert safe cracker, so I cheated and shifted my ears.

“What is this Codex?” I asked.

“Leonardo da Vinci’s scientific journal.” Scarlett replied. “Officially, it’s actually one of the earlier grimoires made by the magi. It’s worth something like fifty million or so to humans, but if you found the right magi, they’d pay many times that for it.”

“Let me guess, the original is in your personal library or something?” I teased them.

“No, silly.” Jadelyn laughed. “It’s in your office. I put it there for you to enjoy.” Jadelyn just smiled at me as if what she was saying was entirely normal.

I looked back at her, trying to process what she’d said. How much money did she put into the mansion? “Remind me to take a look at it when I get back.”

“Sure. Let me make that call to Tulip.” Jadelyn stepped back and I tuned her out as I focused on the safe, spinning the dial and listening intently to the gears.

Click, click, clack. I paused and spun the dial the other direction, listening to the mechanisms in the safe. Morgana had gone over safe cracking with me a few times before she was using her magic more. If she were with me, she’d likely just reach her hand right through the safe.

The full access to her tree had done wonders for her, even if she was still reluctant to go full angel mode again.

The final pin fell into place, and I pulled the lever swinging the safe open.

“Should I be concerned that you are going to start a life of crime?” Scarlett asked, watching me with interest. “It really can be too easy to defeat things with paranormal abilities.”

I grunted in agreement. Then I pulled a long tube case that barely fit inside the safe out of it. “Want to bet this is it?” I pulled off the cap and rolled out the painting in it, only to find two different paintings inside.

We both frowned at the two pieces of art. I took a picture of the second one before I rolled it up and stuck it back in the tube. Then I rolled the other one up on its own.

“He probably stole the other one too.” Scarlett pointed out.

“Yeah. But the job was to recover this one. They can pay me to come get the other one later if they want.” I smiled at her. Silverwing Mercenaries didn’t do shit for free. And certainly not for an insurance company.

Scarlett laughed and found a suit hanging up, still in its laundry mat plastic. She took it off to wrap over the painting. “This is fun work.”

“And Jadelyn is pretty good at this.” I joked.

Scarlett rolled her eyes at my statement. My siren wife was currently on the phone describing what kind of dresses she wanted for the art showing. “She’s actually really good at anything she puts her mind to. Almost annoyingly good.”

Painting secured, I locked the safe back up and reset the bookshelf before checking for any other signs of our disturbance. I didn’t find many; we’d been fairly clean.

I smiled, feeling satisfied and ready to book it out of the place.

“Yes, that sounds perfect. Have them ready for us… in thirty?” Jadleyn looked at me, clearly wanting input on the timeframe.

“Thirty will do. We need to go drop this off.” I held up the painting.

“Hear that? Even the Dragon King is excited for this. Make sure you put plenty of gold on his suit. He needs to look like a boss.” Jadelyn finished up as we headed out, locking and closing the door behind us.

We walked out of the house. As I stood in the doorway, I spotted a man sitting on top of my car hood, watching me with his arms crossed.

“Oh look. We have a friend.” Jadelyn put the phone back into her pocket.

“Doesn’t look very friendly to me.” I grumbled, marching across the street to handle the situation.