Dragon's Triangle (The Shipwreck Adventures Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

thought, looking around the walls of his favorite room, the good Lord had favored him.
    Tess trotted in and placed her wet muzzle on his knee. He didn’t scold her. Caleb would have filled her water bowl after the long walk, and she deserved the drink. Elijah reached for the scotch he’d poured himself earlier, and thought,
We’ve both earned our drinks after that trek.
Tess would eat her evening meal later when he did—though hers would be out in the kitchen with Caleb. He scratched her ears, and she closed her eyes in bliss. Though his servant might feed her and care for her while Elijah traveled, it was clear to him that the dog recognized and revered her master. She was a purebred animal, after all.
    “All right,” he said. “That’s enough.” She turned for the door, then stopped, ears up, head cocked to one side, staring at the black window. Elijah didn’t hear a thing, but he had grown accustomed to his dog’s supersonic hearing. If it was a serious threat, she would let him know. Most of the time, she was just being curious about the night sounds of the wilderness.
    “Tess, go on. Go lie down.”
    From the end table next to his chair, he retrieved a folded-back copy of
Western Miner Magazine
, and he returned to studying the advertisement for the double-layer trommel with submersible water pumps and a hydraulic-powered belt for the hopper and sluicing box. It was for sale up in the Yukon. They were asking half a million, and he wondered what they’d really take for it.
    His phone pinged and vibrated. He straightened out one of his long legs and pulled the phone out of his jeans pocket.
    It was a text message from the Brightstone Security Group, the corporate front for his real employers.
Problems at the Benguet Mine in Baguio. Booked you on 11:30 a.m. flight San Francisco to Manila.
    He leaned back into the soft leather and a small smile lifted the corner of his mouth. Back to the Philippines. This was good. He’d wanted to go back for several months now. Much as he loved the ranch, winter was setting in and Caleb wasn’t the best company. He closed his eyes and pictured Esmerelda, the young girl he’d met the last time he was in Manila. She was fascinated with the dragon tattoo on Elijah’s back. It had that effect on Asian girls—his preference. Esmerelda was a tiny little thing who barely spoke more than a few sentences in English. But what a body. Much better company than Caleb.
    Elijah looked up when he heard a long mournful howl not far from the house. The
yip-yipping
started up again—more excited now, it sounded almost like screaming. Then he heard Tess’s deep warning bark, also from outside the house.
    Elijah flew up out of the chair and stormed into the kitchen. “Goddammit, man, why did you let the dog out?”
    Caleb Penn stood at the kitchen sink washing lettuce. He wore a black apron over his blue work shirt. As he stepped to turn, his right shoulder dropped and he hitched his body around, swinging his artificial leg with it. “She was scratching at the door. I figured she had to pee.”
    “What kind of a moron are you? Are you deaf as well as crippled?” Elijah yanked opened a drawer and rummaged around until he found his LED flashlight.
    “Tess can handle herself against a coyote, I reckon.”
    Elijah grabbed his coat off the peg. “But not against a pack.”
    When Elijah stepped outside, his eyes weren’t yet accustomed to the dark. The night was pitch-black, but he knew his way around the ranch blindfolded, so he took off at a trot. Tess’s barking sounded close; he figured they had her surrounded in the woods on the other side of the paddock. He’d heard that a lone coyote would often come into the yard acting all doggy-friendly-like to lure the domestic dog off to the spot where the pack waited. It sounded like that spot hadn’t been very far away this time.
    When the barking stopped, he slowed down. He didn’t want to come on them so fast they’d turn on him—he