Shifters, Inc. The Bear Who Loved Me (A BBW paranormal romance) (11 page)

              “And that’s for thinking you could take me,” he growled, just as Jake and a couple of other operatives strolled down the hallway.

              Heath and the Beast shifted, and all the other shifters followed suit, and then there was a pile of furious, snarling animals, snapping and biting and shredding their clothing,

              Within a couple of minutes they’d gotten it out of their systems and they were all sitting in Jake’s room, stark naked and listening to Jake screaming one of his famous full-volume lectures at them, threatening to personally rip them all a new one, and also to fire them, kill them, and then fire them again, and then ship their dead body parts back to their families. After he spat on them. Then he might kill them some more after that.

              Standard pissed-off Jake stuff.

              Heath listened and nodded and apologized, because fighting like that did risk exposure and jeopardize their mission, and for that he genuinely was sorry.

              In the back of the mind, one thought was running, repeating itself urgently, over and over:
I’ve got to find Tonya. I’ve got to find Tonya. I’ve got to find Tonya.

That day, Tonya was so angry at Heath that she spent the day hiding out in Antonia’s room, and spent the night there as well. In the morning, Antonia and Tonya went to get some coffee and watched a helicopter lifting off, heading away with the waiter who’d tried to kill Benedetta.

Word travelled quickly on the ship. One of the porters told them that the ship’s security had contacted the authorities in Italy, and a little research had revealed his motive pretty quickly. His girlfriend had left him to have an affair with Benedetta, and he was furious about it. Since he really was a waiter at a high-end restaurant and had no criminal record, he’d been able to get hired easily.

So that’s it,
Tonya thought. Or was it? The waiter had been carrying out a crime of passion. From what little she’d gleaned from Heath, she gathered that they were on the alert for a professional assassin.

The waiter hardly seemed to be enough of a threat to warrant having two security companies on board. She’d been able to disarm him single-handedly.

“Well, that is done,” Antonia said. “I go to work now. I think you should talk to Big Bear. You miss him. I see it.”

“If I had a shotgun, I wouldn’t miss him,” Tonya grumbled as Antonia started to walk off towards the servants’ quarters.

“Just one minute!” Tom barked, barreling down the walkway towards them. He was accompanied by a big, burly man whom Tonya vaguely recognized as another Hammersmith employee. Tom grabbed Antonia’s arm and began hauling her with him.

“You thought you’d get away with it? Nothing gets past me,” he barked at her.

“What the hell are you doing?” Tonya yelled, her fangs descending and her eyes blazing with rage. “Let go of her before I rip your face off!”

He sneered at her. “They turned the internet back on so they could do a background check on that waiter, and I had the time to do some research on your little friend here. And we’re looking into you too, mark my words.”

Antonia went as white as a sheet as Tom hustled her off, towards the security headquarters, Tonya suspected. “I’ll get you out of there!” Tonya yelled after them.

Damn it, she couldn’t call a lawyer – they were in the middle of the ocean. She also couldn’t let Antonia be framed for anything. She was positive that Antonia hadn’t done anything wrong, and she suspected that Tom had just targeted Antonia because he knew they were friends. That rat-bastard. She really had wanted to shift and shred his face, but it wouldn’t have helped anything.

Tonya thought and thought, and finally came to the conclusion that she had no choice. She had to go to Heath for help. She couldn’t think of anyone else who could intercede.

Heath opened the door when she banged on it. His face lit up with joy and relief when he saw her. “Where have you been?” he asked. “I looked everywhere for you. I was about to start tearing the ship apart to find you.”

Well, that knocked her for a loop. “Why were you trying to find me?” she asked.

“Because you’re my Fated Mate, and I’m a dumb asshole.”

She clutched at the doorframe for support. “Excuse you? I mean, the second part of that statement is right, but – why would you say that you’re my Fated Mate?”

“Because it’s true. I know it and you know it. I’ve just been trying to deny it to myself, ever since I met you, really, because…I don’t know. I’m an idiot. And caring for someone as much as I care for you scares me, and before this, literally nothing scared me.”

He stepped back, waving her inside. Numbly, she walked in and he shut the door. The room had mostly been repaired; there was a new mattress, comforter and sheets, and even a new sofa. There were still gouge marks in the wall.

“But I… I mean…”

He gripped her shoulders, staring earnestly into her eyes. “You know, my sister Bobbi was the first one to tell me that you were my Fated Mate, back at the art gallery.”

“Your sister was there?” She was desperately trying to gather her thoughts.

“The girl I was talking to at the bar.”

“Oh, that was your sister.” She felt enormous relief rush through her. So he hadn’t been with another woman the night before the cruise. Not in that way, at least.

“So, you had one bear parent and one coyote parent?” That was the only way a coyote could be his sister.

“Adoptive sister,” he said impatiently. “As in, I adopted her when she was running away from an abusive foster home, and she lived with me and a few other thugs in an abandoned building.”

“If you care about me, why would you be so quick to accuse me of being with Reshef?” She folded her arms across her chest and glowered up at him.

“Because…well, mostly because of what I just told you about how I grew up. I couldn’t believe you’d really want me.” He was serious. Big, handsome Heath, who could have any girl he wanted, didn’t think she would want him. “Why would a rich, gorgeous girl like you want a hood rat like me? I was afraid you were slumming.”

“A rich girl?” She was astonished. “What makes you think that I’m rich?”

“You drive a new Mercedes. And I know where you live. And you went to Harvard.”

“How do you know where I live?”

He looked embarrassed. “I might have been doing a little checking up on you.”

“Why?”

“It’s possible that I was a little bit interested in you.”

A warm glow swept through her. He’d liked her all along. Ever since they’d first met.

“You obviously didn’t investigate too deeply,” she pointed out.

“Well, no. I didn’t want to be like a crazy stalker.”

She shook her head. “Okay, the car belongs to my friend Bridgit’s family, I live in a house owned by her family, and I went to school on a full scholarship. So did she, actually; her family could have paid for it, but she wanted to do it on her own. As for me, my parents were alcoholics, my father went to prison, my mother ran out on me, and I grew up in a children’s home.”

“Oh. I am sorry. Well, like I said, I’m an idiot.” He looked chastened.

She grimaced at the memory. “Some of the kids got adopted. I never did. The other kids told me that it was because I was too fat, that nobody would ever want me. And basically they were right. The parents would come in and look around and pick out the cute little kids. It was never me.”

“They had no idea what they missed out on. And if I ever heard anyone say something like that to you, I’d kill them.” Looking at the shock and anger on his face, she believed him. He was furious on her behalf. He really would kill for her.

Normally, just talking about it brought her to tears, but being with Heath and feeling his genuine love for her actually made her feel stronger than she’d ever felt.

“Can you ever forgive me? Please? I need you to come back here. I had absolutely no right to accuse you like that. I can’t be without you. I can’t. I thought I’d die this last couple of days.” He was actually begging.

“I can consider forgiving you, but believe me, there will be some serious groveling involved on your part.” She felt as if a dark, black cloud had been clinging to her, chilling her, and now the sun was shining again and bathing her in warmth. She couldn’t believe this was really happening; it felt like it was too good to be real.

His face lit up. “Starting now? I can grovel like a champ. Let me show you.”

“First, we have an emergency that we have to deal with,” she said, and told him what had just happened with Antonia.

“That stupid son of a bitch!” he swore furiously. He picked up his room’s phone and called Jake’s room and filled him in. Then he and Tonya quickly headed down to the ship’s holding cells.

Heath shoved his way in past a startled secretary. “I need to talk to Pierre, now!” he roared.

A door in the back of the room opened and Pierre peeked out. Heath rushed over and shoved his way past Pierre, with Tonya at his heels. Tom was sitting at a long table, across from Antonia, whose face was streaked with tears. There were sketches of dresses fanned out on the table.

“Are you kidding me?” Heath yelled at Pierre. “He grabbed this woman’s arm, in public, and dragged her off to detention? In broad daylight, in front of all the other passengers? He’s supposed to be a guest! He just exposed the fact that there’s private security here working undercover, which could blow our whole mission and put everyone at risk!”

“I agree completely, he used terrible judgment.” Pierre nodded, and Tom looked outraged. “But,” Pierre continued, “he did come up with some discrepancies in her resume. Her references turned out to be friends of hers. She never really had a job as a maid before. And we found stolen designs from Benedetta in her room. We think she’s a corporate spy.”

At that, Antonia, who had been slumped over, straightened up indignantly. “They weren’t stolen! I make these!” she protested.

“Sure you did,” Tom sneered.

“Bring Benedetta here and ask her,” Antonia said indignantly. “I no steal!”

“We will,” Pierre said. He stepped out of the room to talk to one of the ship’s security officers, and then returned.

They sat in uncomfortable silence for several minutes. Tonya glared at Tom with murder in her eyes.

A few minutes later, Benedetta arrived.

“What is this foolishness?” she asked. She glared around the room. “Who upset this girl? You are bullies.”

“He did,” Tonya said, pointing at Tom. Benedetta smacked Tom on the top of the head so hard that it resounded through the room, and swore at him in Italian, making Antonia titter behind her hand. Tom clenched his fists in rage, and immediately Heath let out a growl and partially shifted, exploding out of his shirt. His face went bear, his fur covered him like a lush brown carpet, and his fangs curved like long, cruel daggers.

“Touch her, and you’re a dead man,” Tonya snarled, meaning it. She didn’t even need Heath for this; she could rip out his throat with her fangs quite well on her own.

Heath shifted back to human form, now half naked. Tonya tried not to look. Damn his hotness – she couldn’t look at his incredible body without wanting to rip the rest of his clothes off.

Tom settled back in his chair and swallowed hard. Pierre was enraged; Tom had actually clenched his fists at one of the people he was supposed to be protecting.

“What is this nonsense about this girl steal my work?” Benedetta demanded. “I have no designs with me. That is not my work.” She leaned over to look at the sketches. “It is very good work, though. Very pretty. Who drew this?”

“It was me,” Antonia said in a small voice. She explained everything. She had faked her resume to get on board the boat in the hopes of meeting Benedetta, but she’d been too shy to approach her.

“The work is very good.” Benedetta nodded. “You sneak on ship? You are, how the Americans say, go-getter. We have room for intern at my studio. You will come by when we return home.”

Antonia lit up with joy. “Really?” Her voice was a high-pitched squeak of astonishment.

Benedetta nodded, then arched an eyebrow at Pierre. “You release this girl and be nice to her, or I tell all my friends
very
bad things about your boat. She no have to work again for you, and you give her paycheck, in apology for false arrest.”

Then she turned and swept out of the room. Nobody could make an entrance or exit like Benedetta.

“You may go,” Pierre said to Antonia. “I will honor Benedetta’s request, but you may not work for us again, because of your false resume.”

“Trust me, she won’t be back,” Tonya said, rolling her eyes.

              Antonia hugged her. “You are my good friend,” she said, and gathered up her sketches and quickly left, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

Pierre nodded to Heath. “Thank you for clearing that up. I need to speak to Mr. Hooper in private.”

Tonya smiled as they left. She was positive that the talk wasn’t going to go well for Tom.

Back in Heath’s cabin, he shut the door and turned to her with a huge grin. “See this smile? First time I’ve smiled since I saw Reshef’s note. And I’ve got the next couple of hours free.”