Shifters, Inc. The Bear Who Loved Me (A BBW paranormal romance) (10 page)

Antonia glanced around, then lowered her voice. “I hope someday to be designer like her.”

              “You should say something to her,” Tonya said. “She’s very approachable. “

              Antonia shook her head. “Maybe. I don’t know. She such big star, she is so perfect…I think about it.”

              “Go now,” Tonya urged. She gave Antonia a shove.

              Antonia put down her drink, headed off towards Benedetta, and stopped. Then she quickly headed towards the restrooms with a panicked look on her face.

              As Antonia vanished from sight, Tonya felt a rippling of hairs on the back of her neck, and then Tom Hooper stalked up to her. Dear God, every time she saw him his hair got spikier. He could impale someone with that horror show. He had several very visible hickeys on his neck, and he was swaying and slightly drunk.

              “Your bodyguard’s gone, I see,” he sneered.

              “Obviously, or you wouldn’t have the balls to come bother me,” Tonya replied in a bored tone. She pretended to be drinking her mojito, which was mostly water from melted ice cubes by now.

              He glanced in the direction in which Antonia had just headed. “Figures someone like you would be consorting with the help. And that thug you’re sleeping with. I could have introduced you to the richest people in Playa Linda. Well, enjoy wallowing in the gutter.” He turned and stomped off.

              Tonya stifled a low growl of anger at that. How dare he insult Heath? Snobbish dickwad.

              She glanced at her watch again when Antonia came back to her seat. “I need to head back to my cabin,” she said. “Heath will be waiting for me.”

              She headed back to his room.

              When she opened the door, she blanched. It looked as if a hurricane had whirled through there. The bedspread had been ripped to shreds, there were chunks of mattress scattered all over the floor, a shattered vase lying by the wall where someone had hurled it, the couch was literally broken in half, and Heath swung towards her when she walked in – with a look of mingled rage and misery on his face that nearly made her heart stop.

              “What happened? Someone broke in?” she asked, her voice shaking. Did he think she’d done this? She couldn’t understand why he looked furious with her.

              He shook his head. “Nope.” He bit the word out as if it tasted foul.

              “Uh…are you saying that you did this?”

              “Yep.” She could see bones rippling under his face, and his eyes kept changing color as he struggled to keep his beast suppressed.

              “Why?”

              He gestured at the broken vase. A dozen red roses were scattered on the floor.

              “Reshef sent those. With a stack of beaded necklaces and a note that said today was delightful. What exactly did you do today while I was working?”

              “Are you serious?” Tonya felt fury and hurt welling up inside her, and tears burned in her eyes. “You spent all day watching him. You’re suggesting that I was
fucking
him?” She spat the crude word out. She didn’t usually use language like that, but she was so enraged she couldn’t think straight.

              “I wasn’t watching him at all times. Sometimes I switched off with another operative.” His eyes were blazing with rage. He was actually frightening her, he was so furious.             

              “Like I knew that?” she yelled. “You’re saying that during those moments when you weren’t watching, I ran right over to his quarters and screwed him?”

              “Did you? Because it’s pretty obvious that he’d be much more your type than I would.”

              “What the hell does that even mean?” she shouted. “You know what? Forget it. I’m going back to the companions’ quarters for the rest of the cruise. And screw you. I hope you and all your friends have a good laugh over your night with the fat girl.”

              She grabbed her suitcase and stomped out, tears running down her cheeks. Behind her, she heard roars of rage and the sound of shattering furniture. She spent the night crying into her pillow and throwing up in the bathroom. Heath didn’t come by to apologize, not that she’d expected him to. She wished he would, though. She wanted him to beg for her forgiveness.

* * *

              The next morning, Antonia met her for breakfast at a café on one of the upper decks. She had the afternoon and evening shift that day. “You no sleep good?” Antonia asked as Tonya listlessly picked at her breakfast.

              “No, afraid not,” she sighed. “Long story. The guy who claimed me, uh, we stopped getting along.” She wished she could tell Antonia what had really happened, but she couldn’t reveal Heath’s mission.

              “Men.” Antonia made a tsking sound, shaking her head. “He was only passenger. You back on shore, you find good man.”

              “Thanks. Hasn’t happened so far.” Tonya managed a smile, and then she saw that Antonia was looking across the room.

              Benedetta was taking her seat at a table, with the Beast and a bunch of companions. She looked as radiant as ever, dressed in filmy floral chiffon.

              “Go tell her,” she urged Antonia. “I am telling you, she is really easy to talk to. She’s not a snob at all.  When else will you get the opportunity to be this close to her?”

              Antonia looked hesitant. “I don’t know…”

              Suddenly there were yells of alarm coming from Benedetta’s table, then a thud.

              One of Benedetta’s companions fell to the ground, shrieking and thrashing. Everyone crowded around him, and the Beast bellowed “Stand back!” as the man foamed at the mouth, heels drumming on the deck.

              The Beast gathered the man up in his arms and ran full speed out of the restaurant, but Tonya saw the companion go limp and she knew he’d be too late. The man was dead already; rushing him to the ship’s clinic wouldn’t help.

              She also saw a couple of big, hulking shifters hovering protectively near Benedetta. They were dressed in expensive resort-style clothing, but she suspected they were Shifters, Inc. employees.

              Uniformed security guards rushed in. One of them, a dark-skinned man with several stripes on his uniform, yelled, “Attention, everyone! My name is Pierre Robard, head of ship security! Nobody eat anything else! If you feel sick, notify a security guard immediately. We must interview everyone in the room and review all security tapes before you are released! We apologize for the inconvenience, but I must ask you to return to your seats at once.”

              There were shouts of protest and cries of panic, but most of the guests returned to their seats – except for the dozen or so guests who had suddenly developed phantom stomach pains and were urgently swarming around the guards. The guards gathered those guests and led them out of the café.

              Tonya, ignoring the instructions to stay put, got up and made her way over to Benedetta’s table. “Are you all right?” she asked. Benedetta grabbed her hand, tears in her eyes. “That was meant for me,” she cried. “He grab my coffee and have one sip. Just one sip, and he is dead!”

              Tonya looked around the room and saw that Heath had returned, and the Beast was with him now. Heath looked utterly miserable too, she saw with satisfaction. He had circles under his eyes and his hair was bed-rumpled and uncombed. Good. Asshole.

              She turned her attention back to their surroundings, then she put her hand on Benedetta’s arm.

              One of the waiters was making his way through the crowd towards them, with an angry, determined look. His hand was inside his apron.

              Tonya leaped to her feet. “Waiter!” she screamed, and she saw Heath and the Beast spin around at the sound of her voice and start running towards her. They were all the way across the room; they wouldn’t get there in time. She leaped into the waiter’s path as he whipped out a knife and ran straight towards Benedetta.

              With one flying kick, she knocked the knife out of his hand. He swung a fist at her and she ducked, responding with a quick left hook to the jaw that sent him staggering back. Moving forward, she kept up the attack, kicking him in the stomach, punching him in the face…

              He fell to the ground just as a pile of security guards landed on him.

              “Are you all right?” Heath looked panicked. She fell back a step, breathing hard.

              “Never been better.”
Except for the fact that my heart’s been ripped in tw
o, she thought but didn’t say.

              He looked bewildered. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”

              She shrugged. “I mean, I’ve taken a self-defense class.” The waiter was being hauled away now, screaming curses in Italian. Antonia was standing at the side of the room, clutching her necklace and looking horrified.

              “That was pretty good for one self-defense class.” Heath looked at her skeptically.

              Was it? She’d never been in a street fight before.

              She shrugged, turned and walked away. “Natural talent. Or maybe I’m lying and I’m secretly a ninja. Since apparently I can’t be trusted.”

              He followed after her. “Really, are you sure you’re all right?”

              The doors were open now, and she joined the stream of guests who were rushing out, chattering amongst themselves.

              “As if you care,” she said bitterly.

              “If I didn’t care, why would I get so upset about you and Reshef?”

              She stopped, spun around and slapped him as hard as she could. He actually rocked where he stood, blinked in surprise and rubbed his cheek. “You pack quite a wallop.”

              “If the way that you show that you care is by falsely accusing me of sleeping around, and then destroying your hotel room, and not even bothering to ask me before you throw accusations in my face, then screw you. Go care about someone else.”

              She stomped off, head held high, blinking really hard so she wouldn’t burst into tears.

* * *

              Heath and the Beast stood outside Jake’s door, waiting for him to return so they could have a briefing.

              “I saw you and Tonya in the café,” the Beast said. “What did you do to fuck things up there?”

              Heath whirled to face the Beast, letting out a rumbling growl and unsheathing his claws. The Beast didn’t even blink. Nothing fazed him. In wolf form, he was enormous, the biggest wolf Heath had ever seen, and he’d taken down, among other things, a lion, a bear and a panther.

              “Unless you want me to separate your head from your body, you won’t say another goddamn word.” Heath hoped the Beast would challenge him. He really, really needed an outlet for his pent-up emotions. He’d never felt so utterly horrible, bleak and despairing, and he could barely stand to be in his own skin right now.

              To his surprise, the Beast didn’t rise to the challenge. He just fixed Heath with a calm, appraising look. “She is your Fated Mate. I can tell. Not all of us get to be with their Fated Mate. I never will. If you’re not an idiot, you’ll go grovel for her forgiveness and make things right, or you’ll be miserable and utterly useless to work with, for the rest of your life.”

              Heath actually sheathed his claws, he was so shocked. The Beast? Not attacking? Giving someone romantic advice?

              “You believe in the whole Fated Mate thing?” he demanded suspiciously. If the Beast was making fun of him, he’d fucking kill him. “You’re actually some simpering, hopeless romantic?”

              The Beast responded with a wry smile. “Hopeless is the perfect way to describe it. And yes, I believe in it the same way I believe in gravity. It’s a fact.”

              “Why do you say you’ll never be with your Fated Mate, then?”

              The Beast’s face darkened and some long-ago memory made a quiet rage flash in his eyes. “Some things just are. I’m not getting into it.”

              “She cheated on me with Reshef,” Heath blurted out. He couldn’t believe it. He was actually confiding in the Beast. Next they’d be braiding each other’s fur and having a manicure party to paint each other’s claws.

              The Beast raised an eyebrow. “Her? No,” he said simply.

              “Well, Reshef sent a note to our cabin with a dozen roses, thanking her for giving him a good time…” As he said it, Heath started to feel stupid. Really stupid. And like a major asshole.

              Had he let Reshef manipulate him into ruining everything?

              “Didn’t you tell me that Reshef asked for Tonya to be his companion?” The Beast’s tone was scornful. “A man like that doesn’t like to be told no. And sending a note like that was a good way to drive a wedge between you, and then he’d have a better chance at getting with Tonya. I mean, it was a good plan on his part if he figured you for a fucking moron. Obviously he was right.” And then the Beast punched him in the arm so hard he staggered back a step. Now there was the Beast he was used to.