“Aleksandr!”
“Sorry, babushka.” I knew I should have explained it to J.D., he thought to himself. There was just so much information, and he knew it would overwhelm her. “If you wait a moment, I’ll go talk to J.D. first. Then we can sit down and have tea, all right? Do you need anything?”
“No, lyuba, I am fine here.”
“All right. I’ll try not to be too long.”
After making sure his grandmother was comfortable, he went off in the direction of his bedroom. “J.D.?” he called as he padded inside. “Love, are you in here?” Her scent was still in the air, so she had been here last, but there was no sign of her. Her clothes that had been on the dresser, however, were gone, and the window next to it was left wide open.
He slapped his forehead. She had shifted and left through the window.
His polar bear roared in anger, its sharp claws slashing at him.
Ow, stop it! And by the way, this is your fault, you know.
It cocked its head at him as if to say, How?
Things wouldn’t have gone cock-up if you had let me tell her about grandmother and— “Oh bloody fucking hell.”
He wasn’t going to argue with a polar bear. All right, I’m going to fix this.
First, he was going to take care of his grandmother, then he was going to hunt J.D. down. He knew he was wrong to have kept the truth from her for this long, but she didn’t have to fucking leap off a building to get away from him. He was in this for the long haul, and he could only hope she would be too.
Chapter Eleven
Escaping Cam’s penthouse took a lot of trouble and effort, but it was well worth it. After she stormed back into the bedroom, she realized that there was no way she could get out without having to face Cam or his “guests.”
But she wasn’t out of options, and in one impulsive decision, she decided to chuck her clothes and wallet out the window, then shift into her cat form, crawling down using the drain pipe outside the building. From there, it was easy enough to walk out to the main road and flag down a passing cab.
“Five twenty-two, Magnolia Drive,” she rattled off to the driver as she slipped into the back seat. “And step on it.”
She’d been so furious that she couldn’t stand to be in the same space as that … that liar. Her cat, on the other hand, directed it at that snooty bitch trying to lay claim of their mate.
He’s not even worth it, she told her cat. We should just forget about him. “Ugh.” It was too early to be arguing with her animal. She covered her eyes with her hand as an ache bloomed in her chest at Cam’s betrayal. Mates suck ass. She wished she’d never laid eyes on Dr. Cameron Spenser, Duke of Whatever-he-was.
Her cat let out a protesting re-eowrl. Coward, it seemed to say.
“He’s the coward,” she mumbled so the driver couldn’t hear her. “And a fucking liar.”
The cab slowed down, and she saw her house up ahead. “Third one on the right,” she told the driver. “Thanks,” she said when he stopped in front of her house, then handed him a bill. “And keep the change.”
She hopped out of the cab, barefoot and only wearing her jeans and shirt, and made her way to the house. When she was about halfway there, she realized something.
“Shit! Fuck, fuck, shit!” Her house keys were back at Cam’s along with her phone. There was no way she was getting inside now, and her truck was still at the garage. “Fffuuuuuuck me.” This was all Cam’s fault.
How, her cat seemed to ask as it tilted its head to the side.
“I … I don’t know, just leave me alone.” Trudging to the porch steps, she sat down, then buried her face in her hands.
This last week … she’d never felt this way before, about anyone. Never had such a fun time with someone, in and out of bed.
But he was still a liar. He didn’t tell her about his grandmother being a princess or about being a duke himself, nor had he mentioned anything about previously being engaged.
Just thinking of that woman had her blood boiling, especially with the way she looked down her nose at her. Like she wasn’t even fit to kiss Cam’s shoes.
J.D. honestly thought she’d gotten over that high school queen bee shit. That she was more than just the tomboy mechanic’s daughter who didn’t know how to put on lipstick or match her shoes with her belt.
The ache in her chest grew, thinking about Cam and that woman. They must have made a striking couple—him, so handsome and tall, her, so elegant and gorgeous and perfect. All that they’d shared together. Wrapped up in bed together. How he must have loved her enough to ask her to marry him.
Tears sprung to her eyes. “Great,” she sniffed. And now she was crying over him. How could this day possibly get any worse?
“J.D., I … hey, are you okay?” a familiar voice asked.
Damn it! She should have known better than to ask. In her head, she looked up at the sky, spread her arms apart, and screamed, really?
“J.D.?”
Wiping her eyes with her shirt sleeve, she took a calming breath and looked up at Roy Jorrell. “Hey, Roy,” she greeted, pasting a smile on her face. “Wow, I am just bumping into you everywhere, aren’t I? Are you driving past my house checking if I’m home?” she joked.
“I was just in the neighborhood,” he said sheepishly. “Thought I’d drop by to check on you. You know. After the carnival and everything.”
“Oh, right.”
“I was calling you all week,” he said. “But you weren’t picking up.”
“Been super busy. Holidays, you know?”
“Whoa!” Roy’s eyes went wide as he glanced behind her. “What happened there?”
“What happened—Aww, fuck me with a dirty cactus!” she cursed when she turned her head and followed Roy’s gaze. Someone had spray-painted “Bitch Whore” all over her door in red paint. “Motherfucking twunt pipers! I’m going to kill whoever did this.”
“Who do you think could have done this?” Roy asked. “Is it a prank?”
“I … I don’t know.” Her shoulders sank. God, what a mess. All she wanted to do was have a sinkhole open up and swallow her whole.
“Why don’t we go inside?” he suggested. “I can make you some coffee or tea.”
“We can’t,” she said. “I don’t have my keys.”
“You don’t?”
“Yeah, I, uh, left them at Cam’s.”
“Do you need to call him to get them back?”
“Left my phone there too.”
His brows furrowed. “J.D., where is he? And why are you here all alone and barefoot?”
She pursed her lips together, wanting to confide into someone what an asshole her mate was. It was tempting, and she knew Roy would have a sympathetic ear. “Listen, Roy, could you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“Could you, uh, drive me to Rosie’s on Main Street? My friend works there, and he can get me sorted.” Gabriel had a copy of her house key, and she could at least get started from there.
“Of course. Come, my lady.” He gestured to his truck. “My chariot awaits.”
Oh, brother. But it wasn’t like she had much choice. So, she stood up and followed him. He opened the passenger side door for her, but before she could hop in, a familiar Range Rover drove up to them, then turned into her driveway.
Crap! She wanted to hop into the truck and tell Roy to floor it, but her damned cat wouldn’t let her. In fact, it yowled and hissed and clawed at her insides, and she only had a foot up on the jacked-up Sierra’s running board. Get in, dummy, she told her body. But it wouldn’t budge.
A pissed-off looking Cam hopped out of the Range Rover and marched straight toward her and Roy. His expression only got angrier and angrier as he came closer. “Where do you think you’re going with my mate?” If looks could kill, Roy would have died on the spot.
“Somewhere she’ll be safe,” Roy shot back.
“And what are you implying? That she’s not safe with me?”
“Cam!”
she warned. “Stop it. You have no right to be here.”
“No right?” he asked incredulously. “May I remind you, you were the one who snuck out of a window.”
“And whose fault was that?” she shot back. “Roy, can we go now? I need to get my keys from Gabriel.”
“I have your keys,” he said, fishing them out of his pocket and dangling them in front of her. “Now get away from this penis extension vehicle so we can go inside and have a civilized conversation.”
Roy’s face turned red. “Who do you think you are, you asshole!”
Cam stretched up to full height, which was about half a foot taller than Roy, then crossed his arms over his chest. “Want to try me?”
“For fuck’s sake, put your dicks away.” J.D. slapped a hand on her forehead. With a long sigh, she turned to Roy. “Listen, Roy, thanks so much, but I can take it from here.”
“But he’s—”
“It’s all right,” she assured him. “He has my keys, and I can get into my house.” She didn’t want to talk to Cam, but it was much easier to get her keys from him than to have to go all the way to Gabriel’s. He would ask her questions, and Damon would get involved, and the whole thing would be a big fucking mess. “Sorry to have bothered you.”
“Not a bother at all.” He glared at Cam, who sent him a seething look. “Bye, J.D..” Hopping into his truck, he sped away with a final deafening roar of his engine.
“Wanker,” Cam spat. “What the hell was he doing here?”
She folded her arms over her chest. “I thought you didn’t get jealous?” When he didn’t answer, she rolled her eyes. “Just give me my keys.”
“Not until you sit down and talk to me.”
“I don’t want to talk to a liar like you. Now, give. Me. My. Keys.”
“I wasn’t lying,” he pointed out. “I thought you said I can fill in the details later? And not to ‘sweat the small stuff’?”
“Those were very big details to leave out!” she screamed back.
“Fine.” He grabbed her hand and put the keys in her palm. “Here. Take them. But I’m not the only one lying here.”
“What?” she snarled at him. “I have never lied to you, Dr. Duke Cameron Aleksandr, whatever your name is!”
“Oh yeah?” His blue-violet eyes blazed. “What about when you told me that nothing I could say could make you not want me?”
The true, genuine hurt in his eyes made her heart clench.
Oh God.
He was right.
She had promised him. Remembering the anxiety in his eyes, she recalled how much courage it took to even open up to her, a virtual stranger at that point. But he did it because he wanted to be with her.
I can’t quite imagine my life without you.
She blinked as the air rushed back into her lungs. “Cam!”
He was already climbing into his vehicle. “Wait!” She dashed after him, tugging at the back of his jacket, forcing him to turn around. “Cam, you’re right, please, I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have—”
Arms wrapped around her as his mouth captured hers in a hot, soulful kiss. It took her a second, but she responded back, pouring every emotion she had into kissing him back, arching her body into his in a desperate attempt to get as close to him as possible.
“J.D.,” he breathed against her mouth. “I tried to tell you. I was going to. But I was swept away. This week … it’s been the best of my life.”
“Me too,” she confessed. “And I’m sorry, too, for walking out like that. For not hearing you out. I was just so stunned and … and jealous.”
“Jealous?”
“Yeah. Of … her.” She winced. But even now, the ugly green monster inside of her was rearing its head inside her. “That you and her—”
“Oh, dear God. J.D., love, no.” He kissed her again. “That’s in the past. And even then, I wasn’t really …” He took a deep breath. “Can we go inside, please? And talk? I promise I’ll tell you everything. It might take a while, but I promise you’ll know everything.”
“All right,” she said. “Let’s go inside.” She was about to escort him to the front door but remembered the graffiti there. Not wanting to deal with that yet or explain it, she tugged him toward the back door instead. “On second thought, we should go to the kitchen. I’ll make coffee.”
“Here you go.” J.D. handed Cam a mug of fresh, hot coffee, then sat beside him at her kitchen table.
“Thank you.” He accepted it from her, then took a sip before placing it on top of the table. His hands wrapped around the cup. “I don’t know where to begin.”
She gnawed her lip with her teeth. “How about with your grandmother?” Inside, she winced. She’d acted so rude that morning to the sweet old lady who’d practically raised Cam.
“Yes. Princess Natalia of Zaratena. It was a small country in the Baltic region.”
“Was?”
“Yeah. There was a revolution a few decades ago when my grandmother was a teenager. The people rose up and rebelled against my great-grandfather, the king, and the monarchy was overthrown. Not that it mattered because without a strong leader, Zaratena was eventually swallowed up by its neighboring countries.”
“And your grandmother … she escaped?”
“Yes.”
“What about the rest of her family?”
“They … were not all as lucky. The king, queen, and the crown prince and his family all perished. She had one older brother who was living abroad at the time, in Scandinavia. Grandmother was taken away by their most loyal servants and spirited to Russia where she lived in exile with distant relatives. When she was eighteen, she met my grandfather, Igor Dashokov. He was … not a very nice person.
“The Dashokovs were a well-known polar bear shifter crime family. Igor’s father started as a petty thief on the streets of St. Petersburg, but he grew his gang into a true criminal organization. When Igor took over, he wanted to go legitimate, and so he built upon his father’s empire, getting into almost every kind of business there was. Oil. Gold. Energy. Agriculture. Over here, you’ve probably never heard of his name or his company, MedvedDaz, but there, it’s a kind of a big deal. But, despite his wealth and power, Igor was hated by the elite of Russia. The members of the high society couldn’t see past his criminal origins or his low birth. Even with all the money in the world, there was one thing he couldn’t buy: respect and approval.”
He paused, then took a long sip of the coffee. “He married my grandmother so he could elevate himself. The rest of the family objected, but he was determined to have his princess and sire well-bred, strong polar bear sons to continue the line. He promised—no, he pledged an oath to his brothers—that he would produce an heir to take over the business when he was gone. It was the only way they allowed the marriage and the legitimizing of their businesses.
“Unfortunately, their union only produced a daughter. My mother. But that didn’t stop him, so he married her off to someone who could expand his business’s reach across Europe and get his foot in the door in places where he’d normally be snubbed.”
She gasped. “Your parents … their marriage was arranged?”
“In a way, yes. My father’s father, the old duke, was up to his eyeballs in debt. But he had a title and connections, and Igor knew no one would ever close their doors on a duke and the grandson of royalty.”
“So you … that’s why you have to go back? To take over your grandfather’s business? Because he literally promised you away even before you were born?”
“Yes.”
There was a sadness there, in his eyes. “You don’t want to go.”
“I … no.”
“Because you love your work,” she said in a quiet voice. “You’d rather be in the bogs, digging up birds’ nests and literal shit than living the high life in Europe.”
A smile curled up at the corner of her mouth. “Among other things.”
“Then don’t go,” she said. “Stay here.” With me, she added silently.
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“It’s not just a promise,” he said. “It’s a blood oath. It cannot be broken. If I don’t go, then the remaining Dashokovs—my uncles and cousins—will consider the oath broken. And … they’ll want repayment.”
“Repayment?”
“Yes. In the form of my grandmother’s life.”
“What!” She shot to her feet. “They would … how … no, they couldn’t …”
He nodded. “You don’t know my family. They take honor seriously. So, you see, that’s what I was afraid to tell you. I didn’t want you to get involved in all that. If you want to be with me, then you’ll have to live in Russia. Be my mate, bear my children. And I think … you would hate it.”
“You don’t know that, Cam.”
“You wouldn’t have this.” He gestured around him. “Or your friends. Your garage. You’d have to leave Blackstone eventually. I couldn’t do that to you.”
“You’re right. I wouldn’t have all this.” She reached over and took his hands in hers. “But I’d have you.”
Hope flared in his eyes. “J.D., think about what you’re saying.”
“I am.” Standing up, she circled around to his side, then planted herself in his lap. “I told you, we would work it out. And I’m not backing down or bowing out just because you were born into a family of psychos.”
“You won’t?”
“Nuh-uh.” And she wasn’t about to let some Russian gangsters make a sweet old lady sleep with the fishes. “And all this?” She glanced around. “It would mean nothing if I can’t be with you.”
“God … J.D. …” His hands clamped around the back of her head and pulled her in for a long, hard, deep kiss. “I’ll make you happy. I promise. Anything and everything you want; I’ll give it to you. I’ll buy you a slew of garages across the continent.”
She pulled him to her, laying his head on her shoulder. “But what about you? What about your happiness? Your work … science …”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “As long as my grandmother is safe and I have you.”
But it did matter. It mattered to her. Somehow, she would find a way so he, too, could have everything he wanted. “So, that’s it? That’s all?”
Blackstone Ranger Scrooge: Blackstone Rangers Book 6 Page 13
