“You know what? I want nothing to do with it, I got a couple hotties lined up. I’m heading out, you’re on your own,” Will told him, walking away.
“But he can’t treat us like that,” Squire said again.
“Maybe he really likes this woman. Maybe he’s ready to settle down. Give the man a break! I’m out, I got hotties waiting!” Will said, turning around to deliver his words while still walking backward away from Squire.
Not one to pass up a night with young, sexy women, Squire decided to set his issues with Base aside for the night. “Wait for me, man. I’m going to grab my bag then I’ll meet you at the car. I’m coming with.”
Will had already turned his back to Squire and was well on his way down the corridor toward the player’s exit. He didn’t turn around but lifted a hand, waving over his head, signaling he heard and kept walking.
~~~~~
The next day at the game found Base in an even worse state than he’d been in at the meeting. He looked ragged. He played horribly, and the coach ended up benching him in the fourth inning.
“Look, you said you needed to handle something at home. We’re home. Handle it! You have this entire organization built around you. Do what the hell you’re paid to do. You have a contract, Lyakhov!” Coach yelled at him in the dugout.
“I’m trying! I thought it would be taken care of last night. I thought it was handled. I was wrong, alright? I’m no closer to a resolution than I was when I first asked for your help. Not that that made any difference at all!” Base yelled back at the coach.
“What do you want from me? I tried. So now what do I have to do to help you play like the Base we drafted again?” Coach begged.
“I don’t know,” Base answered, looking down at the ground.
“Just hit the damn showers for today. I’ll tell ‘em you’re sick. But if you plan to play here, you have to get your act together. You got me?” Coach asked.
“Yeah. I do,” Base replied, wasting no time leaving the dugout and heading back to the locker room. He pushed the door to the locker room open, and came to a halt. He could smell her, she’d been here. He followed his nose and found her scent went from the showers to the toilets and back out of the door again.
He didn’t think, he just followed his nose. He hurried down the corridor, taking the twists and turns just as she had hours earlier when she’d cleaned the locker room in preparation of them using it, and then headed to the nacho stand, to work a shift with the food service department.
Base paid no attention to the fans gawking at him as he rushed past, still dressed in his baseball uniform and cleats. He just ran, his beast urging him on, his heart near to bursting with anticipation. When he rounded the last corner, he lost her scent as his nostrils were filled with the smell of melted cheese and jalapenos. He stalked around a bit sniffing. Just as his irritation level began to rise, giving in to the desperation of losing her again, he gave the nacho stand a cursory glance and froze. Standing there behind the counter, counting out change to a customer, was his woman — his mate. When she smiled at the lady and wished her a good afternoon, she was so beautiful he thought himself the luckiest male on the planet. He made a beeline for her, not caring who or what got between him and his woman. He was not going to lose her this time.
He hurried to her, and realizing somewhere in his obsessed brain that she was at work, he slipped into line and stood patiently while she waited on the next customer. He was so focused on her he was completely unaware of the small crowd gathering around him.
Then she turned to him, the next customer in line, and smiled brightly at him before realizing who he was.
He smiled back, grinning ear-to-ear.
Her smile fell and she looked a little confused, but still he was a customer. “May I help you?” she asked.
He could have purred at the sound of her voice. “I hope so. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. What is your name?”
Renata looked around at the small crowd surrounding Basilio. “Aren’t you supposed to be out there?” she asked, pointing toward the inside of the stadium. Now that she saw that it was Basilio, she was almost speechless, and the way he was looking at her, made her very nervous. Men didn’t look at her that way. She wasn’t ugly, but she was curvy. While she was proud of her curves, men like Basilio usually chose the complete opposite for their women.
“Yes. No. I mean, I got sick so I went to the locker room. But then I found you. Now I’m here. What is your name?”
A look of concern came over her face. “Are you okay? If you’re too sick to be playing, aren’t you too sick to be out here? Should I call someone for you?”
He was about to lose his mind if she didn’t tell him her name. He walked around the side of the counter and stepped behind it with her. She startled when he took her face in his hands and turned it up to his own, but he didn’t let go. He had her wide eyed and her heart pounding. “I. Want. Your. Name.” He told her again slowly.
“I’m Renata,” she finally answered.
“Hello, Renata. I'm Basilio,” he told her.
“Of course, you are. Everyone knows who you are,” she said, trying to pull away.
“I’ve looked everywhere for you, Renata,” he told her, refusing to let her go, moving his hands down to her shoulders.
“You have?” she asked.
“I have,” he said, looking into her eyes, at her lips, her face, running his thumbs gently across her shoulders where his hands still held and caressed her.
“Why? Am I in trouble?” she asked.
“No. No trouble. Just needed to find you,” he told her smiling.
His beast was rumbling in his chest, his heart happy, all was right in his world. Until he realized there was a commotion going on around him. He looked up and found that the crowd had grown, people pushing and shoving, trying to get close to him. And now security was there, trying to dispel the crowd. A TV crew had found him, thanks to the attention the crowd had caused and it was all being filmed.
With a snarl, he turned on them while at the same time pushing Renata behind himself, stepping backward, pressing her against the rear cabinets of the nacho stand, placing himself between her and the crowd.
“Get back!” he shouted. “If you hurt my woman, you’ll all pay! Back off!” he shouted. The camera man got a little too close and Base shoved the man backwards, causing him to fall into others in the crowd. Yet still the man filmed, he got it all on film. All of it. The security guards trying to disperse the crowd, Base pushing the woman behind himself and Base reassuring her. He got every single word. “It’s okay, Renata. I got this, honey. You’re safe.”
After much negotiation, the security guards managed to convince Base that the only way the crowd would disperse was if he’d leave the area. But he couldn’t leave Renata alone. He’d just found her, and besides that, he refused to leave her unprotected. The crowd, unable to get to him directly had begun shouting questions at Renata — how long they’d been dating, if they were getting married, if they dated before she’d started working at the stadium?
Renata was clearly flustered. She didn’t answer any of the questions, just looked at him accusingly.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” he asked her over the shouting around them.
“They think we’re dating,” she answered. Looking more and more worried. She looked at the camera and realized it was pointed right at her. “They’re filming me, they’ll put me on television. I can’t be on TV. He’ll find me!”
Base’s protective instincts kicked into high gear. “Who will find you?”
“Make them stop!” she pleaded.
Basilio turned on the camera man immediately. “Stop filming!” he snarled. He glanced over his shoulder to check on Renata, but she was in the process of gathering her things.
“Renata?” he shouted above the din of the crowd.
Renata didn’t answer, she spun on her heel, grabbed her purse from under the counter and ducked under the counter top, d
arting around the people milling about, and started running.
Base didn’t know what the hell was going on, but he knew that his woman was afraid. So, he did what any good mate would do, he destroyed what had frightened her. He rushed the camera man, snatched the camera from his hands and smashed it to the ground, effectively ending the taping.
“If you put any of that on TV, I will sue you, your children and your children’s children for the rest of all their lives. You got that?!” he shouted in the camera man’s face.
The camera man looked panicked, he stammered while trying to answer. “It…it’s live. There’s no tape, it’s live.”
“Fuck!” Base shouted. “Take it off the air. Don’t let them rerun it!” he ordered, then he started running in the direction that Renata had gone, shouting over his shoulder. “Call whoever the fuck you have to, get it off the air, do NOT play it again!”
He didn’t turn around to see if the man did what he demanded, but he hoped that he did.
Base ran as best he could with people constantly getting in his way. When he finally made it to the parking lot, she was nowhere to be seen. He stopped, calmed himself and started trying to pick up her scent.
It worked, he found her, just as she backed out of her spot.
Chapter 5
Renata fumbled with her keys, her hands shaking, trying to get her car door unlocked. She had to hurry home, get rid of Mrs. Friedrickson, pack their stuff up, throw Kaiser in the car and go. She couldn’t take the chance that Kaiser’s father wouldn’t see her on television. She had to leave, and fast. Everything she’d planned, everything she’d worked for, was gone now. A complete waste of time, of money. She let out a sob as she threw her old, piece of crap car into gear and backed out of her parking spot. Something hit the back of her car and she shrieked in surprise — then she saw what it was. It was him. Base. It was all his fault that her life was disrupted. She’d have to let go of all her hopes, all her plans and start all over.
She couldn’t help herself — her instincts took over. She threw open her door, got out and started yelling at him.
“How could you? How? You’ve destroyed everything I planned for. Everything I hoped for, worked so hard for… just gone! And do you care? No, you don’t. Everything is just a damn game to you. You take no one seriously, no one means anything to you, and now our lives are turned upside down because why? You decided that you had to try to win me over because I’m the only woman that’s never fallen at your feet? Is that it? Well, I hope you’re happy now! What little life I’ve managed to carve out is destroyed!”
Base stood there, listening to her words, smelling the fear — no, the terror — wafting from her, not fully understanding what was happening, but knowing that he’d make it right, no matter what it was.
“Renata, please, honey, stop yelling for just a minute. I’ll fix this, you’ll see.”
“You can’t fix it! It’s too late, they put my picture on television because your big, stupid ass couldn’t leave me alone. Just leave me alone!” she screamed at him, turning to get back in the car.
She’s leaving! Beast yelled in his head.
Base did the only thing he could think of to do. She was too hysterical to listen to anything he had to say, and he didn’t know where to find her later, so he jumped over the trunk of the car, pulled open the car door and plopped himself in the passenger side.
Renata slammed on the brakes. “Get out!”
“No,” he answered calmly.
“Get out of my car! I have to leave. Now!” she screamed at him.
He looked at her, eyes filled with his feelings for her, hoping that somewhere inside she’d see it. “I’m not getting out. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here, with you. I’ll protect you from whatever it is you’re afraid of. I’ll not ever let anything hurt you.”
Renata’s emotions got the best of her and she dissolved into tears. “Please get out,” she begged.
“No. I can’t. I can’t take the chance that I won’t find you again. Tell me what you’re running from. Tell me what you’re afraid of. I’ll take care of it — of you.”
The tears were subsiding and the anger was back. “Really? You want me as a responsibility?”
“Always,” he immediately countered.
“Really? Okay. How about my son? Do you want to take on my son as well? Because if you want to take care of me, you have to take care of my son. We’re a package deal,” she said with attitude, sure in the belief that no one, especially a professional athlete with the reputation he had of multiple beautiful women every night, and each night a different group of them, would take on another man’s child.
His entire face changed and she thought finally she’d won, he’d get out of her car so she could go to her son, until he spoke, eyes wide, a genuine smile on his face. “We have a son?”
“What?” she asked, completely confused now. “No, I have a son,” she answered. “Get out!”
“What’s his name? When can I meet him?” he persisted, completely ignoring the fact that she’d repeatedly ordered him out of her car.
“Please,” she tried again, calmly, quietly, “I have to go get him. I have to pick him up, pack our things and go. I have to start again. I have to run, now before he finds me.” Then she looked at him, pleading with her eyes. “Get out, so I can go.”
Base shook his head. “No. I’m not going. Unless it’s with you.”
“Why?” she asked.
He looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Because you’re mine. I knew it the moment our eyes met. I suspected it before, when you first ran into me, but when our eyes met, I knew for sure. You’re mine.”
“He’ll come for us. He’s dangerous. He could hurt you. Even if he can’t find us because we will be long gone, he could hurt you if you don’t tell him where we’ve gone.”
“Who, Renata? Tell me who he is?” Base said softly, reaching out to cover her hand where it was wrapped around the steering wheel with his own.
“Kaiser’s father. I ran from him. He’s going to find us now. It’s only a matter of time because they filmed my face. Eventually he’ll see it. He’ll see you protecting me, he’ll come for you even if he can’t find me.”
Base smiled evilly. “I hope he does. I hope he’s stupid enough to come after my mate or my son. I’ll kill him.” Then he looked at Renata’s astonished face, met her eyes. “He’s not ever seen anything like me, I’ll defend mine to the death. You have no reason to fear, Renata.”
Renata sat there, her mouth hanging open. In her mind’s eye she could see Base, jumping over the trunk of her car from a standing position — he’d cleared her car in one jump. She thought of his excellence on the baseball field, she thought of his sudden obsession with her, and of him speaking of her son as his. She thought of the fact that he’d just called her his mate. She sobbed once more. “You’re one of them,” she said, more statement than question.
“One of what, honey?” Base said.
“You’re like him.” Then she met his eyes. “You're a shifter. You’re like him. Oh, my God! What is wrong with me? Why do I keep finding you people? All I want is peace! Why can’t you all just leave me alone?” she cried.
“Renata?” he tried.
She didn’t answer.
“Renata!” Base said again, his voice raised.
She snapped out of her own head and looked at him.
“Why did you run?” he asked.
“Because I refuse to be one of many wives. I refuse! He lied to me, said he loved me, that we could have a family together, and as soon as Kaiser was born, he took us to a home, a compound, filled with other women and children. Told me that I was honored to be chosen and that my son would be raised to be Prime male, just as he was.”
She stopped shouting at him long enough to sob. “I’m not going to let him make Kaiser like him. He won’t turn my sweet baby into a heartless, cruel male like he is.” She looked up and met Basilio’s eyes. “He hurt me. I can’t let h
im hurt Kaiser. Please let me go.”
Basilio’s face had gone from soft and loving to one of stone. “What did he do to you?” he asked, a snarl in his voice.
Renata shook her head, and tried to do her best to get her tears and her emotions under control.
“Tell me. Please,” he repeated.
“Will you let me go so I can hide if I tell you?” she asked.
“I’ll help you hide,” he answered.
Renata took a deep breath to steady herself before launching into what he wanted to know. “I refused to submit, to accept being a part of whatever the hell he’d arranged for himself. He beat me, repeatedly. He raped me. He said that if it took keeping me pregnant and injured to make me submit, he had no problem with it. I knew that I could never live that life. I could never allow him to raise my child to think that that kind of life was acceptable. To turn my sweet boy into the cold, uncaring, manipulative male that he was. The first chance I got, I ran. I played the game long enough to make him and his people think I’d accepted it, then I ran.”
She turned to Base. “Then you put me on television! And you’re one of them!” she accused.
“No!” he hurried to assure her. “I am a shifter, but not like him. My mother lived the same kind of hell that it sounds like he had planned for you. I’ll never treat my mate that way. And did you notice I said, mate, not mates? I don’t ever want any other than the one meant for me. You’re her. You can trust me.”
Renata looked at him, about to scoff at his claim, but he silenced her with a heartfelt plea. “I’m yours, Renata. Please, give me a chance. I’ll prove it. I’ll die before I allow anyone, for any reason, to get near you or Kaiser. Please.”
Renata said nothing. Neither did he. It was a stalemate.
Finally, his mind started trying to find a compromise. Then it came to him. “Look, you’re afraid. I get that. You’re right, you can’t fight him alone. If he does find you, you can’t win.”
Safe On Base Page 4
