Beast (Happily-Ever-After: The Illegitimates Book 1)

by Trisha Grace

  “Oh. Why?”

  He kneaded his neck.

  “That bad?”

  “Elias messed with the thermostat.”

  “Why?”

  “So I could look chivalrous?”

  Helena laughed, then quickly apologized when she saw how embarrassed it made Liam. “I’m not laughing at you. It’s just silly. They didn’t have to do that to make you look chivalrous. You’ve already done plenty for me.”

  Liam hooked his index finger under her chin and brushed his thumb over her lower lip. “I kind of liked doing that.”

  “Being chivalrous?”

  He shook his head. “Putting the jacket on you.”

  Her head bobbed up and down. “I liked that too.” She glanced over at her mountain of clothes. “I’ll wear a sleeveless dress tonight, then you can do the same.”

  “Deal.”

  They both looked toward the door at the sudden burst of thumping on the floorboards.

  “Your brothers?”

  Liam’s brows drew together for a moment. “No. Your new furniture.”

  “Ooh.” Helena jumped up. She opened the door and smiled at George and the men behind him.

  “Your new bed is here,” George said.

  “Thanks.” Then she noticed that the men behind George were all staring past her.

  Helena glanced over her shoulder to find Liam angling his face away.

  She swallowed a frustrated sigh and moved next to Liam. She hooked her hand on his arm. “This is Liam. He’s the one who bought the furniture.”

  She felt a tug on her hand as Liam tried to turn further away, but she refused to let him run. She held on, and that earned her a glare from Liam.

  His glare didn’t scare her. It never did.

  But what she was about to do did. It could backfire so badly.

  Helena beamed up at him, then turned back to the men. “That’s a pretty cool scar, right?” She felt Liam tense next to her. “I think it makes him look like a Viking warrior.”

  The men laughed nervously, and the one standing in front—the one with the supervisor tag—ran his hand through his hair. “I wouldn’t dare mess with him if I ran into him on the street.”

  “Yeah. But also so ruggedly handsome, no?” She felt Liam’s gaze on her, but she didn’t turn to meet it. Despite her smile, she was holding her breath as she waited for the supervisor’s reaction.

  Liam would probably throw her out and lock himself away for the rest of his life if this didn’t turn out right. George seemed to know that as well, and he was staring at her as if she’d lost her mind.

  Maybe she had.

  Then the supervisor laughed—a casual, relaxed laugh. “Do you think if I get one, my wife would swoon over me?”

  Helena wanted to throw her arms around the supervisor. Instead, she grinned. “I’m not swooning.” She turned to Liam. “I’m not.” Not because of the scar, at least. With another smile at the guys, she continued, “George will show you guys where the room is. Thanks, George.”

  She closed the door and spun back to face Liam.

  He just stared at her without a word.

  “Your scar isn’t as bad as you think.”

  He remained quiet.

  Helena held her breath and waited, but all Liam did was stare at her. “Okay,” she said, her breath rushing out of her. “Will you say something? How much trouble am I in?”

  “I thought you said my glare didn’t scare you.”

  “It doesn’t. I’m … worried.”

  “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “I just wanted you to see that—” She didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence.

  Liam crossed over to her so quickly she didn’t have time to react. Before she knew what was happening, his lips were on hers.

  This kiss was nothing like the peck they’d shared before. His arm went around her waist, and he hauled her up against the hard planes of his chest as his tongue swept into her.

  It was rushed. It was hard. It was as if he’d suddenly come undone and he couldn’t control himself.

  And she didn’t mind.

  His strength never scared her. He’d never used it against her, and Helena was sure he never would.

  Helena weaved her fingers into his hair and kissed him back. His searing kiss made her knees weak, but his arm around her held her firmly. How could she feel so safe and nervous at the same time? How did every part of her seem to relax into him while her heart was beating so wildly?

  When they broke the kiss, they were both breathing hard.

  Liam pressed his forehead against hers as he drew a deep breath. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”

  She was still trying to pull herself together from that scorching kiss, so she didn’t reply.

  “I’m never letting you go.”

  She slapped him on the arm, and he released her. “Don’t say things like that.”

  He frowned.

  Helena moved away from him to put some space between them. She needed it to breathe properly. “It sounds like you’re going to lock me up in this room for the rest of my life.”

  “I wouldn’t mind.”

  She narrowed her eyes, and he laughed.

  “Come back here.”

  She crossed her arms. “No.”

  His eyes narrowed.

  “No.” She tried to move past him, but he extended his hand to block her way.

  Liam hooked his hand on her hip and dragged her back to face him. “I just said I’m not letting you go.”

  She laughed. “Okay, you can stay and help me put away all these clothes.”

  “Why did you dump them all out on the bed?”

  “Liam, this isn’t all of them.” She pulled away from him. “I think I may have to convert Nigel’s room into a closet.” She moved over to the bags lined up along the wall.

  She frowned and pulled out a wrapped gift from one of the paper bags. “Is this from you?” Helena held up a flat rectangular package in red wrapping paper peppered with pink hearts.

  His brows drew together. “No.”

  “Cassian’s mother?” Helena turned the present around in her hand. “No name. Could it be for you?” She held it out toward him.

  He laughed without humor. “It isn’t for me. Open it.”

  Helena tore off the wrapper to reveal a black sketchbook. “Huh. What do we have here?”

  She opened the black cover.

  On the first page was a sketch of the game character from Flora. Except the face had been changed to hers.

  Red flags popped up in her mind.

  Helena flipped through the pages of the sketchbook, and the sketches grew darker.

  All of the drawings depicted her as the game character. Some of them were of her in sexually suggestive positions. Some of the drawings were of her all cut up and bleeding.

  The last sketch was one of her in her usual clothes, with blood dripping out of her eyes.

  Liam took the sketchbook from her and slammed it shut. He dropped the book and wrapped his arms around her.

  Helena closed her eyes and took a deep breath, relaxing as she took in his familiar scent of mint.

  “It’s okay. We’ll get him,” Liam said as he held Helena close. Then I’ll kill him. He had watched her turn pale from the very first page, so he had moved over to see what was causing her reaction.

  He’d clenched his fists when he saw the sketches. The rational part of him knew they had to keep the sketchbook as evidence, especially if they were going to report this. Still, he ached to rip the thing up and burn the pieces to ashes.

  But this wasn’t about him.

  He drew a long breath through his nose and gave her a peck on the hair. For now, he would just hold her as long as she needed.

  “I’m okay.” She pressed a hand to her face. “How did it get in the bag?”

  “We’ll find out.” Liam leaned back slightly and bent to look at her. “Do you want to report this?”

  Her eyes widened
in panic, and she shook her head. “I don’t want anyone else to see those sketches. I don’t want anyone else to look at the videos.”

  “About the videos.”

  “Oh, no.”

  “No. It’s good news.”

  She sighed with relief, even before he told her what it was, which made him feel like a king.

  “So far,” he said, “there’s been no sign that your videos were posted anywhere online. Instead of hanging around and waiting for something bad to happen, I’ve been thinking.” He brushed a hand down a side of her face when she looked up at him with those wide eyes filled with absolute trust. “I think we should beat the hacker at his own game.”

  Liam should have taken action sooner. Then perhaps this wouldn’t have happened. “I’ll need your laptop.”

  “Take it.”

  Two simple words. They weren’t even a confession of love, but they made him want to conquer the world for her.

  She hadn’t asked him for details; she simply trusted him to take care of it for her.

  “Okay.” He held her shoulders. “Will you be all right here? I’ll go check the surveillance footage.”

  Her hands shot out to grab his shirt. “I want to go with you. Maybe I’ll recognize the stalker.”

  Liam nodded. He didn’t want to leave her on her own anyway. “Okay.” He picked up the sketchbook. “I’ll hang on to this.”

  She opened her mouth to say something, then shut it.

  “I won’t look at the sketches.” Seeing those once was more than enough. “I won’t let anyone else see it without your permission either. You have my word.”

  She nodded with a small smile, and Liam couldn’t help himself. He leaned forward and gave her a peck on the forehead before leading Helena to his study.

  He pulled out the office chair for her, then leaned over the desk and logged into the cloud system that stored all the security videos.

  “You should sit.”

  He put a hand on her shoulder. “Stay. I’m fine.” He drummed his fingers on the desk while the videos loaded.

  “That’s a lot of footage.”

  “We have a lot of cameras.” His lips curled when Helena’s brows rose in surprise. “There are no cameras in any of the rooms, though. Don’t worry. They’re mainly around the outside of the mansion or the grounds, so I’ll know about any intruders.”

  “Have there been any?”

  “A couple of years back, stupid kids started trying to break into the haunted mansion.”

  Helena chuckled, and he was momentarily distracted by the sight of her in his chair.

  No one had ever sat in that chair besides him. Even when his brothers were here, they usually remained on the sofa on the other side of the room.

  Growing up alone, Liam was used to having space for himself. Isolation had a way of building walls, and he’d always felt that—even with his brothers. He didn’t like to be crowded. He didn’t like anyone in his space.

  It wasn’t until after he and his brothers started Shadow Corp. that Liam allowed them into his study at all.

  But with Helena, he wanted her around all the time. He loved seeing how comfortable she was in his clothes. He loved how she could tell it wasn’t his jacket, and he loved seeing her in his space.

  “Liam?” Helena looked over at him. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.” Focus.

  She leaned forward when Liam clicked on the video footage from the front door.

  He ran his finger across his laptop’s track pad to rewind the video. He moved past his brothers coming to the house, back to Cassian appearing on his own, then George moving the bags of clothes in.

  He stopped the video when he spotted the wrapped sketchbook.

  The courier delivering Helena’s clothes had picked it up from the porch and put it into one of the bags.

  Liam moved the video further back.

  For hours of footage, the sketchbook just sat there all night. He pulled the video further back, and Helena drew in a deep breath when the video showed someone in a hooded jacket moving toward the house.

  The person seemed small in size. A teenager, maybe?

  Liam clicked play and watched the person jog forward with the wrapped sketchbook in hand. The stalker kept his head down the whole time, so Liam couldn’t see the face.

  Helena leaned closer, then gasped and leaned back when the face came into view.

  Except it wasn’t a face. It was a mask—a devil’s mask.

  She closed her eyes and sighed. “He knows there are cameras.”

  The camera Bobby had installed was large and obvious. “It’s all right. We’ll get him.” Even if it took Liam the rest of his life to do it, he would.

  Helena looked at her watch when it buzzed. “Huh.”

  “What is it?”

  “It seems Mr. Eolenfeld decided that he isn’t going to die just yet.”

  Chapter 13

  Helena went back to her room and checked the text message on her phone.

  I’m home.

  She grinned at the short message from Edward Eolenfeld. “I knew you were too stubborn to die,” she said to herself.

  Two weeks ago, Edward Eolenfeld had been admitted to the hospital and had undergone emergency heart surgery. All had seemed well until his blood pressure took a sudden dip, which sent him back to the intensive care unit.

  Through all of that, Helena hadn’t been allowed to visit.

  The fractured Eolenfelds had hired a number of different security teams, each family trying to keep the others away from the senior Eolenfeld. All in hopes of getting Edward Eolenfeld to sign a new will.

  Even Bobby was kept away from Edward for a couple of days until he brought in a team of lawyers.

  The disgusting antics the Eolenfelds would resort to in order to get a larger share of the fortune was fit for a soap opera.

  How are you feeling? I haven’t been allowed to see you, she typed and sent the message. She probably could have asked Bobby to take her to the hospital, but she didn’t want to owe him anything.

  Besides, she didn’t want the Eolenfelds to create more trouble because of her presence. They already hated her enough, thinking she was after the fortune.

  I can send David to pick you up.

  She grinned and jumped to her feet, just as Liam entered. “I’m heading out.”

  “Out out?”

  She nodded. “I need to see Edward Eolenfeld. He’s home.”

  “Are you sure that’s him?”

  She gave her phone a wave. “He said he’d send his chauffeur to get me.”

  He eyed the phone suspiciously. “And will you recognize the chauffeur?”

  She nodded. “It isn’t the stalker. I’m sure. This is my chance to make sure Bobby can’t take this place away from you.” She started going through the pile of clothes.

  “Helena.”

  She was surprised when Liam spun her around.

  “Edward Eolenfeld isn’t going to listen to you. He was the one who sent me here.”

  Helena licked her lips. “I didn’t know that.”

  He shrugged.

  “I know most people hate him. You have every right to hate him.” She ran a hand down his arm and felt his muscles tense. “But he’ll listen to me. I know I can get him to leave this place to you. He’s always saying I can ask him for anything.”

  His brows twitched. “And you’re going to ask for this place?”

  She didn’t understand his confusion. “Then Bobby won’t be able to throw you out.”

  “Nigel won’t get a cent if you step out of the house.”

  She waved it off. “Empty threats. Bobby wouldn’t really do that.” Well, maybe he would just to spite her. Bobby could be cruel at times, especially when she refused to do his bidding.

  “You have a lot of faith in him.”

  “Bobby and Nigel are really good friends.” Which was true.

  “Don’t go.” It wasn’t a command. It sounded more like a plea—one that made
her heart ache.

  “Liam.” Helena licked her lips. “If I don’t get there soon, I may not get to speak with him. You have no idea what they’re doing to keep him isolated.”

  “I don’t need this place.”

  Her brows drew together.

  “Bobby can raze this place to the ground. I don’t care.”

  She put a hand on his chest. “I’ll come back.”

  “I don’t want you to go. I don’t want you to owe Edward Eolenfeld anything.”

  “Bobby’s going to throw you out, Liam.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Will you?” She sighed softly. “You’ll have to leave this place.”

  “Then I’ll leave.” He brushed his finger down a side of her face. “You don’t trust me?” A corner of his lips hooked into a smirk. “Or are you worried I’ll take over your couch?”

  She laughed once. “Liam, I’m grateful to Bobby, but I know him. He can be cruel. He and Nigel are friends, but he will throw you out.” She drew a breath through her nose, hating that she would again be part of the reason that Liam would be hurt. “Especially because …”

  “Because of you.”

  She pursed her lips and nodded.

  “Then you really should offer up your couch.”

  She tutted. “Liam.”

  “You’re okay with Bobby staying on your couch.”

  “Seriously, Liam?” She narrowed her eyes. “I’m worried about whether you’ll have a roof over your head and you’ve decided to choose this moment to be jealous?”

  “Yes.”

  She chuckled and shook her head as Liam watched her. “Okay.” She curtailed her laughter. “If you get kicked out of here, you can sleep on my couch.”

  He grinned, and her lips hooked back at the sheer silliness of the situation. “Then there’s no need to talk to the old man,” he said.

  Helena gaze roamed across his face. She wasn’t sure why this was so important to him, but she could sense that it was. “Fine. I won’t visit him today. I really do have work to do anyway.” The brilliant smile he answered her with made her laugh. “You’re adorable.”

  His eyes squinted.

  “I can’t say you’re adorable?”

  “I’m sure you’ve realized you can say whatever you want and get away with it.”