Jane pulled up the comforter up to her chin. Staring at the ceiling, she wondered why the prospect excited her? It wasn’t because of his wealth or his fame. It was because, well, he was John Alexander. He was quick to smile, with a warm disposition, and yet beneath his debonair persona, he seemed dangerous to boot. In a way, it added to his charm.
Husband…
She was clearly in way over her head with this blackmailing business. Was John serious about making this marriage work? Did he really have feelings for her?
How could he develop feelings for someone that easily? Considering his reputation, it felt like this marriage was nothing but a game for him.
He kept telling her it was love at first sight, but he had to be joking. But then again, she had a hunch he was serious. If he was joking, he wouldn’t bring her and the twins to live with his mother and all that talk about a grand wedding.
A grand wedding. To make it official. Announcing to the world that she was his, he’d said.
Good lord. Was he serious about that? Out of nowhere, heat flooded her cheeks. Her heartbeat quickened.
Being with him made her feel some emotions she’d buried inside a long time ago. She had sworn she would never open her heart to someone again after Nick. Nick Preston, the boy who broke her heart.
Even though her father had only begrudgingly claimed her, she was brought up in a ritzy environment. However, her status followed her and made her an outcast among the children of the elites.
In her sophomore year, she had a crush on a popular boy in school; Nick Preston was everything that she wasn’t. Then, one day, Nick asked her out on a date. She thought dreams did come true. They dated for about a week when Nick suddenly broke it off. She was devastated. And to add salt to the wound, she found out that Nick only dated her because he’d lost a bet.
The truth crushed her to the core. From that moment on, she had sworn she’d never fall in love again.
Although, she hadn’t avoided the opposite sex altogether. She had casually dated over the years, mainly for sex. But when the guy was getting serious, she’d always run.
Now that she was officially John’s wife, running seemed like it wasn’t an option.
Especially when the ice in her heart was slowly melting.
Ugh. Jane hoisted herself into a sitting position and massaged her temples.
I’m losing focus.
Falling in love wasn’t part of the game even though the man in question was her own husband. The welfare of the twins came first.
She slowly let out a long breath, trying to tame her conflicted feelings.
George and Harry were safe now. As long as they remained under the Alexander’s roof and she stayed married to John. The Alexanders’ name commanded great respect in polite society. Tomorrow, she’d call Uncle Alfred and let him know about her marriage. She’d also make it clear that if he didn’t keep his hands off the twins, he’d stand to lose everything.
She fell back on the bed, marveling at how the soft sheets caressed her skin. She looked around at the luxurious surroundings. Yet, one thing remained missing.
John.
Is it weird that I miss my forced husband?
* * *
The small Irish pub near Central Park was a little too dumpy for John’s liking, but Markus Alvares, his PI, liked the place for its steak burger and always insisted on meeting there every time John needed his services.
John called Markus to do some digging on the Benedict family while he was still in Vegas. He was surprised when Markus called him back with his findings after just a day.
After John said goodnight to the twins, he kissed his new wife and went out to see Markus. The investigator was in the middle of his second burger when John arrived. A stack of folders waited for his perusal. It turned out Markus had been hired by an insurance company to investigate the death of Lynn Sinclair Benedict—Jane and the twins’ mother. Before Markus concluded his investigation, the insurance company decided to settle with the executor of the estate: Alfred Benedict. Jane did tell him that she received a small sum of money from her mother’s estate every month until it suddenly stopped last year. Alfred gave her excuse after excuse, until she threatened to sue. Supposedly, the attempts on the twins’ life began soon after.
“Did you say you married her in Vegas?” asked Markus between hearty bites of burger.
“I did,” John answered without tearing his eyes from the report.
“Without a pre-nup?”
“Yep.”
“Without a background check?”
“That’s what I asked you to do.”
“After you married her,” Markus said pointedly. “What if she turned out to be a gold digger?”
John lifted his head from the paper, one eyebrow arching “I have good intuition. She isn’t a bad girl. She’s just desperate.”
Markus stared at him with a healthy dose of skepticism. “Hold it right there—I’m going to take your picture. I’m going to show it to you three years from now when you ask me to tail her to find grounds for a divorce.”
Annoyance mowed him down like a freight train. Even though they had been friends for a long time, Markus still had no idea who he really was. Humans get married and divorced all the time. Shifters like him mated for a lifetime. John had never believed that creed until he met Jane. He couldn’t really explain the feeling to a human like Markus. Fuck. He didn’t even believe it until he experienced it firsthand. That feeling when every fiber of his being screamed for her, wanting her to the point he thought he’d gone insane. It was primal instinct at its purest. “I’m certain that would never happen. I assure you—she’s the one.”
Markus laughed boisterously, and it invited some irritated stares from the nearby tables. The investigator wiped his hands on a napkin and gulped down his beer. “You have no idea how many times I’ve heard that line.”
“I’m sure you have,” said John dryly. “But I’m not like other people. When I say she’s special, she is truly special.”
“Uh-huh. I find it hard to believe considering your reputation.”
“I think you’re getting a little too personal, considering you’re on my payroll.”
“Sorry, boss.” But Markus didn’t seem sorry at all. “Why did you ask me to run a background check if you don’t care about the results anyway?”
“I still want to know everything about her.” John flipped the pages. “Hmm. I see she got a scholarship to NYU.”
“She majored in Fine Arts. Only lasted two semesters, though. She quit when her mother died. Tragic. Lost both parents in a span of months.”
“Don’t you think that’s kind of suspicious?”
“Depends on how you look at it. Every day, thousands of people die from motor vehicle-related incidents.”
“I am asking you if the circumstances behind their deaths are suspicious?”
“The police reports ruled them as accidents. The insurance company pulled the plug on Lynn Benedict’s case before I could dig deeper.”
“I want you to take another look at this particular case. Not just Lynn Benedict, but Rob Benedict as well. I was told there had been attempts on the twins’ lives as well.”
“The twins?”
“George and Harry Benedict.” John briefed the investigator on the short version of the twins’ strange accidents.
Markus didn’t say anything but John could see the investigator was intrigued.
“So, you’ll look at these cases for me?” asked John.
Markus nodded.
“Let me know if you find anything.”
Markus’ attention seemed somewhere else.
John was about to leave when Markus suddenly said, “I heard rumors about Alfred Benedict a while ago.”
“Oh yeah? What about him?”
“Some unsettling rumors.”
“Come on man, the suspense is killing me.”
“Did you know that Rob and Alfred Benedict are actually half-brothers?”
&
nbsp; That was news to him. John’s dad had never mentioned that to his children. And besides, their family had been out of touch with the Benedicts long before his dad died.
“They said Rob was a lovechild with the woman who got away, so the old man, William, favored him more than Alfred, his legitimate child with his wife Dorothy. They said that tension in the house made Dorothy want to protect Alfred to the point that the relationship between mother and son seemed kind of unnatural, if you know what I mean. We’re talking about Norma and Norman Bates here.”
Yikes.
John suppressed a shiver. Who would have guessed? He’d never met William Benedict, the grand patriarch, or Dorothy, when his father was still close friends with Rob. He remembered that William Benedict had passed away and Dorothy was in a private clinic in Europe, convalescing. He later heard that she died from chronic illness. As far as what transpired inside the household had remained unknown. John’s mother rarely spoke of the Benedicts since dad passed away. John didn’t even know that his family had invested a substantial amount of money into the Benedicts’ company. He would have to ask Quinn about it, since he was the one who ran the family business.
“Unsettling, indeed,” John said. “Where did you hear that?”
Markus shrugged. “I have my sources.”
“Wrong answer. Try again.”
“Lynn Benedict’s longtime friend. Dora Marsh.”
“You don’t think she could make things up?”
“Could be. But I also dug around for Alfred’s ex-wife at that time and she didn’t have anything good to say about him.”
“Ex-wives rarely have anything good to say about their ex-husbands.”
“True. But this one is particularly nasty. Read my notes.”
John stared at the thick folders. “I will.”
“A word of advice: stay away from Alfred Benedict. He’s dangerous.”
“Is that so?” John accepted this as a challenge. He couldn’t wait to meet the man who made his new wife and the twins’ life so miserable.
* * *
John didn’t immediately go home after meeting with Markus; instead, he went to Central Park and ran all night in his beastly form. There were paths and trails that even homeless people and the cops didn’t traverse after dark. After months of making fun of his brothers for being afflicted with mating fever, he now knew just how much of a nuisance it was.
The male weretigers in the Alexander family had one weakness: when they met their potential mate, they had difficulty controlling the urge to shift until they could properly mark and claim them.
And as a weretiger, John couldn’t bind his mate without her consent.
And poor little Jane, he thought in amusement, she really had no idea what she was getting in to.
He came home in the early morning. He didn’t want to disturb his new wife and decided to crash on the sofa. He stirred a few hours later when he sensed a presence in the living room. He saw George sitting at the end of the couch, peering at him curiously.
“Hey there, champ,” John said in a low tone, “what are you doing up so early?”
“I always get up early to write,” he said. “If I’m up early enough, Harry isn’t around to make fun of me.”
John gave a smile. “It must be exhausting being so mature for your age.”
George tilted his head to the side, and for just a split second, John thought he saw appreciation in those eyes of his. But instead, there was a pause before George continued. “Well, someone has to be, especially when you have a brother like Harry. Anyway, I know who you are,” he said in a matter-of-fact way, and John blinked.
“Really? I will say you’re a little young to be paying attention to music producers.”
“You know very well what I mean,” George said, a little more seriousness in his tone, even as he kept it low as he leaned forward. “Let’s say… your furry secret.”
John had been slowly making his way towards the kitchen, but he paused now, raising an eyebrow at George. “Do you, now?”
George nodded.
“How?”
“A gift, I guess. I can see the glamour behind the Others. You’d be surprised that one-tenth of people roaming around New York City aren’t entirely humans. Werewolves. Faes. Dragons. Elven folks. You name it.”
He watched George with a new appreciation. “Impressive. So why tell me?”
“I just want you to know,” said George. “I haven’t told anyone but my sister. Harry doesn’t know. My brother couldn’t keep his mouth shut if his life depended on it…” he hesitated a moment. “I know your secret so if you do anything to hurt my sister…” He let the sentence hang.
Why you little blackmailer. . . Although, I must admit I’m impressed. John smiled, relaxing a little, stepping forward and putting a hand on the counter. “There are a lot of things you have to worry about, champ, but that’s not one of them. That much I can swear.” The two of them locked eyes for a long while, but eventually, George gave a reluctant nod.
“So where are you going so early anyway?”
“In fact,” John said, “I’m stepping out to make a call; I’m setting up a dinner tomorrow night with this Uncle Alfred of yours.”
George’s eyes widened. “Why?”
“I don’t want your sister to fight this alone. She has me now. This is a job for the man of the house.”
George opened his mouth to speak but hesitated before finally saying, “Word of advice, my uncle is a two-headed snake. You have to be cautious around him.”
John arched his eyebrows, amused. “How do you know that?”
“The fact that I’m not an idiot?”
“No, you definitely are not. Let me tell you something, Jane is my mate. I’ll do anything in my power to protect her and you and Harry. You are all my family now and it is my job to protect my family and keep you all safe.”
The boy looked somewhat mollified by his words.
He gave George a quick nod before disappearing out the door, cell phone in hand.
* * *
The moment John killed his car engine, his new wife fidgeted in her seat. The parking valet in his dark livery hurried to his side, ready to take the vehicle. They were about to dine at the Four Seasons. He had invited Alfred Benedict to dinner. His mom would come a bit later with the twins and his brothers with their mates. Rather than skirt around the problem, John planned a frontal attack. He wanted Alfred to know that his wife and her brothers were now under the Alexander’s family protection. Whatever that old goat was planning, he had to stop.
However, Jane seemed hesitant. “John, I don’t think this is a good idea. I was planning to confront my uncle by myself. I really don’t want to involve your family in this mess. You and your mom have already done plenty for us.”
“We are family now, Jane. The moment you married me, your problems become our problems, and in our family, we solve our problems together.”
John sighed and took her hand, then brought it to his lips and kissed it. “Listen, babe. I can’t imagine how difficult life was for you after your parents’ death. But those days are over. You have me now. You have us. Let me worry about your problems now.”
She looked perturbed. “John, I feel like crap. I blackmailed you into marrying me and now you and your family have showed us nothing but kindness.”
He arched a brow. “Is that what you’re worrying about?”
Discomfiture was palpable on her face.
He barked a short laugh. “Babe, if I weren’t attracted to you, I would never have married you in the first place. Do you think you’re the first person who tried to blackmail me?”
Her eyes widened. “You get blackmailed a lot?”
“Not a lot, but occasionally. Of course, I never gave in to their demands.” He stroked her hair. “I want you, Jane. From the moment I saw you in that café in Vegas, I knew you were the one for me.”
That earned him a smile. “Kinda cheesy, coming from you.”
“Say
whatever you want but it’s the truth. Let’s go; I’d like to get to the table before your uncle. I have to inspect my battlefield.”
He opened the door and stepped out, then joined his wife, casting an admiring gaze over her. He’d made sure to have a lovely new outfit bought for her for the evening: a stylish black blazer and matching skirt with a lovely green shirt underneath, new gold earrings, and a pair of stilettos she picked out herself. He was wearing his usual: chinos, oxfords, a partly unbuttoned shirt, and a sport jacket. It was all designer clothing, but he wore it in a way that made it look as though he’d thrown it on while hurrying out the door. Probably because he had, but Jane hadn’t been able to take her eyes off of him all afternoon, so he guessed it worked out well enough. He took her hand as they sauntered past the door.
“I still think this is a bad idea, John. This is a man that could have murdered my parents,” Jane said firmly, giving him a serious look.
“I’m not easily intimidated, darling. You’ll find that out soon enough.”
“I know you think you’re streetwise, John,” she said. “But you’ve lived a sheltered life. You don’t know the first thing about a life like mine.”
That got John’s attention, and he turned with an apologetic expression. “I hope I never minimized your experiences in any way?”
Jane opened her mouth to speak, but just blushed in the end, while crossing her arms. “No, no you haven’t. I just... I don’t want anyone to get hurt, John.”
John opened his mouth to say something further, but he stopped, realizing that he was pushing her a little too far. He put a hand on her arm, stroking it gently with a reassuring smile. “Jane, my darling, you have every right to be concerned. I am a sheltered man used to getting what he wants. But all I ask tonight is that you trust me.”
Jane gave him a long, hard look, and after a time, she nodded and took the arm John offered her.
He could sense the uncertainty in her. It was understandable. She wanted to see whether her attempt at defending the twins would really work, but she wasn’t expecting it to be tested in front of Alfred Benedict himself. But John’s family had faced worse than this kind of person before.
Wicked As He Comes: BBW Tiger Shifter Paranormal Romance (Tiger In Her Bed Book 3) Page 4
