"Like me," Jake said quietly.
Fenton stared at him.
"You know what they're like behind closed doors, yet you left me here with them," Jake accused, voicing the reason he didn't trust the old man. "They would have let me go."
"Never. They would have fought to keep you because they have to present a certain picture to the outside world."
"They hate me."
"They fear you."
Jake's golden gaze jumped to his great-grandfather's face and burned there, a fixed focus, while his heart pounded. It was true. They feared him. And they should, because someday he was going to be stronger, faster, smarter and much, much crueler than they'd ever dreamt of being--and he was going to tear their world apart.
EIGHTEEN YEARS
JAKE Fenton was dead and young Jake felt as if he were the only one mourning the man. Cathy and Ryan hadn't bothered to go to the funeral, but they sat in the lawyer's office, waiting hopefully for an inheritance, although both had loudly speculated that Fenton had used up every penny on acquiring more and more worthless land. When the news came, Ryan and Cathy were stunned and pleased. Fenton owned several companies and even more stocks. They inherited two construction companies outright and, between the two of them, what appeared to be the majority of stock in a chain of major hotels.
Young Jake was given three companies, a mediocre plastics plant that barely kept its head above water, a company called Uni-Diversified Holdings and a corporation that was a parent company for several smaller businesses. He also inherited Fenton's Folly, which was a huge tract of land in Texas no one wanted, two corn farms and several tracts in other states that appeared to be swampland. Stocks were in his name as well as a sizable cash inheritance, although Cathy and Ryan received the bulk of the money.
The lawyer went on to explain that there were a couple of absolute conditions that had to be met. No one could contest the will or they would forfeit their portions immediately. Cathy and Ryan could not inherit from Jake, even if he should die, nor could Jake ever sell to them or give them anything of Fenton's. If he did die before his fiftieth birthday and he had no children, the land, money and stocks would be put in a trust for a list of charities and an immediate investigation into Jake's death would take place. At that time, two letters that Jake Fenton wrote would be opened that might aid the investigators.
Young Jake noted that Cathy looked quite pale, but she didn't say a word. The tension in the room was palpable. They had lost their whipping boy. He had a place to go, he had money and he was of age. There was little they could do about it. Fenton had outmaneuvered them. Without a word to him, his enemies left the lawyer's office.
Jake remained, accepting the letter Fenton had left that carefully detailed his future plans for his cornfields and how he meant to use them for plastic. He had specific business plans for the little plastics company. And there was one more thing: Uni-Diversified Holdings held enough stocks that, when coupled with Jake's personal stock, Jake became the majority stockholder in the companies his parents owned. The corporation was an umbrella for several foreign businesses that were proving to be strong moneymakers. Jake was instantly a multimillionaire and well on his way to his first billion.
NINETEEN YEARS
JAKE found the Texas ranch to be a kind of paradise. The leopard could run free through the numerous trees and wild foliage his grandfather had encouraged to grow. The house was enormous, a mansion by even Texas standards, with a library most cities would envy. He continued his studies in languages as well as business, hiring his own tutors, studying each company he owned and listening carefully to those Fenton had trusted to run them.
He went out each night, running in his leopard form, the acres of land protecting his secrets from outsiders. For the first time he tasted freedom and he smelled--oil. The scent was strong beneath the land in numerous places, and he knew when he told the drillers where to dig, they would strike black gold.
Jake wasn't content with others handling his business. He studied his grandfather's plans for each business and where he expected to take the companies in the years to come. He found that if he attended the board meetings his ability to scent lies and fear came in handy. Very quickly Jake made a name for himself as a man to contend with. He rarely spoke; mainly he listened. But when he wanted something done, nothing stood in his way.
His developing magnetic personality and his ability to mesmerize individuals soon allowed him access to every kind of information he could want. When he couldn't talk his way into a circle, he could buy his way in. He found he was irresistible to women and he fostered that, making certain he knew every way of keeping a woman wanting him, willing to do anything for him.
TWENTY-THREE YEARS
THE first oil well hit immediately. At the same time, his venture into plastics took off, making him a huge player in the industry. If anyone underestimated him because of his age, they quickly revised their opinion. He was ruthless and calculating and not afraid to make enemies, although he was careful to cultivate friendships and alliances.
He continued with his great-grandfather's tradition of acquiring land, always inspecting the entire acreage first, using his leopard to scent oil or natural gas. He picked up large tracts in North Dakota, where he suspected oil, and miles of land in the Appalachians, where he scented natural gas reserves. It mattered little that everyone around thought he made bad investments; he knew the oil and gas were there for discovery, and when the time was right, he would find it.
He added to the ranch, picking up more and more land to give his leopard a sanctuary. He ran as a leopard almost nightly, needing the release, finding he felt caged. Always he studied, building his bank of knowledge, always toward the same end. Power. Money. Becoming so strong no one could ever make him a victim again. Waiting for the right moment to take down his enemies.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
"HELLO, Alice," Jake said softly--too softly.
She gasped and spun around. His secretary. Bitch spy. He smelled his father all over her. She sat at his desk, trying to get into his computer. He'd known the moment he'd recruited her, Ryan's stench permeating her body.
"I needed to get the Kalwaski file," she said hastily, her face flaming red. "You asked for the reports and I accidently ruined my copy."
"And you didn't think to call me?" He sniffed the air, scenting the lie. He'd been more than careful not to give her anything at all damaging or important. He trusted no one, and she was relatively new. Now she'd proved to be in the enemy camp as he'd suspected. He stalked her around the desk.
Alice tried to hit the power button to turn off his computer, but he was faster, and far stronger. "Bad, bad girl, Alice. Industrial espionage is such a nasty and dangerous business."
She burst into tears and threw herself forward, into his arms, running her hands down his chest to the zipper of his slacks. "I'll do anything you want."
He slapped her hands away, disgusted. "I'm sure you would. Your kind usually do, but you don't tempt me in the least, not with another man's stench all over you."
She went white, her eyes widening in horror. "What are you going to do?"
He knew he looked murderous. He felt murderous. Not at her; she was a pawn manipulated by a master. Ryan and Cathy used sex to control others, and in truth, Jake wasn't above doing so himself, but not with her, not with someone so deceitful and under his father's thumb. No, there were other ways.
"I'm going to turn you over to the police." He let that sink in.
Her sobbing grew louder. Time stretched out while Alice became more desperate. "Please, Mr. Bannaconni, please don't do that. I'm sorry. Really sorry. Your father--"
"Ryan, or Bannaconni, but never my father," he interrupted, his voice a merciless whip.
She flinched visibly. "I couldn't say no."
He knew how his father mesmerized people, especially women, using a combination of sex and cruelty to keep them hypnotized. No, she probably couldn't say no. Ryan was shrewd and cunning,
a shark with his handsome face and abundance of money. Jake's little secretary would have been overwhelmed by his attentions. She would have done anything for him.
"I don't suppose you could have," he murmured.
Alice collapsed into a chair. "I've never done anything like this before in my life, Mr. Bannaconni. I swear I haven't, and I'll never do it again."
That smelled like the truth. "Ryan manipulates women," Jake said softly, tilting her chin so she looked into his eyes.
He stared at her without blinking, focusing on her completely, dropping his voice to a low, soothing note. "He preys on young, vulnerable women, so many of them, using sex to get his way."
She wiped at the tears still streaming down her face. "He's married. He told me he could never leave her, but he was so unhappy."
"Of course he did. He tells them all that. And then he gets them to spy for him."
"On his own son?"
"We don't claim the relationship." He leaned his hip against the desk. "Maybe you should pass him information."
"Mr. Bannaconni!" Alice gasped, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I really am."
He tapped his finger on the desk as if considering the idea. "I know you are. I'm not going to have you prosecuted, but maybe we can find a way to save your job and your reputation as well. Maybe we can feed Ryan a few things that won't harm us and yet will satisfy him. Although"--he looked at her sternly--"you might want to quit sleeping with him and ask for a good sum of money instead."
He allowed a small smile to touch his mouth. Alice never noticed that it didn't reach his eyes. She was the first of many such recruits.
TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS
JAKE took his first trip to the Borneo rain forest to find his heritage. The rain forest overpowered him, a seductive mistress, beckoning him with mystery and promise. He never expected to feel peace or solace, but the network of tree branches in the canopy formed a highway where he could run and perfect his skills as a leopard. Trees competed for every inch of space. The floor was surprisingly open, yet vines and flowers draped every tree branch, and brightly colored birds were in constant motion.
There in the forest he could barely contain the wildness raging within him. The change swept through him before he had a chance to think, the dangerous animal bursting free, stretching the roped muscles and leaping onto the limbs overhead. Bands of sunshine poured like gold from the sky down through the trees to light up the foliage and cages of roots. There was no silence in the jungle, as he first thought. The rain forest was alive with sound, rustles and chirps and loud calls. The other creatures knew he was there, a stranger walking their land, and almost immediately he was joined by the keepers of the forest.
The leopard people were secretive and territorial, but they recognized him as one of their own. One of them--a man named Drake Donovon, who had been recently injured and walked with the help of crutches--watched over him. Jake didn't kid himself that it was friendship. Drake was a powerfully built man, as the others were, carrying most of his strength in his chest, shoulders and arms, and he had piercing eyes that could look through a man and judge him. Jake didn't want him seeing to his soul. Drake wouldn't find it like the others in his village. Jake was flawed, a child shaped and molded into a monster.
He had long since perfected the art of subjugation, and he pushed down his dominant personality in order to gain the knowledge he needed from the others. The leopard people had a code they lived by, even with their animal traits ingrained so deep. In spite of himself, Jake found he admired them. They had quick tempers and could be very jealous, so much so that Jake rarely saw one of their children or females, but they were also men who risked their lives to rescue kidnap victims along the waterways and return them safely to their homes.
Jake found he was reluctant to leave. He wanted to establish ties to the community so, in the end, he helped to fund their cause, pouring his money into their network of businesses, strengthening their abilities to purchase up-to-date weapons and much-needed medical supplies. Money was the only thing he had to offer, and he was more than willing to part with it in order to keep the door held open for his return.
THIRTY YEARS
HE had it all--and he had nothing. Nothing. Everything he wanted was finally in place. He could take down the companies of his enemies, sell them off piece by piece and make another fortune. Jake sat in his private jet and looked around at the luxuries his money had bought him, and he knew it was all worthless. He was alone. He would always be alone. He could have nearly any woman he wanted, but he wanted none of them--not permanently. His life was empty. Yes. He could avenge his childhood and he could ruin his enemies, but once that goal was achieved, what would he have left? Absolutely nothing.
The pull of the rain forest was irresistible and Jake found that even with nightly runs on his Texas ranch, he was becoming an insomniac. He spent most of the night working in his office or pacing the floors of his home after running free. He knew he needed something more in his life, but he didn't know what. And even if he had known, he didn't know how to get the things he'd talked about with Drake Donovon. So here he was, back in Borneo, to talk to a total stranger about what life really meant.
He took a trip down the Amazon into the interior of the rain forest, and the moment he stepped out of the boat, he inhaled deeply. Already the animals and birds were announcing his presence to the others, but . . . there was something wrong.
Jake tossed his backpack aside and took off running deeper into the forest, leaping over fallen trunks, avoiding vines and the grasping flowers roping the trees. He stripped as he ran, as he'd learned from many years of practice. His muscles moved like molten steel, flowing beneath his skin, the wild beast already breaking free. He wanted the other's senses, welcomed them, embracing the change as he kicked off his shoes and paused only to toss his jeans aside.
His body bent, bones and sinew popping, lengthening, shifting until his other burst free, going to all fours, still running, sheer adrenaline and joy pouring into him. The lure of staying in his leopard form was tremendous. He didn't have to worry about life or his decisions or what kind of monster he was. He only had to run free and lead a simple, full existence surrounded by the beauty of the forest. He could lose himself in the other.
The scent of blood and smoke and death assailed his nostrils as he ran. His whiskers were radar antennae, bouncing information to him so that his brain flooded with stimuli. Drake Donovon. If there was fear, it wasn't coming from Drake. Only defiance, fury, rage pouring from him and filling the night around him. The sounds of taunting laughter, hard fists hitting flesh, fresh blood bursting into the air so that the forest erupted into more shrieks of alarm.
Jake raced along the forest highway, high above in the trees, ignoring the screaming monkeys and the cries of the birds. He coughed once, twice, warning Drake of his arrival. In his life, Jake had never once stood for another. He fought his own battles and never asked for or expected help. He didn't have friendships or trust any other being. Drake had given him information, but he hadn't offered friendship, nor would Jake have accepted it, yet Jake didn't hesitate any more than the leopard rushing toward three men with guns.
One stood over Drake's bloody form, beating him methodically with a thick cane.
"Where are they? Tell me where they are!"
The man kicked at Drake's injured leg and for the first time Drake screamed. Something ugly and deep burst free in Jake and he launched himself at Drake's assailant, going instinctively for the kill, raking at the jugular with sharp claws as he knocked the man flat.
Gunfire erupted, kissing the leopard's shoulder, but Jake was already in motion, as fluid as water, using the dead body as a springboard to take the second man from the side, sinking teeth deep into the throat. The third man stumbled backward as another leopard rushed him from the trees. A third landed on his back, slashing and tearing.
Jake shifted to his human form and knelt beside Drake, running a hand over his damaged, bloody body. For the
first time he knew someone other than himself mattered to him, but he still didn't understand why, only that he was grateful he was capable of the feeling.
2
TWO YEARS LATER
JAKE Bannaconni swore viciously as he swerved the sleek, purring Ferrari just in time to miss the Buick pulling out right in front of him. Downshifting, he was around the car and gone, the Ferrari a silver streak on the treacherous mountain road. Ahead of him, on the switchbacks, he caught glimpses of the Porsche he was pursuing. The low, sporty car was veering all over the road, traveling insanely fast on the steep, narrow ribbon of a highway. Thanks to his "other," Jake had amazing reflexes and vision, and that advantage allowed him to push his car to the limit in an attempt to catch his quarry, even on the narrow, twisting mountain road.
A quick glance in the rearview mirror revealed his face was a granite mask, hard lines etched deep, his golden eyes twin chips of ice, glittering menacingly. It didn't matter that he could scare anyone with his look; he felt murderous in that moment. He didn't care about the two occupants of that car, both falling down drunk, pawing each other obscenely in front of everyone at the senator's party, but he damn well wasn't going to let them destroy his child.
Shaina Trent, society's darling, jet-setter, life of the party and precious do-anything-for-daddy daughter of Josiah Trent, was carrying his son. How could he have been so damned careless? He had known exactly what she was when he'd bedded her. He had known both his family and hers had wanted the alliance. Each family suspected that he was the very thing they'd been seeking all along--a shifter--and they wanted his powerful blood to boost their fading abilities. Most of all, they wanted to regain control of him. He should have suspected something when Shaina had thrown herself at him--after all, she'd never looked at him before, always acting so superior and barely acknowledging him at the parties he'd attended in the past. Her daddy must have commanded his little girl to seduce Jake to get what they wanted--a baby.
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