4. Madelyne
”So, you were in a relationship with this guy for what, six months?” Jamie shifted in his seat. I wondered if my discomfort was rubbing off on him.
”A little over that. It was a pretty normal relationship for a good while. But the whole time, he was gathering information on me and my assets, persuading me to loan money to him and otherwise slowly working his way into my life, my home, my wallet, and those of various friends and acquaintances.”
”What happened then?” Nathan was taking notes, swiping away on his tablet. He was fighting a scowl. He is jealous.
That flattered me, annoyed me, made me ashamed, and made me even more horny than I had been before all at once. He was the one who fell out of touch after Ben’s funeral. It’s not like he tried to date me. If he had, I would have been with him, and none of this shit with Matthias would ever have happened.
I squirmed slightly in my seat. At my feet, Aidan played on obliviously.
”Everything seemed to be going well until we hit our first rough patch about seven months in. He asked if we could get a joint bank account. We weren”t living together or talking about marriage, so it seemed strange to me. Soon after that, his mother started meddling in how I was raising my son, claiming I wasn”t encouraging him to be ‘manly’ enough. Then I caught Matthias going through my phone while we were out on a date. It was a red flag, so I told him never to do that again. He argued, so I took his phone and started going through it. Even then, he didn’t seem to get it. It told me that he’s shorter on empathy and respect than I wanted in a boyfriend.”
I licked my lips, looking down. My cheeks were burning. Being with Matthias at all, even though he had deceived me, felt like not only a terrible mistake but also some kind of betrayal. But of whom? Ben? Nathan? Myself?
”My instincts started telling me that something was up, so I looked into his background. Most of the things I found were consistent with his stories. He was rich. He did have a big house in LA, and he was taking care of his mother. But nothing else seemed to fit. He was supposedly a big art collector, but aside from the handful of things he had bought from me and some of the other local artists, he didn”t seem to own anything. His fancy lifestyle was real, and he really was heir to his father”s fortune, but…”
“You kept seeing hints that set off a lot of mental alarms?” Nathan guessed, and I nodded.
“I think he guessed that I was starting to catch on to him, because he started escalating. One of my savings accounts got hacked and raided. I didn’t suspect him at the time, but then I remembered him sneaking onto my phone. When he did it, I thought it was to see if I was texting other guys, like we were both teenagers or something. But no, he was looking for information he could use to get into my accounts.”
I stared at my hands. “He and his mom were very against my opening an investigation. He tried to convince me that the police would be no help. I did it anyway.” They were nodding their approval. Somehow that made me blush. “That led to our first real argument.”
“How did you handle it?”
I let out a hollow laugh. “Not well. He’s… very frightening when he’s angry. Looking back now, I think that’s when the mask came off. I learned that night that he has no morals, none at all. The threats he made against me, my son… I went into this state of disbelief.”
I hesitated. There was a lot of tension in the room suddenly. Ulf and Nathan both looked like they were about to start growling, with Ulf partly baring one sharp-looking canine.
Something about that almost brought tears to my eyes. I had expected them to protect me because I was about to drop a small fortune for it. Even with Nathan, I hadn’t expected him to take my protection personally.
It made me want him even more.
“I filed a restraining order. He violated it. The police did nothing. I guess that’s kind of par for the course.” They were nodding. I forced a thin smile. I had grown up believing that cops were the good guys, but when I needed them, where were they?
“Once he realized that I had warned everyone in town, he got aggressive. Phone calls turned into visits. He liked to just show up in the middle of the night and bang on my patio door. I got tired of calling the police and having them not even show up for a good hour, so I hired security guys. They were to start on a Monday, so I took Aidan and left for the weekend. In the meantime, he broke in and stole things. My stereo system, my laptop, and a few other high-ticket things.”
“The police didn’t take you seriously throughout all of this?”
I shook my head. “The Sheriff’s Department probably hates me now because I confronted them on their inaction and threatened to go to the press. Truth is, they’re not used to anything worse than illegal hunting and drunks around here. They didn’t want to deal with it, I guess.”
“Cowards,” Ulf grunted. He looked over at Nathan. “Will they get in the way?”
“Possibly.” Nathan’s smile was forced as he looked at me. “Go on.”
“I filed another police report, replaced everything, changed the locks, and paid for my security team to bring in more backup. For a few months, things quieted down some. There were still nasty phone calls and messages, but he didn’t visit. I’m guessing he was lying low, because some of the artists sent investigators after him and his mom.”
“Do we know if the mom is a shifter too?” Jamie spoke up.
“Probably,” Nathan replied, keeping his eyes on me. “How many are there?”
“I don’t know if they are all shifters, but three. Matthias, his mom, and her giant bodyguard.”
“So, everything stayed relatively quiet until his latest attack?”
“Yeah. Not sure why. Maybe they were out of town or something. But yeah. Nothing else notable happened until yesterday.”
He frowned. “Odd. But despite his work as a con artist, we’re not exactly dealing with a rational person in Matthias. Men who terrorize women do not ‘lose control’. It’s all very deliberate. But just because they can act with organized intent doesn’t mean they’re not crazy to the bone underneath.”
I nodded, sitting back and closing my eyes briefly. “Anyway, you know the rest. Matthias murdered my entire security team. The cops just came to pick up the pieces and take statements. I knew at once that I had to call you.”
Nathan nodded and looked over at Jamie and Bela. “All right, guys, here’s the deal. I want to check on her entire security system and make upgrades by tonight if we have the gear. What we don’t have I want overnighted. We’ll take shifts watching the property in two-man teams. Jamie, Bela, when you’re not setting up or on watch, I need you gathering intel. Any questions?”
There were none. I watched Nathan and his Pack head outside to get started with their survey, then saw and worked on finishing my drink. After a few moments, Aidan looked up at me quietly. “Is the bad guy gonna come back?”
“He might,” I admitted. He probably would. “But now we have friends here to help us.”
“I still want a sword.” He lifted his chin obstinately.
“Too big for you. I already told you that.”
“A knife, then.”
I hesitated. No mom in her right mind would consider arming her kid in anything but the most insane circumstances, but the idea of Matthias or his people putting their hands on my baby boy made me rage inside. He’ll target Aidan to punish me. I already know that.
“I’ll make you a small knife,” I relented. “I don’t have enough silver to coat anything bigger.” I licked my lips. “But I don’t want you using it unless you absolutely have to, okay? It’s not a toy.”
This is crazy. The whole thing. Completely crazy. But as I thought it over, I realized that leaving my boy without a last resort with fucking Tiger shifters after us would be even crazier.
My heart ached to see my little boy’s innocence ebbing away because of Matthias. To a kid his age, a sword should have been something cool to daydream about, not something he thought he needed to protect himself and me. But with a side yard that still stank of spilled blood from a monster’s visit, I couldn’t blame him for it. I probably would have felt the same.
I didn’t know how to make myself useful while the Pack did their survey, so I stayed with Aidan, relieved to have a bit of peace in the middle of all of this.
Aidan eventually went back up to bed with his belly full of roast beef sandwich and sliced apples. I wanted to join him, but I had to make myself available in case Nathan and the others needed me.
I was working on some preliminary sketches of Aidan’s knife on my drawing pad when Nathan came back in. “Hey,” he said, tilting his head to check on the sketches. “Just came in to check on you. How are you doing?” His hand settled warmly on my shoulder. The innocent gesture almost made me drop my pencil.
“Tired. Angry. Trying not to be scared.” I sat back and set the sketchbook down as he settled onto the couch next to me. “You’re… going to have to kill him, aren’t you?”
“There’s no prison that can hold one of us for long,” he replied quietly, and I knew the answer was yes.
It made me feel a little sick how satisfied I felt with that answer. Something in me was out for blood. Something in me wanted to see Matthias torn to pieces, along with his nasty grifter mother. Then there would be no chance they could hurt me or my little boy.
“Okay,” I said softly, and he trailed his fingers over my shoulder, caressing me soothingly. “I guess I should have figured that out.”
“There’s no excuse for the local Sheriff not stepping in before now, don’t mistake me on that. But now that they know it’s shifters, they won’t touch the case. If we weren’t already involved, they would call us or another outfit.”
“I should have expected it. Ben always called the local Sheriff a lazy bum.” Just mentioning Ben’s name hurt. “I just didn’t know how bad it was.”
“There have literally been multiple court cases in which the Supreme Court stated that police have no obligation to protect people. Some cops take more advantage of that ruling than others.”
It pissed me off to hear. “What the hell use are cops, then? What’s the point of calling them if they don’t help? If all they do is show up after, take notes, maybe catch the guy but probably not?”
“Not much use at all in a situation like this. If you couldn’t afford a security team, I would be telling you to get a damn gun.”
“I’ve got one. But I’m guessing it wouldn’t be any good against a shifter.”
“Not without silver bullets or maybe a solid headshot. Is it a nine-millimeter?”
“.45 caliber. Ben got it for me.” I couldn’t keep the sadness out of my voice.
He cocked his head slightly. “You still miss him, huh?”
I took a shivery breath and nodded. “Never stopped.”
“Me too.”
We were holding hands. I didn’t know how that had happened. My fingers were lost inside his grip, and I could feel the warmth all the way up my arm. I laid my head on his shoulder and felt a shiver go through him.
“Haven’t seen you since Ben’s funeral, thinking about it.” He looked down at me, his breath warm on my face.
“Yeah.” I stared at his lips, wishing he would kiss me and feeling guilty for it. He and I knew why we had avoided each other after the funeral. Desire and guilt. Looking at each other, wanting each other, even when my husband had been barely in the ground.
We had stayed apart so nothing would come of it. I had tried to forget the chemistry that set my hairs on end every time I was around Nathan, but we had let it go on for years after that. And in the meantime, Matthias had swept in and manipulated me into his arms.
“I don’t apologize for walking away at the time,” he said, fingertips stroking my shoulder and sending electric jolts through me. “You know I had to.”
“I do. I had to, as well. I just wish we’d gotten back together sooner.”
He looked at me sharply, a gleam in his eye that I couldn’t ignore. “I should have. And not just because of Matthias.”
His fingertips trailed across my jawline, and my pussy tightened and started to ache. His eyes hooded, and he leaned a little closer to me…
…only for the front door to open and let in Jamie, who was distracted tapping something into his laptop. Nathan moved away from me instantly, leaving me empty and frustrated.
“Hey, so we’ve gone over everything,” Jamie told us, then looked up and looked between us in confusion. “Did I interrupt something?”
“No,” said Nathan far too easily, making my heart sink more. “Not at all.”