Perfect Reflection (5 page)

“Let’s go eat lunch. It’s on me,” Jewel said as she
picked up the brown folder and walked out of the zoo with
Benny.

***

Jewel and Vander had received their plane tickets;
she had been informed that Wexford paid for them. A first class
ticket—Jewel wasn’t impressed. Vander asked for the aisle seat so
he could flirt with the flight attendant when she passed helping
passengers board the airplane.

She didn’t care, she needed to look over the
information packet Benny had gotten on Wexford. She felt her breath
quicken when she saw the picture of Wexford,
how is this even
fucking possible
? For a moment, she thought someone was playing
a cruel joke on her. He was good looking, and he should be since he
was the perfect reflection of her dead mate. He had black hair with
blue eyes that looked like they sparkled, just like Josh. He was
six foot three, muscular, and he had a goatee. She was in shock,
how could this have happened, it was as if she wasn’t in reality,
she had to be dreaming.

Looking over at her partner, who was engrossed in a
conversation with the flight attendant, she wanted to scream and
howl with frustration, there is no way this was happening. Vander
finally must have felt something and turned to her. He was smiling
and rolling his eyes and said, “Jewel, I know you are afraid of
flying but…what?” he finished saying and looked at her with
concern.

Jewel felt a tingle when she looked at the picture in
the file instead of speaking. Her partner looked down and began to
swear. “What the FUCK?”

She felt her eyes begin to gather tears as she fought
to remain under control. “I don’t know.”

“It has to be a mistake!” Vander protested and
grabbed the photo, but she knew every single picture ever taken of
her mate, and this was not one of them. The man was dressed in a
three-piece suit and looked like he was pampered. Nothing could be
further from the truth, Josh was relaxed and down to earth, and he
wore jeans and hoodies. This was not him.

“Jewel, breathe, come on, partner, you can do this,”
Vander said, gripping her hand. They were taking off, she could
feel the sensation of the airplane moving, lifting, making it feel
like she was floating for that slight moment.

She wished she could grab onto that second, stay in a
cocooned world where nothing could touch her, it hurt too much to
think about it again.
Damn it, she had already grieved
. She
felt a tug on her hand and looked at her partner. How could she
tell him that what she felt was pain for the boy she once knew,
pain for the sweetness he brought into her life, but not pain for a
true mate.
Fuck, looking at the damn picture she felt the pull,
more than she had ever felt for her sweet husband, how in the hell
was she supposed to say it aloud?
This was Josh she was talking
about, and she was going to have to utter the words that would
completely destroy her. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes
and whispered.

“Wexford is my true mate.” Jewel opened her eyes and
looked at her partner, who was staring at her in stunned silence.
Then he began to shake his head.

“How, no, Josh?” Vander sputtered.

She sighed painfully and looked at her friend with
tears in her eyes. “Damn it, I was never going to tell you, tell
anyone.”

“Tell me what? Jewel, what the hell is going on? I
mean, I look at this picture and it looks like Josh, but see, where
there should be a scar from when we fixed that engine and I
accidently dropped the wrench on his forehead and it left a mark.
It is not there, this is not Josh, so how is it possible that our
suspect looks like him?” Vander whispered. “What were you not going
to tell me?”

“Shit,” Jewel said and took a deep breath. “Josh was
not my true mate.”

“Huh? True mate, he was your mate, you told me, you
both told me,” Vander said confused.

“To a shifter, finding your true mate can take years,
some may not even find theirs, and I know a lot of wolves who have
chosen their mates, like I did with Josh. I loved him, and so I
chose him as a mate,” Jewel said, looking at her partner.

“Wait, so what if Josh had lived and you discovered
this other guy who you think is your true mate?” Vander asked.

“I would have been drawn to Wexford, the pull would
have been too much,” Jewel said slowly and then looked out the
window and whispered, “It would have been a mess.”

“So will he know?” Vander asked.

“Oh yeah,” Jewel laughed abruptly.

“Fuck a duck,” Vander murmured. “So what are we going
to do?”

“Gimme that file,” Jewel said with a steely tone, she
could fall apart later when she was alone, and not in a fucking
bullet flying through the air with a hundred strangers.

The file stated that Retten was the Alpha of the New
York Pack. He has ruled since his father retired fifteen years ago.
The New York Pack owned several companies that made them probably
one of the richest packs in the world. She was once again not
impressed; if the man were guilty, she would take him down, mate or
not.

She couldn’t understand why the killer was dumping
the bodies at Wexford’s sites, unless the killer thought he was
above the law. Wexford would not be the first Alpha she met who
thought he could do what he wanted, and damn the human laws. Fuck,
he was an Alpha, another thing for her to worry about later.

They need more to go on to charge Wexford for these
murders. Being owner of the sites didn’t prove anything. It was
only a piece to the puzzle. The file stated that Retten was into
BDSM. He liked his women to be on the submissive side. He was a
very dominant male that liked some type of restriction (bondage)
with his female counterpart. She was anything but submissive; she
wondered for a moment what it would be like to be claimed by him.
Shit, she needed to focus
. There was no way, she just let
the thought pass through her mind. It was crazy. Shaking her head,
Jewel focused back onto the folder in front of her.

Wexford’s mother was out of the picture,
hmmm,
maybe a woman issue buried there
. His father was retired but
helped Wexford if he needed advice.

His father was now an Elder of the Pack. She read
more of his background, looking at several pictures that were
included. Nothing to raise any eyebrows, just the normal boy,
speeding tickets, etc. What the hell would make an Alpha from such
a large Pack be involved in murder? The facts didn’t add up, but
then if he was a psychopath, they wouldn’t. Jewel could feel
herself getting wet as she stared at the man wearing a tuxedo
shirt.
He was fucking hot
. She needed to stop looking at his
picture. Nobody has ever made her feel like that except Josh.

Jewel flipped open the file of the good Captain
Doyle. She felt the same shiver of awareness,
damn it, what the
fuck was going on with her
? Maybe Wexford wasn’t her true mate
if she was feeling like this about the Captain,
yeah, that was
it
. She felt her wolf growl at her and frowned, none of this
made sense. She couldn’t feel like this toward two of them.

Vander took over Wexford's file and they were silent
as they both continued to figure out what the hell was going on.
She knew her partner would back her up with any decision she
made.

She continued to read as if she wasn’t sopping her
panties. Stellar record, she mused and read, he moved up the chain
of command quickly. He must have been doing something right. She
needed to focus, flipping the folder closed and putting it away,
Jewel leaned back into the seat and closed her eyes. She felt the
plane bump and vibrate,
well shit, turbulence wasn’t going to
work for her
.

Jewel heard the flight attendant announce to everyone
that the seat belt sign was now on. Jewel looked over at the
relaxed Vander, she wanted out of this fucking plane. Her wolf
started pacing. Jewel didn’t like being boxed in a tin can with no
way to get out. In addition, with the whole arousal thing, she was
about ready to come out of her skin.

Vander looked over at her and saw her grabbing the
armrests of her seat. She had her eyes shut, her breathing was
ragged. “Jewels, are you okay?” Vander asked. She felt the touch of
her best friend and relaxed a little. She didn’t know what she
would do without him—she hoped she never would.

“I hate to fly,” Jewel whispered as she breathed in
more air, beginning to relax. “You know maybe you should think
about finding someone to settle down with.”

“Whoa there, sister, WTF, we are not going there,
like ever. Is this because of all of that mate talk shit?” her
friend protested and then frowned. “Did I ever tell you about my
mother? You know she left me with my Aunt Marian.”

She frowned and looked at her partner closely. Vander
never talked about his mother, she only knew that his aunt raised
him. She was startled that he was bringing this up now. Staying
quite, Jewel waited for her friend to continue.

“My birthmother was a beautiful woman; however, she
was a terrible mother. I loved her though; I would pray at night
that she would return to get me. Now don’t get me wrong, my Aunt
Marian was great. Of course, you know that, you have met her. She
was the best. She never let me down.” Jewel’s breathing slowed down
as she was listening to Vander talk about his mother.

“You see, my mother loved men, any kind of man, well,
all except me. She needed to be with them to make her life whole.
She couldn’t breathe without one in her life. She is still like
that. I hear from her some, but I couldn’t care less if she ever
called me again. I don’t even think of her as my mother any more.
Marian has been a mother to me more than she ever could understand.
Aunt Marian is probably the best person I know except you.” Jewel
looked at Vander with tears in her eyes. She wished he had told her
before this moment when she was in an airplane. She knew what he
was trying to say to her, he would not settle down with a female
until he was certain she would not leave. There were never any
guarantees in this world—she should know—and she hated to remind
him of that. He needed to put himself out there, find someone who
would calm his nerves.

“Hey, don’t cry, Jewels. Please, I can’t stand to see
you cry. It breaks my heart.” Jewel reached up, wiping the tears
from her eyes.

“Well shit, what do you expect, dropping crap like
that on me when we are in a tin box? Hell, I wasn’t crying for you,
I was crying because I can’t get the fuck out of here.” Jewel
laughed and pushed him with her shoulder. “Seriously, you are the
best person I know. You have stayed with me through the worst time
in my life. I can’t repay you for being there for me. I don’t even
know where to start, but if someone breaks your heart? She is gonna
get her ass kicked by me.”

“Okay then, well, you can stop crying, because we
have a lot more time to sit in this little tin box, as you call it.
If you are worried about me finding a chick, well, maybe we can hit
the bars while we are in New York.” Vander teased her.

“Or hey, I say we call the pretty flight attendant
over and use our first class privileges and get drunk, maybe she
will think you are cute once you have some alcohol in her. What do
you say?” Jewel giggled, knowing that she needed a drink and so did
Vander.

***

The seat belt light went off and Vander motioned for
the flight attendant.

“Hello, beautiful. How about bringing us some drinks.
We want the Tequila. Hey, do you have any limes?” Vander used his
charisma and smile, winking at the flight attendant, who blushed at
his flirting. However, it worked and she brought the little bottles
of Tequila to Vander with the limes. She leaned down toward Vander,
showing her cleavage, then she handed him the saltshaker.

“Thought you might need this, too.” The flight
attendant winked as she handed it to Vander. He smiled back and
skimmed her hand with his fingers as she handed him the shaker.
Jewel shook her head and laughed.

“Dude, I thought you needed help, and looky there,
you are about to have her panties off and on the cabin floor in
about a second.”

Vander laughed. “It is not the meeting them I have a
problem with, it is the keeping them where I have an issue.”

“We can work on that,” she laughed and then pointed
to the bottles. “First, we need to have a bit to drink.”

After the fifth shot, Jewel was feeling a nice buzz,
as was her partner since he seemed to get friendlier with the
flight attendant as they drank and murmured to each other quietly.
Speaking about a murder case on an airplane could lead to people
asking weird questions.

“So what the hell are we going to do first in NYC?”
Vander asked and grinned as the flight attendant walked by.
“Possibly, we will take the night off and reconvene in the
morning.”

Jewel looked up at Vander as if she was considering
his comment or she was thinking about how to throw Vander off the
plane. “Well you know, my friend, I do need a good lay. However, I
have the luxury of having BOB, you, on the other hand,” then Jewel
started laughing. “Shit, get it, other HAND!” Jewel slurred.

“Oh shit, that is the best you can come up with? I’m
not drunk enough to ask who the fuck is Bob. As for my hand? I have
been told these magic fingers are one of my best features, well,
that and you know, my cock. But I can’t show you that, you will be
ruined for any other man if you see mine, and I just can’t do that
to my best friend.” Vander leaned over and put his head on Jewel’s
shoulder.

“Well that sucks, when I can’t see the first cock, in
like ever, from the biggest manwhore I know. And BOB is my
vibrator, you know Battery Operated Boyfriend.”

“Damn, you are worse off than I thought. I say we get
the billionaire to give you some.” Vander laughed at himself. Jewel
almost sobered up when he said that, it hit a little too close to
home to her thoughts, she could feel her wolf pushing against her
again.