The Alpha Men's Secret Club 4: Intrigue: A Shockingly Hot BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (2 page)

3

Kate was trembling when Lance Horner walked into the room.

“Are you cold, Ms. Penney?” he said solicitously.

“A little.”

She drew her jacket around her. She was afraid. Afraid that she couldn’t corroborate with what Rust had told the detective. She was afraid that she would be the cause of his arrest. She would never forgive herself if anything happened to him because of what she did or said.

“I won’t take much of your time, Ms. Penney.” The detective pulled the chair on the other side of the desk and sat down. He folded his hands.
“I’m just going to ask you some routine questions.”

Kate nodded. She wished she had rehearsed something – anything – with Rust earlier, but they
had come to the station in the police car and they were surrounded by detectives.

“Where
were you last night, Ms. Penney?”

“
I was . . . at a party.”

“With Professor O’Brien?
”

“Yes.”

“How do you know Professor O’Brien?”

“He’s my
Professor at the university.”

“Is he also your lover?”

“Yes.”

“Was it Aaron Mitchell’s party you were at last night?”

“Yes.”

“Were you with Professor O’Brien?”

“Yes.”

“What sort of party was it, Ms. Penney?”

“It was . . . a rave.”

She was nervous as hell.
Did she pass so far?

“
Is this the first time you’ve been to a rave?”

“Yes.”

“Who invited you?”

“Professor O’Brien. I was invited as his date.”

“Do you know Teddy Mitchell?”

“No.
I have only . . . read about him in gossip tabloids.”

“What have you read?”

“That he’s a billionaire’s son . . . and heir.”

“What else?”

“He’s a playboy.” It was true. Teddy Mitchell was one of the most notoriously famous playboys on Earth.

“Was last night the first time you met him?”

“Yes.”

“What did he say to you?”

Kate hesitated. She didn’t know how to twist the truth. “He admired me at first. Then when he started to be more intimate . . . I refused him.”

“What happened then?”

“He insulted me. He called me – ” Kate faltered.

“Go on,” Lance said gently.

Kate swallowed the lump in her throat. “Fat.”

“Was that when the argument came about?”

“No. That was later.”

“What did you do after Teddy called you ‘fat’?”

“I didn’t do anything. I walked away.”

“Were you upset?”

Kate hesitated again. The detective was trying to give her a motive to kill Teddy, she realized.

“Yes, at first,” she replied.
“But then I decided not to think about it. I mean, I’ve been called fat before, and I survived.”

“Yes, indeed. Did you tell Professor O’Brien about the incident?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t want him to c-create a scene.”

“Does Professor O’
Brien always create scenes, as you put it?”

“No!” Kate was alarmed. What had she just said?

Lance smiled.

“You just have to tell the truth, Ms. Penney. Don’t overthink your answers. If your boyfriend
didn’t do anything wrong, then neither of you has anything to hide.” He narrowed his eyes shrewdly. “Unless . . . you are not certain yourself that he is truly innocent.”

“I – ” Kate could not think of anything to say to this.

“When did you see Teddy again, Ms. Penney?”

“It was later . . . when Rust
m-mounted me – ” Kate blushed furiously.

“It’s all right, Ms. Penney. I’ve seen and heard far more unseemly things.”

“When Rust mounted me on the rack. W-we . . . sometimes play games like these.”

“Were there a lot of people around you?”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

“Teddy came up. He wanted to touch me. He asked Rust’s permission . . . and Rust asked me. Rust is good in that way.”

“What did you say?”

“I – don’t remember. Maybe I didn’t say anything.” The whole night’s memory was a rush to Kate. So much had happened.

“So what did Teddy do then?”

“He . . . stroked me.”

“Where?”

Kate peered into the detective’s eyes.
Was he deliberately trying to embarrass her?

“My . . . pussy.”

“What did you do then?”

“I . . . didn’t do anything.
I was tied up. I just let him touch me.”

“Did you like it?”

“I . . . I think so.” Kate’s cheeks were furiously heating up. The detective must think her a slut of the highest degree. And that was what she was, really. A slut.

“Then what happened?”

“He got excited. H-he wanted to fuck me. I panicked. I told him ‘No’.”

“Was he upset?”

“Yes, he was. He called me a ‘cock tease’. Or something in that vein, I don’t really remember. Rust intervened.”

Lance leaned forward. “How?”

The recollection of both metamorphoses shot through Kate’s mind, as vivid as when it had happened. First, the wolf. And then, the tiger. Both animals facing each other, growling, snarling. Her palpable fear that something would happen to Rust.

But something was happening now, wasn’t it? As much as she didn’t want to admit it, something was happening to Rust. He had tried to warn her. Even tried to break up with her. But she refused to heed his warning.

She said, “He shielded me from Teddy. He led Teddy off.”

“Were any words exchanged?”

Kate blanched. She was phenomenally bad at lying. “I-I don’t think so. I was so scared, I can’t remember if anything was said.”

She could tell that Lance Horner was watching every twitch on her face. Every muscle. Every tic.
He knows I’m not completely telling the truth.

“Did they fight?”

“No. Aaron Mitchell came up and stopped it. He said some words to Teddy . . . something to sway him, and Teddy backed off.”

“What happened to Teddy?”

“He walked away, back towards the house.”

“Did anyone follow him?”

“No.”

“What happened then?”

“Aaron Mitchell was very gracious. He apologized for his son’s behavior and asked us to stay for the rest of the party.”

“Did you see Teddy again that night or the next morning?”

“No.
”

“What did you do
for the rest of the night?”

“I . . .
Rust and I went somewhere else in between the trees. We talked some, and then we . . . we had sex.”

“Did anyone see you?”

“No. I don’t recall anyone else being there.”

“A
fter you had sex with Rust O’Brien, what did you do?”

This was the part which made her squirm.
“We talked.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Uh . . . relationship things.” Kate could tell that the detective knew she was lying. Lance’s eyes were so penetrating. So impossible to hide from.

“Did you argue with your boyfriend?”

“Not really.”

“Was he with you the whole night?”

This was when she was stumped. She didn’t know what Rust told the detective. How could she tell him that Rust began to transform into the tiger even as he was buried deep inside her? How could she tell him that Rust realized what was happening and quickly took off before he could hurt her?

Damn it! She didn’t know what Rust told Lance Horner. They were separated and watched
by the police at the airport before they had time to rehearse what to say.

But wa
sn’t that exactly what the NYPD had in mind? That was why they arrived at the airport en masse. It was not an arrest, and yet it had all the trappings of an arrest.

She had to be v
ery careful now. One word wrong and she would condemn Rust.

If only she knew what Rust had been up to when he vanished last night!

“Ms. Penney?” Lance’s eyebrows rose.

She knew she had taken too long to answer. He was suspicious now, and she was desperate. Desperate to say the right thing.

She said, “Y-yes. He was with me the whole night.”

Lance’s face betrayed nothing.
“What did you do for the rest of the night?”

“We stayed for a long time in the woods.” Fear was making her stumble over her words now. “Then we went back to our hotel.”

“The Four Seasons?”

They were bound to have security cameras and such at the hotel. The security camera would show that only she walked through the lobby to the elevator banks. Oh, oh, oh, she had made a mess of it now. But it was too late to take it back.

“Yes.”

“So he was with you the whole night?”

“Yes.” What did Rust tell him? Under the table, she clenched her fists so hard that her fingernails made indents in her palms.

“Were you sleeping in your hotel room the whole night?”

“Yes.”

“Then you wouldn’t recall if he got up in the early hours of the morning to
leave the hotel room, would you?”

Was that what Rust told him?

She swallowed. “I don’t think he got up. I’m a light sleeper. I would have known.”

Lance smiled pleasantly. “Thank you, Ms.
Penney. You’ve been very helpful. Very helpful indeed.”

I have?
she thought faintly. She could only pray that Rust had said pretty much the same thing.

Lance got up. “Don’t leave town. We might ask you further questions.”

“But I have class tomorrow. I have to be back at my university,” she said in dismay.

“I’m afraid you will have to call your university and tell them that you may be a possible witness to a homicide, or at least the events surrounding it. We’ll let you go back once we have
no further questions for you.”

She could only sink back in her chair and wonder what she had done wrong.

4

Kate was going to find out soon enough.

Neither she or Rust were detained any further. When Hector arrived outside the police station to pick them up, they escaped thankfully into the confines of the
limo. That was when they exchanged notes.

By the end of it, Kate was ready to open the limo door and hurl herself out.

“I lied to them!” she cried. “I thought I was doing the right thing by you!”

Rust cl
asped her forearm. “You didn’t know,” he said fiercely.

“But
I lied to that detective. He knows now that you haven’t been with me.” Her heart was beating so painfully against her ribs that she was sure they must be bruised by now.

“Kate, it’s all right.” He averted his eyes.
“I wasn’t sure where I went when I left you. All I know is that I remember very little of it.”

Kate felt her veins grow cold. It was as she suspected.
What had Rust done?

“Tell me everything,” she said.

*

They waited till they were out of the limo and in their Four Seasons suite, which he
had hardly slept in, before he sketched out the details for her.

He was running in the woods. Trees and boughs swept by. He was in his animal form.
She could almost smell the blood lust and ravenous hunger in him as he described it. And her spirits kept sinking with each word, especially as the words tumbled out, forming a dreadful picture in her head:

Periods of blackout.

Blood on my teeth.

The taste of flesh on my tongue.

Can’t remember.

At the e
nd of it all, Rust’s shoulders were slumped. She had never seen him so broken.

“I don’t know if I killed Teddy Mitchell,” he confessed.
“I might have. When the tiger takes hold of me, I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s been happening a lot more lately. I can’t account for large swaths of missing time. That was what I was trying to tell you at the airport. You’re not safe with me, Kate. Nor is anyone else.”

“But it doesn’t mean you killed Teddy,” she pleaded. She wan
ted it to be true.

‘It d
oesn’t mean I didn’t either.” Rust got up and went to the large ceiling to floor windows and looked out into Manhattan.

“You have no reason to kill Teddy.”

“I did. Even if the rational human part of me didn’t, the animal one does.”

She knew that what he said was true.

Restlessly, she got up and went to him. She took hold of his hand.

“Come to bed, Rust.”

“I can’t. You’re not safe with me. Didn’t you hear me earlier?”

She took hold of his face and stared into his beautiful green eyes. 

“No, Rust. You can’t live like this. No one can. You can’t isolate yourself from everyone, least of all me. I’ll just follow you.”

He shook himself from her grasp.

“Don’t be a fool, Kate,” he said harshly. “You know I’m dangerous to everyone, most of all myself.”

She knew he was going to be this way. He was going to extricate himself from her with his excuses. And if he had not been
asked to stay in town for police questioning, he would have likely left North America. With all his money, he could go anywhere and his parents would be none the wiser for it.

It was ironic that the only thing still holding him back was the murder of Teddy Mitchell.
Which she wasn’t sure he did not commit, to her deep foreboding.

He said
in a firm voice, “I’ll stay with you for as long as I can make sure you are OK. Then I’ll get you the first flight ticket out of here. Go back, Kate. Go back and forget you ever met me.”

Her heart sank.