“Yes. I’m a tiger. My family is.” He’d heard that at some point, that the Robinsons were tigers. Telling him he could have a seat, Beckett sat down and laughed. “I’m sort of giddy right now. I know that sounds like a stupid statement, a grown man being giddy, but that’s what I am. I’ve found my mate.”
“No. I don’t think so. I mean, I have nothing against a man preferring a man in a relationship. However, I don’t swing that way. Thanks, but no thanks.” Beckett laughed again and said it was his sister. “Allie? Well, I’m sure I can tell you right now that you’re not her type. She was just telling me tonight that she wants to marry a very old man that has money to leave her. Allie isn’t a gold digger or anything like that. We’ve been struggling since I was discharged from the service, and you just don’t fit her bill right now. But you’re welcome to try. Be warned, however, that she’s a mean as a snake in the grass when cornered.”
“My brothers’ mates are like that. But loving as well. I’m very sorry that you’re struggling. I can help you with that. Not struggling, but to not struggle.” Beckett laughed. “I’m sort of out of my element here. I expected to find my mate, but later down the line, I guess. What can you tell me about her?”
“Nothing. I mean, I could. I know her better than she knows herself. But that’s not something I’d feel comfortable doing without her permission.” Beckett said that was a good thing. He’d not thought of that. “She’s only just lost her job today. I’d like to tell you that’s what put her out of sorts tonight, but that’s not all of it. Allie has wanted to be a teacher for a long time—since we were adopted. But the school that she was trying to get a teaching position in closed up today. She wasn’t a teacher there. They took her on as a cook. She can’t. Cook, I mean. So she slings hash there. That’s what she calls— Now I’m babbling. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Beckett leaned back in the seat he was in. “As I said, my family is the Robinsons. And we’re tigers. I also want you to know that I’d never harm her or hurt her. Not on purpose. I have a feeling, however, that she is going to fit right in with my family. You as well.”
Allen didn’t know about that, but the man was looney if he thought that he or Allie would just say, “Okay, you’re related to us now, we’ll follow along like sheep.” Neither he nor Allie had ever been the norm when they could branch out on their own if they thought their way was better. Usually, with Allie in charge, it was. Allie was not only smart but street smart.
“I woke my brother Houston. He’s the only one I know that goes to bed late most of the time. Of course, this time, he didn’t. But he’s in a good mood too. I told him about Allie.” Allen asked him if that was a good idea since she didn’t know yet. “Probably not. But I wanted someone in the family to know. He was mad that I woke him. That smoothed things over a bit for me.”
When someone knocked at the door, Beckett asked if he could get it. Allen’s leg was bothering him a little, so he told him to go ahead. The man that walked in was as big as Beckett. Not fat, but tall and muscled. They hugged, and then Houston sat down on the couch across from him.
“Beckett told me about Allie losing her job today. Or I guess yesterday. I’d like to explain it to her if you think that will help her to understand.” He said they’d both read the paper. “All the paper is telling people is what we wanted them to know. Yes, there were children hurt, but what they don’t say is that they were our nephews.”
“Are you having a fucking party out here?” Allie stood there with her sloppy T-shirt on and her very thin and see-through robe open. No shoes, no slippers, and certainly nothing under the shirt. That was very obvious by the way the light in the hall silhouetted her body from behind. Allen told her to go change; they had to talk. “Sure. Why the fuck not? I wasn’t sleeping anyway. There’s a fucking party going on out here. Do you need me to whip up some snacks while I’m at it? I have a nice vial of arsenic someplace I can sprinkle over the top of some popcorn.”
She continued to mumble about noise and football as she made her way back to her room. Allen started to apologize to the men, but they were both smiling like they didn’t have an ounce of sense. Allie was going to kill them both. He just knew it. Him too if she wasn’t finished with her anger by the time they were both bleeding out on the floor.
Allen went into the kitchen to pop some popcorn. Her bringing it up made him hungry for it.
~*~
Beckett watched the hallway. It would be his luck that she decided to go back to bed and leave him hanging. Smiling to himself, he couldn’t believe his luck. His car breaking down right outside the house that his mate lived in. And she, according to her brother, was as mean as the other women. When she finally came down the hallway again, he stood up. So did his brother. She only stared at them before telling them to stop being a fucking jack in the box. Beckett was laughing when he sat back down.
“What the hell are you doing here? Do you have any idea what time it is? We both have lives that we’re trying to get to in the morning.” Allen explained to his sister who they were. “I don’t care if they’re strippers at this point. I just want you to tell me why we’re having guests here, and that— Is that caramel popcorn?”
“I thought it might make you in a better mood.” She told him good luck with that and took the bowl from him. “Allie, this is Beckett and Houston Robinson. They’re here to talk to you about why you lost your job today.”
She put the bowl down and looked so sad that Beckett wanted to comfort her. Instead, he handed her the bowl back and told her it wasn’t that bad. She just stared at him, then looked at Houston before speaking.
“It doesn’t matter how bad it is. I’m no longer employed. And that fucking sucks. I didn’t know a thing about what was going on in the classrooms because they didn’t hire me as a teacher. I work in the stupid lunchroom. Do you have any idea how many times you have to tell a kid that it’s not poison we’re feeding them, but a nutritious meal? Kids are odd. Also, I want to point out that I had nothing at all to do with the food that is missing. That shit was going on long before I got there.” Houston asked her about the food missing. “Mostly, it’s things like ham and beef that comes up missing. No one bothers with the tuna or the fish. But they’re also taking out long sleeves of napkins, as well as some of the chafing dishes. I thought for sure they’d bring those back. But this morning, or yesterday now, they were still missing.”
“What do you know about the kids being hurt?” She said she’d not been told anything other than that some rich kids’ parents were making a stink about some kids being hurt on the playground. “It’s a bit more than that. One of the boys has broken ribs and a fractured arm, and the other is bruised up badly as well. Someone actually stitched up one of the kids and never notified us about his injuries.”
“It was the nurse, wasn’t it?” Houston told her it was her and the principal. “Figures. You said you weren’t notified. I’m assuming you’re involved in this to your neck. Not that it matters, I guess. If the nurse is in on it, you can bet that the other teachers have signed off on keeping their mouths shut about anything that happens there.”
“What do you mean?” Instead of answering his brother, Allie got up and went to her room again. When she returned, she had a file that had the name of the school on it, as well as the logo emblazoned over it. When she handed it to Houston, she looked at Beckett.
“You’re here for a reason other than your stupid car breaking down, aren’t you?” He nodded. “Whatever it is, I don’t want anything to do with it. I’m sorry, but I’ve enough shit on my plate as it is, and I cannot balance another thing. You’ll just have to do whatever it is elsewhere.”
“You’re my mate.” She cursed, long and violently. Each word that wasn’t a curse word was something to do with his anatomy. It wouldn’t bode well for him if he was to get closer to her. Beckett was sure too that she would do just what she said she would if he were
to push her. “If it makes you feel any better, I can help you out with some of your plate balancing.”
“No, it doesn’t.” She turned to her brother. “You knew this when you told me to come out here and have a conversation with them. Any reason you didn’t tell me? Or at least warn me of this?”
“I’m hurt badly enough, thanks.” She snorted at him, and Beckett laughed. “He’s odd like that, so you know. He laughs at the strangest things. Allie, just listen to them both for now. You can work out the rest later. This is important to a great many people.”
“This is a nondisclosure contract that states you will never testify against your fellow workers, nor will you bring up any charges against them. Did you sign this?” She said she’d not gotten around to it. “Good for you. This might be just what we need to make sure they all serve jail time.”
“I don’t know why, in your addled mind, you’d think I’d testify against them. I need a job. Badly. I also need someplace to live. Snitching on them will blackball me for the rest of my life. I might as well become a flipping attorney for all the love I’ll get from any place that I might apply to from now on.” Houston asked her if she hated attorneys. “I don’t know any. I do know they’re not well-liked, and that right there will put me in with them in the friendly department. I can’t afford this.”
Houston looked at Beckett. When he nodded at his brother, he thought that telling her some things he’d be able to help her with would be a terrible idea. But it also might make it so they’d get this taken care of before more things befell her and her brother.
“I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but you don’t have to worry about money. Neither of you do.” She snorted at him. “You do that very well, but it’s the truth. Right now, I can put you in a position that you’d not ever have to worry about money again. That goes for your brother too.”
“So, you’re going to blackmail me into being your mate. That’s a low blow, bringing my brother into this too.” Beckett said she had a very suspicious mind, and that wasn’t what he was saying at all. “Look. I’ll help you with the kitchen shit. That’s all I know for sure. But as far as being a mate to you, I’m sorry, but you know nothing about me that makes me feel like this would work. I’m sure you’re a very nice man, but you’ve no idea what— I’m not the sort of person people want to date a second time. I’m mouthy, bitchy, and I don’t beat around the bush. You’d better not either if you think any woman would want to be with you. You have no idea of the shit that I have in my life right now.”
“You’re not giving me anything that makes me think we’re not perfectly matched.” Beckett thought about his next statement. “I understand your frustration, Allie. I really do. However, you just flat out telling me that it won’t work isn’t something I can live with. What is it you think you’re going to tell me, or I’ll find out, that is going to make me walk away? And so you know, I’m not a man who gives up easily.”
“I’ve killed a man.” He knew it was more than that. Beckett also knew she was hoping she’d say just enough that he’d be out the door. Instead of moving, he asked her what he’d done to her to make her have to kill him. “Just like that. You know I didn’t just kill him?”
“Yes. You’re not stupid. You’re also very straightforward. I doubt very much that you’d just murder someone without just cause. So, I ask you again, what did he do to you that made you have to kill him?” She looked at her brother, and he did as well. “Does she want you to tell me? I’m sure it’s not as cut and dried as she says.”
“It’s not. She killed him because he was…taking advantage of her. Not to rape her, as she had thought at first. But he wanted to experiment on her. Flaying her skin off her arms to see her pain level was just one of the many things he had planned for her when he took her. Allie, being a redhead, has been the subject of many speculations on things like her being soulless, her pain level being high, as well as how much she needs in the way of pain medication when she’s hurt. Things that are simply rumors. This man thought he’d prove to the world that it was a fact that redheads were special.” Beckett asked him how she’d killed him. “With the knife he had stuck into her arm. She slit his throat from ear to ear. He was dead even before she was able to pull out the other things he’d put into her to test her.”
Beckett looked at Allie. She wasn’t looking at anyone now, her head bowed and her body stiff with what he thought was anger. Getting up, he moved closer to her on the couch and asked if she’d show him the scars. It wasn’t until she pulled up her sleeve that he realized this had happened recently. There were still scabs on the wound at her bicep.
“This was recently.” She told him about three months ago, but some of the wounds were taking longer to heal because they were so deep. “Are there other wounds? What else did he do to you, love?”
She leaned forward on the couch and tried to lift her shirt. What he saw there made him slightly ill. Allie had been beaten. From the looks of some of the scarring and wounds, he’d say it had happened over a period of several days. He asked her how long she’d been captured.
“Eight days. I was headed to the airport to go and see my brother. I was told that there would be a limo to take me to the airport. But once I was in the sucker, he took me to his lair. Or whatever he called his place. No one bothered looking for me because they’d thought I was with Allen. All the time I was being a science project for some dick.” Without asking, Beckett leaned in and licked the worst of the wounds. The taste of infection hit his system, and he told her what he’d found. “I know that. It’s hard for me to put anything on the ones back there. But I’ll manage.”
“My brothers are doctors.” Beckett reached out to Thatcher since he knew that Dawson was on call and asked him to come to this house. He also told him that his mate had been beaten recently. He told him that he was bringing Rogen with him as they were in the car together. “Thatcher is coming to have a look at this. Didn’t the hospital treat these wounds?”
“They wouldn’t take me.” She glanced at her brother when he told him why. “See? That’s just one more thing I have stacked against me. I’m too broke to have insurance no matter what the laws say otherwise. Even the clinic that I went to yesterday told me that I’d have to wait on a background check before I could be seen by anyone.”
Allie stood up, and so did he. She was taller than he’d thought she was. Putting his hand on her other wound, he told her she was a little feverish as well. He could see it in her eyes now that he was looking at her. When she swayed a little, he picked her up and held her in his arms. When she didn’t argue, he knew she had been fighting this all evening, which he’d bet was making her weaker every minute.
By the time Thatcher and Rogen showed up, he’d taken Allie to the shower to try and cool her down. She was talking, babbling now about how she’d lost her job to little people. There was one point where she said that there were monsters, great giant ones, chasing her through the school. While he had no idea what she might have thought was chasing her, he did have to hold her tighter when she began fighting them off.
Beckett had a bloodied nose and a sore jaw when he was finally able to get her cooled off enough that Thatcher was satisfied. He gave her something for the pain, then set her up with an IV. Her temp spiked again, and Thatcher said she’d have to go to the clinic now. As Beckett carried her toward his truck, she looked up at him.
“Just let me die. I’m such a fuck up.” He told her not to him she wasn’t. “But you don’t know what you’re getting in me, Beck. What if I’m not any good in bed?”
“You will be perfect.” She talked some more, and he had to hold her tightly as they made their way to the clinic. When they pulled into the parking lot, she was burning up again, her body shaking so hard that he was having a difficult time holding her still.
“Change her.” They all looked at Allen when he spoke. He’d only just gotten the straps on her
arms and legs so she’d not hurt herself or anyone else. “She’s been ill for a week or more. She’s been telling me she’s getting better. Change her before she dies. Please. She’s all I have in the world. Change her so she’ll be all right.”
Beckett looked at Thatcher, and he agreed. This was something he wasn’t sure was a good idea. Thatcher told him that her organs would shut down before too much longer, and then she’d be too weak to make it either way. Letting his tiger take him, Beckett knew this was going to cause him all kinds of trouble. But she’d be alive, and that was all that mattered right now.
Jumping up on the bed she was strapped to, he was glad that Thatcher had shifted as well. Between the two of them, she’d change so much faster. The only thing that worried him at the moment, however, was what she was going to do to him when she found out. Again, he told himself, she’d be alive, and that was all that mattered. He hoped that he was right. Christ, she was going to be pissed off.
Chapter 3
Allen watched his sister rest. He’d been given a room next to hers, and that was making it easier for him to go and see her. Allie had been out for four days now, and he was beginning to worry about her. They all told him that she had been really sick to begin with, and that’s what was making her sleep so long. He wanted her to wake up so that she could curse him out. He had no doubt that it would be high on her list of things to do.
The knock at the door warned him that he was going to have company. It was Beckett.
“Any changes?” He told him that she glared at him a little bit ago but hadn’t spoken. “Yeah, I’m thinking we’ll be lucky if that’s all she does to us.” They both laughed.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about this place we’re staying in. I’m assuming it’s your home.” He said that it was when he was home. “Your dad told me that you’re very hush hush about what you do for a living. I’m assuming it’s legal.”
Beckett: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 3