If there was any consolation, it was knowing that none of Rex’s playthings meant anything to him, including his current PA. No doubt the she-cat thought she had Rex by the short hairs, but she didn’t. She was just one in a long list of females who had thought they could be The One. Eventually, the tigress would realize that - probably when Rex decided he’d had enough and sent her packing - and not even her Hoovering skills were going to change his mind.
No one could make a male lion do something he didn’t want to, and Rex liked females fawning all over him far too much to settle down with one woman. That was just the nature of the beast ... along with being vain and believing everyone existed to serve his needs.
The tigress might be good at taking care of some of those needs, but clearly, not all of them.
Rex had looked tired, worn. His beautiful golden eyes hadn’t held the arrogant, devilish twinkle that had dampened so many panties over the years. Was he eating enough? Getting enough rest? Who was ensuring he wasn’t being taken advantage of by all the leeches who wanted a free ride? Looking after Rex and keeping the hangers-on at bay was a full-time job.
A job that was no longer hers, Alice reminded herself.
Rex was a big boy, and as he had so painfully pointed out, she was no one special. Just because her lioness had pegged him as her mate didn’t mean that his lion recognized her as his.
Obviously.
When the cab pulled up in front of the hotel, Alice paid the cabbie then walked barefoot through the lobby with her head held high. Only once she was in the elevator did she finally relax enough to take a full breath.
When she walked into their suite, Johnny was sitting on the plush sofa, wearing his usual silky black pajama pants and little else. He looked up from the sheet music he had been working on, arching a perfect black brow as he took in her appearance.
“Give me a minute,” she said, staying his questions until she had a chance to change.
Rex’s shirt smelled like Rex, and as much as her lioness liked being covered in his scent, it was hindering Alice’s ability to think clearly.
Johnny had a glass of wine waiting for her when she returned a few minutes later in her yoga pants and oversized silk tunic. Alice took a long swallow, hoping it would settle her nerves, knowing it wouldn’t.
The television had been turned off, and Johnny was giving her his full and undivided attention as he waited patiently for her to get to it.
“Carly’s missing,” she blurted out, pacing back and forth. “I went to the hotel, and she wasn’t there. While I was typing out a text to her, Rex walked in. He hasn’t seen her since Dallas, Johnny. Dallas.”
She took another drink. No doubt it was a good vintage—Johnny had excellent taste—but it could have been tap water for all she noticed.
“Then his current PA”—she spit the letters—“came in, took one look at me and Rex talking, and decided to go all claws and fang on me.”
“Ruh-roh.”
“I know, right? It was all so sudden. I didn’t stop to think ...”
“You shifted,” Johnny guessed. She nodded. “I hope you put that bitch on her ass.”
She nodded again. “I did.”
“Good for you. What did Rex do?”
“He looked at me as if he’d never seen a woman shift before.” For as long as she lived, she would never forget the look on his face. The king of beasts, gone absolute deer in the headlights. It might have been funny under other circumstances. “Then I grabbed the first intact article of clothing I found and got the hell out of there.”
She finished the wine, waving off his offer of a refill.
“Now that he knows the truth, he’s not just going to let that go, Alice,” Johnny said softly.
Alice wasn’t so sure. Nothing had changed, except Rex now knew what she was. That kind of knowledge had little influence over the heart or the soul, both of which were major players in selecting a mate.
“Well, it’s not up to him, is it?” She sniffed, lifting her chin. “Besides, I can’t worry about him now. We’ve got to find Carly.”
Johnny nodded, thankfully dropping the subject. “Right. Any ideas?”
“Yes. Remember when we met up with her in New York? Carly said her essay had won a trip to the finals, but she hasn’t said anything since. What if that’s where she went?”
“She snuck away for the semis without Rex finding out,” Johnny mused thoughtfully. “It stands to reason she’d do the same for the finals.”
“Exactly. And she probably would have gotten away with it, too, except my surprise visit got her busted. We need to find out when those finals are and where.”
“Agreed. Got a name?”
“No.” Alice frowned, angry with herself for not knowing the name of the organization running the contest. “Wait! It’s probably on her finalist medal!”
She searched through the photos on her phone, finding the picture she had snapped of Carly proudly holding up her medal. Spreading her fingers across the screen, she enlarged the picture until she could make out the writing. “Got it! The North American National STEM Foundation!”
A quick online search and a couple of screen flips told them everything they needed to know.
“Go grab your stuff,” Johnny said, putting his phone up to his ear. “I’ll get us on the next flight out.”
“What about your benefit concert in Atlanta?”
“What, you never heard of the ‘Chicago to Atlanta by way of Phoenix’ route?” He grinned. “I’ll catch a late flight out tomorrow.”
“That won’t leave you much leeway.”
“I’m not worried. I’m sure you’ve got everything planned down to the smallest detail and things will go off without a hitch as usual. Besides, this is important.”
Alice took a moment to kiss his cheek. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
Johnny laughed. “Yeah, I know. Now get that tail in gear. We’ve got a conference to get to.”
Chapter Thirteen
By the time security got the situation under control, Alice was long gone.
A pair of big hands hauled Rex back into the elevator, not an easy feat, given his size. Then the man moved in front of him to block anyone else from entering.
Rex stared at the broad back, recognizing Chuck instantly. Along with Frank, the rhino shifter had been with him from the early days, but, Rex now realized, hadn’t been around much lately. They would be having a talk about that later. At that moment, Rex had bigger issues to deal with.
The ride up to the penthouse suite was quiet. Rex was still trying to process everything that had happened over the last couple hours. A few facts stood out in glaring detail:
One, Alice, the woman who had been by his side for years, wasn’t the fragile human he had thought, but a lioness. A shifter, just like him. Talk about a mindfuck! How had she managed to keep that a secret for so long? And more importantly, why?
Two, while Alice had abandoned him, she hadn’t abandoned his daughter. Alice and Carly had kept in contact, meeting surreptitiously behind his back.
And three, Carly was missing, possibly for days, and he hadn’t even known. While foul play was a possibility, it was far more likely she’d snuck away on her own to do something he wouldn’t approve of. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time. His cub was smart, savvy, and had a fierce independent streak, just like her old man.
Something like pride welled up in his chest, but that didn’t make it okay. Nor did it excuse the fact that his overpaid staff had allowed a fourteen-year-old girl to pull the wool over their eyes.
That was a hell of a lot of WTF in a few short hours.
His first priority was to find Carly and get some answers. That was where he would focus his full and immediate attention.
Valerie looked up from the sofa when he entered the penthouse suite. She immediately stood, her expression morphing into one of concern. “Rex, thank God! Are you—”
He held his hand up, stopping her mid-sentence. �
��Save it. Where is my daughter?”
Valerie blinked, her face going curiously blank. “How should I know?”
“It’s your job,” he growled.
“No.” She sniffed, lifting her nose. “I am your personal assistant. My job is to take care of you, not babysit an ungrateful brat.”
That never kept Alice from doing both. Rex clenched his hands into fists even as his blood heated. “Careful, Valerie. That is my cub you’re talking about.”
Valerie’s eyes narrowed, growing positively feral. “Maybe biologically she is. But let’s face it, Rex. You don’t want her around anymore than she wants to be here. Maybe it’s for the best if she does her thing so you can get back to doing yours.”
Rex’s vision went red as the implications became clear. “You knew she was missing?”
Valerie shrugged, moving close and running her hand up his arm in a seductive pet. The woman changed her moods like a chameleon changed its color. “How would I know? All she does is sit in her room all day and brood.”
He grabbed her wrists and pushed back far enough to put some distance between them. “When’s the last time you saw her?”
“I don’t know. A couple days ago?”
“Tell me.”
“She came to see you after the concert in Dallas. I told her you were busy and couldn’t be disturbed.”
Carly rarely sought him out, especially right after a concert. She hated the post-performance parties, and frankly, he didn’t want her anywhere near them.
“What did she want?”
“Some stupid school thing. An event or something she wanted to go to.”
“Details, Valerie.”
“I don’t know the details! I told her we couldn’t possibly interrupt the tour for something so trivial.”
Rex was livid, but the worst thing was, Valerie was parroting the same shit he had said to Carly months ago.
He had heard enough. Valerie had been getting on his nerves lately, boldly stepping beyond her bounds. This was one step too far.
He dropped his hold on her wrists. “Get out.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Get out. You’re fired.”
“Rex, surely you don’t mean that.” Valerie put her hands at the hem of her skimpy top and began to lift. “You’re just stressed. I’ll take care of you. Nobody can take care of you like I can.”
It was an obvious diversion. He wondered vaguely why she thought it would work now, when none of her other attempts had.
She bared herself to him, cupping her large breasts in blatant invitation as she stroked her prominent nipples into hardened peaks.
Rather than a surge of lust, all he felt was disgust. Nothing about Valerie was real, including the double-Ds she aimed in his direction.
His mind flashed back to Alice and the way she had looked after shifting. Natural. Raw. Wild. Perfect.
“Wrong again. If you call this”—he waved his hand around—“taking care of me, then you’re delusional. And you know what else? You can’t hold a candle to Alice. Now get the fuck out.”
Momentary shock gave way to anger. “You can’t just—”
“I can, and I did.” He nodded to Chuck, who had remained silent and quiet by the elevator. “Chuck, help Valerie find her way out. And if you see any of her friends hanging around, show them out, too.”
“My pleasure.”
Valerie hissed as Chuck stepped in her direction, but a pissed-off tigress was no match for a rhino shifter.
As Chuck shepherded her into the elevator, Rex added, “As soon as you take out the trash, come back up so we can discuss the appalling lack of security around here.”
Rex poured himself a drink while he waited for Chuck’s return. He tossed it back, then another, pacing across the room several times before coming to a stop before a set of glass doors leading out onto the balcony. He stepped out, filling his lungs with air tainted by the smells of the overcrowded city below and unwashed humans.
His skin itched, his lion aching for a chance to be freed. How long had it been since he had felt the moon on his back? Felt dirt and grass yielding beneath his massive paws?
Too long, his lion growled from within. Not since before Alice left.
Sometimes he would come off a performance to find a stretch Hummer waiting to take him and the guys out into a nearby park or game lands so they could reconnect with their animals. At the time, he had assumed Alice was just one of those humans who instinctively knew when he was nearing his limits. Now he knew there was an even simpler explanation. She knew because she understood exactly what it was like to hide beneath her human skin and pretend to be one of them.
Alice had never accompanied them on those long rides out into the wilderness, though. If she had stripped and shifted, he would have lost his fucking mind and spent the next couple hours mounting her instead of padding through the forest. His human side could resist the temptation, but his beast was far more carnal and wouldn’t have thought twice about claiming her.
Which was probably exactly why she had kept her true nature from him, he realized.
He scowled. Was the thought of them together so abhorrent?
“Rex.”
Rex turned around to find that Chuck had returned and was waiting just inside the door. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something was different about him. Maybe Chuck was still pissed about him letting Alice go. The hard-nosed rhino shifter had always had a soft spot for her and Carly. That might also explain why Chuck had been keeping his distance lately.
“Thanks for the save down there. Where the fuck you been, Chuck?”
“Working,” the guard grunted.
For the first time, Rex noticed he wasn’t wearing his usual staff shirt, but one with the hotel’s logo on it instead. He narrowed his eyes.
“What’s this? Did you quit on me, too?”
Another grunt. “No. I was fired a couple weeks ago, along with the rest of my guys.”
“What? Who fired you?”
“Valerie. She said you wanted a new team.”
Well, that explained the abysmal lack of security. What it didn’t explain was how easily Chuck had bought into Valerie’s lies. Rhinos were big and practically indestructible, but they weren’t known for being particularly clever. Still, Chuck should have known better, or at least questioned such a ridiculous claim.
“That’s bullshit! Why didn’t you come to me?”
Chuck shrugged, meeting his eyes directly. “You got rid of Alice. Figured you were cleaning house.”
“I didn’t get rid of Alice,” Rex said through clenched teeth. “She walked out on me.”
“You didn’t stop her.”
“What makes you think I could have stopped her?”
“Because,” Chuck said, disappointment clear in his eyes, “Alice would have done anything for you.”
A sharp pain, not unlike a blade, pierced his chest. He ignored it. Alice had left him. It had been her choice, not his.
“Well, consider yourself rehired, effectively immediately.”
“Sorry, Rex. I already got a job.” Chuck pointed at the hotel logo on his shirt.
Rex stared at him in disbelief. “You would rather work here than for me?”
Chuck shrugged. “It’s good, steady work. I get to sleep in a real bed every night and eat three squares.”
“Sounds boring.”
“Can be,” he agreed. “But at least I don’t have crazed fans biting, kicking, and scratching me every night.”
“Did you hate it that much?”
“Nah. Most of the time, it was great. Then things changed. You changed. And it wasn’t so great anymore. Goodnight, Rex. If you need me, just use the hotel tablet and hit the button for security.” Chuck turned away and stepped into the elevator, leaving Rex alone.
Rex poured himself another drink and walked from room to room, feeling strangely adrift as he tried to figure out what he was going to do next. He wasn’t used to being alone. Someone was
always there, always wanting a piece of him.
But now, the rooms were quiet. Nobody was telling him where he needed to be, what he needed to do. No partying groupies getting high on his dime, no horny females begging for a taste of Rex Løve, rock god.
No daughter in the next room, reminding him that he was more than just a performer.
He walked over to what should have been Carly’s room and went inside. It was weird, not having her there, scowling up at him for invading her space.
He’d never planned on doing the dad thing. Carly had been an accident. He hadn’t even known about her until she was almost ten. He guessed he should count his blessings. By the time he had met her, she was out of the puking-mewling-diaper stage, capable of carrying on a conversation and wiping her own ass.
And really, for a kid, she wasn’t half-bad. Carly was smart as hell and had spunk. So what if she preferred to spend her days with her nose in a book? She kept to herself mostly and stayed out of his way.
Yeah, the two of them rarely saw eye to eye, but that was typical. He hadn’t gotten along with his old man, either. His mother had been the one who raised him, encouraging him to follow his dreams. In the early days, she hadn’t missed any of his performances. He would look down from the stage in some shitty two-bit dive and there she would be, beaming at him like he was some kind of rock star.
His lips curled with the bittersweet memory. She had passed before he had gotten his first big break. She never got to see the sold out shows or hear thousands of rabid fans screaming his name. She never knew she had a grandchild.
His mom would have loved Carly’s fire and sass. She would have loved Alice, too, because Alice was just as fierce, just as protective, just as unselfish.
His mom probably wouldn’t be too happy with him, though.
There had never been any doubt in her mind that he would make it, and she had told him so often. What she worried about more was him getting caught up in all the fame and fortune that would come with that success.
“You’re not your father, Rex. Never forget who you are, and more importantly, never forget those who love you.”
Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people claimed to love him. They loved his music, loved his image. Some, like Valerie, loved his wealth and power and what he could do for them.
Rock Hard: BAD Alpha Dads Page 7