Humming to herself as she walked to her car, she was already thinking up a pie recipe to make for tomorrow for Gabriel when she heard someone call her name.
“Temperance! Yo, babe, where are you going?”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she turned around. “I’m leaving. You’re late.”
“Nah, babe, you’re early.” Tony held his hands up defensively and shrugged. “You know I’m always thirty minutes late especially since I always get lost in new places. You should have factored that in.”
God, Tony was a piece of work. She should just leave him here, but she just wanted this over with. “Say what you need to say, and then you can go.”
“Aww, don’t be like that, Tempe, baby.” He reached out to touch her, but she evaded his grasp. “C’mon now. You didn’t even give me a hug and kiss when you saw me.”
Was he for real? “That’s because we’re not together anymore. I would think leaving you should have clued you in.”
“Look, you didn’t even give me a chance to explain. What happened back home? It’s not what you think.”
“Oh yeah?” she challenged. “I walked in, and you were naked with her on our bed. What were you doing?”
“Just messin’ around,” he said. “I didn’t even put it in that long—”
“Ugh! Stop.” She put a hand up. “I don’t need to know the details.”
“But—”
“But, nothing. The fact is, you’re a lying, abusive, gaslighting asshole who’s done nothing but made me feel so small that I felt like I wouldn’t be able to do better than you. Well, guess what? I’ve opened my eyes, and I can see what you really are now.”
“Babe, I can change,” he pleaded. “C’mon, I deserve another chance. Come home with me, please. We can drive away tonight.”
“Deserve another … no.” She shook her head. “No second chances. Leave, and never come back.” Her foot stamped down in defiance. “I mean it.”
Tony froze, as if waiting for her to change her mind. When seconds ticked by and she didn’t budge or make a sound, his face suddenly twisted in hate. “I can’t accept that, Temperance,” he said, eyes narrowing. “I won’t.”
An unpleasant feeling crept into her stomach. Tony had always been charming and manipulative, using his good looks and sweet words to get his way. However, this man in front of her seemed … different. Why hadn’t she noticed that the hollows of his cheeks were deeper or his hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in weeks? His clothes hung off his frame, and was that desperation in his eyes? There was something oddly familiar about the way he looked and acted.
“You need to come back with me, Temperance,” he said, advancing toward her. “And you’ll do it, one way or another.”
She swallowed hard. Oh God, what the hell was going on?
Chapter Nine
Gabriel’s phone rang constantly all day as he tried to juggle the bachelor party and Damon’s “surprise.” He couldn’t ignore the calls even though they weren’t from the one person he desperately wanted to hear from.
His lion sat in the corner and pouted, making its displeasure known at being away from their mate. Yeah, buddy, me too. But his best friend was only going to get married once, so he was determined to make this party as successful as possible, even if the guest of honor himself didn’t look like he was having fun at all.
Convincing Damon to come had been like pulling teeth, and Gabriel couldn’t blame him. However, short of knocking Anders out and then storing him in a shed until after the wedding, there was no stopping the tiger shifter from having this party. Gabriel had to beg, plead, and blackmail the chief, promising him that there would be no shenanigans during the trip.
At least he didn’t seem suspicious that Anna Victoria didn’t threaten to leave him when he told her that they were having this party.
“You owe me, Russel,” Damon growled as his eyes narrowed. “You owe me big time.”
He sighed. “I know.”
“He said we were just going to eat and then go to an early show.” The chief’s lips pursed as a murderous look passed over his face. “It’s five o’clock, and we’re at a strip club.”
“Hey, there’s food here,” Gabriel said sheepishly as he nodded at the buffet spread in the corner. “And, uh, there is a stage.” God help him, he really wanted to kill Anders.
Gabriel—or rather, Ginny’s contact—took care of arranging the jet and the private suite at the ARIA on the Strip, while it was Anders who booked their itinerary. It had been innocuous enough since they started that day—breakfast buffet at the hotel, lounging by the pool all morning, but then the tiger shifter announced he had booked an early dinner and a magic show for them and ushered them into their best clothes.
A stretched Humvee picked them up, and soon, they pulled up to the Pink Palace Gentlemen’s Club. Sure, the place looked classy, and Anders—using Gabriel’s black credit card—had sprung for the private party room, but Damon would never choose to come to a place like this.
“And that’s why I didn’t tell ya, because you’re all bigger pussies than my tiger,” Anders had said as he dragged them inside.
But it was a good thing Gabriel had already guessed what Anders was up to and had come up with a plan that incorporated Temperance’s idea.
“Oh yeah, shake it, baby!” a rather enthusiastic voice shouted.
“What the fuck?” Damon’s eyes bugged out as he turned his head to find the source. In the center of the room where the small private stage was set up. One of the three dancers had her legs wrapped around the pole and hung upside down as J.D. whooped and showered her with dollar bills.
“God, of course she’s enjoying herself,” Damon grumbled, rubbing the bridge of his nose with this thumb and forefinger, turning his back from the stage once more.
One of the concessions he had made to Damon was for their other best friend to join, since J.D. was technically part of the wedding party, though she was Anna Victoria’s Maid of Honor. Although Anders had initially protested because J.D. was female, the two were now thick as thieves as they ogled and encouraged every single stripper that had performed on stage. Daniel Rogers, on the hand, sat beside them sheepishly eyeing the entertainment, unsure of what to do. He seemed like he wanted to join Gabriel and Damon in the back of the room and ignore the girls, but Anders and J.D. kept egging him on to drop the “nice guy” act.
“Yeah, baby!” J.D. screamed as the stripper worked the pole like she was a Tilt-A-Whirl. “Move that caboose!”
Gabriel stifled a laugh. “Good ol’ J.D. doesn’t disappoint.” He himself glanced at the women disinterestedly. Really, they weren’t doing anything for him, and he could tell Damon was just as miserable as he was, being away from their respective mates. Maybe it was time to end this. Pressing the call button in his hand, he waited, and a few seconds later, their cocktail waitress walked in, and he quickly intercepted her by the door.
“What can I get you, sir?”
“How about my special request?” he asked.
The young woman’s face lit up. “Ah yes, everything’s all set up.”
“Good, can you tell the DJ and then let her in?”
“Will do, sir,” she nodded. “I’ll get you more drinks, too.”
“Thanks.” Finally. He was tired of Damon’s brooding, and it would be nice to see him smile.
“What’s going on?” Damon said as he walked back to the couch.
“Huh?” he asked innocently.
“Your eye’s twitching, and you can barely stop from smiling,” Damon pointed out. “Do you have something planned?”
“Hmmm.” He plopped down on the couch as the music changed.
“Gabriel—”
“And now we have some special entertainment just for the groom,” the DJ announced.
The strippers understood that that was the signal and stopped dancing, then disappeared through the curtains at the rear of the stage.
“Hey!” Anders protested as he waved
a fistful of bills. “Where are you going?”
Gabriel caught J.D.’s eyes, who nodded in return. “Anders, c’mon. Let’s go to the main room.”
“Main room? But we were having fun in here,” Anders complained.
Daniel quickly shot to his feet. “Sounds like a plan.”
J.D. hooked her arm around the tiger shifter’s. “Dude, I think I saw a bachelorette party out there. Bet they’re a lot of fun. And looking for some company.”
“Really?” Anders’s face lit up. “Well then, what are we waiting for? You can be my wing woman, McNamara.”
J.D rolled her eyes as she led him out, Daniel right behind them.
As soon as they were out the door, Gabriel grabbed Damon by the arm and dragged him toward the stage.
“Gabriel,” Damon asked in a warning voice. “What’s going on?”
Now Gabriel didn’t bother hiding his grin. “Sit back,” he said, pushing him down on the chair. “And enjoy the show.”
The lights dimmed, and a slow, sensuous tune began to pipe into the speakers. The curtains behind the stage parted, and a figure wearing a trench coat and a feathered mask walked out in the tallest stiletto heels Gabriel had ever seen.
“What the fuck, Gabriel?” Damon growled. “I told you I don’t want any strippers or lap dances or—” He stopped all of a sudden, his entire body tensing.
“Oh, I think you’ll like this one,” he said with a laugh. Turning his head toward the stage he nodded at the dancer, who whipped off her mask.
“Jesus Christ,” Damon cursed.
“Hello there, Chief,” Anna Victoria said with a laugh as she sauntered toward them in her sky-high heels. “Surprise!”
Gabriel tossed his head back and laughed aloud. “I guess you won’t mind this one, huh, Damon?”
His friend looked up at him, his jaw tensing. “I love you, man, but if you don’t get the fuck out of here—”
“I know.” He patted Damon on the shoulder as he turned away from the stage. “And there’s no one around watching. No cameras, no DJ, no bouncers. You’re welcome.” He hurried toward the exit, not really wanting to be around for what was to follow.
“Come here, sweetheart,” Damon called to Anna Victoria. “How about a lap dance?”
“Nuh-uh, Chief. You can look but you can’t—”
Gabriel shut the door behind him, shaking in laughter. Oh boy, I hope she shows him a good time. Anna Victoria didn’t need a lot of convincing to go along with this plan; in fact, she insisted on it, as with the wedding only a week away, both she and Damon were stressed out and needed to blow off some steam. As a gift, he’d even booked them a pool suite at The Palms Hotel where Anders would never be able to find them.
Temperance was a genius, coming up with this plan.
His lion huffed haughtily, as if saying, of course she is, she’s our mate.
He sighed and took his phone out of his pocket. Out of respect for Damon, he had put it on silent. He didn’t want to be checking on it all the time as this weekend was supposed to be about celebrating his best friend. But Temperance should already be out of work by now, so he could at least give her a call and say goodnight. Maybe I could convince her to send me some naughty pics. He groaned as his cock twitched in his pants. Even though he’d been surrounded by gorgeous women all night, only the thought of Temperance made him crave sex.
Better get outta here or they might get the wrong idea, he thought as he searched for the door. As he walked toward the exit, he looked back toward the main stage, shaking his head as J.D. and Anders were once again front and center, tossing bills at the stage. Shaking his head, he slipped out the door, breathing in the cool, desert air. Unlocking his phone, he frowned at the ten missed calls and a string of messages from Ginny.
Pick up.
Where the hell are you?
You need to call me. Now.
It’s about Temperance.
His blood froze in his veins, and his first instinct was to call his mate, but she hadn’t called or messaged him. His fingers quickly tapped on the missed calls from Ginny. “What’s up, Gin?” he asked his voice tight.
“Oh, Gabriel, thank God! Where the fuck have you been? I’ve been calling you for ages.”
“I was busy,” he said. “What’s wrong with Temperance?” And why didn’t she call me herself?
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I mean, I went to Rosie’s to check up on her, but Rosie said she’d already gone home. But one of the waitresses, Bridgette—she and I go way back—told me about something that happened that morning.”
“Something happened?” He already didn’t like where this was going.
Ginny sucked in a breath. “Some guy came in looking for her. Brought flowers and everything and caused a scene.”
“What guy?” he growled. “Tell me or I’ll—”
“Hold yer horses, I’m trying to tell you! So, Bridgette just overheard all this but she says, he got on his knees and wouldn’t leave until she agreed to go out to dinner with him tonight at the Full Moon Diner.”
“Motherfucker!” His blood was now boiling in his veins. “I’m coming back.”
“When?”
“Now.” His entire body was shaking with rage, but he somehow managed to hang up the call and then dialed the number for the pilot they’d hired for the weekend. “Get the plane ready, we’re headed back to Colorado,” he barked at the phone as he waved down a passing cab. “I don’t care if you just got back, I want that damned jet ready to take off by the time I get there.”
The taxi and plane ride seemed like the longest of Gabriel’s life. Surprisingly, he looked calm on the outside, despite the turmoil he felt inside. His lion made its wrath known, clawing at him and ripping him to shreds from the inside. It took all his concentration not to shift during the flight, but he didn’t want to startle the already distraught pilot. While he didn’t want to throw his weight around, this was an emergency, so he was short with the pilot as he ordered him to fly back to Colorado.
Perhaps the worst part of all this was that his imagination had run wild, thinking about all the possible scenarios. Who was this guy? Had she been seeing someone on the side all this time? How could he have missed it? Or was it an old lover? Of course, had his rage not gotten the better of him, he could have called her for an explanation, but he was already in the air by the time he thought of that.
It didn’t matter. Temperance was his, and he would fight for her with literal tooth and claw if he had to. There was no outcome in this scenario where he would not be the victor, and by the end of the night, she would know who she belonged to.
The door to the plane barely opened before he rushed out, taking the stairs two at a time and ran all the way to the parking lot of the private airstrip in Verona Mills where they landed. It was already past seven, and it would be another hour drive to that diner Ginny had told him about. He floored it and his Jeep ripped into the parking lot around eight o’clock. He didn’t bother to park his car, because his vision turned red as soon as he saw his target.
Temperance was by her car, while a man stood over her. He advanced toward her and grabbed her arm, making her jerk back. Fury burned through Gabriel as he slammed on the brakes and flew out the door. His lion roared in outrage and pressed its claws at his skin, wanting to get out. He was sorely tempted to give in to his animal, but this was not how he wanted to introduce his lion to their mate.
“Get the fuck away from her,” he roared.
“Gabriel!” Fear, and then relief spread across Temperance’s pretty face as she wrenched free of the man’s grip and then cowered back, pressing herself up against the side of her car.
The man who attacked her turned around; his face twisted in rage. “Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?” As if to make a point, he began to inch toward Temperance.
Gabriel rushed toward them, stretching out to full height as he focused on the other male. “I said, get the fuck away from her.” Opening his mouth, he bared his
sharp teeth as his canines grew to full length, then let out an inhuman roar, making the man jump back.
“Jesus H. Christ!” he exclaimed. “You’re one of them.”
“You bet your skinny ass.” He stalked toward Temperance, placing himself between her and the other man. Her face was ashen, and she seemed frozen. “Are you okay, baby?” he asked, his voice turning gentle.
“Are you fucking this … this freak, Temperance?” the guy suddenly screamed.
Temperance flinched. “That’s none of your business, Tony,” she squeaked.
“Oh, it is my Goddamned business,” Tony yelled back. “I’m your boyfriend and—”
Gabriel spun around. “What?”
“E-ex-boyfriend,” Temperance qualified. “I left, remember?”
“But you didn’t give me a chance to explain.” Tony stepped forward, but Gabriel continued to block him, arms crossing over his chest. “Please, Tempe babe—”
“Stop calling her that,” Gabriel hissed. “Actually, just stop. Stop talking to her, stop looking at her, and stop thinking about her. She obviously left your ass for good reason and doesn’t want to see you anymore.”
Tony’s nostrils flared. “Listen here, you dumb fuck. You know nothing about Temperance and me—”
“There is no Temperance and you,” Gabriel interrupted.
“She doesn’t know what she wants,” Tony said. “Right, baby? You’re always changing your mind. I know what’s good for you. Just listen to me and stop being stubborn.”
There was a desperation in the other man’s voice that set off alarm bells in Gabriel’s head, but for now, all he wanted was for this asshole to get out of his sight. “Seems to me she knows exactly what she wants, or rather, doesn’t want: You. Moving across the country is a pretty clear signal.”
Tony bristled. “Why don’t you take a hike? Just because you got into her panties once doesn’t mean you get a say in what she does. What she really wants—and needs—is me.”
Gabriel tamped down the urge to kill him on the spot. “Tony, is it? I know your type—you like to talk big, probably compensating for …” His gaze dropped down to his crotch. “Something else. But what you really are is a big bully.”
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