Chapter 2
Unable to locate his mate, Basilio had finally given up finding her himself and gone home. The only place he wanted to be was with her, and since he couldn’t have that at the moment, home was the only option. But he couldn’t even relax once he got there, and took up the hope of finding his mate, now, tonight. He started with his coach. Coaches knew everything about the inner workings of the stadium and the people who supported the team. So that’s who he called.
Base paced through the living room of his penthouse apartment and gripped his cell phone as he did his best to make his coach understand. “You don’t get it,” he said into the phone. “I have to find her.”
“Base, I don’t have any control over housekeeping at the stadium. There is nothing we can do until the morning. Then you can reach out to corporate office. They’ll be able to tell you who they contracted housekeeping to this season. If I remember right, they broke it up between several companies. One got housekeeping, one got maintenance, one got food service, another got security. I’m sure they have payroll records, and it’s not like you’re a stranger off the street. They’ll help you find her.”
“I hope you’re right,” Basilio answered.
“Why’s it so important anyway? What did she do?” Coach asked.
“It’s personal. I’ll tell you when I’m ready,” Basilio said, refusing to tip his hand.
“Alright. Try to get some sleep. The team depends on you. Get your head together and everything will work out.”
“I’ll try,” Basilio said, knowing there was no way in hell he’d get any rest.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Basilio hung up without a word. He was beyond frustrated. He stalked through his home, subconsciously taking stock of all he had to offer a woman, the right woman — his woman. His home was a penthouse with two stories, white marble floors with silver and grey running through them. An open floor plan with cathedral ceilings and white and chrome furniture. He had fine art on the walls in chrome frames and as he turned and looked around the room, he took in the suspended circular staircase that seemed to just hover in place, leading to the upper floor and all its opulence.
Basilio had never had a woman spend the night in his home. He’d never had a date in his home. Sure, he’d had dinner parties, and hosted cocktails at the urging of his agent for publicity and invited the paparazzi and the big wigs from corporate. But he’d never allowed anything to occur between himself and a woman in his home. His home was for his mate. He didn’t want it tainted with another woman’s touch or scent. Everything he’d amassed, everything he’d built, was for her.
He sighed and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows and threw open the sliding glass doors mounted in the center of them. He walked out onto his terrace, also done in smooth, clean white cement with white and chrome terrace furniture for relaxation. Basilio looked around his terrace and shook his head. He had everything, except the one thing he wanted and needed. He walked over to the railing and looked out over the city, the lights flickering at him as he stood there like a king watching over his domain. He tried to take heart, at least he knew she existed now. He’d found her. His slight smile turned to a frown as he realized he’d lost her just as quickly. Basilio leaned on the railing and tried to look more closely at the city below him. “Where are you?” he shouted frustratedly.
~~~~~
Later that night Renata let herself into her run down, dingy, one-bedroom apartment. By the time she finished unlocking all the locks on her door, she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Mrs. Friedrickson knew she was home and trying to enter.
Renata opened the door and stepped inside. Sure enough, there the woman sat, channel selector in one hand, cola in the other, watching the door and waiting for her to come in, rather than getting up to unlock the locks from the inside.
“You’re late tonight,” Mrs. Friedrickson said.
“I am. Sorry. I had to wait a little longer than usual for the locker room to clear out.”
“I hope this doesn’t happen often,” the woman mumbled, getting to her feet. She tossed the channel selector toward the couch, not moving to pick it up when it fell to the floor, and set the can of cola on the coffee table.
“I’m sure it’s not a usual thing. Thank you for staying with Kaiser until I got home.”
“It’s what you pay me to do,” Mrs. Friedrickson said, walking over to Renata and holding her hand out for her money.
Renata took the few steps to the kitchen and set her purse on the counter top separating the kitchenette from the tiny living room, so she could reach into her wallet. Of the sixty dollars she had in her purse, she counted out thirty dollars and handed it to the woman.
“Same time?” Mrs. Friedrickson asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m waiting for a call from food service since the team is out of the stadium for the next few weeks. As soon as I hear from them — hopefully hear from them — I’ll let you know what days and times.”
“I’ll need some notice, you know,” the woman grumbled, walking toward the door.
“I understand,” Renata answered, knowing full well the woman had nothing at all to do but sit in front of her own television and yell at the crime shows about how they were all fucking idiots, and she’d have solved the crime in just a couple hours, instead of weeks.
“Thank you again, I’ll let you know something as soon as I do,” Renata said, closing the door behind Mrs. Friedrickson and locking all the locks.
Renata checked the small window in the kitchen to be sure it was locked, too, moving all the wind chimes away from it to do so. Wind chimes inside were unusual, but she figured if anyone tried to come in through the window, even if they managed to move one or two wind chimes to get through it, they’d make some noise in doing so, and she’d at least get a warning.
She walked through the living room and took a left through an opening. It looked like it opened up into a hall, but instead, it was simply an open space within which to place a door, kind of like a small foyer, but off the living room, rather than the front door. To the left was the bedroom, to the right, the bathroom.
Renata opened the bedroom door and smiled when she saw Kaiser. The bed looked like he’d been trying to swim in it. The covers were knotted and strewn about, and his pillow had been tossed to the floor. She walked in quietly and picked up his pillow. She placed it on the bed and lifted him to lay him on it properly, then reached for the blankets, untangled them and tucked them around him.
She picked up his stuffed bear and placed it in reach of his searching little hands. Though he was asleep, he seized on it and immediately brought it up to his face, snuggling it against him and settling in again.
Renata smiled down at her little boy, smoothing his dark hair from his face. He scrunched up his nose and swatted her hand away. She chuckled and tickled his nose intentionally.
Kaiser’s chest rumbled in a sign of irritation.
Renata’s smile dropped. She was afraid this was much too young for the changes that would affect him. She’d thought she’d have more time to get him to a better place before that side of him started to emerge. He was four years old, and her whole world. From all she’d been able to learn which wasn’t much, he wouldn’t start shifting until puberty, but he’d just growled his irritation at her tickling his nose while he slept. Her stomach flip-flopped. Not out of fear of her son, she knew Kaiser would never hurt her. But out of fear for her son, and of what others may do to him if they found out what he truly was. Kaiser was still a baby really, and he wouldn’t understand keeping that part of himself secret.
She took a deep breath and patted his back gently before getting up and heading toward the shower. Standing beneath the tepid trickle of water that passed for a shower, she bathed her body and washed her hair quickly before it went ice cold. Her mind immediately took her back to the locker room and Basilio Lyakhov, the resident heartthrob and MVP of the professional baseball team centered at the stadium. He’d
been defending her from the insulting remarks his friends had made. He was the kind of man that she could only ever dream of. But she never even allowed herself that much. Men like him were interested in Barbie doll cut outs of women and fast, non-stop partying. There was no way he’d ever even consider her as anything other than what she actually was — someone to clean up after him.
Irritated that she’d been thinking about a man, and especially an impossible to reach man, she shook herself subconsciously and redirected her thoughts. Kaiser was beginning to develop more of his father’s traits, and she needed to address those before it was too late for her to do anything to help him. She’d have to rethink her plan. She needed a rural life, someplace that Kaiser would have lots of room, and they’d have plenty of privacy for him to grow up safely. On her salary, though, and having to remain in hiding as she was… she just didn’t know how she’d do it. “The hell am I going to do?” she mumbled, wringing out her hair and shutting off the shower.
Renata wrapped her hair in a towel and headed to the kitchen to make herself a ramen noodle pack for dinner. She’d love something of substance — a pork chop, or even a burger for dinner, but she had very little money to spare because she saved every penny she could for their future. She had to cut corners. Food was one of those corners that got cut. She bought only enough meat and fresh vegetables for Kaiser to eat well. She existed on eggs, beans, and ramen noodles, while her son got the meat and veggies he needed to grow big and strong.
Having filled her stomach, Renata curled up on the old, faded couch that was in her apartment when she moved in. She turned on the television and slipped her kitchen knife under the couch cushion. She pulled her pillow from the back of the couch, tossed her threadbare throw over her feet and legs, and was asleep in minutes with visions of a beautiful man with dark, wavy hair and bright blue eyes taunting her in her dreams.
~~~~~
Early the next morning Basilio was even more on edge than he’d been the night before. He drove his black Camaro like a bat out of hell to his targeted destination. He wanted answers, and he wanted them now. He squealed the tires as he tore into the parking lot of the downtown office building the Beasts had their headquarters in. He pulled right up to the front of the building, stopped the car directly outside the glass front entryway, and much to the dismay of several onlookers, got out, slammed the door and stalked into the lobby of the building, leaving the car blocking the entire entrance.
“Sir! Mr. Lyakhov! You can’t leave your car there, they’ll tow it!” the door man called after him.
“Let them tow it,” he called back without turning around.
Base smacked his hand against the button for the elevator and stood there waiting impatiently. His mind wandered back to the night before. After he’d gotten dressed, he’d spent more than an hour searching for his mate. He couldn’t find her. Didn’t know where she’d gone. He’d tried to track her through scent, but so much of those damned air fresheners and sanitizers were used on this level that he couldn’t smell anything other than them. In desperation he’d circled back to the locker room, and found that she’d been there in his absence. The room was spotless, everything in its place. The showers freshly scrubbed. Everything put to rights. While he’d been scouring every inch of the stadium, all its offices, storage rooms, restaurants and bathrooms looking for her — she’d been cleaning the locker room. He managed to find the laundering area of the stadium, where all their dirty laundry was cleaned, and even determined which cart was hers, but she was gone. Since this was the last home game for two weeks, he wouldn’t get a chance to track her down until they came back from their away games. That was unacceptable. So, here he was, on his way to human resources. Once he got there, they were going to tell him where he could find the woman who was now part of his every waking thought, or he was going to wreak havoc until they did.
He reached over, slapping the button once, then twice more. The building was so tall, the elevator so slow, and his patience so little that he wanted to rip the doors open. Instead, he spun on his heel and hit the stairs. He ran all the way up thirty-five flights, not even breaking a sweat. At least he had the presence of mind to pause at the water fountain, wetting his hands and sprinkling a bit of water across his brow and hairline so that he’d not draw attention for not even breaking a sweat after running up thirty-five flights of stairs.
No one, not one single person currently in his life knew of his true nature. He’d kept it a secret, even from his best friends. He wanted to be able to continue the life he’d become accustomed to, to be able to play baseball and to provide his mate with all the things that brought him. If others knew the truth about him, not only would he not be able to play, he’d most likely be locked away and picked to pieces if anyone found out shifters really did exist. He’d come across a few since he’d moved to America as a child, but not many. And not a single other like himself that wasn’t family.
Most were Wolves, Bears or Big Cats — he was Primate. When he shifted, it was to a huge, dangerous Silverback Lowland Gorilla. His mother, herself a shifter, had become pregnant with him and fled to her homeland of Greece before he was born. He lived there until he was a young child. Unfortunately, his father, the Prime Male of his troop, had tracked them down and brought them back to the United States. One did not conceive the only male child of a Prime Male and run away taking that child with them. As soon as his father had learned of Basilio’s existence, he’d set out to find them and bring them back. Which is how he came to live in the United States now. His mother always spoke to him in Greek, and he lived the first five years of his life in Greece, which is where he learned to speak, and why to this day, he had a slight Greek accent to his spoken English.
Base paused outside the human resources office, taking a moment to gather his thoughts, put his best self in place, then pushed the door open. The receptionist recognized him immediately, and began to flutter her eyes, “Mr. Lyakhov, welcome,” she smiled, rising from her place at the front desk. “What can I help you with today?”
Base smiled at her, blinking slowly, his long, black lashes lying briefly against his cheekbones as he spoke to her. “I need to find someone. Can you help me locate an employee?”
“Well, yes, of course,” she said, caught up in flirting with him. Then realized what she’d agreed to. All information on employees was confidential. “But I’m not supposed to share any employee information with anyone. I could lose my job.”
Base’s smile dropped — he’d not thought of that. “Is your manager here? I need to find this person, and soon.”
An older woman came out of a side office. “I’m the manager here, can I help you?”
“Yes, ma’am. I am Basilio Lyakhov. I met an employee last night at the stadium and now I must find her. Can you help me find her?”
The woman looked at him with a smirk on her face. “I’m sure you must. However, it is against corporate regulations. I can’t give you information on anyone.”
Base’s blood pressure was rising quickly. “You don’t understand, she’s very important to me. I have to locate her.”
Again, the manager tried to insist that she couldn’t help him. “Mr. Lyakhov, it is against…”
“I have to find her!” he shouted, losing patience.
The manager raised her voice. “Sir! What you are asking is not only against corporate policy, it is against the law. It seems to me if this woman was that important to you, you’d know where to find her. Furthermore, it is against the rules for our employees to consort with our athletes or other employees. If this has happened, she will lose her job.”
Base needed to find his mate, but he didn’t want to cause her to lose her job so he backed off, quickly coming up with a reason for him wanting to find her so badly. “Fine. She returned my wallet when it fell out of my bag, I wanted to thank her. I’ll just have to wait until I see her again.”
“I’m sure that is the best plan of action,” the manager agreed snootily.
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He didn’t thank them — they’d pissed him off — and he did work for their organization so he didn’t let loose his fury at their unwillingness to help. He simply turned and left the office as quickly as possible.
He made his way back downstairs, got in his Camaro and sped away, feeling even more frustrated than he had when he arrived. This was going to be a long two weeks. He had no choice but to wait for her to come back to clean the locker room again. He’d live in the damned shower room if he had to until she finally showed up. Then he’d make sure he knew where to find her afterward.
Chapter 3
One moment Renata was sound asleep, the next… she could see. Through one eye — as it was held wide open and Kaiser leaned over her, peering down into it.
“You don’t have to wake up yet. But I’m hungry when you do,” he said.
Renata forced her eye to close, only for Kaiser to pry it open again.
Renata grinned at him. “What are you doing?” she asked, brushing his little hand away.
“Are you ‘wake’” he asked, smiling at her.
“I am definitely ‘wake’,” Renata answered, sitting up and swinging her legs off the couch and her feet to the floor.
“I’m hungry,” he repeated, climbing up into her lap. “Can we go play?” he asked hopefully.
Renata looked at her child. He was all things good in this life, and all he seemed to want was to spend time with her. “Yeah, we can go play today. You want to go to the park?” she asked.
Kaiser nodded and hugged her.
“I love you,” she told him, hugging him tightly.
“Moons and stars?” he asked.
“Yep, more than the moons and the stars,” she answered.
“Come on. Let’s get you something to eat,” she said, shifting his weight to her hip as she stood up.
Safe On Base Page 2