Bears & Beauties - Complete (19 page)

Anthony snarled, “What do you want, Cyrus?”

“On the contrary,” Cyrus said, venom in his voice. “What do
you
want? Because if a new life, free from your past, is all you want, then the cost for that is half a billion dollars.”

“I can’t just make that kind of money appear out of nowhere,” Anthony spat into the phone. “That isn’t how it works. I need time to liquidate assets, to transfer funds.”

Cyrus laughed. “Look, I don’t care how you do it or how long it takes. But, for your sake, I would recommend hurrying up. I mean, if you want your pretty little slut to stay in one piece, that is.”

A sharp pain flashed through Anthony’s body. Cyrus couldn’t mean… There was no way.

“Well then,” Cyrus continued. “I take your silence to mean that you
do,
in fact, want her in one piece. Maybe we should discuss terms then?”

“How do I know you have her?” Anthony said, his voice flat as he struggled to keep his bear in check.

“
Her
?” Cyrus teased. “I thought you’d at least call her by her name. One Julie Flanders, is it? Apparently she’s been visiting your office daily for the past week and spending some very extended hours alone with you. The slut comment was just a guess, but I figured it was worth the shot. At the very least, I can’t imagine you letting an employee or client die on your behalf. You have too many principles for that, yes?”

Anthony could hear the smirk in Cyrus’s voice, and his grip tightened on the cell phone, nearly breaking it.

“Now then, you want proof she’s here? How’s this?” Anthony heard someone moving around in the background, struggling and shouting with a muffled voice. Then, in a single stabbing moment, he heard a loud thud followed by a high-pitched scream. A scream that Anthony had no doubt belonged to Julie. To his mate.

“You son of a bitch!” Anthony shouted into the phone. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

“Tsk tsk,” Cyrus responded. “You need to keep that temper in check. Otherwise there will be a lot more screaming going on here.”

He paused for a moment, as if waiting for Anthony to calm down. Then, after a minute, continued. “Now, you’re going to get me half a billion dollars, and you’re going to do it by midnight tomorrow. Two briefcases full of unmarked one hundred dollar bills, and the rest in cashier’s checks. Then you’re going to make the drop at an address I’ll text to you on this phone. If you so much as breathe a word of this to the police, she dies and the image goes public. If you try anything stupid, she dies and the image goes public. If I even
think
that you’re doing anything other than what I ask, she dies and the image goes public. Have I made myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Anthony managed through clenched teeth.

“That’s a good little bear,” Cyrus teased. “You come through, and I’ll let your mate go. Easy peasy.”

And then the line went dead, leaving Anthony slack-jawed and staring blankly across the room. There was no way that he could meet Cyrus’s demands, not in time he’d been allotted. It just wasn’t possible. At the same time, he couldn’t risk
not
getting him the money. There had to be something he could do. Anything…

A thought crept its way into Anthony’s mind, one that he couldn’t dismiss. He needed help. He couldn’t go to the police. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t get another form of backup. Picking up the office phone, Anthony dialed a familiar number, and smiled to himself as the phone rang.

***

“HOLD ON A SECOND,” Grayson said, leaning forward on the chair across from Anthony, his knuckles white from the strength of his grip. He stood up and rubbed his temples, turning away from Anthony as he did.

Anthony stared at him, his patience wearing thin. He’d called Grayson, hoping to acquire his assistance in tracking down Cyrus and putting a stop to his plans. Instead, all he’d earned was a somber look and an increased amount of desperation in the room. Anthony had thought Grayson could help, especially considering what had happened with his own mate nearly a year prior when she was abducted by a trio of men. Instead, he’d insisted that it wouldn’t work the same way. There was no way he could track Julie with his bear because she wasn’t his mate, and he didn’t exactly keep track of her scent.

The fact that Julie was undeniably Anthony’s mate wasn’t lost on him, but he’d already established that his bear couldn’t pick up Julie’s scent while he was waiting for Grayson to arrive at the office. Something was blocking the scent, or maybe he just didn’t have a strong enough sense of smell to pick her up. For all he knew, Julie might not even be in the city anymore, and after a certain distance not even the strongest bear would be able to track her down.

“Okay,” Grayson said, turning back to face Anthony, on hand still resting behind his head, slowly massaging it as he spoke. “Tell me again how you know this wolf?”

Anthony let out a sigh and nodded. He’d hoped to keep his past buried forever. Instead, though, it seemed like it was going to be dragged out where everyone could see it. Deciding it was best to be completely honest, Anthony grabbed the photo from the desk drawer where he’d stuck it and handed it to Grayson. While Grayson spent a moment studying the photo, Anthony began to explain.

“The man in that photo - the one beaten and bloodied at my feet - is Vyncent Drake,” he started.

“Drake?” Grayson questioned, one eye arched. “But that would mean…”

“Yes. Drake. As in Anthony Drake. He was my adoptive father, and the leader of the bear clan in which I was brought up.”

Anthony paused, letting Grayson take that in.

“Drake’s clan was one of the more powerful bear clans in the region, and he never managed to birth an heir. After his mate, Melody, found me abandoned in the forest as a cub, she brought me in to raise as their son. Vyncent never accepted me, really, and, without going into too much detail, he made life a living hell for me. I was beaten regularly, starved, and even thrown to the literal wolves a few times.”

A pained expression crossed Grayson’s face, but he nodded his head as if to encourage Anthony to continue.

“The bear clan in that region was in constant conflict with the local wolf pack. To the point that the mass casualties on both sides led to a sort of truce being formed, with each alpha offering up their heir to be a ward to the other. Because of my adoptive status, I ended up being sent to live the wolves, and the wolf alpha, Lucas Strife, sent his son to live with my bear clan.”

“Cyrus,” Grayson guessed.

“Exactly,” Anthony told him, thinking back to that day. Leaving the bear clan to live with the wolf pack had been traumatizing, yes, but Anthony imagined that continuing to live under Vyncent’s rule would have been even worse. He hadn’t screamed or cried or thrown a fit when he was sent away from his adoptive family, but Cyrus had. Cyrus who, like Anthony at the time, was only ten years old, had bawled.

“So what happened?” Grayson questioned, bringing Anthony out of his reminiscence.

Anthony shrugged. “The typical. I was a bear raised by wolves, outcast and discarded for most of my life. The terms of the arrangement didn’t say that the wards had to be treated humanely, just kept alive. So I was starved, placed at the edge of the pack, and made to serve the other wolves. I was the lowest among them. Until I reached my full height and strength, that is. Once the wolves realized just how powerful a full grown grizzly could be, they decided to use me. And I let them.”

“What did they make you do, Tony?” Grayson asked, concern inching its way into his tone.

“They made me turn on the bear clan. And, to be honest, I wanted to. I didn’t resist. I did as I was told, and finally managed to reap some praise for it. The terms of the arrangement stated that so long as Cyrus and myself were in the care of our respective alphas, no wolf could assault a bear or vice versa. But that didn’t mean
I
couldn’t assault a bear. And I did. So many times…” Anthony looked down at his desk, casting his eyes as far away from Grayson’s as he could. The memories of the bloodshed poured in, flooding his mind with thoughts of the pain and agony he both inflicted and received.

“I was a monster,” Anthony continued. “I thought I’d finally been accepted, that I finally belonged. So when they sent me after Vyncent…”

“Jesus Christ, Tony,” Grayson spat. “You didn’t.”

Anthony shook his head. “No. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. He was my father after all, blood or not. And when the wolves found out, they cast me aside and forced me from the pack, doing their best to kill me in the process. I ran, hoping to get back to my father, to tell him what I’d done and what the wolves were planning. But I ran into Cyrus first. Apparently, he’d been in constant contact with his father the entire time, and he’d been working within the bear clan, causing disruption and, occasionally, slaughtering bears when they roamed off on their own. All of his kills had been blamed on me and, because of it, it had been ordered that I be killed on sight.”

Grayson threw up his hands. “No one noticed the literal wolf in their midst? No one recognized that they were being deceived?”

Anthony shrugged. “In a lot of ways, they weren’t. I’d killed more than my share, so what difference did it make if a few extra were attributed to me? Still, I had hoped that confessing to Vyncent and begging forgiveness would grant me a lesser punishment than death. But… I never got the chance.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like I said, I ran into Cyrus first. He told me what he’d done, told me that there was no going back for me, and told me that I now had nowhere to call home. I cursed at him, shifted, and did my best to end his existence. I underestimated him, though, and he managed to tear me up pretty badly. But I eventually ended the fight by tossing him over the edge of a waterfall. To be honest, I thought he was dead. Thought I’d killed him.” Anthony sighed, “If only I’d made sure. If only I’d been more thorough…”

“Can’t think about that now. What does this have to do with the photograph, Tony?” Grayson pressed.

“After the fight with Cyrus, I raced straight toward the Den. Before I got there, however, I came across that,” he pointed at the photograph in Grayson’s hand. “I stood right there, looking down at the disemboweled body of my adoptive father, and wept. He’d been torn apart by wolves, slaughtered well before I had reached him. I figured Cyrus must have done it on his way to confront me. He’d killed my father because I had rejected his, and because he wanted to please his father. Vyncent Drake was dead because of me.”

“No,” Grayson said sternly. “Vyncent Drake died because a wolf turned on him. Yes, you made some stupid and selfish decisions, but you aren’t directly at fault here. Just like it isn’t your fault that Julie was abducted. That’s no one’s fault but Cyrus’s.”

Anthony stared at Grayson for a long moment, his expression blank.

Grayson shrugged, “Think what you will, but it’s the truth. What happened next?”

“Nothing, really,” Anthony shrugged. “I just ran. I figured if one of the bears found me there, they’d think I’d killed Vyncent. So I ran as far and as fast as I could. Eventually I made my way to New York and met Kalvin some time later.”

Grayson nodded. “Okay then. Obviously, Cyrus lived and tracked you back to your father’s body. He must have snapped a photo or stashed a motion-sensor camera nearby. Maybe he planned on blackmailing you back then, or using the photo as evidence that you’d killed Vyncent to the other bears if you returned to the clan. Obviously, he never expected you to run halfway across the country. And I definitely don’ think he anticipated that you’d end up where you are now. But you’ve been in the news more than a few times lately, so he must have seen you there. Recognized you. And hatched a plan. A photo like this,” he held it up where Anthony could see it, “would do a lot of damage to you in the public eye. Might even ignite an investigation by the police.”

Anthony had already figured out that much, so he simply nodded. “Right,” he said. “But what the fuck am I supposed to do? I don’t have half a billion dollars just hanging around. And, honestly, I don’t trust Cyrus to keep his word even if I did.”

Grayson cocked his head to one side and smiled. “Don’t worry about the cash. I’ve got you covered there.”

A lump caught in Anthony’s throat. Did Grayson really mean that? He’d just give him that much money, just to
maybe
save Julie’s life?

“Now,” Grayson continued, “You said he was going to text you an address?”

Anthony nodded. “Yeah. I imagine it will come through sometime tomorrow.”

“Great,” Grayson said, flashing a smile. “That gives me plenty of time.”

5

JULIE BLINKED BEHIND her blindfold, forcing the last of her tears into the soft material. She leaned back against what she assumed was a wall, her wrists bound and tied to metallic object above her head. She’d long since lost feeling in her arms, but the muscles in her shoulders burned with agony. She didn’t know how long she’d been captive, where she was, or even who had taken her. She just knew that she was in trouble.

At first, she’d been held somewhere warmer and noisier. When she was there, she could make out bits and pieces of conversations between a group of at least three different men. She had discovered that she was being held for ransom, but didn’t know who exactly was being asked for money. She didn’t have any family, so that wasn’t an option. Her best bet was that it was a former client or friend. But who? She’d asked once, and had been met with a response in the form of what felt like a steel-toed boot to her ribs. After that, they’d moved her here, where the only sound was the faint dripping of water somewhere off to her left.