Sadie got out her car and stared at the house she had lived in for twelve years. She had always hated the house. It was gaudy and big, and too far away from the street. Al had it built for his first marriage. He hired his friend’s construction company, and they built it to his specification. She often wondered whether his first wife had hated it as much as she did.
She stood by her car for a few moments, praying that Mandy would come running out herself. But no, it was too much to hope for. Slowly, she trudged to the front door.
After she left Al, he had hounded her about who her boyfriend was. He was sure that she had to have one – that she couldn’t have left him for her own sake. Nope, he was certain that there had to be another man in her life and Al had been desperate to get his hands on him. After six months, he seemed to drop the subject finally. After he could find no evidence of wrongdoing on her part that is. She imagined he would be insufferable about Lorenzo.
She reached the door and pressed the bell, cringing at the musical tune it played – Hearts and Soul.
Okay. She just needed to get Mandy and get out of there. Yep. Just needed to grab her daughter and leave. She wished Lorenzo had come, but she worried that if she brought him, Al would have become belligerent and would have refused to let Mandy leave with another man. It would have turned into a huge argument, and Sadie preferred that Mandy not have to witness that. Not yet at least.
Al yanked the door open and scowled at her.
“Hi Al, is Mandy ready to go?” she asked with forced cheer.
He looked her up and down coldly. “Almost.”
He walked away from the door and with a sigh, she followed him, closing it behind her. He strolled into the living room and straight to the liquor cabinet.
“Drink?” he offered as he poured himself a large brandy.
“No, thank you, I’m driving. Is Mandy in her room? I could call her and let her know I’m here.”
He downed his drink and poured another. “She’s listening to music. I told her to put her earphones in.”
“Why? Shouldn’t she be getting ready to leave?”
Al cast an accusing look at her. “Why did you have to ruin our family?”
“Al,” she groaned.
She really wasn’t going to get into this again – she tried to tell him, and he didn’t understand. He couldn’t understand – he saw nothing wrong with his behavior. Sadie wasn’t saying it was all him. She was sure she wasn’t perfect in the marriage, but she was the one who couldn’t live with him anymore.
“I can’t talk about this again. I’m going to get Mandy and…”
Al moved forward and captured her arm. “No, you’re not.”
“Let go of me,” she said staring into his eyes.
He was careful in the way he held her. He wasn’t hurting her. She had never thought he would physically hurt her, or Mandy. If she had actually believed that there was no way in Heaven, Hell or Atlantis that she would have allowed Mandy to visit him, never mind what any judge said.
But she knew he was capable of hurting others, and he had that look in his eye like when he broke that boy’s jaw. That had been the worst. There had been other incidents before him that she hadn’t even admitted to Lorenzo. Like when she was planning on meeting one of her old high school teachers for coffee, and after the old teacher canceled, she saw him in the grocery store with a black eye. He ran in the other direction when he saw her. Small things like that – things that she stupidly ignored because she had loved Al, and because she hadn’t wanted to break up her family. But she wasn’t that person anymore.
“You belong to me,” he hissed.
Sadie blanched. Lorenzo had said the same thing to her just that morning when they woke up in each other’s arms. He had crooned it into her ear as she snuggled against him. Both men wanted her, but that was where the similarities ended. The two of them were poles apart.
“No, I don’t.”
His face flashed with fury. “Do you really think I would allow you leave me for that… that hideous boy?”
He must have seen the picture she sent Mandy. Sadie wrenched her arm free and snapped at him, “I didn’t leave you for Lorenzo, and he’s not hideous. You and I are already apart, and yes, I want to be with him – I love him!”
“You don’t love him!” exploded Al, resembling a volcano – or perhaps given the frothing at the mouth, a baking soda volcano.
“Yes, I do!”
Just when Mount Al looked like he was ready for another explosion, he calmed a little and chuckled. He returned to the liquor cabinet and poured himself another brandy. Sadie watched him suspiciously. Laughing wasn’t usually in Al’s angry wheelhouse.
“What’s so funny?” she demanded.
Al glanced at his watch. “Doesn’t matter now whether you want to be with him or not.”
Alarm bells jangled every nerve. “Why? Al, what are you doing?”
He smiled into his brandy. “Just teaching a boy not to touch what belongs to me.”
*
“You’re wearing a hole in that carpet, son,” said his dad with a smile, “though I suppose one more hole won’t hurt. Are you sure there’s no way you can all come back to the leap tonight?”
“I don’t think so, Dad.”
Lorenzo’s jaguar wished they could. He’d feel a lot happier to have Sadie and Mandy at home, surrounded by his family and leap. But, Sadie’s ex would probably try to have them arrested for kidnapping Mandy. It almost made him laugh – after all the kidnappings his leap mates had committed over the years, the idea that they could be punished for that was a little funny. Or maybe he’d see the funny side later when he wasn’t so anxious for Sadie to get back.
Should have gone with her growled his beast. Yes, Lorenzo couldn’t argue with that. He should have insisted, shouldn’t have taken no for an answer.
“I need to go get Sadie.”
His dad held up a massive paw. “Hey now, son, she’s not been gone long. She said it would take her about an hour to get there and back, and it’s only been forty minutes – give her time.”
Lorenzo humphed. Maybe he was just worrying over nothing, but...
There was a knock at her door, and they both looked up in surprise. His jaguar growled before someone put a shoulder to the door and crashed through it.
Lorenzo jumped to his feet, simmering with fury at the males who poured into Sadie’s apartment. His dad merely raised an eyebrow.
There were four of them. He guessed all of them were in their forties, and they were large males, but years of overindulgence had taken its toll of what were probably fine physiques twenty years ago. They all sported matching pugnacious expressions.
“You the boyfriend?” asked one of them, jutting his chin at Lorenzo.
Lorenzo’s expression hardened as he glared at them.
“The boyfriend?” repeated his dad in almost amusement.
“You the one trying to steal Sadie? Trying to ruin her marriage?” the male asked.
“Let’s take it easy, boys,” said his dad, reasonably calmly.
Lorenzo curled his hands into fists as his jaguar rumbled. “Where is Sadie?”
“With her husband – where she belongs,” sneered another.
“You don’t mess with other another man’s wife!” said the third male – he looked like he had broken his nose one too many times and it never reset.
These were probably all Al’s school friends – males he played football with. They probably thought that getting rid of Lorenzo would make Sadie waltz right on back into their buddy’s arms. Ha! She left Al long before she even met Lorenzo. Sadie couldn’t be dragged back there. Though, he was a little worried at just what was happening to Sadie at that moment.
“Sadie is separated from her husband – my son would not be here if she weren’t,” said his dad carefully.
The first male – the head idiot – snorted but his dad merely shrugged. His dad was still sitting casually on the sofa. His dad could be unbelievably patient at times – he said it was a skill that came in handy when his mom taught him how to read braille and also when trying to find the perfect chocolate soufflé recipe. Took him seven years for the soufflé, though only one year for the braille. Of course, he did have his limits when it came to his patience, and the males were about to crash into one of them.
“Look at those scars – ugly bastard,” whispered the fourth male in a loud enough whisper to ensure Lorenzo heard him. “Can’t believe Sadie can bear to look at him.”
Lorenzo and his jaguar ignored them – he’d heard it all before, and he could care less what a group of dicks like them thought. His dad, however, slowly rose to his feet, his huge size seeming to fill the room. Gone was the benign St. Nicholas-like male, and in his place stood a towering male with the promise of pain on his face.
“Don’t talk to my son that way,” he said in a clear voice.
“He needs to stay away from her,” said the first male a tad uncertainly.
“You need to leave,” growled Lorenzo.
“Not before we teach you what happens to a guy who try to steal another man’s wife.”
The bravado in his voice wasn’t quite as sharp as when he first beat down Sadie’s door. No, now he sounded a mite concerned. He wasn’t the only one. As they looked between Lorenzo and his father, they appeared… worried.
They were certainly large men – as tall as Lorenzo easily, but running to fat. The four burly men looked at them uncertainly. The pink apron his dad had donned - that wantonly suggested that anyone reading it should ‘kiss the cook’ - in no way diminished the mighty male wearing it.
Lorenzo was toned and muscled and easily in much better shape than these four men – even on their best day, which was easily over twenty years ago. While his dad was larger than all of them, with hands like hams, and arms that looked like he bench pressed trucks in his spare time. He could, but he didn’t. His dad preferred to be in the kitchen than working out. But he never bothered with using a juice squeezer when squeezing fresh orange juice for his mate - he crushed oranges with his bare fists, plus occasionally he did it to melons to impress his grandsons.
Plus, the men didn’t appear to realize that they were shifters. Which was perhaps unfortunate for them.
“What’s going on out there?” called his mom.
All eyes swiveled to the bedroom door.
She had gone to Sadie’s room to take a nap but was now awake thanks to these males.
“Unwanted guests,” growled his dad. “Stay where you are, sweetheart.”
“Okay,” she called.
His dad glared at the males. “You insult my son and wake my mate. It’s time you were leaving.”
He nodded at Lorenzo, who bared his fangs and let out a growl as he lunged.