“So,” she said as she pushed spring greens and steak around. “What do you do for work that keeps you busy all day?”
“I clear trees.”
Her brows furrowed. “That’s…what does that even mean?”
Beneath the table, something brushed her leg. She pulled her feet out from beneath her chair to let Reid’s leg rub along hers.
“Companies contract my crew to clear trees from building sites. Here, in the mountains, a company wants to build a ski resort. We’re in charge of making sure the land is clear of trees and roots and anything else that might hinder building. We were almost done when they called Dominic and set up a new location to be cleared. Apparently, they also want to build a spa.”
“That’s what’s keeping you here longer than you thought you would be?” While clearing so much of the mountain seemed wasteful to Addison, she was also grateful. Had the company not asked for more work, she never would have had the chance to move in with Reid.
She had to admit, even though he was a man of few words, she also enjoyed his company. Thoughts of the kiss surged to the front of her mind. She could feel the press of his lips against hers as if they were still there. She hungered for more, realizing why her steak was no longer appetizing. His skin touched hers beneath the table, just the rub of ankle on ankle and nothing more.
Addison enjoyed it, even though she constantly reminded herself she shouldn’t. It was crossing a line. This wasn’t a movie. She wasn’t going to magically fall in love and the passage of money between them would disappear. Touching him, wanting him the way she did felt wrong. She wasn’t a sex worker. She was a writer.
Slowly, she returned to the present and found Reid watching her. His eyes echoed the hunger she felt as they dipped toward her lips. She licked them and ached to make the table between them disappear.
Then, Reid spoke and broke the spell. “Only one of my coworkers is seeing anyone. Maybe, you’ll like one of the others.”
His words went against everything he’d been doing. It tried to erase the kiss he’d given her earlier, as if trying to backspace the entire morning. Addison reeled in confusion.
“Oh?” she managed to spit out. “Do I look like I need a boyfriend?”
She couldn’t figure out why Reid would say something like that. No, she understood. He, too, was trying to put space between them. She wished she had the voice to ask him not to, to tell him she wanted no space between them.
Her brain was addled and filled with mush, but she managed to get four thousand words written. By noon, she staggered out of her room in search of lunch. Even though Reid was a quiet man, without him there was no warmth in the cabin. The sun felt dimmer and the corners darker. She quickly made herself a sandwich and retreated back to her room to avoid the feeling that left her off kilter.
Unfortunately, the feeling followed her into her room. Not even the warmth of her scented candles could chase away the feeling of wrong that gripped the back of her neck. She couldn’t figure it out, couldn’t place it.
She sank into her desk chair, a flash outside the window catching her attention. Immediately, she froze. Her blood ran cold. A million explanations ran through her mind. It was a piece of metal embedded in a tree. It was a private property sign that caught the light. It could be anything, but her mind repeated camera over and over, the flash caused by light catching a curved glass lens.
Reid wouldn’t dare. Would he?
Unable to sit still any longer, Addison lurched out of her room and out the front door. She walked around the cabin to her bedroom window and tracked where she’d seen the flash of light. Her body rebelled, begging her to run back inside. Her hair stood on end and her skin started to crawl.
The air smelled different. It took her a moment to place it as she approached the tree-line, and she could have kicked herself for forgetting. Cigarette smoke. It was faint out in the open but tickled her nose as if she were back home with her father all over again.
It wasn’t him. He’d been dead for over a year. He wasn’t looking for her, wasn’t recording her. Reid also didn’t smoke. She would have smelled it on his clothing or on his breath when he’d kissed her. As she pushed through the low brush, Addison searched the trees above her. There was still a strange hope that it was just a piece of metal in the sunlight that clung to her heart.
The world fell out from under her feet when she found it. Connected to the side of a tree only a couple feet past the edge of the lawn was a camera. It was small, but when the wind pushed through the foliage, it opened the canopy and sunlight danced across it. Beneath the camera was a trail that had been recently trampled by feet. Cigarette butts scattered the ground.
Addison tried to breathe but couldn’t get enough air. Her knees shook. She spun to run back to the cabin, but her body failed her, and she stumbled into a tree. The bark scraped her cheek and shoulder before she could push away from it.
How her feet carried her back into the cabin, she would never remember. Her hands were covered in green grass stains, meaning she might have tripped and caught herself a few more times. A small rock stuck to one palm. Unable to pick it out, she shook her hand until it flew free and bounced across the ground.
Addison locked the doors and all the windows before her mind returned to her. She was certain that it wasn’t Reid who was recording her. When she looked back to where her door was, she realized that Reid’s bedroom was right next to hers. The camera looked into his room, too.
She feared that his years of being a good Samaritan had caught up with him. Someone he had stopped, someone he’d put in jail had been freed. Now, they were back for revenge.
Addison groaned. Her writer brain was going wild, filling her with every possible scenario. All of them were horrid and ended badly. She needed to stop, to calm herself down. Addison found Reid’s work number posted on the fridge. There were little to no bars on her cellphone, but she had to try anyway. She didn’t want to be alone after what she found.
Her own mind would be the ruin of her.
The phone rang and rang. Addison worried no one would answer, that she would be trapped alone until dark when Reid finally returned. It occurred to her that she would be asking Reid to leave work for her. She couldn’t do this to him. It wasn’t like she was his girlfriend. She was barely even a friend.
Just as she was about to hang up, a very disgruntled voice answered. It took her by surprise, startling her and stealing her breath so she couldn’t answer right away.
“Who is this?” Reid snapped.
“It’s Addie. I don’t…I’m sorry…I just…” She couldn’t find the right thing to say. Caught between her overwhelming fear and the creeping sensation of guilt, Addison didn’t know what to do. Should she ask him to leave work for her? Was that rude? If she didn’t, would the owner of the camera return?
“Addison,” Reid’s voice was gentle but urgent once he knew it was her. “What’s wrong? You couldn’t have set the cabin on fire already.”
She pressed her forehead against the cold countertop and huffed a laugh. “No. It’s just that I found a camera outside. It’s watching the house.”
The low hum of a growl filled the phone. There was no denying that Reid growled when he was angry. It seemed strange, but Addison didn’t have the energy to contemplate it just then. There were more pressing matters than Reid’s habits.
“A camera? Like a point and shoot camera?”
Addison shook her head before she remembered he couldn’t see her. “No. It was mounted on a tree. Like a video camera,” she added.
“Lock the doors. I’m coming home.”
Before she could say she already had, he’d hung up. The phone line went dead. A sob worked its way up her throat. She shouldn’t be so weak. She shouldn’t be so useless, but there was no changing who she was. There was only hating it.
Reid slammed the door of his car after he’d thrown it into park. The thing had barely stopped moving before he was out of it. He didn’t go inside to check on Addison. If sh
e’d done as he asked and locked all the doors, she was safe inside.
Reid’s anger prickled through him and his beast. The creature roared inside him. It demanded blood. He couldn’t go inside while the beast was like this. He wanted to hit something and watch it shatter.
Someone had not only been on his property, but they’d managed to install a camera. Not only that, whoever this was scared the hell out of Addison. Hearing her stumble through her words, the fear in her voice sour even over the phone, had been unbearable. He’d barely managed to tell Dominic that he wouldn’t be coming back for the day before he peeled out of the parking zone.
His beast scented the air. They’d been so wrapped up in the woman that they’d missed the telltale scent of the stranger. It hung in the air, a stinking cloud of men’s cologne and cigarette smoke. Familiarity washed over Reid as he followed the scent. It grew stronger, more familiar, at the edge of the lawn.
He stopped and turned around. Both his and Addison’s bedroom windows faced this end of the house. His beast’s growl escaped his lips. It took every ounce of effort he had to keep from shifting right then and there. The beast was clawing at him from the inside out. Each strike was a plume of fire inside his gut.
They couldn’t shift. Not right then. Reid struggled to remind his beast that Addison could be watching. She didn’t need to know about what he was. She could still have a life apart from them, no matter what the beast inside him demanded.
Turning away from his beast and thoughts of what it had been begging for the past few days, Reid pushed into the woods. It didn’t take long for him to find the mound of cigarette butts and the camera attached to the tree.
Reid spared a moment to flip the camera off, hoping that whoever watched the feed had seen it, before he ripped it off the tree and smashed it with one hand. The pieces of broken camera fell to the ground and he realized what he was smelling.
The hunter that Hayden had invited into town had been here. Reid cursed under his breath. He remembered seeing the man at the bank robbery. After that, Reid had gone straight home. It had been the perfect chance to follow Reid and find out where he lived. While Reid had been lost in making things for Addison, the hunter had the perfect opportunity to install the camera.
Reid whipped around. He wondered if there were any more cameras on his property. It wouldn’t be safe to shift until Reid knew for sure. While he prowled around the cabin and the land around it, his beast reminded him that the hunter had been alone with Addison. The man could have broken into the cabin at any moment and hurt her.
Reid swallowed the roar that filled him. It hurt, sending spikes of pain through his throat and into his stomach, but he refused to frighten Addison. She’d already been shaken.
The beast ripped through him. It wanted out. It wanted to hunt the hunter prowling around his home. Reid had not been threatened by the human man, but the moment the human man threatened Addison, it was over. His beast sent sharp pain through his body. The claws continued to tear through his insides. Reid fought back, clenching his jaw and tightening his hold on his humanity.
He dropped to his knees, hand slamming into the bark of a nearby tree as he fell. The bark tore through his skin and helped ground him. The pain was stinging, but real, unlike the tantrum his beast was throwing.
They would protect Addison, but not by losing control. His breath came hard and fast, shallow until he managed to control it again. The ground soaked the knees of his jeans. Before him, the remnants of the camera glittered on the ground. He imagined they were the pieces of the hunter.
Should the man come near again, that’s what he would become. Reid hoped he got the message.
***
It seemed to take hours between the phone call and when Addison heard a key rattle the door knob. She knew it had to be Reid, but her heart still shuddered when the door slid open. Seeing his face, even though it was tense and enraged, steadied her.
Addison wanted to throw herself at him, to sob into his shoulder and let relief overtake her, but she stayed where she was. She wrung her hands in front of her. Already, her fingers hurt from the effort, but she couldn’t stop. Reid seemed to notice, taking both of her hands in his own.
“The cameras are gone.”
“Cameras?” Her voice cracked. There had been more than one?
“All gone. You don’t have to worry about them anymore.”
But she did. How could she tell him that it wasn’t just the cameras that scared her? Someone had been outside, watching her while she’d been alone. She could have run into the stranger when she went out to see what the flash was. He could have been there, only feet away from her the whole time.
Her body began to shake. Reid pulled her into his arms and held her while the panic ripped through her. He said nothing, putting no shame on her shoulders. His rough hands patted her hair until, slowly, her breathing returned to normal.
When she pulled back, her eyes dropped to his lips. She chastised herself. This was not the kind of moment when she should be indulging in such thoughts. They were close enough that they shared the same breath, but Addison disengaged and stumbled back. Reid stayed where he was, allowing her the space she wanted.
Free from her body’s base needs, she could see the anger that gripped Reid. His jaw was tight, and his feet fell with echoing thumps as he moved around the cabin. This was an invasion of his privacy, she reminded herself. This was his home. Yet, it felt like more than that. The way he kept looking in her direction, as if to remind himself that she was still there, made her feel protected.
He’d worried about her, too.
Addison didn’t know what she would do if he left for work again. She was moments away from packing her things and driving back to town. Reid would protest, but if panic bit at her every moment of the day she would get nothing done.
“What are you going to do?” she asked softly. Addison realized she was looking for an excuse to stay. Should Reid give her any reason to feel safe again, she would stay. She wanted to be near him.
Reid rubbed at the scruff growing on his chin. It wasn’t long, but just enough to catch the light like burnished metal. “I’m not sure yet. I can’t stay home and wait for the guy to return, but I very much want to.” His words ended with a growl that rumbled through the room.
Addison wasn’t afraid of the sound. It was like the comforting purr of a cat.
“Maybe you should get a dog? Like, a guard dog.”
Reid laughed, but shook his head. “Dogs don’t really get along with…well, me.” Finally, he let out a heavy sigh. His whole body sank, and it upset Addison more than she would have liked to admit. She wanted to rush to him and try to put him back together. “If you’re uncomfortable here I could drive you back to town. I mean, as much as I like your company and your sandwiches, I don’t want you to feel unsafe. If you’re worried about rent, I’ll give you the money back. I’ll even drop off the bookshelf I’m making when you find a place to stay.”
Addison blinked. “Rewind that. Did you just say you’re making me a bookshelf?”
“Oh, uh…. That was supposed to be a surprise. I’m not very good at keeping secrets, apparently.”
The laughter that burst from Addison was filled with all sorts of things. Relief. Joy. Exhaustion. It made her realize she didn’t want to go anywhere. She wanted to stay here, with Reid, for as long as possible. Not even the potential threat outside could keep her from trying to figure out this man. He was hiding something, and she wanted to know.
“I’ll be fine,” Addison told him. “I’ve survived worse. Whoever it was, they’re just watching us. They’re hiding in the woods because they’re weak and scared.”
They both knew her words were more to convince herself, but neither acknowledged it. Reid just wrapped her in his arms again. She should have pushed him away, should have moved back, but it felt too good. Hugging him was like hugging her favorite teddy bear as a child.
Chapter Six
Reid couldn’t handle
going back to work. Not while Addison was alone in the cabin. He didn’t think the hunter would hurt her—The man clearly wanted to track a larger prey. But Reid didn’t know if he’d use her against him. So, he stayed. Not where Addison could see him. She thought he was at work, loading logs and doing lumberjack things.
Instead, Reid rubbed his back against a tree and groaned in satisfaction. It’d been a while since he’d let his bear out. The creature had lashed out at each tree where they’d found a camera and left long gashes in the wood. Reid had been relieved that was all the beast wanted to do.
Perhaps it was Addison’s presence that kept his bear leashed. Where the beast would have destroyed a chunk of the woods around them, it now settled for marking its territory with a swipe of claws. The beast grunted something about not wanting to scare its mate. Reid corrected the beast. She was not their mate.
The beast only grunted in return.
Reid could believe whatever he wanted. The truth was still the truth.
If he’d had human lips, he would have cursed. Reid never planned on taking a mate, much less a human woman. She was so fragile, like stained glass or the pages of a book. All it took was one hard blow or one small ember and she would be taken from him. Reid couldn’t think about it. His bear growled at the very idea.
He couldn’t keep her. This life wasn’t meant for humans. Emmy had asked for her bear, for the strength to stay with them, but he couldn’t ask the same of Addison. She was delicate. The bear would rip through her and leave nothing behind.
Reid railed against the bear. How dare he choose Addison? Couldn’t he fixate on someone else for a while? Someone they wouldn’t hurt in the end? The bear only dug in its claws and ruffled its fur. There was no arguing with Reid’s beast. Its passions ran hot and strong, like a torrent of winds that threatened to rip foundations from the earth.
And its sights were set on a human woman. The fact that Reid felt so strongly about her was only further proof that they were screwed. He cared for her. Perhaps from the moment she smiled at him from the other side of that plexiglass wall. The real woman had unfolded before him when she stepped inside his cabin and filled his life with her.
To Save A Bear Page 4
