“Babe, calm down,” he said, climbing out of the bed.
Completely nude, he walked across the room and wrapped his arms around her. The warmth of his body made her feel safe and slightly less panicked. No matter how warm and comforting Connor’s embrace might be, the truth of her past was too much to bear. He rubbed her back and whispered into her ear.
“Tell me what's going on so I can help you.”
“It all started a few years ago when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. The medical bills were insane. She didn't have enough health insurance. The medical bills just started stacking up. More and more bills, all the time. Until they started to deny her treatment. I didn't have any options.
“I had to go to them. They were the only ones who would help me. But it didn't even matter. My mom died of cancer two months ago. And now they want all the money back. With interest. I don't have it. When I agreed, I thought I’d have ten years to pay it back. But they decided to ask for the full payment right after my mother died. The health insurance I thought was going to help me pay off the debt was voided because of some loophole. I was left with nothing.”
“Who are these men?” he said darkly.
“Loan sharks. There's a crime family in Northern California. A lot of people know they give out loans if you agree to their collateral.”
“And what collateral did they expect from you Mia?”
“Me.”
“What do you mean, you?”
“They want to put me in the brothel so I can work off what I owe them with my body.”
“That's never going to happen,” he growled.
Mia was shaking violently in his arms, and he rubbed her back. She knew he was trying to calm her down but it didn't help. The flood of memories raging through her mind left her terrified beyond belief. The one glimmer of light in all the darkness was the fact that she now belonged to Connor.
For the first time in so long she had someone who cared about her, someone she could call her own, someone who wanted to protect her and keep her safe. She couldn't believe how lucky she had been to crash right into Connor’s ranch. Fate really did have a hand in all things on Fate Mountain.
But that didn't make her feel any safer. The Vendetti family would be after her and they would force her into their brothel if they ever found her. Or worse. She knew people who didn't pay them back often ended up missing, never to return. Mia wasn't so naïve that she didn't know what that meant. They were dead, drowned at the bottom of a lake somewhere. Or cut up into a million pieces and fed to sea creatures in the ocean.
She started to cry and clung to Connor's chest.
Just then there was a booming shout from outside the window. “Give us the girl and no one gets hurt!”
Connor looked down at her and then walked to the window, peering down at the front yard. He was amazed at the insane coincidence.
“They found me,” Mia said, her teeth chattering.
“It's okay,” he said, grabbing his cell phone. He picked it up and looked at the face. “Damn it. No reception.”
“Don't you have a landline?”
Connor went to his bed, pulled a phone out of a drawer and lifted the receiver to his ear. He frowned and pressed the button on the base several times.
“It's dead,” he said. “They must've cut it.”
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
“I intend to take care of this right here and right now. I will not allow some crazy crime family to harm my mate.”
“Connor,” Mia said breathlessly. “I don't want you to get hurt.”
“Don't worry about me, Mia. Now, I want you to go up to the attic and lock yourself inside. It’s comfortable and clean up there. I keep a little fridge with sodas and beer. It's kind of my workshop. You will be safe in there. “
“Okay,” Mia said, pulling her clothes and shoes back on.
Connor climbed into his own clothes and boots. He then went to his closet where he opened a safe and pulled out a rifle. Mia's eyes widened at the sight of it. Connor opened the chamber and loaded several bullets.
“Are you going to shoot them?” she asked.
“They’re trespassing. They want to hurt you. I have every legal right to shoot them.”
“I'm going upstairs,” she said, and she ran over to him and kissed him hard on the lips, praying that this wouldn’t end in horror.
She had just found Connor and she didn't want to lose him. As she turned away and stepped out of his bedroom, glimpsing his face for one last time before she locked herself in the attic, the fear of what would happen if he was hurt coursed through her veins.
She forced herself not to think about it as she climbed the narrow stairs to the third floor that led to the attic. She opened the little door and closed it behind her. She flicked on the light, revealing a workroom with a slanted ceiling.
She crossed her arms over her chest and stepped through the workshop, finding a comfortable armchair near the single small window at the other end of the room. She could make out some movements through the cloudy glass, but she couldn't see any details.
She decided not to show herself in the window and backed away, sitting down on the armchair to wait. That's when she heard the first gunshot.
11
Connor stood at the edge of the window. Taking quick glances at the yard below, his shotgun gripped in his hands. His Marine training came back to him in a rush, and he instinctively knew how to handle these bad men who were after his mate.
He slid the pane of glass away and pointed his rifle down at the man standing below. He wore a gray suit and had slicked back black hair. He definitely looked like a mafia type.
“You best leave now,” he said. “I've got a rifle that's going to blast you so full of holes your mama won't even recognize you.”
“We have the house surrounded. Give us the girl. We aren't leaving without compensation.”
“That girl doesn't owe you anything,” he growled. “If she took out a loan from you and hasn't paid it back, then I believe you can file a civil lawsuit. You have no claim on her, and I will kill you all before I let you lay a hand on her.”
“So be it,” said the oily little man in a gray suit.
He lifted a small pistol and pointed it at Connor’s window, taking a shot without another word.
Connor fell back from the window as it shattered, blowing glass all over his bedroom. With his back against the wall, he gritted his teeth, pissed as hell that they had just broken his window.
He turned to kneeling, his jeans crunching into the glass shards. Connor took aim over the windowsill, looking through his scope. The man still stood there, grinning like an idiot. Connor took a shot, and the bullet hit the man in the arm, jerking it sharply back. Blood gushed from the bullet hole. The man yelped in pain.
“Would you like another?” Connor yelled through the window.
Instead of responding, the man in the gray suit ran away around the other side of the house. Connor grabbed his rifle and started down the stairs.
He lived on a rural ranch and rarely locked his doors or windows. He cleared the steps as fast as he could and found the front door of his house still closed.
He ran to the front door and locked it before running to the kitchen door that led out toward the barn. He opened the door and locked it behind him, locking Mia inside from danger.
She was in the safest place in the house as long as she didn't draw attention to herself. Connor held his rifle, sniffing the air for the smell of the criminals on his land. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and snapped his face around to see a man in a purple velour tracksuit darting into the hay barn.
He looked in the other direction and saw the man in the gray suit gripping his bleeding arm and walking quickly to a black SUV. Connor lifted his rifle and fired again, hitting the man in the back of the leg. The man in the gray suit fell to his knees with a scream. Just then, a giant of a man in black slacks walked around the other side of the house so quick
ly Connor didn't have a chance to aim his rifle.
The giant man punched Connor straight in the face, a direct hit. His nose dribbled blood as he fell to his knees. The man hit him again, and then a third time, knocking the breath from his lungs. Connor thought for a second that he might black out. The rifle slipped from his hands and he scrambled to grab it off the porch floor, but the man in black stepped on his gun. When Connor looked up at the man's face, he shook his finger.
“I don't think so,” the man in black said, picking up Connor’s rifle.
In a rush of panic and desperation, Connor let out a deafening roar. His grizzly was not going to take any more of this crap. The beast burst out from within Connor Milton. His massive paws fell on the wooden floor planks of the porch. It creaked under his weight as he let out a second monstrous roar at the man holding his firearm.
The man in black’s eyes widened and his face went pale. Connor didn't hesitate. He lunged forward, crunching the man's shoulder in his massive bear jaws. He tasted the criminal’s blood and bit harder. How dare these creeps try to harm his mate? The more the bear thought about what they’d done to Mia, the angrier he got, and the harder he bit. Connor’s human mind had to dial back the beast and keep him from ripping the man's arm off.
Connor let go of the giant man in black, who collapsed on the porch, screaming and crying with pain. The grizzly sniffed the air as he hopped off the back porch, headed toward the hay barn. He knew the man in the purple velour tracksuit was in there. He smelled the air for the scent of all the men who were on his property. Hopefully there were only three of them.
Connor charged toward the hay barn, coming up to the side door that had been left open. He squeezed through the narrow entrance, his grizzly body almost too wide to pass. Inside he found the man in the velour tracksuit waiting with a pistol in his hands, pretending he wasn't shaking like a leaf. Connor roared and the man screamed.
“I didn't sign up for this. We didn't know there was a shifter on this property. We never should've come,” he was gabbling.
That was for darn sure. They were going to pay for messing with Mia and for shooting up his ranch. Connor growled and charged at the man. He dropped his pistol and covered his face, fruitlessly protecting himself against the grizzly’s assault.
Seeing the pathetic man cower before him dulled his rage and made him feel sorry for the idiot. He had gotten himself mixed up with a crime syndicate, and that was his own fault. He'd come here trying to kidnap Mia and force her into prostitution. Connor didn't have any sympathy for a person like that whatsoever. After a split-second hesitation, Connor bit the man in the leg and crunched, breaking his bone. The man screamed and fell to the ground when Connor's teeth retracted.
“Why'd you do that, man?”
Connor only grunted and turned away, taking the man's gun with him in his jaws. Outside of the barn, he shifted and grabbed the pistol off the ground. The man on the front porch was gone, but a trail of blood led back to the SUV. He had to try to get ahold of the police and have these men taken care of.
Connor didn't want to kill anybody, but if they kept this up, he couldn't guarantee that wouldn’t happen. When he got the back door open, he could tell that something was off. He could smell one of the men in his house.
A trail of blood had dripped from the front door and up the staircase. Dammit. He’d gotten inside. Connor charged up the stairs, completely naked and armed with a rifle and a pistol.
When he reached the second floor, he heard Mia scream. He ran to the third floor at lightning speed and came to the door of the attic. It had been busted open. The man in the gray suit had Mia hostage, a gun pointed at her head.
“You don't want to take another step closer,” the man in gray said.
“Let her go,” Connor growled.
“I don't think you are in a good position to make any demands,” the man said.
He had bandages around his arm, and his gray suit was soaked in blood.
“Connor,” Mia pleaded.
It ripped his heart out to see her in danger. He would not let this stand. He lifted his pistol and aimed it at the man.
“Do you really want to take that chance?” the man asked, unlocking the safety on his own pistol.
“Yes,” Connor said, just as he pulled the trigger and shot the man in the hand.
The man in the gray suit fell to the floor with a thud, bleeding from a hole in his hand. He screamed and gripped his wrist, holding his broken hand up in front of his face. Connor crossed the room, grabbed the gun off the floor and handed it to Mia.
“Go downstairs and get my cell phone,” he said to her. “We'll try to get a signal.”
Mia ran out of the attic with the pistol in her hand and came back a few moments later with Connor's cell phone. He flicked the screen and held it up in front of him to check for reception. He finally had two bars, enough to call the Bear Patrol.
He quickly dialed and got the 911 operator on the line.
“This is Connor Milton up at the Milton Ranch. I need the Bear Patrol up here pronto. I've got some dangerous men who threatened my mate with a deadly weapon.”
“Is anyone injured?”
“No one that matters,” Connor said pointing his gun at the criminal’s face.
It only took a few minutes for the Bear Patrol to arrive in Connor's front driveway. The men were handcuffed and read their rights before being deposited into the back seat of police cruisers. After he had dressed and put on shoes, he shook Commander Rollo Morris’s hand and thanked him for coming to take care of this mess.
“You had every right to defend yourself,” Rollo said. “We could use another bear like you on the force.”
“That's quite all right, chief,” Connor said. “I'm happy on the ranch.”
12
Mia slid her pecan pie into the oven and smiled when she stood up to look at Connor. He was basting the turkey as the Christmas lights twinkled all around. The soft sound of laughter and celebration carried through the house over the sound of Christmas carols playing on Connor's surround sound stereo system.
It was one of the things he was proudest of when he'd remodeled his house. Mia knew that Connor hadn't been crazy about the idea of hosting Christmas dinner, but after all the windows had been replaced and everything was cleaned up, he had been overjoyed to host the family meal.
Now that he had finally found his mate, his mother would be happy and wouldn't be on his back anymore. Mia lifted her glass of hot cocoa and took a sip, the warm flavor soothing her as it slid down her throat and into her belly.
Connor's mother Kathy walked into the kitchen, carrying a sack of potatoes that she dumped into the sink.
“You'd best get started on peeling these potatoes, Connor,” his mom said.
“Right on it, mom,” Connor said with a grin.
He kissed her on the cheek as he passed with the turkey in his arms. Mia opened the oven so he could slide the bird back inside. Connor went to the sink and rolled up his sleeves, happier than Mia had ever seen him.
“So now that you two are together, how long am I going to have to wait for my grandchild?” Kathy Milton asked.
Connor groaned and dropped the potato he was holding into the sink.
“Mom!” he demanded.
“What?” she said. “It’s a reasonable question.”
Connor's niece Tilda skipped into the kitchen wearing a red velvet dress with a big black bow tied in her blonde hair. She looked the picture of a Christmas angel.
“Can I have a cookie, grandma?” she asked.
Kathy handed Tilda a gingerbread man and the little girl happily took a big bite.
“Yummy,” Tilda said. “Grandma you make the best cookies.”
“Don't you have enough grandchildren already?” Connor asked after Tilda left.
“I'll never have enough grandchildren,” Kathy objected. “Can anyone ever have too many grandchildren?”
Mia had to laugh at that. Kathy definitely wanted
the Milton family to expand. In the last two weeks, since Mia had arrived on Fate Mountain and she and Connor had become officially mated, Kathy Milton had been nothing but wonderful to her.
Mia knew her mate was tired of being pestered by his mother but she was one of Kathy's biggest fans. The woman was an old-fashioned ranch wife and she definitely had her own opinions about the way things were supposed to work. According to Kathy Milton, her children were all supposed to be married and settle down and have children of their own. That was just the way things were meant to be. And Mia had to admit, she was beginning to agree.
Living with Connor for the last two weeks, after all the trauma and drama of the Vendetti family had been taken care of, she had experienced some of the most blissful days of her life.
They'd spent their time horseback riding, tending the cattle, feeding the chickens, and getting the garden ready for spring.
Mia was overjoyed to have a family and a mate after the life that she had lived. Connor and the other Miltons had been nothing but wonderful to her. Being part of their family was a dream come true.
Connor's brother and sister and their spouses and children were in the dining room and living room. The men were watching football on TV and the women were making a gingerbread house with the children at the kitchen table.
“Did you give her another cookie?” Connor's sister Stephanie asked her mother.
“Just one,” Kathy said with a smile.
“She wasn't supposed to have another one until after dinner.”
“What's the use of being a grandma if you can't spoil your grandchildren?” Kathy asked. “Just wait till they open their Christmas presents.”
Stephanie chuckled and went back to frosting the cookies. Kathy walked over to Mia and put her arm around her shoulder.
“I want you to know how happy I am that you've joined our family, Mia,” Kathy said. “I’ve been looking for a mate for this one for as long as I can remember. And you, my dear, are the perfect woman for him.”
“Thank you, Kathy. That means so much to me.”
Cowboy Bear's Christmas Surprise (Bear Shifter Holiday Romance) Page 5
