Bear in a Bookshop (Shifter Bodyguards Book 3)

by Zoe Chant

  Bear in a Bookshop

  (Bodyguard Shifters #3)

  by Zoe Chant

  Copyright Zoe Chant 2018

  All Rights Reserved

  Author’s Note

  This book stands alone and contains a complete HEA romance. However, if you’d like to read the earlier books in the series, you can find them here:

  Bearista (Derek and Gaby’s book)

  Pet Rescue Panther (Ben and Tessa’s book)

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One: Gunnar

  Chapter Two: Melody

  Chapter Three: Gunnar

  Chapter Four: Melody

  Chapter Five: Gunnar

  Chapter Six: Melody

  Chapter Seven: Gunnar

  Chapter Eight: Melody

  Chapter Nine: Gunnar

  Chapter Ten: Melody

  Chapter Eleven: Gunnar

  Chapter Twelve: Melody

  Chapter Thirteen: Gunnar

  Chapter Fourteen: Melody

  Chapter Fifteen: Gunnar

  Chapter Sixteen: Melody

  Epilogue

  A note from Zoe Chant

  Preview: Bears of Pinerock County complete series!

  Chapter One: Gunnar

  "Hey, Sorenson," the guard called. "You got a visitor."

  Gunnar Sorenson swiped his mop across the floor one last time and leaned it neatly against the wall. He didn't have a lot of things to be proud of these days, but he was proud of this floor. It practically gleamed.

  His ma always used to say if a job was worth doing, it was worth doing well.

  ... For all the good that advice had done him in life. Good thing she wasn't around to see him now.

  "Sorenson." The guard's voice had a hard edge. "Today?" He jangled his cuffs meaningfully.

  Gunnar smoothed down his orange coverall, held out his hands, and submitted wordlessly to being cuffed. Inside his chest, his bear snarled and paced.

  We could break those flimsy things. We could be free!

  Yeah, he thought back. Free to do what? Free to be fugitives, that's what.

  We didn't do anything wrong! his bear growled.

  Gunnar didn't answer. He'd tried to explain it to his bear, and he didn't feel like going through another round of their mutual failure to understand each other. Especially since, deep down inside, he agreed with his bear. He hadn't done anything wrong. Not morally wrong.

  The trouble was, the law didn't see it that way.

  So even though he could have broken the handcuffs, unleashed the enormous bear inside him, and made a break for it, he let the guard lead him out of the cell block.

  A rattling noise made him look up. Here came good old "Hammer" Jones, on library duty today, pushing the bookcart. The other inmate nodded to him; Gunnar nodded back. He couldn't help himself; his eyes followed the bookcart wistfully. He wasn't the kind of guy who got library duty, though. Dropped out of school in the eighth grade and could barely read above a fourth-grade level—might as well face it, books and libraries weren't meant for guys like him.

  "Eyes forward, Sorenson," the guard told him, and waited until he complied before unlocking the door that led out of the cell block to the visiting room.

  With the bookcart out of sight, there was nothing to distract Gunnar and stop him from wondering who was here to see him. There wasn't anybody he could think of. In the three years he'd been here, he hadn't gotten a single visitor.

  Not even Nils, who was the entire reason he was here.

  Not for the first time (or the hundredth, or the thousandth) Gunnar pushed down thoughts of his brother. Nils was ... Nils. Nothing Gunnar did could have changed him, or helped him.

  Even though he'd tried.

  And he really doubted Nils was his visitor today. Nils wouldn't be caught dead coming inside a prison of his own free will. Not even to visit his little brother. Especially not to visit his little brother.

  The guard opened the door to the visiting room. It was a plain, bare room, with tables and chairs bolted to the concrete floor. A few other inmates were in there already, mostly guys visiting with their wives and girlfriends. Gunnar averted his eyes, wanting to give them privacy, and scanned over the tables looking for who might be here to see him.

  There was only one table with a visitor sitting alone, not already talking to someone. Gunnar had never seen this man before in his life, but as Gunnar's eyes met the stranger's, a sharp look of shock and recognition passed over the other man's face, and he stood up. Gunnar dropped his gaze and tried to study the other guy from the corner of his eye as the guard led him toward the table. One thing prison had given him was a well-developed ability to look at people without appearing to look at them.

  The stranger was dark-haired and lean, though not slight by any means. He was shorter than Gunnar but looked like he could handle himself in a fight. Gunnar couldn't figure out what kind of person he was. He wasn't dressed up enough to be a lawyer, but he wasn't dressed down enough to be the sort of guy who typically came in here to visit a buddy; he wore a black button-down shirt and black jeans. His eyes were his most striking feature—light gray, piercing, and intense.

  Gunnar's bear, already restless, bristled at that pale, probing stare. Gunnar pushed it down.

  "Gunnar Sorenson?" the stranger asked.

  Gunnar nodded.

  "Sit," the guard told Gunnar. He sat, and the guard locked his handcuffs to a ring under the edge of the table. "Five minutes," the guard said, and left them alone.

  "I'd shake hands," Gunnar said. He shrugged and rattled his cuffs. "But ..."

  "Don't worry about it." The stranger had seated himself again. He didn't look either hostile or afraid of Gunnar; he just seemed wary. "Do you know who I am?"

  "Not a clue," Gunnar said.

  "My name is Deputy Ben Keegan. I used to be a big-city cop; now I'm with the sheriff's department in a town called Autumn Grove. And there's something I need your help with."

  "You need my help, huh?" Gunnar couldn't stop himself; he gave a short laugh. "Yeah, sure, what the hell, Deputy. What can I help you with today?"

  "You have a brother named Nils, right?" All the humor fell straight out of Gunnar's world, and the bottom dropped out of his stomach. When Gunnar didn't answer, Keegan gave him a brief, fierce smile. "Of course you do. You're the spitting image of him. What are you, twins?"

  "He's four years older," Gunnar said. His throat felt tight. He imagined himself as this cop must see him: huge, muscular, tattooed, his blond hair cropped close to his scalp.

  He knew he looked like a killer, even though he'd never harmed another person in his life.

  "Has your brother been in touch with you since you've been in prison?" Keegan asked.

  The tightness in his throat and chest increased, along with the sense of the walls closing in on him. "No," Gunnar said simply.

  Keegan leaned back in his chair and regarded him. "Not even once. Not once in three years."

  "You come here to rub it in or what?" Gunnar's voice came out harsh. He told himself it didn't hurt. Not anymore.

  But it still did.

  "Your brother escaped from prison," Keegan said. "Six weeks ago."

  Gunnar felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He hadn't even known Nils was in prison in the first place. When Gunnar had gone inside, he hadn't been.

  "You didn't know that?" Keegan asked, and Gunnar shook his head. "Well, there's more. He's gone to ground and no one knows where he is, but I'm worried he's going to come after some people I care about. People who helped put him away the first time. So I'm here to cut you a deal, Gunnar. I'll get you out of prison, if you help me catch your b
rother."

  Chapter Two: Melody

  "Melody, you have to listen to me!"

  "I'm listening," Melody Keegan said impatiently, moving on to the Philosophy shelf to tuck a book back into its proper place between its neighbors. Oh no, what was this one doing here? That was entirely out of place—it belonged in Mystery.

  "No, you're not," Tessa protested, following her. "You're—you're—you're shelving!"

  With a sigh, balancing the never-shrinking, ever-growing stack of books in her arms, Melody turned and looked at her longtime best friend and, now, sister-in-law. Tessa had grown her short hair out over the last year, and now a riot of dark brown curls surrounded a face that was softer than it had been when Melody had first met her ... in more ways than one. Pregnancy was a good look on her. She was rounded and softened all over, and looked vastly less emotionally guarded, less unhappy, than she had been for most of the time that Melody had known her.

  Being married to Melody's brother Ben was good for her. And Melody loved having Tessa for a neighbor and for a sister.

  However ...

  "You don't have to worry about me," Melody said, and couldn't help smiling. With her hands full of books, she used an elbow to shove her glasses up her nose. "This feels like a turnaround, doesn't it?"

  "What?" Tessa said, her train of thought visibly derailing.

  "The entire reason why you met my brother and ended up married to him is because I sprang him on you as a surprise bodyguard." Melody shook her head as she moved on to tuck a dog-eared Dick Francis paperback and a nice first-edition Agatha Christie back onto their respective shelves in the Mystery section of the store. "I remember how you argued about it, insisted you could handle it yourself."

  "Yes, and you know what, as it turned out, you were right. I really was in danger, and I couldn't handle it myself. And now you need to learn from my mistakes, and just come with me, where you'll be safe, and Ben and Derek can protect you!"

  "Tessa ... there's a key difference between you and me." Melody rearranged the order of several Sue Grafton alphabet mysteries as she spoke. There was nothing worse than an alphabet out of order. As she fixed the shelf, a clatter came from the direction of the bookstore's small café, making her wince.

  "And what would that be?" Tessa demanded, planting her hands on hips that had always been generous, but pregnancy had pushed in the direction of "ample."

  "You know what." Melody cut her eyes sideways at the café, where her one part-time employee was fumbling with the espresso machine, and leaned close to whisper, "I'm a dragon, Tessa. I can take care of myself."

  "Miss Keegan?" came a plaintive call from behind the machine. "Miss Keegan, I think I broke something."

  Melody could feel one of her eyes twitching. "Broken on the machine or on you, Jimmy?" she called back.

  There was a long pause before the sheepish answer came: "Both?"

  Despite her worried attitude, Tessa looked like she was trying not to laugh.

  "There's a first-aid kit in the restroom, Jimmy. Do you need help?"

  There was another worrying crash that made her wince, followed by, "No, ma'am, I've got it."

  Melody looked at Tessa for commiseration. Her friend's eyes danced with humor.

  "Think about it, Tess," Melody whispered. "If I go into hiding just because some guy my brother once arrested is running around loose, I'm going to have to leave Jimmy in charge of the store. I mean, think about that for a minute."

  "What happened to that other employee you used to have? I can't remember her name—Mary?"

  "Martha. She was great. I wish I hadn't had to let her go; she used to work here back when it was still Autumn Pages, you know, before I bought the store. She's helped me so much over the last few months. But she's having another baby—that makes four for them, if you can even imagine it. Her husband has a good job with the Forest Service, and she's planning to stay home for a couple of years."

  "I'm definitely staying home," Tessa declared, spreading her fingers over the round curve of her pregnant belly swelling out her oversized T-shirt. The T-shirt had a picture of a basket of kittens with PURR-FECT! in script letters above it. "I know I'm lucky that I can. But I'm so tired all the time. I don't know how Gaby manages to run her café with two little kids."

  "She has her mom to help her," Melody pointed out. She didn't begrudge her friends having happy marriages and babies, but there were times when it drew uncomfortable attention to her own single state. Like I even have time for a boyfriend, busy as I am with the store.

  "True. And I guess she's not even doing that right now."

  Melody paused in the middle of reshelving a Dan Brown thriller. "They're not closing the café, are they?"

  "Not permanently, but for the next couple of weeks," Tessa said. "With Nils Sorenson running around loose—Ghost, I guess, is his street name; it's what Ben and Derek call him, anyway—they don't want to take any chances."

  "That's a big step." Melody knew how much Gaby loved her little bakery and sandwich shop. It had been her dream, in the same way the bookstore was Melody's.

  "Yes," Tessa said emphatically. "You see how seriously they're taking this? Tessa, this guy almost killed Derek and Gaby two years ago. And you've met Derek; you know what he's like."

  Melody nodded. Gaby's mate was a big, well-muscled, dangerous-looking guy who could've graced the cover of one of the Navy SEAL romances over in her Romance section. If Gaby hadn't been head over heels for him, she might have been a little bit nervous around him. It made it easier that she usually saw him behind the counter in the Brown Bear Café down the street, wearing an apron and handing Gaby trays of doughnuts.

  "Are they going out of town?" Melody asked.

  "They're talked about it, but right now they feel like they'd be safer here," Tessa said. "We're all staying at Derek and Gaby's farmhouse with at least one of the guys there at all times. Gaby didn't want to disrupt the kids' lives any more than they have to."

  "You and Ben are there too?" They really were taking this seriously.

  "Yes, us too. Come on, Mel, at least move into the farmhouse with us for a little while. There's plenty of room. And that little place you're renting is not secure. I know that you think you're safe because you can turn into—that thing you turn into—"

  "Can you please talk about this a little quieter?" Melody glanced around nervously to make sure no customers were near enough to hear any of this. Jimmy had gone off to the bathroom, and the only other person in sight was a little old lady browsing in the Garden section.

  Still, now that she'd finally managed to realize her dream of owning her own bookstore, and was working hard to get it off the ground, the last thing she wanted was to have her customers find out her bookstore might be the target of an escaped convict out for revenge.

  Let alone any of them finding out that the soft-spoken bookstore owner, with her dowdy gray cardigans and glasses, was actually a dragon. Yeah, that'd be good for business, all right. Tessa was human, and even though she was mated to a shifter, Melody didn't think her friend understood the fear of discovery that all shifters lived with.

  Tessa at least had the decency to lower her voice, but she still looked worried. "Melody, it doesn't matter what you turn into if someone whacks you over the head or shoots you."

  "Miss?" the little old lady said with a smile, puttering up to her. "I'm ready to check out now, and that nice young man isn't at the register."

  "I'll ring you up right away," Melody told her. As the woman puttered off with her basket of books, Melody patted Tessa's arm. "It's sweet of you to worry. But I don't need your worry. I'm fine."

  Tessa grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "I just think about you all alone in that apartment. Ben worries about you too. At least come down to the farmhouse for a few days. Melody, please."

  Melody thought of her apartment, her new lair, cozily filled with books, arranged just how she liked them. Every dragon yearned for a safe place to curl up and spread out its hoard. She'd
only just gotten used to having moved her entire book hoard from the city to her new, smaller apartment in Autumn Grove. This place was finally starting to feel like home. And now, the idea of moving somewhere new, even if it was just across town, filled her with dread.

  But Tessa was looking at her with wide, worried eyes. "Even if you think you don't need our help, if anything happens, you can help protect us, right?" Tessa said hopefully. "With your dragon. We need you."

  It was clear that her friend wasn't going to take no for an answer. Melody's resistance finally crumbled. She patted Tessa's hand and forced a smile. "Yes, okay, I'll pack a bag tonight, and only my most important books." She could fit a little of her hoard into a suitcase. Maybe another box or two of books in the trunk of her car. There were so many she hadn't read yet! It was hard to find new books to read when there were so many old favorites to reread ...

  "Miss?" the old lady called from the register.

  "I'm coming! Do you need a lift home?" she asked Tessa. She might not be worried for herself, but an escaped convict posed a danger for her human friends.

  Tessa shook her head. "Gaby is picking me up." A car horn honked outside. "Oh, there she is." She hung onto Melody's hand. "We'll see you tonight at the farmhouse, okay?"

  "Okay," Melody sighed, giving in.

  Giving in as she always did, she thought as she went to the front of the store to ring up the customer's books. She caught a glimpse of herself reflected in the glass of the countertop: a drab little woman dressed in gray, her black hair pinned up, the glasses perched on her nose giving her a schoolteacher air.

  She'd always been steamrolled by stronger personalities around her. Growing up in the shadow of her father, a powerful dragon clan leader, it was easier to just tell him whatever he wanted to hear than to try to fight back. And she loved Tessa like a sister, but her best friend was so stubborn that Melody usually ended up going along with Tessa whenever they argued.

  Like this situation, for example. After a long day at the bookstore, she just wanted to go home, make herself a cup of tea, and open a book. She didn't want to go to Gaby and Derek's farmhouse, which she knew would be full of cats and clutter and kids.