Bear Mountain Bride: Shifter Romance

by Sky Winters

  All of the people that she met after moving in with Walker and the rest of her family seem to fall into two categories; those who were terrified of the crew and wanted nothing to do with them, and those people who only wanted to be her friend because her brother was Walker.

  Julia said, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do just sit here and… Well, it’s just that I’m sort of out of everything that I know and I’m a little bit confused today.”

  Jenny gave her a sunny smile. “Oh I’m sure. It’s okay, I was just happy to be able to sit here and munch out on my Danish. I’ll come holler at you later if you like.”

  Relief filled Jenny. “I’d like that, thank you very much.”

  Jenny departed. Julia went back into the kitchen to see what all Jenny had brought. There was indeed plenty of fresh produce for salads or even just for steaming. There were ripe bananas, beautiful apples, and some plump grapes. There were also various boxes on the shelves and a rotisserie chicken as well as a very nice cut of steak in the refrigerator.

  Julia helped herself to an apple and another cup of coffee, thanking the heavens that Jenny had bought both regular milk and cream. Now that Jenny was gone she found herself at even more of a loss. What was she supposed to do all day? She really had no idea at all.

  Julia went to her purse and fished out her phone. She didn’t have classes that day but she needed something to do so she tapped the screen, meaning to open a page that would let her read up on one of the current topics she was studying. Her fingers paused and her mouth dropped open as she saw that she had dozens of unread text messages as well as a dozen missed calls.

  Oh my God! I turned the ringer and sound off yesterday while I was in the store and forgot to turn it back on! Her heart sank all the way to her stomach as she realized that all of the messages were from Walker. Her hands shook so violently that she could barely get the text messages up. She staggered backward and the back of her knees hit the sofa and she sat down heavily.

  Julia’s eyes went down the column of texts while her heart hammered so hard in her chest that she was afraid, truly afraid, that she would have a massive heart attack at any given moment.

  The text messages were vile. Walker was clearly pissed off.

  Where the fuck are you? You better be dead. You were supposed to be here two hours ago. If I find out that you are out screwing around I will kill you. You know who you belong to.

  The messages just got worse from there. Tears dripped off Julia’s face as she read them. She had known something was wrong when she left yesterday, there was just something about the way that Pete had leered at her as she had gone out the door. Looking at the text messages it became very clear to her that Walker and Pete had finally come to some kind of agreement, and that her agreement had been deemed unnecessary.

  The text messages from that morning were worse. Walker was furious that his little plan to intimidate the street leveled drug dealers in Ace’s territory had not gone well. Ace had been right, Walker knew damn well that somebody had betrayed him. None of the text messages from Walker came right out and said that Walker thought she had done it. Walker didn’t have to come right out and say he thought she had done it for her to know that she was in a whole lot of danger and trouble.

  Those thoughts had barely crossed her mind when she heard some odd flat reports coming from outside. A frown wrinkled her forehead as she turned toward the window that looked up through the driveway toward the house in front. Those dull cracking sounds came again. Julia’s stomach dropped as she realized exactly what those sounds were.

  Gunshots.

  Terrified and scrambling she grabbed her purse and headed for the small bathroom. There was a window there, a very small one that led into the alley behind the house. It was her only chance and Julia knew it.

  The door rattled and shook. She could hear voices now, and they were voices that she recognized. Her blood raced through her veins as she ran for the bathroom door then closed it tightly behind her as quietly as possible.

  How had they found her? She managed to pry the window open and then start to crawl out of it. She got all the way outside before she heard a shout. She turned her head to the right to see Pete racing toward her with a drawn gun in one fist.

  Too afraid to scream Julia hurled herself over the short fence. She ran up the alley, suddenly grateful for the plain and unadorned shoes that Jenny had bought her. Jenny! Had she been killed? Julia was terribly afraid that she had been.

  She ran on, her purse banging into her hip and her phone in her hand. She could hear the sound of bikes cranking up and a car whizzed past her, sliding up along the curb and onto the sidewalk that she was now racing down. Two guys from her brother’s crew jumped out and raced towards her, clearly meaning to intercept and capture her.

  Julia threw the phone at one of them as hard as she could.

  The phone spun through the air and she felt a wild satisfaction as it connected solidly with her pursuer’s face. The edge of the phone hit him squarely between his eyes right at the bridge of his nose. He let out a long howl of misery and she managed to grab a large and very full trashcan and tip it over into the path of the second man, slowing him down somewhat.

  Julia ran onward. She could hear Walker and Pete shouting as she jumped fences and crossed streets, her eyes scanning everything in an attempt to find a safe space. She saw nowhere that she could hide and terror kept her running despite the burning stitch that had flared into life on the right side of her body.

  There was nowhere to go and she knew it. Walker would find her and as soon as he did he was going to kill her. That thought just made her run faster. Everything that Walker had ever done to her, surged up in her mind. All of his cruelties, both large and small, came floating back up into her memories.

  With those memories came hatred. That hatred was so huge, so dark and vicious that it blotted out the fear that threatened to freeze her into place. That hatred gave her the will to keep going even though her body screamed at her brain that it was done, that she had nothing left in the tank.

  Her breath hissed in and out of her burning throat. Her eyes stung and watered as sweat poured down her face. The intense heat and humidity baking down from the sky and up from the sidewalks threatened to send her toppling, and even though Julia knew deep in her soul that there was no way that she could out run Walker and his crew, that he would catch her, that the heat and her own body would eventually betray her and send her crashing to the ground, she refused to give up. She would run until there was not a single breath left in her.

  The sound of a motorcycle, a loud angry throb that beat the air, filled her ears with its sound and her heart with utter despair. The bike came hurtling toward her and one look at the rider on the back of that raging chrome beast sent long shudders through her entire body.

  Ace rode right up beside her but did not slow down. He held one hand out and Julia grabbed for it. Ace’s skill was so great that he managed to swing her off the ground and onto the bike behind him with one hand and in one long smooth motion.

  Julia’s right leg kicked up high as her legs and feet left the ground. That leg went over the bike and she settled in behind him, her face going into his jacket and her arms going around his waist.

  She had been terrified of riding on the back of a motorcycle just the night before. She had been stiff and unresponsive as he had taken them to the little house she had just fled from. She was no longer afraid of the bike or of the man riding it. He and his bike were the only things standing between her and certain death.

  Julia took her cues from Ace’s body. When he leaned she leaned with him. When he moved forward she moved forward. It came to her as he rode hell-bent for leather that riding that bike with him was a whole lot like making love with him. Even the vibrations coming up from below her, those vibrations that stroked her most sensitive areas and made her highly aware of them despite everything that was happening at that moment, were highly sexually charged.

  She loo
ked back, her eyes widening as she saw Walker and Pete and the other guys from the crew following behind them in the car. Horrified and sick from her long run through the heat and the fear that had propelled her all Julia could do was shout, “They are right behind us!”

  Ace jumped the curb, hit the gas and roared into a small business section that featured block after block of restaurants, schools, and stores. He zoomed down an alley and came out on the other side then passed a blot of traffic. Julia looked back again. The car was still coming though not as close as it had been before.

  Ace went down another road and Julia hung on, clinging to him for dear life. Ace stopped the bike. He pointed to a doorway, “Go through there. Go all the way to the fourth floor and up onto the rooftop.”

  She stared at him. “What?”

  Ace goosed the bike forward. “I said go God dammit!”

  Julia went. She ran through the door to find herself faced with a tall staircase. There were doors on all sides and she passed them as she raced up the stairs. The stitch in her side grew with every step and by the time she reached the third floor her energy was completely gone. She staggered and fell, rolling several feet down before crashing onto a hard landing that would have sent her body tumbling down the next flight if she had not managed to catch on to one of the posts of the staircase.

  She made it to her feet and started upward again. Her breath sobbed in and out of her mouth. She could barely walk, and bruises were forming all over her skin. Pain lacerated through her side and her left foot. She kept going, not just because she was afraid but because Ace had told her to. She had to trust that he had a plan.

  On the fourth floor she found exactly two doors. One was locked and had a number written on it. The other was unlocked but when she opened it all she found was a large but empty apartment.

  Sobbing and desperate Julia went back out into the hallway, turning from one direction to the other until she finally spotted a very narrow and practically invisible doorway set into a series of panels along the wall. She opened the door to find a steep spiral stairway.

  She climbed that staircase slowly barely able to drag herself upward. Sunlight hit her face and she stumbled along the rooftop, crying and trying to tamp down her fear and her pain long enough to think.

  She huddled in a small patch of shade, dragging long heated gulps of air into her lungs. She got her bearings finally and as she sat there with her legs spread in front of her she began to hear the sounds coming from below. When she tried to stand her foot gave way and she tumbled back to the rooftop.

  Her foot was broken, there was no other way around it. Julia did not know if she had broken it during her run or during the fall. What she did know was that the adrenaline had finally worn off and now she was feeling every inch of agony shooting through that foot.

  She hopped to the tall wall that ran around the perimeter of the roof and gazed downward. What she saw made her hands fly to her mouth to keep a scream back.

  The crew that Ace ran, Brooklyn’s Sons, were down there dragging Walker, Pete, and the other two from the car. Julia felt a wild thrill shoot down her spine. She hoped, with everything in her being she hoped, that they would kill Walker.

  Then the innocence that she had never lost, the sweetness that Walker had never been able to beat out of her, surfaced. She was not a killer and she didn’t want anyone to die, not even Walker.

  They were all fighting down there, it was a full blown street brawl. Horrified and yet unable to do anything because of her injury, Julia stood there watching it go down.

  Chapter 10

  Ace had been waiting years for this opportunity. He wanted nothing more than to beat Walker into a bloody mess. Walker had just come into his territory, and he had just fired shots at Randy and Jenny.

  Randy was a former Navy SEAL. Taking him down was not something Walker was capable of. Randy had pushed Jenny into a room and exchanged gunfire with the other men. He had hoped to lay down enough cover fire to get to Julia but that hadn’t happened. He had managed to slow them down so that she got a good running head start. He also managed to call Ace, who had been less than half a mile away.

  Now that Ace knew that Julia was safe, well out of reach on the rooftop of the clubhouse, he was no longer worried. Now he was just pissed off.

  Walker stalked closer. Pete and his other men were already engaged with Aces crew. It was just Ace and Walker facing each other now.

  Walker sneered, “You think I don’t know that you’ve already turned her into a little whore?”

  Ace gave him a nasty smile. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

  Walker got a little closer, but not close enough. Ace was biding his time, knowing that Walker had more strength but a lot less speed and stamina. Ace also knew that it took more energy to throw a punch that missed then it took to throw a punch that landed. He intended for all of his punches to land, and write in Walker’s face and gut.

  Walker asked, “What do you think you’re going to do with her now that you have her? Huh? Do you think she has a single loyal bone in her entire body? Her mother was a traitor. She’s a traitor. How long do you think it will be before she betrays you?”

  Ace knew exactly what Walker was doing. Everything Walker was saying was true. Julia’s mother had run out on the man she had sworn to ride or die for. Julia had turned her back on blood. Walker was hoping to use those truths to plant doubt in Ace’s mind and heart.

  The truth was Ace had no idea at all if he could trust Julia. What he did know was that if Walker had not treated her the way that he had she would not have turned her back on him. He did not know what had happened between Julia’s mother in Walker’s father but considering that Walker’s father was far more violent than his son he could guess.

  Ace said, “That’s where you’re getting this all wrong. This is not about her. This is about a debt you owe my family. This is about you coming into my territory, riding into my borough, and firing at somebody in my family.”

  Walker put his hands up. All around him men were fighting. Pete was using his gun, which must have been empty of bullets by then, as a weapon but it wasn’t doing him much good. There were too many of Ace’s crew to face down.

  Walker said, “Well you just bring it on then.”

  Ace said, “Thought you’d never ask.”

  He charged in, fists flying. All the hatred and rage he had ever felt for Walker came spilling over. Ace let his fist connect with Walker’s jaw while he hoisted one foot upward into Walker’s crotch.

  Walker was used to street fighting. He didn’t even go down. Instead he began hitting back. Ace ducked the blows easily enough. The impact of his knuckles on Walker’s flesh sent waves of pain spiraling down his arm but he just kept hitting.

  Blood flowed. Both men had a score to settle. For Ace it was about Margo and the death she had not been able to escape thanks to Walker first getting her hooked on heroin and then using her as a guinea pig for a batch that he had not been sure of in the first place.

  Walker had his own score to settle. Ace had just cost him a connection that could have made him the king of the entire city. He would have had the kind of money that could have squashed the cruise in every other borough. Ace had taken away all of Walker’s leverage.

  Asphalt met Ace’s hands and knees. His palms stung and his jeans shredded away from his kneecap. Walker’s foot connected solidly with his ribs, threatening to break them. Ace reached out one hand and grabbed the blade that he saw glittering from that boot.

  Walker realized his mistake too late to stop it. Ace drove the blade deep into Walker’s calf. Walker let out a high-pitched scream and staggered backwards, the blade still buried in his flesh.

  Ace made it back to his feet. Someone tossed him a very long and heavy piece of steel and he advanced on Walker with it in one hand. Before he could crush Walker’s skull with the steel Pete and the other two men, all bloodied and pulped, grabbed Walker and rushed back to the car.

  Ace held up on
e hand as his crew tried to rush the car. It would’ve been way too easy to kill them but the truth was the fight had already drawn more attention than they could afford. His eyes scanned the neighboring buildings. Blinds that had been opened moments before were closed. Stoops that had held people were now deserted. There were no sirens to be heard but that did not mean much. It was the digital age, and people tended to take a video and put it on the web rather than call the cops when it came to street brawls. Ace would much rather they just called the cops. Lying to a cop was easy. Lying to a judge when there was video that had gone viral was a whole other thing.

  They staggered into the clubhouse. Ace, battered and weary, climbed the stairs slowly. He made it up onto the roof to find Julia standing near the wall with both hands pressed against her mouth and her face soaked with tears.

  She hobbled toward him and that slow and uneven gate of hers told him that she’d been harmed. He caught her in his arms and asked, “Are you okay?”

  She sobbed out, “No! No I am not okay. I did this! I brought this to you! This is my fault!”

  Ace shook his head. His hands rested on her shoulders. Blood streamed down his face from a small wound on his scalp. He wiped it away with his shoulder. He said, “No, it isn’t. This has been coming for years.”

  She gave him a long, intense look. “For you, this is over Margo isn’t it?”

  Ace said, “What else would this be over?”

  The expression on her face almost imploded his heart. She wiped her eyes and nodded. “What else?”

  Ace knew then that he had to let her go. He didn’t want to. He wanted to keep her forever. He wanted her to be in his life and to be his old lady. He wanted her to ride on the back of his bike and be in his bed every single day and night for the rest of his entire life. There was just something about Julia, a sweet and un-ending innocence that made him want to build a wall around her around himself to keep the rest of the world out forever.