“What do you want?” she asked, pausing only a second before continuing to walk again.
“Wait up, babe,” he said, parking the bike and walking after her. His arms crept around her waist from behind, and she struggled, breaking free of his gross grip before he could lock it around her.
She whirled on him.
“Stop it! I’m not interested. Not in you or anyone else in the Aces. I’m not going to be anyone’s old lady.”
Harvey frowned but seemed undeterred. He reached for her again. “You could be. You might like it,” he hissed in her ear.
“That’s it,” she said, frustrated. She took a step forward, making him lean over her, and then stomped her foot down hard on his instep, making him howl in pain as she quickly began striding away from him. She heard his footsteps pounding behind her and broke into a run. She hadn’t gone far when she felt his rough hand close around her wrist.
Dammit.
He yanked her back against him, and she elbowed him in the waist, but she was no match for his strength as his hand caught her face and roughly stroked it. She tried to bite his finger, but she was pinned back against his chest and couldn’t reach very well.
She saw a couple cars go by, the occupants inside sympathetic but unwilling to get involved in something involving one of the Aces. Dammit, was anyone in this town brave enough to take them on, other than her and Willow?
Two women shouldn’t be alone in the world against men like this.
She heard the roar of another engine and rolled her eyes. Another of Harvey’s cronies to back him up.
“Let her fucking go,” a low voice growled, and she looked back in shock to see Cage striding toward them, looking intimidating in his tight leather jacket and fitted dark jeans. His black hair was pushed off his face and his eyes were glowing like intense sapphires. He didn’t stop until he reached them, grabbing Harvey’s arm and forcing it behind him.
Harvey winced and stepped back, nearly spitting in rage. “What the fuck are you doing?” he asked.
Cage got between her and the other man. “Staking my claim,” he said.
“She isn’t claimed,” Harvey said. “She can choose who she wants.”
“Oh, is that what she was doing?” Cage asked snidely. “Choosing you? That’s not what it looked like to me.”
“Who the fuck cares what it looks like to you, outsider!” Harvey said, losing his temper and pushing forward with a shove that barely moved Cage at all. Cage wasn’t as bulky as Harvey; he didn’t have the extra fat that Harvey did from years of drinking. But he clearly had a lot better balance and reflexes.
Cage grabbed Harvey’s collar, lifting him effortlessly off his toes. “You don’t want to get involved with me, Willard. Trust me on that,” he growled.
Harvey wriggled free and swung at Cage, who dodged. “You think you’re some big shot just because your dad was president and you got an easy entry. You didn’t earn your place in the Aces, and one day, they’re going to see what you are! A pussy.”
Cage cocked an eyebrow. “Odd choice of insult,” he said. “And the result of a lesser mind.” He kept himself firmly between Harv and Carrie, and she gulped at the sight of his wide, tall back.
“I’ll show you a lesser mind,” Harv said, pulling off his jacket and tossing it to the side. He rolled up the sleeves of his worn Henley and put up his fists, which were covered with fingerless leather gloves.
Cage frowned. “I don’t want to fight you. Brothers don’t fight.”
Harv grinned and his gaze darted to Carrie. “Fight or get out of the way. I’m tired of you interfering. She’d like me if she just got the chance.”
“That so?” Cage asked, looking back at Carrie.
Carrie shook her head, feeling sick to her stomach that she was causing him trouble. “No, I don’t think any amount of time with him would bring anything but disgust.”
“Why, you little—”
But Harvey didn’t get to finish whatever disgusting thing was going to come out of his mouth. Because as he started toward Carrie with menace in his gaze, Cage stepped forward with one quick, heavy punch that seemed to go straight through Harv’s face and sent him flying back about ten feet.
No human should be able to punch like that. No matter how long Cage had been in the army or how strong or smart he was.
Cage just gave her a grin, shaking off his hand. “No problem.”
She winced, seeing blood drip from a split in his knuckle. Something in her was buzzing, curious. Something was wrong; something had always been mysterious about Cage.
He’d fought for her before, when she’d been harassed by the Aces as a teen. He’d always stuck up for her as needed. But never like this.
She’d never seen anyone go flying like that from a single punch.
She bit her lip. “We should take you home and get you cleaned up.”
He folded his arms and cocked one hip. “Does that mean you’re inviting one of the Aces into your home?”
“I’m inviting you,” she said. “Not one of the Aces.” She shook her head and walked forward, her heart still pounding from the adrenaline as Cage picked up a phone and made a call to someone at the club to pick up Harv.
She was still a little shocked that he’d shown up when he had, but she was glad. Harv had never been that aggressive, and who knew what would have happened if Cage hadn’t come? She’d have to be more careful about walking alone from now on. She’d let her guard down because Cage coming back into town had distracted her.
Not again.
She waved for him to follow her. “Come on. It won’t be the first time I’ve administered first aid on you.” She wished she could take the words back the minute they came out of her mouth. She looked back and saw Cage was silent behind her, looking around at the scenery, seemingly unbothered by her comments.
She hadn’t meant to bring up something painful from the past, but seeing him bleeding, seeing that cocky grin on his face made it impossible not to remember something from the past.
She let it all come flooding back as she led the man she loved back to her home.
* * *
She was reading a book in the front room when a knock sounded. It was raining outside, and Carrie had been enjoying the sound of it as she relaxed in the rocking chair while the other kids watched a movie in the living room with Willow. Carrie didn’t think there was anything better than reading a book on a stormy day.
The knock sounded again, and she figured Willow couldn’t hear it, so she set her book aside and got up to open the door. She wasn’t high enough to look out the peephole, so she simply undid the lock and swung the door open.
What she saw made her gasp. Cage was standing on the front step, leaning against the archway, utterly soaked, his dark hair streaming over his face, which was battered and bruised. Blood dripped down his chin and one eye was swollen shut. He was cradling his arm. He looked up at her with a cocky grin, his boyish, fourteen-year-old face trying to make this look less serious than it was.
“Can I come in?” he asked. Then he stumbled forward into her arms, and she caught him, holding his substantial weight. Goodness, he was already getting so tall compared to her, and he was barely in high school. She looked to the living room and saw Willow walking toward them, but Carrie put a finger up to her lips as she helped Cage walk up the stairs to her room.
She wanted to take care of him first. See what she could do for him first.
Those damn Aces. She wanted to kill them.
She knew by now, with Cage’s semi-frequent visits, that his dad was one of them, pretty high up in the organization, and he and his dad didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things.
Cage had had bruises before, but nothing like this. When they reached her room at the top of the stairs, he groaned as she leaned him on the wall to push her door open. Then she helped him into her room and set him on the bed.
She tried not to flush as he flopped back on it, one arm over his stomach, bared by his lifted
shirt, one arm over his head. He looked a little like a fallen angel, with his pretty boy features and pale skin and striking dark hair and eyes.
The older they got, the more she was starting to see him more as a boy, less like a friend. When she read her romance books, he was the one who came to mind. She could picture him rescuing her, the hero in some ridiculous teenage fantasy.
But right now, he needed her to rescue him. She ran for the first aid box in Willow’s bedroom and brought it back in. He’d pushed himself into a sitting position with his legs dangling over the side of the bed.
She pulled a small chair over so she could work in front of him, trying not to blush at their closeness as he waited patiently for her to pull things out.
She looked him over. Maybe it was just in her mind, but already, the cuts looked less severe. Perhaps she’d thought them worse than they were due to the shock of seeing him like that.
“Worrying you?” he asked.
She nodded. “Of course. I want to go down to the Aces and beat them myself.”
“No,” he said, his face going tight as he reached to take her chin in his hand and make her look at him. “Promise me you’ll never, ever go there. Promise me.”
She was shocked at the harshness of his voice. He was a year younger than her, had no right to scold her like that. Yet the protectiveness there warmed her to the core. “I didn’t want to go anyway,” she said, cutting a length of gauze to tape over the cut on his eye. Then she dabbed a ball of cotton in alcohol. “I have to cleanse your cuts. This is going to hurt.”
“Okay,” he said.
She lifted a damp ball in her hand and began to press it to his forehead. He hissed, and she pulled back but was shocked to see the cut was nearly closed. What on earth was going on?
It was like magic.
Cage seemed unperturbed, so she kept going, dipping the cotton and disinfecting spots on his face as she cleaned him so she could see what needed to be bandaged. But it was almost like he was healing right in front of her eyes.
“Why did he do this?” she asked, taping gauze over the small cuts on his hands and the one over his eye. Even if they seemed to have stopped bleeding, she wasn’t taking any chances. Besides, she was kind of enjoying caring for him. The feel of his skin, his male scent beside her.
She had a feeling this was the only boy she could ever fall in love with.
“We had a fight,” he said, folding his arms. Then he sighed and lifted his shirt, baring his small chest to her.
She gulped. Small or not, he was still a boy her eyes, and his lean muscles made her adolescent heart skip a beat.
“Here’s the worst one,” he said, gesturing to a large burn across his ribs that was blistered and pink. “What should we do with that one?”
“I don’t know,” she said, trying not to flush at the fact that her crush was shirtless. “Maybe just wait? Your body has an odd way of healing itself.”
He grinned. “Nah, it just looks less bad under the blood.”
She frowned and began gently drying the burn so she could apply sanitary gauze. Sadly, they got a lot of abused kids here at Willow’s ranch, so she’d become adept at applying first aid to things like this. But every time she did, she ended up hating humanity just a bit more.
When his burn was covered, he pulled his shirt back on, grinned, and stood. His grin was more of a grimace due to the shallow cut on his lip that was looking much better but still there.
The evidence that a grown man could hit a boy.
“Cage, we should call the cops.”
Cage had walked to the window but then just turned and looked at her blankly. “And you think they’d do anything about it? When it involves the Aces?” He blinked, and she realized he might actually be blinking away tears. He swiped at them, and her heart broke for him.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said. “Don’t pity me.” He sat on the window seat that looked over the yard, his legs in front of him. “Don’t worry about me. I’m gonna get out of here someday. I’m going to be better than him. Stronger than him.”
That’s right. He should leave this place. Escape. That was all that mattered. She could be happy here with Willow, although she’d miss him. But he’d have no chance if he stayed here with the awful men he lived with at the compound.
He looked over at her, and she memorized the image. The beautiful dark-haired boy, smiling against his bruises as he sat in front of a window with water streaming down it in all directions. Like the sky was crying for him.
He held out a hand, and she walked forward. When she got there, he pulled her up on the window seat in front of him and wrapped his arms around her.
“Can I just hold you for a minute?” he asked.
She nodded, heart pounding in her chest. She put a hand up over his, letting him know she was there as he rested his head against her shoulder, silent and content.
She didn’t know how long they sat there, listening to the rain and just not feeling alone because they were together. But eventually, he had to leave before they came after him.
When he did, he placed a sweet kiss on her forehead, holding her face in both of his hands. “You’re the best, Carrie. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have you as a friend.”
Right. A friend. And that was probably all she’d ever be to this beautiful boy who seemed to have no trouble moving in and out of her life.
As she walked him downstairs and sent him back out to face the world with a sandwich in his hand, she couldn’t help wondering about the boy with the cuts who healed a little too fast.
Was there more to him than even she knew?
5
“I’ve always envied that,” Cage said as he waited at her kitchen table and she got the first aid kit to take care of his hand. “Your ability to go away in your mind.”
“I was thinking of the first time I had to really take care of you. You know, after what the Aces did.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Man, I was such a bad kid. You wouldn’t believe the things I did to piss them off. I think that was the day I kicked my dad’s bike.”
Her back tightened. “I hate them for what they did to you. For what they did to so many people in this town.”
“And you hate that I’m with them,” he said.
She nodded. “Maybe not for the reasons you think. But yes, I do hate it.” She brought the first aid kit over and sat in a chair across from him, opening it. She tore open a packet of antiseptic and rubbed it gently over the cut on his hand. “I mean, what was the point of ten years of loneliness if you could have just been here the whole time?”
“The point was growing up,” he said. “Making a way for myself. I have my reasons for being here, Carrie. I can’t make it all plain to you yet, but I will at some point. I promise.”
“Right,” she said. “Just like you couldn’t tell me what you were doing in the military.”
“Well, I couldn’t tell you where I was,” he said. “Government secrets.”
He’d been part of a Special Forces unit of shifters, and he’d felt himself improving every year. He’d never seen it as a bad thing to be apart from her, as he’d thought he was becoming a better man for her every year. Someone who would finally be worthy of her.
“I have special experience,” he said carefully. “And a green beret.”
She grinned at him. “Special Forces. I knew it.”
He nodded, then grew serious. Her wary face as she cleaned his small wound and then dressed it with gauze and wrapped it with tape pulled at the tenderness inside him. Tenderness that had always been reserved for her.
In his life, he’d had to be a monster. A monster made of steel, who didn’t feel or hurt and who got things done.
With her, he was human. The only monster that existed was the one inside him. The growling, fur-covered bear who would do anything to protect her.
The bear that had come out when he’d sent Harv flying with a punch much harder than he’d intended.
“I can’t believe your hand isn’t more messed up from that punch,” she said, rubbing her thumb softly over his knuckles before releasing him.
Her touch sent electric shocks through him, up his arm.
The effect of a mate. He’d known since he was a cub. Maybe not when he’d first met her, when she’d saved him from the trap. Then, he’d just known there was something special about her that meant he could never forget her. He hadn’t known about fated mates, which was when a shifter found someone truly meant to be with them forever. The perfect fit, the one that made the animal in them peaceful as long as they were safe.
“So have you been in the army this whole time?” she asked. “I assumed you’d do a typical enrollment and then get out and go into the public sector.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Though I’m sure you’d be good at anything.”
“Thanks,” he said, unsure how much he should tell her. The thought of Pete’s threats against Carrie if he suspected anything about Cage being there were still fresh in his mind. He couldn’t risk telling her and having her accidentally give him away. As much as he wanted to tell his mate everything, he’d have to wait.
“Right now, I’m just happy being back here with you,” he said.
She nodded, and he could still see the hesitation in her face. The slight wrinkles at each side of her eyes, as if she were fighting off a squint.
She was trying to take him at face value. Trying to see him as the boy he was. Trying to just be happy about what was happening.
But ten years. What had happened to her in that time? They’d written each other up until a few years back, and he’d been so busy trying to build up his business that it had passed much faster than he’d meant to.
Or maybe he’d just been avoiding the thought that she might reject him when she found out he was a bear, and he was trying to decrease those chances.
She was so beautiful sitting right in front of him, and all he wanted at this moment was to be somewhere alone and peaceful.
He took her by the hand. “Let’s go talk upstairs. Like we did in your room at Willow’s.”
Bear To The Bone (Bear Claw Security 1) Page 5
