Anderson’s smile was grim. “Yup. How’d you know?”
“I had a friend once, James. He’s a Hunter.” It had been a long time since he’d seen James. He was the Bear Senator as well as a Hunter. He was a charming rogue with a core of steel. The aura of power faded, leaving Bunny feeling a little off balance.
“James Barnwell?”
Bunny’s brows shot up. “You know him?”
Anderson grimaced. “The son of a bitch trained me.”
Bunny snorted. He’d heard more than one person use that tone of voice when describing James. Hell, he’d heard him called much worse than that.
“He’s also the reason we’re in this fix with Chloe and Jim, in a roundabout sort of way. He convinced me not to claim Sarah before I left, Sarah and I almost imploded and we each turned to other people to get over it. Chloe and I were friends and we talked a lot. I asked her to keep an eye on Sarah. Sarah started hanging out a lot with Jim Woods, Chloe’s destined mate, and Chloe got jealous. I don’t think she even realized what she was doing, but Chloe was the one who had everyone thinking we were dating.” He shook his head. “If I hadn’t come back when I did, both Chloe and I could have lost our mates.”
Bunny winced in sympathy. He couldn’t begin to imagine spending eternity without Tabby now that he’d had her. But to lose her before he got to claim her would have been torture.
“It doesn’t surprise me that James told you to hold off on your mating. He doesn’t believe Hunters should be mated at all.” Bunny shared a glance with Anderson. Someday James Barnwell would find his own mate, and when he did, he knew exactly how the Hunter would react.
Poor girl. I hope I get to watch the mighty Hunter fall. The sheriff was watching him, a questioning look on his face. “When he finds her, call me. I’ll bring the popcorn.”
Anderson shook his hand. “Done.”
“I hope this Jim person gets here soon,” Uncle Steve said, his hands curling into fists at his sides.
“I just hope she responds to him.” Ryan stalked out of the room, his tension obvious. Watching his baby sister lying motionless in that hospital bed was hitting the other man hard.
Bunny held out his hand, pointing to the door Ryan had just walked out. “Could I ask you a few questions outside?” He led the way after Anderson nodded his agreement. He made sure the door was shut before asking the question burning in his gut. “Tabby got a phone call this morning, and I need to know if this person is a threat to her or not. And before you ask, she’s refusing to talk to me about it.”
“I’ll answer if I can.”
“Who the hell is Gary?”
When Anderson’s midnight blue eyes turned to gold, Bunny knew the answer.
Gary was trouble.
“So?”
Tabby winced. Cyn was behind her, guarding the end of the counter, trapping her behind glass and artwork. Glory was leaning over the counter, her face full of mischief. The shop was empty, and the moment she’d been dreading all day was finally here. Her nosy-ass friends had her cornered. “So what?”
The two women exchanged a glance. “How was it?”
Tabby’s cheeks heated up. “It?”
Glory’s head tipped back, exposing the long line of her neck. “Oh, Bunny,” she moaned. “Bunny, Bunny,” she chanted, each one becoming more breathless, until, “Bunny!”
Cyn was laughing her ass off as Glory faked an orgasm. What neither woman saw was Ryan right outside the door, his eyes narrowed as he glared at Glory. When Glory threw her head back and shuddered, his fists clenched, his eyes turning deep, dark brown.
If Glory didn’t stop, Ryan was going to do something seriously drastic. She just hoped drastic didn’t involve Ryan’s claws and Alex’s face.
“Knock it off, guys.”
Glory giggled and waved her hands like a hula dancer. “Well? How was the motion of his ocean?”
“Screw that.” Cyn propped one hip against the counter. “I want to know about the size of his boat.” She held her hands at least seven inches apart and waggled her eyebrows.
The bell over the door jingled and Ryan sauntered in, his gaze glued to Glory. “Don’t you dare answer that.”
Cyn pushed herself back up. “Don’t sweat it, Glory. It’s not like we won’t get it out of her once we get home.”
Glory nodded, looking angelic. “Yup. We know her weakness.”
Uh-oh. Tabby stiffened. “Oh, no, you don’t.”
“All we have to do…” Cyn smirked.
“…is break out the box…” Glory was smiling that innocent pixie smile that fooled only the very young, the very old, and the terminally stupid.
“…and hide all her shoes.” The triumph in Cyn’s voice demanded retribution. Too bad Cyn didn’t seem to have a weakness.
Tabby glared at her so-called friends. “I hate you bitches.” They would, too. The only hope her poor shoes had was if she got home before they did and managed to hide them all.
“Is this a private party or can anyone join?”
She would have lost it if she hadn’t heard the bell again. “Hey, Julian!”
“Julian Ducharme?” Ryan held out his hand when Julian nodded. “Ryan Williams, Chloe’s brother.”
Julian took Ryan’s hand and shook it. “How’s she doing?”
“She hasn’t woken up.” The anger and grief in Ryan’s voice was unmistakable. “I owe you.”
Julian shrugged uncomfortably. “It was nothing.”
“My sister would have died on that street if you hadn’t risked your life like that. My family is in your debt.”
Tabby saw Julian’s jaw clench for a moment and wondered at it. “Any one of us would have done the same.”
“You almost lost your own life in the process.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cyn start. “That’s not something we’re likely to forget.”
“I couldn’t let her die.” For a brief second, white flashed through Julian’s hair, there and gone so quickly that if she hadn’t seen it before she would have declared it a trick of the light. “Her journey isn’t over yet.”
From the way Ryan’s eyes widened, he’d seen the flash of Julian’s hair as well. Whether the Bear knew more of what that meant, she didn’t know. All she knew was she needed to corner her friend, tie him down, and get some goddamn answers. “Feeling better, Julian?”
He nodded, his gaze darting to Cyn before he answered Tabby. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m going to stop in the hospital, see if there’s anything more I can do for Chloe.”
“No!” Ryan and Tabby’s voices rang out, startling Cyn and Glory. Tabby coughed. “All things considered, I don’t think a hospital is a shiny, happy place for you to be, Jules.”
Glory inched away from Ryan, who’d been trying to put his arm around her waist. “Why not? He spent the night there just fine.”
She shared a look with Julian, raising her brows. Did he want to reveal to the other two women what he was capable of?
He sighed, his shoulders slumping a bit. “No, it’s not. It’s fucking horrendous, but I’ll do what I have to do.” His knuckles rapped on the glass. “I’ll head there now. Maybe I can wake her up, maybe not, but I have to try.”
Cyn glared at him, eyes narrowed dangerously. “One of these days you’re going to tell me what the fuck is up with you, aren’t you.”
Tabby could tell that was a statement, not a question. Cyn was on the warpath and apparently felt one of her own was threatened. Tabby hid her grin.
Julian wasn’t going to know what hit him when Cyn decided to let him claim her.
They shared a long look before Julian nodded slowly. “When everything is in place, you’ll know everything.”
Cyn just rolled her eyes and headed into the back room. Julian’s expression was completely closed off, but the tick in his jaw was back. She’d never seen the easygoing man look like that. He was staring at that curtain like he wanted to storm through it and lay siege to the woman hiding behind it.
�
�I’ll head back with you.” Ryan tugged one of Glory’s curls. “Be good.”
“Excuse me?” Glory glared up at him.
He tugged a little harder before letting Glory’s hair go. “And stop thinking about my cousin’s junk. I’d hate to have to rip it off.”
Tabby growled.
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll just beat the shit out of him.”
She kept the growl going.
Ryan smiled weakly. “You can nurse him back to health.”
Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “Get out of here.” The two men turned to leave. “Do me a favor? Tell Alex he owes me a new cell phone.” The two men left the store, shaking their heads. “Glory?”
“Hmm?”
“Could you give the poor guy a break? His sister’s in the hospital.”
Glory didn’t try to pretend she didn’t know what Tabby was talking about. “He’s just too much, you know? Big and overpowering and doesn’t know the term personal space.”
Tabby decided to tell a little white lie. “He likes you.” He more than liked her, he was a man trying to land his mate.
“Maybe too much.” Glory blew her bangs out of her eyes. “What would I do with him, anyway? Feed him, water him, build him a tree house? Can bears climb trees? Should I buy a house and put in a big fishpond? I could put in a fireplace and let him flop in front of it.”
Tabby stared at her friend. She crooked her finger at Glory. “C’mere.”
Glory leaned over the counter. “What?”
Tabby sniffed. “Nope, no drugs or alcohol. That means you’re insane. Ow.” She rubbed the top of her head. Glory could have bopped her with a little less enthusiasm. “Glory and Ryan sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g,” she sang.
Glory stomped her foot and marched into the back room, her back ramrod straight.
Tabby sighed and grabbed a piece of paper. She was going to wake the two of them up if it was the last thing she did.
Chapter Five
“What the fuck is his problem?” Bunny rubbed the back of his head. Ryan stomped away from him again, a low growl in his throat. If he didn’t know better, he’d think Ryan was warning him away from his sister. It was starting to piss him off. He’d have to do a full hour of meditation or wind up accidentally breaking Ryan in half the next time he tried to smack Bunny.
“I have no idea.” Julian pulled his long hair back out of his face. “I’m sorry, there’s nothing more I can do. She will wake up, I can guarantee that much. How she’ll be when she does, I have no idea.”
Uncle Steve’s hand landed on Julian’s shoulder. “You’ve done more than anyone had the right to ask. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He stood and stretched wearily. There were deep circles under Julian’s eyes, a testament to how much the healing took out of the Spirit Bear. “I’m going to head out. Being here is difficult for me.”
“Understood.” Bunny turned to Uncle Steve and Aunt Laura. “I’m leaving too. I’m going to pick up Tabby at work.” He bent to give Aunt Laura a kiss. “Call me if you need me.”
“We will.” Uncle Steve pulled him into his arms and gave him a hug. “Call your parents, let them know you’re heading back to the hotel.”
“Have you decided yet?”
He stared at Aunt Laura. “Decided what?”
“If you’ll be staying here?”
He nodded. “This is Tabby’s home.” He’d already discussed it with his father. This area was a great place to expand into and would bring them closer to being a coast-to-coast company. They might even be able to get Eric down here to take a look around, if they could get his little brother to leave Oregon.
His aunt smiled. “I thought so.”
“Does she know that?”
Bunny shook his head at Julian. “She will when I take her house hunting.”
Julian chuckled. “Good luck with that. She’s got a definite idea of where she wants to live. Hope you’ve got a lot of money.”
Bunny just smiled. He didn’t feel the need to enlighten Julian.
The two Bears left Chloe’s hospital room. The scent of antiseptics and sickness was strong in Bunny’s nostrils. The urge to go into each room and do what he could to ease the suffering of the patients was almost more than he could bear. He couldn’t begin to imagine how Julian was feeling. “How are you holding up?”
Julian took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I hate hospitals.” The weary desolation in his voice told Bunny more than anything else the other man could have said.
He nodded and left it at that. They exited the hospital together and headed for the parking lot. “I’ll tell Tabby to call you. She’ll want to know you’re all right.”
Julian held out his hand. Bunny took it. “Take care of her. She needs you more than she realizes.”
“Thanks.” He paused. “What do you know about Gary?”
Julian’s shoulders tensed. “Has that little bastard been bothering her again?”
“He called Tabby’s cell this morning and asked me if she was cheating on him. Tried to pass himself off as her boyfriend.”
Julian’s lips twitched. “What did you do?”
“After I broke her phone? Listened to what Tabby had to tell me.”
Julian laughed. “That’s what she meant when she asked us to tell you that you owe her a new one. She loved that phone.”
“I’ll buy her one with a different number.” One Gary wouldn’t have. He’d get one that was unlisted.
“Say hi to the girls for me.” Julian climbed into his truck, moving like he’d been beaten.
“Are you all right?” Tabby would kill him if he let anything happen to her friend.
“Nothing a little sleep won’t cure.” Julian shut his car door and waved goodbye before pulling out of the parking lot.
“Right. Sleep.” Bunny shook his head and climbed onto his bike. “And you have a lovely bridge to sell me, right?” Julian needed to stay away from hospitals. They made him look like the walking dead.
Bunny took off into the night, eager to be with his mate. Rain was coming soon, the damp scent heavy in the air. He breathed it in and smiled. He loved the way the air smelled in the fall just before it rained.
He pulled into the lot behind Living Art and parked next to Tabby’s Jeep. He covered the Harley with the tarp he kept in his saddlebags. No way was he letting his baby get soaked. He headed for the front of the store, smiling at the sight of all the flash in the windows. He’d have to see about getting that tattoo done before too much longer. The thought of wearing Tabby’s ink on his body had him drooling.
He grinned, remembering Tabby’s shower comments on drooling—and the lovemaking they’d indulged in afterwards—and pulled open the door. The bell over the door jingled. It had been a long day, both in the hospital and out. He waved hello to Glory, who was helping some little blonde pick a navel ring. The urge to just take hold of his mate, breathe in her scent, was overpowering. Bunny stared around the shop, a tattoo gun the only thing he heard. He frowned up at the sign over the curtained-off area of the store. De Nile had been drawn in flowing script and tacked up crookedly. “Tabby?”
The sound of the gun stopped. “At my station, sugar.”
Just the sound of her voice was enough to soothe him. They were going to have a nice, long talk about Gary tonight, after he fed her and fucked her senseless. She wouldn’t be able to hold anything back from him by the time he was done with her.
He went into the back of the shop and found his woman. She was finishing up a tattoo of an elaborate cross on a woman old enough to be his grandmother. “Hey, baby.”
Tabby grinned up at him. “Hey, Alex.”
Cyn popped her head into the cubicle. “Hi, Bunny.”
The woman in the chair looked him up and down and snorted. “Bunny?”
Tabby shook her head. “Long story, Mrs. H.”
“You a biker?”
“Yeah, but not in a gang. The nickname’s from my last name.
” He held out his hand to the woman. “Alexander Bunsun.”
The woman shook his hand. “Evelyn Hagen. Nice ta meet’cha, Bunny.”
“You almost done, Tabby?” Cyn crossed her arms over her chest
“Yup. Just have to finish up the last initial.” She started the gun back up, waiting for her client to settle back down. “Here we go.”
He watched her draw the long line of an H in the center of the cross. It looked like a tribute tattoo, the initials MH inked in the center of the cross. “All right, done.” She took the needles off the gun and disposed of them in the hazardous waste bin under the counter. “You know the drill. Don’t get it wet, use the creams we give you, yadda, yadda, blah, blah.”
Mrs. H watched as Tabby carefully slathered something over the tattoo and taped it up. “Good job.” She grinned over at Cyn. “This one’s a keeper.”
“I think so, even if she is a smart-ass.” Cyn stuck her tongue out at Tabby. “As soon as I find the ladder, that sign’s coming down.”
Mrs. H. cackled. “You’re going to have to explain that one to me.” As Cyn blushed, the cackle turned into a full-belly laugh. “Oh, with that look on your face you’re really gonna have to tell me.”
Tabby snapped off the rubber gloves and disposed of them. “Are you done with me for the night, your majesty?”
Cyn waved her away. “Get out of here, you pain in the ass.”
Tabby laughed and got out.
Bunny followed her to the front of the store. Behind him, he heard Mrs. H. begin to grill Cyn, but found himself too distracted to listen. Tabby was wearing another pair of those painted-on jeans and a black lacy top that exposed an inch of creamy skin just above the waistband of her pants. It had sleeves halfway down her arms ending in more black lace, and gleaming buttons he wanted to bite off. Oh yeah, and those fucking boots. She looked like a kick-ass heroine out of one of his favorite comic books.
If he didn’t get her out of here, he was going to get arrested for indecent exposure. He wanted to rip the lace off her body, strip those jeans up and fuck her up against the wall while she wore nothing but those boots, her nipple ring and a smile. Bunny’s cock twitched at the thought. If he could just hold on until he got her back to the hotel room, he’d see to it his fantasy came true.
Dana Marie Bell - [Halle Shifters 01] Page 10
