The ringing went over and over for what felt like an hour, and then, eventually, it clicked to an answering machine. It was the first time she had needed to use the agency number, when she had gotte, the job after being head hunted, she had only dealt with a personal assistant, on personal terms. After that, it had only been with Sean. The voicemail clicked on and a monotone voice spoke down the line to her.
“This is the Environmental Sector of the US Government, please leave your message after the tone…”
There was a long beep and then silence.
Pamela scrunched her brows up her forehead and looked down at the cellphone.
Had she dialed the correct number? What kind of stupid voicemail was that?
She faltered for a moment, thinking of what to say, but before she had the chance, the line went dead and then clicked off.
“What the…,” she whispered as she rubbed her temples.
Things were getting stranger by the minute.
She placed the phone down and then searched for an email address she could contact, but nothing was showing. The only contact she had for the agency was via Sean, even the emails she had sent over the past couple of weeks to the assistant she had dealt with were now bouncing back and Sean had told her she had moved on to another role.
She hadn’t thought much of it until now. Nothing had seemed untoward. She was only just getting to know the place and had expected some degree of secrecy… but this was another level.
Something here was massively off and now that she had noticed it, she wasn’t going to be able to let it die.
She closed her laptop and turned off her cellphone. She didn’t want to speak to Sean. He knew where she would be if he wanted her, and she needed time to think.
She turned on the shower and peeled off her clothes. She had dirt and mud caked to her knees, and her hair smelled of pine and the great outdoors. She wanted to wash it all away and feel herself again, because now, she was sure that something strange and sinister was happening in Bridge Hollow, and she wasn’t sure who she could trust.
She stepped under the rush of water and let it flow over her. She soaped up her hair and lathered all down her body, rinsing it away and becoming revived. The place on her heart still ached for Ryder, and he was in her head more than ever.
She wasn’t planning on letting him off the hook easily either. He had done something to her, and she wanted to know what. She also wanted to know what the hell he had meant when he said that “they want me to get rid of you.”
She still had the keys to the truck that she had to return, and she was pretty sure she knew where she could find him. It was setting up to be a busy night in Bridge Hollow, and the bar would be full of excited revelers, and now that she was all worked up, she didn’t care about the potential of a hangover the following day, she needed a goddamn drink.
She dried her hair, spritzed on some perfume, and dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, heels and a cute t-shirt before she threw her cropped jacket over her shoulders and grabbed her handbag.
She was going on the hunt for answers.
It was time she went back to Shifter’s Bliss.
As she had expected, the whole of Main Street was awash with people still milling around after an exciting day. Some were still in the midst of shopping, moving from store to store and keeping the town ticking over as the thriving commercial hotspot that it was.
She held the keys to the truck in her hand and gripped them tightly. She could still feel a heat to them, as if Ryder’s touch was lingering on them. It was almost like she was holding his hand and walking through the streets of Bridge Hollow with him.
When she saw the sign above the door of the bar, her heart raced, and she felt butterflies scatter around in her belly. She felt much more nervous than she had the previous evening, but was it because she now knew that she was potentially in danger? Or was it because she was feeling things she had never felt before?
She breathed in deeply and thrust her shoulders back. She wasn’t going to let Ryder drop hints that there was something much bigger going on and get away with it. He had to come clean, and she was going to get her business head on and ensure that he was open and honest with her.
She pushed open the door to the bar and the familiar smell of beer and hog roast came drifting toward her. Her mouth began to water and all she could think about was eating and tearing into meat with her teeth. The sensation took her by surprise, and she had to steady herself against the door frame. It didn’t last long for her to see him standing up at the main bar looking back at her, a look of relief and total awe all across his face.
“Come here,” he called across the room to her, and she moved quickly inside, her hands shaking as she made her way to him.
When she fell into his open arms, he wrapped them around her tightly and her heart burned underneath her shirt, as if it were searching for his, their skins pushing together.
“I need answers,” she whispered. “What has happened to me?”
Ryder pulled her back by the shoulders and stared at her deep in the eyes.
“I know,” he said as he swallowed nervously. “And I’m sorry. Come on… there’s so much you need to know…”
7.
Ryder led her out of the main room of the bar, and to a large, iron doorway. It was shut tight, but he knocked on it, and within a few moments, a little viewing panel slid open at the top and a pair of eyes came into view.
The music was loud, and she couldn’t hear anything over the thump of the beat, but when the door opened, it was almost as if she had felt the energy of the locks turning to let them inside.
There was a boy behind the door, and he had been standing up high on a drink’s crate when he had looked through the peephole.
“Hey, Ryder,” he said as he moved to one side to let them in.
Pamela looked at him, he could only have been fourteen at most, but he looked sure of himself and completely at ease.
“Hey,” Ryder nodded as he ushered Pamela past the boy and further down the dark hallway that was opening out in front of them.
The boy locked the door behind them and then sat back down on the crate and started to read a magazine.
“Don’t let anyone else in here for now,” he said sternly. “Do you understand?”
The boy nodded his head slowly and looked a little nervous.
“But what if…?” the boy began.
“No one!” Ryder said seriously.
The boy looked at Pamela with suspicion and then he reluctantly drew his eyes away from her and back to the magazine on his knees. He looked wary and unsure of what to make of all this, but that was nothing compared to what Pamela was feeling. It was as if she were being pulled into some kind of underground room where an illegal card game was happening. Her heart began to race a little harder as her nerves started to take hold. She had no clue what was happening, but she knew that she had to see it through. She had come this far, and Ryder was going to open up to her. Hopefully, he was going to tell her all she needed to know.
He stopped by a door at the end of the dark hallway and opened it before he flicked on a light and stepped back to let Pamela walk in first. As she rounded the corner and saw a desk and immaculate office space, she breathed a sigh of relief.
The room was empty, and Ryder closed the door quietly behind her and motioned to a seat on one side of the desk. Pamela sat down and he made his way around to the other side, turning on the table lamp and illuminating the rest of the room.
It was a nice office, and Pamela let her eyes travel around and take it all in. There were large filing cabinets all along one wall, and pictures adorned the rest. She could see images of Ryder when he looked slightly younger, out in a woodland somewhere with a group of other guys, holding up fishing lines with big fish on the end, proudly showing off their catch of the day. She saw images of the bar before it had become Shifter’s Bliss, and black and white photographs of the town of Bridge Hollow that must have gone back almost
a hundred years. She found herself stopping and focusing on one of what looked to be a mine, with miners all in their work gear in front, holding pickaxes and helmets.
“Who are they?” she asked, and she felt Ryder’s gaze travel with hers.
“Some of the original settlers here,” he said. “It was a long, long time ago.”
Pamela smiled and nodded, before she turned back to him and their eyes met across the desk. Her heart fluttered when she was held by them again, and the space on her chest where he had placed his hand burned hot and seemed to crackle with electricity. She reached up and touched it instinctively, and his eyes went down to it. He cleared his throat and then smiled.
“Tell me what’s going on,” she whispered. “What is this weird back office, and who is the kid out there?”
Ryder smirked and leaned forward.
“That’s just Jerry,” he said warmly. “He’s one of the kids from around town who looks to earn a little extra cash. Now that school is out, he’s doing a few nights here for me, making sure no one tries to get back into this office area. You’d be surprised at how many people in this town have wandering hands when it comes to money and other people’s things.”
“Really?” she asked with shock. “I never thought things like that would happen in such a small community.”
“Oh, it sure does,” he said. “Plus, we have a little conflict of our own going on here. Two different sides, I guess you could call it, and I’m sure the people not on my side would love to get their hands on some of the things I have stored away in here.”
“The people not on your side?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “What is this, like West Side Story?”
Ryder’s eyes crinkled with warmth and his face cracked into a genuinely happy smile.
“You’ve got a great sense of humor,” he said. “It’s much welcomed, believe me.”
“I’m glad,” she smiled back shyly. “But I still think you need to elaborate. Especially, on what you said to me earlier…”
The words hung heavy in the air, and Ryder sighed and leaned back into his chair. He ran a big, rough hand across his mouth and chin and breathed deeply as their eyes continued to stay fixed on each other’s.
“Is this dangerous?” she asked him, almost breathlessly.
Ryder nodded slowly.
“All of it is…,” he whispered. “You being here in town, you looking around in the woods, even you being here in this office…”
“Why?” she asked as she leaned forward.
A chill was rolling over her entire body and she had to clutch her hands together to stop them from shaking.
“You’ve heard the legends about this place?” he asked her seriously.
She nodded slowly, but there had been so many things she had read and heard, she didn’t know fact from fiction.
“I didn’t know if any of it was true,” she said.
“It is,” Ryder confirmed as he opened his arms out and placed them on the armrests.
“What is?” she grilled him.
He faltered for a moment and then he seemed to internally debate with himself, before he shook his head and leaned back forward.
“Okay,” he said. “I need to level with you because of what happened. I know all of this is going to sound crazy, but I kind of think you’re going to understand it too…”
The spot where he had touched her chest began to radiate heat, and she gasped as she touched it.
“What are you?” she asked him suspiciously. “And what have you done to me?”
Ryder slowly got to his feet and walked around the side of the desk, so he was standing in front of her. He looked down at her and she felt her entire body stiffen. She was nervous around him, but in the best kind of way, and deep between her legs, something else was happening, she was feeling turned on and red hot, and she wanted nothing more than to jump up and wrap her arms and legs around him.
“I don’t know what you’ve heard about our town,” Ryder began as he sat down on the edge of the desk and faced her fully, “but you must have seen the various totems and depictions of bears and wolves scattered around?”
Her mind instantly flipped to the statue in the center of Main Street. The half man, half bear… the violence behind it and the struggle. The bear ripping out of the man’s body and roaring free.
“The statue?” she asked nervously.
“Exactly,” Ryder nodded.
“What about it?” she said.
“There have been legends around here for years that there are packs of wild animals, large animals, ones that are dangerous and magical. It’s one of the big pulls for tourists coming to the town, as if they expect to be able to go hiking up the mountain and run into their very own Big Foot,” he half laughed. “But what they don’t understand is, that these animals are among them all day, every day… right in plain sight.”
A chill rolled over her again and her skin tingled.
“Not even half of the people who live in Bridge Hollow know the truth. Some of them have been labeled crazy by their families because they’ve had sightings of their own, and some of them don’t even dare speak up. The others probably think it’s all just hype and aren’t interested. There are a lot of old-timers here, and not all of them are so open minded to the idea of things not being quite what they seem.”
“And why aren’t things quite what they seem?” Pamela interjected.
“Because the legends aren’t just legend. It’s true, all of it…”
He trailed off and sighed, but his eyes didn’t leave hers. She saw the tinge of gold and amber returning to them, and the place on her chest burned even hotter.
“I’m a shifter, Pamela…,” he said suddenly.
She heard the words and they registered, but she didn’t even know if she truly knew what he meant. She had heard of the legends and she had seen the statue in the center of town. One of the biggest legends of Bridge Hollow were the mythical man bears that roamed the forests and the mountainside, but not only that, there were wolves too. She had always imagined it all being down to a full moon, but what she was seeing in Ryder made her realize what had been different about him all along….
He was part animal… and it was always there, lurking beneath the surface.
She gasped and reached up to touch the place where he had laid his hand on her and done something to her.
“You feel that?” he asked her. “Now, you will always feel it.”
“What did you do to me?” she whispered, a hint of anger in her voice.
“Something I had to do to keep you safe.” He was being so serious, she knew that there was no way he was lying.
“Why am I in danger?” she asked him nervously.
The tension between them was mounting with each passing second, and she felt herself moving closer to him. It was as if they were being pulled together by an invisible force, something was winding them in closer and closer with each breath they took, and suddenly, they were only centimeters apart. He stood from the corner of the desk and looked down on her with his dark, gold-tinged eyes, and she longed to reach up and touch him. She wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss the hell out of him; she wanted to feel her body against his, to trace her fingers along his incredible muscles and feel the animal within.
Her heart was racing, hard and fast, and she could sense the change within him too, as if he was fighting to keep control.
“My pack doesn’t trust you,” he said finally, and his eyes were so serious and full of angst she could feel his pain. “They want you gone.”
“Your pack?” she whispered.
“The other bears…” He said it, and it all made sense.
Ryder was part man, part bear… he was a powerful being and now, he was taking hold of her heart.
“The people you’re working for,” he said. “I can tell you’re innocent, but they’re not… they are not government.”
When he spoke the words, Pamela’s heart seemed to crash into her stomach
. Her breathing became rapid and her mind was racing.
“What do you mean?” she asked with confusion. “I… They must be…”
“They’re not,” Ryder told her with all the confidence in the world. “We don’t know who they are, but they’re not the government. They’re lying to you, and they’re poking around here, looking for something, and it’s putting everyone on edge. No one knows who they can trust.”
Pamela sank down onto the desk next to him and stared into space. She thought of what had happened already that day, how she had been ditched by Sean almost immediately. He hadn’t cared about her safety out on the mountain, he hadn’t known they would need permission from the national park, and he had then gone on to disappear once he had managed to shake Ranger Dean. He had been nothing but secretive with her, and although he was clearly very switched on and knew what he was doing, there was something about him that was so unprepared. It was suddenly blaringly obvious that he couldn’t have been part of a government organization.
Pamela rubbed her temples and furrowed her brow. This onslaught of information was giving her a headache, but she was smart enough to know that she had to take it all in and gather the facts.
“So, you’re telling me, the people I work for have been lying to me, and now a group of wild man-bears want me dead?”
“Not dead,” he said nervously. “Just out of the picture.”
“And why did you put it upon yourself to come and help me?” she asked as she turned her head and their eyes met again.
“Because, the moment I lay eyes on you, I knew you were different,” he said. “I saw that guy you were with in the lobby of the hotel and I could see how embarrassed you were by him. I have a sixth sense for a pure soul, and yours was screaming out to me. His, on the other hand, was dark and black. He’s hiding something and isn’t genuine. I was worried about you, and not only that but…” He stopped for a moment and then his hand moved on top of hers.
She felt the heat in his palm, and it made her bones quiver. He was so sexy and handsome, and so powerful. He had the most amazing energy of anyone she had ever encountered, and it was pulling her in more and more. Her nerves were rife, and her heart raged away below her breastbone. She felt the place on her chest throb with desire, and her hand now was tingling, reacting to his skin, and wanting more of him.
Bridge Hollow Shifters: The Complete Collection Page 16
