by T. S. Joyce
“So I guess this is a bad time to tell you I’ve scored an interview with all of the members of the Breck Crew?”
Mark lowered his chin, his bushy gray brows lifting high. “Are you serious right now, Wright?”
“As a heart attack. But if you aren’t interested in running it, I could always just upload it to my website.” And then the national news stations would contact her for footage, but she didn’t have to tell Mark that. He knew the sharks had been circling her since the piece she did on the bear shifters at the town hall meeting a few months ago.
Mark leaned back in his chair and rubbed that shiny head of his again, a gesture he always did when he was thinking hard about something. “When are you conducting the interviews?”
“Tomorrow during the day.”
“Are you taking Carl as your cameraman?”
“Nope. The invite is just for me.”
“All members?”
“Except for the cubs. The family is trying to keep them out of the spotlight as much as possible.”
“Smart move.”
She nodded and steadied her leg from shaking nervously. If Mark said yes to running the interviews, she could spin a positive light on the Breck Crew and make life easier on all of them.
Mark pointed to her and lowered his voice. “You run the piece by me first before it goes live. This could be what pulls audience attention and keeps those asshats from the city from vying for our territory. They’re after the shifters, but if the Kellers are dealing with us exclusively, this little station just might stay on its feet. What do you need from me?”
“Access to the media room before I go home tonight. I need to pull footage of the Breck Crew from the hours we’ve already taped to see if I can use any of it for the feature.”
“Sure, sure, that would be fine. I’ll call Darla and tell her I’ll be home late. I don’t want you staying in the station alone.”
“Aw, you worried about me, Mark?”
“Of course, I am. I heard about the wreck you were in. I pulled that story, by the way, for your privacy. Deanna wanted to run it on the news tonight. I figured you needed some time to deal with…whatever you’re dealing with. Plus, if the rumors are true, the IESA was involved, and I don’t really want the station going head-to-head with any of that business.”
“Understood. And thank you.”
“I know you were involved because of Boone Keller, Cora. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“Mark,” she warned, frowning.
He threw his hands up. “Okay, okay, I get it. That’s none of my business. Just be careful, all right? I’d hate to see you get hurt.”
There was no threat in his voice, only concern, and she liked her boss even more for it.
“Boone wouldn’t hurt me.”
“It’s not Boone I’m concerned about.”
Thinking about that IESA agent right now wasn’t going to fix anything, so Cora stood and straightened her black pencil skirt. “I’ll be an hour in the media room, tops.”
Mark rocked in his office chair and drummed the end of a pencil on his desk. “I’ll be in here if you need me.”
Cora left and made her way down the hallway. She waved at Brandon and told him, “Goodnight,” then gathered her purse and notes from the hair and make-up room and slipped through the door at the end of the hall. The media room was her favorite place in the building, and not just because there was a vending machine that sold four separate rows of corn chips. This was a cameraman’s paradise, where all of the equipment was stored and where footage could be viewed, saved, and edited. Big fluorescent lights hummed to life when she hit the switch, illuminating rows of cameras and tripods against the back cinderblock wall. She’d already told Boone she’d be a little late getting home in order to prepare for the interviews tomorrow, but when she checked her phone, there was a text that read I’m up at the firehouse with Dade and Cody, shooting the shit. I’m not working tonight, so call me if you need anything.
She grinned and typed in I need werebear diddles when I get back to your place, stat.
He replied before she was even seated in front of the trio of computer monitors in the center of the room.
Yes ma’am. Clam Wrecker.
Cora giggled and scrunched her nose as she typed the first inappropriate dick nickname that came to mind. Leaky Meat Rod. Now stop it, I’m working.
She tucked her phone away and entered the password on the computer, then searched for the footage of the bear shifters they had on file. So far, it wasn’t much. Carl had recorded them Changing for the first time by the burning veterinary clinic when Dade had decided to Turn Quinn to save her life. And then they had a couple of hours of footage before, during, and after the town hall meeting.
She’d lied to Mark. This wasn’t entirely for research. Something about what Boone had said earlier had stuck with her. He’d said he had a nightmare about her before they had even met, and she wanted to see the first moments she’d seen Boone those three months ago captured on film.
She fast forwarded through Quinn’s rescue and stopped when Dade and Boone were hovering near her limp body. Boone was wearing his fireproof turnout gear and pulled his mask off. His oxygen tank still clung to his back, and his trousers and reflective jacket were still on him, covered in soot. His eyes filled with horror at something his brother, Dade, said, and he dragged his gaze back to Quinn’s body.
“Shit,” he drawled, clear as day on camera.
“What’s happening?” Carl murmured.
“Just keep filming,” Cora said off to the side of the shot.
Boone yanked his jacket off as Cody began to undress, too.
Cora hit fast forward for the sole purpose of skipping right over Quinn’s Change, which looked horribly painful. She stopped in time to see Boone morph into the blond grizzly she’d grown to love, then hit fast forward again as that damned gunshot sounded from one of the idiots in the crowd. The bystander had shot Dade in the shoulder. She remembered that part well enough and didn’t want to see it again. The bears moved in fast motion as Quinn fought Dade and tried to charge the crowd. Cody addressed the bystanders… There. Cora hit stop and turned up the volume on the monitor.
Cody admitted he and his brothers were bear shifters, then asked a paramedic named Greg to help Quinn. When the medic asked why Dade had bit her, Cora stepped from her hiding spot behind the fire engine.
She advised him, “Don’t answer any more questions. I think you should think carefully about the things that come from your mouth right now. An informal interview will only hurt you when emotions are running high like this. Plus, your brother has been shot.” Carl had recorded her back as she pointed to Dade.
“Who are you?” Cody asked.
“I work for the news. I’ll break this story if you want me to, but I think we need to take a step back.”
Cora leaned forward, straining her eyes at the grainy screen where Boone’s bear stood. He moved, just slightly.
She rewound the tape and played it again. Then again to make sure she wasn’t imagining it. Zooming in, she played it one last time. There it was, unmistakable. He swayed on his feet the moment he laid eyes on her, then took a step toward her and shook his head, as if he hadn’t told his body to do that.
“What the hell?” She tried to remember seeing Boone. She recalled everything from that day so clearly, but her focus had been on Cody, who looked like the leader. That and trying not to get the rest of the bear shifters shot by the dumbass waving the handgun behind her.
She saved that stretch of tape to a blue thumb drive she kept on her keychain, then searched with shaking fingers for the tape of the town hall meeting. She couldn’t get to it fast enough to calm her racing heart. She scoured the footage of the Kellers arriving at the town hall. Carl hadn’t recorded any footage of Boone as they’d made their way into the meeting. Nothing but his back as he walked with his crew to sit in front of the Mayor, City Council, and the full hall.
Boone sat down in a row with the rest of the Breck Crew, and his nostrils flared as he seemed to look everywhere but at her.
She fast forwarded through Cody’s speech and stopped at the part where Dade stood.
“Some bear shifters go their entire lives without the urge to settle on one mate,” Dade explained, “and then some of us are lucky enough to form a bond.”
Cora gasped and hit the pause button on Boone’s face, eyes frozen on where she had stood beside the camera. His sad expression made her guts go frigid. She rewound the footage and watched it again. Yes, right there! He had looked at her just after Dade talked about the bond.
The bond.
She hit play again. In the next sequence of footage, a man asked Cody if a bear shifter would force a relationship with a woman that he formed a bond with. Boone looked furious as he stood and answered. “Absolutely not. Women in our culture are revered and make their own decisions. If they don’t feel the bond, it’s their choice to tell us to fuck off.”
Boone had bonded to her, of that she was sure. That’s why he had nightmares of something awful happening to her that he couldn’t protect her from. That’s why he hadn’t been able to stay away from her, though he’d obviously tried.
Why hadn’t he just said that?
Was he waiting to see if she felt it, too?
Or was keeping this secret Boone’s way of giving him an out in case he wanted to push her away again?
She saved the recording to her thumb drive and shoved away from the desk. Chest heaving, she stared at a frozen shot of Boone staring sadly at her. He’d thought they would never be together then. Already, before he even met her, he’d planned on staying away from her.
She was angry, shaken, and frustrated, then hopeful, and then angry all over again.
He should’ve told her.
After she yanked her cell from her purse, she punched in I’m on my way back to your house, then hit send.
Boone Leland Keller, keeper of too many secrets, had some serious explaining to do.
Chapter Thirteen
There was a motorcycle parked in front of Boone’s house—one of those big, loud, black and chrome numbers. She parked her Outback next to it and dragged in a big, steadying breath before she opened the door and slid out. The bike must be how Boone was getting around with his truck in the shop. Motorcycles had always scared her for the danger factor, but he was a damned bear shifter who had healed from internal injuries in a day. What was a little road rash to a shifter? Nope, she couldn’t worry about his safety on a motorcycle right now. Not when her nerves were making her feel lightheaded like this.
“Boone?” she asked in a pitchy voice as she opened the front door. Clearing her throat, she scanned the empty living room and tried again. “Are you here?”
“Yeah.” His voice sounded garbled. “I’m in the bathroom.”
Cora tossed her purse on the couch and peeled out of her high heels before she padded into his bathroom.
Boone was leaning over the sink, flaxen hair in damp tendrils in front of his face as he brushed his teeth, half-naked. A thick, white towel was slung low on his hips.
He spat and rinsed, then grinned at her in the mirror. Slowly, he turned and leaned back on the sink. “Damn, Trouble. You’re a sight for sore eyes.” His smile ticked and faltered. Straightening, he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Why didn’t you tell me about the bond?”
Boone froze, like a picturesque statue that belonged in some stately garden. Two heartbeats, and he leaned back against the counter again, scrubbing his hand down his face.
“What do you want to know?”
“Are you bonded to me?”
He licked his lips and angled his face away from her. “Cora, it’s not that simple.”
“It is. Yes or no. One or the other. Have you bonded to me?”
His throat worked as he swallowed. Dragging his gaze to her, he nodded once.
“I saw it. The moment you laid eyes on me at the vet clinic fire, that’s when it first happened, wasn’t it? And then you gave it away at the town meeting when Dade was talking about the bond. You looked right at me. Me. Why me? Why did your bear choose me?”
Boone’s eyes rimmed with moisture, and he averted his gaze, hiding his emotion from her. “You mean, why did my bear curse you? I don’t know. I don’t. It’s not magic. It’s science. I’d seen you a hundred times on the news and thought you were pretty, but that was it. Then I saw you in person, and my damned bear was done. I couldn’t think about anything else.”
“Why didn’t you introduce yourself then?”
“You were dating someone.”
“Did you know I was dating someone?”
“No.”
“Explain this to me so I understand what it is we’re really doing here. This feels big—huge! Why didn’t you tell me you’d bonded to me?”
“You want to know why?” he gritted out, brushing past her into his room. He yanked the top drawer to his bedside table open and grabbed a handful of envelopes. With a flick of his wrist, he threw them across the bed. “That’s why, Cora. Some of these are death threats. The others are job offers from the biggest, baddest underground mafias, mobs, and drug runners. And those aren’t even all of them. I’ve shredded a couple hundred, and the rest has gone to Cody, Gage, and Dade. Some even come to Ma. This is your future with me. I’m still an assassin for hire, Cora.”
“You aren’t.”
“I am what they think I am!” His face had morphed into something heartbreaking—anger and defeat, sadness and a plea for her to accept the monster inside of him. “Whatever the world thinks of you, that’s what you are. It’s why your public image is so important. Surely, you can see that.”
“They don’t know you yet, Boone. If they saw the man I see, they’d let us be. They’d respect you. And pushing me away because of this?” She scooped up a trio of letters and tossed them at his chest. “That’s bullshit.”
“I’m here, aren’t I? I gave in to my need for you. What else do you want from me?”
“Everything! Full disclosure. I should know what I’m in. You bonded to me, and I thought we were just dating.”
“We are just dating. I’m not asking for more.”
“And what about when I want more? Is this your cutoff point? Is there a future for us, Boone?”
He sat heavily on the bed and buried his face in his hands. “I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer. The answer you meant to say is fuck yes, Cora, I want you, I’m bonded to you, I can see how much you love me—”
Boone jerked his head up and muttered, “Don’t say that.”
“It’s true! I love you.” A sob escaped her throat, and her shoulders sagged as she held her hands out, palms up. “You should’ve just told me and left the choice up to me whether to stay in this or not. Boone.” She waited for him to say something—anything—but he didn’t. “Boone, you have to talk to me.”
“I am my father, Cora. I’m going to ruin you, ruin your life, ruin your career.” A single tear slid down his cheek, and he gritted his teeth and wiped it on his shoulder. “What happens when we realize I inherited the same fucked up, broken bond my dad had with Ma for all those years? What happens when I fuck up, or worse? What happens if you get hurt because of what I am? I didn’t tell you about the bond because I wanted to give you the option of walking away from this, guilt free.”
“Am I it for you?”
Boone made a ticking sound and jerked his gaze away from her. “Don’t ask me that.”
“Am I it for you?” she repeated louder as she crossed her arms.
“Yes,” he whispered.
“Boone Leland Keller, you are not your father. He made his mistakes, and I’m sorry that broke your faith in him and your faith in yourself. But his bad decisions aren’t genetic. You are a good man. Look at me.” She sank down onto the mattress beside him and slid her hand against his cheek, pulled his gaze to her. “You’re a good man. Being bonded to me
isn’t a bad thing. It’s not. I’m in this with you.”
“But what if—”
“What if we just had tonight? Tomorrow will take care of itself, and none of it is in our control. But I’d rather have one great day with you than a thousand forgettable days with someone else.”
Boone’s face crumpled as he crushed her to him. He buried his face against her neck and held her so tightly, it was hard to breathe. The discomfort was worth it, though, because right now, she could feel Boone opening up, letting her through the cinderblock walls he’d carefully built around his heart.
The world didn’t know Boone yet. Didn’t know how good he was, or how funny, or how gentle and sensitive he could be despite the animal inside of him. They didn’t know how much he loved his family, or how protective he was of his loved ones, or how adored he was.
She hugged him tighter and squeezed her eyes closed as he rocked them slowly back and forth.
If it was the last thing she did, she was going to show the world how wrong it was about Boone.
Chapter Fourteen
Fury blasted through Cora’s veins as she screeched and gripped her steering wheel in a choke hold. Eddie, that sniveling nard-face, had done the unspeakable.
Cora pulled to a stop at a red light on Main Street and glared at the newspaper sitting in her passenger seat. He’d singled her out, writing an article naming her the “Human Consort of the Breck Crew.” It was right under a picture of her and Boone at the bar standing close and gazing into each other’s eyes. Sure, they’d possibly been arguing in that picture, but it sure as sugar tits looked like a passionate exchange of sweet nothings from where she sat. But worse than that—so much worse than that—Eddie had called the Breck Crew a “family of trained liars” and ran an article quoting Cody at the town meeting.
