Blaze (Bearpaw Ridge Firefighters Book 8)

by Ophelia Sexton

If we can't see them, they can't see us…but we can smell and hear them, Dimitri's bear said, eager for the hunt.

  The prickling sensation of impending shift strengthened to pins and needles over his entire body, and Dimitri knew that his eyes had probably turned pure gold.

  He glanced over at Ash and saw that his brother-in-law's eyes had turned gold as well.

  "You thinking the same thing I am?" he asked Ash.

  Ash gave him a feral smile that was utterly unlike his usual easygoing grin. "Let our bears out to play? Yep. I only hope that we don't scare Sophie any more than she already is."

  As Dimitri pulled the truck off the highway a few hundred yards in front of the turn-off to the parking lot, Ash called Mary and let her know where Sophie's cell signal was coming from.

  "We're on our way. And since I know I can't talk a bear shifter out of anything once you've made up your minds, don't make too much of a mess, and please try not to get shot," Mary said, sounding resigned.

  She had been mated to Tyler for nearly six years now and knew the drill.

  Approaching the bridge, the highway gradually sloped upwards, running along the top of a ramp-like embankment designed to keep the roadbed above the flood levels usually associated with spring thaw.

  Now the embankment provided concealment from passing cars as Dimitri and Ash scrambled down the steep slope of the embankment and hastily stripped down in preparation for their shifts.

  Driven by the primal need to defend his mate, Dimitri completed his shift first and charged for the grove.

  When he arrived, he saw something that made him want to roar with rage.

  There was a single vehicle parked in the lot: the big green Suburban that Matt and Ellie had described. The rear door was open, and Dimitri could see Sophie lying in the cargo area, her hands and feet bound with duct tape, a black bag pulled over her head.

  A big man, dressed like one of the professional fishing competitors on TV, was standing next to the open cargo area, a gun in his hand.

  But the goon wasn't paying attention to the terrified little girl in the SUV. Instead he was focused on watching Damaris.

  Every fiber of his dual nature was raging against the sight in front of him, but Dimitri forced himself to remain silent, ghosting through the grove until he was within striking range.

  Tony Rizzo, his pale blond hair recognizable from photos that Dimitri had seen, had Damaris pushed up against a broad-trunked tree that stood close to the SUV.

  Her dress was torn, and her face was reddened and swollen with fresh bruising, her lower lip split and bleeding.

  She looked like she had been fighting for her life, and the sight, mingled with the scents of her rage and fear and Tony's lust, drove Dimitri's bear berserk.

  A third man sat on a nearby picnic table, filming Tony and Damaris with his smartphone.

  As Dimitri approached with deadly stealth, he saw that Tony was hamming it up for the camera, slowly and deliberately tearing bits of Damaris's clothing off her body. He tried to kiss her, and her face twisted in disgust as she turned her face away.

  Tony snarled, drew back his fist, and punched her, snapping her head back against the tree trunk.

  Dimitri's control over his bear broke.

  He charged forward with a roar, the man and the bear in perfect agreement that Tony Rizzo needed to die. Now.

  The man sitting on the picnic table shrieked in terror at Dimitri's sudden appearance and dropped both his phone and his gun. He tried to scramble off the picnic table, caught his leg between the table and the attached bench, and ended up face down in the leaf litter carpeting the ground.

  Dimitri left him to deal with later. All his attention now was focused on Tony Rizzo…and Damaris.

  A gun discharged somewhere behind him, but the shot went wide. Dimitri caught sight of Ash's bear charging the SUV and left his brother-in-law to take down the shooter and guard Sophie.

  Get the fuck away from my mate! Dimitri reared up on his hind legs with another earthshaking roar and swiped at Tony with his paw.

  Fabric ripped as Tony went flying, and the satisfying scent of blood replaced the disgusting smell of his arousal.

  Dimitri heard the sound of breaking bone as Tony crashed against a nearby tree, followed by a high scream of pain and terror.

  That scream was echoed by one closer to the SUV. Dimitri glanced over and saw that Ash had the third man pinned under a giant paw.

  Sophie was whimpering, no doubt scared out of her wits by the sounds she was hearing.

  In the distance, Dimitri heard the first faint sounds of an approaching siren.

  Tony was trying to crawl away from the base of the tree he'd hit. He panted with terror as he dragged his left leg behind him. His pants leg was soaked with blood, and his tattered shirt revealed long, bleeding claw marks striping him from chest to hip.

  Since Tony wasn't going anywhere fast, Dimitri turned his attention to the third man, the picnic table videographer, who'd managed to regain his feet and was sprinting across the parking lot.

  The siren was growing louder.

  Apparently, Camera Phone Goon didn't know that grizzlies could outrun nearly everything. Dimitri smashed the man's phone against the surface of the picnic table, reducing it to a mass of tiny fragments, then took off after his prey.

  He caught up to the goon before the man had made it halfway across the parking lot.

  A blow from his forepaw sent the man nose-diving into the rough asphalt. There Dimitri pinned him with a paw planted between the man's shoulders as blood from his broken nose began to drip onto the ground.

  Then a Bearpaw Ridge PD SUV roared into the parking lot, lights and siren blaring at a deafening volume. It narrowly avoided hitting them and screeched to a halt.

  As soon as it stopped moving, Mary threw open the driver's side door and leaped out. She was closely followed by Dan and Jim.

  The next few moments were chaotic.

  "Don't kill them!" Mary shouted at Dimitri and Ash, who each had one of Tony's goons pinned down.

  Then she whirled to confront Dan and Jim, who had their own guns out and trained on Dimitri and Ash. "Don't shoot the bears! They're, uh, special."

  "They're frickin' monsters!" shouted Dan.

  "We trained them to aid in law enforcement," Mary said desperately. "It's kind of a pilot program."

  "No shit?" Dan asked, but he lowered his weapon.

  Jim followed suit but didn't take his eyes off Ash or Dimitri.

  And finally, Mary caught sight of Damaris.

  Dimitri's mate was standing over Tony, looking like a bloodthirsty goddess of vengeance. She was holding the gun that the cameraman had dropped, and it was aimed right at Tony's face.

  "I'm sorry!" Tony was sobbing from his place on the ground. "I was just gonna scare you a little, honest! I wasn't gonna do anything serious to Sophie! Or you!"

  Mary switched off her vehicle's siren, and in the sudden silence, Dimitri heard Damaris click off the safety on her gun.

  "You're a terrible liar, Tony." Beneath the bruises, Damaris's expression was frighteningly calm, and her voice was soft and even. "You kidnapped my daughter. You had your guy hold a gun…" now her voice rose "…a fucking gun on her. And you told your other guy to start filming, so that everyone on YouTube could see what happened to snitches. So don't try to bullshit me about how you weren't really doing anything."

  "Babe, please!" Tony's voice cracked.

  When Damaris spoke again, her voice had returned to scarily soft. "Don't fucking call me 'babe.' And now I'm going to show you what happens when people like you piss me off."

  "Honey, don't," Jim pleaded.

  He gave Dimitri and Ash a wary glance before hurrying up to Damaris. He put a hand on her shoulder.

  "He told me I was going to have to show him how sorry I was," she told him flatly, "or he was going to kill Sophie."

  A deep growl rumbled out of Dimitri's chest. Tony whimpered and cowered at the sound.

 
"You kill him now, hon, that's murder." Jim's tone was gentle. "But I swear to you that we'll get these guys in front of a judge on charges of witness tampering, assault, battery, kidnapping, and a bunch of other charges. And that's in addition to all the shit that you were already going to testify about. Tony and his buddies here are gonna spend the rest of their miserable lives locked up in a cell."

  "That's right, Damaris," Mary called. "I've got enough handcuffs for all of these guys. Do the right thing. Please."

  Keeping her gun aimed at Tony, Damaris looked at them. Dimitri saw that there were tears streaming down her face. "D-do you promise that he's not going to get away with hurting my little girl?"

  "I promise," Mary said, solemnly, and started forward.

  "I swear it," said Jim.

  "I think the only question is gonna be which state gets to put these guys on trial first—New York or Idaho," added Dan.

  Dimitri left his prey to Mary's not-so-tender mercies and went to his mate.

  Jim flinched at his approach but stood his ground with admirable courage.

  Damaris clicked the safety back on, dropped the gun, and turned to Dimitri.

  "Hon, what are you doing?" Jim asked, sounding nervous.

  Damaris ignored him. She threw her arms around Dimitri's neck and buried her face in his thick fur at his shoulder.

  He wished he were in human shape, so that he could take her in his arms and comfort her properly. But the best he could do right now was to sit up on his haunches and give her a clumsy bear hug.

  "Jesus," exclaimed Jim, reaching for his gun again. "Damaris, honey, don't panic. Dan! Dan! Our girl's gonna get herself eaten!"

  "No! Don't!" protested Damaris. "He won't hurt me!"

  "No shit?" asked Dan. "They're honest-to-God tame bears, like Mary said?"

  Dimitri saw Ash roll onto his back and wave his paws in the air, probably in an attempt to look harmless.

  With no more than a wondering glance at Dimitri's bear, Sophie rushed to her mother, and the two of them fell into each other's arms, sobbing.

  Mary, having cuffed Tony's two goons and left Ash to watch over them, walked over to examine Tony's injuries.

  With a sigh and a disgusted shake of her head, she told him, "You'll live, but you're going to need a trip to the ER. I'll call an ambulance and have one of my deputies ride with you to the medical center in town."

  She cuffed him and read him his rights before using her radio to request an ambulance.

  For Dimitri's part, he stayed where he was, watching his mate comfort her daughter.

  The ordeal was over, and both of them were safe.

  They could sort the rest out later.

  * * *

  Dimitri was silent and tight-lipped on the drive back to town. They were headed for the medical center, so that Sophie could get checked out by Dr. Nika.

  Damaris, sitting in the back seat of his pickup with her arm around Sophie, couldn't tell if Dimitri was angry with her or just processing in the aftermath of the crisis. Her encounter with Tony had left her feeling hollow and strangely fragile, and she just wanted to hold her daughter and try to regroup.

  Because this wasn't over. Not yet.

  When Dimitri finally spoke, he surprised her. She was expecting harsh questions about Tony. Instead, he looked guilt-stricken.

  "I'm sorry," he said. "I should have told you that Tony Rizzo was one of the guys holding a grudge against my parents. He's sent guys out here before to try and kill me. This time, I guess he thought that you might be an easier target. Our relationship put you and Sophie in harm's way."

  It was a sign of how deeply she was shaken that her first reaction was indignation. Tony never told me that he sent other guys to try and kill Dimitri!

  "In Mitya's defense," added Ash, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. "It's been over a year since the last guy showed up. We all thought that Tony and his friends had finally given up on trying to off him."

  Damaris gaped at him as Dimitri's words finally sank in. Her sweet love thought that this was all his fault?

  The time had come to stop being a coward and give up the last of her secrets. No matter how much this was going to cost her.

  Maybe I should wait until I can talk to him alone later, without Ash and Sophie here.

  But she realized that they needed to hear this, too. Ash had entrusted her with his most precious secret—his true identity as a bear shifter. And he had risked his life to help Dimitri rescue her and Sophie. Now it was time to trust her new boss in return.

  "They didn't give up," she said, stroking Sophie's hair. "They just changed tactics."

  Her sweet, funny, precocious Ms. Kiddo had turned into a quiet little fawn, clinging to her mother. Damaris only hoped that the trauma of the abduction wasn't going to leave her daughter with permanent scars on her psyche.

  "What do you mean?" Dimitri asked, meeting Damaris's gaze in his rearview mirror.

  Feeling sick because she knew she was about to damage something precious, Damaris told him the truth. "Look, I didn't come to Bearpaw Ridge on vacation. I was hired to kill you and to make it look like an accident." She swallowed hard. "I'm Tony's…I'm Tony's hitwoman. His assassin. Making hits look like accidents is kind of my specialty," she finished.

  A long moment of shocked silence greeted her pronouncement.

  "You kill people, Mommy? Like on TV?" Sophie's eyes were wide as she pushed away from Damaris's side and looked up at her.

  It was funny how stress made minor details jump out at you. Damaris noticed that her daughter's eyeglasses had gone missing somewhere.

  "I used to kill people. I don't do that anymore," she told Sophie.

  She took her daughter's hand and squeezed it. To her relief, Sophie squeezed back, though she was still looking at Damaris like her mother had suddenly turned into a stranger.

  "And I notice I'm still alive," Dimitri said, his tone neutral.

  He kept his eyes on the road.

  "Had any close calls lately, Mitya?" asked Ash. Damaris couldn't tell if he was serious.

  Dimitri shook his head. "So, Tony sent you to kill me. But here I am. Why?"

  "When I met you, I knew I couldn’t go through with it. I fell for you, Dimitri, I really did."

  I am not going to cry, Damaris told herself. I am going to get through this conversation like an adult, and when Dimitri breaks up with me, I'll wait until I can find somewhere private to let it all out.

  "I know," he said, his voice so soft that it was almost inaudible. "And I know you were telling me the truth when you told me that you were closing down your consulting business and leaving your old life in New York behind."

  "I was totally serious about that," she assured him. "I know I hurt your feelings by going to Mark for help instead of you, and I'm really sorry about that, but I needed Mark's help in cutting a deal with the FBI and State Attorney General's Office. They're offering me immunity in return for testifying about the hits that Tony ordered."

  She saw the muscles in Dimitri's jaw tighten, but he didn't say anything.

  "That's why he kidnapped Sophie. It was because of me, not because of anything you did or your parents did." Damaris took a deep breath. "This is all my fault, for thinking I could just walk away from someone like Tony without him trying to harm the people I love."

  She watched the muscle in Dimitri's jaw jump under the skin. This is it. This is the end of our relationship. Who'd want to marry a murderer?

  "But I failed to protect you. Both of you," he said tightly. "I may not have brought this down on us like I originally thought, but I let you down when you really needed me."

  Damaris shook her head. Her eyes stung and her vision blurred as she fought to keep her tears in check. "You didn't let me down. You saved us. You and Ash…and my second dads. You were all there for me when I needed help." She wiped angrily at her eyes. "I won't ever forget that."

  She braced herself for Dimitri's repudiation. But Ash spoke first.

 
"You…were a hitman…hitwoman?" he asked. "How on earth did someone as sweet and caring as you end up in a job like that?"

  "It all started with this guy working at Tony's original club. His name was Nick, and he was the local mob boss's nephew…" Damaris began.

  She told them about Nick's attempts to blackmail her into a date by threatening her daughter, softening this detail because Sophie was listening avidly. But she could see from their expressions that Dimitri and Ash understood perfectly what she really meant.

  Neither of them interrupted her with questions as she told them the whole sordid story, how planning and carrying out Nick's car accident gave Tony the leverage to give her "special assignments" that she couldn't refuse.

  "…so I had to be the best hitwoman possible, because I couldn't afford to get caught and end up in prison. I didn't want Sophie to have to go into the state foster care system the way that I had to after my parents died. But I hated those assignments. They gave me nightmares, and all I could think about was never having to hurt another person, ever again."

  When she finished speaking, she sat back, feeling utterly drained. This is it. No more secrets. Just the end of my happily ever after with Dimitri.

  At least Sophie wasn't rejecting her. Her daughter had returned to her previous position snuggled up against Damaris's side. She put her arm around Sophie and drew her close.

  "You thought you had to deal with all of that alone?" Dimitri asked, frowning. "You couldn't ask anyone for help? Not even your second dads?

  "Especially not them," Damaris said fervently. "I couldn't let this touch Dan and Jim…or anyone else I care about. Tony has this way of getting people in his clutches. And…I was ashamed of what I'd become."

  "And it's over now? You're really and truly out of the business?" She still couldn’t read Dimitri's reaction. Or Ash's for that matter.

  But that didn't really matter now. She knew she was done here in Bearpaw Ridge.

  And yet, it was strange how much better she felt now that she'd confessed her many sins…even if it meant losing everything.

  "Yes, I'm done, and I'm happy to be done. Though I was ready to make an exception for Tony and his guys when they took Sophie," she added with complete honesty. "I'll always do whatever I have to, to save her."