Alpha Bear Detective: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (2 page)

She didn’t know where the shooter was, though, so she didn’t know where she’d be safe. Her breath was rasping in her ears, her heart going a million miles a second—had Laura gotten away? How was she going to get away?

The Capitol’s grounds had a lot of trees, but they were small and spindly, no big thick hedges. Still, there weren’t any
lights
on the grounds, so Maria would take it over the spotlit stairs. She stumbled down the last couple of steps and bolted for the grass.

Another shot sounded, so loud it was deafening.

Wrong way
. If the shots were getting louder, was she moving closer to the shooter? She darted behind a tree and tried to mentally force herself to be only six inches wide, crouching down to make herself as small a target as possible.

Her mind was racing. Was this a mistake? Should she have kept running? Surely a moving target was harder to hit. But she still didn’t know where the shooter was—if there was even only one!—and if she ran right out into his line of sight, or even right toward him, blindly, she could be dead.

She might be safe for now, here in the dark where he couldn’t see her, but she didn’t know for how long.

And she couldn’t even call 911. The light from her phone would give her away instantly.

So she waited, her panting breaths sounding loudly in her ears. Could the shooter hear them? Her heartbeat sounded almost as loud to her and he wouldn’t be able to hear that, so maybe not…?

Slowly, her vision adjusted to the nighttime. She scanned the grounds frantically, looking for anyone else. Surely the security guard had heard the shots and called the police?

Surely
someone
had heard something?

Wait—there was a person, running quickly and quietly along the grounds. Was it help? Was—

No, he had a rifle.
That
was the shooter.

As he darted along the grass, he was briefly caught in one of the floodlight beams, and Maria stifled a gasp.

She
knew
who that was. She’d seen his face before.

The man took up a position against the staircase and surveyed the grounds. Maria willed herself to be invisible.

His eyes flicked past her, once—

—twice—

He saw her.

As if in slow motion, Maria saw him come up from his crouch and raise his gun. It was pointed directly at her. He smiled.

She ran.

Shots
boomed
out behind her. Her breath sobbed in her chest, but she couldn’t hear it over the gunfire. Surely he was going to hit her—now? Now?

She stepped on a rock. The sharp pain in her bare foot made her stumble, and she hit the ground with both hands, hard. Pain lanced up her arm where she’d been grazed. Oh, God, this was it, he couldn’t miss her now—

“
Police
! Drop your weapon!”

Maria froze, not believing her ears. But she couldn’t have made up that deep, powerful voice.

She lifted her head and saw another figure approaching at a run from the opposite direction. He had his gun out, and he charged right up to where she was lying on the ground—and stopped, taking up a position by her side.

For a moment they were both frozen, Maria sprawled on the ground, her breath harsh in her ears, and her rescuer standing solidly above her, his feet planted and his gun out.

Another minute ticked by, and another…and she wasn’t shot. Slowly, she pushed herself up to her knees and looked over her shoulder.

The shooter was gone.

“Ma’am?”

She looked up.

“Ma’am, are you all right?” The man loomed protectively over her, his gaze flickering from her to the darkness behind her. His gun was pointed directly at the place where the shooter had been.

Maria tried to get up, stumbled once, and then the policeman caught her with a solid, warm grip and eased her to her feet.

She looked up into concerned dark eyes. “I’m fine.” Her voice wobbled.

“You’re bleeding.” He touched her other arm gently. “You need a doctor.”

His voice was velvet-soft and deep, and she just wanted to wrap herself in it and forget that any of this had happened.

She couldn’t do that, though, because she needed to—oh, no.
Laura
!

*              *              *

Levi had screeched the car to a halt in front of the Capitol building as Danny called in
shots fired
, and they’d leapt out and taken opposite routes into the darkened grounds, trying to cover as much territory as possible.

Levi had been the one to find the shooter…just in time.

As he helped the intended victim to her feet, she met his eyes, and he couldn't help but stare.

She was absolutely gorgeous. Long, curling black hair, full mouth, dark eyes surrounded by long lashes, and
very
generous curves. Her chest was heaving, which really showed off her—

Levi forced his eyes away, surprised at himself. Here the poor woman was running for her life, hyperventilating out of panic, and Levi was such an asshole caveman that all he could think about was her hot body? He was usually a better man than that.

He met her eyes instead. Trying to ignore how beautiful they were, he asked if she was all right.

“I’m fine,” she said.

But Levi wasn’t so sure. She was still breathing in quick, panicky bursts, and—there was a spreading dark stain on her left sleeve. “You’re bleeding.” Unable to help himself, he brushed his fingers over her arm just above where she was hurt.

That was definitely
not
procedure. Hurrying to cover how unprofessional he was being, he told her, “You need a doctor.”

Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be upset—or paying attention anymore. Instead, she was scanning the area.

Which was what
he
should’ve been doing, instead of ogling the victim.

“Laura!” she called. “Laura?”

“Is someone else out here?” He looked around them, taking the woman’s unhurt arm and backing them up toward the car. They needed to get to a safer location.

“The senator!” She resisted his pull, her eyes tracking around and…up?

He was prevented from asking her to explain what had happened, exactly, by Danny’s arrival. “No sign of anyone,” his partner reported.

“Shooter ran,” Levi explained briefly. “She says there’s another civilian out here.”

“Senator Davis!” The woman was definitely scanning the trees. “She shifted, and now I don’t know where she is.”

“State Senator Laura Davis is out here?” Levi looked at Danny. “We’re going to need some more backup.”

“Screw backup!” The woman’s exclamation brought Levi’s eyes right back to her. Her eyes were bright with determination. “I need to find Laura! I don’t know if she’s all right!”

She started to turn, as though she were actually going to go looking for Senator Davis in the dark, unsecured Capitol grounds. Levi had to admire her courage even as he stopped her.

“Whoa!” He took her arm again. “It’s not safe out here. Let’s go back—” He took his hand away, and sucked in a breath. “You really need to see a doctor.”

The palm of Levi’s hand was a solid red—he’d accidentally taken hold of her injured side. The woman looked at it, then twisted her arm around to look at that. “The bullet,” she said.

“You were hit?” Levi leaned in to look at her arm.

“Just barely,” she said impatiently. “I think it grazed me. It’s not bad. Don’t worry about me, we need to find Laura!”

Levi turned to Danny. “Okay. You take her back to the car, and cover me while I go out looking for the senator. Don’t let her come after me.” He wouldn’t put it past her after the way she’d almost headed out by herself.

“I’m not an idiot.” She sounded calmer now, though, like she was just stating a fact. “Someone needs to find her. You’re better qualified than me.”

Levi found it surprisingly hard to leave her behind.

He didn’t know what was wrong with him. He
wasn’t
one of those cops that went after grateful, tearful girls at crime scenes—that was one of the worst possible ways to take advantage of their position, and it was nothing a decent guy would ever do to a woman. He needed to get his head in the game.

Stepping cautiously further out, he called, “Senator Davis? Senator Davis, can you hear me? Are you all right?”

Silence. He kept moving, scanning the grounds once again. The woman they’d rescued—and who
was
she? He didn’t know her name or what she was even doing here so late at night, although her stylish skirt-suit suggested that she worked in the building—had said that the senator had shifted, which meant that she could be
anywhere
.

Levi had been incredibly pleased when Laura Davis had been elected to the state senate—he could hardly believe that there was a real possibility of some progression in the public’s acceptance of shifters. Having a small, harmless shifter in the state senate, showing everyone that she was just a normal woman, was a huge step forward.

Right
now
, though, he was wishing the woman wasn’t a sparrow, and therefore essentially invisible in her shifted form.

A bear—to pick a random example—would never have been elected, but if Laura Davis were a bear, Levi’s job would be much easier at the moment.

“Senator Davis!” he called again.

This time, there was a rush of wings by his face, and in a blur of motion, Laura Davis was standing in front of him. “Are you the police?” she gasped.

“Yes, ma’am, I am. Will you come with me, please—it’s not safe out here.” Levi motioned her back, keeping an eye on their surroundings.

“Maria,” said the senator. “My assistant, Maria—do you know where she is? Is she all right?”

Maria
. That must be the beautiful woman’s name.

“She’s right back here.” Levi hurried the woman back to where they’d left the car.

The second they rounded the corner of the statue’s base, the senator lit up. “Maria!”

“Laura!” The women fell into each other’s arms.

“I’m so sorry,” the senator was repeating. “Maria, I know I abandoned you, shifting like that—I was operating on instinct, and I can’t apologize enough—”

“No, no,” Maria protested, “you did just the right thing! He was shooting at you, not at me. You had to get away. Are you all right? I thought you might be hurt.”

“A little,” the senator admitted, leaning down to look at her right leg. Levi immediately came over to see that her stocking was soaked in blood from a cut low on her right thigh. “It’s no problem. What about you—you’re bleeding!”

Maria showed her arm and launched into her
no-big-deal, just a graze
explanation. Levi could see the tension in her face, though, the way she was holding herself forcibly still.

She was in pain, and someone had fired a gun at her with intent to kill. She was scared and hurt. She was hiding it well, but he could still see it.

Damn, but he wanted to take her in his arms and tell her it was going to be all right. Which would have been unprofessional beyond words. What was
wrong
with him tonight?

Thankfully, he could finally hear sirens coming their way. Maria—and the senator—would be getting medical attention soon.

He was impressed with both women, when it came down to it. Neither of them was crying, hyperventilating, or otherwise freaking out over having been shot at, and neither one seemed to be going into shock or having any trouble at all with pain. They were doing better than most civilians in their situation—hell, better than most rookie cops did, the first time they were shot at.

He stifled the urge to ask Maria if she’d ever thought about becoming a cop.

*              *              *

Maria wasn’t sure Laura was ever going to stop apologizing to her.

“It’s
fine
,” she said for the hundredth time. “It’s not like you could’ve picked me up and flown away with me. Sparrows aren’t that strong.”

Laura sighed. “I know. But I’m in charge. I should have been protecting you.”

“That’s our job, actually,” the big detective put in. “You make the laws, we enforce them. Or that’s how I hear it’s supposed to work, anyway.”

Maria laughed, surprised. In her admittedly limited experience, the police didn’t have much of a sense of humor.

Or maybe it was different when they were rescuing you.
That
had certainly never happened to her before.

And if she had to be rescued, well, this man would have been her first choice. It had been too dark to get a good look at him before, but now she could see all of his six-foot-plus body.

And what a body—his shoulders strained his dress shirt, and the muscles that weren’t hidden by his clothes were bulging. He held his gun in a comfortable grip that meant business, but didn’t suggest any impulsiveness about pulling the trigger. When they’d been out on the grounds together, he’d seemed to be looking in every direction at once, but his hand pulling her back into cover had been gentle and firm.