Bear The Flame (Firebear Brides 2) (8 page)

The knowing smirk on her lips told him that Rose was entirely unapologetic about what she was doing to him.

“You’re a sly little minx, aren’t you,” he said, nipping at her lower lip with his.

“Only when I need to be,” Rose giggled.

With a grumble, Redmond spun her away and then back into his arms, admiring the way her dress plumed and fluttered around her thick pale hips. Whether she was wearing tights, or a skirt, or sweats, she was still the perfect incarnation of beauty for him. It felt crazy feeling that way about a woman he had met just days ago, but his bear knew. And even though his rational side may have tried to put up a fight in the beginning, he knew it too.

They were lost in a sea of bodies, all happily dancing and celebrating. The whole town seemed to have shown up for the party, and Redmond had been introduced to most of them. He hadn’t met a man or a woman yet he didn’t like, and that was so weird it was bordering on the supernatural. Every hand he shook and every eye he looked into left him feeling content with his choice of staying in Shifter Grove and trying to make a go of it. It was uncanny, really.

After his prolonged soak with Rose the previous night, he’d sat down with Royce and worked out a quick and dirty plan to get the fire department up and running. Until they could get a building, they could work out of one of the sheds and the engine shop on the Hamilton grounds. They’d need a fire engine or two pretty quickly and lots of gear, but the basics were easy to acquire for the most part.

The most troubling part came with putting out the large-scale wildfires. Though they weren’t very common in the area then, Redmond had seen enough of what the smaller ones could do to have him seriously worried. He didn’t need to play witness to a whole mountainside of forest being burned down to understand the possible repercussions of soil erosion and other varied dangers. But he and Royce were both city bears, better equipped to deal with building fires.

There was a man who could help them with the wilderness part of it all, but he was a hurdle neither Redmond nor Royce was ready to try and cross yet. No, their little brother Rhodes would have to be a headache for another time. They could get the minimum viable solution going without relying on his expertise.

The music was pumping through the jukebox, and for a moment, Redmond wondered how a place like Shifter Grove didn’t have its own band yet. His musings were cut short when he dipped Rose to the beat of the tune and he saw the figure of a man standing at the entrance, looking very familiar.

“Holy shit!” Redmond mumbled, stopping mid-step.

“What?” Rose asked, spinning in the direction Redmond was staring.

There was a hint of worry on her expression, but it cleared when she saw that the man he was looking at wasn’t anyone she knew. Frowning, Rose glanced up at Redmond. “Anyone you know?”

“Can’t you see the family resemblance?” Redmond asked, chuckling.

The man at the door was tall, broad-shouldered, and decidedly fit, much like Redmond. But that was where the similarities ended.

“As I live and breathe, if it isn’t Ragnar Hamilton,” Royce bellowed, clutching Redmond by the shoulder as he blew past them.

Redmond gave an apologetic grin to Rose before he joined Royce’s enthusiasm. They struggled through the crowd and were on Ragnar like a pack of wolves, clamping the man between their massive hugs. While Redmond and Ragnar looked very little alike, Royce and Ragnar certainly looked like they were cut from the same tree. Same somber eyes, thick build, and stoic expression, they could have been twins if Ragnar hadn’t been just a tad taller and his expression stonier. Apparently he hadn’t quite drunk the Shifter Grove Kool-Aid yet, which would account for his somewhat sullen disposition.

“You made it!” Redmond said, clapping him on the back. “I thought you wouldn’t come.”

And that was the truth. Ragnar was at best on a greeting card level with the rest of the family. Redmond couldn’t safely remember when he last saw the man, and even less when he’d seen him smile. Maybe that Christmas twelve years ago? Hell, that could be it.

“Well, I heard you two numbskulls were trying to solve a mystery and I know how well that usually goes,” Ragnar scoffed grimly, giving the faintest of smirks as they went from a hug to a handshake with Royce.

“How’d you get here?” Royce asked, but his question was answered by an obviously self-satisfied looking Slate wandering in behind Ragnar, his wife Teresa in tow.

“You bastard. You flew, didn’t you? And you didn’t tell anyone,” Redmond said accusingly, though his wide grin gave him away.

He’d been itching to leave a few days ago, but at this point if Slate never took another flight out of Shifter Grove, then it would be fine with him. The pilot just shrugged good-naturedly and gave the Hamilton brothers a wink.

“Maybe. I don’t know anything. And I definitely don’t know anything about the helicopter bucket I just flew in from Boise, either.”

“Fire trouble getting too hot to handle?” Ragnar asked absently as Royce and Redmond shared a look.

Redmond had called Ares that morning to lay out some of his preliminary plans. One of the necessities he’d mentioned was to get a helicopter bucket to aid in putting out the forest fires with Slate’s chopper. He’d assumed Ares to be the kind of guy not to screw around when things were important, but Redmond had to admit that he was impressed by the speed with which Ares had jumped to solving things. Things moved a lot faster in Shifter Grove than they did in Los Angeles and that struck him as damn funny.

They were just in the process of leading Ragnar back toward Tiana and Rose when a breathless Rake Whiteplains pushed past him, running straight toward the bar where Warren and Austin were standing. Redmond could smell the smoke on the man half a mile away and so could his brothers. The good mood was cut like a knife. When Austin silenced the jukebox and Warren held up his hands to silence the laughter and conversation, Redmond already knew what was coming.

“Guys, we have to cut our party short. Seems like we have some more work to do. A big patch of forest off of Rake’s ranch has caught on fire. It’s spreading fast and it’s serious.”

Warren looked straight at the Hamilton brothers and Redmond gave him a short nod of understanding. They were almost out of the chemical extinguishers, but now they had the helicopter bucket, so depending on the situation, they could possibly take care of it. But it wasn’t going to be easy, especially if it was a big fire.

“I’m going to be handing over the situation to the Hamiltons, standing over there by the door. I think you all know them by now. But we have to move fast. So everyone who can, go get your trucks and we’ll meet on the road leading into the Whiteplains’ ranch!” Warren called, igniting an immediate flurry of activity.

“I’ll talk to them,” Redmond said, stopping Royce from going to Tiana and Rose. “Go get the truck.”

Ragnar and Royce peeled off as Redmond rushed to Rose, giving her a hurried kiss on the cheek and grabbing his jacket from the booth they’d claimed earlier in the evening.

“You have to go again?” she asked, eyes sparkling with worry.

“Yeah. I’m sorry, baby, but I’ll let you know how things are going as soon as I can.”

“Look out for Royce,” Tiana chided him, her mouth pressed into a thin line.

“I will,” he promised, taking Rose’s hand and squeezing it quickly as well before heading for the door at a dead run.

Austin’s Texas was emptying quickly and Redmond was sick to his stomach with the knowledge that he’d have to leave Rose again because of a damn fire. It was glaringly obvious that these were not just accidents. Someone was screwing with Shifter Grove and he sure as hell didn’t like it.

On his way out of the bar and hopping into Royce’s truck, Redmond didn’t notice the very familiar headlights of a car that had yet to mean anything but trouble. As they drove off toward the glowing redness in the distance where the ranch was, the car began creeping toward the bar.
 

CHAPTER TEN

Rose

Rose had gone from hell to heaven and back to hell again. She wasn’t sure how exactly it had happened, but between Redmond leaving and waiting for Tiana to sort out who could give them a ride back to the house, Conrad had snatched her in the confusion. Now, she was bound and gagged like she was in some twisted action movie, shoved into the trunk of Cole’s and Conrad’s car.

She screamed and kicked at the closed trunk, trying her damndest to wiggle out of the binds that held her. But it was no use. If there was one thing henchmen were usually good at, it was making sure their tied-up bounty stayed like that: immobile. The car sped along the dirt roads; she could tell that much because of the constant bumps and sharp turns along the path. After a while, she could get the gag out of her mouth, but kept herself from yelling. It wouldn’t do any good anyway if there was no one to hear it.

Swallowing her panic, Rose was trying to keep a level head on her shoulders.

What can I do? How the hell can I get out of this?
she asked herself, hoping against hope to get some sort of a brilliant idea that would make it all better.

But before she could come up with this dazzling plot, the car slowed and then came to a sudden stop. When the trunk was opened and she was met with Cole’s and Conrad’s sneering faces. Rose screamed as loud as her lungs allowed. Cole just snickered in reply as Conrad fished her out and threw her over his shoulder.

“Scream all you want, Rosey. No one to hear you here,” Cole said conversationally as he slammed the trunk and all three of them walked toward a house that was still in the middle of construction.

Shifter Grove had a wealth of houses still being built. Because of the recent boom in the little shifter-human town, demand seemed to always be higher than supply for new living spaces, and different projects were worked on depending on the availability of materials and time. This one seemed to be no different. The house was probably waiting for roofing shingles considering the look of things.

Cole knocked on the door respectfully and the voice that called from within made Rose’s blood ice over.

“Come in,” it called, slick and smooth.

They entered and Rose was set down on a chair in the middle of the living room. There were a few cots opened along the walls with signs of being lived in for at least a few days. This must have been where Cole and Conrad had been holing up, and now Kenner. She swallowed hard as he walked up to her, stopping right in front of her with his arms across his chest. Kenner did not look happy.

“Rosey, honey. You’ve been a bad girl, I hear,” he said, grinning his predatory grin.

While Redmond always made her swoon a little when he put on his cocky bad boy face, it looked so damn out of place on Kenner. He was a tall, rather slim man, built wiry but strong. Dressing in carefully tailored suits, he always looked like a million bucks, despite his angular features and the cold, conniving look in his green eyes. When she’d first met him, she’d mistaken callousness for efficiency and that had cost her dearly.

“Let me go,” Rose hissed, her hands tied behind her back and her legs pretty useless as well. “You can’t make me come back with you like this! I’ll just keep escaping!”

It sounded desperate even to her, but she was a prisoner. No denying the obvious.

“And I will keep bringing you back,” he said casually, dropping down on his haunches.

They were on eye level now, Kenner staring into her blue eyes with all the interest of an eagle ready to pluck out the heart of its prey. He traced his thumb down the side of her face and she winced, marked by a chuckle from Cole. Kenner tossed him a sharp glare and the man raised his hands apologetically, making himself scarce and finding another room to haunt.

“Now that we have our privacy, Rosey, tell me. Why do you keep making things difficult for us, hmm? You know I don’t like playing games, and still you seem to be intent on trying my patience,” he said, dropping his voice lower to that threatening tone she knew far too well from her voice mails and the few times she’d been dumb enough to get caught by him alone after breaking up with him.

“I don’t want you,” Rose pressed out between thin lips, shaking all over but holding on to her anger. “We’re over. I’m not interested in being your girl, I don’t want to work for you, I don’t want any of this. Please let me put this all in the past and move on, I beg you! I don’t want this kind of life and I think you need to be with someone who wants the same things you do,” she said, trying to rationalize with him.

But it was like a herring trying to talk some sense into a hungry shark. She had already lost and she just didn’t want to face it yet. Kenner grinned, slicking his reddish-blond hair back. Once, she’d thought that the way he wore his hair made him look sophisticated. Now she knew it was just a front for the monster hidden inside of him.