Bearly A Squeak (11 page)

“Looks like we’re breaking in, sweetheart,” he mumbled to Tara. Not a great look for a cop, but it was an emergency.

She squeaked at him, head poking out of his pocket.

“I don’t have a choice,” he pointed out. “We need to get to a phone, so I can call for help.”

The mouse rolled her eyes at him. She squeaked insistently until he lifted her from his pocket. Once there, the mouse pointed down at the ground.

“You think you can find a way in there?” he asked, watching as the mouse nodded at him in response.

He sighed. “Fine. Have a shot at it. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll do it my way.” He lowered her to the ground. “Stay away from cats.”

She squeaked at him and darted off. She disappeared behind a bush that grew beside the house. He waited. Nothing. He cast nervous glances up and down the street. If his attackers came back, he would fight with everything he had to protect himself and Tara, but he was outnumbered, tired, and hurt. He’d rather avoid any confrontations for now.

A noise had his head swinging up. The door opened, Tara’s head poking around the side of it. She had clearly changed back to human form to open the door for him.

“Hurry up and get in here,” she said. Even her voice was exhausted.

He walked inside, closing the door behind him. Tara stood in front of him, and even under the circumstances, he took a moment to admire her naked body. Until he saw the tears shining in her eyes.

“Tara?”

She walked towards him, wrapping her arms around his waist and burying her face in his chest. Her body trembled against his.

“They hurt you,” she whispered. “Because of me.”

Growling, he grabbed her shoulders, easing her back from him. He cupped her jaw, holding her gaze.

“No, they hurt me because they’re assholes,” he said firmly. “You didn’t ask for any of this. None of it is your fault. It’s all totally on them and they’re going to pay for it.”

She sniffed and he wiped away a tear from her cheek. He pulled her back in close, hugging her tightly. He lightly kissed the top of her head, holding her until she stopped shivering.

“If it comes to it, I can always set my mother on them,” he mused.

She snorted. Lifted her head to look at him.

“Did you see the state Barry was in?” she asked him. “It must have healed somewhat with his shifter genes… but he still looks pretty beat up.”

“Yeah, and that was just for irritating her,” Alex said, grinning. “Imagine what she’d do to them for hurting her cub.”

She smiled at him. “I’m strangely okay with that.”

“Me too,” he said. “Of course, I can have no knowledge of it. I am not arresting my mother.”

“You say that a lot.”

“You have no idea.” He pulled back a little. “Okay, let’s find out where we are and then find a phone.”

“The address is on the letters there.” She pointed them out. “Phone is right next to you.”

Alex picked up the phone and called the station, arranging for Leo to come and pick them up. Ending the call, he turned to look at Tara.

“He’ll be about half an hour,” he said.

She nodded. He shrugged off his shirt and handed it to her, helping her put it on. There was no way Leo was seeing Tara naked. His bear was hanging onto its temper by the thinnest thread. It couldn’t take much more.

“How are you doing?” he asked, concerned. Her face was white and she looked tired.

She shrugged. “I’m tired and my jaw hurts from overuse. I’ll be fine.”

He winced. “That was amazing. I mean, you chewing through the ropes. Thank you.” He paused. “I’m still kind of mad at you for not leaving though, and we need to talk about that.”

“Not tonight,” she sighed, leaning against him.

“Fine,” he said. “But tomorrow, we’ll be having a discussion about not placing yourself in danger.”

She stayed quiet, leaning against him. He picked her up and carried her to the couch to wait for their ride. By the time Leo arrived, Tara was sound asleep. She didn’t wake even when he carried her to the car, nor when they were travelling home, nor even when he took her to his house and put her into his bed.

Tara awoke in a large comfortable bed, her jaw throbbing. Rubbing at it, the memories came flooding back. She sat up quickly, looking around. The room was unfamiliar but smelled strongly of Alex. His bedroom then. So where was he?

She pushed back the covers, noting that she was still wearing Alex’s shirt from last night. She wrinkled her nose. The shirt wasn’t particularly clean and she wasted no time in shrugging it off. She padded to the bathroom. Still no Alex. Shrugging, she stepped into the shower, rinsing off the grime from the night before. The water refreshed her, and by the time she got out of the shower, she was already feeling much better. Apart from her jaw.

She found a spare toothbrush under the sink, but when she went to clean her teeth, she realized that she couldn’t open her mouth more than the tiniest crack. Her jaw had totally seized up in protest of its overuse last night. She massaged it gently, but it didn’t help. It looked like she wouldn’t be using her mouth much today.

Wrapping herself in a towel, she opened the bathroom door and squealed. Or at least, it would have been a squeal if she could have opened her mouth. As it was, it sounded more like a startled whimper. Alex’s mother stood right outside the door.

“Ah, good, you’re up,” she said.

Tara nodded.

“Not talking?” the woman asked, eyebrow raised.

Tara really, really, did not want to be rude to this woman, but speaking was difficult without opening her mouth. She pointed to her jaw.

“What’s wrong with you?” the woman asked, leaning in and examining Tara’s face.

“Ma!” Alex’s voice preceded him up the stairs. Tara sagged with relief as he walked up to them. “Are you okay?” he asked her.

She nodded but pointed to her jaw again. Alex frowned and then his expression cleared to understanding.

“I’m guessing you’ve hurt your jaw and you can’t open it?” he asked. She nodded. “So, you can’t speak until it heals?” She shook her head.

“How did she hurt her jaw?” his mother asked, suspicion in her eyes. “Or is that one of those ‘private’ questions I’m not supposed to ask?”

“Ma!” Alex said, eyes wide. “She hurt it when she was in mouse form and gnawed through the ropes to free me. There were a lot of ropes and she was at it for hours.”

“Oh the poor dear,” Alex’s mother said, face creasing in sympathy. She wrapped an arm around Tara’s shoulders. “You get yourself dressed and then come down to the kitchen. I’ll find you something for breakfast that you can slot into your mouth. You must be starving.” With that, she left, muttering to herself about finding some good recipes that called for mangy fox.

Tara looked at Alex questioningly.

He shrugged. “She’s probably not joking. I choose not to ask.”

He steered her into the bedroom and handed her a clean shirt. “I’ll get someone to pick up some of your clothes later and drop them off.”

She tilted her head and watched him.

His eyes skittered away from hers. Uh oh. She hummed a sort of “Alex” at him. He looked back, rolled his eyes, and sighed.

“I need to go to work,” he said. She waited for him to continue. “I need to find out about this hitman and make sure we get Barry and his friends.” She waited some more. “I think you should stay here with my mother where you’ll be safe… and-
she-
wants-
to-
get-
to-
know-
you…” he finished in a rush.

Her eyes widened. Oh hell no. He was not leaving her alone here with that crazy woman. She made noises at him, warning him with her eyes that this was a terrible plan. It was pretty hard to mime ‘leave me with this woman and I will carve out your liver with a spoon’. Still, she was sure she got her point across.

He spread his hands. “She’s my mother,” he said reasonably. Screw reasonable. The woman was terrifying. “You’ll have to deal with her eventually. It’s not like she’s going to hurt my mate. Besides, I’m pretty sure she likes you.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. The man was delusional.

“She does!” he insisted. “Barry won’t come here to harass you, so you’ll be safe. Plus, my mother can spend some time with you. It’s a win-win.”

She narrowed her eyes even further. If it didn’t stop soon, she’d be unable to see.

“Please, Tara,” his voice turned wheedling and he unleashed those big blue eyes at her. “I can’t leave you alone or I’d be really worried. If anything happened to you... I just need to know you’ll be okay.”

She sighed. He just had to be all nice, concerned, and reasonable, didn’t he? It was so much easier to fight with him when he didn’t ask nicely.

“Thank you,” Alex said, coming over to kiss her forehead. “It’ll be fine, I swear. It’ll give you time to recover too.”

He walked her down to the kitchen, his hand on her back applying a little more pressure when she hesitated in the doorway.

“Ah, there you are,” his mother said. “I made you some porridge and watered it down a little. Hopefully, you’ll be able to eat that. I’ll make soup for lunch.”

Tara smiled gratefully at the woman as she took a seat at the table. Truthfully, porridge wasn’t something she was particularly fond of, but she was hungry and her options were limited.

“I’ll call if anything happens,” Alex said, edging to the door.

“Not so fast, son,” his mother said. “You forgot your lunch.” She gestured to where a little lunchbox sat. Tara smothered a giggle. It looked like a child’s lunchbox, decorated with Spiderman. “You’re a big, growing bear, you shouldn’t forget to eat.”

Alex picked up the lunchbox, shooting Tara an embarrassed look. She smirked at him. He scowled at her and turned to leave.

“Aren’t you forgetting something else?” his mother called. She pointed at her cheek and Alex walked over and dutifully kissed it. He was almost at the kitchen door before his mother tutted at him.

“Alex Theodore Russell,” she said firmly, standing with her hands on her hips. “I know you are not going to walk out of here without kissing your mate goodbye.”

Tara almost snorted. Oh man, she badly wanted to laugh but her jaw wouldn’t let her. If Alex didn’t get out of here soon, she might actually explode with trying to control herself.

Alex sheepishly walked over to her and kissed her gently on the lips.

“Bye, Tara,” he said. “I’ll see you later.”

His mother nodded approvingly and Alex finally made his escape.

“Okay, you get that eaten,” his mother said, “and I’ll go look out the photo albums of Alex when he was a cub. There’s a particularly good shot of him in the bath.” With that, she left the room and was spared the sight of Tara choking on her porridge.

***

Alex transferred his lunch to a plastic bag, shutting the lunchbox in the boot of the car, just as Leo approached. Phew. Close call.

“Hey boss,” Leo said. “How’s Tara?”

“Fine,” he answered, as they walked into the building. “I left her with my mother.” Now why did that leave a shiver running down his spine? “Any news on the hitman?”

Leo shook his head. “Not yet, but Ethan just called to say that the men involved were Barry’s brother and two cousins. One of the cousins wandered into the café this morning while Ethan was there. Ethan recognized him from the description and the man smelled of fox. When Ethan tried to talk to the man, he bolted.”

“Tell me Ethan caught him,” Alex grumbled.

Leo snorted. “Of course he did. You know what he’s been like since Dana’s abduction. He’s still sore that he didn’t get to deal with the man responsible. He’s just waiting for his next chance to dish out some hurt.”

Alex growled, startling a female cop who was passing by. She shot him a startled glance and quickly dove into a room. He was pretty sure that it was a supply closet. Leo gave him an amused glance.

“This lot are mine,” Alex said firmly. “Ethan will have to find someone else to punish.” It was his mate being threatened and his bear demanded that they be the ones to put a stop to it.

Leo shrugged. “Then you’ll have to get to them first. You snooze, you lose.” The unofficial motto of shifters everywhere.

Alex frowned as he pushed open the door to the office. A young officer looked at him, went chalk white, and backed away, ending up sitting on someone’s desk. As Alex strode through the office, others scrambled out of his way.

“Move, move…” he heard someone hiss frantically.

Leo snorted. Alex shot him a filthy look. That damn lion didn’t fear him at all.

He entered his own office and stomped over to his desk, placing his lunch in a drawer and locking it. There was no honour among hungry shifters.

“Tell me when Ethan gets here with the fox,” he told Leo.

“Will do.”

Alex sorted through the paperwork on his desk. His gaze caught a piece of paper with Sara’s name on it. He sighed. With everything that had happened, he hadn’t managed to speak to Tara about her sister. Well, there wasn’t much he could do about it right now. Especially since Tara couldn’t speak until her jaw healed. He still had to talk to her about risking her life like that. Hmm… maybe he should do that soon while she couldn’t argue with him.

He switched on his computer, waited for it to boot up, and then searched for Barry. He found several online articles that informed him that Barry was from a rich family. His bear snorted. Yeah, he was a spoiled rich kid who had been given everything he wanted. Alex knew the type well. He kept reading. Barry’s father and uncle had managed to get themselves into trouble with unpaid taxes, fraud, and embezzlement. It had ended with jail terms and the loss of the family fortune. Barry and his brother Geoffrey had found themselves penniless, as had their cousins, Leonard and David. Not much was known about them after that.

“Boss,” Leo’s head popped around the door. “Ethan has one of the foxes in interview room two.”

Alex stood and strode from the office. A startled “meep” sounded as a secretary shrank back against the wall.