Bearly Hanging On (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (The Jamesburg Shifters Book 6) (25 page)

She felt his presence, heard his breath, before he spoke. “Ryan?” she asked again.

His feet padded softly in the dark. Hearing, but not seeing, she turned in the direction of the sounds. “We gotta—”

He interrupted Jamie with a kiss that forced her head backward until he caught her with his hands, digging his fingers into her hair, and holding her in place. “I want to run,” he said, his voice a low, dangerous growl. “I want to take you, and go somewhere, and never look back. I can’t live with putting you in danger, and I can’t live without you.”

“I get a choice, too, right?” she said, pulling away from his lips with a gentle suck. “I’ve got my own brain, remember?”

“I just don’t know how,” he said in a soft, almost defeated voice. “I don’t know how we can be here and not be constantly looking over our shoulders. I don’t know how I can live in a place and just be normal, just be... me. All because of my father, my past, I don’t know.”

Jamie interrupted him, that time, when Ryan seemed to get just a little too upset. Her tongue swirled into his mouth, she tasted blood on his lips when she pulled away. “What happened?”

“Oh,” he wiped at his mouth, stepping out of the darkness so she could finally see him fully. “This? Nothing. No, I know that look,” he said. “Really. It’s nothing. Charging around through the forest is dangerous. You run into things.”

Jamie quirked an eyebrow, and gave him a little smile. “I’m not leaving,” she said flatly. “This is my town, these are my people, and you are my mate.”

Mate. Even thinking of him like that makes my brain get all sticky. But to actually say it?

“Mate, huh? That sounds so formal, especially for a couple of crazy kids like us. Why not just... I dunno, a civil union?”

“Shut up, I’m being serious. I’ve made,” she thought back Jenga’s advice still rolling around in her skull all these days later. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’ve kept a lot of secrets that made me miserable. I’m sure you’ve done the same thing.”

A brief nod was his response.

“Yeah, well, I’m not going to do it anymore. I’m not doing the secrets and the hiding. And to be honest with you, if you’re scared of the DIPS or whatever they call themselves, finding you here? Where the hell do you think you’re going to run?”

“You’ve got me there,” he stepped closer and ran the back of two fingers down Jamie’s forearm. “Out of the country? Iceland? Too cold?”

“Been there,” Jamie said. “It’s nice. But it isn’t home. You need one as badly as I do, and you know it, no matter how detached bad-boy you try to act, there’s a reason you gave everything up to run here and keep those people safe and fed. Your heart’s as big as your,” she coughed.

He furrowed his brow. “I’ll take that as a compliment. But we’re not safe here Jamie, someone’s going to find me and drag me in for what I did. Even though I didn’t do anything
wrong
, I sure as hell pissed off people you don’t want to piss off.”

Suddenly, something stuck in Jamie’s brain. Branson hadn’t really been angry or furious or anything else. He’d be more irritated at Erik for going over his head than anything else. “Are you sure they want to
catch
you?” she asked.

“Uh, well, what the hell else would some suited-up agent from a government police force want? And it’s not DIPS it’s DPIS, Department of Paranormal—”

“Yeah, I know,” Jamie cut him off. “But I’m not sure about this guy. He seems more curious than anything else. Seems more like he’s fascinated with the town, with everyone in it, but then again, I’ve been wrong before.”

“And I’d say you’re wrong this time,” he said. “Or at least, taking a hell of a risk by not trying to run, hide, or, hell even pretend I’m not here. What did Erik say to him?”

Jamie shrugged. “Said he hadn’t seen you for a while, that you never paid taxes so there was no record of you, that—”

“Is bullshit!” Ryan spat. “I pay every single—”

“Yes, yes,” Jamie raised her hands. “Yes, you pay them. He was covering for you, Ryan. Covering for you right before he packed up half the town in school buses and went to fix up all those houses.”

“He what?”

“It’s a long story,” she said with a little smile. “But he made good on what he said. Or at least, is in the process of making good on it. Did you know there was dry rot all around the front door of that ridiculous house you live in?”

The blank look on Ryan’s face said it all.

“Do I look like a contractor?”

“In the flannel shirt that’s always at least halfway unbuttoned?” Jamie asked, running her hands along the inside of his as-described shirt. “I mean, I’ve never seen one with a chest quite like this, or that gets all furry when he gets excited, but...”

The two allowed themselves a brief laugh. “He’s trying, Ryan. Whatever you did to those diamond companies made a hell of an impression on Erik. I’ve never seen him get so, I dunno, full of purpose? I mean, yeah, he always keeps his word, but damn did he ever get
excited
about it this time.”

“I stole a half billion dollars’ worth of unrefined rocks, shipped them out of Congo in an unmarked train, and gave them all back to the communities that the mining industry destroyed. Every last damn one of them.”

Jamie’s jaw hit the floor.

“Every rock, every piece of dust. My father always kept a part for himself, and I did too for a long time, but then I realized it wasn’t my piece to keep. People bled for those stupid rocks, they died for them. Whole families lost. What right did I have?”

“Hold on,” she said. “Did you just say a half billion? Like with a ‘b’?”

“It took a lot of doing,” he said. “And it wasn’t just me, not by a long shot. That was the only time my dad, my uncle and I ever got along for more than an afternoon of football and Budweiser.”

Jamie had to laugh. “Boston?” she asked. “He was—”

“He’s a pilot. Or was, until his eyes got too bad. Flew the rocks out once they hit the Ivory Coast. Cote d’Ivoire if you want to be more correct.”

“Right, and more French,” Jamie added. “You’re serious right now.”

“My dad died six months afterward. My uncle thinks it was one of the warlords getting back at him, but I’m not so sure. He
did
smoke a lot too, though I don’t think cigarettes can shoot you.”

Jamie was just shaking her head, and began to pace slightly back and forth in a circle. “I mean, I knew you were a jewel thief, but...”

Ryan chuffed a laugh. “Not gonna lie, I did my fair share of petty break-ins and larceny, but that was mostly for the thrill. I never managed to get a handle on it, so after a couple short stints in juvie, I went big. I mean, relatively still petty, but big.”

Finding a rock tall enough to sit on, Jamie sat, still shaking her head. “You just called jewel thieving ‘relatively petty’ didn’t you?”

“Well,” he shrugged. “Just being honest.”

“Okay, so you stole a bunch of diamonds, processed them, and just gave them back? How? And I’m not even asking out of a sense of greed, I mean physically. How the hell did you do that? Boston flew the plane... but that doesn’t explain much of anything. How did you get into the country? How did you process it all?”

“Thick as thieves?” he said with a quirk of his eyebrow that once again irritated Jamie with how it made her stomach wiggle and her heart yearn. “It was a lot of work, lots of really ridiculous planning, but there it is.”

“And the house?”

“A gift. Or inheritance, however you want to put it. Dad died, I got a massive pile of money and I blew it all building that place, and setting my aunt and uncle up. I meant to leave, but, well—”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” Jamie said, running her fingertip along the inside of Ryan’s wrist.

“You’re not the only one.”

Without warning, Jamie clenched the sides of her head. “Something... pounding,” she managed to eke out, “throbbing, I—”

Ryan didn’t hear it until a few seconds later, long enough for his concern for Jamie to reach an apex. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, dragged her further back into the cave, and threw a blanket that he kept there around her shoulders. “Hold your ears,” he said. “It’s getting closer.”

“What is?” she asked, grimacing at the throbbing, pulsing sound that flooded her ears. “What is it?”

A flood light burst through the mouth of their safe haven. Ryan pulled her under his arm, trying to blot out the sound as he squinted at the light. “I knew it was going to happen,” he hissed.

Jamie was still writhing around, and still clutching the sides of her head, even as she nuzzled against her bear and tried to get ahold of herself.

“Mister Drake,” the voice came. It was calm, cool, and so damn disconnected it could only belong to one person. “Good to see you again.”

“You son of a
bitch
,” Ryan growled. Jamie, clutching his arm, felt the fur start to slide out as loafer heels clicked on the stone.

“Why does it always have to be a cave? Why don’t you ever try to hide at the Four Seasons?”

Jamie blinked, but the throbbing in her head was so powerful she couldn’t open her eyes for more than a second before the pain took her.

“How did you find me?” Ryan clutched Jamie, still trying to calm her. “
Why
is a better question.”

“The why is less interesting. I was ordered to find you. Short and sweet. It was an assignment I was happy to get, though not for the reason you probably think. Oh,” he said, “why didn’t you tell me you had her with you?”

Jamie heard a radio’s squelch and suddenly the pain in her head stopped. She was still blinking, trying to clear the white hot pain out of her brain, but at least the agony was on hold. The hand she felt next was gloved, and strangely cold. “Sorry about that,” the same disembodied voice from earlier, intoned. “Radio jamming. Didn’t realize you were here or I’d never have—”

Ryan recognized the flash in Jamie’s eyes as the same one she had when she just about wrestled him to the ground what seemed like forever ago.

A split second later, she had her legs wrapped around Branson’s waist, she was perched on his back, and he was obviously more than a little confused. Actually, “completely terrified” would be a better descriptor. He didn’t try to fight, didn’t even move. The two agents who were also in the cave, but had so far stayed completely still, remained frozen in place.

Ryan made a move to stop her, but before he could reach her side, those pearly fangs flashed, and she flicked her head down into Branson’s neck.

The man’s skin went gray, all over his body, he seemed to wince, and then with an almost sickening sound like wet Velcro being pried apart, Jamie’s teeth, and then her grip, peeled off him. The suited man faced her, though with those glasses it was impossible to see what he was looking at, exactly, and cocked his head to the side.

“Interesting,” he said, as Jamie collapsed to the ground.

“What did you do to her?” Ryan demanded, following his mate to the ground, and picking her up in his huge arms. “What the hell did you do?”

Branson was shaking his head, the eyebrow lifted above the frame of his glasses indicated that he was as confused as he’d ever been, but without any words, it was hard to figure. “Branson!” Ryan was growling, shouting, and now that sound was thudding against Jamie’s eardrums, though she couldn’t move. “What did you
do
?”

Jamie was able to focus well enough to see Branson shaking his head slowly back and forth. “I don’t know,” he said. His voice was wavering and he really did seem like he had no idea what was going on. “I felt colder,” he coughed. “Colder than usual anyway. I need to sit, I think.”

And with that, he sat unceremoniously, squarely on his butt, in the middle of the cave. He pushed out his lips, and then swallowed hard. “I’m not sure what...”

“Get him,” one of the guys in the mouth of the cave said, suddenly, and for what Jamie realized was the first time she’d actually heard anyone besides Branson speak. “Get him, tranq the bear, and get the... uh, whatever that bat is.”

“Oh no you don’t,” Ryan said, standing up tall and shrugging his huge shoulders. He pushed Branson backwards with a casual sweep of his foot.

The two much smaller men paused, but not for long. “Fine,” one of them said. “Shoot him then. Doesn’t matter, he’s nothing special.”

The next sound Jamie heard were cracking knuckles, and a smug deep-throated growl.

The one after that was a gunshot that rang out so loud, she thought her eyes had popped out of her skull. Her brain rang, her ears ached so badly she thought she’d go deaf.

A cold arm around her shoulders, shaking, urging.

Ryan roared and swung a half-shifted paw, hurling one of the suited men heavily into the side of the cave.

“Is there another way out?” Branson said, shaking Jamie. “We need to get out now. Things are getting serious.”

“How can you be so calm?”

Ryan roared again, almost fully beared-out, and not having anything at all to do with anyone harming Jamie.

“Why is he protecting me?” Branson asked. “Five seconds ago he was about to kill me.”

Jamie’s eyes were fluttering, she was barely holding onto consciousness. “That’s... just how he is,” she said.

––––––––

“I
s that a no?” Branson asked.

Ryan planted another paw in the chest of yet another suit, and sent him flying. “How many of them are there?” Jamie asked.

Branson smiled. “Enough to last. So is there or is there not some way out of here that doesn’t involve going through the main entrance?”

Jamie shook her head. “Only been here twice. The first time,” she shook her head, still a little dazed, “I wasn’t paying much attention to getting out.”

A piece of black tie and a pair of sunglasses whizzed by Jamie as she tried to stand. She felt a strange shimmer in the air around herself. “What did you do to me?” she asked. “I feel like I can taste shapes. See sounds, whatever.” She smoothed the fabric of her skirt, and looked around the cave, wide-eyed and strangely able to
see
. “Scratch that, what the hell
are
you?”