Bleacke's Geek (Bleacke Shifters) (31 page)

Her fingers appeared on his abs first, lightly stroking up to where the bandage wrapped his torso. “Never.”

“What does this mean?”

Her cheek felt soft against the crook of his shoulder, where she was now firmly nestled under his arm. “You’re a human mate with no shifter blood, as far as we can tell. But you disobeyed a direct command from me, your Prime Alpha mate, when I was in danger. You didn’t just kill another shifter, you killed a Prime Alpha shifter. Palmer should have been able to freeze you in your tracks with a thought when he was beating you, and you defied him, too.”

“What does that have to do with me keeping my larynx?”

“Don’t you understand? For some reason, you’re strong.”

“I’ve got big balls, in Badger-speak.”

“Yeah. Real big. Saturn-sized.”

“The car or the planet?”

She caught his teasing tone and kissed him. “The planet.” Her fingers resumed their comforting strokes along his flesh. “You saved me when I couldn’t protect you. I needed you to…”

“Claim you?”

“Yeah.”

“And this is good?”

“This is very good.” He felt her slip into a relieved sleep next to him. As he lay there stroking her hair, he realized he felt okay being “just” a mate. The subtle pinch to his pride that he’d felt since meeting her, worse than normal, was gone.

He’d saved her. He’d saved
his
mate.

So what if she normally saved his ass? When the chips were down, he now knew if he had to, he could keep her safe, too.

* * * *

The next morning, Dewi was downstairs on the phone, calling Ken’s work for him to tell them he’d been in an accident. While she was doing that Beck came in carrying a laptop.

“How you feeling?”

Ken nodded. “Like crap warmed over.”

Beck smiled and dragged a chair over to the bed. “Can you figure out how to get into this?”

Ken reached for it. “Forget your password?”

Beck slowly shook his head. “Found it in the fucker’s car. His real name was Walter Endquist. Got that from his wallet.”

“Oh.” He powered it up and a password screen appeared. He tried a few things. “Can you grab my laptop and the case from the office?”

“Sure.” He returned a few minutes later with them. Ken pulled a jump drive from his laptop bag, downloaded a program onto the jump drive, then put the jump drive into Endquist’s laptop and booted it into bios. From there, he was able to get into Windows and reboot the computer.

“Bingo.” He reset the admin password and then handed the laptop back to Beck. “There you go.”

Beck wouldn’t take it. “You’re the computer expert. What can you tell us about him?”

Ken frowned, but started with the easiest, the most recently visited places.

Pictures.

He let out a cry and had to clap a hand to his mouth, as well as close his eyes, as he tried to shove the laptop back at Beck.

Unfortunately, the images of the man and woman…and a young infant—girl, if the pink onesie was a clue—horrified him. The man bound. The woman, bound and stripped from the waist down.

The baby with bruises.

And then the man and woman…dead, their throats slit and eyes wide open and lifelessly staring at the camera.

Ken kept his eyes squeezed tightly shut and prayed Dewi didn’t come upstairs. He felt Beck take the laptop from him and heard the man’s sharp intake of breath, followed by the lid of the laptop being slammed shut.

“What’s the password?” Beck hoarsely asked.

Ken had to swallow back the bile in his throat. “1-2-3-4. I kept it easy.”

“Thanks.”

“Was that—”

“Yeah.”

“Shit.” When he felt he could open his eyes, he looked at Beck. The shifter had gone pale. As Ken looked at Beck’s hands, he saw the shifter trembling. “Don’t tell her. Please. And don’t fucking show her.”

Beck shook his head. “No. She won’t see them. I promise.” He rose and quickly bolted from the room. Ken heard Beck’s bedroom door open, then shut again a moment later. Beck returned, still looking as sick as Ken felt.

“Come on. Let’s get you up,” Beck said.

“Why?”

“Because we need an excuse to tell Dewi when she gets up here in about one minute why you look sick. Pain will make a man look sick.” He helped Ken out of bed and mostly carried him to the bathroom, where he deposited him on the toilet. “Capice?”

Ken nodded as he struggled to yank his shorts down. “Capice.”

* * * *

Later that afternoon, before dinner and while Dewi was working out downstairs, Badger and Beck were Ken-sitting. Ken wanted to talk with the two men. Beck looked only slightly less ill than he had earlier. Badger had gone stone-faced.

Ken sensed lethally deep anger bubbling inside the older shifter.

“You showed him?” Ken asked Beck.

Badger nodded. “Aye. I saw.” He let out a breath. “I wish I could run the bloody bastard through the woodchipper a second time. Alive.”

“Feet first,” Beck added in a growl. “And slowly.”

As much as Ken opposed violence, in this case, he couldn’t agree more. “Only if I got to help.”

Badger let out a snort. “Yer good folk, Ken,” he said. “Right good folk.”

* * * *

Somehow, they kept it from her…or she pretended not to know. Either way, Beck, Ken, and Badger were happy not to have to discuss the pictures with her.

Ken spent the next two days in bed, moving as far as the bathroom, and only then with Dewi’s help. And he decided to email his resignation, much to Dewi’s joy and relief.

When the doctor returned to check on him he proclaimed Ken’s healing well ahead of schedule, probably due to his shifter mate status.

Ken cast a questioning glance at Dewi. “Dr. Collins is one of us,” she explained.

Four days after the showdown, Ken carefully made his way downstairs to the lanai to sit at the table. Dewi left him alone to go make him lunch.

“Hey.” Beck stood at the sliders leading to the living room. “Want some company?”

Ken nodded. “Sure.”

Beck walked over and sat at the table. He’d been scarce the past few days. “Glad to see you up and about.”

Ken wanted this done and over with. “I’m sorry, Beck.”

He looked confused. “For what?”

“I know it’s nature, or fate, or whatever. But I’m still sorry. I feel like I swooped in and shoved you aside.”

Beck smiled. For the first time since the morning they met in the kitchen, Beck’s expression didn’t look forced or sad. “Let me tell you something.” He glanced at the sliders to make sure Dewi hadn’t returned. Leaning forward, he lowered his voice. “I don’t know if I could have done half as well as you did out there. Endquist could have easily kicked my ass. I damn sure don’t know if I could have overridden a Prime Alpha mate’s order.” His smile broadened. “In other words, I’m saying that I don’t know if it’d been me there with her instead of you, if I could have saved her.”

Ken didn’t know what to make of that and didn’t know how to respond.

Beck continued. “So believe me when I say despite missing what I had with her, it would hurt me a hell of a lot worse if she’d died. I’ll trade watching her be in love with you over standing beside her coffin every damn time. I’ll always love her, but she’s not my mate.” He tapped the table with a finger. “That means somewhere out there is a woman meant to be my mate.”

Beck extended his hand. “You’re a damn good man, and I’m glad she found you. Even more, I’m glad I can call you my friend. More importantly, I’m proud you’re in my pack.”

Stunned, Ken took his hand and shook. Beck gripped it firmly, but with none of his previous restraint, where he’d deliberately held back to not hurt him.

Beck wasn’t afraid he’d hurt him now.

“I mean,” Beck continued after releasing his hand and sitting back, “I understand in a fair one-on-one against a shifter that you might get your ass kicked. But in all honesty if I had to choose a partner to take into a fight with me? If I couldn’t take Dewi, I’d take you.”

That shocked Ken. “Me? Why me?”

“You’re loyal and have a huge heart. Maybe you’re not the strongest guy or the most skilled fighter. But damn, anyone who can do what you did out there, that’s the kind of person you want watching your back. I trust you with her, and I’d trust you to back me up.” He picked at his fingernails. “I also trust you to keep her safe.” He glanced at Ken.

“I’m the first to admit I get my ass kicked.”

“Stop. Life’s kicked your ass and you’ve let it. Look at Dewi. Most people who see her see a woman. Only people with fighting skills see her for who she truly is, a weapon. I’ll be honest, when I first met you and found out who you were, I thought holy shit, I’m going to spend the rest of my life having to be this geek’s bodyguard when Dewi’s not around.”

Ken reddened, back to feeling that familiar sting to his pride. “Gee, thanks.”

Beck’s expression tightened. “You’re
family
. You’re one of the pack. You’re a mate. One thing you haven’t seemed to learn yet is we protect mates, male or female. And someone like Dewi, she makes enemies. Unfortunately, so do I.” He pointed at Ken. “And let me tell you something. When I finally do find Mrs. Right-For-Me, I expect you to help protect her, too. You’re not just a mate. You’re a male.”

“You’d trust me to help keep someone safe?”

Beck rolled his eyes. “For a smart guy, sometimes you act really dumb. What do you think I’ve been saying? I respect you, man.” He offered up his fist to Ken.

Ken stared for a brief moment, confused, then realized what he wanted. Ken bumped fists with him. “Thanks, man.”

Beck grinned. “We’re sooo going to have to de-geekify you a little. Otherwise, Peyton and Trent are going to chew you up and spit you out at the next Muster.”

Chapter Twenty

After eating lunch, Dewi brought Ken his pain medicine and was about to help him back to bed so he could nap when the doorbell rang.

Beck and Dewi tensed and stared at each other. Badger was out running errands.

“Who the fuck is that?” Beck growled, immediately on alert.

“I don’t know.”

She started to rise when Beck held out a staying hand. “Stay here.” He drew a gun from his shoulder holster, which Ken hadn’t failed to notice he wore a lot since the showdown, and handed it to Dewi. “I’ll be right back.”

He detoured right, presumably through the kitchen to grab the gun hidden there. After a moment, he returned, his face unreadable.

“You two need to come inside.”

“Who is it?” Dewi asked.

He stood in the doorway and waved them in. “It’s not bad. Come on. You want some help?”

She shook her head and Beck reached for the gun to take it back. She helped Ken to his feet and handed him the crutches, then hovered like a nervous mother bird as he slowly made his way inside, following Beck to the formal living room.