Jade Crew: Forgotten Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 3) (8 page)

As Gabriel walked into view with two other bears, he frowned. Gabriel had been at the Tongue & Flame. He
still
didn’t know why he had been there to meet with Emma. Hell, he didn’t even have a clue as to why, let alone a full-blown answer. It irked him to be kept in the dark.

As the two Stone Bears who accompanied Gabriel gently placed the stone into a padded steel container and secured the lid with several different locks, he sidled up next to Garrett.

“A diamond one?” Gabriel was saying. “Impressive. Not too many of those out there. I know the Kedyns will be thrilled.”

Garrett simply grunted in return and signed the tablet e-form that Gabriel had handed him.

“Hello Gabriel,” Russell said.

“Russell,” Gabriel said by way of reply.

“Did you ever get a chance to have your meeting with Emma after all the unpleasantness the other day?” he asked, trying to be nonchalant about it.

Gabriel’s eyes focused on him sharply. It was obvious what Russell was trying to do, and he had picked up on it immediately. “No,” he said simply, before adding, “I did not. We rescheduled it.”

“Ah, glad to hear it,” Russell replied, trying to sound like he meant it. “You let me know if there’s any way I can help, okay?”

“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” Gabriel said, clearly not meaning a word of it.

Russell wanted to say more, but he could sense Garrett at his side, and realized he should leave it at that.

“Hopefully we’ll see you soon,” he said to the Stone Bear in parting. Nobody could fault him for saying that, because he did mean it. More stones meant more money for the crew. Everybody won.

“Hopefully,” Gabriel said with false pleasantness, before motioning for the other two guards to precede him up the shaft to the surface.

Russell waved politely at their backs.

“What the fuck was that?” Garrett asked abruptly after dismissing the rest of the crew for the day.

“What?”

“That conversation with Gabriel. Don’t act like a fucking idiot. I know you aren’t.”

“Ah, that. I take it you didn’t know he was meeting with Emma then?”

“No, I didn’t. And that was a cute way of trying to ensure that I found out about it too,” Garrett said. He shook his head at Russell.

“Well, I figure whatever they have to talk about can’t be good, especially if you don’t know about it. I know we aren’t the Diamond Crew,” Russell said, using the informal name. “But damn, I didn’t think we’d fucked up anywhere near badly enough for a Stone Bear to get involved with us.”

Garrett took a moment to respond. His eyes were unfocused, and Russell realized he was thinking through the various possibilities. “Unless,” his Alpha said eventually. “Unless it’s not about the crew.”

“What do you mean?” Russell frowned, not seeing what Garrett was getting at.

“Crew politics are generally a liaison issue. But from what I’ve been told and heard, the Stone Bears get involved when a shifter is acting dangerously apart from his crew in a planned manner. You’ve been in Genesis Valley longer than I have, and you can remember this stuff,” Garrett said with a grimace. “That sounds correct to you, right?”

Russell fought with all his will to keep his face steady and not to betray the pain he felt at that comment. “Yes, that’s about right. It doesn’t happen often, but there have been at least two occurrences of shifters trying to start up some sort of criminal enterprise in town. The Kedyns used the Stone Bears to shut it down both times. Violently.”

“No mercy, in other words,” Garrett said, translating the comment.

“No mercy,” Russell confirmed.

“So who are they after?” his Alpha asked. Both of them knew the answer, even if neither of them wanted to admit it.

“Shit,” Russell said with a sigh. “Okay, I’ll try and find out.”

“Thank you,” Garrett said.

“I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing this for Evan,” he replied, not wanting Garrett to see this as a declaration of support for his leadership. That would effectively ruin any chance he had of getting in with Evan and finding out what was going on.

Before his Alpha could reply, Russell grabbed his tools and headed for the surface. Gwen was waiting, and he didn’t want to waste a single second more.

Gwen

“What do you think about these chairs?”

“Are they comfortable, or for show?” Ferro asked without looking up from the folding table he had set up with building plans on top of it.

“Comfort, of course! I don’t want to make this into some sort of ritzy human upscale club. This is a bar for bear shifters. Big, muscly, bear shifters, who need chairs that won’t break under them but are also comfortable enough to sit in for hours on end, so that they spend more money at your bar.”

Now Ferro did look up. “You have the mind of a dragon,” he said, giving her one of his rare smiles.

“Why thank you,” Gwen replied. “Though you probably won’t feel the same when you see the bill,” she told him. Wincing, she covered up the price as he tried to get a glimpse at the catalog she was browsing on a laptop.

“It’s all about investment for the future. As long as it pays itself off in a reasonable timeframe, that’s all that matters,” he said, burying his nose in the plans once more.

“You’re extremely engrossed in those,” she said, eyeing him askance. “Is it really that difficult?”

“Everything must be done to code,” he said, still not looking up as he reviewed measurements. “Luthor and I have had to redo these plans twice now to ensure that all the changes work.”

“What other changes are you making besides enlarging the windows over there and there?” she asked, pointing at the two walls that faced east and south, which would let in the most sunlight.

“We’re going to widen the doorway for starters,” the other man standing next to Ferro said. “Plus, I think we’re going to put in a patio off the back.”

“I like the idea of a doublewide door, Luthor,” she said, nodding along as he pointed out the larger entranceway on the blueprints.

Luthor was a friend of Ferro’s. That was all she knew, but he had seemed nice enough so far.

Although it was just past noon, she was surprised when several trucks began to rumble into the parking lot. Emma had told her that none of the shifters would be available to help today. Going forward the Emerald and Jade crews would be alternating days to help after receiving special permission from the Mining Consortium head office.

Gwen was still having trouble keeping up with the dual names of the crews. Emma flipped back and forth between Emerald and Silvertip or Jade and Ridgeback as if it were nothing, but she had been at it a lot longer. Gwen understood that when she was out in Origin, using the Emerald or Jade names would be appropriate, but when she was talking to the crew themselves, that it would be better to call them Silvertips or Ridgebacks.

Like when she saw Russell later that night. Her stomach did a flip at the thought as a sudden bout of nerves hit her. Tonight they were officially meeting, and a big part of her hoped that things would go well so they could explore their relationship a little more.

You want him to “
explore
” you, don’t lie,
she thought. Which was true, she wanted him. Badly. He was gorgeous. She loved the constant day-old stubble that decorated his face, and the way his eyes bore into hers with interest anytime she talked. Or his eyes, that deep brown, the color of the earth that he mined.

The sounds of doors closing caught her attention, reminding her of the trucks she had heard coming closer. Taking a glance through one of the gaping holes in the walls, she realized that one of the bears was Garrett. The Jade crew—no, the
Ridgebacks,
she corrected herself—must have gotten off early for the day, though she had no idea how they would have managed that.

Doing her best to be discreet, she looked to see if Russell was one of them. She couldn’t spot him, but she held out hope that maybe he was running a bit behind. Shrugging, she turned back to the laptop in front of her. One thing Emma had taught her right away was that she had to become very adept at going with the flow. The bears were not ones for ridged schedules and structures.

Thankfully, neither was Gwen. She considered herself fairly laid back and able to change plans easily. As long as Russell showed up, she would be happy. A part of her—that smallest sliver of insecurity that resided in everyone—told her that the reason Russell wasn’t there was that he didn’t want to see her.

Bullshit
, she told that part of herself, ignoring it, using work as a distraction.

The other shifters worked away the afternoon, the hours passing by swiftly. Gwen picked out several other varieties of chairs, two couches, larger tables, and even some décor that she thought would go well with the place. The Tongue & Flame catered to miners. She felt it should have that earthy, solid feeling to it. It would make them feel at home, she was certain.

“Hello Gwen,” a husky voice said from behind her.

She jumped, hands latching onto the laptop so it didn’t hit the ground as she almost fell right out of her chair.

“Hello Russell,” she said, placing the laptop on the table in front of her and smoothing out the slight jumble in her hair from the sudden movement. Purposefully she remained facing the direction she was, just to make him move around her.

“Sorry if I disturbed you.” He came around to her left side, his chocolate-colored eyes twinkling with laughter as he fought to hold back a smile.

“No you aren’t. Besides, you didn’t scare me. You make as much noise as an elephant moving around,” she said airily, pretending as if nothing had happened.

Russell took a seat on a barstool nearby, not at the table where she was sitting. Gwen frowned slightly, but decided to ignore it for the time being. She could see several of the other shifters packing up and getting ready to call it an evening.

“I do not,” he protested. “Maybe a horse, but not an elephant!”

Gwen laughed. “Okay, okay, I take it back. You’re a noisy mule!”

Now it was Russell’s turn to laugh, though he kept it soft, so that the noise wouldn’t carry, she noticed. He was very particular about not wanting to seem too interested in her around the others. She was very intrigued by why, and hoped it was for a good reason, not because of something dark.

Like, oh I don’t know, the fact that they think he’s seeing someone else, perhaps?
She shoved that thought away. From what Emma had told her, shifters didn’t cheat. That just wasn’t in their vocabulary. They spent their lives looking for a mate, until they found one, then that was it. Locked in.

Her stomach fluttered at the idea that perhaps she was Russell’s mate.

Russell looked up as the other shifters called his name.

“No, Ajax asked me to meet him here tonight. Wanted to talk about what happened I guess,” he told them with a shrug as they first gave him shit for not helping, and then asked if he was coming back for dinner. The others nodded and then departed for the evening, saying farewell to Ferro on their way out.

“I don’t recall you mentioning anything about Ajax.”

“That’s cause there wasn’t anything,” he said with a grin as he turned back to face her.

“Oh.” Her face flushed a little red as she realized he had made that up as an excuse to spend time with her. “So why couldn’t you just tell them the truth?”

Russell frowned, pursing his lips, before he stood up and came and sat in the chair next to her, turning to face her.

“Okay, you deserve to know that. It’s easy to grasp what I’m about to say intellectually, but you might have a hard time truly understanding it.”

Gwen braced herself, not liking where he was going.

“It’s not bad,” he said, picking up on her reaction.

“The crew is on edge right now,” he said, sitting back into his chair as the words began to flow. “We’re a new crew. There was a big fight between two existing crews. A number of members of each were killed, or sentenced to be ended, as several humans died as well. Those of us that were left from both crews were merged into the Ridgebacks.”

Gwen’s eyebrows rose. “That sounds like a recipe for disaster!”

Russell grimaced. “And you know what, it’s not changed too much. Three of us came from one crew. Two came from another. One more was added, though I don’t know his backstory. Then we were all placed under Garrett.”

She picked up on that same strange tone in Russell’s voice when he said that name, but she didn’t push it any further.

“He’s kept us together, but barely. My old Alpha, Evan, is the second in the Ridgebacks. He’s also made it no secret that he feels he should be Alpha. Really, he’s also been a huge dick about the whole thing, and doesn’t seem to be changing. But,” Russell sighed in frustration, “I owe him. He saved my life.”

“Okay,” Gwen said. “But I still don’t understand.”

“Evan is…probably a little bit unstable right now. I generally support him in the crew, or nobody at all. I can’t outright support Garrett.”

This time she could almost feel the pain. What
was
it between him and Garrett? What wasn’t he telling her, and from what she could gather, not telling his Alpha either? It was big, and close enough to him that it clearly
hurt
him. She shook her head mentally and focused back on what Russell was saying.

“So what does being seen with me have to do with supporting Garrett?” she asked, confused at the logic.

“You’re best friends with Emma. Emma is Garrett’s mate. Thus you support Garrett, whether you truly do or not, that’s just the way it will break down in the crew. Nothing you can do about that,” he said apologetically, not that she cared. She
did
support Emma, and trusted her decision with Garrett.

“If I’m seen with you, if they find out we’re dating, or involved, or whatever this connection is between us,” he said, waving his hand back and forth between her and him, “then that will be seen as me supporting Garrett. That will destabilize the ‘sides’ in the crew. I’m not sure what Evan will do if he finds out
he’s the only one left
.” Russell emphasized the words to let her know he thought it was ridiculous.

“If you were to be seen, say, kissing me,” she said purposefully, “Evan might not take that so well?”

“I think he would probably do something that would result in him being ended. I can’t let that happen,” Russell said seriously, though she had seen his eyes flicker at the thought of kissing her. “But that doesn’t mean I’m stupid enough to deny that I have feelings for you.” His voice deepened as he held her gaze, his eyes unblinking as he slowly reached out a hand across the table, taking hers within his warm, soft grasp.

Gwen licked her lips, swallowing hard as she tried to control her breathing. It was coming in shorter, shallower bursts despite her best efforts.

There’s a table between you. He can’t kiss you over the table,
she tried to tell herself, trying to calm the frantic beating of her heart.

Under his hand, his thumb hooked around hers and gently began to caress her palm. It shouldn’t have caused anything, but a shiver ran through her body anyway, betraying her excitement at his outward show of interest and desire.

“Feelings?” she squeaked out nervously.

“Strong feelings,” he replied, saying each word slowly and with emphasis.

His eyes never wavered, she noticed. From the moment they had met hers, he hadn’t glanced elsewhere. Not even a flicker toward the exposed skin under her neck, where her shirt dipped, revealing the faintest curve of her cleavage. The pressure of his gaze was intense, and it ratcheted up a notch as he continued to apply it.

“Strong, yes,” she said, noting the outline of his muscles under the shirt he was wearing. It was a dress shirt, but he had rolled up the sleeves to his elbow. She could see his forearm muscles moving as he gently turned her hand over, so it was palm-up inside his. “I’ve, um...” Gwen flushed beet red as she searched for the words that had just failed her. “I’ve felt it too,” she finished lamely.

Russell smiled, the dimples on his face emphasized by the stubble. She longed to reach out and caress him, to feel the soft prickle of his facial hair under her fingers as she traced the outline of his jaw. That strong jaw, with the thick cheekbones. Or the shock of dark brown hair on the top of his head. She had seen a tuft of light blond on the back of his head, and she wanted to explore that, to see what it was.

Her heart skipped a beat as he reached forward across the table. His free hand caressed the side of her face far more gently than she would have believed possible as deft fingers smoothly tucked a stray lock of her long hair back behind her ear.

His face was close. So close. All she had to do was reach out, to lean forward no more than a few inches. Heat washed over her as she felt it radiating off of him. It was tempting. Her heart wanted it, as did the aching between her legs, a need that hadn’t been satisfied in too long. But her brain held back.

After a moment, Russell sat back slowly into his chair, the moment and most of the tension gone. She kicked herself mentally for not having the guts to go for it. He had given her the option, forcing the issue without openly taking advantage of her, and she had balked. Swearing at her brain, Gwen vowed that if another opportunity presented itself, she wouldn’t be such a coward. There was obviously something going on between them, and she owed it to herself to see where it would go.