Bear the Heat (Fire Bears Book 3) (4 page)

Boone nodded slowly, his eyes thoughtful, as if he’d enjoyed the way she said what he was. A chill brushed up her spine. “I think I need another drink.” Something stronger, like rotgut whiskey or absinth.

“I got you,” Boone said in a deep, rumbly voice that brushed over her skin with the promise that he did.

After he stood and sauntered over to the bar, Cora chugged the rest of her beer and gave into the Keller boys goading her into a game of darts. She sucked at darts, but after Quinn sank the first one deep into the wall outside the target, Cora felt better. At least she could make it into the outer ring of the circle.

Three turns, and Boone was back with a tray of amber-colored shots. He handed her the first, his eyes intent on hers, daring her to turn it down. Not one to shy away from a challenge, she took it from his hand, but murmured, “Keller, I have a public image to maintain, just like you do.”

His eyes narrowed at the surname, but she was going to push it until he explained what a handler was. As the others gathered around the table, she sniffed at the shot glass. Whiskey if the burn in her nose was spot on. She didn’t know why, but she was glad Boone hadn’t ordered her a panty-dropper fruity shot and, instead, had trusted her to keep up with him and his family.

“To Cora, the Breck Crew’s truest friend,” Boone said.

Deep ache bloomed in her chest, but she ignored his attempt to remind her where she ranked here—outsider, not family, not crew—
other
. She gave him a stiff smile and clicked the bottom of the tiny glass on the table with the rest of them, then downed it and winced at the burn of the scorching liquor.

She laughed as Dade gave her a high-five. Quinn complained loudly at Boone’s tastes in shots, but she was grinning like she was having the best time of her life. Snatching the darts from Cody’s hand, Rory took her turn at the board while Dade made his way to the bar, probably for more shots.

“You smell different,” Boone said from so close behind her, she could feel his warmth spreading across her shoulder blades.

“Oh? Can you smell irritation?”

“Is that what that is? Mmm,” he murmured. “I thought it was arousal.”

“Stop sniffing me,” she said, spinning and smacking him soundly on the arm.

Boone’s blond brows shot up. “Do that again?”

The first tingles of a good buzz were spreading through her lips, a sure sign she should slow it down on the booze. “No.”

“Do it.”

Admittedly, it did feel good to smack him, so she did it again. Boone laughed a disbelieving sound and looked down. Cora followed his gaze to the seam of his pants, which seemed to be constraining a rather sizable dick. Long and thick and definitely hard.

“Boone Keller, did you just get a boner?”

“No one’s ever slapped me like that before.”

“What?” Cora lowered her voice as she tried to stop the laughter that bubbled up the back of her throat. “Don’t be weird.”

He leaned on locked arms on the table and stared at her, grinning.

“Boone Festus Keller, make it go away. People have camera phones.” God, she couldn’t stop giggling. “I just made up your middle name, by the way.”

“I could tell. It’s Leland. Family name. All my brothers’ middle names are the same.” He looked down at his crotch again with a big dumb grin. “I don’t give a shit about camera phones.”

“You should.”

“Feel it. Woman, you got me really hard.”

“Stop it.”

“I’m serious.” He leaned forward and dared her, “Feel my dick.”

“Boone, I already told you I have an image to maintain. I’m not going to touch your dick in public.”

“In public,” he repeated.

“Or anywhere else,” she said, lifting her chin primly. “I’m unaffected by you.”

“Oh yeah? You want me to take you into that hallway over there and show you just how affected by me you can be?”

“I don’t even know what that means.” Her words were breathy and faint now.

Boone leaned over and took another shot from a tray Dade was carrying. “You want?”

“More whiskey? I don’t want to steal yours.”

“I’m cutting myself off before I get us both into more trouble than we need tonight.”

Cora narrowed her eyes so hard, Boone’s crooked grin went blurry. She snatched the shot from his hand, sloshing just a drop, then tipped it up and gulped it down. With a screw-you arch to her brow, she set the empty back on the table. “I don’t know what that means either, Boone Leland Keller.” Oh, her words were beginning to slur now.

Boone straightened his spine with his arms crossed over his chest, indecision warring over his features as his gaze dipped to her mouth. Slowly, he leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers. Shocked to her core, Cora went rigid. Boone’s fingertips brushed softly up her bare arm, over her collar bone, up her neck, where he cupped her with his warm hand. His lips softened and parted against hers, and his tongue brushed the closed seam of her mouth. Angling his head, he moved his frame closer, making her feel all warm and safe, as if they were the only ones in the room. With a moan, she opened slightly for him, allowing him to taste her as her belly filled with a tingling sensation that nearly locked her legs. Boone eased back, but leaned into her again with a sexy pluck of her lips, then leaned back again. With a wicked grin, he pulled her arms around his neck, then wrapped her up in a strong embrace and lowered his lips beside her ear.

“If I took you in that hallway, slid that sexy little dress up your thighs, and pulled your soaking panties to the side. If I slid my finger in you and let you fuck my hand, would you be affected by me then?”

Cora let off a shuddering, incomprehensible noise. “Yes. Please?” The hallway suddenly sounded like the happiest place on earth.

Boone’s lips skimmed the oversensitive skin on her neck. He smiled against her skin there. “You’re tipsy, and fooling around while drinking isn’t my move.”

“You gave me the shots.” She was pouting.

“Yeah,” he said, backing away. He sauntered over to the dartboard and said over his shoulder, “And now we’re both safe from each other.”

Cora glared at his stupid, sexy head and leaned heavily on the table beside her. Boone, that ass, had drawn her inner goddess from her, got her revved up hotter than a muscle car, and then batted her away like a cat toying with a mouse. The hormone dump to her system left her shaky and weak, and her nerve endings between her legs were firing double-time. Three strokes, and he could’ve had her.

Pissed at being teased, she grabbed her purse and swallowed down the rampant disappointment spiraling through her middle.

“Hey,” Dade called, “you aren’t leaving, are you?”

She cast a glance over her shoulder and shook her head. “I just need a minute.” Stupid voice as it cracked with emotion. Boone was too deep in her head. It wasn’t Boone the animal that was dangerous to her. It was Boone the man who was conjuring the ability to wreck her completely.

The bathroom was one of those lockable, single-room numbers, thank goodness, because she was in serious jeopardy of crying. Boone had done that. Normally, she was the happiest drunk on the planet, yet here she was feeling toyed with and emotional.

She didn’t have to use the restroom, but she couldn’t go back out there until she was in complete control of her mental facilities again, so she checked her email on her phone. Nothing would settle her raging hormones faster than work messages from her producer. She had contacts all over the area, and three had sent her tips on news stories today. The first two were easy to ignore, a cat had a two-headed kitten and the other was a liquor store burglary that went wrong. The last, however, caught her attention with the title of the email.

Your Bears Lost a Person Today.

Frowning as a heaviness filled the pit of her stomach, she opened the email and read it as fast as her eyes could scan the words. House fire…Fairplay, Colorado…one woman rescued, husband lost to the blaze…all Kellers at the scene…

That’s why Boone had said he’d had a shit day. That’s why Cody had mentioned they needed good PR after a day like today. A failed rescue, and Boone hadn’t once mentioned it. That’s how much she meant to him. Not enough to share a single real thing about himself.

“Cora, let me in,” Boone said from the other side.

Horrified, she shoved her phone back into her purse. “Fuck off,
Keller
.”

“Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you. Please, just let me in.”

“I’m taking a piss.”

“No, you aren’t. I can hear everything, remember? No peeing, only sniffling, and now I feel like a total dick.”

Ding, ding, ding. Winner, winner, werebear dinner.

Cora locked her arms on the sink and glared at her reflection in the mirror. Damn, she’d dressed up for this. Shaking her head, she wiped her damp lashes with a paper towel, mentally patted herself on the back that no tears actually fell for that triple oaf. Determined to blow past him, she threw open the door.

“No, wait,” he drawled out, easing her back into the bathroom. “Talk to me.”

“Okay,” she said as he turned and locked the door behind him. “You have a filthy mouth. Which I realize I like, but you play head games with me, and I hate it. Hate. It. My ex cheated on me, made me feel like crap, and dragged my self-esteem through the mud. Now the guy I’m interested in can’t stay interested in me back for more than thirty seconds. I haven’t ever had an orgasm with a man, and I know that’s too much information, but there it is. And you almost draw one from me just by kissing me, but then you shut me down if I react, and dammit, I’m tired of being shut down, Boone.” A sob lodged in her throat, but she stomped her heel hard onto the tile floor and bit her lip to stop it from emerging. Boone did not deserve to see her break down. “If you don’t want me, don’t tease me. You’re the one always putting me in the stupid friend-zone, and I get it. You aren’t ready for a relationship, and not one with me. Fine. Great. Fan-fuckin’-tastic, but don’t play with me anymore. And if you can’t help yourself, or if you are one of those arrogant pricks who needs a woman they aren’t interested in to fawn all over him, then I don’t think we should be friends anymore. I’ve done that relationship before, remember? I got really hurt.”

Boone heaved a sigh and leaned back against the paper towel dispenser with his arms crossed over his chest. “I’m not trying to hurt you.”

“Then what are we doing? This,” she said, pointing back and forth between them, “feels like more than friendship.” Her voice dipped lower as she rested her back against the opposite wall. “I don’t think that friends is working for me.”

Boone ran his hands through his hair. His eyes had lightened to a strange color, and the smile he’d donned earlier was nowhere to be seen now. “Friends is all I can do, Cora. It’s that or nothing.”

She swallowed the heartache down. “Friends actually share important parts of their lives.”

Boone canted his head slightly, his arms flexing as he crossed them harder over his chest. “I don’t understand.”

“Don’t worry, Boone. I’m not asking you anything about your bear shifter shit. I just got an email that told me about the fire today. I have to report this stuff in the news. You remember that, right? Were you just going to wait until I found out about it at work tomorrow? When I was going to have to report on the fire that you failed to mention, even though we hung out the whole night before?”

“There’s nothing to say.” His voice was soft and dangerous with the edge of a growl she’d never heard before. His eyes had lightened further to a green-gold color.

She nodded slowly. “Of course there’s not. I don’t want to do this anymore. Thank you for the flowers. That was really nice of you, but we don’t feel the same way about each other, and I like to think I’m smart enough to learn from my mistakes. Excuse me,” she whispered, opening the door beside him.

Cora walked away from him, out the door without another word. She said her goodbyes and nice-to-meet-yous to the others in the Breck Crew and made her way out of the bar.

Tonight had started out so promising but had ended with such bitter disappointment.

“Buck up, girl,” she whispered to herself as she made her way down the cold, empty street.

Grandma Ruth didn’t raise no complainer.

Cora wrapped her arms around her middle a little tighter to ward off the cold. Her shoes dangled from two fingers, and her purse was clutched in the other as she made her way toward Main Street. Right about now, it was so frigid out, she was wishing her buzz hadn’t worn off with that sobering conversation she had with Boone in the bathroom.

The rumbling sound of an old engine approached from behind her, but she ignored it and kept walking.

Boone’s old truck slowed to a crawl beside her, but still, she kept up her pace.

“Cora, can we talk?” he asked out his open window.

“We already did that, and like I told you then, I don’t need any of this.”

“Look, I’ve gone twenty-eight years without talking to anyone about my life. It’s not easy to turn that off. If I mess up and say the wrong thing, my crew will pay for it. Will suffer for it. Hell, they could die from it. For chrissakes, Cora, you’re a reporter.”

“Yeah, and I’m also a loyal human being, Boone.” She turned and faced his truck, furious at his lack of trust. “I’ve given you no reason not to trust me, but you still treat me like I’m going to sell you and your family out at any moment. Have I ever done anything to jeopardize your crew? I was the first to defend them, at the risk of my career. You know what? Forget it. I’m tired and cold, and I don’t want to have this conversation anymore. I don’t enjoy talking myself in circles. It makes me want to break things.”

“At least let me give you a ride. If you don’t, I swear I’ll follow you the entire way home.”

With a pathetically human-sounding growl, she stomped to the passenger’s side and climbed in, then buckled her seatbelt. “Happy?”

“No,” he said, reaching in the back seat of his truck. “I pissed you off, or hurt you, or both. I made you cry, so no, I’m not happy.”

He pulled a jacket over her lap, one that smelled of him and the rich scent of animal fur. Then he turned the heat up to full blast and pulled over on the side of the road.

“What are you doing?”

“Telling you about my day.”

Her chest heaved as she stared at him, waiting for the punchline to his joke.

“I was supposed to get off a long, forty-eight hour shift early this morning, but right when my brothers and I were about to head out, we got a call. It was a house fire in Fairplay, but when we got there, it had spread to the barn and surrounding woods as well. The wind had kicked up, and everything was so dry… Anyway, my crew rescued a woman from inside an upstairs bedroom. She was pretty banged up, burns on her arms and was having trouble breathing, but she kept saying she couldn’t find Manny. ‘I can’t find Manny. My Manny is still in there somewhere.’” Boone swallowed audibly and gripped the steering wheel as he stared straight ahead. Easing his truck forward, he said, “She’d been taking a nap when the fire started, and she thought he was still in the house, but he wasn’t. I know because my brothers and I almost burned turning that place upside down in that blaze looking for him. He was in the barn, trying to let their horses out of the stalls, I guess. Maybe he thought his wife was already gone, or he hadn’t been able to get to her. We heard him screaming. We can hear everything, and he was burning. I ran out to the barn, and it felt like every step took a hundred years as Manny screamed and screamed. Sometimes with fires, we can’t get in the building. We just physically can’t if they are already engulfed. We were using the hoses and just dumping water, just drowning the fire, but we couldn’t get to him. That used to be my biggest fear.”

“What?”

“Burning alive on a call.”

Cora clutched the material of his jacket across her lap as she thought about losing Boone that way, and of the fear he had to face every day. “What are you most afraid of now?”

Boone swung his gaze to her. “You.”

A pair of headlights blinded her for an instant from behind Boone before his truck shattered inward. She screamed as Boone reacted instantly to the force of the crash, shielding her body with his as shards of glass exploded toward them. Spinning out, stomach dipping, dizziness, screeching tires and a second later, it was done as the truck rocked to a violent stop on the other side of the road.

“Oh my gosh,” she chanted over and over as she looked up into Boone’s wide, feral, gold-hued eyes.

“Shh,” he said, smoothing her hair from her face and dipping his chin, leveling her a hard look. “Tell me if you’re hurt.”

Why was he whispering so softly? The adrenaline was doing something strange to her body. Maybe she was in shock. She shook so hard it rattled her bones, and her breath trembled as she tried to draw oxygen into her lungs and take stock of her body. Thank God, she’d put on her seatbelt. Thank God, Boone had been wearing his.

A raspy voice sounded over the quiet street through the broken window. “I just have to check and make sure they’re expired. No, I did it just as planned. It’ll look like an accident.”

Cora slammed her trembling hand over her mouth to hold in the scared sounds lodged in her throat.

“Tell me fast,” Boone said on a breath. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head, too afraid to speak. Someone had done this on purpose. The man in the other car had been trying to hurt Boone. No, he’d been trying to hurt both of them. He’d said he needed to make sure
they’re
expired. The sound of crunching glass under heavy footfall blasted terror through her veins. Her breath came in short, panicked gasps, but Boone pulled her face back to him. He pressed his finger over his lips and went limp, palm slipping from her. He groaned a soft, pained sound. Was he hurt? His hand squeezed her leg hard. No. Just playing opossum.

She was already hunched and leaned against the window, so she closed her eyes and slid her hand into her purse. There wasn’t time to call the police and tell them an address. She couldn’t look around and see the street signs, and talking right now wasn’t even an option, but her reporter instincts screamed there should be some record of what was going down. When her grasp landed on the cold plastic of her cell, she turned it on video from memory and slid it out slowly. Sticky warmth trickled down her face, but it didn’t hurt yet. The adrenaline was making her numb. She couldn’t stop shaking! Her rattling body would blow their cover.

“Fuck,” the man said.

God, she wanted to open her eyes. This was so much scarier not knowing what this monster looked like.

“They’re still breathing. Nah, there’s no cameras on this street. No houses either. I picked it carefully. Yeah, I said I’ll take care of it, and I will. I’ll call you when it’s done.”

The door creaked open. Boone’s body jerked away from her, and unable to keep still a moment longer, Cora’s eyes flew open, and a scream burst from her throat. Boone had the man’s wrist in his hand and jerked it hard. A loud
pop
sounded and the man gritted his teeth and made an agonized yelp as a syringe dropped from his grip to the space on the seat between her and Boone.

The man was generic looking. Hair smoothed back into place, as if he’d combed it after the wreck. Smooth-shaven face, enraged coffee-colored eyes, and impeccable suit. No blood on his face at all, as if he’d been lucky enough to hit an airbag. He was also highly trained, which was evident in him blocking every punch Boone threw at him, despite an obviously broken wrist.

Boone was trapped by the seatbelt as he fought for their lives, and there wasn’t enough room in the cab of his shredded truck to fully extend his arm to box the man. He slammed the attacker against the door so hard, it fell off and skidded across the street.

Lurching forward, Cora unbuckled Boone’s seatbelt, and he slid out of the truck, feral gaze intent on the man doubled over on the ground. “You work for IESA?” Boone asked, voice gravelly and low.

The man scrambled to his feet and wiped the sleeve of his dark suit jacket across his bloody lip. An empty, echoing laugh escaped him as he raised his fists, ready for another row with Boone. His left one was already swelling and painful looking, but didn’t seem to bother him.

Terrified, Cora stumbled from the truck. She swallowed a sob when she got a glance at the destroyed front end of Boone’s ride. Fingers shaking, she had to try twice to dial 911, and when she got through, she spouted off the intersection and told the dispatcher she’d been in a car wreck and the other man was trying to kill them. When she looked up, Boone and the man were locked in a battle that was just as graceful as it was deadly. They never stopped moving, dodging, hitting, blocking, side-stepping. When a hit connected, the sickening sound of fist slamming into muscle brought bile to the back of her throat.

“You stupid animal,” the man growled at the sound of sirens in the distance. “You were the warning, you and your whore. The rest of your crew would’ve come back in line.”

Something shiny slashed through the air, and Boone jerked back. The arcing tip of a syringe missed him by millimeters. When Boone cupped the man’s neck and slammed him against the concrete, the needle launched from the man’s hand and skittered across the ground, cracking against the curb, spilling its contents.

Cora pulled the knife from her purse and screamed Boone’s name as she bolted for him. He turned in time for her to slide the handle of her closed knife against the palm of his hand. In one smooth motion, he flicked the blade open and pressed it against the man’s neck just enough to nick him. Crimson trailed in a sickening line down his throat as Boone applied more pressure. “It doesn’t matter if you’d succeeded tonight. My crew won’t every
come back in line
again.”

“Kill me, Keller,” the man rasped through an empty smile. He stretched his neck up against the blade. “Do it. Show everyone what a monster you are.”

Boone lifted his gaze to the sidewalk where four bystanders stood, watching with horror written all over their features.

“If you kill me, it won’t matter. There will be someone new to take my place, but you already know that. We’re going to eradicate your kind until you are nothing but a dim memory. You didn’t play by our rules, and now there will be consequences. You thought coming out to the public made you safer? Look in those people’s eyes. They hate you. Hate what you stand for. IESA was the only thing that could’ve kept you safe.”

Boone huffed a breath and shook his head. He looked sick, listening to those words. “You made me and my family kill all those people, all those shifters. Their deaths are on you.”

“You pulled the triggers.”

“I
was
the trigger,” Boone yelled, voice cracking with power. “IESA is the gun, the bullets…the intent to murder. I should kill you just to make the world a better place, but that’s too easy. You deserve to rot in jail.”

“Oh.” The man shook his head and pouted out his lip. “Poor dumb monster. You’ve become careless off your leash. You and I both know I won’t ever see the inside of a jail cell.” His voice dipped to a whisper. “I’ll be back for you, but first…I’ll be back for her.”

“No!” Boone yelled, his face contorting to something terrifying. His eyes blazed, and the tendons in his neck strained as his voice turned to a roar.

His wide shoulders heaved once as a massive blond grizzly exploded from him.

Flashing lights illuminated his fur—red, blue, red, blue.

The crack of metal on metal echoed as a police officer screamed, “Stand down!”

Boone’s rage filled the air with a popping sensation, like a bolt of electricity, lifting the hairs on Cora’s arm.

“Boone!” she screamed, tears burning her eyes.

His claw was lifted in the air, hovered over the man ready to end him, but at her voice, he went rigid and cast her a feral glance over his shoulder.

Cora clutched tighter to the cell phone, the one she’d been using to record the man’s admission to guilt. Voice wavering, she whispered, “I need you.”

Please let that seep through his foggy mind.
If he did this, it would ruin everything. Any hope of the Breck Crew ever being accepted. It would maim any chance of her and Boone being together. It would ensure that he got hurt.

“Please,” she begged, “let the police have him.”

Boone slammed his giant paw down right next to the man’s face. He winced away but Boone was done with him. Slowly, the heavily muscled grizzly backed off the cowering man, hate-filled eyes never leaving his.

With a grunt, Boone turned and headed for the tall trees that towered over the next street of buildings.

“Freeze!” the police said.

“No, wait!” Cora yelled to the officer she’d worked with many times when she broke stories. “Monroe, this man attacked us, wrecked our car and tried to kill us. Boone needs a minute to get control of his animal. I will call his alpha, and he’ll come back and answer questions as soon as he is able.”

“It’s Boone Keller?” The dark-haired officer asked, gun trained at the bear’s receding back.

“Yes. He was defending me.”

“On your knees,” the officer demanded as the attacker rolled upward. “Hands behind your head.”

“You’re going to let the bear get away?” the man asked, fury cracking in his tone.

“He isn’t getting away. I know him, where he works and lives. He’s a good man, and if Cora says he’ll come back, he will. Cora, make that call and get Cody out here.”