Bear's Kiss (Bear Heat Book 2) (4 page)

Prisha shook her head and
tried to scramble away but the big, bad bodyguard had his hand on her
shoulder. Ray had called him Tom.

Well, Tom was going to get
his nuts kicked in if he didn't let her go.

Prisha twisted round and
propelled her foot forward, preparing to deliver the mother of all
kicks.

But Tom simply sidestepped
her and her own momentum made her topple forward and land in a heap
on the floor.

Ray clucked his tongue.
“Don't exert yourself unnecessarily, Miss Singh. It doesn't
have to be painful. In fact, I can promise you that it'd be quick.
Pop, and it will be over.” He mimed a gun to his head with his
thumb and forefinger.

“You won't feel a
thing, my dear. Not a damn thing.”

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Caleb shrugged off his
security vest and deposited it onto the reception counter. “Take
care of that, will you? Thanks, Paul!” he called out and gave
his receptionist a two-finger salute as he walked backwards towards
the glass door.

“Beta?” Paul
grabbed the vest and jumped up. “There are a few calls...”

“Leave the notes on my
desk. I have to go,” Caleb snapped.

“Go? But we just got
back!” Baxter's thick brows flew up. “What's up, Beta?”

“Yeah. We just
finished a death-defying mission with the dragons. Liam Skyworth is
buying us drinks at Skyflame Bar. Aren't you coming?” Paige
squinted at him.

“Where are you going
anyway? Do you want us to come with you?” Baxter pushed away
from the counter and walked towards him.

“No, you guys go
celebrate with Liam and James. I have to...see someone.”

“Someone?” Paige
said, her lips curling.

“You have a date?”
Li added with a grin.

Caleb groaned inwardly. His
Black Bears were too inquisitive, and way too sharp. Everyone knew
everyone else's business. No one could get away with anything. That
was what made them such good investigators and interrogators.

“It's not a date.”

His bears burst out laughing.
“You're blushing, Beta!”

“This must be serious.”

“Who is she?”

“Come on, tell us!”

“You're not usually so
secretive. Wait, you're not dating a succubus, are you? Oh, once
they sink their fangs into you, you're pretty much done for.”

“Did you not know she
was a succubus?”

“You can tell, you
know, by the noise they make when they...”

“Were you waylaid,
Beta? Or were you happy to...”

They kept coming at him with
their questions and innuendos until finally Caleb exploded. “She's
not a succubus! She's human!”

They grinned at him. “Yep.
Definitely serious,” Baxter diagnosed solemnly. “You've
got a serious case of mate fever, Beta.”

Caleb exited the building
before those nosy bears could question him further. Once outside, he
huffed and shook himself. He was usually calm and collected, and he
could smell their tricks a mile away. No one could bait him, or
trick him into answering questions he didn't want to answer.

So why was he feeling so edgy
and out of sorts tonight?

He had planned to drop by at
Curry Corner to surprise Prisha. He would stop by the florist on the
way so he could get her a bouquet of flowers. His bears could laugh
their boorish heads off, but he would woo his mate properly.

Caleb's watch beeped.

He stopped and read the
short, terse message.

In the next heartbeat, he was
running hard down the street and charging across busy junctions
without waiting for the lights to change. Horns blared but he didn't
care.

He had to get to Curry Corner
before it was too late.

Caleb sighted the little
restaurant and saw the “Closed” sign hanging from the
front door. The blinds were drawn across the wide glass windows, and
the lights within the restaurant had been dimmed.

Inhaling sharply, he smelled
human and tobacco scents coming from the restaurant. There were at
least a dozen males in the restaurant. He could hear voices,
laughter, and he could smell cigarette smoke and guns. Those men
were armed.

Prisha wasn't in the
restaurant.

But he could scent her terror
and rage. And the scent was coming from the back alley.

Caleb palmed his gun out from
his holster and slid silently along the wall to the back of the small
restaurant. He could hear Prisha's quick, shallow breathing now.
She wasn't alone. He could scent two males with her.

Holding his gun ready, Caleb
tensed for an instant then pushed swiftly into the alley.

He saw Prisha kneeling on the
ground, her hands laced behind her neck.

A man had a gun pressed to
the back of her head. Another stood to the side, watching the
execution.

Caleb took a step forward and
the man flicked his gun up suddenly from Prisha's head and pointed it
in Caleb's direction.

The man was fast, but Caleb
was faster.

Caleb met his blue-and-green
eyes head on and fired.

Prisha's executioner slammed
against the wall and slid to the ground.

Caleb's gun spat again, and
the second man dropped to the ground beside his comrade even before
he could draw his gun. Caleb's gun was silenced, so the loudest
sound coming from the alley was the thud of the man's body as it hit
the ground.

Holstering his gun, Caleb ran
to Prisha.

She was in shock, but
uninjured. She clung to him and stared at the two black suits on the
ground. Both had dark stains on their chests.

“Come on. Let's get
out of here,” he hissed, steering her forcefully towards the
other end of the alley.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Prisha swiped at her eyes as
Caleb tugged her forward. She didn't want to cry, but the tears just
came. She had almost died, almost been executed in the small alley
just behind her restaurant.

She had been dragged out by
Tom and another black suit, and made to kneel on the ground. They
had told her that if she made a sound, they would hunt down the rest
of her staff and kill them all.

Nurin, Ali and Jennifer would
be dead because of her.

Kneeling in that dark, damp
alley with a gun to her head, Prisha knew that she was doomed but she
refused to accept her impending death. There was no way she could
outrun a bullet. She couldn't fight those two burly men. She was
alone and unarmed. But if her death could save the lives of her
three loyal employees, well, she could live with that—or
rather, die with that. But she didn't want to die. She
refused
to die.

As she knelt in the dark,
Prisha had silently asked her grandmother for guidance and courage.
Her grandmother was her inspiration, her guide, and her guardian
angel. “I hope you're not disappointed with me, Nanni,”
she'd whispered. “I don't want this. I'm not ready.”

Even stronger than her fear
was her anger. She was angry at her own helplessness. She had to
just shut up and die. Struggling and screaming would just make those
thugs madder, mad enough to go after Nurin and the rest after they'd
finished her off. She wasn't ready to die. There was still so much
left to do, so much to live for.

“Nanni, help me,”
was her last whispered plea.

And it seemed, her
grandmother had heard her. She had sent someone to save her.

Caleb.

When Prisha heard the pop of
a gun, she wondered for an instant if she was already dead but didn't
know it yet. As she tried to breathe, she was aware of Tom and his
partner slumping to the ground in rapid succession. Someone had shot
them in the chest.

Were they dead?

She didn't care. She only
cared that she was alive.

Alive!

She had been spared.

She was saved. Her angel had
come.

She saw Caleb then. He
looked mad as hell, his eyes glowing with raw, feral rage. His
movements were swift, silent and sharp, and in that moment, she saw
him as he truly was, a deadly, efficient predator and protector.

As they ran on, Caleb asked,
“Is there anywhere you can go tonight?”

Prisha shook her head. “I
don't want to put Nurin and Jennifer in danger. I'll be fine.”

Caleb's jaw tightened. “In
that case, you're coming home with me.”

“Home? But you live
just opposite me. There's no difference...”

“Not this home. My
other home,” he answered.

“Other home?”

“I have a place farther
out, out of the city. We'll go there.”

“You have a house?”

“Yeah. I'm taking you
to my tree house.”

“Okay,” she
replied automatically even though his words didn't really make sense.
She wasn't even sure if she'd heard him correctly. Her brain was
shutting down even as her legs and arms continued pumping. She just
kept running, even though she had no idea where she was going.

Prisha felt everything
spinning around, going topsy-turvy as she ran. Nothing looked the
same anymore. Nothing looked right.

She was just a hardworking,
genteel chef, whose hands had only ever held a knife to chop and dice
ingredients, not kill or maim a person. Yet she had almost been
executed by the Mob tonight, and she was now running for her life.

Why?

Why her?

She heard Caleb's voice and
turned her wild, unseeing eyes to him.

“Prisha! Breathe,
Prisha,” he ordered. “Take deep breaths. In, out, in,
out.”

“I'm breathing...I'm
breathing,” she recited as she stumbled blindly forward.
“Breathing...I'm still breathing...”

CHAPTER
NINE

Prisha was vaguely aware of
Caleb opening the car door for her and bundling her into the front
seat. He fastened her seat belt and gave her a quick kiss on her
forehead.

She started and gasped, but
he had already closed the door and was jogging over to the driver's
side. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and tried to stop the soft,
whining sound wheezing through her teeth. Why was she making that
awful, pathetic sound? She sounded like a wounded animal, for God's
sake.

She brushed her quivering
fingers across her forehead and touched the spot where Caleb had
kissed her. It was the only part of her face that didn't feel cold
and numb. His kiss had warmed her, and assured her that she was
still alive. There wasn't a bullet hole in her head.

Caleb started the engine and
swung his car out into the street. She tried to look out the window
but all she saw were flashing lights and contorted shadows. The city
suddenly looked unfamiliar and menacing, and she had to turn away and
try to block out the horrible, harrowing memory of her near death.

She focused on Caleb instead.
His eyes were steady on the road, and his knuckles gleamed against
the steering wheel. Expertly, he weaved the vehicle through the
traffic, not slowing down, not stopping at all. He was driving like
a maniac, but a very competent, skilful one.

A muscle was ticking in his
jaw as he drove. His green eyes were glowing dangerously and there
was the glint of claws from his fingertips. His bear was rippling
close to the surface, and she knew that he was containing his beast
for her sake.

He didn't want to spook her
further, and he wanted to get her to safety as quickly as possible.

Prisha stared straight ahead,
hardly noticing the landscape that was whizzing by at blinding speed.
The traffic thinned out as they drove out of the city, and
skyscrapers gave way to widely spaced houses. Gradually, the houses
disappeared altogether and all she saw were trees, tall grasses and
shadows as they bounced along a dirt track.

“You...you saved my
life,” she whispered at last. “Thank you.”

Caleb made a sound like a
growl. “Your life is still in danger. I'll kill those shits.
I swear!”

“No, no, don't.”
She swallowed hard. “Don't take them on. Please, Caleb, you
don't know what you're up against. Ray Shapez is planning to
assassinate the Mayor! There's nothing he won't do! He's not
someone to...”

“What did you say?”
Caleb turned to her.

“I heard what they were
planning. That's why they want me dead,” Prisha said, twisting
the corner of her blouse. “He's planning to shoot the Mayor at
City Hall next week.”

“City Hall,”
Caleb exhaled slowly. “The Mayor is going to give a speech
announcing a new initiative. He is cracking down on organized crime.
There's going to be a new department, and the police force will also
get a new budget. A special task force will be set up to clean up
the city. The Mayor will announce it all next week.”