Rescued By Her Bear by Felicity Heaton

Chapter 16

Cameo locked up tight as the man jammed the gun into her face, his hazel eyes as cold as ice.

“Tell me where the money is,” he growled.

She swallowed hard and struggled to breathe, shut down the desire to tell the man to go to hell or admit she didn’t have the money they wanted from her. She tried to think of a way out of this mess and couldn’t stop her eyes from straying to the huge bear that lay on the ground just to her right.

Something deep inside her, something that made her feel as if she had lost her mind or had taken one too many pain pills, said that bear wasn’t just a bear.

She stared at the wound on the animal’s right shoulder.

The exact place where the man had shot Lowe with the rifle.

The only place the man had shot the bear was in its stomach. Maybe the man had caught the bear with a stray bullet when he had been firing upon her. That made the most sense to her, but that feeling screamed that he hadn’t. It screamed that the bear was Lowe.

“I said, tell me where the fucking money is.” The man shoved the barrel of the handgun into her jaw and she flinched, her eyes leaping away from the pool of blood forming beneath the bear to lock with his.

She stared at him, her thoughts racing and blurring, colliding until she couldn’t think straight.

“Won’t answer to me, then you’ll answer to Karl. Got a message that he’s in town and heading this way. Says he can’t wait to see you again. Reckon he can get you to talk.” The man seized her by her nape and gripped it so hard her spine hurt. He pressed the gun into her temple and pushed her forwards. “Walk.”

She shuffled her left foot forwards, desperately trying to come up with a plan as fear began to get the better of her again, swamping her mind with images of her bound and beaten, killed by her ex-boyfriend.

Cameo glanced at the rifle on the ground to her left, sickness sweeping through her as she considered lunging for it and using it on the man. He would probably shoot her before she could reach it, but she had to do something.

Before she could decide whether to make an attempt to get the rifle or not, the bear loosed a long, moaning noise and moved. That moan became a feral snarl as it lumbered onto its feet and turned towards her.

Cameo could only stare as it rose onto its hind legs.

And transformed into a man.

Into Lowe.

The man’s gun dropped from the side of her head, his grip on her loosening, and she realised that the revelation that Lowe could turn into a bear hadn’t shocked only her.

“What the fuck?” the man behind her breathed.

Cameo shook herself out of her stupor, unwilling to waste this chance she had been given. She would consider how insane this all was later.

She knocked the man’s gun away from her and lunged to her left, hurling herself at the rifle. Shock rolled through her again as she managed to get her hands on it and twisted with it, onto her back, and aimed it at the man.

Who had his gun aimed right at Lowe.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but if you shoot me, I’ll nail this freak between the eyes this time.” The man turned a black look on her and slightly depressed the trigger of the gun he gripped.

Cameo swallowed hard and looked between him and Lowe. Her hands shook as she kept the gun aimed at the man, torn between surrendering and shooting him. She didn’t want to give up, knew deep in her heart that if she released the gun that the man would go ahead and shoot Lowe anyway.

But if she didn’t.

She looked at Lowe where he stood in the clearing, naked and bleeding badly from his right shoulder and a spot above his left hip.

“Shoot the bastard,” he snarled. “I’ll live.”

She swallowed and raised the gun, aimed down the sights and hesitated. Her hands shook so violently that the end of the barrel jittered all over the place and her palms dampened, making it hard to keep hold of the gun. She didn’t want Lowe to be shot again. He was clearly not like her, not human, and seemed confident that he could survive another bullet, but what if the man kept his word and shot him in the head?

She wasn’t sure he could survive that.

She looked at him, guilt flaring inside her, an apology balanced on her lips. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t risk him being killed.

She shrieked as something exploded from the bushes behind her, fumbled with the gun as Knox thundered past her, a blur of black, and held her breath as the man swung his gun towards Knox and squeezed the trigger.

Everything happened so fast.

The loud crack of a gun firing startled her.

The fierce recoil of the rifle had her falling on her back.

Knox rolled as another gunshot rang out, ending up in a crouch next to his brother.

Adrenaline surged through her as she gripped the rifle, still staring at the end of the barrel as it lightly smoked. Her hands shook harder, every inch of her trembling as her eyes slowly widened, as what she had done gradually dawned on her.

Someone grunted.

Someone growled like a beast.

Cameo tossed the rifle away from her and sat up, desperately looking for Lowe and Knox. Knox had the man pinned to the ground, his hand wrapped around his throat, but she didn’t think it was necessary. The man wasn’t going anywhere.

He struggled for each breath as blood pumped from the wound on his chest, forming sickening rivulets over his black jacket.

The man grinned, exposing bloodied teeth, and lowered his hazel eyes to lock with hers. “This… isn’t over. You’ll… get what’s… coming… to you… bitch.”

He sagged into the dirt.

Knox’s head whipped towards her, his blue gaze darker than she had ever seen it. “What the hell does he mean by that?”

Lowe stepped up beside him, clutching his side, and looked from the dead man to her. “Karl is coming. He knows where we are.”

“How?” Knox snarled.

Cameo swallowed hard. “My pack. I had a GPS in it. He might have returned to the road and called in the coordinates.”

Knox cursed, shoved to his feet and looked at Lowe, something crossing his eyes that she didn’t like. Lowe didn’t like it either. He shook his head and went to seize hold of his brother’s arm, but grimaced as he tried to do it with his right hand. He pressed his left hand to the wound on the right side of his chest and stared at Knox as his brother backed away from him.

“I’ll head them off. I’ll keep them away from the Creek and the Ridge.” Knox kept backing away, even as Lowe limped towards him. “I’ll lead them somewhere quiet and deal with them.”

“No.” Lowe gritted his teeth, his jaw flexing. His fair eyebrows furrowed and fear lit his sapphire eyes, making her feel awful, because she was responsible for everything that was happening.

She should have left the moment the weather had cleared, shouldn’t have stuck around and got caught up in Lowe and the belief that he could help her. He had helped her, but at what cost?

His tone turned desperate as he reached for his brother with his bloodied left hand. “Just give me a minute. I’ll get some clothes. We can go together.”

Knox’s expression hardened, but there was warmth in his blue eyes as he shook his head, a wealth of love that made Cameo feel even guiltier about what he was doing. “You need to heal… and you need to take care of her.”

That only made her feel worse. The man had been here because of her. Karl was coming because of her. And now Knox was bravely heading out to face him alone.

Because of her.

He went to turn away and then pivoted to face Lowe again, closed the distance between them in two strides and wrapped his left hand around his brother’s nape. He drew Lowe to him and pressed his forehead to his.

“Warn Saint and the others.” Knox’s eyes and his tone softened as he stared at Lowe. “And take care of yourself.”

Lowe lifted his hand to cup Knox’s nape too.

But he was already gone.