Page 4 of Bear
The second I uttered the words, Bear’s expression hardened and he stepped back. He didn’t say anything else, but I could tell he was seeing through me. The thought terrified me. I took a shuddering breath, and hoped like hell it wasn’t my last.
Chapter Two
Bear
She was lying. I’d bet my life on it. The question was, why was she lying? The terrified, vulnerable look in her eyes told me there was more to it than simply lying about what had happened tonight. Trouble was following this girl, and it was headed straight to Grim Road. I knew this like I knew none of it mattered. Not to me. This woman -- Olivia -- she was going to be mine.
Lemon sighed. “Right. OK. I guess we stay here.” Yeah. Our VP knew she was lying, too.
Olivia backed up, moving away from all of us. “What does that mean?”
“Relax, buttercup,” Lemon said, an annoyed look on her face. “No one’s gonna hurt you, but we can’t take you to the compound, and we can’t leave you to your own devices when you’re clearly lying about something to do with the way Bear and Ringo found you. So? Here we are and here we’ll stay until Crush and Byte get a beat on the guys following you.” She raised her eyebrows, giving Olivia a hard look. “Unless you change your story and tell us the truth.”
“I’m not lying.” She shook her head, her eyes wide and terrified. “I was afraid they’d follow me home.”
“Bullshit,” Lemon spat. Now, the VP was all business, not in the mood to fuck around. Olivia flinched, but Lemon didn’t budge. She crossed her arms over her chest and leveled her piercing gaze on Olivia. “But I get why you’d be opposed to telling us what’s really going on. For now. But we still can’t let you leave until we know the truth.”
She looked around at all of us. A trapped little kitten unsure what to do. She was trembling where she stood, but shook her head slightly. “I understand.” Her words were soft and resigned. Like she fully expected us to do something unspeakable but had accepted her fate.
“Christ,” Dom swore, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Can’t help you if we don’t know what you’re facin’, girl,” he muttered. Liv lowered her gaze to the floor and said nothing. “All right, then.” Dom pulled out his phone. “Piston and Venus are in town. They’d be the best choice to stay with her anyway.”
“I’ll call Apple, too,” Lemon said. “They’re friends --”
“No! I don’t want Apple.” Olivia’s head snapped up, her eyes wide and pleading as her gaze found Lemon’s. Then she shook her head several times before continuing more sedately. “I mean, I’m sure she’s busy.” She looked away. “Or something.”
Lemon’s eyes narrowed as she studied the other woman. Then she nodded slowly. “All right. Venus and Piston it is.”
“And me.” No way I was staying out of this one. No fucking way.
“Not sure that’s a great idea, Bear.” Dom studied me carefully and I knew the man saw way more than I was comfortable with.
“I’m claiming her,” I said. Why I said it I had no idea. Didn’t change the facts, but I wasn’t ready for this yet. Not by a long shot. The last thing I wanted to do was claim her, then have her be some kind of spy or informant or something. And I admitted to myself, if those guys really were CIA as Crush said, then, yeah. There was every possibility she’d brought the very people most of us were running from. Maybe not to our front door, but certainly close.
“No,” Dom snarled, poking a finger against my chest. “You’re not. You’re gonna go home and let Venus and Piston deal with her until morning. After that, once Crush has had a chance to look into her and the whole situation, I’ll reevaluate.”
“You don’t have a say in who I claim, Dom. My woman. My choice.”
“I do when the safety of the club is involved. See this?” He pointed to the patch on his chest with his club designation. “Sergeant at arms means the safety of the club is my responsibility. That makes this every bit as much my choice as it is yours.”
I took a step forward, but Lemon got between us. “Dump some testosterone, you guys. Bear.” She gave me a hard stare. “If you take her as your woman, you’ve got to accept the consequences if she’s not on the up and up. You willin’ to do that?” It was times like this I seriously questioned whether Lemon was really a teenager. Sure, she’d adopted some of Rocket’s mannerisms when dealing with tough business in and out of the club, but she was her own person with her own sense of moral toughness. The look on her face said she’d cut me herself if this went to shit, and not regret a Goddamned thing.
“I will.”
“No!” Olivia gasped. “No. I, uh, I can’t be your woman. I’ve… uh… I’ve already got a, uh, boyfriend.”
“If he’s the one who made you walk home on your own, he’s useless.” Besides, I knew she was lying. Again. This pattern was going to make it harder and harder to trust her when we got to that point.
“I wasn’t walking home,” she said, looking anywhere but at me or any of us. “I was walking to my car.”
“Right. Baby, the employee parking lots in that area are on the back side of the building. Where do you live? And, before you try to lie, keep in mind that Crush is looking into everything. Not only that, but you can’t lie for shit.”
She winced but shook her head. “I was walking back to my car.” Her voice was quiet. Hell, I don’t think even she expected us to believe her, but she was sticking to her story.
“All right, then,” Lemon said. “I’ll have the boys bring some food by. We’ve kept the place aired out and clean in case anyone needs a place to crash in the city, so you should be good here. Rocket will make sure Piston and Venus are on the way, so you’ll have backup, Bear. Also, Ringo, put a couple more guys farther out to keep an eye on the place from a distance.”
Rocket chuckled despite the situation. “It’s almost like she thinks she’s president, huh?”
Ringo snorted. “Don’t give her ideas, prez. She’ll have you retired and be runnin’ the whole operation if you do.”