Goldie’s eyes have gone wide with fear as she swallows hard. “I found roses on my bed.”
“Roses?” Maybe it’s the gunshot wound, but I’m not understanding.
Goldie crosses over, drops to her knees in front of me, and I can’t help that some of my blood rushes south at the sight of her like that in front of me. But my arousal is stymied by the obvious stress pulling at her eyes and mouth.
She avoids my gaze as she pats disinfectant on my flesh wound. The sting barley registers as I focus on her.
“For the last couple weeks, I thought I’d been moving things around the house in my sleep. After waking up in your house, I came back and found my uh lingerie pulled out and splayed across my bedroom. I told myself I must be getting up and turning lights on and moving things around. But this time—” Her big brown eyes turn up to meet mine as she smooths the bandage over my torso. “Please tell me you have a pink rose bush on your property.”
Something icy clenches around my heart, creeping up to my throat. “I don’t have any pink rose bushes.”
Her face crumples and fear shines out from her eyes. Not even when Eddie advanced on her, did she look this terrified.
I grab her hands, forcing her to focus on me. “What is it?” My question is soft but insistent.
“I don’t know,” she whispers. “But I’m not so sure I’m sleepwalking anymore. Because there are two dozen pink roses laid out on my bed upstairs.”
The cold clamp around my chest turns crushing as I realize what she’s saying.
“Someone else has been in your house?”
She nods solemnly even as she gets to her feet, pacing a short distance away before turning back to me. Hands wrap around either bicep as if she is trying to protect herself against an unseen force.
I also stand, fully wrapping the blanket around my hips. The desire to pull her into my chest and tighten my arms around her is strong.
Keep it together Ted. Bring logic and cool rational thinking to the situation, like you always do.“And you don’t think it’s maybe one of your friends?”
“Maybe,” she says weakly, her arms dropping to her sides. I can tell she doesn’t believe it which makes something inside of me harden. “No,” she goes on, “You are probably right. I gave spares to Red and Cinder. I bet Cinder dropped them off to make me feel better.”
There is something in her voice that doesn’t have me convinced.
Too many things are crashing into each other. I need to take control of the situation, not only for my brother’s sake, but for hers.
Eli saunters in with some clothes for me. He also has my cell phone. I grab the clothes and my phone then text JJ.
I reluctantly introduce them. “Goldie, this is my dumbass youngest brother, Eli. Eli, this is my neighbor, Goldie.”
“Hey,” he says, with a half wave. Shame and guilt hangs around him like a heavy cloud. Fucking good. He deserves it.
I raised him better than this. But there isn’t any use rehashing the same fight we’ve had for the last several years. It doesn’t change his behavior.
Maybe when I kick his ass in private for endangering my neighbor, something will click in that thick skull of his. But the black eye he is sporting probably hasn’t knocked any sense into him.
“Hi,” she says back, in a far too friendly manner which is more than he deserves.
Eli shuffles awkwardly a second before he says, “JJ said he was in the neighborhood already so I’m gonna wait outside for him.” Then he slinks back out the door, leaving us. I’m about to head to another room to pull on the clothes Eli brought.
“Rap figured out you are a were, didn’t she? That’s why she took you in the back to talk to you?” Goldie stops me with her words.
I nod slowly. “She told me how she lifted the ban from it being a humans-only bar but she made sure I knew in no uncertain terms that if I were to cause any trouble, she would skin me and use my pelt as a rug in her office.”
And I believe her. Goldie’s boss seems mostly human, but there is something about her that’s off. I can't pinpoint what, but I caught a whiff of something. I’d been raised around humans my entire life, and I knew enough to know that Rap isn’t quite that. She’s more.
Goldie tries and fails to suppress a smile. Then a look of awe overcomes her face, her mouth dropping into an ‘O.’
“Wait, so you shift into a bear and your name is Ted. . . ”
Oh fuck.
