The ferocity of my own response doesn’t shock anyone more than me. “The hell you will! We’ll find another way. I don’t want this fucker’s eyes to even land on you. What if they decide it’s easier if you’re out of the picture entirely? How am I gonna protect you?”
Her voice stays steady, but there’s iron underneath it now. “Bear, if I stop them from doing this, they’ll just keep hurting people, twisting the truth, and never suffer any consequences. I need to do this for Granny Ellie. I was too scared to rock the boat before out of fear of what would happen to the kids. Now they’re all in other foster placements and I’m not that scared girl anymore. Let me do this. I need your support now more than ever.”
I sit there, with a lump forming in my throat as I stare into the face of my beautiful, courageous old lady, every instinct screaming to shut this down, to scoop her up in my arms and run away fast, taking her far away from this mess. I’d love for this to be someone else’s problem. But the part of me that was raised in care understands all too well why she wants to do this. She’s right, and if I were a decent man, I’d give her the support she needs.
I turn back to Siege. “If she goes, she doesn’t go alone. I don’t care what kind of story we’re telling him. I don’t want her out of our sight.”
“She won’t be,” he assures me. “We’ll have eyes on her wherever she goes. If anyone in that house raises a hand to her, we’ll move immediately, no questions asked.”
“No,” Natalie says.
Everyone turns to look at her. “They’ll know. I have to do this alone.”
“I’m not—”
“Trust me, Bear,” she says as she grabs my hand. “I lived with them for years. They won’t hurt me directly. They’ll try and challenge the will.”
Zen is busy typing away on his laptop. “I’ll create a trail on her phone, to make her story believable. I’ll make sure everything she says will have data backing it, just in case they check.”
Natalie exhales slowly, relaxing back against my chest. “We should probably do it right away, before he gets any more wild ideas about how to force me back home. I don’t want him targeting Bear next.”
I cut in again, quieter this time but no less firm. “If at any point my gut says pull her, we pull her.”
Siege doesn’t argue. “Agreed. If we don’t do something these fuckers are going to be a pain in our asses for a long time.”
He pushes up from his chair. “Natalie, you work with Bear and Rigs to come up with a story that’ll hold together, explaining why you came back to them. Communicate that to Zen so he can make sure the digital verification matches the story just in case they check it out. Me and Rider will manage the rest.”
I am so pissed with this whole situation that I don’t trust myself to speak. So, I give one short nod. Inside I’m already moving three steps ahead, mapping routes in my head to Sacramento, and calculating logistics, in case it all kicks off.
As we all file out of the office, I fall into step beside Natalie, with one arm draped around her back. All my protective instincts have risen to the surface, and I’m battling the need to just throw her over my shoulder and run off with her.
My thoughts are growing more ruthless by the minute, and I find myself caring less and less about her foster father being a man of God. To my mind, he’s just another garden variety asshole intent upon taking from my old lady what’s rightfully hers.
Natalie walks with her chin up, but a very worried expression on her face. She’s scared but doing what she thinks is right anyway. I feel something fierce and possessive filling every corner of my mind. She’s brave but every instinct I have wants to shield her from these assholes.
At the end of the hall, she glances at me. “We can do this if we stick together. There’s more going on here than you know.”
I give her the only answer that matters right now. “No matter what it is that I don’t know, I’m gonna be there for you. Doubt everything else in the world but never doubt me.”
She drags me down for a quick kiss. It floods my body with need at a time when I should not be thinking of how soft she feels under me.
Chapter 13
Natalie
As we move towards our suite, I feel pulled in two directions. Mostly I feel relieved because there’s finally a plan. But I also feel horrible because it’s making the man I love freak out. I don’t like seeing Bear like this. Not at all. If I wasn’t sure I could pull this off, I wouldn’t have agreed to do it.
The worst part is that Bear isn’t wrong to be worried. Of course, there’s an element of danger involved with going back there. My foster parents are going to be furious at losing all the foster kids they’ve had for years, and they will put all the blame on me. And if what I’ve learned is true and my foster father and his brother had some plan to get the inheritance, then my life might be in actual danger if I return. But I can’t let fear of that, and Bear’s worry decide my future. I have to do this.
We step into the guest suite together and he kicks the door shut with one booted foot. My bag sits in the corner where I tossed it days ago. He takes off his cut and slings it over the back of a chair. I can’t stop staring at his big body when he lifts his arms above his head and stretches so far that his hands practically touch the ceiling. He’s got muscles sitting on top of muscles and I can’t get enough of him.
Bear crosses the room, stopping near the window with his back to me. His hands rest on his hips, and I can tell he’s still upset about me agreeing to go back to my old foster placement. I don’t know what to say to make this right, so I walk over and slip my arms around his waist from behind. When I lay my cheek against his back, I feel him relax a little. His hands drop from his hips as well.
The silence between us stretches until it starts to ache, and I finally decide I’m the one who has to break it.
“I’m sorry I can’t do what you want on this one,” I say, watching his reflection in the window instead of his face.
He still doesn’t turn around or respond. I think he’s too emotional to talk about it. So I do the talking for us.
