She shot him a glare. “That terrified us both. His arm had changed and he started screaming that he was becoming a bear. He kept saying I had to find you. That you knew what to do.” She shuddered. “I had to Taser him.”
It took Simon a moment to remember what a Taser was, and when the image of Vic being electrified filtered through his consciousness, he had a strange reaction to it. Both horror and satisfaction shot through him, and he remained silent as he analyzed the sensation. Meanwhile, Alyssa kept talking.
“Vic would never hurt me normally. He’s a dick for sure, but he knows I’d make his life hell if he did. He’s been living in the apartment above me ever since he got home. Been studying to get his general contractor’s license, and I pay him to do repairs and stuff. There are lots of handyman jobs around the neighborhood, too, and he’s good at talking to people. If he could just follow through on what he promises without getting in over his head, he’d be amazing. But you know Vic, he’d rather talk a good game than play one. The military helped with that, so he’s better now.” Her hands twisted again. “Or he was.”
She stumbled into silence. He saw the way her throat worked as she swallowed and that her shoulders had risen higher. She was anxious, and that made him uncomfortable.
“You must be tired,” he said, stating the one conclusion he knew was correct. “Would you like me to drive?”
She turned, her brows raised. “You think you can do it?”
“If you gave me directions. I still cannot read, but I remember how an engine works.”
“Yeah. Not letting you get behind the wheel until you say you remember how todrive. Knowing how to change the oil isn’t the same thing.”
He had no argument for that, so he shifted to study their environment. Tight rows of houses, small brightly lit convenience stores, and sidewalks in varying states of disrepair. The land was alive with late spring and it sprang up as weeds between rocks and broken concrete. The trees were sparse and the air acrid as it filtered through the car vents.
“Besides, we’re almost there,” she said as she turned off the radio. A part of him had been listening to the steady flow of news, but she absorbed his attention more than anything on the radio.
It was always this way when coming back from grizzly to man. The first person he met was the one he fixated on the most. Like a touchstone from which all other meaning evolved. It usually lasted a few hours as he reoriented to the world. But he’d never been gone for ten months before. Who knew how long it would last this time.
It didn’t help that Alyssa was so damned interesting. Normally he fixated on Amanda at the pizzeria, and there just wasn’t much to her. But Alyssa had been a vibrant, fascinating girl when he’d visited two years ago. And now she was triply intriguing. Back then, she’d been busy with school and a job running a laundromat. The few nights she’d hung out with them, he’d found her funny and smart, two qualities he most liked in women. Sexy as hell, too, but as Vic’s sister, he wasn’t going there. Which meant he kept his hands to himself no matter where his fantasies had wandered.
Then he’d spent the next years listening to every Alyssa story Vic had. Night after night, especially in the boring tundra of Alaska, regaling him with stories of Alyssa saying something smart, Alyssa being brave, Alyssa getting in trouble with a boyfriend before kicking the bastard’s ass. If he hadn’t been interested in her before those months in Alaska, he sure as hell was afterward.
And now she was here with him. But she was different than he remembered and very different than the sassy, vibrant sister Vic told stories about. Now she was tense, focused, and with a dark edge to her humor. That ought to make her less appealing, but it made her more so. Life had tempered her girlish charm into steel. And nothing appealed to both bear and man like a beautiful woman who could stand up to him. Who could dig out a bullet from his side and force-cajole him into coming down to Detroit. Her choices were foolhardy, to be sure, but he had to admire the chutzpah. More than admire, his bear was ready to declare her a mate, and that was a kettle of worms he dared not open.
Meanwhile, Alyssa drove into the parking lot of a three-story apartment building. Though the blacktop was cracked with weeds, there was a brand-new carport, and she pulled into the first space. “He built that,” she said, a note of pride in her voice. “Kept him in beer and babes for a month.”
“Only a month?” he asked.
She shot him a dry look. “He’s living here rent-free.”
“You own the building?”
She flashed him a smile. “Bought it a few years ago for a song. Detroit real estate being what it is.” Then she turned to the squat rectangle structure with a fond smile. “It’s ugly, but it’s all mine. Laundromat on the first floor, apartments on two and three.” Then she gestured to the brightly lit interior. “I used to work here.”
He nodded. “I remember.”
“So when old Mr. Delgado wanted to sell, I sweet-talked him into selling everything to me.”
He’d bet everything that she had negotiated like a tigress and that they’d both loved every second of it. He would have said just that, but his senses were locking in to the city. The noise was constant, the lights dizzying even in this poorly maintained neighborhood, and the smells made his stomach churn. His bear didn’t like any of it, grumbling in his mental cage, but the man sorted through the sounds. Cars, trucks. Music from down the street. A couple arguing closer by, but not a threat. Both man and beast hated the poisonous city smells, but it wasn’t as bad as he’d feared.
Alyssa pushed through the front of the laundromat. The space was clean, the machines well maintained though aging, and the scent of chewy brownies and caramel popcorn wafted out in a sweet puff. He heard someone inside munching and words from someone else.
“Put that away,” said a young man. “You’re going to be high as a kite while you walk home.”
“But it’s so good,” muttered a woman.
Simon stepped inside and saw a young black man lounging against a counter, his frame thin, but the muscles already bulging. His face was all good-natured cheer as he shook his head at a middle-aged woman in a muumuu that hung on her moderate frame. She was a large woman who’d recently lost weight, and she shoved another handful of popcorn into her mouth before firmly shutting the lid on a brown tin. Right next to her, a dryer was going with a dizzying array of colors tumbling around inside.
“Lyssa! Good to see you,” the woman called. “I been sharing my popcorn with Malik here.”
The boy raised his clean hands and shook his head. “I ain’t touched a crumb. That’s all you, Ms. Turley.”
“Have the migraines been bad lately?” Alyssa asked as the dryer dinged and slowed.
“Plumb awful,” the woman responded as she popped the tin open again and grabbed another handful. “I could barely see to come here tonight.”
