A Reason to Kill (Reason #2) (33 page)

“Max?”

“Mmm.”

“You’ll have to hold that thought because, because—” His hands had made their way up my shirt and cupped my breasts, thumbs circling my nipples as I lost my train of thought.

“Only thought I plan on holding is how deep I can bury myself,” he replied.

“That would be, um, that would be awkward since Jess and Brian are coming for dinner. Brian has to get back to Seattle for work,” I mumbled and may have rubbed myself against his front. I swear this man turns me into a sex addict with one touch.

Max, not one for no, asked, “How much time we got?”

Looking at the clock, I tried to focus my thoughts as his hands worked their magic and then answered, “Twenty minutes.”

Max paused his golden hands and I whimpered their loss. Then he sighed and told me, “New rule, babe . . . when I come home from work after a long day of cuttin’ trees, all while thinkin’ about you the whole time, I want two things. One, a beer, and two, at least an hour with your mouth, your body, and the taste of your skin on my lips. Understand? Twenty minutes only gives me time to work you up not get you off.”

Nice!

“Normally, I don’t like rules. But, since you put it to me like that, who am I to complain,” I agreed, then turned in his arms, determined to give him something to look forward to.

I nipped his lip as he took my mouth, and just as the kiss turned from teasing, to mind blowing, and I was thinking I could work with twenty minutes in a pinch, a loud crash sounded from outside on his deck. We broke apart, looked towards the window and I shouted, “Booboo,” as I ripped from his arms.

I hadn’t seen the cub since we’d moved him and his mother, and now he was on Max’s deck going after food I’d already laid out. From the looks of it, he had a taste for chips and salsa.

As I made my way to the front door, Max pulled me back as I tried to open it.

“His mother won’t be far off so you’re not goin’ out there, I’ll scare him off.”

“No, wait, don’t scare him off, just open the door and walk out slowly so he can see we’re friendly. Better to live in harmony with these bears than to make them afraid of you.”

“Jesus, you want me to make friends with the bears?”

I smiled, then pouted, trying to manipulate him as all smart women do. Max‘s eyes dropped to my mouth, his own lips tugged into a reluctant grin, then he rolled his eyes to the ceiling, muttering, “Fuck me, I’m whipped already,” as he turned and opened the door. Then I fist pumped the air ‘cause I’d manipulated Thor.

Max stepped out in front of me and we both moved through, our movements slow to keep from startling the cub. When Booboo looked up, I spoke calmly, cooing, repeating, “We won’t hurt you, good boy, Booboo’s a good boy.”

Surprisingly, the cub didn’t bolt, but made a grunting bear call and then raised up on his hind legs, nose in the air sniffing. The scent emanating from the grill was a powerful fragrance of charbroiled meat as the fat left over from our steaks heated up.

“Something tells me grilling is going to be an issue with the bears,” I whispered to Max.

“Looks like the fence is going up tomorrow,” he replied.

I tried not to giggle, but when I did, Booboo looked at me and came down to all fours. Taking a tentative step back, he then sniffed the air again, directing it at me. As if he remembered my scent, he took a step forward, and then another sniffing the air. He was close enough if I reached out I could rub my hand along his furry head. Booboo, almost two years old, weighed about two hundred pounds and if spooked and became aggressive, he could kill a man if he tried. However, cubs this age are still dependent on their mothers and didn’t stray from them, the fact that he was here and his mother wasn’t, concerned me.

“Max,” I said calmly to keep from spooking him. “Nala should have been close by. She wouldn’t let her cub wander off.”

“Could he have wandered off from her?”

“They stick like glue to their mothers until their third year.”

“Then, if he’s here. . .”

“Something’s happened to her.”

“Jesus, are you tellin’ me I’ve got an orphaned cub on my hands?”

I searched the forest to west of his house, looking for any sign of Nala. Then I kneeled, put out my hand, and waited to see what he would do.

“Mia,” Max hissed and took a step forward, but I shook my head. Booboo cried out when he did and took a step back, but didn’t leave.

“In the fridge is a package of strawberries can you get them for me?’

“I’m not leavin’ you alone with a bear,” he bit out.

“I’m fine, just get me the strawberries.”

Max hesitated, then trusting me for once, he moved to the door and retrieved the berries, handing them to me. I opened the package, pulled one out, and then tossed it to the cub. Booboo sniffed it, opened his mouth, and ate it in one bite. Then I tossed another and another until the cub was right in front of me. Slowly, I reached out and let him sniff my hand and when he licked it, I giggled and carefully ran my hand over his head.

“Where’s Muttley?” I asked Max as Booboo took strawberry after strawberry from me, making a purring sound as I carefully ran my hands through his fur.

“Out chasin’ rabbits I suspect.”

“Would he attack if he came home right now?”

“If he thought I was being threatened, yeah.”

“Do me a favor and go find your dog, I don’t want him scaring off my bear.”

“Explain to me what you’re thinkin’?”

“I’m
thinking
this cub needs protecting from your dog and the other predators in the forest, and it’s up to me to protect him, so go find your dog, please.”

“Mia, you can’t adopt a grizzly bear,” Max warned.

“Max, I’m not adopting him I’m just keeping an eye on him till I can figure out what to do.”

Just then, I heard tires on the gravel drive and I looked up and saw Brian and Jess had pulled up. Just like I feared, Booboo was startled by the noise and bolted, heading back into the forest.

Jess ran up and then shouted, “Was that Booboo?”

“Yeah, and Nala is nowhere to be seen. I’m afraid something’s happened to her.”

“Should we go after him?” Brian asked.

“No, it’s best if we wait for him to come to us, that way he’ll be more trusting.”

“If Nala’s dead, how will he survive?” Max asked.

“He’s close to two and Nala will have taught him how to find food, so it’s not so much food that’s the problem as much as it’s the other bears. If he enrages one of the males, he could be killed. Tomorrow we need to look and see if we can find Nala.”

“I’ll have some of my men come up in the morning and comb the woods for her. You need to keep moving the bears,” Max replied.

“Okay, thanks, Max,” I smiled and then looked towards the forest. I prayed the little guy would be ok until we could find Nala, but if she was gone, then we needed a plan for him and fast. Cowboy would be coming over in a day or two and if any of the bears would take out the cub, it would be his father.

Since there was nothing else I could do at this point, I focused on Jess and Brian and chicken fajitas a la Mia, but with a watchful eye on the forest and a prayer that Booboo would stay safe.

The next morning while Max searched for Nala with his men, Lucy, Frank, Shane, Jake and I stood at the edge of the meadow watching Cowboy run the other males off of his favorite fishing hole. Max had surprisingly let me take his truck this morning, but with one condition, Jake had to come. His constant supervision was cute, yet a little frustrating at times. We were trained professionals who knew what we were doing, but he’d spent his whole adult life taking care of people and now that I was in his life, well, he was bound and determined he would take care of me as well. Problem was, I didn’t need to be taken care of and after a few days of him ordering us around I’d snapped this morning when he was trying to figure out how he would schedule his day. The result of my sharp tongue had earned me the right to take his truck and cage without his “supervision” as long as one of his trusted men was with me. It wasn’t a huge victory since I had a babysitter, but in four days he’d gone from ordering me to stand on the sidelines to watching me drive away without him in tow. Considering who he was, and how he ran his life, that was a victory.

I caved when I thought it was necessary and fought when I thought it was important. He was stretching himself thin keeping up with his business and dealing with my bears, he still had orders to fill and a town to help run and I was determined to carry more of the load.

My people and I were capable of moving the bears with a few strong men to help, so he didn’t need to be there standing over me and I’d told him so. He’d crossed his arms and stared at me then, after a moment or fifty of reflection, he’d nodded and said okay.

“Just make sure the bears are out cold before you approach,” he ordered, his finger pointing at me like an errant child.

“As hard as this may be for you to believe, Max, I don’t as a general rule walk up on a grizzly without knowing I’m safe!” I snapped back.

“You’d hand feed them all just like Booboo if you thought you could get away with it.”

“Not all of them,” I smiled. “Cowboy would stomp me.”

“I find out you took unnecessary risks
I’ll
stomp you.”

“Will the bed be involved with said stomping?”

“Don’t be cute thinkin’ you can change the subject.”

“Did it work?”

“For about a heartbeat,” he grinned and then pulled me into his arms. “We clear?
No
unnecessary risks.”

“I promise to only do what is completely necessary.”

Max wasn’t reassured by that since his reply was, “In that case I’m sendin’ Jake.”

“Max—”

“You want my truck, you take Jake.”

“Is he gonna be on the phone the whole time reporting back to you?”

“Now you’re gettin’ the picture.”

“Stomping!”

“You want the keys, you take Jake,” he explained again.

“I’m sleeping at my place tonight.”

“I’ll be there by seven,” he grinned.

“Alone!”

“We’ll see,” was his aggravating response and then he kissed my nose, pulled out his phone, and dialed Jake.

That brought us to now and as we tried to decide which bear to neutralize.

“I hate to say it, but it looks like Cowboy is today’s victim,” Frank told the group at large.

“Yeah, I’d hoped to save him for last but who knows when we’ll have this clear a shot,” I agreed.

“I need to increase the dose,” Shane threw out, “with his massive size he won’t go down as easily as the others.”

As Shane withdrew a dart and then filled it with the appropriate dose, the rest of us kept our binoculars trained on Cowboy. He was currently dive-bombing what remaining salmon were in the river. Because of his age, he was a skilled fisherman, and that helped maintain his weight and muscles. This also meant we were going to need more help than we had to get him into the cage. We needed a winch to move him and, luckily for us, Max’s flatbed had just such a feature rigged to the back for moving logs.

With the dart dosed and loaded in the gun, Shane was ready to take his shot. But, the beast of a bear kept moving. After five minutes of waiting for the perfect shot, I got tired of waiting and grabbed the air horn releasing a loud blare in a short, quick burst. Cowboy stopped what he was doing, then turned our direction and stared.

“Got it,” Shane whispered and then fired.

Cowboy barely flinched when the dart stuck in his neck, but he definitely felt it and he definitely blamed us for the pain.

Here’s the thing about Cowboy, he wasn’t a sneaky attacker ‘cause he didn’t need to be. He knew he could take anything in the forest without blinking an eye. Problem was, he ran faster than we did and he was pissed.

“Oh shit,” Lucy whispered.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Jake asked

“Not unless you want to die,” Frank replied and then shouted, “In the truck now.”

I, of course, don’t walk well under pressure let alone run, so when we took off for the safety of the truck, I stumbled, fell, and lost my glasses. Everyone was in front of me so they hadn’t seen me fall, and by the time I got to my feet and made it to the truck, I only had time to dive in. Thankfully, the door closed before my legs were mauled, unfortunately, for me, my face landed in Shane’s crotch.