Bear the Burn (Fire Bears Book 2) (4 page)

“Not now,” Cody said. “Not for another week at least. Look at her.” He jerked his head toward Quinn’s limp body lying between Dade’s front paws. “She’s half dead.”

“I’m not working on her with three grizzlies looking over my shoulder. You’re the leader, right? Get them to turn into humans again so I don’t have to worry about my life while I’m trying to save hers.”

“Change back.” Cody’s voice cracked with authority, and Dade’s body caved in on itself.

Growling at the pain of his forced Change, coupled with the seeping bullet wound that was burning his shoulder from the inside out, he was barely able to keep the scream in his throat as he melted into his human skin again. Exhausted, he slid into what was left of his trousers and hoped his dick wasn’t hanging out for the news crew that had just pulled up.

He watched, anguished, as Greg and other paramedics that had been called to the scene, worked over Quinn. Her eyes were open, staring vacantly at the sky as her body was jostled and moved, and Dade fell to his knees as Greg placed an oxygen mask on her.

“Her lungs are struggling from the smoke inhalation.” Greg’s voice drifted in and out of Dade’s consciousness. “…Burns… blood transfusion… both legs… broken… internal bleeding…”

He hadn’t saved her at all. The bear inside of her was strong and would give her the ability to heal faster, but some things were too bad to fix instantly. He knew that. The scars on his torso and neck were proof of shifter mortality. The smell of her burned flesh was further proof that saving her hadn’t been as simple as a bite from him.

And now Quinn, his Quinn, was hurt badly. If she lived, she’d be scarred for always, just like him.

He’d done this.

Poisoned her life with his presence.

That man in the crowd was right.

Dade wiped Quinn’s blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.

He was a monster.

The
beep beep beeping
of a machine pulled Quinn from the deep folds of sleep. Her throat was dry, and when she tried to open her eyes, something kept her from being able to do so. Reaching up, she felt around her face. Tape adhered her lids together, and in a moment of panic, she pulled at the corners and yanked them off.

Her vision was blurry, so she blinked rapidly until it cleared. She was in a hospital room with a large viewing window. Outside, she could see two uniformed police officers. She ripped out the tube pushing oxygen into her nose and tugged at the IV in her arm. The beeping flat lined as she ridded herself of the plethora of wires and contraptions attached to her body.

Fumbling, she pushed the red button on her bed. “Hello?”

A doctor bustled in, and both cops rested their hands on their guns as they watched her through the window.

“Where am I?” she asked, voice sounding like she’d swallowed glass and gravel.

“You’re at St. Anthony’s. Shhh, please, Quinn. You have to stay calm, or they won’t let me stay in here with you.”

“What do you mean? I don’t understand. Why am I here?”

The doctor’s blond ponytail swished as she froze. Her blue eyes went round with shock. “Don’t you remember what happened to you?”

Quinn rubbed her head and tried to recall the time before she’d been in here. Flashes of memories assaulted her. Gravel, black sedan, two cats, Dade…
Dade
. Work, inventory, flames…

She gasped as it came back to her. Horrified, she pulled the sheets back to reveal her bandaged legs. “I want to see them.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Quinn read the doctor’s nametag. “Moira, please.”

“Swear not to hurt me if I take the bandages off?”

“Hurt you? Why would I hurt you?”

Her delicate eyebrows drew down. “What is the last thing you remember?”

“Burning.”

“Nothing more?”

Quinn squinted her eyes, trying to dredge up anything more, but there was simply nothing there. “Fire, pain, then here.”

Moira leaned over the bed and pressed an intercom button. “Call him,” was all she said.

Static sounded, and a feminine voice came over the other line. “But Lieutenant Danvers said—”

“Call him,” Moira said sternly.

“Call who?” Quinn asked low.

“Someone who can explain what happened to you much better than I can. You ready to see?”

Quinn swallowed the coward down and nodded.

It hurt. Holy hell it was agony to take the bandages off, but Moira didn’t slow down or give her time to back out. And when Quinn laid her eyes on her scarred legs, a piece of her broke. Across her thighs, her skin had melted, and now resembled red Oklahoma clay.

“How long have I been out?”

“Two days.”

Quinn jerked her attention to Moira’s face. Her voice sounded clear as a bell. She didn’t know how she could tell, but Moira was telling the truth.

“Two days?” Quinn dragged her shocked gaze back down to her legs. “But these look half healed.”

“They are. You might have some muscle weakness, and possibly a limp, but you’ll make almost a full recovery.”

“And the scars?”

Moira shook her head sadly.

Quinn leaned back against the pillow and stared at the sterile ceiling. “When can I go home?”

“I don’t know.”

“But you’re a doctor. Surely, you can tell how long it will take me to heal.”

Moira looked pointedly at the officers outside. “It’s not up to me or any of the medical staff here, Quinn. It’s up to the government.”

“What?” she asked on a breath. “What does the government have to do with me? I pay my taxes.” She twitched her head at an escalating noise outside. “I don’t even have a speeding ticket on my record.” The noise grew louder, pricking her ears until they tingled. “What is that?”

“What’s what?”

“That noise. People. A crowd…jeering.” She lurched out of bed and hissed at the searing pain that blasted up her legs. With a groan of shock, she used the chair to steady herself, then shuffled over to the window. The gown she wore was backless, and she was giving Moira quite the show of her ass, but right now, she didn’t care so much about that. Below, thousands of people had gathered. Some held signs, but she could only read one from here.

Cage the Animals.

Animals?

A black SUV pulled through the crowd slowly, and when the door opened, she perked up. Dade and another blond-haired man filed out and made their way slowly through the crowd. The masses surged forward, clawing and touching them. Dade lifted his feral gaze, golden green, up to her window and held her frozen fast.

“What’s wrong with him?” she asked.

Moira inhaled deeply. “As far as I’m concerned, nothing is wrong with him. You either.”

Frowning, Quinn twisted. “Why has Dade come to see me?”

“Because Dade Keller is the reason you are here.”

Confusion washed over her, making it hard for her to breath. Indeed, he’d felt dangerous the first time she’d met him, and cold when he’d sped away from her on the street. “Dade set the fire?”

“No. Dade isn’t the one who put you here in this hospital, Quinn. He is the reason you’re still alive.” Moira stood and smoothed the wrinkles from her lavender scrubs. “You have about five minutes before he reaches this room.” She twitched her head toward the bathroom and smiled. “Push the button if you need me.”

Leaning heavily on the chair, then the bed, Quinn made her way to the bathroom and guffawed when she saw her pallid reflection in the mirror. She looked like an unwashed, unkempt vampire. With a growl, she sponged off in the shower, careful not to get her burns wet. Shaving her legs with the disposable razor on the lip of the shower sounded like hell, so she settled for shampooing her hair while bent forward under the water. Teeth brushed, face washed, and cheeks pinched, she shuffled out the door and froze. Dade sat on her rumpled hospital bed, shirt off and long, deep scars on his back exposed. Moira was checking something under a bandage across his shoulder. Eyes still blazing that feral color, he slid her a glance over his shoulder, then pulled his T-shirt back over his scarred body.

“It looks fine,” Moira said. “Who took the bullet out?”

Dade nodded to a man in the corner. “My brother, Boone, did.”

“With what?” Moira asked.

“With my finger,” Boone said with an empty smile.

“Truth,” Quinn whispered. “You’re telling the truth.”

The brothers each shot the other a loaded look.

“But how do I know that?” she asked low.

Boone pushed off the wall, his blue eyes troubled as he twitched his head. His shoulder-length blond hair flicked out from in front of his face, and he stuck his oversize hand out for a shake. Up one arm, he was completely covered with a full sleeve of tattoos. “I’m Boone Keller. You probably don’t remember me, but I was there when you came to be, little bear.”

“Little bear,” she repeated softly, shaking his hand.

His words tugged at the frayed end of a memory she’d buried deeply.

“Right. Well, I’m going to leave you to it.” He jerked his chin toward the officers by the window. “I’ll be outside.”

Dade sat on the bed, his profile to her, watching her warily from the corner of his eye. “I have something to say, and I suck with words, so just let me say it and get it done.”

She shuffled toward the bed, but the pain in her legs made her wince and lose her balance. “Shhhoot,” she hissed, leaning heavily, arms locked against the mattress.

A growling sound came from behind her, and when she took stock of her body, Dade’s hands were gripping her waist, steadying her from behind. How the heck had he ended up over here?

She narrowed her eyes at her splayed hands, in instincts screaming not to keep him at her back. “What are you?”

“Well, that’s part of what I want to talk to you about. I’m a shifter.”

“Meaning?”

“I turn into a bear when I want. Or lately when I’m worked up.”

She snorted and sank heavily onto the mattress. Sure, it sounded like he was being honest from the clear bell tone of his voice, but he wasn’t a bear. “Okay, Dade Keller, where’d you get all those scars on your back?”

“I did two tours. Shrapnel.”

The smile fell from her lips as her humor faded away. “Are you still active duty?”

He shook his head and sat beside her. “Let me see your legs.”

“Why, because the open back of my hospital gown wasn’t enough? You’ll have to buy me dinner before I show you my gorgeous gams.” She’d meant it as a joke, but her voice had faded and hitched by the last word. Her heart pounded around Dade, and she had the fluttering of emotions she hadn’t felt in years when she looked into his eyes. Nothing in her wanted to show him how messed up her body was now.

“I didn’t look at the back of your gown.”

“Because you didn’t want to?” The answer mattered.

Dade canted his head and blinked once, slowly. “I wanted to look, but I didn’t think you would be comfortable with it.”

She took a relieved breath and brushed her fingertips across the melted skin on his neck. “And this?”

Dade gripped her wrist and pushed it away. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed and gave her a hard look. “I’ve given you enough for now.”

Him flinching away from her touch ripped at her heart. “Why don’t you like for me to touch you?”

“Because,” he whispered, “I haven’t earned it.”

“Moira said you saved my life.”

“Moira was mistaken. I was the one who ruined your life. You just haven’t realized it yet.”

“Did you pull me from the fire?”

A single nod.

“Why were you there?”

“Because it was my job.”

She could decipher the wavering note in his words enough to know that wasn’t the whole truth. She pulled her shoulders up to her ears and scrunched up her nose. “Honestly?”

“Fuck,” he muttered, looking out the window as he released her wrist. “I’m a firefighter. I was at the station when the call came through.”

“Were you scared, running into those flames?”

“No. I was scared that when I came out with you, you’d already be gone.”

Truth.

Her heart thumped erratically against her breastbone. “Why do you care? You don’t even know me.”

Dade lifted one shoulder in a miserable half-shrug and rubbed his hand down his short blond stubble. It made a scratching sound against his palm. She stared at his facial hair, shining gold in the sunlight that streamed through the window. She wanted badly to touch, just to see if it was as soft as it looked. His eyes were still bright but had lost that muddy, wild color. “I care about what happens to you. I care if you’re safe. I care if you’re happy.”

“But why? What have I done to earn that? I thought you disliked me.”

“What?”

“You sped off and sprayed me with gravel instead of offering me a ride when my bike tire was flat, Dade. That’s the least romantic thing I’ve ever encountered, and it happened to me.”

He grimaced and rolled his bandaged shoulder. “Look, I know it’s a lot to take in, and I promise I’ll tell you everything, but I’d rather do it in private.”

She made a show of looking around. “There’s no one here but you and me.”

Dade stared at her long and hard. “Boone can hear us clear as day, just like you could hear the officers talking across the hall if you chose to listen. There’s a security camera in that corner and another over there.” He pointed, and sure enough, there were. “Not to mention, the room is likely bugged.”

“Okay, you’re scaring me.”

“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

“Then why did you say you ruined my life? And why am I in a hospital room guarded by cops and mobbed by a crowd holding
Cage the Animals
signs?” Her voice wrenched up to a Level Shrill, but she was in it now—full blown panic mode and gaining speed like a boulder down a mountainside.

“Quinn,” Dade warned low, holding his hands out. “You have to stay calm.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that? I’m a buck twenty-five with flimsy arms. I’ve never hurt anyone in my life. Why is everyone walking on eggshells every time I ask serious questions? Who locked me in that room, Dade? I heard someone come in. Who set that fire? I want to know everything.” Her vision blurred with unshed tears, and she blinked them back, determined not to show him how weak she felt. “Who gave me these?” She yanked her hospital gown up around her thighs, exposing the burns that stung relentlessly with a bone-deep, throbbing ache.

Dade reared back as if he’d been slapped. He stood, then retreated a few steps away from her. A muscle in his jaw twitched as he linked his hands behind his head and let off a helpless sound.

“Who, Dade?”

“Me, all right? You have those because of me.”