Jade Crew: Captive Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 4) (7 page)

***

“Where have you been?” Hannah hissed at her as she walked briskly into the conference room.

It was different than when she had left it the night before. It wasn’t the bright lights being shined in her face, or the makeup artist who was looking at her and frantically urging her into the waiting chair while the camera crew all rolled their eyes and sighed with relief.

No, she realized after a moment as the frazzled-looking woman doing her makeup began to apply as much as she could as fast as she could. It was the lack of clutter. The big circular table was clean.

“Where’s our stuff?” she said to Hannah from the corner of her mouth. She ignored the clucking disapproval from her makeup artist. Sarah, her name tag read. Whatever. The last thing Kierra wanted was to be doing this interview for the local news station. It was crucial to her campaign though, so she would suck it up. But the host was such a—

Kierra didn’t have a nice word for her. The two of them had run for the council position that Kierra had won two years earlier. Ever since, Danica had made it her mission to embarrass and insult her every chance she got. She wondered what topic the woman would try to hit her with today.

“What stuff?” Hannah asked. “And where the hell were you?”

“The papers on the table. I was late,” she replied firmly, not planning on talking about the extra time she had spent in the shower that morning. Certainly not when it had involved a certain shifter in her thoughts. That was the
last
thing she needed the news crew overhearing, let alone her own friends and coworkers.

Hannah frowned, but let her protest drop. “I cleaned up this morning. Don’t worry,” she admonished as Kierra’s eyes tracked her as best she could without moving her skull. “Everything is in a safe place and filed, labeled, etcetera. Nothing to worry about there.”

“Okay Kierra, we’re ready for you,” Danica said.

Doing her best not to roll her eyes, she got up and moved to the two stools set up for the interview.

“Good morning Danica, pleasure to see you again,” she said sweetly, not meaning a word of it.

“I know, right! Far too long. You should really answer our calls if you want to see me more often,” the other woman shot back under a guise of politeness.

“Well, I’m very busy these days, and I have to prioritize what’s important and what’s…not,” she said, keeping the smile plastered on her face.

Danica’s eyes looked like they could jump out and strangle her all on her own. But then she simply smiled instead of responding, and Kierra felt her stomach go cold. It was a genuine smile.

What the fuck has she come up with this time?

The only reason the woman would be giving her such an easy go of it was if she had something very good to say to her while they were on live television.

Swallowing hard, she turned and faced the camera as the man holding it did a countdown from five on his fingers. Whatever it was, Kierra knew she had nothing to hide and nothing she would be uncomfortable talking about. She was not going to let Danica get the best of her.

She zoned out as the anchor went through her introductions and she exchanged platitudes with her once more, still as polite and proper as ever, perhaps more so now that she knew the citizens of Origin could see her.

“So Kierra...”

Her teeth grated as Danica purposefully mispronounced her name, making it sound like “Key-Ar-Ah” instead of “Kear-Ah.” The woman knew better, but she said it that way just to annoy her. But she smiled dutifully and listened to her question.

“And I think I speak for everyone out there when I ask, why haven’t we seen your partner with you before?”

She froze.

Partner? Did she mean boyfriend? Wait. Boyfriend? What boyfriend? The last time she had been in a relationship had been years ago. The only other man in her life right now was Darren. But how the hell could she know about what?

“Pardon?” she asked, giving her voice as much strength as possible while she stalled for time. Time she desperately needed to recollect her thoughts.

“The man in the photo!” Danica said with a big cheerful grin, shoving a tablet she had produced from somewhere into Kierra’s stunned hands.

Ice formed in her veins. It
was
pictures of her and Darren. From the night before, kissing in the snow. Some of them were obscured because of their winter gear, but they showed his face easily enough. When she flipped to the last one, taken as they had parted, it showed her face very clearly.

How the fuck did Danica get her hands on photos like that? Did Darren…

No, he wouldn’t have. She trusted him that much, but the ice inside her exploded into steam as her rage built to epic proportions, despite the plastered-on smile she kept firmly in place.

There was nothing she could do at the moment except grin and bear it. But the moment the camera was off, however…

Evil thoughts danced through her head. She particularly liked the one where Danica’s head met the smooth, hard surface of the conference table. Repeatedly. In the meantime she had to actually say something to the viewers to make it through the interview. Storming off would not help her cause one bit. She had to bank on the hope that they didn’t know he was a shifter.

“Wow,” she said, sitting up and looking at the camera. “If you folks out there have ever wondered what it was like to be followed by desperate paparazzi and news crews, let me tell you. It’s no fun. Especially when they’re secretly photographing you without your knowledge. So rude,” she said with a shake of her head.

“Well—” Danica began, but Kierra cut her off with a wave of her hand.

“No, no, Danica, you asked a question. I wouldn’t want to leave you without an answer. That would also be rude, and really, I think I’ve had my fill of that for the day. You asked why the gentleman on the screen has never made a public appearance with me. The reason, Danica,” she said, her voice dripping with condescension, “is that you just shared the first time we had ever been out together. So at least now I know I’ll always have my first kiss with him immortalized, thanks to some excellent detective work by the photographer. Who did take these, by the way?” she asked nicely.

She could see Danica’s hand gesturing below the stool, where the camera couldn’t pick it up, but the cameraman didn’t seem to notice it yet. Instead, he panned back across to Danica for her response.

“Oh that’s so sweet, Kierra. I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re happy you’ve found love at last.”

Bitch. That was a low blow.

Danica was a year younger than Kierra, but was married and had two children already. It was a subtle jab at her own single status, and also applied a label that Kierra was nowhere ready to give up whatever it was she had going on with Darren.

“I think we’re also surprised that you found love with a shifter. After everything you’ve said and worked for, it just seems so...odd, don’t you think? After all, I’m sure a number of your supporters will want to know why you feel so strongly in public about them one way and privately another?”

It took all of Kierra’s willpower not to take Danica to the floor and go for her jugular. Three sentences from the damned woman, and she had all but shot Kierra’s campaign in the foot, a blow from which she would likely never recover.

“Every rule has an exception Danica. You should know that.” She didn’t have a reference for that jab, but hopefully it would drive the other woman crazy thinking about what she had meant. In the meantime, “We had one date, which your private cameraman managed to capture. Are you telling me you’ve never kissed a man that maybe you shouldn’t have before?”

Danica’s eyes fumed as Kierra made reference to the scandal two years before, in which Danica had been caught making out with a man who wasn’t her husband. Kierra hadn’t wanted to bring that up, but the woman had brought it upon herself. Seriously, what the hell had she been thinking with that sort of past?

“I suppose we all make mistakes from time to time. We’re going to take a quick commercial break, but we’ll be right back,” Danica said, holding her fake smile until the cameraman signaled they had gone to break.

“You fucking bitch,” Kierra snarled, standing over the shorter woman, using her height advantage and combining that with the ferocity given to her by her mother. “Who the hell gave you those damn photos?”

Danica snorted. “Get out. Like I’m going to tell you. Good luck with your campaign,” she said sweetly as everyone else inched toward the doors.

Without pausing, Kierra reached out and ripped the stool from below Danica, toppling her to the ground.

“You’re in my conference room.
You
get the hell out,” she spat, crossing her arms and watching as Danica got to her feet, smoothing out several imaginary wrinkles from her clothing as she walked slowly toward the door.

“Do what you like,” she said to Kierra, “but your career here is over.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” she said confidently as the newswoman all but fled the room. Not that she felt very confident at the moment, because Danica was likely correct. Her campaign was pretty much finished now.

At least she still had Darren.

Her anger hadn’t abated and she needed to be sure he knew absolutely nothing about what happened. If he had though, she was going to do worse to him than she had to Danica. Whipping out her phone, she called him. It rang several times and went to answering machine.

“Shit,” she swore, stuffing the phone back in her purse angrily.

“You’ll never reach him if he’s in the mines,” Jenny said tentatively.

“Right. The mountain. Damn.” She began to pace.

“There is a way though,” Jenny said, once more.

Kierra focused on her assistant. “How do you know this?”

“I dated a miner once, and he told me,” she confessed.

“Nothing to be ashamed of Jenny. But you need to tell me how to contact Darren.”

Darren

“When are you going to see her again?”

Joel was standing next to him, the two of them hacking out pieces of rock from the wall in front of them, which were then snatched up by Corey and Cole and tossed into the powered carts that would carry the refuse to the surface.

He probably
should
have split them up into two teams, but he felt that the four of them were benefiting as much from being able to work as a complete team than they might have been by making more progress separately. It was close, but Darren was confident he had made the right decision. None of the others had said anything either, which boded well for what they would say to Garrett when he returned.

“Probably this weekend,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the impact of the pickaxes as they dug deep into the rock with each powerful swing. Shifters could mine a lot faster and a lot longer by hand than a human, and they took full advantage of that. The dragon stones within the walls were not easily missed, and gave off enough heat that their enhanced eyesight picked them up with ease long before they could be damaged by the sharp-edged tools.

His thoughts were interrupted abruptly as the flash of a blue and red light behind him snagged the attraction of all four miners. Turning, Darren paused to look for a second at the portable phone that was currently signaling an incoming call.

“What the hell?” he muttered, moving toward it. “Hello?” he said, picking up the heavy receiver.

Each Alpha—or in Darren’s case, crew lead—carried a portable, landline-rigged phone with them down into the mines. This enabled someone on the surface to be able to call down and communicate with them. There was a direct line in the trailer at the shaft entrance, but someone from the Mining Consortium office could also connect to them if they had the number.

“Darren?” came the angry voice. It sounded like Kierra, he thought to himself. Why she would be calling him at this time of day made no sense.

“Yes?” he replied, more in confusion than nervousness at the tone of voice.

“Did you have anything to do with this? I swear, if you were in on it or aware of what was going on we’re through!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he said back. “In on what? Aware of what?”

“Come to the surface,” she said abruptly. The line went dead.

He looked at the receiver, blinking rapidly as he tried to process the conversation that had just occurred. His hand slowly put it back down on the cradle while the others stared at him. Judging from the expressions on their faces, each one of them desperately wanted to know what had just happened. He wondered if his own face looked the same, since he had no idea what the phone call was about either.

“Apparently I was wrong about when I’m going to see her again,” he said to Joel, his voice sounding oddly distant as he walked past the other shifter.

“What do you mean?”

“She’s up at the trailer. Apparently something is going on and she’s blaming me for it.”

“Is she okay?” Corey asked, taking a step to follow Darren.

“She didn’t say anything about danger, nor did she sound scared. So I’m guessing she’s fine. You guys go back to work. I’ll be real quick,” he assured them, hopping onto the powered cart and mashing the button that jerked it into motion slowly at first, but picking up a bit of speed as it followed the rails up toward the surface.

What the hell am I getting blamed for this time?

It seemed to be a running trend in his life. Taking the blame for something he had absolutely nothing to do with, and enduring the consequences because of it. It couldn’t have been as bad as the last time, or so he hoped. That had been extremely unpleasant to put it mildly.

His confusion grew as the small dot representing the shaft opening grew swiftly in size until he was out in the open and the cart began to slow, approaching the crane that would dump it into the waiting truck. A corner of his mind noted that he would have to notify the LMC to send a driver to come pick up the truck tomorrow.

The majority of his focus was on the beautiful, but clearly fuming, woman who waited for him outside the trailer.

He hopped off the cart before it had come to a full stop—breaking at least one rule in the process—and moved toward her.

“I’m not sure if you’re mad at me or something else, but either way, you’re still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes upon,” he told her.

Her cheeks flushed slightly and the expression on her face softened for just an instant.

“I’ll appreciate your sweetness properly once you can promise me that you had nothing to do with this.”

At least this time she had something to show him, whipping out her phone and passing it to him. On it were a number of pictures of the two of them from the night before. They were photographed kissing, hugging, and just talking. A quick glance showed him that they were posted to the
Origin News Network
social media page. Splashed across the top was the damning title “Anti-Shifter, or Want-A-Shifter? – Mayoral Candidate Shifts Stance!”

His hand tightened around the phone for a moment as his body quivered. He desperately wanted to hurt somebody, or destroy something.

“Are you okay?” he managed to force out through the clenching of his jaw.

“I’m fine,” she said, having relaxed as his reaction made it clear he was as shocked as she was.

“Someone is following you,” he stated bluntly, gathering her into his arms.

There was a moment of hesitation before she melted into his embrace, all but throwing herself at him. He didn’t comment or quip about it at all, just simply kept her as close as he could. His lips dipped and caressed her forehead, but he didn’t push it any farther.

“What do I do?” she asked quietly from the security of his chest.

“First I make a phone call,” he said, his brain already thinking things through. Holding her to him, he walked over to the trailer and grabbed the phone off the rack. It was mounted outside in a weatherproof box just in case the trailer was locked for some reason and there was an emergency.

Corey picked up quickly. “Darren?”

“Get everyone up here.”

“Everything okay?” Corey asked suspiciously.

“Use four limbs,” he said and hung up.

Only a minute or two later three massive bears came charging out of the shaft entrance at full battle speed, teeth bared, fanning out to engage any possible hostiles.

Noting nothing but the embracing couple, the lead bear cocked its head sideways in a distinctly human gesture before the bear shrunk, quickly revealing Corey. The other two stayed in their animal forms, taking up a stance close by, still ready for anything.

“What’s wrong?” Corey said, looking back and forth.

“Somebody followed her last night when she was with me. Took pictures of her, gave them to the news,” he said succinctly.

Corey’s eyes narrowed. The other shifters were aware of what platform Kierra was running on, and how tight a rope she had to walk to make it work while being with Darren. Corey was no slouch in the intelligence department, and Darren could tell from his eyes he quickly worked out the explosive implications that the photos had.

“What can we do?” the other shifter asked.

Darren squeezed Kierra tighter. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they followed her up here.”

Corey’s eyes immediately began searching the forest.

“We’ll find them,” he said, giving Kierra’s shoulder a squeeze before he walked away, his bear ripping from his skin once more as the others followed him. They knew what they were doing, and the three slipped away behind the trailer into the nearby forest.

“What’s going on?” Kierra asked, straightening up and looking at him apprehensively.

“They’re going to circle around and try to catch whoever is following you if they came up here. The forest keeps them close, so they can’t have gotten too far. We’ll know shortly if someone did.”

She nodded, and he could see her thinking through his logic. “What do we do in the meantime?”

He took her hand and pulled her behind the trailer. “If you don’t have any objections, I thought maybe we could recreate those provocative photos you just showed me,” he told her, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Kierra giggled, a sound that positively made his day each time he heard it. “You’re terrible!”

“I know,” he said, tilting his head to the side.

“I like it,” she murmured as he drew close, his eyes closing at the last moment.

Their lips touched with just the barest contact, no more than a tantalizing tease of her soft and silky skin under him. His nostrils flared, breathing in the sweet smell of her perfume.

Then he heard shouting from the other side of the trailer.

“Dammit,” he cursed, slamming a meaty fist into the rippled aluminum siding. The fragile metal crunched dangerously under his attack, but he didn’t care.

“I guess you’ll have to try another time,” she said, sliding her hand down his chest and over his stomach as he pulled back slightly.

He froze, wondering if she would go lower, but just as she passed his lower stomach she pulled her hand back. “Let’s go see what they’ve found,” she said, her eyes glittering with delight.

Darren gave her a wink and then gripped a full amount of her rear in his hand as she passed by him.

Kierra shrieked in surprise, but the smile on her face as she turned told him the truth behind how she felt. “You know, I really appreciate your desire and dedication to distracting me from what’s going on, but I’m not sure it’s going to work,” she said with a wink.

The floating feeling her words gave him came crashing down to earth when he rounded the corner and saw the grave look on Corey’s face as he came walking up the single-lane path.

“Someone was here. Big SUV. Black. License plate was covered in snow. Bugged out before we even got close,” he said. “If I had to guess, I’d say he knew we were coming from the moment we went behind the trailer.”

“Fuck.” Darren was not impressed. “It was for sure a he?” he said then, focusing on what Corey had said.

“Yeah, though he did try to cover it up. Clearly he knew we had a superior sense of smell. There was a strong presence of female perfume in the air, as if he dosed himself in it hoping we couldn’t detect his own scent. Unfortunately, it worked. There was enough left for me to be sure it was a male, and the size of the boot tracks confirms it, but other than that, nothing I could use to identify him. Sorry boss.”

“You did great Corey. Couldn’t have asked for more,” he said, giving the other shifter a firm pat on the shoulder.

It didn’t occur to him then just how easily he slipped into the leadership role.

“What now?” Cole asked as he and Joel finally joined the rest, having chased after the SUV a short way.

“We’re going to go and see what we can find out,” he said. “Cole, go grab what we left down there and shut it down for the day. Joel, you do the same up here. Corey, you head over to the Lodge, tell Nash what’s going on. I hate the weasel, but that bastard needs to know.”

The three nodded and swiftly went about their tasks. Corey pulled out of the parking lot while he helped Kierra into her own vehicle. They would drop it off before going to the destination Darren had in mind.

“Nash?” she asked before he closed the door for her. He could tell she was rattled, since she didn’t even fight him about it.

“Our LMC liaison,” he told her.

“Right, I forgot you had to report to him,” she said. “But why do you hate Nash so much?”

“He’s an ass, for starters. He’s also not our normal liaison,” Darren explained. “Emma is, but she’s Garrett’s mate, and they’re out of town for a few days. So we got stuck with Nash, who has made himself an absolute pain in the ass.”

“Can he help us at all?”

Darren shook his head. “No, no I don’t think so. But he
can
hinder me if I don’t tell him about things like cutting today short.”

“Okay,” she said. “Where are we going after we drop my car off?”

“I’ve actually had an idea,” he said slowly, letting the thought that had just jumped into his brain come to fruition. “I think. Don’t go home. Meet me at the Tongue & Flame, okay?”

She looked confused at his sudden change of plans, but he knew she trusted him enough to just go with it.

Now he had to hope he wasn’t completely crazy.