Slade (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey Book 5) (17 page)

She admired him for that, and she nodded quickly, if a little reserved.

“Sure,” she answered, “though I’m not sure what help I’ll be.”

“You think you’d recognize that woman again, if we tracked her together?” Hart enquired.
 

“Yeah,” Jane replied with a nod, “I’m great with faces.”

“Good,” Hart said, “because I’m not sure approaching her as a bear again is going to do me any favors.”

Jane chuckled at that, and Hart laughed too. He hadn’t let go of her elbow, his fingertips a little rough where they grazed her skin. Over his shoulder, Jane saw Elise giving her that look again. She had Isaak back in her arms in his human form, and Dietrich was robed-up and beaming at them both. They were a perfect family, everything that Jane wanted to have someday. And she was right there with Hart, standing close and watching him smile down at her.

That was when her cellphone rang, the urgent call shattering the peace.

“I… I really have to get this,” she said apologetically. “Save me some dinner?”

She felt genuinely awful as she left to answer the call.

It was the next day that Jane met up with the bear with the bag again. She had offered to carry the uniform for Hart, but he had given a shake of his massive, shaggy head to tell her no. It was tricky to really understand the emotions of a bear, but Jane felt as though he was quite merry whilst he plodded along among the trees. She watched him smelling the branches and the ground as they walked together, until her phone began buzzing in her pocket once again.

“Sorry, do you mind?” Jane asked as she recovered the phone again.

Hart gave a low grumble, which could have meant yes or no really. Unsure, Jane answered her phone anyway.

“Hi Luc,” she said, addressing her assistant. “What do you need?”

What Luc needed was firing, Jane decided eventually. The call took over an hour, diminished sometimes by the fall and rise of the signal depending on which parts of the wood they were walking though. By its end, Jane was sweating from the trek and from the stress of having to relay every single instruction as though she was talking to a child. What she wanted a family for, Jane had no idea, because clearly she was already mother to a company of infants who couldn’t do a thing for themselves. When she finally hung up the phone, sighing heavily, she found that Hart had stopped at the edge of a clearing.

Just beyond the next row of trees, there was a gathering of people who were laughing and joking to themselves. They had not noticed the bear and the woman looming upon them from the depths of the trees, and Hart took the opportunity to sink into the foliage and transform back into a human. Jane tried not to look, but these bushes were not as thick as the ones he’d hidden in before, and she caught the curves of his perfect buttocks before he slipped his ranger’s pants on. The sight of him flushed her with heat, despite the warmth of the day.

“Well?” Hart asked. “Do you see her anywhere? I tried to follow the awful scent of the smoke.”

Jane peered through the leaves, looking at the gathering carefully. Plenty of them appeared to be stoned, which made Jane wonder if Hart had actually tracked down yet another group which had got their supplies from the Boys in the Wood. There were almost a dozen people, smoking and enjoying themselves in a lazy, giggling fashion. Jane watched one of them drop a smoldering joint to the ground.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” she whispered to Hart. “I mean, you get forest fires here, right?”

“Right,” Hart answered. “Not to mention the legal issues. The whole park could be shut down if anyone found out there was a farm here.”

The park was more than just a job to Clan Best, jane knew that all too well. It was their way of a life, and a sanctuary where they could safely transform. She couldn’t bear the thought of little Isaak having to grow up anywhere else, where he could be persecuted just for being who he was.
 

“Look,” Jane said, pointing suddenly, “there’s more of them approaching, over there.”

Hart stepped close, following Jane’s gaze over her shoulder. She listened to his breathing, long and low, and heard her own tense, stunted breaths in return. Even now, he was so much calmer than she was, and she envied that feeling of calm.

“Hey guys!” a woman called as she approached the clearing. “Guys, it’s Linzy. We found her down by the water. I… I think she’s dead.”

Jane clasped a hand to her own mouth to stop her gasp from escaping. Sure enough, the woman and a man were carrying another woman into the clearing. She was soaked to the skin and dreadfully pale, but Jane recognized her shabby clothes and long hair at once. Linzy was the woman she’d met the day before, who’d seemed so oblivious and happy whilst riding her high. Now, she was limp and pale where her friends laid her down on the ground.

“Oh…” said one of the assembled stoners. “Um… So what do we do?”

They were detached from the moment, struggling to get their brains back into gear at the sign of a crisis. Jane was about to turn and ask Hart what they should do, but the tall, striking ranger was already moving past her. As he went, he took hold of her hand firmly and guided her through the final branches into the clearing.

“Everything all right here?” Hart asked the people. “Does this woman need help?”

Some of the gathering scattered at once, grabbing at their joints or hastily trying to blow away the smoke. They sloped off towards the path that would lead them back to the main park, leaving only the original pair who had carried Linzy to the group. Jane noticed that they seemed fairly sober, though shock had rendered them pretty useless.

“She…” the woman stammered. “I don’t know. We just found her down there.”

Hart dropped to his knees and put his ear to Linzy’s chest. Jane watched for a long, tense moment. Her phone was buzzing in her pocket again, but this time she let it go. She might need to call an ambulance at any moment. There were more important things right now than work.

“Well?” Jane pressed. “Is she…”

“No,” Hart said after a moment’s thought. “She’s breathing, but she’s struggling. Her heartbeat is very slow. I think it must be hypothermia. If she got herself soaked and passed out, it can be mighty cold up here at night. Call back to the lodge for a car. We need to get her warm.”

It was fascinating to see Hart work. Despite the terror of the situation, he was methodical and organized. Once Jane had made the call, he told her to put Linzy into the recovering position, and he covered her over with his shirt. Jane took her coat off and put it over the poor woman’s legs, watching as Hart coerced her shocked friends into donating parts of their clothing to keep her warm too. Soon, Hart and Jane were crouching either side of the suffering woman, feeling her temperature and waiting for one of the Best boys to arrive with the Land Rover.

“See, this is why I hate drugs,” Jane seethed, growing frantic. “They dull your judgement, and accidents happens. I like to be alert. On top of things.”

“I had noticed,” Hart observed gently. “You really run the show. That phone call earlier was a masterclass in dealing with people.”

Jane had forgotten that he could hear and understand what she was saying. Work had been far from her mind whilst she’d been taking care of Linzy, but now the piled-up messages were worrying her again. She’d have so much to take care of later, when this was over.

“Well, that’s my life,” Jane explained. “On call all the time.”

“And you’re happy with that?” Hart asked.

Jane gave a proud little shrug. “I’m the most successful woman under thirty in my field,” she replied.

“Yeah, but are you
happy
?” Hart said again.

Jane looked up into his eyes, the gold rings sparkling at her. He really, genuinely wanted to know if she was happy. Having only known her two days, Hart cared how she felt. The deep concern was written all over his handsome face, the same concern he’d had for saving Linzy from hypothermia. She found that she couldn’t meet his gaze, or his question any more. Success had always been her first goal, and she’d assumed that marriage and love and all that ever-after stuff would somehow fit in later on. Now, she wasn’t so sure that things were going to follow the plan.

The rumble of the Land Rover echoed on the nearby path, and Jane looked down at Linzy with a sigh. The woman was starting to twitch, signs of life returning to her at last.

“Gee, this hot chocolate is amazing,” Linzy mused.

She was brighter than Jane had ever seen her. Once the cold embrace of the great outdoors had finally left her body, Linzy resumed the appearance of a normal human being. Her cheeks were flushed pink where she sat beside the roaring fire of the lodge and, though Jane thought it was far too hot in the room already, the shabbily-dressed woman was glugging away at her scolding chocolate all the same. Hart had little beads of sweat dripping from his hairline where he sat beside her, poking the fire with an iron rod.

“You feeling better?” he asked.

“Much,” Linzy replied. “That was a hell of a comedown. I don’t think I’ll go for that stuff again, even if it was a free sample. I saw all sorts of weird things. Two-headed rabbits. Bears with golden eyes. Crazy stuff.”

“Crazy,” Jane reiterated, and she and Hart shared a knowing look over the woman’s head.

Every time he looked at her, Jane felt a new pang in her chest. Hart’s eyes burned with something bright and hopeful, his face a picture of serenity. Even now, amid the wild heat of the lodge, he was totally unflappable. Jane had to admire that, but she also wondered exactly what it would take for a man like him to really break down.

“So Linzy, do you think you can tell us where to find the guys who sold you the drugs?” Hart asked gently. “You understand, I have to move them along. It’s park policy.”

“Oh,” Linzy said, shrinking against her mug of cocoa. “Well, I don’t want to get nobody into trouble. Those guys were pretty tough-looking types.”

“No trouble,” Jane said, her face totally neutral. “Like Hart said, we just need to move them along. No police, no statement from you. Just a location, then you can go back to enjoying your trip in Fairhaven.”

She didn’t believe a word of her own lies, but Linzy did. Jane had had to lie on command for years in her profession, convincing angry clients that their deadlines had been met, telling haughty models how popular they were, when they were actually on the verge of career death. Her face was a picture of confidence, the way she’d trained it to be over the years, and Linzy nodded with every word.

“Well, the one guy approached me down at the swimming center,” she began to reveal, “the one down by the campground.”

Hart nodded. “I know it,” he replied. “This guy, who was he?”

“Carter,” Linzy added, her voice growing in confidence. “You can’t miss him, he has a huge scar running right across his face, and a badly broken nose. He was nice, though, sweet talking type, you know? And he took me down a hillside off the back of the campground to show me the farm. It’s…”

Linzy paused, and Jane knew this was the pivotal moment, the thing she did not want to give away. She reached out, taking Linzy’s boiling hot hands in her grip.

“It’s okay,” she soothed, “you can say where the place is.”

“Well,” the woman began again quietly. “I can’t exactly. It’s covered over with lots of bushes. You don’t even see it ‘til you’re right beside it in the trees. And it goes underground a little, where it’s cooler for the plants I guess. They siphon water off the swimming lake in little pipelines.”

“How many plants would you say they’re growing?” Hart pressed.

“A couple hundred at least,” Linzy replied. “It was pretty impressive. I’ve never been able to grow one, let alone… Well, anyway.”

She sipped at her chocolate again. Hart rose from his seat and gave Jane a little tilt of his head. She got up too, dusting down her outfit.

“Thank you for helping us, Linzy,” she said.

“No, thank you for finding me,” the woman replied. “I mean, God only knows what would have happened to me otherwise, right?”

“Right,” Hart said, smiling reassuringly. “Would you excuse us just a moment?”

He began to make for the door, Jane beside him, but as they both reached the exit to the baking hot room, Linzy called after them suddenly.

“I should tell you,” she admitted, looking down at the ground, “this Carter guy had at least eight others with him when I went down to the farm. And… they had guns. All of them.”

Jane felt a lump leap into her throat.

“Thanks, that’s helpful,” Hart answered calmly.

And with that he led Jane out of the door. They raced for the cool, fresh air of early evening, gasping deep breaths off the veranda at the back of the lodge. Jane took a tissue from her pocket and dabbed at her face, trying not to spoil her makeup as she mopped up a little sweat. Hart had much more of an animal approach to the problem, peeling off his shirt and wiping his face and hair with that instead.

He was a glorious sight once again, and up close Jane watched his muscles ripple all over his torso. In the fading light, he skin seemed to gleam like freshly-smelted gold, still red from the fire. Hart caught her looking, and he grinned. The grin threw Jane off a little, and she frowned at him despite the tingles creeping into her body.