by Zoe Chant
She was going to miss the cat rescue, just like Ben was going to miss working for a big-city police department. But she was also excited and eager at the idea of living here. There were so many new possibilities for both of them. The local sheriff's department had offered Ben a position, and he and Derek had renewed their discussion about starting their own private security-consulting business. Tessa was a lot less sure what she wanted to do with herself. She thought that for a little, while she might just try some different things. Volunteer with different places in town. Look into taking some online courses. All she knew was, she wanted to do something to make a difference, like she had at the shelter. She just needed to find somewhere she felt like she fit.
It was a fresh start for both of them. A new life.
And she might not even have to start all over at making new friends. She'd shown Melody the bookstore space in downtown Autumn Grove, and she was pretty sure Melody was already in talks to lease it. Of course, it was easier to do that kind of thing when your dad was loaded. But Melody had dreamed of owning her own bookstore for a long time. And even if they wouldn't be working right across the street from each other, they'd still be neighbors.
Yeah. She was looking forward to finding out what living in the country was like. And if she didn't enjoy it, well, they could try something else.
Their future was wide open.
"Mrrrowww!"
... okay, one thing about the future she'd already determined was that it was going to have a lot of cats in it.
After the cats' long ride from the city in their new, large, hard-sided carrier, she'd put them in the bedroom with food, water, and a litter tray, just like the first time she'd brought them here, but a little better prepared this time around. It hadn't taken them long, this time, to start wander out into the cabin. They weren't really kittens anymore, more like teenage cats now, gangly and growing into their fully adult size. But they were still very curious and eager to look around. They'd already been up to the cabin a few more times, accompanying Tessa and Ben on their weekend excursions, so it wasn't totally new.
This would be a better place for them than Ben's apartment, she thought. There had never been enough space for them there, even if there weren't quite as many cats as there used to be. But these cats would really enjoy their new home. The cabin was full of railings to climb on and corners to creep into. She and Ben had kept most of them, but Toblerone, the bold little orange one, was now a permanent resident of Darius's mansion. Tessa had worried that he'd be lonely without his brothers and sisters, but the last time she'd seen him, he was being petted and pampered by Darius's entire staff, and had a shiny new collar studded with what she sincerely hoped were rhinestones but had a bad feeling might be actual diamonds. Even if Darius was too busy for him most of the time, she had a feeling he was going to be the world's most well-petted cat. He and Maddox seemed to nurse a cordial loathing for each other, though.
"Penny for your thoughts," Ben murmured, brushing her cheek with the back of his hand.
She smiled involuntarily. "It's probably not anything you're expecting. I was actually wondering about that bodyguard of your dad's, if that's the right word—"
"I prefer 'henchman', but go on."
"Yeah ... I was wondering what he turns into, if you ever found out."
"No idea." Ben smiled. "You could just ask my dad, since apparently you two are besties now."
"Besties? As if."
"So you claim, but I don't even remember the last time he called me, and now he emails you all the time."
"No he doesn't."
"Tessa, he just sent you an email the other day asking if you'd had a chance to use that recipe yet, and reminding you that—"
"—'revenge is a dish best served cold,' I know, so I need to be sure and cool it down properly before serving it. Yes, I remember." She stroked her fingers through Ben's dark hair. "It's not that I've forgiven him for all those years he treated you so poorly. It's just easier if—"
"Tessa, trust me, I don't care if you hang around with my dad. Honestly, if you want to do all the interacting with my dad for the entire household, please, go right ahead. I'll be completely happy to never talk to him again."
She leaned up to kiss him. "He does care about you, you know. And he's proud of you, I think. In his own way."
"You know what?" Ben said, and he swept her off her feet into a bridal carry. Tessa let out a startled shriek and clutched at him. "Let's stop talking about my dad. There are a lot of things I'd much rather think about."
"Like?" she asked, winding her arms around his neck.
"Like a bed upstairs that's freshly made and needs to be properly christened." He nuzzled against her hair.
Tessa grinned and wriggled a little closer, pressing against his chiseled chest. It didn't seem to matter how many times she had this man; she still wanted more. "I think that sounds like a fantastic way to welcome each other home."
***
They were lying upstairs in sated bliss, twined together and drowsing, when Ben suddenly raised his head. "Do you hear an engine?"
She didn't at first, but in the perfect stillness of the afternoon, it came to her eventually: the rising and falling of a car or truck laboring up the winding driveway. A moment later, the engine noise became clear as it drove out of the woods into the clearing around the cabin.
Ben rose quietly and went to the window, then turned back to her with a grin. "It's Derek and Gaby. Looks like they brought the family."
As they went down the stairs—Ben buttoning his shirt and Tessa trying to smooth down the disarray of her short hair—there was a knock at the door that sent the cats running for cover.
"Hey there," Derek said, grinning at them as Ben opened the door. "We decided to be good neighbors and bring you a pie. Where do you want it?"
"Ooh, what kind of pie?" Tessa asked, craning around him. "Hi, Gaby."
"Hi," Derek's mate said with a smile. She was carrying their new baby in a front-mounted sling and holding their son Sandy by the hand.
Tessa had met their family a few times; she and Ben had gone into Gaby's café in downtown Autumn Grove more than once (and would become regulars now that they lived here, Tessa knew; the food was as good as promised) and they had also visited Derek and Gaby in their old farmhouse just outside town. But this was Tessa's first time having them in her house.
Mine. Ben's. Ours.
She went to start a pot of coffee, then showed Sandy how to properly hold and pet the cats, who had crept out of hiding to investigate the new arrivals. Tessa was cautious at first, having dealt with cats in the shelter who had been hurt by overly enthusiastic children, but Sandy was a good student, paying close attention and carefully copying the things she taught him. Tessa got out some of the cat toys, and left Sandy and the kittens happily playing while the adults took their coffee out onto the porch.
"So you guys are moving up here for good," Derek said. "You're really doing it."
Tessa nodded. "We've already given up the lease on my place. I wasn't attached to it anyway." She had moved in with Ben almost as soon as they'd gotten back from Darius's mansion.
"And we're keeping mine through the end of the year," Ben said, "just in case something comes up or we change our minds."
"But I don't expect we will." Tessa looked around at the wind-ruffled meadow and the red-and-gold brilliance of the forest, decked out in its autumn finery.. "It's amazing here. I think the first time I came here, I knew I'd come home; I just didn't let myself admit it yet."
Ben smiled. "Wait until you go through a winter out here before you say that for sure. This place sometimes gets snowed in for days at a time."
Gaby laughed. Tessa had taken an instant liking to her; the friendly café owner had shown her nothing but kindness, welcoming Ben's new mate into her family's life. "Snowed in for days, with nothing to do except entertain yourselves in the cabin? How very difficult for you. I'm sure you won't be able to find anything to do." She winked at
Derek.
Ben was actually blushing. Tessa reached out and took his hand. "I think you're right," she said. "We'll figure something out."
Which was, in some sense, the story of their entire relationship. She never would have dreamed when Ben had walked through the door of the cat rescue, when she'd gotten so mad at Melody for interfering in her life, that she would be sitting here, on the porch of a place so peaceful and quiet where she felt perfectly at ease, starting to find her way into a new family and a new life.
I finally have a place to belong.
***
Bear in a Bookshop
(Bodyguard Shifters #3)
by Zoe Chant
Copyright Zoe Chant 2018
All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Gunnar
Chapter Two: Melody
Chapter Three: Gunnar
Chapter Four: Melody
Chapter Five: Gunnar
Chapter Six: Melody
Chapter Seven: Gunnar
Chapter Eight: Melody
Chapter Nine: Gunnar
Chapter Ten: Melody
Chapter Eleven: Gunnar
Chapter Twelve: Melody
Chapter Thirteen: Gunnar
Chapter Fourteen: Melody
Chapter Fifteen: Gunnar
Chapter Sixteen: Melody
Epilogue: A New Journey
Chapter One: Gunnar
"Hey, Sorenson," the guard called. "You got a visitor."
Gunnar Sorenson swiped his mop across the floor one last time and leaned it neatly against the wall. He didn't have a lot of things to be proud of these days, but he was proud of this floor. It practically gleamed.
His ma always used to say if a job was worth doing, it was worth doing well.
... For all the good that advice had done him in life. Good thing she wasn't around to see him now.
"Sorenson." The guard's voice had a hard edge. "Today?" He jangled his cuffs meaningfully.
Gunnar smoothed down his orange coverall, held out his hands, and submitted wordlessly to being cuffed. Inside his chest, his bear snarled and paced.
We could break those flimsy things. We could be free!
Yeah, he thought back. Free to do what? Free to be fugitives, that's what.
We didn't do anything wrong! his bear growled.
Gunnar didn't answer. He'd tried to explain it to his bear, and he didn't feel like going through another round of their mutual failure to understand each other. Especially since, deep down inside, he agreed with his bear. He hadn't done anything wrong. Not morally wrong.
The trouble was, the law didn't see it that way.
So even though he could have broken the handcuffs, unleashed the enormous bear inside him, and made a break for it, he let the guard lead him out of the cell block.
A rattling noise made him look up. Here came good old "Hammer" Jones, on library duty today, pushing the bookcart. The other inmate nodded to him; Gunnar nodded back. He couldn't help himself; his eyes followed the bookcart wistfully. He wasn't the kind of guy who got library duty, though. Dropped out of school in the eighth grade and could barely read above a fourth-grade level—might as well face it, books and libraries weren't meant for guys like him.
"Eyes forward, Sorenson," the guard told him, and waited until he complied before unlocking the door that led out of the cell block to the visiting room.
With the bookcart out of sight, there was nothing to distract Gunnar and stop him from wondering who was here to see him. There wasn't anybody he could think of. In the three years he'd been here, he hadn't gotten a single visitor.
Not even Nils, who was the entire reason he was here.
Not for the first time (or the hundredth, or the thousandth) Gunnar pushed down thoughts of his brother. Nils was ... Nils. Nothing Gunnar did could have changed him, or helped him.
Even though he'd tried.
And he really doubted Nils was his visitor today. Nils wouldn't be caught dead coming inside a prison of his own free will. Not even to visit his little brother. Especially not to visit his little brother.
The guard opened the door to the visiting room. It was a plain, bare room, with tables and chairs bolted to the concrete floor. A few other inmates were in there already, mostly guys visiting with their wives and girlfriends. Gunnar averted his eyes, wanting to give them privacy, and scanned over the tables looking for who might be here to see him.
There was only one table with a visitor sitting alone, not already talking to someone. Gunnar had never seen this man before in his life, but as Gunnar's eyes met the stranger's, a sharp look of shock and recognition passed over the other man's face, and he stood up. Gunnar dropped his gaze and tried to study the other guy from the corner of his eye as the guard led him toward the table. One thing prison had given him was a well-developed ability to look at people without appearing to look at them.
The stranger was dark-haired and lean, though not slight by any means. He was shorter than Gunnar but looked like he could handle himself in a fight. Gunnar couldn't figure out what kind of person he was. He wasn't dressed up enough to be a lawyer, but he wasn't dressed down enough to be the sort of guy who typically came in here to visit a buddy; he wore a black button-down shirt and black jeans. His eyes were his most striking feature—light gray, piercing, and intense.
Gunnar's bear, already restless, bristled at that pale, probing stare. Gunnar pushed it down.
"Gunnar Sorenson?" the stranger asked.
Gunnar nodded.
"Sit," the guard told Gunnar. He sat, and the guard locked his handcuffs to a ring under the edge of the table. "Five minutes," the guard said, and left them alone.
"I'd shake hands," Gunnar said. He shrugged and rattled his cuffs. "But ..."
"Don't worry about it." The stranger had seated himself again. He didn't look either hostile or afraid of Gunnar; he just seemed wary. "Do you know who I am?"
"Not a clue," Gunnar said.
"My name is Deputy Ben Keegan. I used to be a big-city cop; now I'm with the sheriff's department in a town called Autumn Grove. And there's something I need your help with."
"You need my help, huh?" Gunnar couldn't stop himself; he gave a short laugh. "Yeah, sure, what the hell, Deputy. What can I help you with today?"
"You have a brother named Nils, right?" All the humor fell straight out of Gunnar's world, and the bottom dropped out of his stomach. When Gunnar didn't answer, Keegan gave him a brief, fierce smile. "Of course you do. You're the spitting image of him. What are you, twins?"
"He's four years older," Gunnar said. His throat felt tight. He imagined himself as this cop must see him: huge, muscular, tattooed, his blond hair cropped close to his scalp.
He knew he looked like a killer, even though he'd never harmed another person in his life.
"Has your brother been in touch with you since you've been in prison?" Keegan asked.
The tightness in his throat and chest increased, along with the sense of the walls closing in on him. "No," Gunnar said simply.
Keegan leaned back in his chair and regarded him. "Not even once. Not once in three years."
"You come here to rub it in or what?" Gunnar's voice came out harsh. He told himself it didn't hurt. Not anymore.
But it still did.
"Your brother escaped from prison," Keegan said. "Six weeks ago."
Gunnar felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He hadn't even known Nils was in prison in the first place. When Gunnar had gone inside, he hadn't been.
"You didn't know that?" Keegan asked, and Gunnar shook his head. "Well, there's more. He's gone to ground and no one knows where he is, but I'm worried he's going to come after some people I care about. People who helped put him away the first time. So I'm here to cut you a deal, Gunnar. I'll get you out of prison, if you help me catch your brother."
Chapter Two: Melody
"Melody, you have to listen to me!"
"I'm listening," Melody Keegan said
impatiently, moving on to the Philosophy shelf to tuck a book back into its proper place between its neighbors. Oh no, what was this one doing here? That was entirely out of place—it belonged in Mystery.
"No, you're not," Tessa protested, following her. "You're—you're—you're shelving!"
With a sigh, balancing the never-shrinking, ever-growing stack of books in her arms, Melody turned and looked at her longtime best friend and, now, sister-in-law. Tessa had grown her short hair out over the last year, and now a riot of dark brown curls surrounded a face that was softer than it had been when Melody had first met her ... in more ways than one. Pregnancy was a good look on her. She was rounded and softened all over, and looked vastly less emotionally guarded, less unhappy, than she had been for most of the time that Melody had known her.
Being married to Melody's brother Ben was good for her. And Melody loved having Tessa for a neighbor and for a sister.
However ...
"You don't have to worry about me," Melody said, and couldn't help smiling. With her hands full of books, she used an elbow to shove her glasses up her nose. "This feels like a turnaround, doesn't it?"
"What?" Tessa said, her train of thought visibly derailing.
"The entire reason why you met my brother and ended up married to him is because I sprang him on you as a surprise bodyguard." Melody shook her head as she moved on to tuck a dog-eared Dick Francis paperback and a nice first-edition Agatha Christie back onto their respective shelves in the Mystery section of the store. "I remember how you argued about it, insisted you could handle it yourself."
"Yes, and you know what, as it turned out, you were right. I really was in danger, and I couldn't handle it myself. And now you need to learn from my mistakes, and just come with me, where you'll be safe, and Ben and Derek can protect you!"
"Tessa ... there's a key difference between you and me." Melody rearranged the order of several Sue Grafton alphabet mysteries as she spoke. There was nothing worse than an alphabet out of order. As she fixed the shelf, a clatter came from the direction of the bookstore's small café, making her wince.