by Kimber White
As I ran Gabe’s credit card, I saw Gloria leaning against the breakroom door. An unlit cigarette dangled from her hands. It was fifteen minutes before closing. Arkady, Mikhail, and Stefan had disappeared. The door to Arkady’s office was open, so I guessed they’d gone out to the alley. They often did that when they wanted to discuss business out of earshot. Cullen told me he’d watched them do it nearly every night. I took a steeling breath. This was as good a time as any to try and talk to Gloria.
Gabe’s group rose to their feet nearly in unison and staggered their way to the front door, leaving the carnage of overturned glasses and crumpled napkins in their wake. Three of them still seemed sober, so I didn’t bother to call anyone a cab. They left me nearly a five hundred dollar tip, and I wondered if that was partly Arkady’s doing. As much as I needed the money, I didn’t like feeling like I owed him anything. Still, I pocketed the money and went looking for Gloria.
Luckily, she wasn’t hard to find. She’d tried to slip out the side door, but her lingering cigarette smoke left a trail in her wake. With Arkady and the others probably out back or about to file back into his office, this was likely the best chance I’d get to talk to her without the threat of unwanted ears.
She was walking fast toward the side parking lot across the street. I had to practically run to catch up with her. I called her name but she only hastened her step. When I got close enough, I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her around to face me.
“Stop!” I said. Gloria turned. Her eyes were red-rimmed with tears and she brought her cigarette to her lips with shaking fingers.
“What do you want from me?”
There was no need for pretense. No need to start from the beginning and explain who I was. Whoever Gloria was, my face meant something to her.
“You knew her, didn’t you? Avery?”
Gloria dropped her cigarette and ground it beneath her heel. She looked cautiously around us, but we were alone. I wanted to tell her not to worry. If anyone tried to approach me, I was pretty sure they’d find a keyed up grizzly bear lurking around the corner ready to rip their faces off. Still, I had no desire to draw unwanted attention either. There was only one other bar in downtown Blackfoot that stayed open later than the Bluelight.
“Come on,” I said. “The Bear Trap’s still open. Let me buy you a drink. I think we need to talk, and it’s not safe for us to be seen together I’m guessing.”
Gloria nodded, lit another cigarette, and walked the block and a half with me. I knew Cullen would throw a fit if he saw me walk into the Bear Trap. He told me the place was teeming with shifters of all kinds. But, no one seemed to pay Gloria or me any mind as we walked in and took a corner booth away from the nightly regulars.
“Avery was my sister,” I explained when Gloria sat down. She blinked away tears as she folded her hands in front of her. We each ordered a white wine and sat in silence while the waiter brought them to us. I cashed out immediately so we wouldn’t be disturbed again.
“She was my friend,” Gloria finally answered. “And you shouldn’t have come here.”
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I pulled my phone out of my purse. I saw three messages from Cullen pop up on the lock screen. But he’d have to take care of himself. The next few minutes might be the whole ballgame if I could get Gloria to tell me what I needed to know.
“She worked here. I mean, she worked at the Bluelight with you?”
Gloria nodded. “I gave her a place to stay. We were roommates. God. When I saw you tonight, I thought I was losing my mind. She said she had a sister, but I had no idea that you looked like her. I mean … you look exactly like her.”
“We’re identical twins. She didn’t tell you that?”
Gloria shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe she did. But, it’s one thing to say it, it’s another thing to see you in the flesh.”
“Do you know what happened to her?”
Gloria took a slow sip of her wine. Her lipstick left a deep red smear around the rim that she wiped away with her thumb. “I think she liked me … I think she trusted me because I didn’t ask her a lot of questions. I don’t know. Avery kind of reminded me of me. And I could ask you the same question you just asked me. Why don’t you tell me what the hell happened to her?”
“What do you mean?”
“That girl was running from something. Something bad. You mean to tell me you don’t know what it was?”
I gripped the stem of my wine glass and then took a slow sip. My instinct was to lie and change the subject the way Avery and I always did. We protected each other and our secrets. But now, I wondered if it still mattered. “I don’t know. That’s the God’s honest truth. We grew up in the system. Avery had a rougher time of it than I did. I never asked her a lot of questions either. I didn’t have to. I just knew, you know? And I don’t know why she ran away. At least, I don’t know why she ran away from me too.”
“I do,” Gloria said. Something shifted in her posture. She put a hand across the table and gripped mine. The tears came back into her eyes.
“Tell me.” My voice came out in a choked whisper.
“Honey. Somebody hurt her wherever you came from. Badly. She was having trouble sorting it out and maybe she was trying to protect you. I don’t know. Whatever it was, she was looking for a fresh start.”
“Did she get it?”
Gloria sat back in her seat and let go of my hand. “Who knows? She tried to play it tough, but she was just a scared kid. Hell, she wasn’t even old enough to serve drinks when she came out here, was she? That was like five years ago now. She had this cheesy fake ID, but Arkady bought it. He put her on the floor the first night.”
My heart sank as Gloria confirmed what I already suspected. “So Arkady knew her too.”
Gloria’s eyes widened. “You mean he hasn’t …” Her hands started to tremble again. She looked around the bar and pulled her purse strap over her shoulder. “Look. I don’t know what the hell game you’re playing.”
“I’m not playing any game. I just want to know what happened to my sister.”
Shattering glass drew my attention toward the bar. Two patrons got into a shoving match. They were big, burly and strong. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as one of their eyes glinted gold. He wasn’t as big as Cullen or the other werebears, but he definitely wasn’t fully human. I could ask Cullen later, but I guessed wolf. Suddenly, sitting here much longer seemed like a bad idea.
“Please.” I reached across the table and grabbed Gloria by the wrist as she tried to get up to leave. “Help me. If Avery was your friend, just tell me what you know. Then you’ll never have to see me or talk to me again if you don’t want. You owe her that much.”
I don’t know why I said that last part, but it seemed to have an impact. Gloria’s nostrils flared and she sat back down. She pulled her purse off her shoulder and opened it.
“I don’t even know why I keep this in here. Who the hell knows? There are so many strange things that go on in this town. It’s eerie. I must need my head examined. I don’t know why the hell I came back here.”
“Because Arkady called you. And you know there’s something different about him. I’m guessing Avery did too.”
Gloria set her jaw. She leaned in close. “And you keep on poking around into things you don’t understand, you’re going to end up regretting it. You want my advice? Go back to wherever you came from. It’s the same thing I told Avery.”
“Gloria, please. Just tell me what you know.”
She reached into her bag and pulled something out. She held it tightly in her fist. “Arkady was very interested in her. He pursued her. I don’t know what came of it. I swear. But, she was afraid of him. She was also getting ready to leave town again.”
“Why didn’t she?”
Gloria closed her other hand around her fist holding whatever she’d taken from her purse. My heartbeat fluttered as I watched her. I was afraid to know what she held.
&nb
sp; “She got sick, honey. Really, really sick. I don’t know what it was. She didn’t want to talk about it. She asked me for help and I gave it to her. I knew the name of a doctor that would see her for cash because she didn’t have any insurance. I helped her out with some money. For a little while, it helped and she started to feel better. Then, one night, I found her on the floor of our bathroom in pretty bad shape. I wanted to take her to the hospital, but Avery refused. She told me to take her to Dr. Putnam. That’s who I referred her to. Michelle Putnam. She runs a clinic on the other side of town. So, I drove her there and we waited for the doctor. When she got there, she took Avery inside and told me I should leave and cover for Avery at the bar. I did that. But Avery never came back. I went back to the doctor’s the next night asking questions. Dr. Putnam told me Avery was fine when she left. I never saw her again, honey. Avery never came back for her things. She never came back to the bar. Arkady said he hadn’t heard from her either. That’s it. She just vanished.”
I squeezed my eyes shut tight. My heart pounded with pain and rage. I felt so close to Avery and so far away at the same time. Gloria opened her fist. In it, she held a tarnished gold chain. She grabbed my hand and put the chain into mine.
“She left this. Dr. Putnam gave it to me. She said it fell off while she was examining your sister. She wouldn’t tell me any more than that. Doctor-patient privilege or something. Her clinic is still there though. Maybe you can get more information. I have no idea if the doctor still works there. I haven’t seen or talked to her in years.”
I was frozen. Gloria moved quickly. The commotion at the bar reached a fever pitch and the two shifters came to blows. I closed my fist around the object she gave me and pressed my head to the table. When I had the courage to open my hand again, my heart shattered into a million pieces.
She’d given me Avery’s necklace, the thin gold broken heart that matched the one I wore around my own neck. The one we swore when we were twelve years old that we’d never take off until the day one of us died.
I moved like a zombie, putting my feet in front of me but without real thought. Somehow, I made it to my car. I put it in gear and drove out of the parking lot. My phone buzzed again with Cullen’s unread messages. I gripped the steering wheel and drove home. Whatever he wanted, it could wait until I saw him in person. For now, I just needed to focus on breathing. I knew Avery was dead. I’d sensed that every waking moment since a year after she disappeared. But, to have just the shred of physical proof gutted me.
I pulled into my driveway. The door to Cullen’s unit stood wide open and the lights were on. I should have found that strange. He was careful not to make it look like anyone lived there. I walked through the front door. He stood in the middle of the kitchen, his eye bloodied. I got three steps in then dropped to my knees as Cullen pulled me into his arms.
Chapter Eight
Cullen
Anya’s grief cut through me and called to me. I was angry with her. She hadn’t answered my texts. She had no idea how close I’d come to losing her tonight. But, as she fell to her knees in front of me, none of it mattered. It only mattered that she was here with me. She laid her heart open as tears spilled down her cheeks.
I could barely understand her as her words spilled out of her with no breath or pauses. She clutched something in her hand. As we sank down to the floor together, I pulled her into my lap and covered my hand with hers.
“Baby,” I whispered. “I’ve got you. Tell me.”
She looked up at me and my heart broke along with hers. “I’m alone,” she choked out. “I knew it all along, but tonight it’s real.”
She spilled out her story. I heard it with my heart and guts more than my ears. Avery had come here just as she suspected. Arkady knew her. My blood boiled at the thought of it. He’d been playing Anya since the moment she walked into that bar. I had my own story to tell, but it could wait. She told me about the other waitress, Gloria. She didn’t have to mention the Bear Trap. I could smell it all over her. She’d been near wolves. I did my level best to keep my breathing even and the blood rage out of my eyes. So many things could have happened to her tonight. I should have been more careful. Whether she liked it or not, we were going to have to play by my rules from now on.
Finally, Anya uncurled her fist and showed me the mate to the broken heart she wore around her neck.
“She’s dead, Cullen. I’ve carried that secret for over four years. This is the first time I’ve ever said it out loud.”
I let out a sigh and ran my hand over the curve of her skull. It was dangerous for me to hold her like this, but I had no intention of letting her go. “It’s just a necklace.”
“No.” She shifted so she faced me. “We made a promise. We had two quarters between us when we were twelve years old. We got them out of gumball machine at the mall. We said no matter what happened, we’d never take them off. She took hers off.”
I nodded hooked a finger beneath her chin. “Maybe she just wanted you to stop looking for her. She knew what you’d think if you ever got that necklace back.”
Anya shook her head. “Cullen. I’m alone. I’m completely alone. Gloria said she was sick. They did something to her. I feel it in my bones. Arkady knows what happened to her. God. He was probably the one who did it. You have to tell me the truth. What’s the worst thing it could be?”
She asked me for the truth and it was the one thing I couldn’t give. She saw the answer in my eyes. Arkady and his clan could have done anything to Avery. They could have taken her against her will. If she fought hard enough, they might have killed her.
Anya’s back stiffened as her eyes searched my face. For a moment, I thought she saw me as Arkady. A part of me would have understood it. He wasn’t my clan, but he was a bear. She didn’t have all the answers she sought, but she could have easily taken her grief out on me. Instead, something else shifted inside of her.
“I don’t want to be alone anymore.” Her voice was soft and small. She brought her hands to my face and ran her thumb across the split, swollen flesh at the corner of my left eye. Tobias had sucker punched me there. He was lucky Anya came back to me in one piece. If she hadn’t, I’d have a different score to settle with him later tonight. But, for now that could wait.
Anya moved first. Her hands slid down to my shoulders and she went up on her knees. I kept my hands curled into fists at my sides. I couldn’t want this. She couldn’t know the risk it put her in.
I’m a strong man and an even fiercer bear. But, when Anya pressed her soft lips against mine, no power on this earth could have kept me from responding. My bear flared to life, bold, ferocious, and filled with ancient lust and magic. Anya’s magic. It flowed through her veins even though she couldn’t possibly understand it yet. Neither could I. I only knew that she was mine.
So I took her.
“Cullen.” She gasped. The kiss ignited a maelstrom inside of her that called to me, and awakened a hunger I’d tried so long to keep contained. No more. I could think later about what came next. For now, Anya was my clan. She was mine to keep and protect.
I lifted her. She was weightless in my arms as I carried her into the living room and away from the front window. I laid her down gently. She still wore that ridiculously tight cocktail waitress dress. Her breasts heaved and her legs parted as she lay before me. My eyes raked in the sight of her. She wore black fishnet stockings that had torn at the knee. I growled as I went to my knees in front of her and cast my jeans aside.
“Cullen!” She gasped louder as she looked at me. She’d seen me naked before but never like this. I was huge, hard, and I throbbed for her. I knelt before her and put my hands on her knees. I had to find the strength to form words. In another minute, lust would drive away all thoughts but claiming her.
“Are you sure?” I said.
She nodded. “God. Yes.”
I waited for no further invitation. I spread Anya’s legs wide. Her skirt fell over her stomach, exposing her black satin panties. Grow
ling, I slid a finger beneath the thin fabric and tore it away. Oh, God. She was beautiful. Her sweet lips glistened with her juices. She was open and ready for me and I had barely touched her. Anya arched her back and thrust upward. I ran a finger down her slick folds and teased her clit. She moaned my name again and again.
“I can’t be gentle,” I said.
Anya shook her head and brought herself up on her elbows. “Don’t. God. Please. Don’t be.”
Lust clouded my vision. Anya’s eyes widened and a slow smile spread across her face. I knew what she saw. My bear eyes flashed and excited her. It shouldn’t be here, I thought. I should take her out in the woods, deep into my clan lands. But, the floor of the apartment would have to do.
I tore at the bodice of her dress like I’d wanted to do since the first time I saw her in it. Her breasts spilled out. They were full and perfect with wine-colored nipples that begged to be teased and sucked. I leaned down and ran my tongue over each one. Anya laced her fingers through my hair and urged me on. She tasted sweet as honey. I couldn’t help myself. I nipped just above her right nipple. She sucked in her breath and arched her back even more.
“Yes!” she cried. “I want you to mark me.” She couldn’t know what that meant. She hadn’t been raised near bears. But, her body knew exactly what I craved. I bit her again, deeper this time. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to set her nerve endings on fire.
Her dress fell away in tatters. Except for her stockings, she was completely naked. I sucked and nipped my way down from her breasts to her hips, to the sweet juncture of her thighs. She spread her legs wide and I nipped her there, sending waves of heat through me and pouring into her.
“Oh God. Cullen. I can’t … I need…”
I knew what she needed. Later, I might take my time exploring every inch of her. Now, an ancient primal urge overcame me and her body called out to mine.