Lowe joined her, bellowing as the male shot him at point-blank range in his side, just above his left hip. He swung with his right paw as pain blurred his vision and growled as he missed his target, landed hard intending to take another swing at the human, but his right front leg gave out beneath him and he sank against the dirt.
The male was quick to grab Cameo, twisting his left hand into her hair and dragging her up by it as he shoved the handgun into her face.
Lowe lay as still as he could manage on the ground, pretending to be out for the count so the man wouldn’t put a bullet in his head, buying himself time to come up with a plan. He needed to save Cameo. The man wouldn’t kill her—he knew that in his gut. He needed Cameo alive to face his boss, Karl.
She would be safe until then.
It was hard to get it through to both his bear side and the man in him though. Both sides wanted to rip the thug to shreds. Attacking him while he was holding Cameo would be too dangerous though. The man might end up shooting her.
He needed a better plan.
And the only one he could come up with was one that might cost him everything.
But if it meant saving her, it would be worth it.
Chapter 16
Cameo locked up tight as the man jammed the gun into her face, his hazel eyes as cold as ice.
“Tell me where the money is,” he growled.
She swallowed hard and struggled to breathe, shut down the desire to tell the man to go to hell or admit she didn’t have the money they wanted from her. She tried to think of a way out of this mess and couldn’t stop her eyes from straying to the huge bear that lay on the ground just to her right.
Something deep inside her, something that made her feel as if she had lost her mind or had taken one too many pain pills, said that bear wasn’t just a bear.
She stared at the wound on the animal’s right shoulder.
The exact place where the man had shot Lowe with the rifle.
The only place the man had shot the bear was in its stomach. Maybe the man had caught the bear with a stray bullet when he had been firing upon her. That made the most sense to her, but that feeling screamed that he hadn’t. It screamed that the bear was Lowe.
“I said, tell me where the fucking money is.” The man shoved the barrel of the handgun into her jaw and she flinched, her eyes leaping away from the pool of blood forming beneath the bear to lock with his.
She stared at him, her thoughts racing and blurring, colliding until she couldn’t think straight.
“Won’t answer to me, then you’ll answer to Karl. Got a message that he’s in town and heading this way. Says he can’t wait to see you again. Reckon he can get you to talk.” The man seized her by her nape and gripped it so hard her spine hurt. He pressed the gun into her temple and pushed her forwards. “Walk.”
She shuffled her left foot forwards, desperately trying to come up with a plan as fear began to get the better of her again, swamping her mind with images of her bound and beaten, killed by her ex-boyfriend.
Cameo glanced at the rifle on the ground to her left, sickness sweeping through her as she considered lunging for it and using it on the man. He would probably shoot her before she could reach it, but she had to do something.
Before she could decide whether to make an attempt to get the rifle or not, the bear loosed a long, moaning noise and moved. That moan became a feral snarl as it lumbered onto its feet and turned towards her.
Cameo could only stare as it rose onto its hind legs.
And transformed into a man.
Into Lowe.
The man’s gun dropped from the side of her head, his grip on her loosening, and she realised that the revelation that Lowe could turn into a bear hadn’t shocked only her.
“What the fuck?” the man behind her breathed.
Cameo shook herself out of her stupor, unwilling to waste this chance she had been given. She would consider how insane this all was later.
She knocked the man’s gun away from her and lunged to her left, hurling herself at the rifle. Shock rolled through her again as she managed to get her hands on it and twisted with it, onto her back, and aimed it at the man.
Who had his gun aimed right at Lowe.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but if you shoot me, I’ll nail this freak between the eyes this time.” The man turned a black look on her and slightly depressed the trigger of the gun he gripped.
Cameo swallowed hard and looked between him and Lowe. Her hands shook as she kept the gun aimed at the man, torn between surrendering and shooting him. She didn’t want to give up, knew deep in her heart that if she released the gun that the man would go ahead and shoot Lowe anyway.
But if she didn’t.
She looked at Lowe where he stood in the clearing, naked and bleeding badly from his right shoulder and a spot above his left hip.
“Shoot the bastard,” he snarled. “I’ll live.”
She swallowed and raised the gun, aimed down the sights and hesitated. Her hands shook so violently that the end of the barrel jittered all over the place and her palms dampened, making it hard to keep hold of the gun. She didn’t want Lowe to be shot again. He was clearly not like her, not human, and seemed confident that he could survive another bullet, but what if the man kept his word and shot him in the head?
She wasn’t sure he could survive that.
She looked at him, guilt flaring inside her, an apology balanced on her lips. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t risk him being killed.
She shrieked as something exploded from the bushes behind her, fumbled with the gun as Knox thundered past her, a blur of black, and held her breath as the man swung his gun towards Knox and squeezed the trigger.
Everything happened so fast.
The loud crack of a gun firing startled her.
The fierce recoil of the rifle had her falling on her back.
Knox rolled as another gunshot rang out, ending up in a crouch next to his brother.
Adrenaline surged through her as she gripped the rifle, still staring at the end of the barrel as it lightly smoked. Her hands shook harder, every inch of her trembling as her eyes slowly widened, as what she had done gradually dawned on her.
Someone grunted.
Someone growled like a beast.
Cameo tossed the rifle away from her and sat up, desperately looking for Lowe and Knox. Knox had the man pinned to the ground, his hand wrapped around his throat, but she didn’t think it was necessary. The man wasn’t going anywhere.
He struggled for each breath as blood pumped from the wound on his chest, forming sickening rivulets over his black jacket.
The man grinned, exposing bloodied teeth, and lowered his hazel eyes to lock with hers. “This… isn’t over. You’ll… get what’s… coming… to you… bitch.”
He sagged into the dirt.
Knox’s head whipped towards her, his blue gaze darker than she had ever seen it. “What the hell does he mean by that?”
Lowe stepped up beside him, clutching his side, and looked from the dead man to her. “Karl is coming. He knows where we are.”
“How?” Knox snarled.
Cameo swallowed hard. “My pack. I had a GPS in it. He might have returned to the road and called in the coordinates.”
Knox cursed, shoved to his feet and looked at Lowe, something crossing his eyes that she didn’t like. Lowe didn’t like it either. He shook his head and went to seize hold of his brother’s arm, but grimaced as he tried to do it with his right hand. He pressed his left hand to the wound on the right side of his chest and stared at Knox as his brother backed away from him.
“I’ll head them off. I’ll keep them away from the Creek and the Ridge.” Knox kept backing away, even as Lowe limped towards him. “I’ll lead them somewhere quiet and deal with them.”
“No.” Lowe gritted his teeth, his jaw flexing. His fair eyebrows furrowed and fear lit his sapphire eyes, making her feel awful, because she was responsible for everyt
hing that was happening.
She should have left the moment the weather had cleared, shouldn’t have stuck around and got caught up in Lowe and the belief that he could help her. He had helped her, but at what cost?
His tone turned desperate as he reached for his brother with his bloodied left hand. “Just give me a minute. I’ll get some clothes. We can go together.”
Knox’s expression hardened, but there was warmth in his blue eyes as he shook his head, a wealth of love that made Cameo feel even guiltier about what he was doing. “You need to heal… and you need to take care of her.”
That only made her feel worse. The man had been here because of her. Karl was coming because of her. And now Knox was bravely heading out to face him alone.
Because of her.
He went to turn away and then pivoted to face Lowe again, closed the distance between them in two strides and wrapped his left hand around his brother’s nape. He drew Lowe to him and pressed his forehead to his.
“Warn Saint and the others.” Knox’s eyes and his tone softened as he stared at Lowe. “And take care of yourself.”
Lowe lifted his hand to cup Knox’s nape too.
But he was already gone.
Chapter 17
Lowe stared in the direction his brother had gone, his chest feeling hollower by the second as he tracked Knox with his senses and the distance between them grew. The urge to follow him was strong and had him taking a step forwards, but he clenched his fists and stopped himself. Knox was right. He wasn’t in any condition to fight and he needed to warn the others.
And take care of Cameo.
Her gaze drilled into his bare back, heating his skin, drawing his focus to her.
He waited, sure that she would say something, aware that she had seen him shift back from a bear and that she knew what he was now.
But she said nothing, just stood there staring at him, and worry for Knox began to transform into worry for her. He looked over his shoulder at her, and that worry only intensified as he saw how distant her gaze was and how pale she was.
She shook her head, causing the tangled threads of her brown-to-gold hair to brush her shoulders, and her eyes sharpened. They dropped to her body. She reached for the waist of her black sweatpants, pulling her cream sweater out of the way.
“You should take these. They’re yours.” She went to untie the laces of the sweatpants.
“No.” He limped a step towards her, grimaced as his wounds hurt, and shook his head. “I can handle the cold.”
Her brow furrowed and her eyes drifted down to his chest. They widened as she stared at it, horror crossing her delicate features, and she absently lifted her hand, flexed her fingers and then dropped it to her side and looked away from him.
“We need to get you somewhere warm,” she murmured, sounding distant again, and refused to look at him.
Lowe swallowed the lump that formed in his throat as he looked at her, as he couldn’t deny the part of him that whispered that it was over. He had ruined everything by shifting. Now Cameo would leave him. Could he really blame her?
Her gaze strayed to the dead man, the edge her eyes gained making him feel she was in shock.
As soon as it wore off, she was going to panic and run.
Could he use the time he had before that happened to convince her to stay with him and make her see that he would never hurt her, and that his being a bear shifter didn’t mean they couldn’t be together? It was worth a shot. He couldn’t just let her go without a fight.
Her eyes gradually widened, the horror in them increasing as she continued to stare at the dead man.
“Cameo.” He limped another step towards her, needing to be close to her and aching to take away the pain he could feel in her, hurt and guilt that trickled into him through their fragile bond.
“There’s no getting around it this time,” she whispered, her gaze losing focus, the panic he could sense in her mounting. “I killed a man. I need to turn myself in.”
Lowe shook his head as fear blasted through him, the thought of Cameo leaving him swift to rouse a fierce need to keep her with him, to make her stay. He couldn’t lose her.
“I can’t let you do that.” He risked another step towards her.
This time, her eyes darted to him. “I broke the law.”
Lowe eased his left hand up, the need to touch her and take hold of her too strong to deny, even when he feared he might spook her into running. “The law… Cameo, if you go to the authorities… There are people who hunt my kind. They have eyes and ears everywhere. They’ll come here. I can’t let that happen. I can’t let you turn yourself in. I can’t let you go to prison… I just can’t.”
Disbelief filled her sky-blue eyes. “But I killed a man.”
He risked it, seized hold of her arm and gripped it gently, hoping not to scare her. “In self-defence. But they won’t care about that. They’ll label you a murderer and rather than Karl and his fucking lackeys going to prison, you will. Cameo… I can’t let that happen. Please?”
He brushed his thumb over her arm, shifting the soft cream material against her skin, and searched her eyes, staring deep into them, needing her to see how much the thought of her going to prison was killing him.
When he had told her to shoot the man, some part of him had known she wouldn’t be able to do it. She was too kind. Too gentle. Too damn law-abiding. He had hoped that her threatening the man would have been enough to make him react, giving Lowe an opening. Instead, Knox had done that, and Cameo had reacted on instinct.
She had wanted to protect both him and his brother, and she had taken the shot.
He lifted his hand to her face and cupped her cheek, keeping her eyes on his. “I’m sorry I made you shoot that man.”
Tears lined her dark lashes and her eyes strayed to her left, to the dead man, and then back to his. “I’m sorry too. I’m sorry I ever came here.”
Pain lanced his heart and he dropped his hand from her face, the hurt quick to roll through him to fill every inch of him, to make every fibre of his being cry out.
The regret in her eyes cut him deeper than any blade could have, carved a hole in his heart and had him turning away from her. He busied himself with gathering the guns, not wanting her to see his pain, how the thought of her leaving and that she regretted meeting him was tearing him apart.
Lowe sucked down a breath, turned back to face her but couldn’t bring himself to look her in the eye. “We should go.”
She nodded and waited for him to reach her before she pivoted on her heel and hobbled along beside him. His hip ached with each step, but the cold air numbed his skin enough that he didn’t feel the pain of his injuries. Or maybe it was the thought of Cameo leaving that numbed him to it.
He looked in the direction Knox had gone. Gods, he hoped his brother played it safe and didn’t do anything reckless. While he appreciated what Knox had done for him and for the sake of his fated mate, he hated the thought of him alone out in the valley, tracking dangerous men who would be armed to the teeth.
Lowe looked down at the guns he gripped and clenched his jaw, fear chilling his blood as he thought about his brother facing armed men. He needed to find him and help him, and he would. As soon as he was on the mend, he was heading out to hunt for Knox. He couldn’t let his brother handle this alone.
Besides, he had the feeling that he wasn’t going to have a reason to stay at the Ridge soon.
He glanced at Cameo.
She was going to leave him.
The walk back to the clearing seemed to take forever, the air between him and Cameo growing heavier as she remained silent and he couldn’t find his voice. There were a thousand things he wanted to tell her and he was sure they would go a long way towards convincing her to stay with him, but he couldn’t get his thoughts straight as her words constantly echoed around his mind.
She was sorry she had come here.
“I understand.” Those words slipped from him and it felt good to have them out
there, to break the silence.
Cameo glanced at him. Stopped dead when her eyes landed on his face.
Her eyebrows rose. “Understand what?”
He looked across at her, gathered his courage and pushed the words out, forcing himself to face whatever fate awaited him, even when it was one he didn’t want—a life without Cameo.
“You’re sorry you came here and I understand… I get that—”
She stiffened and cut him off. “I don’t think you do. I didn’t mean it like that. Oh God, Lowe. I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that I’m sorry I dragged you and everyone at Black Ridge into this mess and… got you hurt. And now Knox—”
“Knox will be fine.” He put force behind those words, trying to make himself believe it, and stepped up to her. “As for me… Cameo, I’d go through trials a thousand times worse if it meant I got to meet you.”
Her blue eyes softened, warmed in a way that warmed him too, but guilt lingered in their depths. He wasn’t sure how to take that away for her. Or maybe he was. If she saw he was healing and if Knox returned unharmed, having dealt with her problem and put an end to things, he was sure that she would feel better.
Lowe lifted his hand and brushed his knuckles across her cheek, lost himself in the affection her eyes held and dared to hope that things might work out after all. He might not lose her. He might have his fated mate.
Forever with Cameo sounded like heaven to him.
He knew that was a long way off though, that convincing her to be his mate wasn’t going to be easy. She was human and it would take time for her to accept what he was—if she could accept it—and a bond with him.
His senses warned that someone was approaching them.
Lowe turned and resisted the temptation to guide Cameo behind him, mostly because the male who came rushing to him wasn’t alone. Holly hurried beside Saint, her cheeks rosy from the cold and her grey-green eyes bright as they landed on Cameo and then him. The relief that filled them was quick to give way as she looked at him.
Saint growled, the vicious snarl pealing from his lips as he bared emerging fangs at Lowe, as if he was responsible for the fact his mate had just come running up to a naked male.
Rescued by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 2) Page 15