Maybe if she could bring Alain some proof, he might investigate further. She had to find out if this blob of gasoline meant anything or if it was purely coincidental.
How could finding gasoline out here be coincidental? her tiger asked.
Let’s see if we can find out. Are there any caves or cabins around here? Elina asked.
They both went through their memories of this area, but couldn’t think of anywhere a person could hide out. But they continued their search, in long sweeping arcs across the rocky ground, until they found another drop. Then another.
Quickening their pace, they hurried along, until the trail stopped. Not at a cave, but at an overhang, where the rock face had a deep indentation, into which had been piled brushwood. Elina shifted back into her human form and crouched down, not disturbing anything as she peered through the branches. There, before her, were three gas cans.
Not wanting to touch them, because she didn’t want to contaminate the evidence or incriminate herself, she looked around for a thin branch. Picking one up, she threaded it through the brushwood, and pushed it against one of the cans. It moved, tilting on its edge before coming back down to rest. They were empty.
Did that mean these were to do with the arsonist attack? Had Jim hauled them up here? And if he had, where had he bought so much gasoline? He couldn’t drive, and this was a long way from town.
Backing away, she swept her eyes over the sides of the canyon, hoping there was no one here to see her. Her skin prickled, but there was no movement, no sign of any other life. Picking her way carefully between the boulders, she looked at the ground as she walked back the way she had come, deep in thought.
It was then that something caught her eye. She bent down and retrieved a battered piece of paper. It was torn and had gotten wet in a rainstorm, so that only part of the print was legible. It was a receipt. She couldn’t work out what for, but it was from a fuel station around fifty miles away.
Jim had no car. But he had some answers she needed, and so Elina shifted into her tiger and headed back to town.
Chapter Three – Artem
He waited patiently for his luggage; at least, he tried to look as if he was waiting patiently, when all he wanted to do was escape the airport as fast as possible. Artem had forgotten what it was like to be surrounded by strangers, not knowing if one of them was tracking you, hoping to put a bullet in your brain.
He thought of the small town of Grizzly Hollows, the place where he and Vadik had sought sanctuary when they needed to stop running. If anyone had told him five years ago he would miss the small-town life and serving patrons in a small Russian restaurant, he would have told them they were delusional. Yet it was true. He wanted to go home.
His real home was once a long way away, his old life so distant it was as if it belonged to someone else. Yet it belonged to him, and that was why he was now using his rusty skills to try to locate an agent who might have been sent here to intercept him. It was who he was, and now, out of Grizzly Hollows, those old instincts were waking up.
Overreacting, his bear told him.
We cannot be sure, Artem replied.
The plane journey was only two hours, there is no way they could track us that quickly. If they are even looking, his bear said.
Overreacting. He was right, they were old news; the people he and Vadik had run from had most probably moved on, their crimes no longer worth the manpower to investigate, but he couldn’t allow himself to believe that, couldn’t allow himself to let his guard down. Because it could easily mean his death, and for once Artem had something worth living for. His mate.
His suitcase came into view, but he stood still and waited for it, rather than hurrying to fetch it and racing for the exit, which is what his brain, demanding self-preservation, was telling him to do. Slowly, as if he had all the time in the world, he picked it up and then headed to a café. There he bought a coffee, taking the opportunity to look around for trouble. None appeared.
It was time to leave, time to catch a cab and go to the address he had gotten off the Fated and Mated website, and hope Elina, his mate, didn’t mind him getting her details by stealth. Surely she wouldn’t. Surely she would be happy to meet him, no matter what the circumstances.
So we are going to tell her? his bear asked.
Yes, he replied.
It wasn’t exactly the most romantic thing in the world, finding out your mate was on the run with a bounty on his head. A large bounty.
Maybe she will choose to turn us in and have our hide as a rug, his bear said sardonically.
I would rather be in her bed, Artem replied, thinking of how he had longed for the moment he would meet her, the other half of him. Longed for and dreaded. He hated the idea that he was putting her in any danger.
Thinking back to her profile, he figured that she was the kind of woman who could look after herself. Strong and confident, she was a shifter just like him, although with her dark hair and brown eyes, flecked with amber, he was certain she wasn’t a bear. There was something different about her.
Of course there was, she was his mate. Her face had consumed his thoughts in the hours it had taken him to pack, arrange a flight, and get to the airport. As they took off, all he could think of was each minute that passed took him closer to her, closer to Elina, the woman he would make his.
And then what? Offer her a life of hiding in the backwater town of Grizzly Hollows? That subject needed more thought. Even though a part of him figured he should be thinking it through now, perhaps avoiding her if he put her in danger. What future could he offer her?
The saying was it was better to have loved and lost, but that did not apply to a shifter. It was better to not know love than to endure the agony of a broken bond.
Vadik had taught him that.
Vadik. By breaking cover, he had put his old friend in danger too. But Vadik had encouraged Artem to come here, he knew the strength, the pull of the bond linking two shifters together.
He hailed a cab and, smoothing out his accent as much as possible, reeled off the address where he would find the woman of his dreams.
Sitting back, he tried to relax. He would be OK; this would turn out all right. It had to. He would make sure it did. For her sake. Whatever it took.
Chapter Four – Elina
On her way to the prison, she decided to keep her find a secret from Jim. Instead, she would question him again, trying to get information from him indirectly. She didn’t want to give him false hope, or confuse him. He was in a fragile state last time she had visited.
Entering the prison, she showed her ID, and then waited for the security gate to open. Grabbing a coffee from the machine, she drank it while waiting for Jim to be brought to the room where they sat on opposite sides of a table, with a prison officer hovering behind them in the background.
Smoothing down her skirt and wiping the sweat off her palms, she opened her briefcase and took out some papers, trying to look professional. Wait, she was professional. She could do this; she could piece it all together.
“How are you, Jim?” she asked.
“I don’t like it here,” he replied with a plea to get him out of here in his eyes.
“I’m doing everything I can,” she said confidently.
“I’m glad you’re my lawyer, Elina” he said, his eyes covered with a mist of tears he quickly blinked away.
“I’ll try my hardest, Jim, but I can only show the jury the facts,” she said, keeping her voice even.
“I don’t have anything else to tell you,” he said, and then his eyes flicked to the prison guard and he dropped his voice so that only she could hear. “I can’t lie. Can I?”
“No, Jim. You have to tell me the truth, and the jury the truth.” She looked down at her papers, and then up at Jim. “Have you ever bought gasoline, Jim?”
“I told you no,” he said, leaning back in his chair.
“Ever? Maybe when you were out of town. Have you ever been on a road trip to somewhere like
River Plain, or Kelland?”
“I haven’t left Brannock for three years. I don’t have a car.”
“OK. I had to ask.” She closed her eyes, trying to think. Opening them again, she said, “Only there was some found in your shed.”
“Mr. Bennet bought me some last winter. I told you that,” Jim insisted.
“You never bought it yourself?” She had already asked Mr. Bennet who had admitted buying the gasoline so Jim could keep warm, but she wanted to push Jim a little, try to make him slip up. “Ever?”
“No.” Jim insisted. He looked upset, and she tried once more.
“So if Mr. Bennet hadn’t bought you the gasoline, what would you have done? Frozen?” It had been a particularly cold winter in Brannock; she couldn’t believe he wouldn’t have heated his house.
“Logs. I chop them in the summer.”
“But you’d run out, that’s why he bought you the gasoline. Jim, are you lying to me now?” She made herself sound firm, like his mom used to speak to him. She could still remember seeing this fifty-year-old man being spoken to as if he was still a child by his mom. The kids would all make fun of him, he had never done well at school, and the rumors were he had been bullied, which in a roundabout way had become his motive. As if a man like this could hold a grudge inside him for forty years.
“No. I’m not lying. My mom brought me up to never lie, and never buy gasoline.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“Because I nearly blew up the gas station in Brannock.”
“There is no gas station in Brannock.”
“There was. When I was younger. My mom sent me there, and I bought cigarettes… And after that she told me never buy gasoline.” He was shaking his head fiercely now, and he lifted his face to look directly at her. “My mom always said she would keep an eye on me.” His eyes raised to the ceiling, but he was seeing past that, into the sky above them. “So she would know if I did, and then she’ll give me what for when I go to heaven.”
“Thank you, Jim.” She got up from the table, and smiled. “I’ll try my best to get you free.”
“Thank you.” He stood up, like his mom had taught him to when ladies were around. She remembered that from when she was thirteen and had been in a group of girls at a café. They had laughed at him, and that made her feel bad now. Jim was sweet, old-fashioned and harmless, of that she was sure.
“Take care of yourself,” she said, and left the room, glancing back to see Jim sitting staring into space, before the guard came over and made him get up.
“Will you check with Mr. Bennet that he’s feeding Maisy?” Jim suddenly called.
“Will do,” Elina said, and then hurried outside to breathe in the free air.
She decided to head home, have a shower, and then drop by the sheriff’s office on the way into work this afternoon. While she drove, she phoned Mr. Bennet, talking into her headset.
“Hi, Mr. Bennet. Elina here. Jim asked me to check on Maisy.”
“She’s doing fine. Missing him, but she’s eating. I sit with her in the afternoon.” Mr. Bennet’s words were a little choked. “How is he?”
“He’s OK. I’m doing my best.”
“I know you are, Elina, but it seems hopeless.”
“Did you know he couldn’t buy gasoline?”
“No.”
“He told me a story about his mom banning him. Something about nearly burning down the gas station.”
“Oh, old Farley’s place out on Farm Road. Yes. I remember it.”
“So it’s true?”
“I never knew she banned him, but that would make sense.”
“OK. Look, can I come over and get the details from you tomorrow?”
“Sure. I’ll do whatever it takes to get Jim out. He’s helped me a hell of a lot over the years.”
“Thank you. I’ll ring before I come over tomorrow.”
Hanging up, she felt much better about things. Maybe she had made a breakthrough and all she needed to do was fit the pieces together. As she drove, she thought about lunch, and tried to get her mind back to the more mundane things in life. Sometimes it helped to shift her focus and let her subconscious worry at a fact until she had a breakthrough.
Pulling up outside her small house, she parked the car, grabbed her briefcase, and walked up the path to the home she always thought of as her sanctuary. Buying the small two-bedroom house a couple of years ago had been an amazing feeling, a show of independence when her parents left. She could have gone with them, of course, but she had worked hard for her career, and wasn’t ready to give it up.
Letting herself in through the front door for the first time had made her feel like she really was someone, a grown-up in a grown-ups’ world, not someone playing at being a lawyer. It had made her buckle down and work hard, taking every case she could, and more often than not ending up with those no one else wanted, like Jim’s. She hadn’t cared, she had pushed herself, challenged herself, but this was the first time she had to deal with a what looked like a stitch-up, and it didn’t sit well with her at all.
“Elina?” A voice came to her, and she looked around to locate the person talking, a strange sensation sweeping over her.
“Who is it?” she asked, key in hand, weighing up whether she would be better to let herself in and shut the door, or see who it was lurking around the corner, which is where she thought the voice was coming from.
Sure enough, a shadow appeared, cast across the path, and her tiger stretched and sat up, looking alert. Elina’s knees went weak, like you read about in books, but she never believed that happened in real life, to real people.
It can’t be, she whispered.
Oh, yes it can, her tiger replied.
“Who are you?” she asked, turning to watch as a man walked around the side of the building, to stand before her. “And why are you skulking?”
Six foot five of pure muscle, he towered over her, but he didn’t intimidate her, he couldn’t, not when he smiled, a shy smile, unsure of himself as he took another step towards her. “I’m Artem.”
“Hello, Artem,” she said softly, her eyes latched onto to his, staring into them. They were piercing, blue like the sky on a hot summer’s day. His hair, ash brown, and left longer than most of the men she knew, fell forward around his face, as if he were trying to hide behind it, but his hair could not hide his cheek bones, or his slightly downturned mouth, which her lips instinctively wanted to kiss in an effort to make him smile. “I’m Elina.”
“I know,” he said, his accent stronger now as passion filled his voice.
“Of course you do,” she said, and instinctively her tongue ran along her lower lip, moistening them ready for their first kiss. She wasn’t being fanciful, she knew he would kiss her, she knew he would take her in his arms, and hold her close to his hard, toned body, because she knew he was her mate.
He took two more steps towards her, so fast she gasped in shock, the nearness of him overwhelming, and then he gathered her into his arms, and pulled her close, his mouth descending onto hers, unasked, unbidden, but not unwelcome. He might be a stranger to her, but her tiger recognized him for what he was, her true mate.
Elina shuddered in desire as his hand slid down her back, caressing her bottom, before pulling her tightly into him, and she felt his arousal, long and hard against her thigh. She threaded her arms around his neck to steady herself, lost to the feel of his lips against hers. No man had ever kissed her like this before, and she had never responded to a man in the same way her body wanted to respond to his touch.
Breaking away from him, she said breathlessly, “We should go inside.” She turned from him, her gaze cast over the quiet street, hoping no one had been watching her kissing a stranger in her front yard.
Her hands shook as she took the key from her purse, and tried to insert it in the lock. What the hell was she doing letting a man she didn’t know into her house? Not only letting him in, but fully intending to take him by the hand and lead him straight to h
er bedroom.
What if he had something to do with the Jim Launceston case? What if this man had been sent here to hurt her, because she was getting close to a truth someone wanted hidden? However, when his arm encircled her waist, and he kissed her neck with soft, urgent kisses, she knew she was defenseless.
At last the key turned, the door opened, and Elina stepped inside her house, and into a new phase of her life. In more ways than one.
Chapter Five – Artem
Pushing all of his concerns aside, he pushed the door closed behind him and allowed her to lead him to the stairs. It seemed she was as caught up in the moment as he was. Maybe he should have paused and asked her if she was sure about this, sure about making love to a man who had walked into her life only minutes before. Yet he knew it was useless; she must feel the same way as he did. Which meant she was more than ready to make love to her mate.
He couldn’t think of anything other than being inside her. To feel her soft skin against his, to stroke her body, to ignite her desire, until she begged him to take her.
Damn, they weren’t going to make it to the bedroom.
As she took the first step in her stride, he pulled her back towards him, and she fell into his arms. Tilting her head back to look up into his face, she gazed at him, her expression questioning, searching for what he wanted. Of course she should know the answer. From now until the end of time he would always want her. She was like the air in his lungs, the blood in his veins.
Leaving his beloved country had been hard, but he knew if he ever had to leave Elina, it would be like a death to him. Why those thoughts came to him now, he couldn’t tell. Maybe it was because he always had such deep sympathy for Vadik, had watched his friend become almost comatose in those first few days when they fled their homeland.
Screwing up his eyes, he forced himself not to think of Vadik. This was not the time; instead, he had to concentrate on the woman in front of him, the woman who was warm, real, and here. There was no time for past or future, here they were in the present, and he wanted to enjoy it to its fullest, as he wanted to enjoy his mate to the fullest. Which meant stripping her clothes off her body.
Her Russian Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Dating Agency Romance (Fated and Mated Book 3) Page 2