"You must be really hungry by now," Abel said, sitting down. "They're really busy tonight, and they do everything fresh here. It'll be worth it, I promise."
"I believe you," she said, smiling. No, she didn't just smile. She glowed. "I'm so totally starved right now that anything would be worth the wait. If it's even halfway decent I'll be ecstatic. So what did you have to talk to those guys about?"
"Oh," Abel said, caught off guard. "It's, uh, police stuff."
She put both hands up, palms toward him, and said, "Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to pry. I just was remembering what it was like back when we were kids. It's like..."
"Like things never really change?" He said.
"Yeah." Effie laughed. "Exactly. Well, except you went from a chubby little kid to a big buff cop." She put her hand over mouth and gasped.
Abel grinned. Being a shifter alone didn't get him buff. He had to work just as hard as a human, but the ceiling was just way higher. Still, he was glad to see that she appreciated the results of his hard work.
"Sorry," she said, "sometimes I just say really dumb stuff. I'm usually half joking. Or totally joking. Or, uh, in this case, somewhere in between?"
"Don't worry," Abel said, thinking of all the idiotic things his bear tried to get him to say. "I'll remember this one, and if you ever catch me saying something really dumb, we'll just call it even."
"Ah," Effie said, smiling devilishly, "but you're a cop, used to being in control of the situation. I doubt I'll catch you saying something dumb like that."
In control. There was a maniac on the loose, and Abel's best chance at this point was to sit here and hope the panther came back. Or any panther, even if it wasn't the killer. They were unlikely to rat out their own kind, but Abel would press them. Hard.
"You'd be surprised," Abel said. "Spend enough time around me, and you'll hear some truly idiotic stuff come out of my mouth."
Milk bags. Bleedings. Mounds of flesh.
Abel sniffed and smelled the expertly fried fish. The fresh and starchy scent of the potatoes fresh from the frier.
"Food's here!" he said, looking up.
"Huh?" Effie said, looking around the bar and not seeing any food being brought in.
Abel winced, and a good five seconds later, the kitchen doors swung open. A waitress walked through the bar with two orders of fish and chips held high in the air.
Abel grinned and said, "It always takes them about the same amount of time to make it. I guess I order it so much that I've got the internal clock down."
As the waitress put their plates onto the table, Effie nodded and said, "Yeah, when I helped my mom over summer breaks and stuff, I'd always set the alarm for 6:30 in the morning. After a few weeks, I'd always open my eyes automatically, right at like 6:29."
Abel laughed and said, "Right, just like that."
He needed to be more careful about this kind of thing. First hearing her stomach, and now smelling the food through the door. He needed to think before he spoke. He'd tell her what he was, as soon as it felt right. Just not on their first date. Or semi-date thing. Whatever this was, he hoped that Effie at least thought of this like a date. Not just running into him and happening to eat together.
"Take a bite," Abel said. "I want to see what you think."
"You're talking this up quite a bit," Effie said, "you're only setting me up to be disappointed if it's not absolutely spectacular."
He grinned and watched. He knew she'd like it. Somehow he had a sense for what she'd like. Was that because she was his mate, or was it because they had sort of grown up together? He remembered she always had a grape juice box for lunch, and she'd have crackers with cheese and cold cuts every other day. But not those gross vacuum-packed things; they were always freshly sliced from the deli. Abel had smelled it.
So, when Effie was eight years old, she liked grape juice boxes and deli meats. From this, he knew she'd like this particular restaurant's fish and chips? Nonsense, it must be because she was his mate. He smiled at that.
CHAPTER FIVE
Effie
Effie took a bite of one of the fries, and she looked up at Abel's wide grin and his immaculate white teeth as she bit into it. It was perfectly crispy on the outside, and she could taste real potato right away. Inside it was soft and warm, like the best homemade mashed potatoes. The coarse sea salt danced on her tongue, and as the whole thing came together perfectly in her mouth, she already wanted another bite. She finished off the fry, and the second bite was every bit as good as the first.
Abel grabbed two fries together and tore into them. His big square jaw bulged as he chewed, and he nodded his head and widened his eyes at her, pointing down at the food. She gave him a thumbs-up, and then cut into the fish.
It was good. Really, really good. She wanted to keep eating, both because she was starving and because the food tasted so good. But while she was eating, she couldn't talk to Abel, and that was an intense need too, almost as important to her well-being as eating. So she tried to shoot him a question between each bite.
"Where did you move to?" she asked him. They had been young enough when he moved that it had just been 'moving away.' It wasn't as if she had any real conception at that age of places outside Oakgate, and whenever kids moved away, they basically were just disappearing forever.
"Vermont," he said. "A small place, well, everywhere in Vermont is small really. My family had a cabin in the woods, and we had to drive really far to school every day. My whole clan—er—whole extended family lives out there, and my parents wanted me to grow up with family. My family's really big on nature. Even Oakgate is a bit too much for them."
Vermont. She had remembered hearing that, but since she hadn’t known anything about it when she was twelve, the memory had slipped away. After he finished speaking, he cut a massive chunk of fish and slammed it down. The way he tilted his head back and threw it into his mouth, almost straight down his throat, reminded her of some kind of animal fishing straight from a stream. His huge size and beard didn't help to fight that image. It was a cute thing to think about though, she thought of him as a huge, giant teddy bear.
"Sorry I had to move," he said. "I know we weren't super close...but maybe we would have been. If I had stayed."
They looked at each other, and Effie worried her face was flushed. She worried her eyes were wet and gleaming, projecting all her deepest emotions out onto her face for him to read like a book. A large-print book. Abel held her gaze for a long moment, longer than would be normal for even long-lost childhood friends who had just met again. And finally he looked down, then threw the last of his fries into his mouth and nearly swallowed them whole.
She should say something, she knew. So she did. "Well, we're both here now."
They locked eyes again at that, and they both smiled. Effie thought she could read his face now: his eyes shone into her, and his cheeks flushed pink beneath his beard. Effie didn't want to look away from him, and it seemed that Abel didn't want to either.
She looked down and saw his big hand on the table. She put hers there too and fidgeted, scratching her middle finger with her thumbnail. She looked down for a moment to break some of the tension, but when she looked up again he was still there, smiling and looking at her. She slid her hand across the table a bit and tapped his plate, an excuse to get her hand closer to his.
"You eat like an animal," she said.
He grabbed hold of her hand. His hand was big and warm and wonderful, and she felt his finger graze across her skin ever so gently. If he kept holding her like this, it felt like there would be no way to slow things down. She wouldn't want to let go of him, and they'd have to kiss, and then they'd have to keep going and going, and the next thing she knew she'd be waking up beside him.
He seemed to sense this too, so he stood up and pulled her up from her seat. As if he had only ever taken hold of her hand to do so.
She stood up, his hand still holding hers, and then slowly—and seemingly with regret—he loosened his grip
on her, and she let her hand fall reluctantly to her side.
What now?
"Want to dance?" Abel asked.
"Hell yes," Effie said.
Dancing. Perfect. They couldn't just stand in the bar holding hands, but after touching like that, they couldn't just sit across from each other again. Sitting so far away. Dancing was the perfect compromise: they could be near each other, touch when they wanted, but they wouldn't immediately go too far. Why exactly didn't she want to go too far? How long had it been since she had last had sex? Too long. So why not rush headlong into this? Why worry about going too fast?
She looked at Abel's smooth smile, and the way his eyes ran across her body, but focused on her face. It felt like he was too important to rush things with. She wanted to savor things with him. She could only have so many firsts with him. If they ran back to his car and fucked in the backseat, they’d blow all their firsts in one explosive burst of passion. They wouldn't get this first dance, or the first kiss she hoped would come soon, or all those other precious milestones of a real relationship. That was why she didn't want to rush things with him, even if her body was urging her to jump in headfirst.
There were just enough other people dancing that it didn't feel awkward. Though even if they had been the only two dancing, Effie wouldn't have minded. She couldn't feel embarrassed with Abel.
He took her hand again and walked her to the dancefloor. There was some upbeat indie pop song playing, with just enough electronic elements to have a solid beat they could dance to.
"I have a confession to make," Abel said.
Effie froze, worried he'd say he was married. "What?"
"I can't dance. I have no rhythm at all. None."
She giggled. "Then why did you ask me to dance?"
"Because I wanted to dance with you,” he said, biting his lip.
Effie’s heart nearly melted, but she tried not to let it show too much.
"Have you ever danced? Or is this your first time."
He considered that, then said, "It will be my first time in public."
"So you do know how to dance!"
"No," he said, "I don't know anything, but sometimes when I'm alone, I'll dance. You know, if the music is really good and I'm into it."
"Yeah," she said, "that's all you need to know. You just listen to your body and do it."
"Even if I'm not too into this song?"
"If you're not into the song, then just be into me," Effie said.
Fuck. Why did she say that? Something about him made her want to be way, way too forward with him.
He didn't look embarrassed. On the contrary, he looked down at her body and smiled wide. "I think I can do that," he said.
She started to dance, but Abel just stood there, looking confused. Effie tried to shove him, to jumpstart some movement out of him, but she nearly knocked herself over from trying to shove him. He was like a pile of rocks or a brick wall bolted down onto the floor. She wouldn't be able to move him an inch no matter how hard she tried.
Slowly he started to bob his head to the rhythm.
"Good!" she said.
He started to tap one of his feet, and she noticed him tapping a finger on his leg to the same rhythm.
And then he started to move, free and uninhibited. Effie could see the music flowing through him and animating his body. For someone who claimed to be unable to dance, he really seemed to know what he was doing. Just as he had really gotten started, the song ended, and a much slower one began playing.
Effie looked at him. She waited for him to wrap his arms around her, hold her tight, and slow dance with her. Maybe the song would just play all night long, and she could just sway back and forth with him all night, her head nuzzled up against his broad and powerful chest.
But suddenly something about Abel's face shifted. He went from carefree and happy to...something animalistic. He did wrap his arms around her, but it wasn't to dance. It felt like he was shielding her body with his own, from a bullet or an explosion.
"What—"
"Quiet," he said, in a tone so forceful that she didn't dare speak again.
He glanced backward, and Effie wanted to look over at what he saw, but Abel's huge body was between her and whatever had made Abel stiffen up like this.
"I'm going to turn you around," he said, "and you will walk in front of me, out the door and into your car. Do not look back. Understand?"
"Yes," Effie said.
He turned her toward the door, and with one hand on her shoulder he walked behind her. Her heart was pounding with each step, her blood freezing in her veins. She didn't know what was going on, but Abel's mood had changed so suddenly, and she'd seen how good his senses were. Everything about this felt like danger to her.
"Give me your keys," Abel said, "go straight to the passenger seat, I will drive."
She reached into her purse, hands shaking, and grabbed her keys. They still had all her old keys from the city: her apartment, dozens of office keys, various trinkets, and a bunch of those little plastic rewards cards. One of the trinkets snagged on the edge of her purse as she pulled the keys out, and she lost her grip. The keys jangled and rung as they hit the floor. Abel swooped down to pick them up, and against Effie's better judgement, she looked straight back.
In a dark corner of the bar stood a man nearly as tall as Abel. He was thin and wiry rather than thick and broad like Abel, but something about him suggested coiled up speed and power. Even though he was leaning lazily against the wall, he seemed like he could strike with frightening speed and power. He wore a baseball cap that obscured his face in shadow, but just as Effie was about to look away from him, he raised his chin, and while the shadows didn't fall away from his face, she saw his eyes glow. Two pale amber flashes shined from within the shadow of his face, and he tipped his hat at her even as those inhuman eyes locked onto her.
Abel grabbed Effie and pushed her forward, through the door. She heard the doors unlock as Abel hit the remote on her keys, and he opened the passenger door for her, then he lifted her up and plopped her down into the seat. He shut the door for her, and then she saw him scanning the parking lot in all directions. Effie didn't know if he saw anything or not, but he opened the driver's side door, got inside, and started the car. Without speaking, he raced out of the parking lot and onto the road.
"I know I wasn't supposed to look back," Effie said, "but I did, accidentally, and his eyes..."
"I know," said Abel. "I know. I'll explain soon, but I want to get you safe first."
"Where?" she asked.
"I'm thinking Vermont," he said.
"What?" Effie said. "Are you insane? That's like hundreds of miles away."
"You'd be safe."
"From what?" she asked.
"I think it's the…serial killer," he said.
Effie felt her heart drop down to the bottom of her stomach. She had already suspected subconsciously that this was the killer, but to hear him say it out loud like that. The killer had locked his eyes onto her. Glowing, amber eyes. Inhuman eyes.
"Are you on the case?" Effie asked.
"Yeah," Abel said, "I was. If I take you to Vermont, it will become someone else's problem."
"If you stay here, do you think you can catch him?" She asked.
His hands tightened on the steering wheel, and he started to growl. "Yes."
"Then you need to stay," she said. "The way he looked at me—"
"Means you're next," Abel said, exasperated. "Which is why I need to get you to safety."
"If you leave, to keep me safe, then how many other women will he kill as a result."
Abel drove faster, and he turned randomly at nearly every intersection. Effie didn't see anyone behind them, but with Abel's crazy driving, she doubted they could be followed.
"I need to protect you," Abel said.
"Then take me home."
"But..."
"You can stay there. It's a bed and breakfast. I wasn't ready to re-open, but you can be my first g
uest."
"Where is your bedroom?" he asked.
Effie blushed, and she hoped it was too dark for him to notice. "On the first floor, why?"
"And the guest rooms are on the second?"
"Yeah," she said.
"You need to stay in a guest room next to mine," he said. His matter of fact tone implied there was no arguing with this.
"Okay," Effie agreed.
Finally Abel stopped zig-zagging through town and headed toward the bed and breakfast. They pulled into the driveway, but Abel insisted that Effie stay in the car while he 'checked the perimeter.'
Unbearable Curves (The Grizzly Next Door 1) Page 4