“Are you okay?” one of the officers shouted.
“Yes, why? Gia?”
She climbed out of the police car. And then something exploded in the house behind him and flames licked out the window.
“Oh no.” He turned and ran into the house. He could hear Gia screaming his name from the street. Behind him were heavy footsteps, and two officers followed him into the house. He pointed left. “Kitchen. There’s an extinguisher in there. There’s another upstairs.”
Brock gave the second officer directions and then ran down the hall. Stephanie stumbled out of the bathroom, coughing. Brock scooped her up.
“What’s going on?” she said.
“Fire.” His face was grim.
“You came to rescue me.” She rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck.
He carried her down the driveway, praying his house would survive. As they got to the curb Gia started to rush over. Before he could say anything, Stephanie planted a long, passionate kiss on his lips. His hands were occupied holding on to her, and her couldn’t push her away without dropping her. He didn’t want to kiss her, but he didn’t want to hurt her either. He stood passive, not returning the kiss, and as soon as she broke the kiss he set her down. He disentangled from her arms and stepped away from her.
“You’re my hero.”
He glowered at her.
The officers came out. One was coughing, but they appeared to be okay. “We got it put out,” the second officer yelled. “The fire is out, but we should still have a fire crew look the house over—just in case.”
Brock extended a hand to the officer. “Thank you for saving my house.”
“There was damage.”
“Damage I can deal with. I didn’t want to rebuild.”
“Is there anyone else in the house?”
“A housekeeper, Connie, and a grounds’ keeper, James. Oh, and one of my clan mates, but he’s probably furry right now. He’s in a reinforced safe room downstairs. He’s safe there. And if no one opens the door, anyone searching the house is safe as well.”
“You’ll have to show us that door,” the officer said. “Oh, and we found this in the guest room next to the bathroom.” He held up a burnt water bottle. “Looks like the ignition point.”
Brock stepped further away from Stephanie, who had been inching toward him. “I think I know who brought that into my home.”
Stephanie’s eyes went wide.
The officer from the surveillance car said, “Yes, I saw that water bottle in her purse when I searched her. And she’s not wearing her head scarf anymore.”
“Miss, you need to come with us.”
Brock felt strangely satisfied as he watched the officers lead Stephanie away.
When emergency personnel finally cleared the house, Brock went in to examine the damage. Gia emerged from the safety of the police cruiser where she’d been hiding ever since Brock had come out carrying the busty blonde. The tramp’s blouse had been halfway undone and she looked ‘pleasantly mussed.’ And then there was that kiss on the curb. It was too much. She went straight up to the guest room she’d been given and repacked her bags.
“Where were you?” Brock said from the doorway. “I got back and your car was gone. I thought you were going to stay here.”
“Trying to keep them from hurting my dad,” Gia said. “They were going to hurt him if I didn’t go down —so I went.”
“And? How did you get out?”
She could hear it in the way he clipped each word short and precise; he thought The Human Order had simply let her leave, maybe to inspect the damages done, maybe to be here in case the plan didn’t work. She didn’t know what he was thinking except that he didn’t trust her.
She spun around, her hands fisted at her sides. “I’m not with The Human Order! I called 911 before I left and the police showed up and got us out of there. They said they were going to burn your house down, so I told them we had to come straight back here to help you. I didn’t know you were going to just let the arsonist in!”
“I didn’t know she was going to try to burn down my house, Gia. I was worried about you.”
“Yeah, I could see how worried you were. Excuse me, I’m going home.”
“I didn’t want her to kiss me! What was I supposed to do? Just drop her on the sidewalk?”
“Yes.” She grabbed her bag and glared at him. “I trusted you. I thought I was falling in love with you. I fucked you. And you just let her kiss you like that in front of all those people? So yes, I believe you, I believe you didn’t want her to kiss you. I also believe you did nothing to stop her.”
“She told me The Human Order had threatened her.”
“What happened to being able to smell a lie on someone?”
He ran his hand through his hair. “I did smell the lie. I knew she was lying, okay? But her showing up here, now, instead of afterward when everything was safe again, it wasn’t like her at all. I wanted to know the truth, I thought I could find it out. She kept twisting her words around—she was always so good at that—and I got angry. So instead of talking to her, I tried to call you. And then you showed up with the sirens wailing and I came out to see what was going on.”
“You went back in for her.”
“I had no proof she had started the fire. You don’t leave someone to die in a fire, not even your ex.”
“I’d happily leave a few of my exes to burn.” She didn’t really mean that, but there were days when she almost felt she did. “Besides, you left your friend, Jules.”
“I couldn’t let him out, he’d already shifted. He would have barreled his way through that police barricade and someone would have gotten hurt. He wasn’t going to suffer smoke inhalation as fast as Stephanie.”
Gia shook her head. “I need to get out of here.”
“Gia, it’s not safe.” He reached for her.
She shrugged away from him. “It’s not safe anywhere. But I can’t stay here, not right now. I’m too angry. I’ll see you at work, if we ever get to go back to work.” She walked out of the room without looking up at him.
“Gia, wait.”
She stopped in the hallway and turned back to look at him.
“I did fall in love with you.”
“I’ll see you at work.” Turning her back on him was hard, and it took every ounce of willpower she had just to walk out of the house. One of the officers gave her a ride back to her condo, and she dragged herself and her bags up to her apartment. Overwhelmed, she collapsed into bed.
The phone on her bedside table rang. Her cell phone had been smashed by the Human Order thugs. She wondered if it was Brock already calling to apologize and considered letting it go to voicemail. Of course, it could be Mom, and she’ll panic if I don’t answer. She rolled over and picked it up.
Five minutes later she was rushing out the door with Brock’s car keys clutched tightly in her hand.
Chapter 17
The safe room was occupied, he knew that. He also knew that he had to shift—now. Watching Gia walk out had been hard, had strained his control almost to breaking. He wanted to chase after her, wanted to kiss her, to remind her of the spark between them. But she was asking for space, and it wouldn’t be right or fair to force himself on her now.
But then the door closed behind her. He’d stood at the top of the stairs, as close as he dared to get, and watched the door click shut. He dropped to his knees and roared—and his control had snapped.
He went down the stairs to the back door. There were only a few acres of the original plantation left and the city had grown up dangerously close, but there was a good fence all the way around, enough to tell the bear he had to stop, to stay inside those lines. Brock hoped it would be enough. He burst out the back door, shedding clothes as he went.
The change took him fast, hands and feet first as always, and he dropped to all fours as his hind legs shifted. He roared again, but this time it was a bear’s bellow. Faintly, from inside the house
, another bear answered.
Fully beast, Brock charged into the bushes.
It was morning by the time Brock woke, human again, in the gazebo in the garden. It was chilly and damp, and the cobblestones were not comfortable to sleep on, no matter what the bear had thought about it. He stood up and stretched, feeling drained. Running as the bear always tired him, and that made it easier to stay in control—made it easier to pretend he didn’t care that Gia had walked out.
There was a pile of clothes on the back porch and he put them on.
He found Connie working in the guestroom where the fire had started. The bedding was gone, probably to the garbage since the mattress and bedframe looked like they were beyond saving. The carpet needed to be replaced. The antique dresser had survived but would probably need to be refinished. He had the name of a man who restored antiques and had done work on the house before. He’d look it up later. Connie was scrubbing soot off the walls with little success.
“Get it as clean as you can,” he said, “And we’ll repaint in here.”
“That bed was over fifty years old,” she said.
He gave it a more thorough going-over and said, “You know, we might be able to save it. A few pieces will need replacing, but at least the headboard is intact.”
“I don’t know why you continue to look after this old place. You hardly use any of the rooms. You’d be happier in one of those fancy modern places.”
“No. This is my home. Someday I’ll need to use a few more of these rooms.”
“Don’t tease me. I know you’ll never settle down and fill this house with children.”
“Connie, don’t you have your own family to fuss over?”
“Nope. I’ll just keep on fussing over you. Your friend left this morning.”
“Gia left last night.”
“No, the other one. The bear.”
“He wasn’t a bear when he left, was he?”
She shook her head. “He looked sad and tired—said he’d gotten a call from your clan leader. I offered him a car, even told him James could drive him, but he said he’d walk.”
“He likes walking; it calms him,” Brock said, nodding.
“I wish he would have stayed a little longer, but if he’d been called then he has to obey. I guess I should find my cell phone and make sure I haven’t been called too.”
“Be careful Brock.”
“I will. But I am the mayor of New Orleans. I can’t stand by and let these people take over my city.”
There was no message from Remy, but there was a missed call from Officer Jameson so he dialed the officer’s number.
“Jameson.”
“Officer Jameson, good morning, Brock Tandell here. What can I do for you?”
“City Hall is secure.”
“Really? That was quick work. Did you arrest them all?”
“One vehicle got away, but surveillance reports a single occupant in the vehicle, likely the local ring leader. Reports appear to have been exaggerated. We arrested twenty men and women and freed almost one hundred hostages.”
“There must have been quite the meeting going on for there to be that many civilians in City Hall. And my meetings for Friday were cancelled. Unless there was a tour going on?”
“No, they were all in business attire. You don’t think..?”
“That you let them walk out? I don’t know, but don’t let your guard down, and question the ones you captured about the possibility of their leaders leaving disguised as civilian hostages. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did the same thing at the office attacks.”
“So, the car had all the extra weapons in it. Shit.”
“Let me shower and change and I’ll be down to City Hall. I should do this press conference in person, if the police can provide security.”
“We’ll be there.”
Brock called Gia next, but her cell phone went straight to the recorded message, ‘the cellular customer you are trying to reach is not in the service area.’
Probably still mad at me.
He called her home phone, but after seven rings it went to voice mail.
She’ll have her parents’ number on file at City Hall on her emergency contact form. She’s probably with her mother.
He showered and changed and climbed into his car. It was odd, driving the showy BMW to work, but his day-to-day car was parked at Gia’s. Now that this was over, they’d have to sort the cars out.
He thought his first task would be emailing and calling the news outlets, but most of them were already crowded around the front steps of City Hall. He grabbed an intern by the shoulder and said, “Go out there and tell them that the mayor will be out in one hour with a statement.”
The intern had nodded and bolted.
One hour wasn’t a lot of time to write a speech, and he still had a phone call to make. He pulled up Gia’s file and dialed the number.
“Hello.”
“Hi, this is Brock Tandell. I’m trying to reach Gia Carosa.”
“This is her mother. I’ve been trying to reach her too. She’s not with you? Last time I couldn’t reach her she was with you.”
“Mrs. Carosa, I’m sure she just has her phone on silent. It’s been a hectic few days. I wanted to let her know that City Hall is cleared. I’ll try calling her again later. If you get in touch with her, please have her call me.”
“Of course,”
He sighed and got to work. An hour later, he was standing on the front steps of City Hall, thrust into the media circus once more.
“I want to thank the fine police officers of New Orleans for the way they handled the situation here at City Hall and the situation that arose yesterday at my house. I understand that the police have already issued statements on those two incidents, and I won’t repeat that information here.
“The Human Order is becoming a real problem. I want to stress that shifters have lived peacefully alongside humans for centuries. We are not interested in ruling over humans. We have strict laws that govern our interactions with humans, and all of them are designed to keep humans safe from us.”
“So you are dangerous?”
“We’ve been over this. All wild animals are dangerous. It is the human in us that strives to keep that animal under control, to keep us from being true dangers. My point is that never in history has a group of shifters forcibly taken over and occupied City Hall, in any city. Never in history has a group of shifters held a group of humans hostage. And yet The Human Order, who claims to protect humans, has done just that. They are terrorists.
“As mayor of New Orleans, I do not approve of their actions. I wouldn’t approve of their actions if they were attacking French speakers, or blacks, or people with autism. It doesn’t matter who the terrorists target. Their mission is to spread fear and claim power for themselves. No matter who the terrorists target, I cannot, will not, condone that behavior in this city.
“I applaud the police and their willingness to face off against these men and women.”
MUNDO (BBW Bear Shifter MC Romance) (MC Bear Mates Book 2) Page 51