Bear Meets Girl

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

They returned to the precinct, including the KZS and Group members. Clean clothes were retrieved for those who had blood on them, and calls were made to appropriate management personnel. No one panicked, but clearly everyone was worried. Crush didn’t know why, though. Baissier’s idea of retaliation was never to come straight at anyone. That wasn’t how she played the game. So hit men sent to exact revenge in the middle of the night? Not going to happen.

While Crush was helping the wounded team members remove their weapons and equipment, Gentry arrived. She walked through, asking questions, confidently nodding, until she reached him; then she caught hold of his arm and pulled him from the room.

“What the hell happened?” she asked. Once they were in the hallway she no longer looked so confident.

“According to Smith, ‘went bad.’ ”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means BPC was already there when KZS and Group entered the building.”

“They have Whitlan?”

“No. He was already gone. But as soon as BPC saw them, they started shooting.”

“Unprovoked?”

“One could have been startled into it, but the others ...”

“The bodies?”

“KZS cleanup team. I didn’t know bodies could be disposed of so quickly.”

“Just be glad it was KZS and not Smith. She has hyenas on retainer.” Gentry folded her arms over her chest. “So ... what are you thinking?”

“They’d only start firing at us on orders from Baissier.”

“Over one full-human?”

“I’m thinking Whitlan has enough on Baissier to take her down and keep her down.”

“She still has a lot of support.”

“Some say not as much as she used to. Her ego has made her a liability. Her viciousness a threat. But no bear’s going to order her out without hard proof.”

“To be honest, Crushek, I’m more worried about you.”

“Me?”

“You’re the one person who knows the most about her and yet has absolutely no loyalty to her. And you’ve got a good, solid rep among bears. If you find information about her and Whitlan—she won’t be able to talk her way out of that.”

Gentry may be right, but still... “She won’t come at me head-on. At least not the way anyone else would.”

“You’re not worried at all?”

“I’m not stupid, Chief. Just numb.”

“So there’s no point in telling you to be careful is there?”

“Only because I’m always careful.”

She nodded, and headed back to the room with the teams. “Keep your phone on. I’m sure there will be meetings tomorrow. I may need you to attend.”

Crush followed her into the room, but he stopped in the doorway, taking a quick scan. He walked over to Smith’s side. “Where’s Malone?”

She looked around, then shook her head. “Don’t know. She was just here.”

Cella sat on the bench down the street from the police department’s building and rubbed her knee. It had swollen up to the size of a softball and the pain was something she didn’t even want to think about. She knew she could have stayed inside, but when dealing with this much pain, she let instinct take over. And being wounded around a bunch of predators was just not something she was willing to do.

So, instead, she sat on this bench and waited for the pain to pass. It had to pass, right? It had to.

Cella closed her eyes and again wondered how much longer she could keep this up. She had a game coming and practices before that. She knew that icing her knee would definitely help, but would it swell up like this again?

She could ask Jai for help, but she knew that would go badly since her friend would push for surgery again. Knee replacement, which meant Cella’s career would be over. So going home tonight? No way. Hotel. She needed a hotel.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to stand, but immediately sat back down hard, a small squeal of pain going out over the cold night air.

“Are you all right?” a male voice asked. A kind male voice. But all Cella knew was that a stranger was near her while she was wounded and the beast inside her took over, her roar ripping through the night, her claws unleashing. She was up on her good leg, her arms swinging out to tear the man in front of her apart. To destroy the threat. But an arm wrapped around her, yanking her back.

“Sorry,” she heard another voice say. “Sorry. She went off her meds. I’m getting her back to the hospital.”

“You sure you don’t need some help? Maybe I should call nine-one-one.”

“No, I’ve got her. But thanks.”

Cella felt the threat move away, leaving her alone with the bear. Why she didn’t see him as a threat, too, she didn’t know.

“I’ll take you home.”

“No,” she told Crush, pushing on his arms until he carefully lowered her to the ground. “No. I can’t go home. Not like this.”

“You talking about your knee? Or your face?”

She winced. “That bad?”

“Your face isn’t that bad, but Meghan will notice. And your knee ...”

Cella shook her head. She couldn’t let Jai see her knee and she definitely couldn’t let her kid see her face. It was one thing when Cella got a few bruises during a good ol’ family bare-knuckle fight or during a hockey game. But Meg always freaked out when she saw her mother’s face and knew she’d been working.

“Can you take me to your place?” she asked him. “Please.”

“It’s probably not safe there.”

“I dare somebody to come at both of us tonight.”

“Okay.”

Crush went to her and started to put his arms around her.

“I can walk, Crushek.”

“Bullshit. And you’ve got a game coming up. I can’t risk the Marauder’s enforcer, now can I?”

“It’s always about him, isn’t it?”

“Pretty much. Now come on. I’m tired and hungry.”

He slipped his arms behind her back and under her legs, carefully lifting her so he didn’t do much to her left leg.

“Thanks,” Cella said before he could get moving.

“For what? Isn’t this what pretend boyfriends do?”

Laughing, she put her head on his shoulder. “Excellent point.”