17. Chapter Sixteen
“Fox and Ryker are going to miss their tux fitting.”
The stress in Lulu’s voice rolled over to Olive, who’d been a mess since running into Ryker yesterday.
“I’m sure the seamstress will understand they’re on an emergency call. You said they left last night, so hopefully they’ve found the hikers and are on their way back.”
Olive paced the boutique floor. Nothing was right. Nothing. Her body was strung tight, and she felt… empty. Her mind was churning in circles. Despite the list she made and the list for the list, she wasn’t making any progress on her work this morning.
“Rowen, Desi, Dax, and Jett are waiting for them at the bakery, but they can’t wait much longer. Ugh, you’d think this is my wedding, as nervous as I am for everything to go right.”
“It’s your mother-in-law’s big day. Of course, you want everything to go right.”
“You’re right.” Lulu sighed hard. “I’ll keep you posted. Maybe Ryker will call you from Fox’s phone.”
Oh, her friend. Always the optimist. She hadn’t shared her Ryker woes with Lulu because she didn’t want to overshadow the pregnancy news with something depressing. So, of course, Lulu continued to believe something would happen between them.
“Maybe.”
She knew without a doubt that he’d felt the same over-the-top sexual attraction that she had yesterday, and he’d just… walked away. Right, because he was leaving town, blah, blah, blah. He sure liked to continue with his hot and cold routine, though. And how he looked at her made it obvious that he felt more than friendly toward her.
“You’ve probably figured this out by now, Olive, but Ryker moves at his own pace.”
“You mean, start, stop, start, stop?”
“He’s just got to find his rhythm. Talk to you later.”
Olive turned to look at the boxes of inventory that showed up bright and early this morning. Of course, the delivery would come on the day she reopened the store. Her heart flipped when the delivery man entered the back door with his hand cart nearly overflowing with boxes. Cara must have added things to the inventory again because the shipment was huge.
She’d placed several boxes by her desk for easier access while doing other things. Slicing one of the boxes open with scissors, she opened it to find a stack of brightly colored baby blankets. The one on top was pink with white polka dots and sparkling pink fringe. Thinking of Lulu’s baby, she lifted the blankets out one by one and stacked them on her desk for inspection.
A little pull tugged low in her abdomen as she ran her hands over one of the lush blankets. What would it be like to have a baby… to have Ryker’s baby? Satisfaction hummed through her as if that’s exactly what her body was craving.
“Oh, knock it off.”
Rolling her eyes at herself, Olive put the blanket down and prepared to open the next box when a soft clicking sound came from the back hallway. Did the back door just open? The delivery person must have more to drop off.
“You can bring them up here,” she called out.
But no one came.
What the hell? Hugging a blanket to her chest, she peeked into the hall and found the door wide open. Maybe it hadn’t been fully latched and the wind pushed it open. The back of her neck prickled as she moved around her desk and entered the hall. Her mind told her to shut the door, but her legs wouldn’t move.
It’s just a door. Shut it.
Something inside her said not to. It was Fox’s fault. He’d spooked her about the man from the bar. Feeling foolish, she took three steps into the hall and came to a dead halt. Cold chills doused the top of her head and ran down her spine as a man stepped out of the storage room and into the hallway. The delivery man had turned off the hallway light and the shadows masked the intruder”s full features.
Sometimes customers got confused and knocked on the locked back door instead of coming around to the front. Maybe he’d just come in the wrong way.
“Good morning. Can I help you?”
The person walked forward into the light, and she was hit with sudden recognition. Short. Stocky. Wide shoulders. This wasn’t a customer. It was the man who’d tried to break in the other day and who wouldn’t stop harassing her. Kyle.
Olive walked backward to her desk with her eyes on him. Feeling for the scissors she’d just used, she silently cursed when she spied them sitting on the box across from her desk.
“Hey, Olive. Long time no see.”
Her stomach bottomed out. This wasn’t real. This wasn’t happening.
“What are you doing here?”
The smugness on his face and the lazy way he walked toward her sent her flight instinct into overdrive. He was close enough to grab her if she bolted and was between her and the back door.
Her phone lay next to the scissors. She’d dive across her desk to get to them if she had the chance. Cataloging anything around her to use as a weapon, she continued moving backward to keep distance between them. He followed.
“You didn’t answer my texts, so I decided to take a little road trip.”
This asshole had been harassing her for weeks. He made her life hell when she was younger. And now he was here, in her safe space.
“Get out of here.”
Kyle was stocky with wide shoulders and a big chest that suggested strength but moved like a man who hadn’t taken the stairs in a decade.
“Remember when your sister asked where you were living now, and you skirted the question? I might not have figured out how to find you if I hadn’t found that little notepad you keep in your car that says CARA ONE on the top.”
She grabbed a clothing rack with one hand to keep herself steady. “Look at you, invading people’s privacy. I’m not surprised.”
“All I had to do was internet search that name, plus yours, and wah-lah! Up comes a CARA ONE website with your photo on it.”
Shit.
The boutique’s website listed staff including her, Cara, and two of their jewelry designers. She’d never thought to take the information down, but to be fair, she didn’t expect this asshole to come looking for her.
“What do you want?”
“Megan was hoping you had a decent job by now. She was going to ask you to borrow some money. If we’d known you work in a fancy place like this, we would have doubled the amount.”
Of course, Megan was going to ask for money. That’s why she’d invited Olive to visit, not because she wanted to spend time with her. It wasn’t surprising, but it still hurt.
“I’m not giving you money.”
She was in the middle of the boutique now, with nothing around her but clothing racks. The closest thing she could use as a weapon was a bottle of perfume she could spray in his face, but they were in a locked case near the wall.
He stopped and she darted around a rack to keep it between them.
“I met you when you were what? Thirteen? Those were the good days. We had an apartment. Where did you live back then, Olive? That’s right. A different couch every night, the park, on the bus going round and round until it was time to wake up and get off or the driver had you removed.”
She didn’t respond.
“I never figured an alley rat like you would end up in a place like this.” He spread his arms wide, grinning like he’d won the lottery. “High-end shit everywhere. The jewelry in that case right there looks real. Imagine someone trusting you with diamonds and gold.”
Olive steeled herself and focused on her growing anger. She wasn’t going to let him affect her.
“Jewelry stores were our favorite places to smash and grab, remember? You’d slip inside and unlock the door, we rushed in, roughed shit up while we grabbed the good stuff, and got out of there. You were quite the little thief. Want to relive our glory days?”
He focused on the jewelry case.
Nausea burned her throat. “No.”
“I heard you traded a few gold necklaces for that piece of shit car you lived in.”
Bitter tears burned her eyes. She wasn’t going to waste her breath in responding. He would never admit that he coerced a literal child into committing retail theft in return for a couch to sleep on. He’d baited her with housing and food when she’d gone months with little of either.
“I’m here for a repeat, Olive, but I promise not to smash this place up if you just hand things over nicely. You got me kicked out of my own house, so I’m going to need some compensation.”
Lifting her chin, she looked down her nose at him. “That’s not happening.”
Kyle’s face reddened. “You got me kicked out. You owe me.”
Leaning on her fury, Olive gripped the metal clothing rack so hard, her fingers turned white. “It’s not my fault she kicked you out.”
“Megan thinks I was fooling around with you.”
“Oh, you didn’t tell her that you grabbed my ass without my consent?”
Kyle licked his lower lip and trailed his eyes over her body. “Want to try again?”
A primal roar burst from the back of the store. The floor shook, the vocal vibrations rippling in the air. Olive crouched behind a rack on instinct and peered around it just enough to see what was happening. Kyle spun, his face contorting in a mask of pure terror as Ryker lunged at him.
But it wasn’t all Ryker.
Half man, half bear. Clothes ripped off his human body as limbs contorted and chest and ribs cracked. His skin changed from tanned flesh to thick, coppery brown fur. Hands, now massive paws, eight-inch claws arching from each toe. She blinked twice and his shift was complete. Man was now a beast and barreled at Kyle. The entire floor vibrated as the bear charged, his huge body knocking into clothing racks and product displays. Gawking in disbelief, Olive couldn’t help but think that the most absurd thing was happening.
There was a bear in the boutique!
Ryker plowed into Kyle at the same time the front door burst open. Dax, Rowen, Desi, Jett, and Fox burst inside and encircled her with their bodies, shielding her. As if Kyle had a chance in hell of getting away from Ryker.
Her breath came so fast that she nearly hyperventilated. Peeking between Jett and Dax she watched in delight and disbelief as Ryker picked Kyle up from the floor by the front of his shirt and slammed him back down. Kyle’s limbs splayed as Ryker pressed a paw in the center of his chest, pinning him. Teeth bared and gnashing, he put his snout against Kyle’s nose, and that’s when Kyle finally had the wherewithal to scream.
Dax sighed. “I’d better break it up.”
He tried to step forward, but Jett held him back. “Not yet. Let him get it out of his system.”
“He’s going to rip that guy’s head off.”
“He probably deserves it.”
“Oh, he does,” Olive interjected.
They turned to look at her, grinning. But then Ryker grabbed Kyle’s shirt and ripped it straight off him, his front teeth carving lines across the man’s abdomen.
“Okay, go.” Jett pushed Dax forward.
Olive moved into Dax’s spot. This was really happening. Ryker had come, had shifted into his most vicious self, to protect her exactly when she’d needed him. How had he known?
“Alright, cuz, that’s good.” Dax patted Ryker on the shoulder.
Ryker growled and snapped at him like a pissed-off dog.
“Yeah, I know you want to kill him, but the humans frown on that.”
Another growl and a massive shake of his head.
Dax rolled his eyes. “Well, then, you should have dragged him out back and eaten him where no one would see you.”
And that’s when Kyle pissed himself.
Ryker snorted and moved off the man. He turned his head, small, bright yellow eyes searching until they landed on her. Olive’s heart lurched as he ambled toward her, his massive body rolling back and forth… and got stuck between the clothing racks. He started to push through them but backed up instead.
Dax grabbed a fistful of Ryker’s neck fur. “You good? We’re going to get him out of here.”
“He’s good,” Olive burst out.
The unsettling lusty tension was back, coursing through her, heating her skin. She wanted everyone gone, all of them, so she could finally be alone with her bear.