Chapter 5
five
Son of a bitch.
Greta glared at the truck blocking her driveway. Bear stood beside the open passenger side door, two travel cups from Nessie’s Place in his massive hands. King sat in the seat, tongue lolling out, panting with that goofy smile that made him look like the world’s biggest, dumbest puppy.
No!
She checked her watch again. By her calculations, he should be waiting in the parent drop-off line at Solace High right about now.
Instead, he was standing in her driveway like he’d known exactly when she’d try to leave.
She cut the engine and climbed out of her Jeep, slamming the door harder than necessary. “You’re supposed to be at the high school.”
Bear didn’t look the least bit apologetic. “Took Logan in early to meet his teachers.”
“I thought he already did that?” She narrowed her eyes. “You took him in early because you realized I was planning to leave without you.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Coffee?” He held out one of the cups.
She should refuse. Should tell him she didn’t need his help or his coffee or his big, muscled body taking up space in her Jeep. But the smell hit her—Nessie’s special cinnamon-ginger-cardamom blend that she couldn’t get enough of—and her resolve weakened.
“Sneaky Sasquatch.” She snatched the cup from his hand. “Fine, but move your truck. I’m driving.”
“My truck is—”
“No.”
Bear scowled. “Bigger,” he finished.
She took a drink of her coffee—Dear God, it was so good; Nessie had to be part witch to make coffee taste like this—and stared at him. Waited. tapped her foot just because she knew it would annoy him, and annoying him had become one of her favorite pastimes recently.
He growled his displeasure, but turned without a word and stalked back to his truck. He parked in his driveway across the street, then crossed back to her with long, ground-eating strides. King trotted at his heels, ears perked with interest.
“I’ll drive,” he said, reaching for her keys.
She pulled them away and held them up until she realized he could very easily still get to them.
Crap. She was practically dangling them at his eye level.
She tucked them into her pocket instead. “Not on your life, Pooh Bear. You drive like a near-sighted grandmother. Now get in or get left behind.”
He muttered something that sounded like “stubborn as hell,” but walked around to the passenger side. The Jeep listed slightly as his weight settled into the seat. He wedged his knees against the dash and ducked his head to avoid the roll bar, but his dark hair still scraped the headliner.
Atlas jumped into the back, whining with excitement at the prospect of another adventure. King leaped in after him, both dogs immediately taking up every available inch of space. King’s massive head thrust between the front seats, his chin landing heavily on Bear’s shoulder within seconds.
“Jesus,” Bear grumbled, trying to shove away the drooling mountain of dog. “Get back, you doofus, or you’ll stay home.”
King gave Bear’s face a slobbery lick before reluctantly retreating to the backseat. Greta couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips. The giant man was completely at the mercy of his dog—a dog who thought he was still the size of a house cat.
“Buckle up,” she said, starting the engine. “It’s a two-hour drive, and I don’t need you going through my windshield if we hit a pothole.”
Bear grumbled but pulled the seatbelt across his massive chest. The strap looked like it might snap under the strain. “You really think this is a good idea? Driving up to Glenhaven, interrogating a cult about your sister?”
“It’s not a cult. It’s a settlement.” She backed out of the driveway, checking her mirrors twice to make sure King and Atlas were secure. “And yes, I think it’s a good idea. It’s the only lead I’ve had in months.”
Bear’s silence spoke volumes.
“What?” she demanded, pulling onto the main road.
“Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. You’ve got that look.”
“What look?”
“That ‘I think you’re making a huge mistake, but I’m too polite to say it,’ look.
” She glanced over at him, taking in the tight set of his jaw, the way his hand gripped his coffee cup like it might try to escape.
“If you crush that cup and get coffee all over you, we’re not turning back.
You’ll just have to go through the day looking like you pissed yourself. ”
He grumbled, but loosened his grip and set the cup down.
“C’mon. Just say it. Get it out now.”
Bear shifted in the seat as best he could. His shoulders were so wide that one touched the door, and the other brushed hers. “I don’t like this.”
“Noted.” She accelerated onto the highway heading west, the Bitterroot Mountains rising to fill the window. “But you’re still coming, so what’s your problem?”
“It’s too easy.”
“Finding my sister?”
“The lead. Some random hairstylist walks into your shop and just happens to know Alice? After fifteen years?”
Greta’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t chased down a hundred false leads over the years?”
Bear’s silence was answer enough.
“Look, I get it. You think I’m desperate enough to believe anything. You made your feelings quite clear on the matter at the engagement party.”
He fell into silence.
“You think I’m chasing a ghost,” she reminded. “But you don’t understand what it’s like to have half of yourself missing.”
“No,” he admitted, and fuck, that low grumble of a voice did indecent things to her insides. “I don’t know what that’s like. But I know what it’s like to lose someone you love.”
She glanced at him, again surprised by that note of vulnerability. Who the hell was this man, and what did he do to her growly, standoffish Bear?
“Your wife?” she asked, turning her gaze back to the road. She didn’t know why she’d asked. Wasn’t sure she wanted the answer. If he was still in love with his dead ex…
Bear snorted. “No. I haven’t loved Amber in a very long time, if I ever loved her at all. I must have, but I don’t remember it.” He shook his head. “And she wasn’t my wife by the time I went to prison. We were separated. But Logan…” His voice cracked, and she glanced over at him in surprise.
Dane “Bear” McKenna was usually about as emotional as a mountain. Unreadable. Unmovable. So that note of raw emotion from him was unexpected, to say the least.
Maybe there was more going on under that grumpy facade than she’d given him credit for.
He cleared his throat. “When I lost him, I didn’t think I’d ever see him again.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, and meant it.
“Don’t be. I made my choices, and I paid the consequences.” He shifted in the seat again, his knees cracking as he tried to find a more comfortable position. “But I know what it’s like to miss someone with your whole being.”
She swallowed hard. “Then you understand why I have to go to Glenhaven.”
“I do.” He picked up his coffee and took a sip of his coffee. “And you have to understand why I pushed to go with you. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
She shot him a sideways glance. “Why do you care what happens to me, Yogi Bear?”
Bear’s expression shifted, something vulnerable flickering across his face before the stoic mask slid back into place. “I’m a decent human being, Dougherty. Even if you don’t think so.”
“Aw, is all that muscle actually hiding a soft, gooey center?”
He didn’t answer, just turned to stare out the window and took a stick of gum from his pocket, folding it into his mouth. The smell of spearmint and Bear filled her senses, and was he big everywhere or—
No. No, no, no.
Fuck.
She should not be thinking about the way those jeans clung to his thick thigh or what was hiding behind that fly.
She rolled the window down an inch and let the cold wind sting her face. It helped. A little.
The road wound higher into the mountains, the trees growing thicker on either side. She kept her eyes on the asphalt, but it was impossible not to notice Bear when he just took up so much damn space wedged into her passenger seat.
Two hours. Two hours of this. She could share a car with him without jumping his bones, right?
Right.
Maybe.
Oh, who was she kidding? Probably not.
She almost told him she needed to take him back.
She needed to do this alone, just as she’d planned.
She had Atlas, a GPS that worked even this far into the mountains, and fifteen years of experience searching every inch of wilderness in Bravlin County.
She didn’t need Bear’s protection or his company or the way his quiet presence made her stomach knot.
But she kept her mouth shut and her hands on the wheel. Because, despite her protests, she didn’t want to do this alone. If this Alyson woman did turn out to be Alice…
No, she didn’t even want to imagine how she’d feel.
But she’d definitely not be in the right frame of mind to drive herself home.
They didn’t talk the rest of the way.
The highway narrowed as it climbed, two lanes of cracked asphalt with a ditch drop on either side. Pine walls closed in around them. Atlas had finally settled behind Greta’s seat, but King’s head still rested between her and Bear, and he was drooling happily on her center console.
The gravel track to Glenhaven eventually appeared on their right.
It wasn’t really a road. In fact, it was little more than a break in the tree line, with a simple cattle gate blocking the entrance.
A hand-lettered sign hung from the top rail: PRIVATE / NO TRESPASS.
Beyond it, the track disappeared into the trees.
Her Jeep wasn’t going to fit.
Greta killed the engine and got out. The air was colder here, at least twenty degrees cooler than in Solace, with the distinctive sharp bite of high altitude. She zipped her jacket as she approached the gate, gaze sweeping the tree line for any sign of movement.
Nothing, but she saw another sign that warned trespassers would be shot.