Chapter 20
Cameron
“Tell me what we’re doing here again?” I ask, looking around the little diner and clocking the number of people in the small space. Sammy has dragged me when I wanted to start work on a new piece, and I’m feeling overstimulated at all the people.
I was looking forward to a quiet morning in the shop, my hammer in my hands and hot metal at my fingertips, and instead I’m in the one and only diner in town, eating a basket of fries and waiting for some mystery guest.
“We’re meeting someone,” she says primly, looking as pleased as a cat who just had its cream.
“Ah, the mystery guest,” I reply, knowing I sound as cranky as I feel. “Why are we meeting this person again? And why won’t you tell me who it is?”
“We’re meeting him on business, and I won’t tell you who it is because I want you to be surprised.”
“Because I’m so good with surprises,” I grumble, shoving another fry into my mouth.
Sammy simply grins at me and takes a sip of her milkshake, and Christ, if I didn’t love the girl so much I’d get up and walk out. She knows I hate crowded spaces, especially in the morning, and surprises are my kryptonite.
It’s almost like she’s set this up as some sort of prank, and the thought has me narrowing my eyes and glaring at her.
Did she set this up as a prank? Is this some trick to try to get something out of me?
I’m opening my mouth to make that accusation when her eyes fly to the door of the place, and I turn to see Gunner coming into the diner.
And heading straight for us.
My mind flies back to the meeting I had with Gabe and Taryn–which I still haven’t told Sammy about–and I wonder if they told her as well.
That doesn’t seem like Gabe, though. He’s way too straightforward for that.
Maybe Gunner is going to present the idea himself, and has decided to do it with Sammy here?
If so, I wish he’d given me a heads up so I could warn her ahead of time. I don’t like surprises, but Sammy likes them even less, and I don’t particularly want to have to sit here and tell her that I have a plan with Gabe and Taryn that I never told her about.
Shit.
“Gunner,” I say, standing up to shake his hand. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
He cracks a grin at that. “That would explain the shocked look on your face. Come here, I don’t shake hands with my nephew.”
He pulls me in for a hug, and I laugh at that and hug him back.
Gunner has been present more than Bear in my life, and the man has always gone out of his way to make me feel welcome in the family.
For a long time, before I grew up and figured out how to take care of myself, I stayed up at night wishing Gunner was my dad instead of Bear.
The memory brings a range of emotions with it, now that I know Bear better than I did, but I put them to the side and sit back down. more than a little anxious about what Sammy’s doing. She called this meeting, as far as I know, and I don’t like that she didn’t tell me why.
Gunner sits as well, and turns to Sammy. “Sammy? What do you need?”
Typical Gunner. The man has never been one for small talk. I turn to my best friend, the same question on the tip of my tongue. If this is some sort of trick, I might have to kill her.
She looks at me, sly as a cat, and winks, and then I know we’re in trouble.
Sammy’s not good at winking. She only pulls it out on special occasions.
God help me.
But instead of goofing off the way I think she will, she turns completely serious and asks Gunner to let Bear into the business.
She pulls out a list that must be Bear’s best attributes, because she leans over it and starts listing things like she’s reading a resume for someone applying for a job.
And when she looks up at Gunner again, she looks like she believes she’s already won this battle.
“I know you want me and Cameron to come work with you, and I think that’s a good idea, but I want Bear to come with us.
The council is dead set against him and they’re going to run him out of town.
I don’t think there’s any question about that.
We need a way around it. We need you.” She pauses and takes a deep breath, then shoots me a fairly nervous glance.
God dammit, Sammy.
“If you want us, you’ll need to take him, too.”
The statement drops into dead silence like a stone into a still lake, and Gunner and I stare at her, no doubt wearing identical expressions of shock.
“You want to bring Bear into my business?” Gunner asks.
“You know about him wanting me?” I ask at the same time.
She knows that Gabe and Taryn approached me? She knows and she didn’t tell me?
This might be the first time I’ve ever kept a secret from her, and I didn’t even keep it on purpose. I just haven’t seen her enough lately to tell her about it.
That thought snags me, though, and I pause on it. I haven’t seen her enough to tell her. This is also the first time I’ve ever said that. I’ve never gone a day without talking to her or spending most of my time at her side. Hell, I’ve never gone several hours without her in my ear about something.
And yet I haven’t seen her nearly as much over the past couple of days. She’s starting a plan that she didn’t discuss with me, and that...
That breaks something inside me.
“Taryn and Gabe told me about the plan to bring you two on board, and I think it’s a terrific idea,” Gunner says, interrupting my thoughts. “I have several of your pieces and I think you’re really talented. We could do good things together. I’m sure of it. But my brother...”
Sammy’s eyes grow larger and she reaches out to take his hand. “He’s your brother, and he’s come home. Surely that means something.”
Gunner gives her a very tired smile, then takes his phone out of his pocket, selects a file, and slides it over to her.
I lean forward and watch as she hits the button to play the video, and see footage of Bear fighting with the bikers, looking more like a bully than a sheriff, and then a picture of Bear in his squad car, leaning close to the passenger.
Leaning close to Sammy.
God, he looks like he’s about to kiss her or something, his face focused on hers and her face turned down to something in her lap, and the thought that they were together in the car like that, and that he was leaning toward her, that look on his face...
It wipes all thoughts from my head, and suddenly I’m angrier than I’ve ever been in my life.
“What,” I ask tightly, “is that?”
“A video the council gave me,” Gunner says, not noticing my expression.
“They told me it came off the traffic cams, but we obviously don’t have those here.
This came from someone else. Someone is watching him and undermining him.
And I’ll tell you two the same thing I told him.
I can’t take him on until he’s got this figured out.
I won’t risk the company’s reputation, and I don’t want the drama of him bringing someone who’s out for blood.
He needs to get this cleaned up. Once he does that, I’ll consider bringing him on.
You two have an open invitation. But him? ”
He shakes his head, looking both serious and regretful.
“I’ve spent a lot of my life picking up after him. This time, he needs to clean it up for himself.”
He gets up and walks out, leaving Sammy and me staring after him, confused and angry.
I don’t know about her, but my thoughts are spinning.
The video is obviously doctored, but beyond that sits the fact that I don’t know how I feel about Bear at all.
I’m angry that he’s here causing so much drama, and dragging us down with him, but Sammy has obviously taken some sort of interest in him, and I’ve never gone against her in my life.
I’m furious that she’s fighting for him without talking to me about it, but if I’m being honest, that’s not a big surprise.
She’s decided that he’s one of us, and the girl is loyal to a fault when she puts her mind to it.
And I can’t blame her for that, either.
Bear has been absent most of my life, and I want to hate him for it, but having him around again.
.. The thought of having a real family, including a real father who actually counts us as his children, has gotten into my brain, and I’m not sure how to get rid of it.
No, Bear has never been that person. He’s run from everyone who ever loved him, as far as I know, and I have no reason to believe he’ll ever change.
But the thought that he might has taken hold of me, and I can’t shake it. It’s given me a hope I’ve never had before, and although I hate it and don’t trust it, the child inside of me is jumping up and down with excitement at the idea of it.
Family.
Real family.
That’s what’s driving me, I realize. That’s why I stood up in the council meeting and backed Sammy, even when I didn’t know what she was doing. That’s why I’m sitting here fuming over an obviously doctored video that’s trying to undermine Bear.
That’s why I’m already planning how we’re going to save him from this situation and keep him from getting run out of town.
Christ, I sound like a fucking hero, and it’s because five-year-old me is still looking for a fucking father he can call his own.
The realization is so crushing I can barely breathe for a moment, and I try desperately to process the emotion, looking for the other side of this deep, throbbing ache in my chest.
But it’s Bear on the other side, I realize.
Because no matter what he’s done, he came home to Wood because we were here. He came back to be with his family.
And we have to save him.
The moment I get to the end of that thought process, I realize that’s it. That’s my conclusion, that’s my mission, and I have to see it done. Regardless of the video, regardless of what Bear might have done in the past, he came home to us, and that means everything to me.
I look up, ready to tell Sammy what I’m thinking and get her thoughts on the matter, but her seat is empty. When I glance around, curious, I see a trail of chairs that have been pushed out of the way. And beyond them, the swinging door of the diner.
On the other side, Sammy is sprinting across a street, not bothering to look for the cars, and heading for our truck.
Shit.
I jump to my feet, my phone already in my hand and Mars’ number on the screen. I need a vehicle, and I need one right now. Because Sammy doesn’t run like that when she’s happy and feeling confident.
She runs like that when she’s just had emotional overload and has hit a spiral.
And that means I have to get to her before she does something stupid.