BEAR

One Year Later:

“To have and to hold, for richer, for poorer and until death do you part.” The minister recited to Lori and Apollo.

The fucking Sergeant of Arms was tying the knot with the love of his life. Apollo was the most rugged, live free or die trying, man I knew. He just didn’t give a fuck. Much like myself but when that gal Lori, came back into town, told him to kiss her ass, my brother got his shit together.

Like, all the way together.

The man started a business, purchased a house next to hers and started to set up shop. She didn’t stand a chance against his tactics. Now, the entire Guardian clan was at their wedding watching them get tied down.

My eyes glanced toward the bridesmaids and looked at the women who simply came in like a whirlwind and was taking each Guardian down one by one. Kylie had just pushed out Razor’s second child and the woman stayed at the gym, getting rid of that baby bump. Shay was pregnant with Bronx’s first child, so her gown was slightly different to accommodate her small baby bump and then there was Dessy. This was Shay’s cousin, the woman who haunted my dreams at night.

A year ago, I fell into the temptation of everything that is her and in the back of RIGOR, I let her in for just a moment and I’d been living in torture ever since. There she stood in her lightly golden dress that matched her bronze coloring perfectly; she looked like a fucking angel.

She was an angel.

And I was Satan’s helper, which is why I never cashed in on that prize. I knew what I was but she didn’t. The woman used to look at me like I hung the sun and now she never looked at me. I knew I was in hell and she probably knew it too.

I didn’t follow up with her because I didn’t have shit for her. My job as a Guardian was to do the research, manage the operations and get shit done. It was operations and there was nothing sexy about it. My way of protecting her was to scout the Vipers lair, watch her house even though that wasn’t my job and make sure there was a man on her at all times.

A year had gone by and I still hadn’t made her mine. A stolen kiss here, rolling around in the back of my truck there, and oddly enough, I was so fucking possessive over her, I wouldn’t let nobody get near her. At Shay’s and Bronx’s wedding, she started shaking her ass and I nearly lost my fucking mind. She was happy but then I’d crushed that like a bug.

“Bear, put me down,” she had screamed when I lifted her off the dance floor and took her outside.

“Fuck is wrong with you, shaking your ass for every man in there to see,” I growled.

In that moment, I should have seen the resemblance on her face to that of her crazy ass cousin. Dessy’s head reared back and she looked ready to strike like a snake.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?” She rose on her toes to get in my face. “I’m not the one scared to take a chance, Bear. You have no say over me shaking my ass or tits for that matter. I’ll dance where and how I want. You forget, I belong to no one!”

She was right but I didn’t care.

Didn’t give one shit.

“If you so much as twirl your ass on that dance floor Dessy, I will tan it.” My eyes bore into hers since it was the only thing I could do to keep me from taking her ass home and fucking her until we both passed out.

One side of her hair was cut shorter than the other, so Dessy flipped the longer side behind her back and rolled her eyes as she said, “That’s the only way to get you to look at my ass.”

My eyes closed as she sashayed her sexy ass back toward the party, but I knew she’d have me losing my shit. I nabbed her by the waist, carried her to my truck as she pounded on my butt with her little fist and took her ass home. She didn’t say anything just sat on the other side of the truck and stared off.

“You don’t know what you’re asking for,” I told her when we finally came to a stop. “I ain’t got shit for you.”

Dessy went to pull the handle but I locked the doors again.

“Dessy,” I growled.

“I get it, Bear.” She shook her head but wouldn’t face me. “I can’t have you but nobody else can have me? Is that how this works? I can’t dance, can’t flirt with you looming about but you can steal kisses from me in booths, pick me up off the dance floor, so every man thinks I’m taken when I’m not. It’s a fucking joke. I might as well move back to Harrisburg. At least there, I know what I’m going to get.”

Her hand jerked the door open again, freeing herself due to my slow reaction. I was still stuck on her words about moving back to Harrisburg. I watched her march into her place, that used to be her cousins and heard the door slam with a big ‘fuck you’ unsaid.

From that day forward the dreams were worse and if things couldn’t get any harder, she wouldn’t look my way, talk to me or even acknowledge my presence. There was no more looking at me like I could hang the moon.

It was complete indifference.

One night, I was at Peppers hovering near Dessy’s section. She never served me anymore, so I didn’t go into her section, just one close enough. The woman wouldn’t even speak to me but I did overhear her talking with another patron.

“I used to go to school near Harrisburg.” The customer took a small sip from her beer. “What part are you from?”

Dessy placed her rag on the counter and said, “Wow, such a small world. I’m from Northburg, near the water.”

“Wow, I know that area, near Asperteague High School?” The woman leaned forward.

Dessy beamed and exclaimed, “I went to Asperteague!”

“What?” The tall woman jumped up. “Girl, that’s crazy. My ex went there. That was a really good school.”

The two of them laughed and though there were several more references to Harrisburg, the one that caught my attention was when Dessy said, “It’s so funny. I’ve been looking to move back there and now I don’t want to live in Northburg anymore, maybe closer to where you went to school near Mekatown. They have some great houses.”

What?

“Oh yeah, they are nice. You should so do that. Hey, I know so many guys that are still there. You’re a bartender and obviously good at it. My old roommate owns a few bars.”

“Really,” Dessy lowered her voice so I couldn’t hear what she was saying. She probably couldn’t see me since I was behind another guy but I could hear and see her just fine.

Leaving my money on the counter, I stalked off toward the men’s room. My chest felt tight, beads of sweat began to form on my forehead and my breathing seemed a bit labored. I shouldn’t have had that double bacon cheeseburger but that didn’t explain the feeling.

On my way to the pisser, I saw Shay of all people.

“Bear,” she acknowledged me, which was weird.

I blamed it on the baby hormones messing with her no-nonsense personality. My head nodded as I kept walking but she stopped.

“Bear?” she called, causing me to turn around. “Are you alright?”

“Hmm,” I grunted as I kept walking towards the bathroom.

She must have notified Bronx because a few minutes later, he came barging through the door as I was putting water on my face to calm the fuck down.

“Brother? You okay in here?” he asked with eyebrows pulled together and standing guard at the door.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Feeling like shit.”

“What happened?” Bronx asked. “You were fine fifteen minutes ago.”

Then he leaned in and asked, “This got anything to do with Dessy?”

My eyes shot to him before I snapped, “Dessy?!?”

That reaction must have explained it all because instead of concern marring Bronx’s features, a smile formed on his face.

“What are you going to do?” he asked as if he was for damn sure, it was about her. “You been pussy-footing around for what a year now. She’s not going to wait. You’re not getting any fucking younger and honestly Bear, what are you scared of?”

My heart started to beat a little faster when I heard the word scared and then it hit me.

I was fucking scared.

That little thing in there had me scared to death of moving forward. I wasn’t doing shit, no relationship or even fucking someone for that matter.

I was just plain scared and now I was moments away from losing her altogether.

Someone had made a threat that had us Guardians on guard and the women with tails following them all the time. I felt like that was me protecting her but if she left, I couldn’t do that any longer. It seemed the Vipers were laying low but those pictures of the recon they did on us told a different story. They were planning something and we needed to be ready. I needed to be ready and protecting her in Harrisburg or Mekatown would prove to be difficult.

I also knew if I got close to the sun that was Dessy, I’d definitely get burned by her rays.

This was evident but I was through waiting under the trees and hiding in the shade.