CHAPTER THREE
It was obvious that Henry wasn’t going to let her go. She knew about shifters and she was a human, two things that apparently couldn’t go hand-in-hand. The whole situation was crazy town, but Grace had decided to bide her time for the foreseeable future. Mr. Naked had released her arm, and at the present moment he didn’t appear as though he meant to do her physical harm.
Truth be told it wasn’t like she had anywhere else to go. At least she wouldn’t have to worry about figuring out how to put a roof over her head for a while. Her life wasn’t exactly full of viable options on a good day.
The bear shifter had initiated several failed conversational threads during the long drive, but eventually he took the hint and shut up. Ten points for delayed perception were mentally awarded to the pushy jerk for finally deducing that no, she didn’t feel like engaging in chit chat. She didn’t bother with small talk as a general rule. From her experience, most people didn’t bother opening their mouths unless it was to lie or try to take something else away from her.
To further complicate matters she was coming down from her momentary buzz, which was a major bummer because she couldn’t exactly pull out her stash in front of him, and even if she could she needed to ration her meager supply until she found a way to score additional pills. Given the fact that she had no money and she was basically a prisoner of Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Naked, that didn’t look like something she’d be able to easily achieve.
They’d long since left the middle-of-nowhere strip of highway by the motel, traveling down one backwards road after another. She had tried her best to pay attention, but there had simply been too many twists and turns, and she was going to have a damnably hard time navigating her way out of the forest even if she miraculously managed to sneak away from her jailer and get her hands on some wheels.
“Home sweet home,” he announced excitedly after pulling up to a two story log cabin that looked more like an expensive retreat than a personal residence. There was a large porch wrapping all the way around, and the green roof made it look like someone had been playing around with an enormous set of Lincoln Logs.
Grace had never bothered with the hopelessly futile exercise of imagining a home of her own, but if she ever did this would be the type of place that she would want. There was something so tranquil about being away from the constant hum of the city noise. Maybe this would be like a really nice free vacation.
She gave herself a good stern talking to before her stupid imagination could get her into more trouble. Grow up, Grace. Life isn’t a fairy tale and he’s not a prince. You’re never gonna get to live in a nice place like this because you don’t deserve it.
“Is this really your house?” she asked him, hating that she was incapable of stripping the worshipful awe out of her tone. The setting was so peaceful that it was calming her frazzled nerves. Hopefully he wasn’t waiting for her to let down her guard so he could murder her in her sleep.
“Guilty as charged. I’m a hard worker, and I like to spend as much time home as possible so I try to keep everything nice.”
Grace snorted and rolled her eyes. He made it all sound so easy. She’d never seen anyone work as hard as her foster sister Michelle, yet between the two of them they struggled to make rent every month. Hard work didn’t mean you got to live in a house like that, at least not if you were a waitress. It also didn’t help that sometimes she got so depressed that she’d spend some of her share of the rent on a hit or two to take her mind off of life for a while.
“What do you do for a living?” she asked, all but assuming he was up to some super shady dealings. Only criminals had digs that nice.
“I am the clan enforcer,” he explained as he drove around back to park inside of the three stall garage.
“I knew it. You kill people for a living. Are you like the Godfather of the bears? Because I told you, I won’t tell anyone!”
“I’m not a murderer,” he said, wincing at the harsh allegation. If that’s what she thought about him he was going to have an even more difficult time convincing her to give him a chance than he’d realized. “I’m more like a cop. I just carry out clan laws instead of working for the government, although sometimes I team up with local law enforcement when our cases overlap,” he explained.
The way he said it all actually kind of made sense, and she found herself relaxing her guard another smidge. When he led her into the living room and she didn’t see a mass of weapons or severed heads lying about, she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s not like she had any better options.
“Let me show you the bedroom.”
Grace spun around and snarled, her fingers instantly curling into fists. She knew what came next, and she wasn’t having it. No one was allowed to touch her if she didn’t want them to. Never again. She’d die first.
He scented her fear and it took him a moment to figure out what had her so spooked. The moment it clicked he felt like crap for having given her the wrong impression.
“Whoa. Hold up! I wasn’t implying that I wanted to have sex with you, I mean it’s not like I’m not attracted to you or anything . . . I mean, I just,” he paused his rambling spree and took a fortifying breath. “That’s your room, and I’m across the hall from you in there.”
“Oh.” Grace slowly allowed her arms to relax back down to her sides and actually gave him a begrudging apology. Saying sorry wasn’t something she had a lot of practice doing. It was actually nice to be wrong for once.
“Why don’t you take a shower and freshen up? There are towels in the bathroom, and I will set some clean clothes outside the door for you. They obviously won’t fit because you’re tiny and I’m . . .”
“A bear?” Grace interjected with a grin.
“Exactly.” Henry grinned happily, and the sight of him so pleased did something funny to her insides. What was it about him that stirred her up so badly? He was too charming for his own good.
Given the fact that he was basically keeping her under house arrest, shouldn’t she hate him? The problem was that he seemed like a really nice guy, and given how she was only used to interacting with scum bags, she couldn’t quite figure out how to handle him. She mumbled “thanks” and ran into the bedroom, making sure to lock the door behind her in case the nice guy thing was just an act and he was merely hoping to catch her unawares.
“Oh my God, I’ve died and gone to heaven,” she murmured when her eyes lit upon the fancy bedroom. It was decorated in rich greens and browns, which made it peaceful in an outdoorsy kind of way. Was this how people out in the country lived?
A pathetic little surge of hope bubbled up inside of her. Maybe, if she cleaned up her act and worked really hard, just maybe she might someday have a place like this of her own. She crushed that foolish notion fast. Naive thoughts like that could only lead to trouble. People like her didn’t get to have hopes and dreams. She was too much of a realist to believe in happily ever after. It was nothing but a pipe dream. Of course, that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy this brief respite from reality.
The bathroom was even fancier than the bedroom, and while she had a blast trying out all of the different shampoos and lotions, her very thorough cabinet search failed to yield so much as a single bottle of pills. Everyone was supposed to have at least a bottle of aspirin, right? Some prescription bottles would have been even better. How disappointing.
She wrapped a towel around her head and another one around her body. She was relieved to see that he wasn’t lurking in the hallway, ready to pounce on her like some kind of sex-starved freak. She was beginning to wonder if he really was as courteous as he appeared to be.
Grace followed her nose to the kitchen after tying the string in the sweatpants as tight as she could make it. Sure, she knew she looked ridiculous, but at least she’d gotten to rinse off the stink. Odds were high that he had a washer and dryer tucked away somewhere in this joint, and then she’d be able to have clean clothes that actually fit. It was like getting to step inside of a real life commercial; all that was missing was the perfect family. Then again it was a big house, and for all she knew he had a wife stashed behind one of the many doors. She tried to ignore how much the thought of him being taken bothered her.
“Focus on one problem at a time,” she muttered softly.
Now that she was clean it was time to do something about her munchies. It was far too late for breakfast, but it was still too early for lunch, at least for the type of person that kept normal hours, which Grace didn’t. With any luck she could also help herself to a beer or two.
Her hands were starting to shake again, and she needed to find her next fix fast, because for some reason she couldn’t quite explain she didn’t want to let Henry know how screwed up she really was. Was she an idiot for wanting him to like her?
“I’m so stupid,” she said, solely for her own benefit. Even if she somehow managed to garner his interest it wouldn’t last. Her twisted past had saddled her with baggage that no one else wanted to help carry. Everyone ended up leaving eventually, although they usually stuck around long enough to get in a few well-placed kicks of their own.