Garrett parked the bike a few stalls away from the lone car in the lot. He eyed it suspiciously, wondering why it was there. The park was closed, and no one should be up on the dam observatory deck at that time of morning. He slid off the bike and walked in a circle around the car to make sure no one was inside. It didn’t look like a rental; it had Nevada plates and the back window was filled with little stuffed animals with big eyes. He considered calling off his plans for the night, but decided that the car could have easily been left by an employee with engine trouble or a dead battery.

He told himself that he was only making excuses, and that made him a coward. He turned away from the car and took off his kutte. He laid it over the leather seat of his bike and hoped that the police would find it before the scavengers did. He didn’t deserve to wear it while he died. He knew that he was taking the coward’s way out, but the psychological pain in his head had become too much to bear. He hoped that his brothers would forgive him, and he hoped that Jessie would too, most of all. When he was young he had loved to read and a passage he’d read once, written by Friedrich Nietzsche, had stuck in his head, “Be careful fighting the monsters lest you become one.” He wasn’t sure if being a SEAL and fighting the monsters had made him one, or if perhaps the monster had always dwelled inside of him. But he was sure that he was tired of fighting it and he was mostly afraid that if he gave up, he’d give in.

He walked toward the cement wall, in the spot that he knew he’d be able to reach. He was about twelve feet away when he saw the dark figure. It was a small person, a woman or a kid, and ironically enough, the sight of her trying to scale the wall to jump to her death pissed him off.

“Hey!” He realized his mistake as soon as he made it. She looked back over her shoulder at the sound of his voice and the sight of him made her scramble harder and faster to get up the wall. Garrett cursed and began to run toward her. He was a few feet away when her hands gripped the top of the railing and she swung one of her legs up and over. She screamed when he grabbed her, and kicked at him with her other leg.

“What are you doing? Let go of me!” The sound of her screams was like nails on a chalkboard. Garrett considered letting her go so she could finish her task and end the almost unbearable noise. That thought only lasted half a second, though, and even with her foot repeatedly striking his neck, chest, and face, he pulled her down off the wall. As he carried her back toward the parking lot, she tried to bite him, she scratched him, she kicked and flailed around, she fought him like a wild tiger. But Garrett wasn’t called “Bear” by his brothers in the club and in the SEALS for nothing. She was a determined little thing, and freakishly strong for her size, but she was no match for the giant that he was.

When they got to the parking lot, Garrett lowered her down to the hood of the car. As soon as her butt hit it, she slid off it and tried to run. He grabbed her again and this time he used a little more force to sit her down on the car. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he wasn’t going to let her kill herself either. “Stop fighting me. I’m not going to let go of you until you calm down and promise not to run.”

She kicked him again, this time in the soft part of his gut, and he doubled over, but he kept his hold on her arms. “Who the hell are you? What do you want? I won’t let you rape me!” She was screaming the words out at the top of her lungs. When she said “rape” Garrett froze. She thought he was trying to rape her?

“I’m not a rapist. I’m trying to stop you from doing something stupid.”

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t know. It would be a hell of a lot more comfortable without your foot in my belly.”

She kicked him again. “Then let me go.” That was when the bear came out and Garrett used his strength to overpower her. He flipped her around so that he was holding her arms down tightly and he squeezed hard enough to make her go limp in his arms. He applied enough pressure to cause her to be unable to catch her breath, but not to kill her. He waited until she was quiet and completely still, before releasing the pressure, and then he lowered her to the hood of the car—sweating, and breathing hard, and a little embarrassed that this tiny slip of a thing could make him work so hard. He looked down and got his first good look at her face. Her dark hair was tousled around her reddened face and her long, dark lashes fanned out in a circular pattern across the top of her high cheekbones. Her lips were shaped like a heart, the kind of lips a man might want to kiss…under different circumstances. He sighed when it dawned on him that his own plans were ruined. He couldn’t go through with his plans now, or she’d wake up and go through with hers. Resigned to the fact that he’d be left babysitting, at least for the rest of the evening, he pulled on the door of the car she was lying on and breathed a sigh of relief when it opened, and he could see the keys in the ignition. Riding a bike through Vegas with an unconscious woman strapped to the back was likely to be frowned upon.

* * *

By the time Garrett got the girl to the clubhouse, his back and knees were aching. He was crammed into the late-model Toyota like a clown in a circus car. He pulled up in front of the big shop and turned off the ignition and lights. When he opened the door, he almost had to roll out onto the gravel driveway. It took him several long minutes to get the circulation back into his legs and pull open the passenger door. The woman was lying across the back seat and she was still unconscious. He reached in and picked her up. When she wasn’t fighting him, it was like carrying a life-sized doll; she was practically weightless. He placed her upon his shoulder gently and used his foot to kick the door closed behind him. He walked around behind the big garage and toward the clubhouse. He was almost there when a figure appeared out of the darkness.

“Bear? What the fuck are you doing?” a voice asked. Garrett squinted into the darkness and saw Munchkin, one of the Sin City brothers. Munchkin was aptly named for his short stature, but what he lacked in height, he made up in muscle. The guys all teased him about his “little man’s syndrome.” Munchkin’s temper was much bigger than he was. The small man’s eyes landed on the girl on Garrett’s shoulder and suddenly his face changed from confused to amused. He threw his head back and his blond hair fell across his leather kutte as he laughed. “Have to resort to getting them drunk and knocking them out now, do you?”

“Shut the fuck up, Munchkin, and get out of my way before I step on you,” Garrett growled.

“Let me get the door for you,” Munchkin said, still giggling, almost like a schoolgirl. “You need any help getting her up to the bed? I could give you some pointers…”

“Seriously, little man, get the fuck outta my way!” Munchkin laughed again. He held the door open and Garrett stepped through it. As he carried the woman inside, he was relieved that no one seemed to be up and around. He’d almost made it to the stairs that led up to the rooms when Claudia stepped out of the kitchen and called after him,

“Bear? Is everything okay?” Claudia was his president’s old lady. She was a nice lady and normally Garrett wouldn’t have a problem stopping to chat with her, but not today.

“Everything’s fine, Claudia.” He stepped onto the stairs. Claudia wasn’t going to be put off that easily, however.

“Garrett, what are you doing here at this time of morning and with a passed-out woman on your shoulder?” Garrett didn’t live at the clubhouse like a lot of the guys. He also rarely stayed there. He was only in Las Vegas a few months out of the year. The rest of the time was spent traveling around the U.S. on jobs or collaborations with other clubs. He understood why Claudia would question his presence even if he didn’t have the woman slung over her shoulder like a caveman.

He turned toward the pretty, although slightly rough-looking, middle-aged woman. “Everything is fine, Claudia, I promise. She was about to do something…stupid, and I couldn’t let her. She fought me like a wildcat when I tried to stop her and I just…helped her relax. I have a feeling she’s going to be mighty pissed when she wakes up, and maybe even a little loud about it. I didn’t want her setting off alarms at my apartment complex. I’ll talk to Monkey when he gets up and make sure it’s okay if I keep…I mean let her stay here a day or two until we get this figured out.”

Claudia folded her arms and smirked. “Since when are you the knight in shining armor?”

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “I’m no knight for sure. But he also knows I’d never do anything to hurt a woman or this club, right? Trust me. I promise to get Monkey’s okay.”

“I trust you, Bear. But you can’t talk to Monkey this morning. Him and some of the boys rode out last night, headed for Albuquerque. They’ve got that conference this weekend and they won’t be back until Tuesday morning.”

“Shit, I forgot about that. Did Speedy go too?” Speedy was the VP of the club.

“Yep, pretty much all the executives went with him, and a lot of the boys too.” Claudia wasn’t old enough to be a mother to most of the Flames, and a lot of them were older than she was, but she’d taken on the role of a surrogate parent anyways. She called them all boys and issued a lot of orders, most of which were followed without question or argument. They weren’t an easy bunch to manage, but she did an excellent job with what she had to work with.

“I’ll call Monkey in the morning then…”

She waved a palm at him. “Nah, don’t bother him. Like I said, I trust you. I’ll tell him I told you it was okay. Just make sure she don’t call the cops or something…or do whatever stupid thing she was planning, here.”

Garrett nodded. His shoulder was beginning to ache and he needed to put the woman down. “I promise,” he said. “Thanks, Claudia.” She nodded back at him. He turned back to go up the stairs and he could feel her watching him until he turned the corner. He stopped and opened the first door he came to, hoping that if someone was using it to party, they had locked the door. It opened, and he carried the woman over to the bed and let her drop. As soon as she hit the mattress, her eyes flew open. Garrett’s breath caught in his throat when he saw them. They were dark brown, but her irises had flecks of gold and green in them. He’d never seen eyes like hers. They were beautiful…even when she narrowed them at him and got ready to spit more venom.