Chapter Eight

Rosie

This is not what I had in mind.

“Got the list?” Madison asked.

She nodded, waving the single piece of notepad paper around to remind the other woman that she did.

“Got the money?” That was Mila, Pierce’s girl. She was slowly learning everyone’s names.

It had taken her a moment to realize that the women were with the men, as well as fighting alongside them. Her surprise had been even greater when she’d realized that Madison, Kean’s girl, had recruited the bears to help with a fight she’d been waging for a lot longer than many expected.

She didn’t know as much about the other brother, Gavin, and his lady, Lena. They kept to themselves a bit more. Well, he did at least. The three women had almost immediately adopted her into their midst, and had said she could stay. Kassian had brought her over to “his” side of the wall, and introduced her. Then he’d told the others she wanted to help.

Rosie had been ready to defend herself from any and all questions they might have had, to prove that she might not have Lena’s computer skills or Mila’s accuracy with a gun, but that she could still be worthwhile in a fight. Her guard had been up, all possible defenses readied. No matter what the bears could have said, she had a counter argument primed. But the bears collapsed without an argument when the women said she was welcome to stay and fight if she wished. Rosie had thought she’d won, that she was going to start kicking ass with them.

“Oh, can I add something to it?” Lena asked, taking the list and scribbling something on it quickly before handing it back.

She glanced down at the new addition.

Fresh Strawberries.

She was going on a grocery trip.

Something on her face must have reflected her mood.

“I know this seems tedious and bitchwork,” Mila said, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “But now that we’re being watched, it’s entirely likely that we aren’t allowed off premises. Which means once our food runs out, Kassian will have no choice but to go off on this mission.”

“We have three days of food at best,” Lena replied. “Likely closer to two with the way these goliaths go through calories.”

Gavin rolled his eyes from where he stood behind her. The other shifters affected similar disdain, but none of them denied her charge.

Two days. Two days until Kassian would have to leave to murder someone. Unless she went and got food for the whole lot of them. It was a neat way of trapping her into it. There was also the small little detail of it being the truth. Rosie had no interest in speeding up Kassian’s departure. The longer he was around, the better chance they had of coming up with a plan to thwart the Institute. So if that meant she had to go shopping for everyone, then dammit, Rosie would go shopping!

“Okay, but there’s a couple of problems,” she said awkwardly, not wanting to have to go through it again.

“Here’s a credit card,” Lena said, handing over a plastic rectangle. “The pin is already on the paper.” She tapped the lower right corner where a four-digit number had been written.

“Thanks,” she said. Feelings of self-disgust rose within her. This was something she should have been able to contribute to the cause. A simple grocery trip. Her eyes scanned the list again. Okay, so it was likely to be expensive with all that meat on it, but still. If she was going to fight them, then she should contribute! But Rosie couldn’t. Her life savings had gone to the Institute, to secure her a spot in its program.

She tried to keep the flush of embarrassment at that thought down. It irked her how easily she’d been duped by them.

“Also, umm.” She paused, licked her lips and then continued. “I don’t have a car either. I sort of hitchhiked out here,” she admitted to the group as a whole.

“I’d lend you mine,” Lena said with a sympathetic smile. “But it’s now just a crumpled piece of wreckage.”

“Here,” Mila said, tossing keys her way. “It’s the white SUV outside.”

Rosie just looked at the keys. “Just like that?” she asked.

Mila nodded. “Yeah, I guess? Why, is that not okay?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I guess it’s just that I’m not used to such free trust. This would be an invitation to steal where I come from.”

Mila shrugged. “I have faith that you didn’t come all the way out here just to steal a car. That’s a little bit more work than necessary.”

Rosie smiled. “Yeah, I’m definitely way lazier than that.”

They all shared a good laugh. When it was done she headed to the “door.” Kassian was there waiting. He followed her through the hole and back into her room.

“Be careful out there,” he rumbled unhappily.

“I’ll be okay you big worrywart,” she said, reaching up to rub his chest with one hand. Her lips twisted up in a comforting smile.

“I know that you will be, here,” he said, tapping his head. “But here is a little bit less certain.” He tapped his heart.

Rosie swallowed. She hadn’t meant for the conversation to get so real. It was just supposed to be a friendly little see-ya-later type of thing. She wasn’t ready for anything more. Not yet, if ever. She didn’t know. It was all so confusing, dammit! Why couldn’t the paths just be spelled out in front of her?

“I’m just a human, and one they’ve never seen with you, besides our little saunter outside last night. This will work just fine.”

She carefully did not think of the fact that she’d be driving Mila’s car, which they had probably identified. Or maybe not. Shifters and vehicles aren’t much of a partnership if I recall. Maybe they don’t recognize vehicles the same way that we humans can. Because if they were being watched by humans, I’d never make it out of here.

Buoyed by that thought, Rosie lifted herself up on her tiptoes, planted a kiss on Kassian’s cheek, and fled the room before she could think about what she was doing, or before he could say anything. The keys worked on the SUV and she hopped in, firing up the engine. The seat was already adjusted for someone smaller, though not quite as small as her. A little fine tuning, and Rosie pulled out of the parking lot, following the directions she’d been given to the nearest grocery store.

Down the road she saw several figures lounging. They came upright as the car pulled out of the lot, and she could sense the intensity of their focus as they looked at her, and then at each other. One of them shrugged, and they stepped back from the road. For a split second Rosie thought about waving at one of them, but she decided to let it go.

It either meant that the humans were free to come and go as they pleased, or that the shifters didn’t recognize her as being an ally of the brothers. Right then, she didn’t know, nor did she care. But it was probably wise of the women to send her, instead of one of their number. Something told Rosie that the men had been prepared to stop anybody, except for her.

Now all that was left was to buy a ton of food. She recalled her initial shock at the quantities of meat she’d been requested to buy. It was outrageous. Nobody could eat that much. Of course, it was all boxed and pre-cooked stuff, because they didn’t have a barbecue and the brothers had insisted that fried meat was an affront to their tastes. Rosie wasn’t quite sure she followed that line of logic, but when a huge carnivore tells you what they want, well…she wasn’t willing to say no, that’s for sure.

Now her only concern was making sure she got it all. Oh, and dealing with the fallout from kissing Kassian, even if it was just on the cheek.

Why did you do that, anyway? Yeah, he’s cute, but did you really need to complicate things like that?

She tried to ignore the way her body reacted to that thought.

Oh dear, what have I done?