Bear's Heart: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (Bear Heat Book 5) (2 page)

BOOK: Bear's Heart: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (Bear Heat Book 5)
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Dylan peeled away from his
post and followed the man. The man cut through the crowd and stepped
off the curb before Dylan could reach him.

The robber had ditched his
ski mask and bomber jacket, and had assumed the appearance of an
upper-class gentleman. The man was fast and clever. There was no
trace at all of that heavy-handed, bumbling nutso.

Dylan hissed into his watch.
“Team A, move in now! We're losing him!”

Dylan only saw a blur at the
corner of his eye as Luke detached himself from his post and flew
towards the suspect. He tackled the suspect to the ground just as
the blue Toyota screeched up. Dylan fired three shots in rapid
succession. He took out two tires and hit the driver in the upper
arm.

When the driver stumbled out
of the car and tried to escape in a limping run, Jenny was on him
before he could make it halfway across the road. Jenny pressed her
knee into his back and yanked his arms behind him as he howled in
pain.

Luke was holding on tightly
to the man in the suit. “What do you think you're doing?”
the man spat. “I'll sue you! I'll sue the whole lot of you!”

Dylan trained his gun on him.
“I believe you'll find the diamond in one of his pockets,”
Dylan said, jerking his head as police officers came running up. The
police cuffed and began to search the suspect.

“You have no right...”
the man started to shout.

“So sue me,”
Dylan said flatly as he put his gun away.

He nodded at Luke and Jenny.
“Good job.”

CHAPTER
THREE

Jade cleared away the plates
and cups and stacked them on the tray. Dino Diner was famous for
their waffles and dino-sized breakfast sets. The diner was packed in
the mornings, and customers had been streaming in non-stop.

Jade had been on her feet for
hours, taking orders, serving customers, pouring coffee and tea and
clearing the tables. But she still managed to find the time to chat
and joke with some of the customers. Some of the regulars remarked
that they had never seen her around, and asked if this was her first
day. When she answered that it was, they had given her the thumbs up
and left her very generous tips.

Nancy, the head waitress, was
equally busy and harried but her puffy bouffant remained perfectly
coiffed with not a strand of hair out of place even after the
bustling morning. The lunch crowd was coming in and it looked like
it was going to get even busier around the diner.

Jade was hurrying to the
kitchen with her fully loaded tray when a man walked quickly out of
the washroom and pushed past her. His arm knocked Jade sideways and
she lost her balance.

“Oh no, oh shit!”
she gasped as she struggled to right her tray.

The tray slipped from her
hands and crashed to the floor.

Jade went down with it, and
landed among the broken cups and plates.

The man didn't even glance
back at her. He simply continued walking towards the door and exited
the diner with a smirk on his face.

Jade pushed herself up and
glared at his departing back in shock. The man was wearing a long,
oversized coat and he had a scar down his left cheek. He had dark
hair, black eyes and a thick beard. Jade couldn't remember serving
him and she had made it a point to remember all the customers she
served that morning. It was her first day, and she wanted to
remember every detail and get to know the regulars as quickly as
possible. It was a friendly, cozy diner and many of the customers
simply ordered “the usual”. She was determined to know
what “the usual” meant for each and every customer by the
end of the week.

“Hey! You!” she
shouted, ignoring the cut on her hand. “Get back here!”

“Oh sweetheart, what
happened?” Nancy and another waitress, Basheera, came rushing
up to her. “Are you okay?”

“I'm okay. That man
pushed me, and then he just walked away like nothing happened,”
Jade said, as Basheera helped her up.

“You're hurt,”
Nancy said, eyeing the cut on her hand. “I'll grab the
bandage.”

“I'm fine...”
But Nancy had hurried away, and was heard apologizing to some
customers for the delay in their orders.

Jade swore at herself and at
the rude stranger who had pushed her. They were so busy already,
rushing around and trying to get the piping hot food to their hungry
customers in a timely, orderly fashion. Her mishap had caused
everyone a lot of inconvenience.

There were two cooks in the
kitchen, and one of them came out to help clean up the mess after
Nancy told him what happened.

“I...I'm so sorry,”
Jade stammered.

“Nah,” Giovanni
waved a tattooed hand. “You get that wound cleaned up and
bandaged, or it could get infected.”

“I'm sorry,” she
repeated. “Thank you.”

“We work together. If
something needs to get done, it doesn't matter who gets it done. Go
let Nance put a bandage over that nasty cut. Then you can serve all
our good customers without embellishing their food with your blood.”

Jade blew out a sigh.
“Right. You're right.”

Jade went to the storeroom at
the back of the diner where the first aid kit was. Nancy was already
there with the bandage roll in her hand.

Jade took the roll from Nancy
and said, “I can take care of myself. There's a lot to do out
there. I'll be out as soon as I can. Thanks, Nancy. And...I'm
really sorry I caused all this trouble for everyone.”

“It's not your fault,”
Nancy said sternly. “Accidents happen.”

Jade nodded, but Nancy's
words sparked something in her mind. Something that dredged up a
terrible memory and sent a chill down her spine. She shook the
unpleasant memory and negative thoughts away quickly.

“I...I can clean up
this little wound myself. Really,” Jade assured Nancy when the
woman still hovered worriedly.

“Okay, okay. I'll
leave you to it then.” With a quick smile, Nancy hurried off.

CHAPTER
FOUR

Jade stood alone in the
cramped storeroom and dressed her wound quickly. She replayed the
incident in her mind and her frown deepened.

She recalled Nancy's words.
Accidents happen.

But—was it really an
accident?

The man had walked out of the
washroom in a great hurry. Apparently, he was a customer but she was
sure she had not seen him in the diner. She had smiled and exchanged
a friendly greeting with all the customers, even those she hadn't
waited on as she bustled around the little diner.

So that man had just slipped
into the diner, unseen and unnoticed, and headed straight for the
washroom. It could be that he really had to go, and well, if you
gotta go, you gotta go. You couldn't put Nature's call on hold.

But...something told her the
man didn't sneak into Dino Diner just to take a leak or a dump. He
looked flustered, tensed and angry when she blocked his path with her
towering tray. He had pushed her on purpose.

The shove was forceful,
vicious even. He had wanted her out of his way, but he had wanted to
hurt and humiliate her as well.

The man seemed to be in a
great hurry to get out of the diner. He didn't even stop to
apologize or help. He didn't even look back.

She had never seen him
before, but something about him was eerily familiar. What was it?
The look in his eyes? That irrational, violent rage in his eyes?

Jade suppressed another
involuntary shiver as she put away the first aid kit and stood for a
moment in the tiny storeroom that was cramped with all manner of
utensils. Old pots and pans, new saucers and plates, extra cutlery
and serviettes.

She touched a hand to her
chest and gulped. She had felt this tight, painful feeling in her
heart when Luke was taken and dragged into that evil doctor's lair.
She had called him repeatedly but just couldn't reach him. And she
had known, without a doubt, that something bad had happened to him.

She had that same feeling
now. She just had the sense that something bad was about to happen?
Or had it already happened?

Jade fumbled for the phone in
her pocket, her breath hitching. Was her brother in danger?

Her finger hovered above the
speed-dial button but she never got to press it.

A massive, violent explosion
tore through the diner. Jade heard screams and a deafening boom,
like the sound of the sky crashing to earth.

Jade saw the door flying
towards her and she ducked.

There was another crack, like
the sound of thunder.

Jade lifted her eyes just in
time to see the ceiling and walls caving in on her.

She could hear bricks
falling, glass shattering and people screaming in terror.

Jade tried to scramble free
but her lower body was pinned down under the fallen shelves and
rubble.

A beam fell in front of her,
missing her head by inches.

Jade screamed again.

But no one heard her.

Jade wasn't sure if there was
anyone left to hear her. Everything was dark, dusty and deafeningly
silent.

CHAPTER
FIVE

Dylan removed his security
vest and added it to the pile on the reception counter. They were
back in the offices of the Black Bears Group. His team members were
grinning and slapping one another on the back for a job well done.

Their receptionist, Paul,
immediately began to sort out the security vests according to size.
Paul grinned and congratulated the team on their success as he
gathered up the vests and headed towards the storage room at the back
of the office.

Their mission had been more
than a success.

The police had recovered the
large diamond in the pocket of the man's fancy tailored suit.

The old woman had taken the
diamond, her family heirloom, out of her bank safe deposit box and
one of the bank employees, Jim Tuck, had followed her home. Jim was
buried under a mountain of gambling debts, and he thought that huge,
tear-shaped diamond would be the solution to all his problems. The
elderly lady looked like an easy prey. He had roped in a greedy,
tech-savvy friend to create a diversion. The friend had operated the
old, souped-up car by remote control and crashed it into the
stationary cars. Then he simply hopped into the blue Toyota and
drove the getaway car to pick Jim up. Jim said not to be late. He
would be at the side of the road waiting for him.

Well, Jim was waiting for him
all right.

So were the Black Bears.

The Black Bears had foiled
the robbery. It took foresight, guts and teamwork to pull off a
successful mission. Many of his team members were relatively new to
the Group, and Dylan was real proud of them.

They were back in the office,
but from the exuberant banter hurtling at warp speed between his
bears, he knew that they were making plans to go out and celebrate
their success in style.

“Where shall we go for
lunch?”

“Shall we have
Italian?”

“All I can think of is
a big, juicy burger.”

Dylan turned and saw that
Luke was busy checking the messages on his phone. “Hey,”
Luke said, looking up with a smile. “My sister texted me this
morning, but I didn't see her message. It's her first day at Dino
Diner. Shall we go there for lunch? We can drop by and say hi to
her, give her some moral support. And they serve the best burgers
there!”

“You did a great job
this morning,” Dylan spoke up, giving his team their
well-deserved recognition and praise. “Dino Diner it is then.
My treat.”

His team whooped and cheered.

“Oh boy, I'm going to
have two Dino Burgers!” Aidan declared.

“I'll have three!”
Luke scoffed, throwing his arm around his teammate's shoulder.

“I'll have five!”
Mason, Aidan's brother, said pompously.

“What you'll have is a
tummyache,” Dylan said, shaking his head.

The rowdy group pushed out of
the office and made their way towards the car park.

Luke's phone chirped and he
stopped ribbing Aidan and Mason long enough to answer the call.

Dylan kept his eye on the
young man as Luke slowed his pace. He had been Luke's mentor for
close to a year. When he first joined the clan, Luke had been a
confused, bewildered, hurt young man and the bear in him was angry
and in pain. It had taken months of tough, grueling training, and
lots of patience and understanding to get Luke to accept and control
his bear. Once Luke understood that his bear wasn't a monster and
there wasn't a ruthless, brutal killer lurking inside him, Luke had
taken well to Dylan's instructions and advice. They got along very
well, and Dylan looked upon Luke as more than just his mentee. Luke
was like a younger brother to him, and in just one year, a strong
bond had been forged between them.

BOOK: Bear's Heart: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (Bear Heat Book 5)
5.17Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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