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

BOOK: Bear's Heart: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (Bear Heat Book 5)
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“L-Luke...” she
called hoarsely.

Her brother gave her a smile
but she could see the profound worry in his blue eyes. “Hey,
Jade,” he said softly. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay.” She
grimaced. “My body hurts...all over.”

“You're in the hospital
now. They've given you some painkillers, but I can ask them to up
the dose if you're in a lot of pain...”

Jade shook her head. “I'm
okay. A little pain is good. At least I can still feel.”

She took a shuddering breath
and felt better, stronger. She opened her mouth and her fears and
nightmares tumbled out in a jumbled torrent. “W-when I was
trapped down there, I...I couldn't feel my legs. And I thought...I
was paralyzed. I thought I had to spend the rest of my life in a
wheelchair, if—if I made it out...” Her voice trembled
as she began to cry.

“Shhh.” Her
brother shushed her and thumbed away her tears. “You're going
to be fine. Your legs are fine. You'll be up and about in no time,
Jade.”

“Yeah.” She
sniffed and tried to smile but winced instead. Even smiling was
painful.

She was aware of a slight
movement at the corner of the hospital room.

Turning her head, she saw a
tall, broad man leaning against the wall. His leather jacket had the
Black Bears logo on it. His light brown hair was standing up in all
directions as if he had been pushing his hand roughly through it. He
was very handsome, with deep amber eyes and the face of...a fallen
angel.

Jade gasped.

Her angel.

This was the man who had
saved her, whose voice had anchored and fortified her.

“Dylan?” she
asked tentatively.

He immediately pushed himself
off the wall and came to her bedside.

“Yes. How are you,
Jade?”

She smiled. Her face didn't
hurt this time.

“I'm alive. Thanks to
you.”

“The medics, the
police, the doctors, they all saved you,” Dylan answered.

“But you found me.”

The corner of his lips curved
a little and his eyes blazed with a raw, powerful emotion that sent a
pleasant shiver through her battered body.

“Luke has been by your
bedside the whole time,” Dylan said instead. “Your
brother has been very worried. He hasn't been eating.”

Luke glared at Dylan. “I'm
fine,” he snapped.

Dylan lifted his broad
shoulders in a shrug. “Well, since you refuse to listen to any
of us, I have no choice but to tell your sister that you haven't been
eating or sleeping so she can scold some sense into you.”

Jade turned to her brother.
“Is that true, Luke?” she said sharply, going
automatically into big sister mode.

Luke made a face at Dylan.
“He's exaggerating,” he mumbled. “I did eat...”

“Yesterday,”
Dylan interjected. “One measly bite.”

Jade narrowed her eyes at
Luke. “Go,” she ordered, her voice surprisingly clear
and strong. “Go and get yourself a full, proper meal. Go!
Dylan can take care of me.”

Jade bit her lip but the
words were already out. Why did she say that? She had only just met
the guy but she was already assuming that he would take care of her.

“I mean...” She
opened her mouth to amend her last sentence.

“Your sister is right.
Go have something to eat, Luke. Then go home, have a shower and
catch a nap. I'll be here. I'll take care of her,” Dylan
said.

His tone brooked no argument.
Jade heard the authority in Dylan's voice and saw for herself the
dynamics of their relationship. Dylan had been Luke's mentor, and
she saw that Dylan was sensitive to Luke's emotions and respected his
ties to his family, his only sibling. He gave Luke enough space but
there was never any doubt who was in command. When Dylan gave Luke
an order, it was clear that no insubordination would be tolerated.

Dylan had a commanding
presence. He was easily over six and a half feet, and had a tanned,
muscular build. Every hard inch of him radiated power, controlled
power. She knew that Dylan was a warrior, a senior lieutenant in the
Black Bears clan. He was a fearsome predator and protector, but he
had the kindest, gentlest eyes she had ever seen.

Jade held out her hand to
Dylan and he took it without hesitation. She saw Luke's eyes widen
but he made no comment.

“Dylan found me. He
did, Luke. I'm alive and safe and I know he will continue to keep me
alive and safe. Dylan will take care of me,” she told her
brother.

Luke stared at their joined
hands for a beat, then nodded.

“Okay. I'll go. I'll
eat, shower and sleep,” Luke said somberly. At the door, he
turned and winked at them over his shoulder. “That should give
you two lovebirds enough time to...” He puckered his lips and
made loud smooching sounds.

Jade and Dylan unclasped
their hands instantly. Jade gave her brother the evil eye and
mumbled, “You are so dead, Luke Keller. I swear I will kill
you.”

The door closed but not
before she heard Luke's laughter. The sound of her brother's
laughter made her heart and spirits soar. She hadn't heard that
cheeky laugh in a long time and it made her pain lighten by degrees.

Finally, she turned back to
Dylan. She could feel the heat creeping up her face as she muttered,
“Ignore him.”

Dylan gave a comical,
long-suffering sigh and deadpanned, “That's easier said than
done, Jade.”

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Dylan helped Jade sit up and
propped an extra pillow behind her to make her comfortable. “I'll
be just outside. I'll come back in as soon as you're done,” he
told her. Giving her hand a squeeze, Dylan nodded at the two
detectives who were waiting to take her statement and exited the
room.

The detectives were standing
respectfully at the foot of the bed. The doctors had allowed them to
interview her for just a couple of minutes. There was a knock on the
door and a pretty, bespectacled blond woman poked her head in.

She smiled at Jade as she
walked in. The two detectives nodded at her in greeting. “Hi
Jade, I hope you're feeling better. I'm Lindy Meyers. I'm a
profiler with the Behavioral Analysis Department.”

“Lindy...” Jade
stared at the woman for a moment before the name clicked. “Lindy!
You are Baxter's mate! He showed me your photos! And the photos of
your little girl, Shannon!”

Lindy grinned and came over
to take Jade's hand. “Yep. I know you're Luke's sister. I
was hoping to meet you...but not like this.” Lindy sighed and
shook her head.

Jade smiled bravely. “You'll
catch the murderer, right?”

Lindy glanced at the
detectives and nodded grimly. She stepped back and pulled a legal
pad out of her briefcase. “The detectives will be taking you
through the questions, but I'll be taking a few notes, okay?”
Lindy said.

“Okay.” Jade
took a deep breath as Detective Kai Wong stepped forward.

“Miss Keller,”
Detective Wong began. “We won't take up much of your time. We
would just like you to tell us what happened that morning at Dino
Diner.”

His young, bright-eyed
colleague, Detective Gloria Cruz, began to scribble on a notepad as
Jade spoke. “I reached the diner at about seven. My shift
starts at eight, but I wanted to be early. It was my first day at
Dino Diner.” Jade smiled a little, but the smile was small and
sad. “Nancy, the head waitress, was on the morning shift that
day. Dino Diner is open twenty-four hours. Nancy usually works the
night shift, but she wanted to be around on my first day. You know,
keep an eye on the new girl, settle her first-day nerves and make
sure she doesn't screw up.”

She swiped at her eyes and
swallowed hard. “As it happened, I did screw up.”

“What happened, Jade?”
Detective Wong prompted.

Jade took a shaky breath and
pressed her fists to her stomach. Fighting to keep her voice steady,
she went on, “The day crew began to come in. The two day
cooks, Giovanni and Calvin, clocked in at about seven-thirty and took
over from the night cooks. Basheera and Nancy came in around a
quarter to eight. The night crew all left by eight. We got to work
right away. Customers were streaming in for breakfast and we were
all busy right till lunch time.”

Detective Cruz flipped a page
on her notepad and continued scribbling. Lindy listened intently and
only wrote a few words on her legal pad.

“You said you screwed
up. What happened?” Detective Wong said.

“It was around noon. I
was clearing the tables, and I was carrying a big tray of cups and
plates to the kitchen when...” Jade stopped and took a
steadying breath. “...when this man came out of the washroom
and pushed past me. I was blocking his way, and he seemed to be in a
great hurry. He shoved me to the side and I fell, tray, plates, cups
and all. It was a loud crash, a great commotion. Some customers
came to help me but he didn't even look back. He just hurried
straight out of the diner.”

Detective Wong nodded. “Can
you describe this man?”

“Yes. He was around
five foot seven. Dark hair and eyes, with a thick beard. And there
was a scar down his left cheek.”

“Miss Keller, would you
be willing to work with a police artist? The artist could sketch a
likeness of this man, and we can see if anyone recognizes him.”

“Y-yes, yes of course,”
Jade stammered. “I'll help you in any way I can. He is a
murderer. So many people are dead.” Jade saw the faces of her
colleagues and customers, and she thought she heard their cheerful
banter and voices for just an instant.

Jade tried to swallow a
wrenching sob as she whispered the names of her colleagues. “Nancy,
Basheera, Giovanni, Calvin, Mr and Mrs Rashid, Tommy and his little
brother...” All those lovely customers she had gotten to know
just that morning, they were all dead. She remembered Tommy and his
younger brother stacking the waffles into the shape of a house on
their mom's plate. She had even snapped a picture of that impressive
waffle house on her phone. Big, fat tears plopped onto her fists.

“Jade,” Lindy
began gently, “I know it's your first day so you don't know
your new colleagues all that well. But maybe one of them might have
said something in a conversation. Did any of them ever mention that
they were in any sort of trouble?”

Jade frowned and thought
hard. “No,” she said. “No one said anything like
that. They were all nice, hardworking people. I didn't get the
sense that they were afraid...” Jade trailed off.

Lindy waited a beat before
asking, “Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt you, or
them, Jade?”

Very slowly Jade nodded.

She looked up and met three
pairs of intense, attentive eyes.

She swallowed hard and said,
“Rickson. I don't know if that's his real name. But...there
was this incident at Hot Wok. Hot Wok was the restaurant I worked at
back in my hometown. I've worked at Hot Wok for more than fifteen
years. Mr and Mrs Xi, my bosses, were great.”

She paused to compose
herself. “But something happened at the restaurant. And a few
weeks later after that incident, the restaurant burned down. There
was a fire in the middle of the night...”

Jade closed her eyes and
twisted the corner of the sheets.

She heard the detective's
quiet voice. “Tell me about the incident, Jade.”

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

As Jade recounted the
incident in detail, she saw herself back in Hot Wok, the small
restaurant in her hometown that served excellent Chinese food. Hot
Wok was owned by Mr and Mrs Xi and they were very generous, caring
bosses.

She could almost smell the
aromatic Chinese food and hear the buzz of dinner conversation. She
saw the scene vividly in her mind, and she could recall every tiny
detail.

It was a busy evening at Hot
Wok. She was rushing around as usual, serving the customers their
dishes when she overheard something at one of the corner tables. The
restaurant was buzzing with loud conversation and the sound of
laughter and clinking cutlery rang through the enclosed space. There
was a birthday celebration at one of the tables, and the large,
exuberant family was belting out the birthday song for their
great-grandmother. Many of the waitresses had gone to lend their
voices to the cheerful rendition. No one heard the man's angry words
over the cacophony of joyful sounds.

Jade was just walking past
the table when she caught a glimpse of the woman's distressed,
frightened face. The young woman looked terrified and angry, and her
eyes kept darting around, as though silently begging for someone to
help her. The woman was too afraid to even cry out for help.

Jade stopped at the cashier's
counter and pretended to shuffle some papers. She kept her eye on
the woman's pale, stricken face and had to force herself not to move
when the man leaned forward and gripped the woman's wrist.

BOOK: Bear's Heart: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (Bear Heat Book 5)
12.69Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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