Bearly A Squeak (12 page)

“Will you all stop flinching!” he roared. Silence greeted him. A glance around showed pale faces and wild eyes. He sighed and stomped off to interrogate… ah, question… the suspect.

The guy sat in a chair, eyes trained on Ethan who stood across from him, arms folded and eyes glaring. He didn’t even notice Alex come in. His bear growled. That was unacceptable. This was his suspect to intimidate… er, question. Dammit.

He slammed the door as he entered, causing the man to flinch so hard that he fell off his chair. Eyes wide, he stared at Alex from his position on the floor.

“It wasn’t my idea, I swear!” he said, holding his hands up as though to ward off an attack. “I didn’t want anything to do with it. They made me. I wasn’t the one who hit you.” The man was babbling.

Alex took a good look. He remembered the man from last night. Truth be told, this man hadn’t actually hit him while he was tied up. No, that had mostly been Barry and a few hits from brother Geoff. The two cousins had stood back, too squeamish to get involved. Alex had the distinct impression that the cousins were weaker accomplices and not overly enthusiastic ones either.

“Lenny,” he said, leaning down and hauling the man upright, setting him back on his chair. “You are Leonard, right?” He knew he was, recognized him from the articles he’d just read. Still, the man didn’t look particularly bright, so Alex figured he should start with something easy.

“Yeah,” the man agreed, nodding vigorously.

“Let me tell you how this is going to go,” Alex said pleasantly. Lenny’s eyes flicked over to Ethan. “Don’t look at him. He’s not going to help you.”

“I’m really not,” Ethan said, leaning casually against the wall. “I was hoping I’d get to eat you, but my friend here disapproves of that.”

Alex shrugged. “You can’t eat suspects while they’re in custody. Too many questions when people disappear.”

“Spoilsport.”

Lenny was watching them, eyes wide, visibly trembling.

“Now, Lenny,” Alex continued. “I’m a little peeved because people are threatening my mate. I’m also a teeny tiny little bit irritated about being hit on the back of the head and tied up. I am totally irked that your cousin hired a hitman to kill me. Mostly, I’m concerned that I left my mate with my mother this morning and I have no idea what I’ll be walking into when I go home.” He paused. “You haven’t met my mother have you?”

Lenny shook his head.

“You’ve probably seen her work,” Alex said conversationally. “The smack down that Barry received recently?”

“That was…?” Lenny’s eyes goggled at him.

“My mother, yeah,” Alex said, shrugging. “Be glad we caught up with you before she did.”

Lenny nodded fervently. “Just tell me what you want. I swear I’ll be helpful.”

“We should totally give your mum a job here,” Ethan suggested.

Alex gave him a withering glare. “Remember all those pesky questions we hate answering when suspects disappear?”

“Ah, fair point,” Ethan conceded. He waved his hand at Lenny. “Continue.”

Alex turned back to Lenny. “Why is Barry so determined to marry Tara? And why marry her rather than mate?”

“He needs her money,” Lenny said. The words spilled out quickly in his determination to be useful. “Our families lost ours and we’re broke. Right afterwards, Barry met Tara. He’d heard about her family having money and he thought if she married him, it’d give him access. She was quiet and he thought he could control her easily. If not…”

Alex leaned in towards him. “If not?”

Lenny swallowed hard. “It was nothing to do with me. He only said it once recently. I don’t even know if he meant it.”

“Meant. What?” Alex ground out. It better not be going where he thought it was.

“That maybe she might… you know… have an accident. Or something.” Lenny watched him warily.

Alex straightened up. “So, let me get this straight. He wanted to marry Tara to get her family’s money and then he planned on killing her.” Only his need for information was preventing him from shifting to his bear form and going on a rampage. They were talking about a cold blooded plot to kill his mate.

“Uh, I guess,” Lenny said nervously. “But it was nothing to do with me. I don’t want to be involved.”

Ethan came over and slammed his hands down on the table, making Lenny jump.

“So where is Barry now?” Ethan demanded. “And the others?”

“I don’t know about Barry,” he said. “I don’t!” he insisted when Alex growled. “He and Geoff said they had business to take care of. Dave is at the hotel where we’re staying. He’s not involved in this either. You have to believe me.”

Alex scowled at him, noting him flinch. Scaring the bad guys was more fun that scaring his staff. He turned to Ethan. “Take Leo and go pick up Dave.”

“Can I eat Dave?”

Lenny squeaked.

Alex rolled his eyes. “No, he’s another suspect and you’re taking him into custody. Remember the pesky questions we don’t want to answer.”

Ethan gave a loud, put-upon sigh. “Fine. Dana doesn’t like it when I eat people anyway. She says it makes my breath all icky.”

Alex snorted. He was fairly sure Ethan was joking.

***

Throughout the afternoon, the stiffness in Tara’s jaw started to ease off, allowing her to move it a little at first and then more as the day went on. Thank goodness for accelerated shifter healing. She could speak now as long as she was careful. Yawning was still a bad idea.

She sat on the couch, munching carefully on a cookie, looking at Alex’s baby photos. He was so cute. There were two photos side by side of Alex in the bath. In the first, he was a little baby, shampoo suds on his head, rubber ducky clenched in a chubby little fist. In the next, he must have suddenly shifted into his bear form. A bear cub sat in the bath, hair drenched, a look of surprise on his face.

“It was the first time he’d shifted,” Alex’s mother told her. “Couldn’t get him to shift back for hours. I had to blow dry his fur so that he wouldn’t catch a chill.”

Tara giggled. “He was so cute.”

“Still is,” his mother sniffed. “You two will make adorable babies.”

Tara choked.

“And here Alex is climbing his first tree,” his mother continued, absently patting Tara’s back. “Took him forever to get the hang of it. He would get up there but then he could never find his way back down. We were forever lifting him out of trees.”

Looking over, Tara saw a picture of a tiny bear cub hanging upside down from a tree branch. Then a picture of a small human Alex swinging from the branch. The next picture was of three bear cubs, two grizzly and one black bear. Alex’s siblings.

“Which is which?” she asked.

Alex’s mother pointed at the bears in turn. “That’s Alex. The other grizzly is Holly, my daughter. And then the black bear is my son Josh.”

“Ah,” Tara said. “Are there any non-bears in the family?”

“You’ll be the first that we know of,” his mother said, patting Tara’s knee. “For the longest time, inter-species relationships were frowned on. It was hell for those who found their true mates across species lines.” She sighed. “Thankfully times have changed. I’m just glad Alex found his true mate.”

Tara smiled warmly at the woman. Really, Alex’s mother wasn’t so bad once you got used to her. You know, if she was actually on your side... and kept at a reasonable distance. She still didn’t want to think about what the woman might have done to Barry to leave the kind of injuries she’d seen.

The phone rang and Anna excused herself to answer it. Tara continued to flip through the pages of the photo album. She noticed that his father was suddenly absent after a certain point. Alex had told her the story of what happened and it made her blood boil to think of Alex being abandoned like that. There was no excuse for his father walking out on his cubs. Still, the photos were happy ones. Alex and his siblings playing, both as humans and cubs. Normal childhood photos of normal children. Well, normal shifter children anyway. Birthday photos, summer photos outside in the sun, Christmas photos with Santa, and Halloween shots of them dressed up. Her own photos were much the same, just with fewer bears.

“That was Alex,” his mother said. “He has one of the men, Barry’s cousin and they’re picking up the other cousin now. No sign of Barry or his brother yet.”

Tara sighed. “I remember Barry talking about cousins but I never met them. His brother Geoff, is very like Barry.” She shuddered. “Any idea why they’re doing this? It can’t just be about bruised pride because I left Barry.”

“Alex said something about them wanting your money.”

Tara looked at her. “I don’t have any money.” All she had was her house which she was still paying off the mortgage for. Other than that, she had a couple of thousand in savings. She didn’t earn much at the café and bakery. Enough to live on but not much else. Certainly not enough to explain Barry’s persistence.

“He said your family have money.”

Realization set in. She shook her head. “Oh. No, my family don’t. My aunt and uncle have money, but my parents didn’t.” Even growing up, she had been aware of the difference. Her cousins never wore hand-me-down clothes like Tara and her sisters. Their cousins got more expensive presents, went on holidays, went to a fancy school. They weren’t spoiled, not at all. It was just different.

Anna tilted her head at her.

“My aunt married a man with money, so my cousins are fairly well off. My sisters and I? Not so much. He must have confused us with that branch of the family.” She sat there, stunned. “That’s what all of this has been about?”

All that pain of her relationship with Barry, all the emotional abuse, his harassment of her since tracking her down… all of it was for money that she didn’t even have?

“Your ex,” Anna said, looking at Tara. “He’s a bit of an idiot, isn’t he?”

Tara snorted. “You have no idea.”

Alex peeked through the window. A brave man would simply open the door and walk into his own home. A smart man would first attempt to discover what he’d be walking into. Alex preferred smart over brave, particularly when it came to his mother. She’d had an entire day to come up with something fiendish. Hopefully Tara was coping with it. His mother may keep Tara safe physically, but her mental state would be a whole other story.

He couldn’t see anything, so he prowled around to the back of the house and peeked through the kitchen window. Nothing. The place looked freakishly neat, just as it had since his mother arrived. There was no sign of his mother or his mate. Surely they wouldn’t have gone out somewhere. Not with everything happening. Unless… surely his mother hadn’t gone out to hunt Barry down. Normally, sure, but Alex had asked her to protect Tara. He’d been proud of himself for thinking of that. Not only would his mate be protected, but it would also keep his mother from going out and doing something he’d have to arrest her for. Two birds with one stone. Yet, there was no sign of anyone inside the house. Frowning, he turned around and squealed, clutching at his chest.

“What are you doing?” His mother asked, standing behind him with her arms crossed. Tara stood next to her, clearly trying not to laugh. She was failing miserably. He shot her a dirty look.

“Why are you two sneaking up on me?” he asked, his voice slightly whiny. He cleared his throat.

“Why are you skulking around your own house and peeping in windows?” his mother asked, one eyebrow raised. “You look like you’re casing the joint.”

“Just checking everything is secure,” he said, shrugging. She’d buy that, right?

“Any reason it wouldn’t be?” his mother asked, arms still folded.

Alex feigned another unconcerned shrug. “With everything that’s been happening lately, I just thought I should make sure.” That was a reasonable excuse, right?

His mother narrowed her eyes at him. “So, you’re saying that you don’t trust me to keep your mate safe?”

Uh oh. He knew that careful tone of voice. Time to backtrack. “Of course you can. I’m just extra jumpy lately, that’s all.”

“So, is it that you don’t think I’m capable of defending Tara? Or is it that you think I’m not smart enough to know what to do? Or maybe you think that I’m a danger to her in some way? Which is it, son?”

He glanced at Tara, but she just shrugged and smirked at him. Traitor.

“Alex, dear,” his mother said. “I’m waiting. Why don’t you trust your own mother? The woman who gave birth to you… and don’t think that was easy.” She shook her head. “The woman who fed you, bathed you, protected you. All of that, and now you think I can’t take care of your mate.”

“Of course you can,” Alex said, his eyes dancing, trying to find the nearest escape routes. “I just wanted to help… but I can see that everything is under control, so I’m just going to go hop in the shower. Okay, bye.” With that, he fled. He didn’t stop running until he was in the bathroom with the door firmly closed.

***

“That was cruel,” Tara giggled.

“Eh.” Anna shrugged. “I like to keep him on his toes. We wouldn’t want him to get complacent and lazy.”

With that, they followed Alex into the house.

“So, Tara,” Anna said as they sat down. “You mentioned sisters? Cousins? Are any of them unmated? When can I meet them?”

“Ummm.” Tara looked helplessly at her. “I have two sisters but only one of them is in town right now.”

“And she’s unmated?” Anna looked expectantly at her.

“Uhhh, yes.” Surely, this wasn’t going where she thought it was.

“Good, good.” Anna clapped her hands together and stood up. “Now that Alex is sorted, I need to turn my attentions to his brother. Josh needs a mate too.”

“Oh.”

“I don’t suppose you know of any unattached males, do you? For my daughter.” She shook her head. “Nevermind. Let’s just get everyone here and see what happens. It’s Josh’s turn first anyway. I’ll call him and tell him to get his furry butt down here.”

Anna left the room to make some calls. Tara sat there, feeling like she’d just been tossed around by a hurricane and then abandoned where she fell. What would be easiest… warning her family or just tossing them to Anna and saving herself?