Jane: Big Easy Bears III Read online

  “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “It wasn’t. We wound up in our own safe house at gun point, all neatly tied up. Bait for the trap. They wanted to force Brock to change. They wanted to make him mad enough to attack a person, a wounded person, so they could film it and prove how evil shifters were. It backfired and most of them were arrested. A lot of them went to the hospital first though.”

  “If everyone in your clan was captive, how did Brock get you all out?”

  “Oh, he made an alliance with the police and the local wolf pack.”

  Etienne’s eyes went wide. “He deals with the wolves?”

  “It was kind of an emergency. And the wolves were happy to help since one of their own got attacked.”

  “Still, the wolves are so damn territorial.”

  “They’re not all bad,” she said. “So, anyone new back home?”

  “A few kids, but we don’t know how many are going to change in the next few years.”

  “That’s good. We only have one kid, and it’s like little bitty.”

  “It?”

  “What? I don’t like kids much.”

  “So you don’t want a family?”

  “No, not really, no. What? Why is that such a big deal anyways?”

  Etienne shook his head. “No, nothing. We never really talked about it before. I always thought – it’s not important.”

  “You better believe it’s not.” She dumped her plate in the sink, drained the beer, and tossed the can in the recycling bin.

  He hurried to finish his dinner. “So, uh, could I grab a shower? My flights didn’t line up real well and I’ve been on the road for more than a day.”

  “Help yourself. I’m going to work out for a bit.”

  When she heard the water turn on, she picked up the phone and called Bryce. His phone went to voice mail.

  “Bryce, hey, it’s Jane. I just heard from someone back home and there’s a bit of a family emergency. I need to stay home this weekend, just in case. I’ll see you at work tomorrow and we will definitely reschedule, I promise.” She hung up with a sigh and started her routine.

  * * *

  Etienne locked the door and turned the water on. It was almost impossible to lie to another shifter but technically he hadn’t lied. He never said he needed a shower, or even wanted one, he’d merely stated a fact that would imply those things for him. What he needed was a moment alone with his phone, and an excuse to give her some time and space.

  Out in the living room, he heard her start talking. Had he been in the shower, he probably would have missed the conversation completely. He frowned. It had been five years; that was a lot of time to move on, but he had hoped she’d still be single, still be interested in what they had started before she ran away from home. Still, she did cancel her date, that’s a good sign.

  He pulled out his phone and checked his email, then fired off a few messages so the right people would know that he’d arrived and made contact with Jane. Texting was dangerous. A text could leave a trail that the wrong people could follow, but he didn’t want to arouse her suspicions and talking on the phone when he was supposed to be in the shower would have done just that. He needed her to trust him. Without her help, he’d never get the answers he was looking for.

  He shut off his phone and stepped in the shower, quickly running some shampoo through is hair. Jane wasn’t what he expected. Had she changed that much? Or was this her angry act? He wasn’t sure yet. When he walked back out into the living room, he was barefoot and his hair was wet. “Thanks.”

  “No problem.” She was lifting weights. She finished her set and stood up. “Help yourself to the TV. I’ll be right back.” She disappeared into the bathroom and he heard the shower start up again.

  Perfect, just perfect, he thought. He turned the TV on and spent a minute flipping channels. When he found something that might actually appeal to him if he had time to watch, he set the remote down and got to work.

  There wasn’t much in the main room of the apartment aside from a love seat, a table for the TV, and the exercise equipment. He checked the closet and the cupboards but aside from coats, shoes, and dishes, there wasn’t much to look at. There was no sign of any electronics aside from her phone and that was password protected. He would have tried to figure out the combo from the fingerprints on the screen but she hadn’t cleaned the screen in so long it was impossible to tell which ones were for the code and which ones were from typing.

  When the water shut off, he tossed the phone back on the counter and went to get a glass of water. He was taking it back to the couch when she came out. A glance over his shoulder told him she was in a towel. She darted into the one bedroom with hardly a look over her shoulder and closed the door. She remerged in clean yoga pants and an over-sized t-shirt.

  “What are you watching?”

  “Nothing really.” He turned the TV off. “There wasn’t anything on.”

  “I don’t watch a lot of TV, either,” she said.

  “You said they ID-ed every member of your clan. Does that mean you’re all out?”

  She settled on the other end of the couch and shook her head. “No. They caught enough of them at the warehouse, and the ones they caught ratted out more. We had one member ousted by a blackmailer but they weren’t connected to The Human Order.”

  “Oh?”

  “Didn’t it make the news in Quebec? It was all over the internet. A shifter changing in the middle of the airport, tearing up security gates …” Her eyes were wide as she stared at him, expectantly.

  “Yeah, I saw the video. What about it?”

  She rolled her eyes. “That was Jules, one of our bears. Someone at the airport decided to blackmail him and when the clan tried to catch the black mailer, they made the full video public, including the alternate view that showed his face.”

  “Rough luck.”

  “Yeah. He had to switch workplaces to avoid the press. And he moved, too. At least his girlfriend didn’t have a total freak out about it.”

  “He hadn’t told her?”

  “They weren’t that serious yet.”

  He almost asked if she’d told this Bryce her secret but caught himself. He wasn’t supposed to have heard that conversation. Instead he said, “So no one outside your clan here and the clan back home know what you are?”

  “That’s right. And I’d like to keep it that way.”

  “You’re smart. We’ve had to move three, no, four times now, members of the clan to other territories since The Human Order became an issue.”

  “I didn’t hear anything about that until you said something over dinner.”

  “Well, Laurent is trying to keep it quiet. I think he’s afraid of looking weak, like he can’t protect his clan. He’s afraid of challengers.”

  “Is there anyone dominant enough to challenge him?”

  “Not within the clan, but that doesn’t mean someone won’t transfer in with the intent of challenging him.”

  “So what happened? Why were they forced to leave?”

  “Oh, The Human Order was harassing them, sending them threatening messages, one was getting phone calls, I think. Everything was handed over to the police of course but you know how they are about handling any of this online crap. Laurent thought it would be better if they just moved away.”

  “But the local chapters of The Human Order talk to each other all the time. Their pictures and names would be spread around.”

  “Like yours?”

  Jane shrugged. “I think we got lucky because we were able to take out so many so fast and the police were able to seize a lot of computers and stuff. I know it’s only a matter of time before they start harassing me again.”

  “Have you ever thought about going back to Quebec?”

  “Why?”

  “To get away.”

  She shook her head. “I’d rather take my chances here. What about you? How long are you planning to be here? If it’s more than a day or two, I’ll need to tell Rem
y.”

  “Give me the weekend for sure to figure out what’s going on and what I can do from here. Can you do that?”

  “Sure. Aside from secrecy what, else do you need?”

  “Access to a computer would be good.”

  “I’ll move mine out into the living room in the morning and get you set up. Is that it?”

  “Yeah, for now. Hopefully this is quick and painless.”

  She took a deep breath. “How is everyone back in Quebec? The ones that are still there?”

  “Laurent got married just after you left.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah. Do you remember Ginette?”

  “Sure, she was what, five years older than us? Maybe six? She spent most of her time off at university, I guess like you did. They got married?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Was it … is she happy?”

  “She’s desperately in love and they’re adorable together.”

  “I would never use the word adorable to describe Laurent.”

  “He was really upset when you left, and not just because of the secrecy and the lies.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “No, he really did care about you. You were like his daughter for years. He didn’t talk to anyone much for a few months. I really had to push to get my permission to go off to school since he just didn’t want to deal with anyone.”

  “Too bad he didn’t show that caring side while I was still living there.”

  “He’s a chief, he’s supposed to be pushy. And he didn’t have experience with kids.”

  “He could have left me with Marnie or anyone else in the clan. He didn’t have to take me in himself. And why are you standing up for him? You know what it was like for me, what he wanted us to do.”

  “Would it have been so bad? Jane, I’ve missed you. You were so busy running away from Laurent, did you ever stop to think that you were running away from me as well?”

  She looked away. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t stay. I thought …” She sighed.

  “What did you think?”

  “I thought you’d come after me. I thought you’d follow me.”

  “I’m a little late, but I’m here now,” he said. He leaned over and kissed her cheek, letting his lips linger against her skin.

  It was just like that she was a teenager again, sitting on the couch in Etienne’s parents’ basement. They had a nice, fancy “big” screen TV upstairs in the living room and a little crappy 32 inch tube TV in the basement hooked up to an antique VCR. She spent a lot of time down there as a kid as a teenager watching movies and playing with Ethan’s Lego blocks. Later the Lego were replaced with video games and they’d raced funny looking characters around brightly colored racetracks in funny little go carts for hours on end. And they talked, a lot, especially as graduation neared.

  Some evenings the movie was just there for background noise and they would curl up on the little couch and talk. At some point he had kissed her. She had been sixteen at the time and they’d been at a school dance. After that, the talking would often give way to snuggles and kisses. It was innocent but at the same time passionate and desperate. Aside from Ginette, and a few others who were older by a handful of years and some younglings who were half their age, Etienne was the only other young werebear in the clan. He was the only one she could be honest around, the only one who understood her completely.

  She trembled a little and turned to face him, knowing full well he was hovering way too close. Their noses touched, and then their lips. They went slow, letting the kisses build between them. It was always awkward on a couch, but he managed to get one arm around her.

  He kissed the sweet spot on the underside of her jaw and she melted against him. Her head tipped back and her eyes closed. But instead of drifting on the pleasure of his kisses, she saw Bryce’s face in her mind’s eye. It had only been a week since the first time she’d found herself in this same position on Bryce’s couch. She pushed away. “I can’t.”

  “Why not?” He tried to keep his arm around her. “Come on. I’ve missed you.” He leaned in to kiss her lips again but caught the side of her chin instead. “Please Jane, don’t push me away again. You know how I felt about you.” He squeezed her leg.

  “That was five years ago,” she said, standing up. She circled around to the back of the couch and started pacing, her arms over her chest. She rubbed her arms. “I’ve changed. I’m not that the girl I was when I left. You don’t know me so how could you know if you still felt the same way?”

  “But I do. I haven’t stopped thinking about you.”

  “Even while you were off at school having fun?”

  “That fun didn’t include other women,” he said. “What about you? Have you been dating these last five years?”

  “Some. Nothing serious.” She didn’t know yet if Bryce was serious.

  “Well, maybe you missed me too. Maybe you were waiting for me, like you said.” He’d twisted, looking over the back of the couch at her.

  “I waited a few weeks, maybe a few months, and then it became obvious you weren’t coming. I didn’t expect you to be here and I didn’t ask you to be here. I wasn’t waiting for you. I don’t want this, Etienne. If you want to stay a few days and get things sorted out, fine. You’re a friend, I can do that for you. But give me my space or I’ll turn you over to Remy and I won’t look back.”

  He put both hands up, a surrender. “Okay. I’m sorry. You don’t have to threaten me. It’s just a little misunderstanding.”

  “I have an extra sheet set and you can have one of my pillows, but I don’t have an extra blanket or sleeping bag or anything.

  “Sheets will be fine.”

  “Sorry the couch is so short.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s only for a few days, right?”

  She nodded. “I’ll grab the sheets. I have work in the morning.”

  “Sure. And thanks Jane, for everything.”

  Chapter 8

  So what’s going on with the clan that you have to hide here?” Jane asked while she worked on dinner. It was simple again. She’d been alone for five years and had never really enjoyed cooking. Being a werebear meant she could eat fast food as much as she wanted with few health risks but she didn’t like the greasy taste. She preferred sandwich places, anywhere she could get a soup and salad, or even sushi. Her budget didn’t really allow her to buy for two though so here she was fixing turkey sandwiches while Etienne sat in front of her computer.

  “Well, we’ve had some trouble with The Human Order for starters,” he said. He was skimming some text.

  “What sort of trouble?”

  “They identified a few clan members and started harassing them, didn’t I mention that? Threatening emails with photos attached, like photos of their kids getting off the school bus and stuff like that.”

  “Shit, that’s rough.”

  Etienne nodded and clicked a link.

  “What are you reading?”

  “Hacking tips.”

  “What?”

  “I need to get into some files remotely. I’m researching.”

  “Excuse me but you never told me you’d be doing illegal shit from my computer!” She came around the counter and stalked across the room ready to argue with him. By the time she reached him, he’d closed the window.

  He twisted in the chair, hands half raised. “Okay, okay. I’ll try something else first. I might be able to contact someone back home to help me. But there might not be any other way.”

  “Fine,” she huffed. “As a last resort. And if the police come banging on my door, I’m handing you over. I’m not losing my job or going to jail over this.” She turned on her heel and went back to the kitchen. “Dinner’s ready.”

  “I really appreciate all this,” Etienne said, coming around to join her. “Would be nicer if the couch was longer but beggars can’t be choosers.”

  “No, but they can find other ways to pay their debts.”

  He stepped up right besi
de her. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Information. Start talking.” She took her plate and put a few feet between them.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “The Human Order. What did Laurent do?”

  “We tried a lot of things. We reported suspicious behavior to the police but there wasn’t much they could do. The schools were most likely warned, I mean there were children involved.”

  “And?”

  “And what?”

  “Did they catch them?”

  Etienne shook his head and chewed the bite he’d just taken. “No. Never caught.”

  “Did they stop?”

  “No. Laurent had to transfer people to other clans.”

  “Laurent never allowed people to transfer out unless it was completely unavoidable for work. I mean look at you, with your schooling. You were only given a temporary leave.”

  “I only requested a temporary leave. I had no intention of leaving the clan. What about you?”

  “I had to do the request myself. I had to lie to get out.”

  “Why, Jane? Was life with the clan really so bad? We had some great times together.”

  “I know, but …”

  “Remember that time, out on the ice? When we were fourteen?”

  She knew what he was talking about but she stared at her plate and didn’t answer.

  “The hoarfrost was thick on the trees and we could see our breath like thick clouds but we just wouldn’t come in. And then …”

  She set the plate down hard on the counter. “I’m going for a run.”

  He watched her grab her shoes and a light windbreaker and then she was gone without another word. He set his own plate down and shook his head. Apparently five years alone hadn’t eased the pain or paranoia that one revelation had caused. He remembered the change in her when she found out, remembered the way she’d withdrawn from him. She’d lied to him so skillfully he hadn’t caught it, or maybe he’d been too in love with her to notice it, told himself it was stress over college applications. It was stress over an application all right – an application to transfer to another clan in order to leave him.