Page 5 of Saving Meri

A sleek black SUV tore around the corner, headlights cutting through the darkness. Bear grabbed Meri, pulling her against him as he fired into the remaining guards. The SUV skidded to a stop, and the rear door flew open.

Meri hesitated—just for a second before Bear shoved her in, climbing in right behind her.

“Go!” Bear barked.

He turned, putting three bullets into the closest threat before diving in after her. The moment the door slammed shut, the driver hit the gas, tires screeching as they peeled away from the chaos.

Bear kept his gun raised, watching through the rear window as the warehouse disappeared behind them.

Only when they were clear did he turn to Meri. She was staring at him, her breath coming hard, her eyes wide.

“You’re safe,” he told her. “I’ve got you.”

She swallowed, her throat working. “I don’t even know who the hell you are.”

He didn’t smile, didn’t soften.

“Bear. The man who just saved your life,” he said. “And I’m the one who’s going to keep you safe.”

Her gaze flickered. Challenge. Defiance. Something else. She didn’t trust him. Not yet… but she wanted to. And for right now, that would have to be enough.

The SUV hit a pothole, jarring the already-tense silence inside the vehicle. Bear barely noticed. He focused intently on the woman beside him, the woman he’d just rescued from monsters—and the woman who remained surprisingly composed.

Meri sat stiffly in the seat, her hands clenched into fists in her lap, her breath shallow. Not because she was panicking. No, this was something else. She was processing, fighting her own body, trying to force herself to believe what had just happened.

She didn’t believe it yet.

Didn’t believe him. He could see it in the way she kept glancing toward the locked door, the way her body tensed slightly every time he moved.

She thought this was another game. Another test.

She thought the nightmare wasn’t over.

Bear reached for her without thinking, wrapping an arm around her waist just as the SUV swerved to take a sharp turn. Meri stiffened instantly, her pulse hammering against his wrist where it brushed her skin.

“Breathe,” he ordered, his grip firm but not cruel. “I’ve got you.”

Her body was too thin, too delicate in places where curves should have been, but that wasn’t what bothered him most. It was the bruises, the way they spread across her skin like a map of the hell she’d been through.

She flinched slightly when he adjusted his grip, but she didn’t pull away, and he didn’t let go.

“I’m not going to hurt you, little one,” he murmured, his voice low and steady. “You’re safe.”

A short, sharp laugh broke from her lips, one that held zero humor. “Safe,” she repeated, as if the word itself was foreign. “I don’t even know what that means anymore.”

Bear’s gut tightened, the rage simmering just beneath his skin. He’d spent years hunting men like the ones who had taken her. He’d rescued survivors before. He’d put bullets between the eyes of those who thrived on stealing, breaking, and selling human lives, but this time it felt personal.

The SUV pulled into an abandoned warehouse, the metal door rolling shut behind them. Bear reached for Meri just as the vehicle came to a stop, lifting her easily into his arms before she could protest.

But she did protest afterwards—she gasped, her hands bracing against his chest, trying to push away.

“Put me down,” she snapped, but her voice lacked conviction.

“Not yet.”

He stepped out of the SUV and into the dimly lit space. Fitz was already there, standing near the side entrance, eyes scanning the perimeter. Bear barely acknowledged him as he moved toward the small room they’d secured inside the warehouse, a temporary shelter, until they could get to one of their actual safe locations.

Meri went still in his arms, her fingers curling slightly in his shirt.

---