Page 81 of Bear
“She is but she’s going to learn quick. She’s going start shooting tomorrow.”
“Oh shit. So you’re submerging her, huh?”
“I have to. We only have a couple more days before my father comes home. He’s already talked about what he’s going to make Cecily do. I’m not having that shit.”
A feeling of unease settled around me thinking about being forced to do anything against my will. As if Bear could sense my trepidation, he reached over and touched the side of my face. “You won’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Cecily. Trust me, okay?” I nodded, my cheek pressed against his palm.
“Yeah, Dimples. I told you, I’ll protect you with my life so you don’t have anything to worry about.”
“Thank you, Ace. I’m sure once I learn to shoot I can protect myself,” I said with a confident smile. Bear’s eyes shone with pride for a moment when he looked at me.
“Okay fellas, let’s go. I want this to be quick. In and out,” Bear spoke to the handful of men around him before signaling them to enter the huge warehouse in the middle of nowhere. It was literally a warehouse in a field that used a dirt road to lead up to the gates. There were no lights on inside but the closer we got, the brighter a dim flicker of light became in the window.
Bear moved me behind him as he walked through the opened steel doors. I peered around him with wide eyes to see six men tied to chairs with black sacks over their heads. My stomach turned to a mass of knots but I couldn’t look away.
These were the men who wanted Bear’s father to come home. These were the men that wouldn’t stand behind Bear once he took over. They had to go. I knew that and I prepared myself to see how it would look and sound and smell.
Flashbacks of seeing Kaiden’s little body shaking from a single bullet to the neck assaulted me. What kind of sick person was I that I was anxious to see men get shot? I knew it had to be done but why was I so hell-bent on seeing it? Bear wouldn’t have thought any less of me if I opted to stay home. I wasn’t the same person I was before Kaiden got killed. I was darker and no matter how much I tried to ignore it…the truth was the truth.
Bear pulled the hood from his head and walked over to the row of men tied to their seats. I looked on nervously, chewing on my bottom lip. He yanked the hood off each man in order. He didn’t stand behind them. He made it a point to stand in front of them. He made it a point to look in their eyes.
I saw no fear in the way Bear moved. He walked around them in a slow circle like a death dance he’d perfected his entire life. I was hooked on the scene unfolding in front of me. It was the blackest bloom but I loved watching it blossom.
The men begged for their lives and promised to pledge allegiance to Bear but even I knew it was a last-ditch lie to save their lives. Bear laughed at their words then dropped his handsome grin and replaced it with a scowl. The same scowl I’d seen etched onto his face ever since I could remember.
My throat tightened and a thin sheen of sweat coated my forehead. I contemplated shutting my eyes but I’d come all this way to see the worst part of the man I loved. I came to see if I could stomach it after everything I’d been through. I came to see it because I was curious. I wanted to know what the last moments of someone’s life looked like when they weren’t an innocent child.
I drew in a breath and fisted my hands at my side. My dark curiosity won the fight in my head. I followed Bear’s every movement with my eyes. He called for Ace and a few other trusted soldiers who all walked up holding pistols. I hadn’t even seen Ace pull his out and I was right beside him. In that instance, I was dying to learn how to shoot. I wanted to be able to protect myself. If I was going to marry Bear then protecting myself was a must.
“Y’all can’t be trusted. That’s the long and short of it. I refuse to have men I can’t trust in my circle.” Bear’s voice was low and his tone was even as he raised his gun and aimed it between the eyes of the first man tied to a chair. On his signal, all of his men fired a single shot and the six men who were begging for their lives were gone.
My ears whined and burned from the loud pop of the guns. The metallic smell of hot gunpowder and blood in the air was something I’d never fucking forget. I thought I’d be stunned. I thought I would yelp at the sound of the gunshots or rush out of the warehouse to get some air. I didn’t do any of that.
I stood fixed to my spot, watching the now lifeless men slumped over in their chairs. Instead of thinking about Kaiden dying in my arms like I thought I would, I thought about the men who killed Kaiden and wondered if their last moments were as brutal and quick as what I just witnessed. I hoped the brutality was matched but I wanted their deaths to be slow and painful.
“You okay, baby doll?” Bear’s voice filtered in through the menagerie of thoughts bouncing around in my mind.
“I’m okay,” I said releasing a pent up breath. He held my gaze for a few moments then started barking out orders for the bodies to be cleaned up and disposed of. My mind fired to life with all sorts of questions to ask Bear as we walked toward the doors leading out.
“What are you going to do with their bodies?” I quizzed. “What about the blood? I mean I know you laid down plastic but…”
“I have several businesses and ways to get rid of body parts, Cecily. Most of the time they get frozen then chopped at the lumberyard. Sometimes they get roasted in the huge oven at the butcher shop. It depends on what will work best at the time. Most of the men I kill aren’t missed. They were fuck-ups with no family that would claim them or they were wanted for so many things the cops in my pocket don’t mind writing that shit off for me.”
“Clearly, you have an entire system I need to study.”
“Study?” He smirked. “You plan on killing someone soon, Cecily?”
“Maybe,” I shrugged. I poked my finger in my ear a few times hoping the ringing sound would subside.
“It’ll die down in an hour or so,” Bear told me. “I’m going to help clean up for a little while, then we can go.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead and walked toward the soldiers cleaning up blood splatter and toppled over dead bodies.
I instantly saw why the men that once would have laid down their lives for Mr. Griffon only wanted to be led by Bear. He didn’t dole out orders then leave. He got dirty with them. He did the same things he asked of them and he didn’t mind either. He showed firmness and fairness and he showed appreciation when it was due. Whoever couldn’t remain loyal to that deserved exactly what they got.
When we got home, I noticed Kareema’s car was still in the driveway. I looked at Bear and he held his hand up shaking his head. “I’m not touching that situation. I spoke my piece and told her to be careful.” We went into the house and the moment I hit the bedroom, I fell over face-first into the bed. I didn’t even know I was that damn exhausted. I didn’t understand how Bear crammed so much stuff into one day then had the nerve to have insomnia. When he slid in bed beside me, I let sleep take over and in no time, I was snoring in his arms.
BEAR
When I heard Luanne come in I paused to listen. Sometimes when she came to work, Mr. Paul walked her inside and they talked for a few minutes but what I heard wasn’t Paul’s voice coming from the foyer. It was a woman’s voice.
