Page 40 of Bear In A Bookstore
“You get me, or you get the cops. Two seconds to decide.”
Baker ran a hand over his mouth. “You’re going to hurt me.”
Desi grinned, wide, predatory. “We’re in public. I’ll behave. Just be grateful this didn’t happen in an alley. Get your ass inside the hotel. Now.”
Chapter Fourteen
Bakerwalkedquietlyinsideand complied when Desi motioned him down a hallway.
He didn’t struggle when he got dragged into an empty meeting room, but he looked about ready to come out of his skin when Desi shut the door and closed on him until his back was against a wall.
The pulse beat wildly in the side of neck, and he was having a difficult time keeping his bear calm. It wanted out, and it wanted the smaller man’s blood.
Kora lightly touched his back. “Desi,” she called softly. “I’m okay.”
He heard her, but he wasn’t going to stop. This asshole had his hands on Kora, and he was going to pay for that.
“Who taught you that it’s okay to put your hands on a woman?”
Baker shook his head. “It wasn’t like that.”
“You put your hands onmywoman. It was like that. It was definitely like that.”
His woman. Desi’s chest expanded with a growl. Slapping a hand onto the wall behind the smaller man’s head, Desi leaned in.
Baker shrunk back.
“We have a business matter to discuss. That’s all. I apologize.” Baker tried to look around Desi, his eyes searching for Kora. “I’m sorry, Kora. I meant no harm.”
“Like you meant no harm when you planted bats inside the bookstore? How about the newspaper clipping I found in the bakery storage room?”
Baker’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you talking about?” Kora moved to the side; her arms crossed. “What newspaper clipping?”
“The night the alarms went off in Allie’s bakery, I found a newspaper clipping with your face on it inside the storage room, which I now know leads to the tunnels. It was in his pocket.”
Baker ran a hand through his hair. “Yes, okay? I found an old tabloid article about her and put it in my pocket. I was curious. I thought I could use the information to spin in my favor. I must have dropped it.”
Desi flexed his fingers, but let the man continue.
“I waited over ten years for that building to go on the market. I tried many times to get that old woman to sell it to me, but she wouldn’t. And then, bam, it gets listed and before I can even click on the damn listing, Kora had already purchased it.” His face turned red. “It should have been mine!”
“Why do you want it so badly?”
He looked at Kora, his lips skewing. “Do you realize how haunted that place is? I’ve been trolling the tunnels for years, letting myself in at will through the basement and I’ve gathered hours of video and audio evidence of the paranormal. Once you moved in, I had to access the tunnel from the bakery. How can you not understand this? You’re sitting on a fucking goldmine! Ghost tours, haunted events, you could turn it into a bed and breakfast, charge investigators to do overnights.”
Desi drew away with an aggravated sigh. “All of this is about a few ghosts?”
“A few? The hauntings inside that building go back a hundred years. Miners. Soldiers. There’s even the spirit of a dog—”
“Enough,” Kora snapped. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. This is ridiculous. I haven’t experienced a single paranormal event and I’m inside that building every day. You’ve been trying to scare me because you thought I’d sell?”
He shrugged.
Her voice fell. “Everything you probably read in that newspaper article did nothing to make you pause and think that maybe I’ve been through enough? That maybe you could be a decent human and not fuck with me?”
The fire faded from Baker’s eyes, his expression turning sheepish. “I wasn’t going to, you know, actuallyhurtyou.”
