Page 59 of Bear In A Bookstore
“What are you talking about?”
Earl grinned with a dead look in his eyes. “Bear shifters and dynamite don’t mix, sweetheart. You want to keep him alive, you do as I say.”
Sometimes you have to fight harder.
Pulling breaths through her nose, she urged herself to stay calm. Remarkably, anxiety didn’t overwhelm her. Her mind was clear, her thoughts, focused. Desi was in trouble. She had to do this for him. She’d wait this out and when the opportunity arose, she was going to fight like hell for the both of them.
Kora nodded. “I’ll cooperate. Please, don’t hurt him.”
Oh God, what had she done? If she hadn’t turned him away, they might have stuck together, making it harder for Earl to accost him. This was her fault. A flash of her dream played before her eyes. Desi in the military vehicle, alone, searching for his friends before he dissolved. Was it a premonition and not just a dream? Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Earl scoffed. “Young love. Makes me sick.”
The SUV sped outside of town to a road she recognized. It led to the old mine two miles behind the bookstore. He parked, and she was manhandled out of the back seat. Earl grabbed a bag from the back—Desi’s backpack—and tossed it at his henchman.
Earl smiled at her as if they were old friends.
Calm. Calm mind. Calm spirit.
Kora trembled uncontrollably. Earl handed her a stack of well used Dirty Treasure books and shuffled through them until he grabbed one filled with sticky notes. He flipped it open to the clue she’d deciphered. Desi had written the solution in the margins.
“Yes, this is it.”
Earl dragged her by the arm up an incline and over rough, rocky terrain. They passed the entrance to the mine. It was heavily boarded with iron bars and wood planks. A thin path not more than a deer trail led up, the incline getting so steep she had to use her free hand to steady herself.
She was panting by the time they reached the top. Earl released her long enough to grab a large flashlight from the backpack and shine it at a gaping black spot in the ground. Then he grabbed two harnesses.
Doing a three-sixty, she didn’t see Desi anywhere. “Where is he? Where IS he?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Anger pulsed through her veins. “You said—”
Earl shoved a harness against her chest. “You’ll see pretty boy soon. There’s shit to do first. Put this on. You’re going in.”
He moved her closer, giving her a clear view of the yawning, endlessly dark cave waiting to swallow her alive.
Chapter Twenty-One
“He’sgoingtotalkyou into joining the business. You know that, right?”
Desi threw his truck in park as his cousin Fox unfastened his seatbelt.
“He’s already tried. I told him I can’t. I’ve got more corporate accounts for wilderness survival retreats right now than I can handle. I’m going to have to hire help.” He raised a brow. “Want to work for me?”
“Why does everyone want me to work for them?”
“I don’t know. Ex-military. Smart. Hard working.”
Desi slid his cousin a look. “Are you here to talk to my father with me, or try and date me?”
Fox snorted. “Look, man. I know your dad’s been on your ass about taking on Mitchell Construction. It was really hard on him while you were enlisted, you know? I think he’s coming at you from a place of fear. He thinks you’re leaving again.”
Why was this a revolving sentiment? “I’ve already explained to him and my brothers that that’s not happening. I may have to go out of state now and then, but I’m not going overseas. That life is over.”
Fox gave him a light chuck on the shoulder. “Good. We kind of missed you.”
They slid out of the vehicle.
