“Sorry, Ronald. I mean, Mr. Carter,” Emil said. He shoved past Rose to get into the cottage and brought the phone back out. “They’ve really improved these things, I have to say. Used to be just dropping them at the gym would make the screen crack and now they’re harder than stone.”
Ronald Carter sighed heavily, as if asking his god why he had to have an employee like Emil. “Just shoot it, will you? There’s no one around for miles to hear it.”
Emil nodded, put the phone on the cottage floor and fired three rounds into it, shattering the glass and electronics and scattering them across the field.
The beast inside Liam grew hot with anger, leaping inside him with every gunshot.
“How did you find me?” Rose asked. She was trembling, but brave.
“That was difficult, I’ll give you that. I have the best guys. They do great work. But you went off the grid, hiding in this shit hole. That was smart. I guess even a dumb broad like you can make good choices sometimes.” He smiled at her, as if what he said had been a joke. His goons laughed. The beast inside Liam wanted to tear the man’s face off, but Liam knew if they made a move then Ronald Carter would gun him down.
Ronald continued, “We looked everywhere for you. I spent a lot of money. Money that I worked hard for. And you made me waste it.” He frowned, but there was no sincerity to it. It was as if he’d heard about frowning online and decided to give it a half-hearted try before going back to smirking at everything. “But then you left that message on your mom’s voicemail and she shared it with us.”
“She what?” Rose gasped. Ronald still held one of her hands.
“Don’t blame her too much. Emil had a gun to your father’s balls at the time. Which is leverage. That’s real leverage. Not this bullshit sexual harassment recording you claim to have of me. As if I’d ever be sexually interested in someone like you.” He spat on the ground next to her. “You’re a seven, doll. And I only bang tens.”
Liam had an idea. He couldn’t charge the men across the yard. They’d shoot him or maybe Rose. He needed to lure them away. He slunk off behind the house and squeezed through one of the holes in the walls, emerging into the dining room. Then he went into the kitchen and knocked over a pan with a loud clatter.
Outside, Ronald ordered his two extra goons to check out the house. “There’s someone else in there,” he barked.
When they did, Liam was waiting for them. He didn’t kill them, no. But he crushed their gun hands hard enough that they’d need weeks of physical therapy before they tried to shoot anyone else. It was easier than he’d expected. And when the two goons howled in pain and fear, Ronald sent Emil in.
Before Emil entered the kitchen, Liam let out his best, most pent-up bellow. It was the kind of roar that could be heard for fifty miles. Hikers heard it and would have nightmares for weeks. The ravens over in Rook’s Roost closed all their windows and brought their children indoors. In Bearfield, the Alpha called his brothers and asked them to go out and investigate.
And there, in the yard outside Liam’s house, Emil wet himself. He tossed his gun away as if it was a cobra, turned and ran for the road.
Everyone in Poppy Valley knew about Bearfield: it was where the monsters lived. They never drove west, never ate at the amazing bakery or drank crisp cocktails at the Growler. They never saw movies at the two-screen theater downtown or hiked the picturesque trails that looped around the mountain. No matter how many treasures Bearfield offered, no one from Poppy Valley would ever go there. Not ever.
Because every single person was raised with the idea that monsters were very real and they lived right next door. To be fair, they did.
Which is to say that Liam didn’t blame Emil for turning tail and running. In fact, it was the sanest response to a furious half-bear shifter that there could possibly be.
Ronald though was either too stubborn or too angry to leave.
“You have what you came for,” Rose said, trying to pull her arm out of Ronald’s grasp. “You destroyed my phone and ran me out of town. Now just leave me be.”
Ronald’s face contorted with rage. “No woman gets to talk to me the way you do. I don’t care what kind of trick you have rigged up in that house. You either show me the respect I deserve, or I put a bullet in you.” There was something sinister and perverse in the way Ronald said respect.
Liam smelled Rose’s defiance. She’d gone through her fear, past it into the place where pigheaded bravery lived. She was going to tell Ronald off. And then Ronald would kill her.
Liam couldn’t let that happen. Gun or no gun.
He backed up in his kitchen and focused on Ronald through the dirty streaked window. There was twenty feet, give or take, between the house and the cottage. He needed to clear that space as quickly as possible to get to Ronald before anyone got hurt. And he had to do it now.
Rose was counting on him.
Liam took a breath and found to his surprise that his bear was in agreement with him. They both wanted Ronald punished and Rose kept safe. She’s our mate, his bear said by way of explanation.
Liam charged forward, leaping and shielding his face with his forearms, he crashed through the kitchen window and raced across the grounds to Ronald.
His cape came off—ripped away by the jagged window frame—and he showed his true face to the world. Ronald looked and went white as a sheet, lifting up his gun and squeezing the trigger even as Liam leapt at him. Rose’s eyes were wide with shock. Was there horror in them? Or was he imagining it?
Liam covered the space between him and Ronald in great leaps, but he was too slow. Even as he made the final leap, his jaws open wide and his misshapen hands reaching before him, Ronald squeezed off a round from his gun. The bullet ripped through Liam’s chest moving like a revelation of fire and leaving behind a pain unlike any Liam had ever felt.
He fell to the ground, inches from Ronald and Rose. Blood spurted from his chest and back. Rose went pale at the sight of it.
“Hah!” Ronald whooped. “Look at that. The monster of Bearfield is real and I just killed it! I’m going to cut your head off, boy, and hang it in my office.” He turned to Rose. “Is this why you came here, girl? Were you banging this thing? This cuck? Trading your body for protection? You thought this thing was all alpha, but look at what a beta it is!” He’d let go of Rose and was dancing around, grasping for his phone so he could Instagram Liam’s death.