Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“Well, good.” Landry turned off his lamp with a satisfied huff. “One less thing to worry about. I can’t recall provoking any bears lately.”
I laughed sleepily. The man had no idea.
As I drifted off to the sounds of the podcast, though, I thought over Landry’s advice to find a place that was mine… and about bears and their territories. Where was my place, my territory? Where did I feel safest and happiest? I wasn’t sure it was Barlo anymore, though I loved the town and the people and always would. Was it in Majestic, where most of my brothers had made their homes? Maybe. Or maybe it was a place I hadn’t seen yet. A place I needed to keep looking for.
Maybe once I found it, I wouldn’t need podcasts to sleep.
I fell into slumber thinking about bears—specifically my Bear—curled up in a warm, cozy bed…
So it was a real shock when, a little while later, I found myself on the Scream Machine at Six Flags. The ancient wooden roller coaster squeaked and shuddered as the car I was on careened out of control. People crowded into the car with me, screaming and laughing maniacally. I kept dropping my phone over the side and leaning precariously over other people to reach for it. Someone’s large hand always grabbed the back of my shirt to pull me back at the last minute, just as we fell into a large drop.
As soon as we began going up the next incline, I felt the familiar press of a rubber ink stamp against the back of my neck and a huff of laughter.
“This is fun, isn’t it?” a stranger’s voice asked. “This is fun. Isn’t. It.” The voice repeated the question over and over with increasing anger.
I looked around for Bear in hopes he would get me out of here, get me off the ride, or somehow tell me this was all a bad dream, but I couldn’t make my voice call out for him.
I kept opening my mouth to scream his name, but it wouldn’t come.
Bear. Bear. Bear!
I tried to climb out of the roller-coaster car the next time it dipped down, but someone tried to wrestle me away from the edge again.
Bear! Why couldn’t I say his name? If he knew I was stuck here, he’d get me off this ride. Where was he? Why wasn’t he watching me?
And why the fuck wasn’t my voice working? If my voice wasn’t working, what did that mean for my tour? My career? All of the people counting on me to do my job?
When I finally woke up from my stress dream, I realized my voice worked just fine. And it was screaming loud enough to wake the dead.
FOUR
RYAN
Bears may be solitary, but when they care about something—whether a mate, a close companion, or their precious honey—they remain alert to danger, even in sleep. In the wild, when a bear bonds, their loyalty runs as deep as their strength.
—Bear Facts for Insomniacs, Episode 25
By the time I got back to Zane’s suite, dripping sweat and jelly-legged from the stair climbing, everything was blessedly quiet. I thanked Lou and released her for the night before making my way into my own room and into the shower.
I let the cold water cool me down before finally turning it warmer to work on my muscles. After brushing my teeth, I set out my clothes for the next day and cleaned my gun before doing another check of the main room of the suite and making sure the door from the suite to the hotel hallway was still secured by the floor wedge alarm. As usual, I left the door from my bedroom to the main room of the suite open in case anything happened. Then, I forced myself to close my eyes.
My brain helpfully provided graphic images of Landry fucking Zane in every single possible position until I felt like I was going to vomit. I gritted my teeth and ran through meditation scripts in an attempt to clear my mind.
Images of the inked target flashed behind my eyes, and the anger of someone daring to presume to touch my principal negated the little bit of work the meditation scripts had done.
I finally fell into a restless sleep over an hour later… only to be awakened sometime after that by Zane’s terrified cries.
I was halfway across my bedroom before I realized I’d woken up. Zane was screaming my name, and my heart rocketed into my throat. As I raced across the suite, I noticed the security wedge was still under the door. How the fuck had someone gotten inside? I knew it couldn’t be Landry, so did that mean someone had come in through a window despite our location on the twentieth floor?
Landry met me at the doorway to Zane’s bedroom. “I can’t calm him down. He keeps screaming about bears! I think he’s having a nightmare. That stupid podcast—”