Bodyguard (Shifters Unbound #2.5) (11 page)

"It won't be never."

Ronan brought their clasped hands up and
rubbed her cheek with his broad finger. "The bears in this house
have been through a lot. I've learned not to force them to talk
about it. You take your time."

Elizabeth turned her head to find herself
nose-to-nose with him. "I used to be a very bad judge of character,
is all." Elizabeth slid her hand to his neck, playing with the ends
of his very short hair. She liked how it felt, prickly but soft,
like Olaf's fur. Under that was his Collar, warm metal fused to his
neck. "But I've become much better at it," she said softly.

"And I'm one of the good ones?"

For answer, Elizabeth leaned in and kissed
him.

It started as a small kiss, a thank-you kiss,
but Ronan's big hand came around her neck, and he slanted his mouth
over hers. His answering kiss was strong, warm, responsive.

Elizabeth parted her lips, her body
tightening as his tongue swept into her mouth. His strength took
her breath away, but he gentled it for her, holding back. Holding
back a lot. The wildness in him, tempered for her, excited her.

He kissed slowly, firmly, his lips smooth.
Elizabeth let her fingers slide down his back, finding muscles so
solid they didn't give under her fingers. His hand on her neck
never moved, as though he held her up, as though she'd never fall
as long as he was with her.

Elizabeth moved closer. She kissed him
hungrily, needing to know he'd hold her up forever.

On her lap, Olaf stirred and emitted a little
growl.

Ronan eased from the kiss but didn't release
her. He held her, their faces almost touching, his eyes so dark. A
spark winked deep within them.

I
can take care of myself.
This
was Elizabeth's constant mantra. But wouldn't it be wonderful to
surrender to strength such as Ronan had, to know she would be
safe--for always?

"We should put him to bed," Ronan said.

Olaf. He was warm on her lap, sleeping
soundly. Elizabeth didn't want to let him go.

"You have a bed for baby polar bears?"

"He'll shift back."

Ronan pressed a last, soft kiss to
Elizabeth's mouth, rose, and lifted Olaf. The cub didn't move and
didn't change shape. Ronan signaled to Elizabeth to follow, and he
carried the bear out of the living room and up the stairs.

The largest front room was taken by the two
male cubs and held the detritus of boys of two ages: magazines,
CDs, posters, toy trucks, action figures. No video games and no TV,
because Shifters weren't allowed much technology. A small computer
stood in one corner, an older model. That was all.

Both beds were fairly big and very sturdy.
Elizabeth saw why when Ronan laid Olaf on one. He curled up, the
claws of one paw slicing the cover of the pillow. From all the
rents on the pillow, he'd done that more than once.

Ronan dragged a cover over him. "If he shifts
back in his sleep, he'll get cold," he explained. He lingered to
rest his large hand on Olaf's shoulder.

Under his touch, Olaf took a deep breath, and
then shifted effortlessly back to the small boy with blue-streaked
blond hair. He opened his eyes. "Lizbeth?"

"I'm right here." Elizabeth leaned down and
kissed his cheek. "Good night, Olaf."

Olaf caught her hand in a surprisingly strong
grip. "Stay."

"She's got to go to bed, Olaf," Ronan said.
"She's tired."

Olaf's eyes took on a glint of panic
Elizabeth had sometimes seen in Mabel's when Mabel had been little.
Mabel's greatest terror had been that she'd go to sleep and wake up
alone, Elizabeth gone, never to be found again. Olaf, Ronan had
said, had seen his parents killed. That terror had come true for
him.

"No," Olaf said. "Stay."

"It's all right." Elizabeth sat down on the
large bed, Olaf not letting go of her hand. "I don't mind. He's
scared."

"He has to learn he'll be all right," Ronan
said.

Olaf's grip tightened even more. He would
have wrestler strength when he grew up, greater maybe even than
Ronan's.

"Does he have to learn tonight? I don't
mind."

Ronan stood over them, hands on hips, a
frustrated parent. "All right, all right. But only tonight."

Elizabeth lay down on the bed behind Olaf and
pulled the cover over her, kicking her loose shoes to the floor.
Olaf snuggled back against her and looked up at Ronan.

"Stay too," he said.

Ronan heaved a sigh. "Becks is spoiling you.
Fine, big guy. We'll both stay."

He collapsed onto Scott's empty bed, which
creaked under his weight, then shucked his belt and shoes and
pulled quilts over his big body.

Olaf fell asleep quickly, but Elizabeth
remained awake next to him, still feeling the imprint of Ronan's
kiss. Her life was changing dramatically as she watched, and she
needed to make decisions.

Ronan, up most of the night before, all day
at the store, and then again tonight, fell asleep quickly. He
snored. Rebecca hadn't been kidding. Not snorting wet-sounding
snores, but deep, steady ones, his breath going all the way to the
bottom of his lungs and coming all the way out again.

The sound didn't bother Elizabeth. It was
comforting. A huge, strong man slept near her, on hand to defend
her. Ronan was a swift, silent killer, and a protector, and beneath
all that, he had a heart of vast generosity. Elizabeth in the past
had been duped by people who'd pretended to be kind, but Ronan was
kind while pretending not to be.

Elizabeth drifted off to sleep so gradually
she didn't know she was doing it, but all through the night, she
heard the solidity of Ronan's snores, and knew she was guarded.

*** *** ***

Sundays, Elizabeth always closed the store
but went to work in the back, getting ready for the week to come.
Ronan went in with her, and Ellison and Spike came to fix the
bear-shaped hole in her door.

Rebecca had returned while Ronan and
Elizabeth breakfasted with the ravenous Olaf, Rebecca looking tired
but pleased with herself. She was wearing a "Keep Austin Weird"
T-shirt that hadn't been on her when she left.

"Good shopping trip, I take it?" Elizabeth
said, licking honey from her fork.

"Oh, yeah." Rebecca yawned, stretched, and
went upstairs to shower.

Scott came home before Elizabeth and Ronan
left, as did Cherie and Mabel. Cherie and Mabel were chipper; Scott
mumbled something and shuffled upstairs to his bedroom.

Olaf wanted to see the store, but Elizabeth,
uncertain that Marquez or his friends wouldn't return, said no.
Olaf was disappointed, but he agreed, with surprising cheerfulness,
to wait until Ronan thought it safe.

"He trusts you," Elizabeth said as she and
Ronan headed out for Ronan's motorcycle.

"Olaf? Mostly. He just gets scared at night.
You sleep okay?"

"Yes." She had. In spite of the late night
and early start, Elizabeth felt refreshed. In the room with Olaf
and Ronan, she'd let herself completely relax for the first time in
. . . well, forever.

Spike and Ellison were waiting outside the
store when they arrived. Ellison lounged on the hood of his pickup,
a long, tall Texan if Elizabeth ever saw one, though Ronan had told
her he'd come here from Colorado.

Spike looked pure urban biker. He leaned
against the wall outside the store, skin well inked, sunglasses
against the glare, and motorcycle boots and grease-stained jeans to
Ellison's cowboy boots. This morning, though, one side of his face
was purple and black, and when he took off his sunglasses, his left
eye definitely sported a shiner.

"What happened to you?" Elizabeth asked.

"Fight club." Spike shrugged tight shoulders.
"Don't tell Liam."

Elizabeth wanted to ask, but other store
owners were looking out their doors at the Shifters. Elizabeth got
the store unlocked and them inside as quickly as she could.

"Fight club?" she asked Ronan as Ellison and
Spike carried toolboxes to the torn-up wall. The two Shifters
started pondering how to fix it in the universal male way of
standing back and staring at it.

Ronan didn't look very surprised at her
question. "Liam gets pissed off, because he says it's glorified
cock fighting, and he's right. But he doesn't stop Shifters
going--the fights allow us to let off steam. Fight clubs are
privately arranged bouts between Shifters, no holds barred. Not
exactly legal, but humans bet on us, and we give them a good show,
so there's a lot of looking the other way."

"Like gladiators." Elizabeth's gaze went to
the Collar snug against Ronan's big neck, the Celtic knot at his
throat. "Don't your Collars stop you?"

"Oh, they go off. Believe me. It evens the
field, Shifter against Shifter. Some are better than others at
fighting through the pain. Spike's one of the favorites. Trust me,
the other guy will look worse."

Elizabeth stared at him. "You have to be
crazy. I've seen underground boxing and mixed martial arts meets,
and they're brutal. Shifter ones have to be even more brutal."

"They can be. But Shifters are tough,
Elizabeth. And sometimes we have to fight, or we go a little nuts.
Humans think they suppress our fighting instincts with the Collars,
but the instincts don't go away. Except that now, we have no
natural outlet. So Liam pretends he doesn't see a dozen Shifters
disappear at night and come back bruised and Collar-wasted. Even
Scott's been going lately."

"And you
let
him? Ronan . . ."

"He's a Shifter going through his Transition.
Scott wants to fight all the time these days--at the fight clubs,
at least, the other Shifters let him work it off, and they take
care of him."

Elizabeth rubbed her forehead. "The more I
learn about you, the more I realize I don't know. I was right in
the first place. You're crazy."

Ronan grinned, the warm one that lit his
eyes. "Yeah, but crazy in a good way."

"You take a big risk telling me this. You've
told me a lot of things I could report to the human cops, you know.
I wouldn't, but why do you trust that I won't?"

Ronan drew a finger along one of the red
streaks in Elizabeth's hair. "Because I know," he said in his quiet
voice. "You're one of the good ones."

Elizabeth's body heated instantly at his
touch. She thought of lying in the dark with him nearby all night,
loving having him there. This was getting dangerous.

A whistle pierced the air, and Elizabeth,
nerves frayed, jumped. "What was that?"

"Signal," Ronan said, turning away. "Trackers
have spotted something."

Her fears returned. "What?"

Ronan looked out the tiny back window,
scanning the alley. "Come on. Stay close to me."

Ellison and Spike had stopped hammering and
drilling and came into the office. Spike retained his hammer as he
went to the back door and opened it.

Two Latino men, one about six foot, the other
a head shorter, stood in front of a silver gray Lexus parked a yard
from Elizabeth's door. Both men wore dark suits on this late August
day. They weren't obviously armed, but the suit coats could hide
anything. Both stood casually, alert but not hostile.

Spike went out first, then Ronan, with
Elizabeth between Ronan and Ellison. As they emerged, three more
Shifters entered the other end of the alley--Sean with his sword, a
Shifter as tall as he who looked much like him, and an even taller
Shifter male with his black hair buzzed short. The two human men
saw the Shifters but didn't change expression.

The taller of the men nodded at Elizabeth.
"Elizabeth Chapman. I'm Pablo Marquez."

Elizabeth had suspected as much. She said
nothing.

"The incident with my brother has caused some
problems," Marquez said in a smooth voice. "He didn't come here
that night with my blessing. It was a stupid thing to do."

Elizabeth still remained silent. She knew
that a man like Marquez could twist anything she said into either
capitulation or a threat, so it was best to stand quietly and let
him talk.

"I'm taking care of Julio," Marquez went on.
"He knows how pissed off I am. But it leaves us with a little
problem. He's facing charges of armed robbery, and there are two
witnesses. You and your Shifter."

Ronan moved in front of Marquez and folded
his arms. In spite of Marquez's relative tallness, Ronan was twice
his size.

Sean and the other two Shifters drifted
toward them, but not in a clump. They spaced themselves out so the
one with the black hair stayed at the opening of the alley, Sean
stopped about halfway down, and the third man came to a stop right
behind Marquez's car.

"Your brother almost killed Elizabeth," Ronan
said. "That pisses me off too."

Marquez looked up at Ronan's nearly
seven-foot height without fear. "You're the Shifter who took him
down?"

"I wasn't out to kill him. I only meant to
stop him."

"I figured that," Marquez said. "You're a
Shifter. If you'd wanted to kill him, Julio would be dead. But,
see, he's my brother. I don't want him in prison. Not only would
that be dangerous for him, it would be bad for business."

Elizabeth understood his concern--there might
be plenty in prison with a grudge against Marquez who would use his
younger brother as an opportunistic target. But she only had so
much sympathy.

"So, what are you saying?" she asked. "We can
come to some sort of arrangement?"

"I want to make a deal, yes," Marquez said.
"Julio's going to trial--he's been released in my custody but he
has a court date. Which he will keep. What I'm asking is for you
not to show up. You and your sister close up shop and leave town,
start over some other place. I'll put the word out ahead that
you're not to be bothered. But you go, never come back to Austin,
never talk to anyone about Julio and Pablo Marquez."