Lord of the Grrr's (8 page)

Jet glared back, reminding himself that he was no longer a little street boy, but, in fact, a full-grown bear shifter. The distance dimmed the effect of it, but up close he would tower over this man now. The years had aged him, though the more he took in, the more Jet began to wonder if it was more his own perception that was skewed than anything. Jack no longer had any facial hair, and the traditional ball cap was missing as well, revealing a bald head.

He was still powerful of frame, large for a normal human, but nothing compared to Jet’s massive size. The only thing he had to fear was the slight bulge beneath the Hawaiian themed button-up shirt he was wearing. It would hold a small caliber pistol, not enough to do harm to Jet, but he wasn’t worried about himself. The other human patrons in the bar could be seriously injured or killed if a gunfight erupted inside.

Jet tensed, waiting to see what Jack would do. When his hand drifted towards his side, Jet knew it was now or never. A hand shot out, ripping a chair out from beneath a patron next to him, tumbling them to the floor. The heavy wood flew through the air towards Jack before he could close on his gun.

Lunging forward, Jet’s keen eyes watched as Jack ducked the hurtling chair. He had purposefully thrown it to hit Jack in the side closest to Kailee, where it could smash safely against the wall if it missed the intended target. In addition, it also forced Jack to move away from his mate, so that Jet could ensure her safety.

Before Jack could recover, Jet was on him, his strong arms pinning him to the ground as he planted a knee in his back. He pulled the gun out from its holster and slid it across the room, away from everyone.

“I’m going to kill you, you little shit!” Jack was screaming, frothing at the mouth in his rage.

The intensity of it caught Jet off-guard, but he didn’t relax his hold. Jack continued to yell and shout, his words making less and less sense.

“What the hell Jet?” Kailee came running towards him, intent on rescuing her father.

“Not now,” he growled at her, loud enough to cut through her mild hysteria. She stopped midstride, blinking in surprise.

Grabbing Jack’s wrists in one massive hand, he wrapped the other around his neck and hauled him to his feet. They proceeded outdoors, where Jet was determined to get everything out into the open amongst the three of them.

Part of him was scared of what he might learn about Kailee and her motives for moving to the Bluff’s. He desperately wanted to trust her, to believe that she had simply picked it at random, or that perhaps she had been pushed at her father’s urging. It would make any decisions he had to make easier, but deep in the pit of his stomach, he had a sneaking suspicion that she knew more than she was letting on.

“Jet, what the hell is going on? Let go of my father!” They were outside now, and he had Jack up against her truck.

“Go on, tell her everything boy."

“My name is Jet,” he growled, cutting the older man off as he pushed him farther into the side of the truck.  His bear was angry that Jack had threatened his mate by bringing a gun into his business. It was a struggle not to give in and give him a beating. After all the torment Jet had received at his hands years ago, it only seemed fair. It wasn’t something he was prepared to do in front of Kailee, however, so he shunted the anger aside for the time being.

“Let go of my father!” Kailee screamed at him again, lunging into his side. She was a big bear shifter woman and when she put her strength into it, it was considerable. He lost his balance, releasing his hold on Jack so that he could steady himself.

It was at that moment that Jack pulled a knife from a hidden sheath and whirled, slashing wildly. He barely missed Kailee, who shrieked and scrambled back out of range. Jet watched, his eyes focused intently as the old hitman stalked towards him. His bear roared with anger at the danger to his mate, demanding retribution.

The crazed look in his eye spoke to some sort of malady. He was very clearly not the same man Jet had known. Something had happened to him, something that had made him fixate on Jet to the point that he would do anything to try and harm him. The conflict needed to end, and swiftly.

With a wild cry, Jack overextended himself on a lunge, leaving himself off balance. Jet’s elbow came down solidly on the outstretched arm, numbing the grip so that the knife fell to the ground with a clatter. He then grabbed Jack and threw him across the parking lot until he landed roughly on the grass and slid up against a tree. Jet began to walk towards him, but Kailee recovered from her shock and grabbed his arm, yanking him to a stop.

***

Kailee

“Jet, listen to me. You have to tell me what’s going on, why are you attacking my father? Why is he so desperate to kill you?”

“You know exactly why,” he rumbled in response, before breaking her grip and continuing to advance upon her father, who was beginning to stir.

Kailee’s temper flared at the dismissal by the man she had thought she was coming to care for. Not one to let such an insult pass, she increased the length of her strides until she got ahead of Jet, placing herself between him and his target. She had to walk backwards, for he did not stop.

“Don’t you
ever
, do that to me again,” she roared, her eyes narrowed as she glared at him. With all the strength she could muster, Kailee lowered her shoulder and drove it into Jet’s midsection.

He let out a noise and stopped. It angered her that he was so much stronger than her, that the best she could do was to cause him a bit of discomfort and slow him down. Still, it had worked and for the moment he was no longer focused on her father. Perhaps she could get him to explain some of what was going on now.

“Jet, I have no idea what you are talking about. All I know is as soon as you saw my father, you threw him out of the bar and then across the parking lot. Please, please make some sense now.”

He paused, considering her words as he focused on her. She stared up at him, desperation evident on her face, trying to get him to see the truth of it. Kailee hated violence and was terrified of what had just played out in front of her. None of it made any sense to her.

“I’ll explain everything in a moment. First, I have to make sure that you are out of danger.”

He moved around her then, swifter than she thought he could be. In the blink of an eye, he was upon her father, hoisting him up by the collar of his shirt and a good bit of skin. Jack cried out in pain as Jet gave him a not-so-gentle shake.

“Get the hell out of here, and don’t let me ever see you again. I’m done with that life, with the past, and with you. I’ve started a new life here, and if I see you or any others, I won’t be so gentle next time.”

He opened his fist and Jack fell into a heap on the ground at his feet. Jet backed up and she watched as he let her father go. Jack got up, giving Jet a very odd look before turning and running to his car, shouting obscenities as he went. She couldn’t understand much of it, but she picked up something about stolen money and a mission of her fathers. Then, with the squealing of rubber on pavement, he was gone in a cloud of smoke.

“I’m sorry you had to witness that,” Jet said as the car faded into the distance.

“You still haven’t told me why,” she replied, still shaken at the entire events.

“I want to show you something.” He grabbed her hand, gently this time, and pulled her after him as he walked back towards where her truck was parked at the side of the building.

“Do you see these?” he said, putting a finger into a hole on the wall, then removing it and poking it into another.

“Yes, but?” She started to say, but he cut her off before she could go any further.

“Those are bullet holes. They were not there at this time yesterday.”

She gasped in surprise. Somebody had tried to shoot at Jet! A sinking sensation in her stomach told her she knew who it had been before she even asked herself the question. The image of a gun sliding across the floor of the Quencher was still fresh in her mind.

“Jack…” she whispered, using his name instead of calling him her father. At that moment, she felt sick to her stomach at the notion Jack may have tried to kill the man she thought might someday be her mate.

“I wasn’t completely sure until he walked in earlier. The shots were fired from over there,” he said pointing across the street at a small copse of trees with enough room under them for Jack’s small sportscar.

“When my bear smelled him, however, I knew for certain that it was him. I couldn’t let him endanger you because I don’t know what I would have done if he had hurt you. It’s my job to protect you and I don’t like to fail.”

She was appreciative of his desire to keep her safe, but that still did not lend any coherence to the set of events. Kailee could read the clues and she wasn’t an idiot, it was clear her father had shot at Jet last night and tried again today to kill him. What she didn’t understand, as she now told Jet, was what had prompted him to do so?

“That’s a bit harder to explain, and would be done best if we sat down. It might take some time.”

She gave him a puzzled glance, but he was already headed for the door inside. Kailee followed, trying to understand the tone that had entered into his voice. It seemed to her that he was suddenly full of resignation as if he expected nothing but bad to come from the situation. Her heart began to beat faster as she grew nervous of what he was about to say.

“Okay folks, I know this sounds hard to believe, but show’s over. I’m closing down early for the night.”

She gasped in surprise at that. Jet had
never
shut the bar down early before. It was one of the things he was proudest of, that it had opened and closed on time each and every day since he had taken over control. For him to now say that he was closing extremely early was unheard of. There were some unhappy rumblings from the crowd, but Jet knew just how to silence that, she saw.

“Don’t worry, everything is on the house tonight, but I do have to insist that you please depart immediately.”

The rumblings died immediately, and most folks even cheered Jet as they downed the last of their beers before filing out the front door. The three line boys, Dylan, Tanner & Devon stopped to whisper in Jet’s ear as they left. She overheard them mutter offers of help if he ever needed any. He gave his thanks but assured them that it hopefully would not come down to that.

“Grab a drink and one of the comfortable chairs in the back,” he told her as the last patrons filed out. He hung a hand-printed sign that simply read ‘Closed Early’ on the front door before locking it.  She sat down with a cold glass of water, not trusting herself to any alcohol at the moment. Jet grabbed a mug and poured a glass of golden-amber liquid perfectly before joining her.

“So as you can probably tell, there’s some history between your father and I,” he began without preamble. “What I need to know, before we continue on, is whether or not you moved here on your own, or if you did so to help your father out, so that he had an easy way to get closer to me?”

Kailee sat in stunned silence, unable to answer. She thought back to the conversations she had had with her father about where to live. From the very beginning, he had suggested Bear Bluff’s, making point after rational point about how it would suit her needs.

She hadn’t wanted to move here, in fact, she had argued vehemently against it. But when he had offered to pay for half the house she bought, it had been an opportunity that Kailee couldn’t pass up. So, reluctantly, she had packed up her life and moved to Bear Bluff’s, where she had conveniently gotten a job working for Jet, and told her father everything he had wanted to know about the man and his workplace. She had practically set up the attempts on Jet’s life.

“I see,” he said angrily as she opened her mouth but couldn’t speak, couldn’t tell him what she wanted to. It hurt her, more than she was willing to admit, that his trust in her had been cracked, or possibly even shattered as he came to grips with what was going on.

She longed to tell him it was all a misunderstanding on his part, that she had no idea what was going on, but it seemed pointless now. He believed she had been a willing, if uninformed, accomplice to her father’s plans. The feeling of betrayal he exuded now was almost too much for her to bear, but she needed to know why her father hated him badly enough to try and kill him.

“A lot of what you’re about to hear is going to color your opinion of me. Before I begin, I want you to understand that I am no longer that person. I was at the time, but I have changed for what I hope is the better.”

She nodded her understanding after he shot her an expectant look. Then Jet began to speak, recanting to her his youth, growing up without a family in a series of foster homes, slowly turning to a life of crime. The picture he painted was a grim one, designed to evoke feelings of sympathy and passion for him. Instead, Kailee found herself becoming more and more horrified as she realized just who the man she had slept with was in reality.

He was a criminal, the worst type of sorts. He used his words, sweet, sweet words to seduce people into giving him what he wanted. Her stomach began to roil and she almost lost her dinner to the thoughts of what he had said to her. She had been manipulated by him into giving herself up for his needs. Part of her spoke to thinking rationally, that he clearly wasn’t the same person as he described in his story. Those words were quickly drowned out by his next sentence.

“So when your father took me under his wing, I ratcheted it up several notches, becoming more and more prolific and profitable. I’m not proud of what I did, but at the time I felt I had no choice…” he trailed off as the look on her face registered.

“What the hell do you mean
my father
took you under his wing? My father isn’t a criminal,” she told him viciously, even as she couldn’t help but remember the gun and knife he had brought to try and kill Jet with.

“Kailee, I know you aren’t stupid, so stop acting like it. Think about this for a moment, about your life growing up, about the way he acts. Hell, think about the way he was today. Did you see any hesitation, any remorse in him as he tried to gun me down and then try to stab me?”

“Neither of those would have killed you,” she said hotly without replying to his original question. She didn’t want to because it hit too close to home with her.

“Unlikely the gun would have penetrated my skin, but the knife certainly could have, and even with the speed at which we heal as shifters, if your father hit one of my arteries, nothing would have saved me. There was real danger there, he didn’t even hesitate when you were nearby either.”

Jet was pleading with her now, but Kailee was beyond reason. Her father had problems, but he wasn’t a criminal. Her heart wanted to burst and she was fearful of pushing on, but she had to know everything.

“Why did he try to kill you, Jet? What was he talking about, stolen money and a mission?”

The hesitation on his face was evident, but he must have seen something within her, something that told him she was strong enough to hear the words.

“At one point I decided that I had had enough of that life. I wanted something else, something more. In the city I had lost touch with my bear, between running from the law and keeping it secret from your father, I was rarely able to let him out.”

“Why did you have to keep it a secret? Humanity knows about us now, it’s not a secret.”

“You’ve never come across a single person who didn’t like our kind?”

She kept her mouth shut at that comment. Despite her question, she knew her father harbored ill-will towards shifters. It didn’t make any sense to her since she was a shifter herself. It was a hereditary trait, as far as scientists and practical experience could tell.

Kailee had never known her mother, but nothing that others had ever said about her seemed to indicate that she was a shifter. 

“Your father doesn’t know, does he?” Jet said suddenly, a shocked look upon his face.

“No,” she whispered after a moment’s silence. “I never told him. I was at summer camp one year, out alone in the forest because I didn’t like one of the other girls, Lisa Campellini. I got really angry at her, and then out of nowhere my bear emerged. I was thirteen, and I’ve hidden it from him ever since.”

“I’m sorry,” Jet said compassionately, his hand reaching out to touch her but stopping short as she recoiled from his touch. The look of sadness on his face almost tugged at her heartstrings, but she couldn’t get over the atrocious things he had done.

“I had always spent my money every time I had some, until that year. Then I began to hoard it, but it was never going to be enough to flee and start out anew. So I needed more money.”

“So you stole from your own friends,” she muttered, even more disgusted with him than before, which she hadn’t thought possible. It seemed this creature across from her had no morals, no remorse about his actions. He simply did what was best for him and damn anyone who happened to get in his way.

“I stole everything I could and tipped the police off about their actions. Then I fled all the way out here to Bear Bluff’s. The place was for sale and in need of some fixing up. Since that day fourteen years ago, I’ve run it to the best of my abilities.”

He sat back, done with his story. She could tell he was leaving out some particulars about his heist and the fallout, but it told her everything she needed to know. No wonder her father had been so intent on finding him, he wanted back his money.

No, that can’t be true. Your father isn’t a criminal. He’s a good man. Distant and not a great father, but not evil like Jet.

Yet, despite her own inner dialog, she was having her doubts about everything. It would just explain too much about her father’s sudden disappearances and late night activities.

Tears welled up and fell, leaving twin streaks of warmth as they fell down her face. With a sniffle, she brushed them away with the back of her hand, forcing herself to remain composed.