Stone Bear: Sentinel (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Stone Bears Book 1) (4 page)

Gabriel

“Don’t tell anybody, okay?”

“What?” Caia whirled around to look at him, caught off guard by his slightly relaxed tone and his comment.

He looked guilty for a second, then slowly pointed his finger up at the No Parking sign on a pole right next to where he had parked.

“This is serious,” she hissed, then headed back toward the building with the big white lettering. It read
Windglade Luxury Apartments
in chipped and faded paint plastered over the beige bricks that formed the exterior of the building.

“Hold up,” he said, his professional voice back in place. He didn’t want to be like that. He wished they were somewhere more carefree, and not on the job. Caia was fun and witty. He wanted to get to know her better, to spend more time around her.

Which, unfortunately, was effectively the last thing he could do. Gabriel wasn’t allowed to get involved with employees of the Consortium. It was too much of a risk, and his position was too important to allow him to do that. So for now, he would have to be content with the way things were going.

That did not please his bear one bit. It had been agitated ever since he met her the first time, and then yesterday in her office had been pure torture for him. The pressure of wanting to be closer to her had been so bad that he had been tempted to command her into coming over and kissing him, like he had teased her about. Gabriel wouldn’t, because he had more respect for himself and for Caia than that, but he would be lying if he said the thought hadn’t crossed his mind.

“What now?” she asked, pausing in her stride.

“They’ll have a sentry out. Someone to warn Ben if anyone noteworthy comes strolling in.”

“Like if oh, let’s say Gabriel, head of the Stone Bears, were to show up unannounced? That sort of thing?” she asked.

He nodded. “Exactly that sort of thing.”

Caia thought for a moment. “We need a plan to deal with that. Would I be amiss in thinking that they probably have no idea who I am yet?”

Gabriel eyed her suspiciously. “You’re probably correct, but I don’t like that tone in your voice. What are you planning?”

“Well, if I were a lookout, I would call it in the instant I saw you, right?”

“Right.”

“So that means you can’t just go barging in there, like I’m sure you want to. However, if he was distracted until you appeared, then I’m sure you might be able to persuade him not to warn Ben, right?”

Ben Groll was the head of the Sapphires, their Alpha. He was also a dick, as far as Gabriel was concerned. The only unfortunate part was that he hadn’t yet found a good enough excuse to put the other shifter in his place. Ben wasn’t as dumb as he came across sometimes, much to Gabriel’s disappointment.

“I think so. Just...” he hesitated. “Be careful, okay?”

She smiled. “I will. I promise. Give me two minutes to see what I can do.”

She’s learning quickly that we have a weakness for women with curves like her. That sentry isn’t going to know what hit him.
Gabriel chuckled. Then he clenched his fists and tried to relax as the anger surged through him at the imagined other shifter flirting with Caia.

“Not good, Gabe. You need to get it together. She isn’t yours; you do not own her. Plus you can’t do anything with her either, or Marcus would tear you a new one, and probably fire you as well. If not worse,” he said out loud.

Assuming she even wanted to do anything with you to begin with.

Shaking his head, he stopped talking to himself and strode toward the building. He hadn’t exactly kept track of time, but he knew by the time he got to the area the lookout would be, it would have been enough time.

Moving quickly and with purpose, he approached the door, slowing his momentum just barely enough to allow him to pull the door open and slide in before resuming his walk across the lobby. The ground floor was mostly open concept. The elevators were off to his left, and what had once been the superintendent’s office had been opened up to allow a view of anyone coming in from the street. It was on the far side of the room from him, but as he watched, Caia had the other shifter thoroughly engrossed in her, with her back directly to the doors.

The shifter didn’t stand a chance. The look of shock in his eyes as Gabriel loomed over him without warning was good enough to win him an award if it wasn’t real.

“Hi,” he said jovially to the stunned man behind the desk. “Take your hands out from under the desk please,” he said just as politely when the Sapphire moved to activate what he assumed was some sort of alarm or warning system.

“Much better. Now, we’re going to go upstairs and see Ben. Just to have a talk with him, nothing crazy, I promise. If it was crazy, I’d have hauled you out from behind your desk already, trust me.” He let his eyes go all wide as he talked, trying to intimidate the other shifter a little more.

Caia, to her credit, was already summoning the elevator. He had expected to have to tell her to do so. Gabriel revised his opinion of her, and told himself to stop underestimating her all the time.

“While we go upstairs,” he said, continuing with the shifter. “You’re just going to sit here and do nothing. Do you know why?” he asked sweetly.

The terrified shifter shook his head violently.

“Because if you do warn him, then I’m going to get upset. And well,” he dropped his voice until it was just few degrees above freezing. “You wouldn’t like me when I’m upset.”

He could sense the eyeroll from Caia at the lame line, but it did have the desired effect. The other shifted nodded jerkily, his hands firmly placed on the desk in front of him.

“Remember,” Gabriel said over his shoulder, walking toward the elevator as it
dinged
and opened. “Don’t say a word!”

Caia spoke the instant the doors closed. “Do you ever feel you overdo the evil villain bit?”

“Really? I don’t even get a round of applause before you start to tear me down? I thought that was a great acting class. Besides, I’m not evil or a villain. I’m an enforcer, and they know it. I need to play that up, or else they don’t obey. Now Ben won’t be warned, which is exactly what we want.”

He punched the top floor button, knowing that Ben resided up there, and it would likely be where anything was hidden, though he intended to walk through the two levels below that one as well. The Sapphire building was five stories tall. The ground floor was the lobby, with nothing in it. The second floor was a pool and workout room, all glass. There was nowhere to hide anything there. He knew Ben wasn’t stupid enough to try and build something there to block it off either. No, if they were hiding something, such as the Opal crew that had gone missing, it would be in the upper floors.

Movement caught his eye.

“What are you doing?” he asked, giving Caia a funny look as she looked around the elevator. “It’s an elevator. Brown wood paneling on the walls, buttons here, doors there. What could you be looking for?”

“Stand over here. No, like this,” she said, maneuvering him until his back was against the side wall. “The doors are set more to this side. If you stand here, they won’t see you right away. Give me ten seconds then come out. It’ll give me a chance to see their relaxed attitude, and the change when you come around the corner.”

He tried to respond but the elevator shuddered to a halt, making several screeching creaking noises that did nothing to help with his confidence of its stability.

“Stay quiet,” she whispered, standing in front of the door.

The elevator chimed and the doors opened. Caia walked out, full of confidence, no trace of the doubt she had expressed earlier in her body language.

“Hi. Are you Ben?” he heard her ask. Obviously the Sapphires had realized someone was coming up. Gabriel wondered if the sentry had warned him anyway. If he had, he promised to ensure he regretted it.

“Yes,” came the growled reply. “Who are you and why are you here?”

“Now now, is that any way to address a lady?” she chided, not giving any ground.

Ben made a sound like a surprised grunt before he replied. “Depends on who the lady is, and why she’s in my home.”

“She’s with me,” Gabriel said, stepping around the corner.

There was no shock in Ben’s eyes. He must have been warned.

“Hello Gabriel. What brings you by today?”

“Just having a look around,” he said lightly, giving Ben his best predatory smile.

“Why? Did we do something wrong?”

“Always Ben. Always,” he said as if the other shifter should have known better. Gabriel pushed forward, shouldering the smaller shifter out of the way rather more roughly than was necessary.

“Okay, okay,” the Sapphire Alpha protested. “What do you want to see?”

“Your digs. I haven’t been here in a while. I’m sure you’re hiding all sorts of things in here that you shouldn’t be.”

“Like what?” Ben snorted. “I didn’t realize you were the police.”

“Actually that’s exactly what I am,” Gabriel told him. “And there’s been a lot of complaints about foul odors coming from here. So I’m here to ensure you’re flushing the toilets and not living in your own filth any more than usual.”

Ben made a noise that sounded very much like he didn’t believe a word Gabriel had just said, then turned and eased around Gabriel. “So, left or right?” he said, pointing down the halls.

Gabriel turned to face Caia. “Well, which do you prefer?”

He hoped she understood why he was asking her to decide. If she had seen anything in Ben’s body language that suggested he wanted to go one way instead of the other, she would go with the less-than-preferred one.

“I’m left-handed,” she said, “so let’s go left.”

Gabriel tried to keep a straight face. She was most definitely right-handed from what he had seen. He wondered if that meant she had seen something in Ben’s body language to indicate he would prefer they go right, to give his shifters time to hide evidence of something.

“Follow me,” Ben said, leading the way.

There were only four rooms on either side of the elevator. The first three were unoccupied and the trio made their way through them quickly. The fourth had an occupant who answered the door swiftly, and showed them through without hesitation.

Gabriel took one last look around that room and frowned. Perhaps Caia had been wrong in her reading of Ben after all. He wanted to ask her, but knew that Ben would overhear anything they had to say. It would have to wait until they were back in the elevator.

“Satisfied yet?” Ben asked.

“Not even close. Take us through the rest of the rooms,” Caia replied before Gabriel could say anything.

Gabriel just smiled at Ben’s raised eyebrows. He really liked her. She was strong and didn’t take anybody’s shit.

The trio worked their way between all eight rooms on the top three floors, and even scoured the second floor, but they found nothing.

“Okay, you’ve seen it all and wasted my day. It’s time you got out,” Ben said, gesturing at the elevator.

“Don’t miss us too much,” Gabriel told him as the doors closed between them.

“Anything?” he asked quickly once the elevator started moving. They only had one floor to go, so they wouldn’t be alone for long.

“At first, yes. But he seemed to calm down rather quickly. I don’t understand. He
is
hiding something. I just don’t know what.”

The elevator banged to a halt at the ground floor.

“Wait here,” Gabriel said, striding out the doors and toward the reception area.

“You!” he yelled, pointing at the shifter behind the desk.

The other man looked panicked and tried to turn and run away. Gabriel caught him before he’d gone a step, using his and the other man’s momentum to hurl him forward off balance.

“Gabriel!” he heard Caia’s shocked voice behind him as the lookout went crashing through a pane of glass into an empty room.

“I told you not to warn anybody,” he admonished his victim, who was just starting to get to his feet.

“Don’t do... ah shit,” Gabriel said, jumping back out of the way as a big brown-and-gray mottled bear lunged at him from where the man had been just a moment before.

“Get outside!” he yelled at Caia, not turning away from the oncoming bear at all. “You’re a big fella, aren’t you?” he said lightly.

The bear launched itself at him, the ridge of its spine just inches below the ceiling.

Gabriel waited, arms spread wide and above his head. Once the bear was in full flight and committed, he slid to his left, just out of its reach. Then he brought his fist down as hard as he could on the other shifter’s nose as it went by. The bear squealed and curled into ball as it slid across the tiled floor and crashed through another wall.

A massive paw swatted at him as he stalked up to his prey. Once again using the momentum, Gabriel waited until it was almost at the apex of its swing and lunged in, wrapping his powerful hands around the paw and wrenching it sideways with bone-shattering force.

The hurt shifter trumpeted in pain once more, his jaws snapping at Gabriel as it labored to get its other paw at him. Calmly Gabriel sidestepped the biting teeth and drove his fist into the shifter’s head as hard as he could.