Page 17 of Bear

“Yes, sir. Everything is smooth. We’re all ready for the overtime tonight.” Bear lowered his brows and stroked his beard.

“We have overtime tonight? Why wasn’t I notified of the schedule change?”

“I-I don’t know, Bear. I’m sorry. I wasn’t in charge of notifications today. That was Nick.”

“Call him. Tell him to meet me in my office.” Bear walked off and I’m sure he thought I was going to follow behind him but I didn’t.

“Hi, what’s your name?” I asked the guy behind the counter. He blinked a few times and looked around like there was someone else in the room with us.

“Oh, hello. I’m not sure I should be speaking to you,” he stammered.

“I’m his little sister. It’s fine.”

“I never knew Bear had a sister. I’m Kevin.”

“Nice to meet you, Kevin. I’m Cecily.”

“Cecily, come here.” Bear’s voice rounded the corner and gripped my throat, halting my words. He materialized seconds later and motioned for me to come with him. I threw a smile at Nick and hurried to Bear’s side.

“What?” The corners of my lips turned down and I folded my arms.

“Here. Now.” He pointed to his office and I stomped inside like a child, flopping down in a leather chair. “Here,” he handed me a few papers from his desk then a pack of crayons stamped with the Stone Lumber logo. My brows furled together in confusion.

“Bear, what the hell is this?”

“Oh, I thought you were being childish. Got you some coloring pages. We have juice boxes in the fridge. You seem thirsty too.” The back of my neck burned with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. I shut my eyes for a moment and blew out a breath while I prayed to God that I didn’t strangle him to death. I took the crayons quietly and drew a giant dick and wrote his name underneath.

“Childish enough?” I smirked. He flicked his gaze to the picture and his nostrils flared but other than that he had no reaction. He balled it up and tossed it in the trash just as someone knocked on his closed door.

“Come in, Nick.” I watched the fluid way he rested his ankle on top of his knee and I squirmed a little in my seat. The slacks he wore were tailored to fit him and only him. That was for damn sure.

Get your life together, Cecily.

Bear is like your brother.

I moved away from his desk and sat on the couch against the wall. Nick walked in and scanned the office before sitting. He tried to look tough but he failed miserably.

“Good morning.” Nick nodded at me and Bear shot him a look that wiped the polite smile right off his face. He sat down and his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “Did I do something?”

“I want to know why you didn’t notify me of the overtime tonight. You were in charge of notifications today, correct?”

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry I didn’t get to it. The overtime came in about two hours ago.”

“So you’re an hour late? Don’t let it happen again.” Nick’s pale skin turned bright pink as he nodded quickly.

“I’m sorry Bear. It won’t happen again.”

“Good to hear. When is the overtime starting?”

“Closing time.”

“Okay, and where are the logs?”

“In holding at the butcher shop.” My eyes ping-ponged back and forth listening to their conversation. Bear was just like his father, Mr. Griffon. He had code words for everything. Nobody would ever know what was going on if he didn’t want them to.

I’d been around long enough to know that the Stone family owned several businesses, the most prominent one being Stone Lumber. They also owned Stone’s Butcher Shop and Stone’s Way Salon and Barbershop. It was how Bear cleaned the drug money and stored things I didn’t want to know about.

Clearly, the logs were one of those things I didn’t want to know about.