Page 24 of Caught Bear Handed (Sawtooth Security #3)
Chapter Nineteen
Kayla
If this was just a regular drive, I could appreciate the breathtaking views as we traveled north along the Sawtooth Scenic Highway.
But I was in full wolf mode, scanning the landscape as we sped by it, looking for any clues that Mark Peters and anyone associated with him had the opportunity to get so close.
Beau’s knuckles were tense against the steering wheel, and I expected his skin to split and fur to bust through. I’d wondered many times what he’d be like as a bear, and I was dangerously close to finding out.
Gigi sat between us, on the thick console of the truck, on high alert.
“How long do you think we’ll stay on Bellamy and Clover’s clan land?”
“Not long.” Beau let out a long sigh. “Those bears turned their backs on Bellamy, not once but twice. I appreciate that they’re offering us a place to stay, but I’m not sure these bears can’t be influenced.”
A chill ran down my spine, and it took everything I had to keep my wolf inside me. She was really tempted to do another tuck and roll out of a moving vehicle. “But Bellamy will be watching the area.”
Beau risked a quick glance at me. “He’s always been watching us.”
Right, and someone still found us. We needed to find a solution quickly, and I was asking the wrong questions.
“What would you do if you were in charge?” I asked, cringing at how much worse that sounded out loud than it did in my head. Beau already considered himself an underdog. This was the worst possible time to remind him he had to answer to someone else.
“Not this,” he said, and then paused for a moment. “I’d bring you further north. Maybe as far as Canada. Amelia’s mate Drew has some connections up there, and felons can’t cross the border.”
I let out a nervous chuckle. “You’ve thought about this.”
“We were on borrowed time the moment we stepped into that cabin. I knew we could’ve had to leave on a moment’s notice—which meant I had to have a plan in place.” His body was rumbling. “More than one, but hopefully we won’t need any of them.”
We were the only car on the road. “Will all Bellamy’s devices work this far out?”
“Those bears seem to have a modern set up. Of course, I’ve never tested their Wi-Fi. But Barrett and Bellamy wouldn’t send us anywhere they hadn’t vetted.”
I raised a brow. “Even if it’s plan C?”
“Especially if it’s plan C.” The words were laced with a heavy growl. “It’s not your job to worry about this. That’s our job.”
“I’m not some damsel that needs to be saved,” I reminded him. It shouldn’t have pissed me off, but it did.
“Never said you were—but you hired us for this. We’re all trained for exactly these scenarios. You haven’t had to see it because things were chill at the cabin, of course, until they weren’t. Now you’ll get to see what happens when the lid gets peeled back.”
“What can I do to make things easier for you?” I asked.
“Hopefully, you won’t have to do anything more than you already have. If that’s not the case, there’s no way to predict it. No two jobs are alike. So the only advice I can give you is to be ready.”
I nodded and sighed, hoping it would relieve some of the tension, but it didn’t. It had baked itself into the atmosphere. I had so many more questions, but I knew Beau didn’t have the answers either.
Most importantly, what happened to us now?
It seemed frivolous as we sped toward the unknown to even think about it, but I craved the taste of his kiss. The way his rough hands felt against my bare skin.
And mostly, the way he looked at me. Like I was the only woman on earth.
No, this wasn’t a eulogy. It was an interruption. An annoyance. Something we would look back and hopefully laugh about, preferably sitting on a porch, cuddling under a blanket, staring at the stars.
The bear wasn’t the only one who’d been thinking about the future.
Beau’s gaze moved to the rearview mirror, lingering there, and the corner of his mouth curled into a frown.
I turned around to see what he was looking at, putting my hand on Gigi’s back, and finding a red pickup truck following close behind.
“Is that Barrett?” I asked. There had been a lot of instructions and plans thrown out in those final moments before we’d said goodbye to our cabin, but I was fairly certain that Barrett had said they’d be watching us via drone because they thought a caravan would attract too much attention.
In theory, it made perfect sense. But in practice, it felt similar to those nightmares where I showed up on set naked.
“No. At least, I don’t think so,” Beau said between gritted teeth. “Barrett wouldn’t be on my dick like this.”
I glanced back again, and somehow, the red pickup had gotten even closer. I wanted to encourage Beau to tap the brakes, call their bluff, but the bear was pissed, and a tap probably wasn’t a possibility.
Getting rear-ended by this asshole would be bad.
Instead, Beau sped up. The altitude climbed as we headed toward a mountain overpass, and the switchback turns intensified. There were cars on the side of the road, and people preparing for their hikes.
Gigi whined, and I kept my hand on her—I wasn’t sure who was comforting who.
“Be careful,” I urged.
“I am. But I want to lose this asshole.”
I wanted to give him some sort of solution, but I couldn’t think of one. The red pickup was practically riding our bumper.
My body tensed, and Gigi crawled into my lap. I wrapped my arms around her, letting the thump of her heartbeat offer me comfort.
I gritted my teeth, trying not to backseat drive.
But Beau was going too fast. There weren’t as many hikers this far up, but the turns were getting sharper, and that damn truck was sticking to us like a magnet.
I wanted to ask what the next plan was, because I’d bet good money that this truck was willing to follow us to the Arctic Circle.
The road sloped down, which gave me a moment of relief, but Beau sped up, like he saw some sort of opportunity to get away from our big red shadow. He knew this road better than me—there could be an opportunity ahead.
Instead, there was another big pickup truck in the other lane. It turned sharply, blocking our lane. Beau hit the brakes, the tires squealed, and the entire vehicle protested the sudden change. I pulled Gigi in close to me as my body jerked forward.
The red truck was beside us, closing in, giving Beau no place to go. No chance to stop completely before going off the side of the road.