Tempting Bear, page 1
EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2022 Winter Sloane
ISBN: 978-0-3695-0515-6
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: Audrey Bobak
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
TEMPTING BEAR
Fallen Saints MC, 6
Winter Sloane
Copyright © 2022
Chapter One
Bear shouldered his pack, then put on his MC leather jacket. Before leaving his room, he made sure his cell phone was charged and also pulled out the Browning Hi-Power handgun tucked into his belt holster. He checked the magazine. Although he doubted he’d use all ten rounds, it never hurt to be prepared. That had always been his motto. The reason why he survived this long.
The gun was a necessity because he didn’t know what kind of trouble he might run into. He tucked the gun away, then glanced at the full-length mirror in front of his bed.
An old man looked back at him. A stranger. Although Bear worked out every single day, his black hair had more streaks of white in them. He ran his fingers through his hair. Bear never once regretted choosing the MC life, but sooner or later, he’d get too slow and old.
Violence was a young man’s game and he was no longer that. Bear thought of surrendering his patch to Saint, the MC Prez, plenty of times, but he always changed his mind. Where would someone like him even go? Bear and his MC brothers chose this road because, for some of them, there was no other place to go. What were the alternatives? A life behind bars or dying in a ditch somewhere didn’t sound enticing.
“Time eventually catches up to all of us, Buzz.” He sucked in a breath. Why was he talking to his dead best friend? Bear hadn’t spoken to Buzz in two decades. Not until Buzz’s phone call the day before.
Bear heaved a heavy sigh, then exited his room to go downstairs. The first floor had a bar. A place for his MC brothers to gather, but this early in the day, few people were out here. He passed by two prospects who’d fallen asleep on the table. The club whores had also gone home hours earlier. Bear decided he liked the bar like this. Peaceful. Quiet—that was if one could ignore the smell of booze, vomit, cigarette smoke, and other things Bear didn’t want to think about.
“Bear, where are you off to this early?” asked a familiar voice. Before Bear could answer, Iron dragged out the chair next to the one he was sitting on. Bear checked his wristwatch.
“Sure, I have time. You drinking this early? Your old lady already giving you problems?” Bear teased. He dropped his pack and sat his ass down.
Iron scowled at him, then showed him his mug. Bear could smell the caffeine from here. First, it had been Devil who found his old lady. Then Saint, Hawke, Chains, and Iron. Never in a million years did Bear think his MC brothers would settle down with just one woman, but they did. Even Iron, who’d been a patch in the Fallen Saints MC as long as he had been, once told him he’d always ride free.
“Take those words back,” Iron said.
Bear raised both his hands in mock defeat. “I was just jerking your chain. No harm. No foul. Everyone here knows how much you and Amber love each other. I’m just jealous.”
“Jealous. You?” Iron raised one eyebrow.
“Would be nice to come home to a loving wife and a nice, comfy house,” Bear admitted.
Good thing it was only the two of them around. If a younger MC member overheard him talking like this, his reputation for being a tough son-of-a-bitch might suffer.
“Hell, it is damn nice,” Iron agreed. “You want coffee?”
“I could use a cup,” Bear admitted.
Iron walked behind the bar. Minutes later, he set down a steaming mug of coffee right in front of Bear. Bear took a grateful sip, then sighed. The instant coffee tasted terrible, but it woke him right up.
“You really mean that? You thinking of finding an old lady and settling down?” Iron asked. His old friend looked curious.
“Maybe,” Bear hedged. Then he let out a laugh. “It’s a tall order. Why would anyone want this?” He gestured to his big, tatted-up, and hairy self.
“You never know until you look,” Iron said.
“Let’s drop this,” Bear said. “Forget what I said. They’re just the musings of an old man.”
Iron gave him a sharp nudge on the shoulder. “You’re only in your late forties, Bear. Same as me. Dying’s not in the plan.”
Bear took another sip of his coffee. His stomach growled, but he didn’t want to linger here any longer. He might just change his mind about this entire trip after all.
“You never mentioned where you were going,” Iron said. The other man nodded to his pack on the grease-stained floor.
“Not MC business,” he admitted.
“So it’s a personal trip?” Iron pressed.
Bear blew a deep breath. He really ought to tell someone where he was going. When Devil, the VP, asked him casually where he intended to take his vacation, he gave a cryptic answer. His MC brothers weren’t being annoying busybodies on purpose. They were probably just concerned about him. In the MC, everyone watched each other’s back. They might not be related by blood, but they’d do anything for each other.
“You remember Buzz?” he asked.
“Buzz. How’s he doing? Life treating him any better since he left the MC? Was that fifteen years ago?” Iron scratched his head.
“Twenty,” he corrected. Iron, Buzz, and he—all three of them joined the MC right after they turned eighteen. They worked their asses off, eventually graduating from prospects to patches. But Buzz met Sally and she only agreed to marry him if he quit the MC.
“Damn. Now I’m feeling my age,” Iron grumbled.
“He’s dead,” Bear told him. “Buzz called me yesterday from his death bed. Before that, we hadn’t spoken in two decades.”
“Well shit,” Iron muttered. “Why the hell would he do that?”
“He said he always wanted to get on his old hog and take one final trip to Redemption,” Bear said.
“Why didn’t he? Buzz used to be one of us. We’d treat him a couple of drinks, reminisce about the old days, and send him back to that snake of a wife in one piece. How’s Sally by the way?” Iron asked.
“Buzz said he’d always change his mind at the last second. Sally’s also dead. Car accident two years ago,” he said.
“And Buzz?”
“Cancer got him.” Bear’s voice was thick. He gritted his teeth. “The asshole should’ve reached out to me earlier.”
“He should’ve,” Iron agreed. “Buzz was your best friend.”
“Was,” Bear said numbly. “But he hadn’t been my anything for two decades.”
“Didn’t Buzz have a daughter?” Iron asked, scratching his head again. “I can’t remember her name. Starts with an L.”
“Lara. Yeah. She’s twenty now. She’s the reason I’m taking a couple of personal days. Buzz asked me to check on her,” Bear said.
“He’s asking a lot,” Iron pointed out.
“Yeah, he is.”
Iron chuckled.
“What?” Bear asked, annoyed.
“New prospects always piss in their pants when they first see you, but they don’t know that inside you’re—”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” Bear said with a warning growl.
“All right,” Iron said mildly. “So, you’ll look up Lara. Then what?”
“Then nothing. After I make sure she’s all right, I ride back home,” Bear explained.
“Why do you bring your favorite firearm with you?” Iron asked.
Trust Iron to have sharp eyes.
“In case of an emergency,” Bear said. “Buzz mentioned she might be in trouble. They didn’t exactly have a good relationship.”
“She wasn’t there in the hospital when he died? That’s cold.”
“Buzz said she came a few days ago but they had an argument,” he said. “Anyway, I ought to be going. It’s a long drive to Motor City. I want to catch her before she comes home from work.”
“What’s she working at?”
“Something to do with computers. That’s what Buzz said.”
“He doesn’t seem to know a lot about his daughter, does he?”
“No,” Bear agreed.
He didn’t have plenty of information to work on, and that pissed him off a little. Buzz had some guts, asking him one final request after not talking to him for twenty years. Then again, Bear found it a little hard to say no to a dying man.
Thinking about Buzz dying all alone in a hospital room depressed him.
“If Buzz never left the MC, we could have given him the treatment he needed. If that didn’t work, at the very least, he’d die surrounded by his MC brothers,” Bear said.
Iron clasped his shoulder. “Buzz made his choice a long time ago. If he chose the MC over Sally, then he wouldn’t be able to live out a normal life or even have a daughter.”
“Do you think he died unsatisfied about the choices he made or did he pass away content?” Bear found himself asking.
He refused to think of some withered old man lying in his death bed . The husk of his former self. Bear wanted to remember his ex-best friend the way he used to be—reckless and young. A real daredevil.
“Sure he did,” Iron said with a nod.
Even though Bear knew Iron was lying, he didn’t correct him. It was the truth Bear needed to hear. He made his farewells. Bear grabbed his pack, made his way out of the MC clubhouse, and mounted his bike. The familiar purr of his engine calmed his nerves, but a bad feeling started in his gut. Why did he suspect this trip was going to be far from simple?
Chapter Two
Lara Webb took off her thick black-framed glasses and wiped at her red-rimmed eyes. She shouldn’t have to come to work. Not looking like this. She put her glasses back on, then gripped the edges of the backroom sink. The reality still hadn’t hit her. Her father passed away peacefully in his sleep in the early hours of the morning.
Peacefully. That was the word the nurse used. Lara shut her eyes. Regret filled her as she recalled the last conversation they had. They shouted at each other until a nurse had to pry them apart. Her old man had a big set of lungs, even for a sick guy. They did this all the time. Play the blame game.
Lara couldn’t forget the silent judgment in the eyes of the nurses. The staff at Motor City Medical probably all thought she was some kind of monster. None of them knew the real story. No one did, and no one gave a damn. With her dad gone, she was all her own. Her dad grew up in foster care and her mother, well. Her mother’s parents had cut off all connections to their family right after Lara’s mother married her dad.
She took deep and steadying breaths, but it didn’t help. Lara’s boss, Ben, told her to take the day, a couple of days off to settle her father’s affairs. Lara had assured him she was fine. She could do her job just fine, but she’d been staring blankly at her computer screen all day. Lara had principles. She couldn’t miss a day of work. Not with the mountain of hospital bills her father left behind.
“Lara, are you all right?” asked Nadia, a coworker.
Lara had never been particularly close to any of her colleagues even though her job was her life. She didn’t trust easily. Maybe she inherited that from her dad. Either way, telling Nadia everything wouldn’t do her any good.
Nadia had loose lips. Everyone in the office would soon know about her plight and see it as an opportunity to snatch away the position she’d just earned. Lara had worked her ass off to become the lead software engineer for the firm’s latest project.
Lara might be young and she might’ve only been working here for two years, but she clocked in more overnight hours than anyone else. Lara even sacrificed her weekends. She wasn’t going to give her new position up. Not to anyone.
“Fine. I’m just feeling under the weather.” Lara flashed Nadia a smile that was just as fake as the one Nadia gave her.
Lara hurried out of the bathroom as she checked her watch. Almost the end of a workday. She wished she could head right home and curl up miserably in her head. Too bad she had other adult duties to do. Like head right to the hospital.
She dreaded the task because going there and seeing his body only confirmed he was truly dead. Maybe Ben was right. She needed to take a few days off. Three at the most. Get her head all cleared up. Being distracted didn’t help her one bit.
She took deep breaths before marching into Ben’s office. He looked surprised to see her.
“Lara, have a seat,” he offered.
“I can’t. I need to head to the hospital right after this,” she said. “Ben, I need a few days, three at the most, to deal with all … this.”
“I see. I figured you’d say that. That won’t be a problem. Nadia would be able to take care of your workload while you’re gone,” he said with a nod.
Lara bit on her bottom lip. Ben must’ve read the concern on her face because he said, “Lara, your job will be waiting for you. You’re a valued asset here at Mayer Tech.”
She nodded. “Thank you for understanding.”
Lara turned on her heel. She shut her computer off, then grabbed her bag. Lara trusted Ben to keep his word. He hired her, after all, and knew she was a reliable and hardworking employee. Her boss trusted her to be right as rain in a couple of days. Lara wasn’t too certain she would be, but she’d tried her damnedest to pretend her dad’s death hadn’t affected her one bit. That even after he died, his demons continued to hound her.
She took the elevator to the first floor of the building where she worked. Lara finished sending Mary, her dad’s nurse, a text to let them know she was dropping by. Then she finally noticed where she was—standing outside her office building. Out in the open. Exposed.
Lara knew better than anyone to constantly be aware of her surroundings. She swallowed when she spotted a familiar Honda parked across the road and the large bald goon leaning against it. Even from this distance, the gap-tooth and yellow smile Sonny flashed her gave creeps.
She desperately looked at the street for any incoming taxis. Damn it. Couldn’t Sonny and his boss leave her fucking alone for just one day?
“Taxi!” she yelled.
Lara waved her hand at an incoming taxi, but it sped right past her. Sonny scowled and started crossing the street. Lara heard the rumble of a motorcycle engine nearby, but thought nothing of it.
She flagged another incoming cab again, only for the largest man she’d ever seen to step right in front of her. Lara gulped. Fear gripped her throat as she stared up at the massive behemoth. He had salt-and-pepper hair, sharp green eyes, and a weather-beaten face most women wouldn’t call handsome. The stranger wore a faded black leather jacket that fitted his massive frame perfectly.
Lara got lost in those mesmerizing forest-green eyes for a second. Most young women preferred men their age, but not Lara. While other girls dreamed of white princes who would carry them away on white steeds, she fantasized about dangerous, older men like this one.
A biker who would throw her over his shoulder like some caveman and spirit her away on his motorcycle to God knew where. She spotted his ride on the curb, and it was a monstrous thing of beauty. Her dad loved motorcycles, even though her mother called them death machines. Lara returned her attention to the man. He raked his gaze up and down her body, and the interest in his eyes paralyzed her.
There was nothing remotely interesting or attractive about her. She’d never been one of the girls who paid particular care with her appearance.
“Lara Webb?” he asked.
His deep voice made her knees weak, an expression Lara never thought she’d ever use. She’d joined Mayer Tech right after college, and dating had never been on her mind, not with her dad being sick and the debts he accumulated right after her mother passed away.
Then common sense rammed its ugly head. Lara took a hesitant step back and reached for the mace in her handbag. What was she thinking, acting like some love-struck idiot? This stranger could be working for Shaw. Her fingers didn’t touch the familiar cold comfort of the metal cylinder. Shit. Did she leave it at home? It was likely, given her mind had been all over the place this morning.
“I’m warning you now. I have mace in my bag and I intend to use it,” she said, hoping her voice came even.
The huge stranger held out both his hands. She narrowed her eyes at him. Was he mocking her?
“I don’t mean you any harm,” he said.
Her gaze slid to the patch on his jacket, and she frowned. Why did that patch look vaguely familiar?
“Tell Shaw I’ll pay him soon. That he doesn’t have to send his guard dog after me,” she said. How she was able to utter those words without trembling once astounded her.
The biker narrowed his eyes at her. “Who the fuck’s Shaw?”
“Wait. You don’t work for him?” she asked. Lara needed to stand on tiptoe to look over the man’s shoulder. No sign of Sonny or his car. Huh.
“I knew Buzz. Your dad,” he explained when Lara gave him a puzzled explanation. “He used to be my best friend.”
Something clicked in her head at the mention of that name and the biker’s patch.
“Buzz. That used to be my dad’s biker name,” she said.
