Bruins Peak Bears- Complete Series, page 143
part #1 of Bruins Peak Bears Series
The door creaked on its hinges. He didn’t look up, but his instincts told him the day faded into dusk outside. The world started settling down to sleep. How long would they keep him awake before they left him alone? Did they plan to deprive him of sleep so he couldn’t defend himself in the ring?
To his surprise, a soft female voice spoke to him. “Abel.”
He didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t have to look to know who it was. No one would speak to him like that and say his name like that except one person. His whole being quivered in agony, but he refused to move.
She tried again. “Abel, look at me.”
He bent his forehead against his knees. That voice stabbed into his guts from somewhere far beyond the reaches of time. He couldn’t ignore that voice. If she asked again, he would have to uncurl from his ball and face her. He didn’t want to do that. He wanted nothing to do with her. He summoned all his strength to make his throat work. “Go away.”
She took a step toward him. “I’m trying to get you free, Abel. Jordan is trying to get you out of here. We’ll stop this ring before it starts. You won’t have to face those men. Can’t you at least look at me? I’m trying to help you.”
In spite of himself, his eyes opened. He raised his head a fraction of an inch, but he managed to stop himself from looking at her. If he looked at her, he was lost. “You want to help me? Get out of here and leave me alone.”
She let out a soft gasp. “Why do you want me to leave? I just said I’m going to help you.”
“You’re bad news. Do you hear me? You’re death to me. Get out of here and don’t come back. That’s the best thing you can do for me.”
“I can cut that chain. I can set you free right now. You’ll be back on Renegade Ridge in a matter of hours.”
“They would hear you. Are you trying to get me into more trouble? Forget it, I said.”
“I won’t get you into trouble. I promise. Sit up and look at me, just once.”
He clamped his eyes shut. Those words spoke to his heart in the devilish voice of temptation. He couldn’t fall for it. “Stop trying to help me. I can take care of myself.”
“How are you going to do that? Those men will kill you. You understand that, don’t you?”
“They won’t kill me. I can get out of here on my own. I’ll leave a trail of bodies behind me with no help from you.”
She froze in place. “You would kill them?”
“Of course I would. Why shouldn’t I, after what they’ve done to me? Don’t start telling me you want to get me out of here so you can save their stinkin’ lives. I should have known after I saw you standing with them at the peace march. You’re one of them, aren’t you? You’re here to protect them, not me.”
“Cole Archer, is my brother,” she told him. “You can’t blame me for trying to save him.”
Abel lay still and didn’t move. Her brother? Aw, nuts! He forgot about that. Why did this thing have to turn into a big complicated mess? Just when he had it all worked out, she had to come along and throw a wrench in his plans.
“I want to help you get out of here, Abel. I won’t lie to you and say I don’t want to save my brother’s life, too, but I don’t really see how you can threaten him or Hunter now. They’ll pack this place with people, most of them Midnight. You’ll never get out.”
“Then I’ll die fighting. I’ll die with their blood on my tongue.”
She came one more step near him. She bent down and rested her hand on his shoulder. His body spasmed at her touch.
“Don’t you feel anything for me at all? Am I in this alone? Is this all just my imagination, making me think about you day and night? What am I supposed to do—leave you here to die?”
He turned his head away. He kept his eyes shut and his head turned. He couldn’t talk to her. He couldn’t show her anything, especially not how he felt. Wasn’t it enough, him lying here with sawdust caked into his wounds and blood crusted on his ears and nose? What did she want from him?
If he did feel anything for her—which he didn’t—he would never show it. Never! He would let her brother kill him before he showed any Midnight the slightest mercy or affection. She was a baited hook waiting to rip his guts out. She was a bottle of poison labeled ‘drink me.’
He wouldn’t look at her. He wouldn’t talk to her. He would pretend she didn’t exist. If he pretended long enough, maybe it would turn out to be true.
Her voice choked. “Please look at me, Abel. Talk to me. I can’t stand this. I can’t be anywhere but here with you. There’s no life anywhere for me except here. I didn’t want this to happen. I don’t want to be here. I would leave you alone if I could.”
How long would she go on before she just left? He couldn’t listen to this, but his heart and soul forced him to. His brain screamed for some relief from this torture. How could he listen to her wheedling and begging like this?
Didn’t she know how much her words hurt? Didn’t she know how much harder she made it for him when she talked like that? How could he make her understand without talking to her? If he talked to her, if he slackened his vigilance one scrap, she would weasel into his soul and devastate him worse than anything else.
He breathed a sigh of relief when her hand lifted off his shoulder. At least he didn’t have that torment to deal with. She sniffed, and her voice broke in the wrong places when she spoke. “Okay, Abel. I’ll go away and leave you alone. Just remember I’m trying to get you out of here. Okay?”
He still didn’t reply. He lay inert. He withdrew as much of his senses from the outside world as he could. As soon as she left, he could disappear the rest of the way into oblivion. He never had to think about her or her idiot people again.
A shattered sob came from across the ring. “Bye, Abel.”
The next minute, footsteps ran up the stairs and vanished into the dark. He waited until he knew for certain she wouldn’t come back. His stomach jerked, and his already tense body contracted across the middle. Racking spasms tore him apart. He compressed his lips to stop them trembling, but he wouldn’t let the sobs out. He swallowed them down into nothing.
Chapter 7
Hundreds of people mobbed the house in Burkes Road for the first bear-baiting ring in months. The news flew along the by-lanes and back streets. People came out of the woodwork, even when Cole and Hunter put out word they were charging three times what Riley and Raven charged.
Long before ten o’clock, long lines of people waited with their money in their hands to get into the basement. They handed their cash over to Hunter and filed down the stairs. Once inside, all bets were off. People jeered and shouted and talked back and forth. Everyone had something to say about the rugged black man crouched in front of his post down in the ring.
Onyx went early with Cole so she didn’t have to pay. One more person wouldn’t make that much difference. She found herself a seat near the parapet. Men crowded around her, but no one gave her a sideways glance. No one in the place had eyes for anything but Abel.
Onyx sat in her chair and stared down at him. Hunter and Cole dressed him up in a ragged pair of jeans torn off just below the knee. His bare back spread up in a perfect triangle of muscle and sinew.
Not all Jordan’s machinations could stop this ring. He and Ebony and their supporters hung out at Riley’s house in protest, but no one cared. They wanted Onyx to come with them, but she couldn’t. She belonged here. Whatever happened today, she had to see it. She had to be a part of it. If she couldn’t help Abel, at least she could be near him.
Did he sense her presence in the stands? Did he feel her near him the way she felt him? In all the stories she heard about couples mating for life, both people knew what was going on. They both felt the same way. Mating for life didn’t happen to one person alone. It happened to a couple equally.
Well, he wasn’t her mate for life. That was impossible. That must explain why he paid no attention to her when she visited him the other night. He didn’t feel anything for her other than hatred and disgust. He would kill her if he got the chance. She was Midnight. That made her his enemy.
Hunter sat in a corner of the stands with his book open on his lap. Guys pressed around him on all sides. They waved hundred-dollar bills in his face and shouted their bets into his ear. He scribbled as fast as he could, stowed the money in his cash box, and handed out scribbled receipts. He had no time to look up at anybody, he worked so fast.
All of a sudden, an earth-shattered roar swept over the crowd. They all rushed to the parapet to look down. They leaned over it and waved their arms down at the ring. They shoved and jostled everyone out of their seats. They pushed Onyx against the parapet so she had to look down, too.
The wooden door swung open and Cole stepped out onto the floor. He dragged one dog after another to shackle them to the wall. Then two of his buddies entered with him and they took their places in a semi-circle around Abel.
Cole’s mouth moved shouting orders to his friends, but no one could hear a thing over the din upstairs. Onyx stood still and stared. That was her down there on that floor. They brought dogs and spears to kill her and rip her bloody corpse to shreds.
Her guts twisted in knots, but she couldn’t stop the ring now. No one could stop it. She couldn’t see Hunter in the corner any longer. She didn’t have to. He’d be taking bets faster than ever. The nearer Abel came to death, the more people would pay. They would bet on when and where and how he’d fall. Would the dogs kill him? Would he shift and kill the dogs first?
Tension and explosive excitement rippled over the crowd. Cole waved his hand. He and his comrades leveled their sharp-pointed spears at Abel and moved in. Cole jabbed his spear into Abel’s ribs. Abel tensed, but he didn’t lift his head. He showed no sign of hearing the thunder all around him.
The dogs yapped at the ends of their chains. They strained so hard they lunged off their feet. The chains yanked them back and they lurched again. Cole delivered another merciless jab to Abel’s shoulder, then another to his thigh. Blood trickled from the wound.
Every stab sent a tremor through Abel’s body, but he held firm. He didn’t move or look up at his tormentors, not even when all three moved in together. They stuck him from all sides, in his arms and legs, in his body and feet, and even into his neck.
He lifted his massive arms from around his knees to cover his head. He tucked his forehead against his knees, and that’s where he stayed. He wouldn’t react no matter what they did. Cole spat out curses and chopped his hand through the air. He already put Abel through who knows what kind of torture trying to get him to react. Maybe he wanted Abel to be afraid, but no one could make him afraid without his consent. He would never show fear to these monsters.
Every jab of those needles dug into Onyx’s guts. Her stomach turned at the sight of blood flowing down Abel’s limbs and sides. What could she do? How could she help him now?
Cole lost his patience. He pitched his spear on the floor and strode back to the first dog. He unlatched its chain and turned it loose. The other men stood back to watch. The dog ripped across the floor. Its feet kicked up sawdust. It rocketed straight at Abel and hit him side-on. It bowled him over and gaped its fangs wide to maul him to pieces.
Abel rolled over on his shoulder. He careened up onto his feet just in time to meet the dog coming in for the kill. He snatched the dog out of mid-air and flung it away with all his strength. His face twisted into a mask of horror. His abs contracted with every breath, and his muscles strained against his sternum. Sweat stood out on his forehead, and it spattered in all directions when he spun around.
Cole marched from one dog to the next and turned all three of them loose. They converged on Abel at once. They bumped each other out of the way in their haste to get to him. Two went after his face from the right and the left. The third dog sank its teeth into his armpit and hung on.
Abel staggered back under their weight. He got one hand against each dog’s mouth to stop their snapping teeth gouging into his face, but he couldn’t hold himself upright. He hit the post, and there he stopped.
Cole scooped up his spear from the floor. He called to his friends and his forefinger sliced the air. The three men moved in together. They set to work jabbing Abel with their daggers while he fought for his very life against the dogs.
Cole’s spear ducked under Abel’s arm and pricked him in the ribs. Abel’s face contorted in agony, but he couldn’t slacken his efforts against the dogs. They yapped and snarled in his face. Their teeth cut mere inches from his eyes.
Cole and his friends kept up their assault for a few minutes, but Cole gave up before they could make a dent in Abel’s defense. Cole threw his spear away and went out of the ring. He came back with the same metal pipe Hunter used. He marched up to Abel and took aim at his head.
He never got a chance to swing before the dogs dragged Abel to the ground. Their writhing bodies hid him from sight. The dog attached to Abel’s armpit released its grip to dive for his leg. All three dogs scooted in circles in search of the best hold.
Cole wound back his pipe again and again, but every time, he had to lower it and find a better angle so he didn’t hit his dogs. Abel kicked and thrashed. He couldn’t throw off those dogs. Cole pointed to one of his buddies. The man dropped his spear and came forward, too.
The man approached Abel from the other side and kicked him in the ribs. Cole tossed his pipe aside, and both men busied themselves kicking Abel as hard as they could under the dogs’ legs. The dogs bit and growled louder and faster than ever. They wriggled every which way and even got in the men’s way.
Onyx couldn’t watch anymore. She would have run away, but she couldn’t get through the crush of bodies on all sides. She started to close her eyes when the dogs sailed away from Abel so fast no one could see what happened. One dog bounced off the floor. Another slammed into the wall. The third rolled over on its back. It came to rest on its stomach and looked around in surprise.
Something black rose out of the floor where Abel used to be. Cole and his friend tried to scoot out of the way, but they couldn’t move fast enough. Abel exploded out of his skin with such massive force that he elevated off the ground.
His arms flew back against the sawdust, and a raging black bear burst out of his chest. His human form vaporized, and the force of nature blasted upward to knock the men aside. Laughter, sobbing, yelling, exultant cheers rocked the basement. Onyx stared down at the bear. He tugged the chain against his leg while the men regrouped.
Cole shouted something into his friends’ ears, and they picked up their spears again. Cole snapped his fingers to call one of the dogs. While his head was turned, Abel looked over his shoulder at the chain fixed to the post behind him. He dragged the chain out to its farthest limit, but he couldn’t move with that thing attached to his leg.
Cole took hold of the dog’s collar and yelled something to the animal. The dog strained to get loose and charge Abel again. At that moment, Abel gave the chain a little yank. The pin holding the chain to his ankle popped, and he was free.
Onyx’s heart flipped over. Her teeth clacked together, and her knuckles ached from knitting her fingers together. She didn’t want to watch what happened next any more than she wanted to watch what happened before. Abel was free. What would he do now?
The bear narrowed his eyes at his adversaries just as the dog attacked him in a blinding rush. Abel opened his mouth and chomped. The dog’s head caved in, and it crumpled at his feet. Abel didn’t miss a beat. He barreled straight at Cole. He butted Cole in the chest with his forehead and knocked him flat.
Another dog jumped into the mix, and one of the men grabbed the pipe. They converged on Abel together, but nothing could stop his rampaging fury now. He plucked the dog out of mid-air. His jaws clamped around the dog’s throat, and he swung the floppy body in a circle. He smacked the man upside the head with the dog’s hind legs. The pipe flew away. The man spun around in a circle and fell full length across the floor.
Abel whipped the dog around the other way and let go. The mangled body hit the wall and left a bloody smear when it slid to the floor. The third dog flattened itself against the floor and whined when Abel glared at it.
The last man standing raced for the door. He yelled something over his shoulder, and the dog scampered after him. He fumbled getting the door open and disappeared. Abel planted his sturdy legs in the middle of the ring. He swept the battlefield with his small, piercing eyes. Nothing remained to bother him now.
Cole stretched out on his back with his eyes closed. Was he dead? A pool of blood spread around the other fallen man’s head. Abel arched back his neck and bellowed to the skies, but Onyx couldn’t hear him over the noise in the stands.
The fleeing man slammed the door closed, but it bounced out of its latch. One half-inch of space held it open. Abel eyed it, but before he could walk away, Onyx caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. That shouldn’t have struck her as odd with so many people waving their arms in every direction.
She glanced sideways to see the crowd part to let someone through. A lone man came to the parapet. It was Hunter. He leveled a rifle down at the floor and welded the butt into his shoulder.
Onyx didn’t hesitate. Hunter was going to kill her mate. Did she really just think those words? She never took the time to question. She couldn’t let him kill Abel. She launched herself at him with all her might. She threw one arm over the rifle barrel and tugged Hunter’s hand away from the trigger grip. She screamed into his face. “No!”
She yanked so hard she pulled his finger against the trigger. The gun exploded in her hands, and the bullet sang down into the ring. Hunter rounded on her. His lips quivered in rage. “You!”
Chapter 8
The bullet smashed into the wooden wall next to Abel’s head. He looked up into the stands and spotted Onyx struggling over the gun in Hunter’s arms. Hunter slapped his hand down on Onyx’s chest and shoved her away so hard she staggered back into a sea of bodies.
