Bear The Flame (Firebear Brides 2) (5 page)

Rose didn’t mind one bit. She’d been enjoying her time with Redmond, even if they’d mostly behaved around one another. Though she wanted desperately to rip his clothes off every time she saw him, she’d been containing her enthusiasm and spending it on getting to know him instead. She barely knew a damn thing about him, after all.

Hanging out with Redmond had at least managed to take her mind off of Cole and Conrad so far. Luckily, Kenner hadn’t been sighted either, though Redmond had made her give him a complete description of the fox shifter. He’d made a point of letting Shifter Grove know that they had a bit of a baddie on the loose, and that it needed to be checked on at some point. So far, no news—and Rose considered that good news!

“So what’s going on today?” she asked, trying to distract herself from the desire of doing horrible, unspeakable, graphic things to Redmond right in view of the kitchen of Hamilton House.

“I was supposed to help Royce start mending the cattle yards today, but we got a call five minutes ago and it looks like I need to take a drive. You up to come with me?” he asked, his blue eyes glinting with that clever mischief that she’d come to quickly like so much.

“Sure, I’d love to!” she said, uncurling from Redmond’s lap to his great disappointment. Laughing, she beckoned for him to get up as well. “Come on, silly. We have to go before we waste the day!” she quipped, getting grumbles about unfairness and seizing the moment in return.

They grabbed a quick breakfast, stealing some of the pancakes Tiana had made, and packed themselves into Redmond’s rental. He was a real race-car driver on the roads, tearing up the dirt like a maniac. But Rose found herself feeling completely at ease with him at the steering wheel. His madness was tightly controlled and the insane risks he took were carefully calculated. He was… fun. And Rose had missed fun.

When Redmond pulled up at a seemingly random patch of forest and parked the car, Rose shot him a questioning glance.

“Did we really need to come here or is this some elaborate ruse to get me alone in the forest again?” she asked dubiously, not sure which option she currently preferred.

Screw it, you know you want him to jump you,
she thought with a smirk.

“We actually needed to come here. But if you ask nicely, I might ravish you later,” Redmond said with a wink, jumping out of the truck.

Rose followed his lead and they trekked into the forest, keeping close to Redmond. There was something about his presence that made her feel completely safe and at ease, like nothing bad could happen to her if he was around. So far, it had been true, too.

She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but when they came up to the scene, Rose was taken aback. The gorgeous forest that she’d admired as she’d driven through the area had been burned to a crisp on this patch of land, the dry grass and trees scorched and singed. The smell was what caught her as the most surprising. Every inhalation brought a lungful of charred earth and woods and it broke her heart.

“What happened here?” Rose asked, trailing behind Redmond as he gingerly walked through the grounds.

“A fire,” he said simply, drawing a snort out of Rose.

“I get that, but why?”

“That’s why we’re here,” he said, and his blue eyes held more focus than she’d ever seen them.

Gone was the fun, cocky guy she’d been fooling around with. In his place stood a man, a real professional, and if things weren’t unfair enough already, Rose considered Redmond even more attractive for it. He worked methodically, going through the outskirts of the fire first and then moving inward until they stood at equal distances from all the borders of the damage. He looked thoughtful and Rose didn’t dare say a word as he crouched down and inspected a burn pattern on one of the tall oak trees that would now have to come down.

“I don’t think this is an accident,” he said, touching the bark and then bringing his fingers to his nose.

“How come?” Rose asked, trying to see what he was seeing.

“Just a hunch. But I think I can detect an accelerant as well. At least it doesn’t smell like it should. I’m no authority on these manners, but I know someone who is and I think it’s time to bring him in. We were lucky that the locals caught it early. Argo and Connor live close to here and they smelled the smoke. They could put out the fire between them and that’s what kept us safe from a bigger disaster, but this isn’t okay.”

Redmond rose up to his full height and snaked his arm around Rose, pulling her to him. She didn’t fight the closeness, resting her hands on his chest and reveling in the contact.

“Seems like you’re not the only one in trouble around here, Miss Kemp,” he said softly, leaning in to steal a peck from her lips.

She gave him the kiss gladly, though in the back of her mind, thoughts were running back and forth quickly. It always seemed like wherever she went, trouble was soon to follow. Shifter Grove was no different. Not that she thought highly enough of herself to guess that the wildfires had anything to do with her. It was just an unfortunate coincidence.

“Do you think there’s an arsonist running around?” she asked, looking up at Redmond.

“Maybe. I don’t want to cause panic by saying things that may or may not be true. We have to get home and call up Ragnar. He’s the guy for stuff like this and Royce has been meaning to get him down here anyway.”

“But wouldn’t it be a wasted effort if you don’t intend to stay in Shifter Grove anyway?” Rose asked, regretting the words as soon as they left her mouth.

Redmond gave her a look that was hard to read, but he took her hand then and she followed him out of the miserable patch of forest. It would take a long time before something could live on that land again, or at least until tall trees would block out the sun again.

“We can’t see the future, Rose. Might as well play things by the ear for as long as it makes sense to. And right now, we have fire trouble. To deal with that, we need the right kind of firebear,” Redmond said, smirking.

They walked the rest of the way out of the woods in silence, Rose’s hand safely tucked in Redmond’s. It struck her as a little bit silly how entirely good she felt around Redmond. It wasn’t just that he was such a self-assured, solid piece of man, but it was the way he held himself around her too. He was fun, caring, and mischievous, and she never felt like she could get bored, or bore him for that matter. It was an equal partnership in that sense, and that was something that Rose had been missing in her life.

Her parents had had a happy marriage for more than thirty years. Admiring them, she’d always thought that she’d have the same. But high school came and went without a defining love story like her parents’, and in college Rose was too busy trying to work herself through it to really focus on romance. After that, well, there had been Kenner, and that didn’t exactly end well. It was hard dating when your ex would scare off all but the creepiest of guys, and the ones who didn’t care that there was a powerful lunatic after her were not the kind of men Rose saw herself spending time with.

But here was Redmond, tall and secure and unfazed by the small issue of a fox shifter constantly on Rose’s tail. She tried not to get too caught up in the moment, reminding herself that this was just a silly fling and the Hamiltons were just being nice to her and letting her weather the storm until she had to go back to Philly. Yet in moments like those, with Redmond leading the way, it was hard not to find herself falling hard and fast for him.

When they made it out to the road, Redmond’s expression fell. Rose saw the flash of taillights as the car rounded the corner and sped away from them down the dirt road. They stopped to look at Redmond’s truck in front of them, its windows bashed in and big scarlet letters marking a message meant as much for him as it was for her.

KEEP AWAY FROM ROSE. SHE’S KENNER’S PROPERTY
.

For a second, Rose was surprised that the damn raccoons had had the gall to come so close to Redmond to begin with. The face he was making and the way she saw his biceps bulge through his jacket told Rose in so few words that he was not the kind of bear to mess with. But maybe the raccoon shifters had more bravado than they had good sense.

“I’m going to have to fuck those two up,” Redmond said calmly, turning toward Rose.

He cracked a smile and Rose giggled, shaking her head despite her mortification at the situation at hand.

“I can’t believe they’d do something like this.”

“Oh, I consider it a compliment.”

“How come?” Rose asked, only to be crushed against Redmond’s body again and kissed deeply and at length.

“It means they can see what I can see—that there’s something going on between us and that it’s getting serious. They can trash my truck as much as they want to. It doesn’t mean that I’m letting you go anywhere too far from me,” he whispered between kisses.

Rose’s heart swelled. This was getting big, and fast. She wasn’t sure whether to jump for joy or to take a step back and spend a good solid moment worrying about it.

Is it moving too fast?
 

CHAPTER SIX

Redmond

It had been three days now since Rose showed up at Hamilton House and almost took Redmond’s heart along with her when she tried to run away from him. Now, he couldn’t believe that he’d ever hesitated when Tiana told him to go after her. Dammit, it was so obvious the longer he stared at the situation at hand. She was the one. That mythical beauty that every shifter was destined to meet once in their life, who he was supposed to love, protect, and cherish. His Rose, right down to her thorns.

Even in the midst of possible tragedy and worry, he couldn’t keep his mind off of her. Granted, things weren’t too bad right now. He looked to his left, watching Diesel the local sheriff and two werebear twins whose names he hadn’t quite memorized shoveling up dirt to make a fire line. Royce was to his right, preparing the chemical extinguishers to be easy to grab and reload.

There was another fire raging not too far from Shifter Grove, though on the other side this time. It was coming down fast, getting close to Warren’s lumber mill, and that could spell disaster. Grumbling under his breath, equally about having to be away from Rose—who was safe and sound with Tiana at Austin’s Texas, a downtown bar—and about the extent of the fires lately, Redmond grabbed an extinguisher and strapped it to his back.

“We need to move in before this thing picks up strength again,” he said, marred with soot and painted black head to toe from the smoke. “Grab your gear and let’s go,” he said, Royce being the first one to join the ranks.

Though both of them were fire chiefs back in Boston and Los Angeles, Royce easily allowed Redmond to take charge of the situation. It wasn’t lost on Redmond and he understood why—while Royce was the undisputed Alpha of the Hamiltons at this point, he also had a lot more to lose, and he was more distracted between the Hamilton House and Tiana’s pregnancy.

It was better to let someone with a clearer head call the shots, even though Redmond would have been lying if he said that his heart was entirely in the game.

Rose was constantly at the fringes of his consciousness, and damn if it wasn’t hard to concentrate on anything but the thought of running his tongue over her luscious curves again. The group of men formed around him, and after a quick explanation of what they could expect to encounter, Redmond led them in around the fringes of the fire. They’d made several trips like it already and though the fire wasn’t too massive, it was still dangerous and could spread wildly if the wind were to change.

“Split up,” he called, as Royce took half the men forward while Redmond hung on one side of the forward-moving inferno.

When everybody was at their places, Redmond called out. In relative unison, the chemical extinguishers were unleashed and the foam covered the fire rapidly, putting it out. It only worked for smaller fires like that and if the area got caught in a really big accident then all bets would be off. However, using Redmond’s and Royce’s knowledge and the work ethic of Shifter Grove locals, it was manageable so far.

They used the thick fire-smothering blankets where they could. Battle was right behind them, cutting down several trees that were still mid-flame so they could be put out. After about an hour more of work, the plot of forest that had been burning with an open flame was now simply smoldering. Exhausted, Redmond and the rest of the crew walked out of the woods, letting a clean-up crew led by Warren take over for the rest of the day.

“Good job, guys. We’d be screwed without you,” Warren said, clapping Redmond on the back and giving Royce an appreciative nod.

“No problem. It’s what we do,” Redmond said, grinning.