Page 63 of Handcuffed to the Bear

“Jack!”

Eva bumped against the boat, rocking it. Avery sank both hands into Jack’s fur, trying to get a grip, but he could no more move that mountain of sodden grizzly bear than he could fly.

But Eva did something with her flippers, bucking her body, and Jack rolled across the railing, flopping on the deck.

“Hey, man,” Avery murmured, desperately trying to find a pulse in the loose skin under the bear’s great jaws. “Don’t make me do CPR on a grizzly bear. Trust me, that’s not a bonding experience we need to have.”

Jack saved him from that fate by coughing hoarsely and then vomiting up several gallons of seawater onto the boat’s deck.

“You with me, buddy?”

Jack stirred weakly, then slumped down. It was an answer of sorts.

“Can you shift?”

A pause, then the shaggy head moved slightly in a negative.

“Well, this complicates things,” Avery muttered. With an arm thrown over Jack’s bulk, he shouted up to the helicopter, “He can’t shift. How are we going to get him in?”

Eva’s sleek black-and-white orca head thrust through the waves. She pushed herself upward with a thrust of her tail, then shifted in mid-leap, so her human hands caught the railing and she pulled herself gracefully aboard. It was as neat a maneuver as if she’d practiced it a thousand times. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Jack’s too hurt to shift and I’m not sure how we’re going to fit him into the helicopter.”

“Well, that’s easy.” Eva contemptuously nudged Derek with her foot; he glared back at her. “Don’t forget we’re going to have the perps with us—some of whom are still at large. Mila and I can stay here, guard the one we’ve got and see if we can round up the others, while the rest of you get these two back to base.”

“Mila and you, huh?” Dev had arrived, lowered on a rope, just in time to hear this. “I get to miss the fun? And the possibility of explosions? Did I piss in your Cheerios lately, boss?”

Eva snorted. “Sorry, tiger boy, we need your paramedic skills on the helo a lot more than we need your, I admit well-practiced, talent at making things blow up.”

“Awwww,” Dev said. He handed her a bundle of clothing.

“If you’re good, Dev, we’ll blow something up just for you,” Mila called down.

“What about Fallon?” Avery asked. He had not missed theone we’ve gotreference to prisoners. “Roger, I mean. Did he get away?”

Eva glanced up from pulling on her tac vest. “Not ... exactly. Let’s just say that when orca meets lion, lion loses.”

Dev gave a sharp laugh, even as his hands worked busily, checking Jack’s vitals. “And you people callmea loose cannon. Stiers is gonna love you, Kemp. And the paperwork you cause.” Looking over Jack’s bulk at Avery, he said more quietly, “We need to get him evac’d, Hollen. Right away.”

Mila called down, “Hey guys, Bill says he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to transfer a passenger that large from one moving vessel to another. What say we land first, andthenfigure this out?”

“Fair point. Let’s roll.” Eva took hold of Derek by the scruff of his human body and hauled him below to get the engines started.

Avery gripped a handful of Jack’s thick, wet fur and gave it a little shake. “Hey, stay with me, okay? You hung on all this time on your own. Checking out now—that’d be just plainrude, man.”

* * *

Jack drifted in and out. The next thing he was aware of, he’d shifted, suddenly and without warning. His body bucked in a seizure. He heard a babble of voices, people sounding worried and frantic.

Then time skipped again, and he was huddled under a pile of blankets. A low thumping echoed through his chest, and he came back to himself enough to understand that it was the steady chop of a helicopter, carrying him somewhere.

They came for us.

But close on the heels of this realization was a new concern.Casey!Had they gotten her out, too? The last time he remembered seeing her, she’d been injured and trapped on the boat with Derek. Was she all right?

“Casey,” he tried to say. “Casey!” It came out impossibly garbled.

“Hey, hey, settle down. It’s okay.”

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