Page 39 of Bear

“Uh-huh, they fucked you up good, huh?” Saint says, his eyes perusing my scars. He doesn’t look at them the way Jupiter did, though—not with a soft exploratory gaze. He’s looking at them as if they are a trophy.They’re not.

I shove the clothing at Mako and yank off my boots, tossing them at the corpse. They have brain matter and blood all over them, so they’ll have to be burned too. Fucking asshole just cost me a whole new wardrobe. I’ll be sure to hit him up for the bill when I get to hell.

Mako passes me the clothing and I pull on the too tight jeans and hoodie. I can barely move. The brothers laugh.

“It’s like someone poured the Stay Puft man into a tube top.”

“Fuck you, cunt features.”

Sterling bends and lifts Jupiter in his arms in a honeymoon hold. I track their movements all the way to the door. I make a move to follow, but Ruin steps in front of me, “Uh-uh-uh. Where do you think you’re going?”

“I have brain matter in my hair. I’m going to shower.”

“Let him go,” Sterling says, returning from outside, sans Jupiter.

“You left her alone out there?”

“She’ll holler if she needs us.”

“Assuming one of those fuck knuckles doesn’t jab her in the neck with a needle or put a fuckin’ rag soaked in chloroform over her face. Yeah, I’m sure she will holler.”

“I don’t want her in here seeing this any longer than she already did.”

“That makes two of us, but they came after her earlier tonight. Who’s to say they won’t do it again?”

“You. Congratulations, you’re on babysitting duty. Jupiter’s your responsibility now.” Ruin grins. “I mean, who better to keep her safe than a big, badass Navy SEAL, right?”

“Did you say, ‘Keep her safe or kill her?’ ’Cause it could go either way with Tink and me,” I mutter.

“I don’t think you really need to hear it, but she means a lot to us, so I’m gonna echo what Sterling said earlier. If you screw her over, we will fucking kill you.” Ruin shoves a set of keys at my chest, already perfectly at home with barking orders like he’s the prez barely a month after he was patched in. I shake my head and take the keys. “Take Saint’s truck. I’ll swing past her house and make sure her brothers find another place to stay for the night. We’ve already got Bobby Ray at the clubhouse.”

I arch a brow. “Come again.”

“That trouble Jupiter was in wasn’t so much about the garage going under; it was her brother getting into bed with the wrong people. He’s been running drugs for White Nation and the Bayou Bastards MC through Kings turf.”

“Fuck!” I scrub a hand over my beard.

“Chaos is pissed,” Sterling says.

“I don’t know why Prez is pissed.” Saint stubs out his cigarette in the mess of blood and bone shards. “I’m the one who has to babysit that stupid fuck for the rest of the night.”

“Jupiter can’t go home, and she can’t be at the clubhouse because she’ll lose her shit once she finds out we have Bobby Ray. Dad has reached his limit with the Jones family. So I guess that leaves the cabin.” Ruin shoots me a wicked grin and claps me on the shoulder. “Better hurry. Jupiter doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

“Thanks for keeping my ass in the dark over this, boys.” I scowl and brush past him, heading for the exit.

“We just found out,” he calls after me. “Bear?”

“What?”

“I’m glad you were here.”

I nod and open the door, mentally preparing myself. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to babysit my little brat, but a part of me loathes the idea of giving her unfettered access to the broken parts of me. And she’ll see them. There’s no doubt about that, because I can’t switch off the night terrors and the PTSD that sometimes sees me rocking in a corner, addlebrained with fear, abusing my body, and adding to the collection of scars that I earned on the Teams. I can’t protect her from that, which makes me just as dangerous as the men hunting her.

---