Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Jesse

There was something wrong with this Phil guy.

I saw it when he was fall-down drunk in the middle of the day, then again when he thought he could bully Greg into reducing the cost of the repair bill. This was a man who thought he could push people around, move them right where he wanted them.

I knew that because I'd done that often enough myself.

But sitting at a bar, nursing the same fucking beer for hours, the glass well and truly warm as he stared at Daisy? Yeah, I'd never done that. I had a girl to go home to, and then I didn't. Trying to find someone to replace Maddie hadn't worked out really well for me. Hooking up with someone else hadn't looked like this, though. Phil watched Daisy's every move with a weird kind of hunger that made the leers of every other prick in the place seem like nothing.

"Your shot."

I spun around with a silent snarl to find Greg standing there, meeting my gaze with equanimity. Probably because he could've jammed his pool cue so far up my arse I'd have to open my mouth so he could chalk the end.

"Right, got it."

I leaned over the pool table, trying to assess the balls and find the best shot to take, but Greg just snickered.

"Head's not in the game." He nodded to the bar. "Wants to be somewhere else. She's pretty."

"Not as pretty as you, but…"

One of the other foxes I worked with ruffled my hair, forcing me to shove him off.

"Fuck off, it's not like that."

"What's it like then?"

I knew this look from Greg. He'd stare right through you, into the depths of your soul if you weren't careful, but I didn't want him to see this. That turning my back on Phil felt like turning around on a feral wolf or a bear or something. You could almost feel their hot breath on the nape of your neck.

"There's something not right about that bloke," I said, then took my shot, sending the green ball spinning uselessly to the centre of the table.

"Got that, did you?" Greg gave me a slow nod. "Pretty perceptive for a human, bear boy. Cunt stinks."

"Fear, death, and not his own," one of the other guys said, collecting up our empty beer glasses, ready to return them to the bar. "He's bad fucking news. Someone needs to keep an eye on Daisy."

"I will." I left my cue propped against the pool table. "My heads not in the game. Someone else can take over."

"Because you're in looove…" another guy cackled.

But that wasn't it. Daisy was gorgeous, but I didn't feel the pull towards her like I had Maddie. Looking at the barmaid was like looking at a perfectly restored vintage car. I could admire her beauty while knowing I was never, ever going to get my hands on her. Right now, I focussed on carrying the empty glasses over, both Phil and Daisy looking up as I approached, but with completely different expressions.

"Hey, Jesse." She blushed when I got close, then took the glasses from me. "You didn't have to do that. I was coming over to grab the empties."

To give her an excuse to get the fuck away from this prick.

"Saved you the trip," I said, pushing them closer.

"So, is there anything else I can get you?"

I saw it all, everything she was offering then, both spoken and unspoken, and so did Phil. Those piss holes in the snow he called eyes narrowed, his mouth forming a thin line. Wanting him even more fucked off, I put on my best smile and answered Daisy.

"Let me drive you home tonight?"

I knew what she was thinking. I could almost smell the sweet scent of her surprised arousal as she stared at me.

"Oh, OK, yeah, that'd be amazing. I get off around twelve."

"I'll be here," I promised, raising my voice just enough to make sure that dickhead heard me, then I rattled off the drink order.

"I'll have another beer," Phil said, shoving his warm one away from him with so much disgust it slopped on the bar.

"In a sec," Daisy replied, barely sparing him a look over her shoulder. My order was prioritised, each drink lined up before I paid for the lot, then I turned and carried the drinks back to the pool table.

"She's into you, that girl," Greg observed as he sipped his fresh beer. "If you come in late to work tomorrow morning, I won't dock your pay."

"Daisy's not the girl for me," I replied as the others made ribald jokes. I met my boss' green eyed gaze head on. "I'm not sure any girl is anymore."

"Roxy will be pleased to hear that," he said, turning back to the table to take his shot, but that had me frowning.

"Why the fuck would Rox give a shit about my love life?" I asked, but he just shrugged.

"Why the fuck would she ring me up, begging me to take on a new apprentice when I had no need for one?"

Mum always said don't answer a question with a question, but that was all I was getting. Greg potted his first ball, then his second, moving around the table to finish the game in a series of economical strikes of his cue. The bloke who'd taken over from me groaned, but then the next competitor racked the balls, ready for the next game.

By the time midnight rolled around, most of my companions had gone home, and so had much of the bar. Not Phil, though. He sat with the beer he'd ordered when I was standing there, only taking a few sips from it. I still had a pool cue in my hand as Daisy called for last drinks, starting the closing procedure, and I didn't put it away. They made a reasonable weapon of sorts, and if push came to shove, I'd shove the end of mine right into Phil's face, breaking his nose. I almost wanted that to happen, but he stayed right where he was, pushing his glass forward to be emptied when Daisy and one of the other barmaids cleared away all the glasses.

She wasn't his focus.

The cues were subtle, but there if you needed to look. When Daisy bent over to get something from behind the bar, many a bloke stared into the deep V of her cleavage, but not Phil. It was when she was closing out the till that he really perked up. Phil looked like he counted each bill out, just like she did. I was moving without a thought, coming to stand by the bar when she looked up.

"You want the stools up on the bar?"

"You don't have to do that," she said with a shy smile.

"It's OK. My brother…" My throat threatened to close at the mention of Bjorn. I hadn't heard from him since I'd left town, and why would he contact me? I'd fucked him over in the only way I could. "My family owns a bar in the city."

"Yeah?" Daisy cocked a hip. "Maybe I'll have to go and have a drink there next time I'm in town."

I nodded in response, moving fast to stack stool after stool on the bar. Part of me liked the way it created a wall between her and Phil, though the stools wouldn't provide any real protection if anyone tried to attack her. I kept on stacking stools until I came to his.

"Look at you." His sneer was supposed to intimidate me or something, but there was nothing a weaselly little prick like Phil Jackson could do that would hurt me. "Fucking beta cuck. You think doing her work for her will get you into her pants?"

"That what you think?" I stepped closer, making clear just how much younger, taller and fitter I was than this fuck. "Why am I not surprised that the only time you do anything for anyone is when it's so you get something in return?"

I was exactly the same, I realised. I'd done this kind of shit to Maddie more times than I could remember, and that flush of shame turned into something hot and angry when I stared Phil down. "Well, last drinks have been called and yours is poured away, so off you toddle."

I waved him away like one might a child, the idiot jerking himself to his feet in response. He barely stood as tall as my shoulder, and that had him turning beet red. His nostrils flared and he snorted like a wounded bull, right before he pulled away.

"Don't want to hang around here anyway. If you cunts would just fix my fucking car, I could get out of here."

"Gotta get that deposit together first…"

I meant that as a snappy retort, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I looked over at the till. Daisy was halfway through counting the ten-dollar notes, staring at everything taking place. While I don't doubt a dick like Phil would've liked to get his rocks off with Daisy, what he needed was far more prosaic.

The money in the register.

"Finish closing up," I told her in a firm but gentle voice. "I'll go and lock up all the doors."

I'm not sure if the publican would've approved of my methods, but I moved everyone on, getting them out the door, their glasses whisked away.

"Thanks," she said when I came out of the kitchen, after putting each glass through the washer. "You're better help than Kelly is."

"Hey!" the other woman said, retrieving the mop bucket.

"We've just gotta finish up the floors and then…" Daisy's hand slid down my shirt, plucking at the buttons. "You can take me home."

"I'll sweep," I told Kelly, stepping away from Daisy's grip, "if you mop."

"You got it," the other woman replied.

About half an hour later I saw Kelly to her car and then Daisy and I slid into the cab of the truck I was borrowing from Greg. The silence was a strange one, heavy and laden with subtext.

"I—"

"What's that stone?"

Daisy pointed to the small charm hanging from the keyring. Greg had put it on with a snicker, because it was a metal image of a bear, a greenish stone in its paws.

"Just a joke." He'd meant it to be a cruel reminder of which keys were mine. I was the son of bear shifters, so a bear charm it was. "The fellas, they call me… It doesn't matter." I turned the keys in the ignition, the old truck rattling to life. "Where am I dropping you off?"

She gave me her address and I eased the car forward, turning right.

Coober Pedy is a tiny town, so it didn't take me long to reach her place. I killed the engine and turned to face her only to find Daisy had already taken her seatbelt off and was leaning forward. Those beautiful tits were all on display, but I didn't rise to the bait. They were like works of art, able to be observed for their beauty, but you didn't put your dirty mitts on them.

"Did you want to come in for one last drink?" she asked, and I sighed. My hand rubbed over my face. I felt impossibly tired. It felt like I'd been here before, and a well-worn road was laid out before me. I could take her inside, then to bed, ensuring she was safe from any threats outside, then rut her hard, fast, getting my rocks off and hers too, if I had a mind to.

But then what?

If fucking barmaids solved all my problems, I'd be the happiest man alive right now, and I wasn't.

"That bloke at the bar, he's got me worried," I confessed. "The way he's been looking at you, it isn't right." She flushed then, thinking she was getting some big declaration of attraction, but that wasn't it. Daisy was just some girl to me, but even some girl didn't deserve to be hurt by a creepy fuck. "Until he leaves town, I'll pick you up at the end of your shift, bring you home, like one of the bouncers should've and…"

"And?"

That seductive little purr she let out each time a guy approached the bar felt different in an enclosed space.

"And I'll stay out here, make sure you get inside safe." The light died in her eyes, but I forged on. "Lock your doors behind you and your windows. I'll give you my number, in case you need?—"

"Don't worry about it."

She was hurt and I hated that, but I didn't know what else to do. Because the longer I looked at her, the more I saw another barmaid. One with beautiful red hair and green eyes that rivalled the crystal on my keychain, who just like Daisy, saw through my shit and wasn't too impressed by it. This girl wanted nothing more to do with me, obviously thinking I was leading her on, but I waited and watched for the lights to flick on in her windows. Hers was the only silhouette I saw. As the night air breezed through the car, I felt a shiver as the sweat cooled on my skin and that had me looking down.

Were my arms always that fucking hairy? I turned my forearm one way then the other, the fair hair gone from blond to white right now. It had to be the moonlight bleaching it pale, didn't it? Because as I looked closer, that white gleam faded. I glanced up and saw the moon had gone behind a cloud and worked out that had to be it.

Because I'd been through this before.

When I was a kid, I was sure I saw white fur prickle across my skin, my nails lengthening. All preparation for when I'd meet my bear, Mum assured me. Her warm words were like a lifeline then, helping me keep my head above water through adolescence, but now? They felt like a death sentence. All my hopes and dreams had died because I invested myself too much in her assumptions about me.

Nelly didn't see me, not really. It was herself that stood there in ragged clothing, with filthy feet, when I was first brought to her home. It was her own inner child or some bullshit that she cared for. She had to believe that I'd have a bear, that I'd be the one that would find a sleuth and earn my mate's favour, because that way I got all the same things she did to get her out of her shitty situation. Imagine her disappointment when it was her own son that got all of that. In her mind, he didn't deserve it. She'd muttered something to that effect to me often enough. He had it easy. He grew up with a loving family in a nice home. He didn't need a bear.

But he got one anyway.

And me? I was just some fuckup sitting outside a girl's place like an abandoned dog and that had me turning the ignition again before driving forward. My job for the night was done and it was time to rest again, just to get back on this fucking hamster wheel all over again.