40. Grizzly

40

GRIZZLY

" B ut you said she was asking for us," Addy argues with me. "I think we should at least be allowed to say hi and let her know we're here."

"Exactly my thoughts as well. Give us just an hour," Harlow pleads. "We don't get to talk as often as we used to, especially without the babies."

"Her room is dark and there's no sound coming from it. She's sleeping, and I don't want her disturbed. She was upset before we were called away. I don't want to cause her any more anxiety, so you can wait for morning to see her," I declare, my refusal not meant to be refuted.

"Since when do her needs come under your list of duties?" Harlow asks.

"Since she's been here. Everyone who enters here is under my protection, including smart-asses like you. You should know that as well as anyone. Go have some fun with Addy and stop making me grouchy," I command, though I'm smiling.

The women walk off, mumbling to each other, glancing back to give me unhappy glares. I'm pleased to note how much they care about Meredith, and I don't doubt they'll try to sneak back to her room at some point before they go to bed.

"What about my promise?" Trap asks. "I told her I was coming back. She's expecting me, and her face and kiss told me she wants me to come back. She needs what I'm offering."

"I was there. I know what was said and how she reacted. Believe me, if I thought she was awake and calmed down I'd be right behind you. Maybe she changed her mind because we took so long handling business. Maybe she's just tired and fell asleep. She's been so pale lately. Let her rest. She's not going anywhere," I tell him.

He sighs with frustration. I get it. I want to be in her bed tonight too. But it's not happening unless she issues the invitation.

Sleep doesn't come easily. The need to be with Meredith is all-consuming. I toss and turn until my body overrules my mind and I finally fall into a fitful sleep.

I wake up in a room that's pitch-black. My watch says it's only three a.m. It's a long time until sunrise. I turn over and try to fall back asleep, but I can't.

Something feels wrong. It's not me. I'm fine. Yet I can't shake the weirdness of what I feel. It's too quiet, or trouble's brewing.

I get up and grab some clothes. It's time to check on everyone else. If nothing is wrong with me then it has to be someone I care about—otherwise, my instincts wouldn't be screaming at me so loudly.

The one who matters most is Meredith, so it's her room I head for first. After all, I didn't get a chance to say goodnight. I hate the fact that after she was upset I didn't even bother to check on her. If she's sick or hurt I only have myself to blame.

I'm horrified to see that her bed is empty but messy. The closet is open, and the room sets off bad vibes inside me. Prickles of uneasiness run up my spine. I can't ignore them.

"Grizzly, you asshole," I say out loud to myself. "She's just with Trap or Dart, and you're fucking jealous. Calm your ass down and see if you're right before you go off the deep end and lose your damn mind."

I pound on Dart's door. He shouts back, "Stop that shit! I'm trying to sleep in here!"

I rip the door open, and he leaps from the bed as naked as the day he was born. He doesn't try to hide his obvious arousal. His dreams must be awfully good.

"What the fuck, Grizzly?!"

"Meredith isn't in her room. Have you seen her?" I ask with alarm now that I see Dart is alone.

"Do you see her in my bed? Have you lost your mind?" he asks. "If you're that panicked, check with Trap. He was chomping at the bit because you wouldn't let him disturb her earlier. Maybe she went to him because she really did want to be with him."

He must see that his words don't ease anything in me because he begins to get dressed. He follows me down the hallway, skipping on one foot while he tries to yank a boot onto the other one.

Trap doesn't hear the pounding. He's too heavy a sleeper. But if Meredith is in his room she should be calling out to us. She's not. I burst through the door and shove Trap out of the bed and onto the floor where he startles awake screaming filthy curses.

"Meredith seems to be missing," Dart explains before I can continue with my breakdown. "Grizzly thinks something bad is up. Now that I see you're alone I think he might be right."

"Then we find her," Trap agrees.

We check the bathrooms, the kitchen, and her room again just to be sure. She's nowhere, and both Addy's and Harlow's rooms are in darkness. No light leaks out from the bottom of their doors.

"It's time to get the bikes and look for clues outside. I don't like this at all. If she's run from us then we have to find out why. But I don't think she has. I've got a gut feeling something I'm not going to like went down tonight, and she needs us," I tell them.

They follow without speaking. My gut feelings are usually spot on, so they trust what I'm saying.

I stare at the ground as I walk, hoping to see footprints that will lead me to Meredith. But what I notice are tire tracks. The tread doesn't match our bikes. The weird feeling I started out with grows to immense fear.

"Someone was here. Take a look," I order the others.

At that same moment, Trap lets out a cry that sends shock waves up my spine.

"Meredith! Grizzly, hurry!"

I shoot past Dart, who's already running. I fall to my knees where Trap is holding Meredith in his arms. She's knocked out. There's blood on her head, the side and back both. Bruises are turning deep purple on her arms and neck. Her nails are torn and ragged, covered in blood.

The scream of anger and agony that comes from down deep inside me scares the birds out of the trees. Lights come on in the clubhouse. Dart trips over a rock when he jumps backward. Trap never lets go of Meredith.

The scream continues until I hear Trap speak. It brings me back to sanity, along with the rushing feet that are coming our way.

"Meredith, wake up," Trap begs as I check her pulse.

I'm relieved to know her pulse is steady, and her breathing is too. But my chest hurts. My heart is aching because of what she must have gone through while I slept. She could have been killed and we'd have never known it. Why the hell are my instincts so slow?

"I shouldn't have stopped you from waking her up," I admit to Trap. "She'd still be fine if you'd been with her."

"The blame isn't on you. It's not on any of us. I don't understand how they got to her. Was her room trashed? Did they get inside?"

"The door to the closet was open and the bed unmade. That's it. No signs of a struggle or break-in. She had to have been out here. But why? And how did they know where she was? Or was it just a sudden opportunity they took advantage of?"

"They must have been watching us. They're good, really good. Otherwise, they'd have been seen," Trap says, brushing Meredith's hair off her pale face.

My own hands are twitching, wanting desperately to pick her up and hold her close. A part of me wants to give her some of my life force just to wake her up and make her okay.

"She fought the bastard," Dart says. "She didn't give up easy."

"She wouldn't. She's tougher than she looks," Harlow says as she steps up behind us and overhears Dart's comment. "But she needs a doctor."

Trap, Dart and I glance at each other, sending a silent message that none of us can show Harlow how much Meredith means to us and praying she didn't hear more than she should have. She's still in the dark about our relationship with Meredith, and now isn't the time to say anything about it.

"I called an ambulance," Addy states. Tears are streaming down her face, which has turned completely ghostly white. "This is beyond what we can fix."

"Don't move her. Her neck may be injured, or her spine," Harlow states. "Trap, you shouldn't have lifted her head like that."

The anguish in his face is quite clear, but Harlow doesn't understand it's because of the feelings he has for Meredith. Thankfully, she believes it's due to his mistake, one that might lead to her being paralyzed.

She puts a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "I'd have done the same thing. Any of us would have. It's instinct."

Fighting my emotions, I begin shouting orders. "Find out where these tracks lead. Do any of you know who has this type of tread on their bike tires? If not, figure it the hell out!"

"Where were the fucking guards when this happened? Why wasn't an alarm sounded?" Dart asks the question I should have thought about.

"It was shift change, boss," a shaking prospect speaks up. "There was a lot of noise as we switched places, and the bikes were roaring in all directions. We didn't hear anything. I swear if we'd heard a scream we'd have helped her."

"She wasn't left in the patrol area, Grizzly," Trap reminds me. "Why would they think to look for anything back here when everything got quiet after the shift change. Hang on to your temper. Save it for when we find the fuckers."

Sirens split the night as the ambulance arrives. Meredith is taken from us, and we can only watch in silence. The farce of pretending she's just any woman we protect is almost too much to handle. It has to come to an end soon.

I take a step toward the moving ambulance, and Addy grabs me by the arm. She yanks at me until I give in and step away from the others with her. I have to because she's shaking so hard and crying.

"What's wrong besides the obvious?" I ask. "Do you have information on who did this, or why Meredith was outside? If so you better speak up. Your tears won't save you if you're hiding something from me."

I know lashing out at her is wrong, but I need answers. I'm not handling this well at all. I'm a hard man who has no problem dealing with torture and killing when I'm angry, yet this is rendering me down to a mass of nerves and sheer terror. Now I know I told Meredith the truth when I said I loved her.

"I'm sorry," I say to Addy. "I know without a doubt that if you had that kind of information you'd have said so long ago. I'm just overwhelmed with anger that someone got onto the property without us knowing and hurt an innocent woman."

"Don't try to hide your feelings with me. Meredith told me about all of you. She said you told her you love her. I can tell it's true. You're doing pretty damn good at hiding it from the others, but since I know the truth I can see it."

"She shouldn't have said anything," I growl. "I need to get to the hospital. I don't have time to weep on your shoulder. Why are you shaking? This isn't your fault, and we've got to believe Meredith will be okay."

"Because I have been hiding something from you," she sobs. "I don't know who did this or why she was outside, but she told me a secret and asked me to keep it until she got the courage to say something herself. She's been so afraid of how all of you will react to the news that she's practically made herself sick. She couldn't deal with it alone anymore, so she told me."

Heat rushes through me. My face burns as the blood goes to my head. My hands fist. If Addy doesn't tell me the secret soon I may have to shake it out of her.

"What. Is. The. Secret?" I pronounce each word separately through gritted teeth.

Addy steps back from me a few paces before whispering so softly I can barely hear the words. "Meredith is pregnant. I think all of you need to know that right now, and the doctors need to know too."

A sickness I can't put a name to makes me dizzy. My eyes burn and my head aches. Meredith is pregnant? I can't comprehend the truth. It's too much.