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- Herausgeber: Sandy Shores Publishing
- Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
A mission that haunts him, a little girl who needs him, and a stranger who won’t leave him alone.
Existing isn’t living, but for Ezra Havlin, existing is enough. Once a member of Para-Force, Ezra was in the midst of the action, adventure around every corner as the paranormal special ops team protected those unable to protect themselves. That is, until one mission went sideways, and a child in his custody was murdered.
On the outskirts of Bull Creek, Josh Rayburn discovers a hermit living off the bare necessities of life, if that could be called living. Now, Josh is determined to bring this sullen hermit into the Bull Creek family whether the man wants it or not.
However, for Ezra, the past returns with a gut punch when members of the Para-Force team arrives with another case and a another child. Can Josh convince Ezra that people are a vital part of the Bear Necessities of life in time to save the little girl’s life?
Read the entire series:
Bull Creek Chronicles
Alpha Rising
Panther Hunted
Bear Necessities
Destined Mates
Magic's Mate
Mate's Appeal
Mate's Touch
My Lover's Mate
My Mate's Wife
Fortune's Mate
Bull Creek Holidays
No Place to Hyde
Sassy Claws
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Bear Necessities
by Robbie Cox
First Edition
Copyright @ 2019 by Robbie Cox
All rights reserved
www.feelgoodreads.com
Cover art & graphics by Beautiful Mess Graphics
Editing by CTS Editing & Weis Editing/Proofreading Services
Formatting by CJC Formatting
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are strictly products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be reproduced in any form, except in assisting in a review. This book may not be resold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
For up-to-date news on Robbie’s latest releases, book signing events in your area, and giveaways, follow Robbie’s newsletter - CLICK HERE!
Contents
To Nathan and Christina, who never cease to amaze me.
Chapter One
ALEASH RAN from the collar around the capuchin monkey’s neck to the music organ where the stocky dark-haired Colton Stokes ground out a shrill melody. Crowds gathered to watch as the small monkey floated around the people, hat held out, begging for tips from the onlookers. This is frickin′ humiliating, Liam Lamont sent through the mindspeech of the shifters as he shook the hat in his hands at an elderly gentleman who couldn’t stop talking baby talk to him. Why do people always talk to animals and babies like we’re ignorant?
“Oh, George, he’s so cute,” the elderly man’s wife cooed as she leaned down and wiggled her fingers at Liam. “Aren’t you cute, you little chimp? You are, aren’t you? Such a cute little chimpanzee. Give the little monkey some quarters, Harold.”
The two of them set up at a fair celebrating carnivals, disguised as an organ grinder and his capuchin monkey. The fact that Liam actually was a capuchin monkey stuck him in the humiliating role of money collector. Everyone’s focus was on him, which left Colton free to scout out the reason they were there.
What are you complaining about? Colton asked. At least you’re not in this ridiculous costume. I look like a fat guy wearing a giant red tent.
That still didn’t make the humiliation of the situation easier for Liam to swallow. Chimpanzee! She called me a chimpanzee, he snapped as the old man reached into his pants pocket for some change to appease his wife. We should talk to her as if she were ignorant. Little old woman need a nap? Oh, yes, she does. She really, really does. He snatched the coin out of her husband’s hand and spun off. Dumbass. A quarter? All he can cough up is a quarter?
Colton’s laughter filled Liam’s mind. You’re such a mistreated, misunderstood little monkey, Colton said through his laughter. Perhaps if you put on a better performance, you’d get more than a single quarter.
Laugh it up, Liam growled. Next time, I’m grinding the organ, and you’re playing the monkey for the stupid crowds.
Liam could feel the mental shake of Colton’s head. I don’t think a gorilla would have the same effect as such a spunky little monkey.
I’m going to spunk all over your organ if you keep it up, Liam threatened. Tell me this has at least been worth it. Do you see the kid?
Through the connection between their minds, Liam felt Colton searching the crowd for the ten-year-old girl Para-Force was there to rescue. After a moment, Colton sent, Not yet, but Julian’s intel says the girl will be here. We’re told Hoyt will pass off the girl to the buyer at this festival. When he does, we’ll have him.
Unless someone warned him again, Liam sighed. They were this close to capturing Hoyt Cheffron once before, but somehow, he discovered their plans, and the meet twisted into a trap that led to the girl they were to rescue killed. They had yet to figure out how Hoyt knew their plans, but that setback didn’t stop them from finding the kidnappers a second time. This time Hoyt kidnapped little Erin Fletcher, killing her parents in the process. They kept the information to themselves this time—just the Para-Force unit knew about it—just the twelve of them. There was no way this operation would fail again. They wouldn’t—couldn’t—allow it, not with another little girl’s life at stake.
“I have eyes on Hoyt,” Tyra Pellington’s voice came through their earwigs. “He’s heading into the park.”
“Is Erin with him?” Garret Saunders asked. “We can’t approach Hoyt until we know where the girl is.”
“I only see Hoyt,” Tyra told the others. “No sign of the girl.”
“We have to have the girl,” Benny Hastings said in everyone’s ears, his breathing heavier, like he was moving quicker than he should have been.
Liam cocked his small head to the side, almost twisting it until it was upside down. Anyone else have eyes on the girl? he screamed, hoping the others would hear him.
“Stop shouting,” sighed Millificent, the team’s witch who spelled quite a bit of their equipment. “Just think as you normally would. The earwigs will pick up your mindspeech. Trust the magic.”
Liam turned his head the other way, and the older woman who had been talking to him like he was an infant giggled and matched his head movements. Sorry, he sent. I keep forgetting. We still need the girl, though. What if Julian was wrong?
“Have you ever known him to be wrong about anything?” Milli asked, and Liam could picture the witch crossing her arms as she stared at the monitors in front of her, Tyra sitting in a desk chair, fingers flying over the controls. “If Hoyt is here, then the girl is here. We just have to find her. Hoyt has to have her stashed somewhere close. Everyone, keep your eyes open. Dent, Mason, move closer to Hoyt, but be discreet about it.”
“Got it,” Dent said.
“Mason, did you hear me?” Milli asked.
“What? Oh, yeah, sorry,” Mason’s voice came through finally. He sounded annoyed. “This damn earwig keeps falling out.”
“Well, stop playing with it,” Milli scolded.
“But he likes playing with it,” Liam quipped.
“Can the little monkey do another trick?” the elderly woman cooed as she shot Liam a sappy smile, batting her ancient eyelashes.
“Got her!” Tyra shouted into the earwigs. “She’s in front of a coffee shop on the corner surrounded by two men. She’s wearing a dark gray hoodie with jeans. I don’t recognize the men, but they’re muscle for sure, thick arms and chests. I can’t tell if they’re paranormal or not, though.”
“I thought we said no shouting?” Liam said as he sprung into the air at the elderly woman’s shoulders, making the woman scream as she stretched her arms out, waving her hands at her husband. Little old lady wants a trick, huh? Well, how about I rip that wig right off your irritating head?
“Get him off!” the woman screamed. “Get him off!”
Her husband just stood there, laughing as he reached into his pants for more quarters.
Colton dropped the organ and raced over to the elderly couple as people started to gather, drawn to the commotion. “I’m so sorry,” he said as he reached for Liam.
Liam, however, beat his chest in King Kong fashion as he screeched up into the air. I am king of the dimwits! I claim this empty-headed woman for indentured capuchin monkeys everywhere! He hopped up and down on the woman’s gray hair. How’s this for a trick, you old coot?
“He’s never done this before,” Colton apologized as he made a show of trying to rescue the woman. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him, I swear. I’m so sorry.”
“Garrett, you and Benny come up from the west,” Milli ordered into the earwigs. “Kacey and Jess from the east. Tanner, I need another distraction near that coffee shop. The girl is our priority, then Hoyt. Dent and Mason, be ready to grab him.”
What’s gotten into me? Liam shouted as he continued to wrap himself around the older woman’s neck and shoulders. Rude, ignorant old people, that’s what’s gotten into me! I’m not a chimpanzee! Read a damn book, woman! Of course, all the old woman heard was his loud screeching.
More screams went up around the coffee shop as people jerked out of their seats, chairs tipping over and adding to the commotion. Everyone pointed as they tried to get out of the way of a small otter running around the base of the tables, in and out of chairs, and stealing treats from people’s hands as they tried to get out of the way. The two men guarding the little girl didn’t appear to know what to do as they stood, their heads swiveling in all directions at the commotion around them.
“They’re not holding the girl,” Milli shouted. “Do it now!”
Liam sprang from the woman’s head, racing away from the crowd as people stumbled out of his way. Colton called after him, shoving his way past the elderly couple as they raced toward the coffee shop, making sure they were ready in case the others needed them.
Tanner leaped up onto a table and then lunged at one of the men guarding the girl, his small arms extended as his sleek body flew through the air.
“What the hell?” the man screeched as he threw his arms up and tried to back out of the otter’s way. “Where the hell did an otter come from?”
Tanner hit the man in the chest, just as Jess arrived to trip the man up, kicking his feet out from under him. The girl’s guard went down in a mass of spinning arms, hitting the concrete hard, the air whooshing from his lungs with an “Oomph.”
Garrett and Benny reached the other man as he tried to snatch at the girl, suddenly realizing something wasn’t right. Kacey, however, had already appeared at the girl’s side, jerking Erin behind her as she threw an arm out to stop the man’s approach. Garrett tackled the man, both hitting the ground in a tangle of limbs and groans. Benny stood there, his gaze bouncing back and forth between the two thugs, searching for where he needed to help. Finally, he just shrugged, slipping his hands into his pockets.
Liam watched it all, slowing his pace as he noticed the others had it under control. Colton caught up to him, hands on his hips as they watched Tanner slink off into the crowd and disappear.
“We should probably make ourselves scarce as well,” Colton told him. “I’m sure that woman you traumatized will call the cops.”
Liam agreed, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the scene in front of him as Garrett jerked the man in his custody to his feet. Why is Benny not helping the others? Liam wondered.
“Hoyt is gone,” Tyra said into their ears. “But, Mason and Dent got the buyer.”
“That’s not good,” Colton said with an exasperated breath. “Hoyt will know we set him up and come looking for the girl to silence her. We’ll need to hide her until we catch him.”
“We can put her up in one of the safe houses,” Milli said. “She still doesn’t know Hoyt killed her family.”
I don’t think that’s a good idea, Liam sent to everyone. Someone still tipped off Hoyt before today, and we haven’t discovered who that is yet. I think we need to be more cautious than normal. However, I do know where we can take her. He’s not going to like it, but he’ll do it. He glanced up at Colton who just nodded, his lips pressed into a thin line.
“He who?” Tyra asked. “Who won’t like it?”
Chapter Two
EZRA HAVLIN STOOD in the middle of the empty warehouse, searching frantically for Mary Johnson, Hoyt ’s most recent victim. He had already abducted seven girls and four boys, their families slaughtered as Hoyt sold the children off to eager buyers. Para-Force took the case because they discovered each of the kids possessed special powers of some kind. They spent months tracking the man and finally found him in Savannah. The plan was simple, set a trap, wait for Hoyt to hand the girl over to the buyer, then take them both down and save the girl.
However, Ezra stood in an empty warehouse. He spun searching every direction as Hoyt’s laughter taunted him. Ezra ran through the warehouse, frantically searching, the little girl begging for help. Lights flashed with a strobe light effect, blinding Ezra as he scrambled around, tracking the girl’s voice. He didn’t find Mary, but there was Hoyt right in front of him.
Ezra lunged, wrapping his hands around the man’s throat, twisting him to the floor. “Where is she?” he demanded, but Hoyt merely cackled louder as the girl screamed. Ezra’s rage burned as he threw Hoyt across the room and into the wall. He stormed over to the man, hoisting him up by his collar, his hand back around the man’s throat, but lifeless eyes stared back at him, Hoyt’s sarcastic laughter bouncing off the walls. The screams went silent, and Ezra watched as Hoyt’s face shifted, melting into that of Mary Johnson. Her eyes popped open as she hung there in Ezra’s grasp. “Why did you kill me? I needed you to save me.”
“No!” Ezra screamed, sitting bolt upright, his body shaking, covered in sweat as he gulped ragged breaths. He closed his eyes, pressing shaking hands to his face as he took a deep calming breath. He shook his head, trying to dislodge the nightmare. Finally, he gave up and decided there was no use going back to sleep.
Ezra slipped out of his tent, the morning sun of a new week beckoning him to begin another day of his self-imposed isolation while the remnants of his nightmare flitted across the back of his mind. Standing in front of his tent, he paused a moment, stretching, one hand on the healing gunshot wound in his right shoulder he suffered a few days ago as he knocked that panther shifter out of the way of a bullet. His muscles surrounding the area ached, pulling slightly as he moved his arm and shoulder in a roundabout way, working the area. The flesh around the wound was still stiff, but healing nicely. Luckily for him, his past made it easy for him to tend to the gunshot on his own.
He moved over to the firepit, stirring the embers from last night into a tiny blaze again before adding more logs. Once the fire was going well enough for him to cook some breakfast, Ezra moved over to the card table he had set up, fetching a skillet he bought at a thrift store and moving over to a cooler he kept next to his tent where he retrieved a couple of eggs and some bacon. He never had fancy breakfasts like normal people, but he was all right with that. He ate, and that’s really all that mattered. His meager meals were well worth the price of being alone.
After he peeled three strips of bacon from the pack and placed them into the skillet, he stiffened, straightening into a standing position as he sniffed the air around his campsite. Of course, over the past few days, the residents of Bull Creek hadn’t exactly left him alone. He sighed as he finished placing the bacon into the skillet. “I thought I made myself clear the last time you were here. I don’t exactly like company.”
The smaller man, dark hair and a panther shifter—what had he said his name was? Ezra shrugged, not really caring—slid from around some pines and entered the small camp. “You said that, yes, but I forgot to mention I don’t really listen too well.”
“I asked him to bring me,” a woman’s voice said, bringing Ezra up short as he turned to see the dark-haired woman walking up behind the other man. “You saved my life, and I wanted to make sure you were all right. To be fair to Josh, it did take a couple of days of me whining for him to bring me out here.”
Ezra gave a snort of derision. “He strikes me as the whiny one.” He stared at the woman a moment before moving over to his fire. “Do all panthers ignore the wishes of others as much as you two?” He set the skillet on a grate over the fire before turning back to the woman. “I’m glad to see you survived the other man’s attack, but I’m fine. I don’t need anyone checking up on me. I’ve learned to take care of myself. Thanks.”
He tried to ignore the woman as she entered his camp—without invitation, he noticed—and looked around, nodding. “I can see that.” She turned to him, her hands on her hips. “Isn’t it a little bleak living out here like this? I know Josh offered you a cabin. We have plenty.”
“He did,” Ezra said. “And I declined. Now, if you don’t mind, I prefer to be left alone.” He moved over to the table for a fork to flip the bacon and returned to his cooking. “Have a good day.” He tried to focus on cooking his breakfast, hoping his visitors would get the hint and leave.
The woman was not good at taking hints, it seemed. From the corner of his eye, Ezra watched as she moved over to his camp chair and sat down, leaning forward, her elbows on her knees, hands clasped in front of her. The man with her just remained at the edge of the camp, watching his friend. “I’m Lainie,” the woman said. “I’m new to Bull Creek. My brother’s the new Alpha of the area.” She shrugged. “But, I hear you don’t care about that, either.”
Ezra kept his attention on his bacon, flipping them at just the right moment. “I don’t.” What would it take to get these two to leave him alone?
“Told you he was the warm and cuddly sort,” Josh said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Ezra shot the man a dark look, but then turned back to his cooking, adding two eggs to the skillet. He would not allow them to bait him into a conversation.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to cook on a stove?” Lainie asked, watching Ezra with curious eyes. “Or at least have a fridge to keep your food cold. I bet you go through a lot of ice. Why not let me get you hooked up with a cabin? It’s the least I can do after you saved my life.”
“Something I am very much regretting at the moment,” Ezra said, his bear’s growl heard within the words he spoke. He turned and faced Lainie, one hand on his hip as he pointed the fork at Josh. “As I told him, cabins mean people, and I don’t want to be around people. They’re noisy, nosy, and downright annoying, present company included. I’m fine here. Now, take your charity to some other case and leave me be.”
He heard the chair creak behind him and hoped the woman finally got the hint. He also hoped she took the nosy man with her. He flipped the bacon, pretending they already left.
He wasn’t so lucky.
Lainie appeared out of the corner of his eye, peeking into the skillet as she scrutinized his breakfast. “You know, I don’t mind rewarding you for saving my life by treating you to a hot meal cooked over an actual stove. I feel I kind of owe you. You know, for saving my life and all.”
Ezra closed his eyes, doing his best not to groan out loud in his frustration. “I enjoy cooking my own breakfast.” He turned, glaring at her as he walked over to his table to grab a spatula to flip the eggs. “If you want to pay me back for saving your life, then please, just leave.”
Off to the side, Josh laughed as he shook his head. “She doesn’t give up that easily,” he said. He then cocked his head as he stared at Ezra, his lips down-turned into a frown. “If you don’t like people, why did you even save her life? Why get involved at all? Why not just stay hidden?”
“Because Ezra Havlin can’t help himself,” another voice said from behind them, a more familiar voice. Ezra heard footsteps coming from behind his tent. He took a deep breath, trying to scent the newcomers, but it wasn’t really necessary. He knew who they were. At least, most of them. “As much as he says he hates people, he hates brutes even more. He’ll always get involved. It’s who he is.”
Ezra turned as the footsteps grew louder and watched as Colton Stokes and Liam Lamont entered his camp, a small girl walking between them, clutching to a small doll. He closed his eyes again and sighed. Why was everyone in his camp? When he opened them again, he stared at Colton, the muscular, dark-haired man smiling at Ezra as he approached. The thinner, shaggy-haired Liam grinned as well, as he held the little girl’s hand, their arms swinging back and forth as they walked. Ezra then dropped his gaze to the small, blond girl, her dimples pushing in her cheeks as her blue eyes gawked at everything around her, her head a constant swivel to make sure she saw everything. Ezra’s gut clenched as the past came rushing in on him, a past he did his best to forget and push out of his mind. He heard the screams, heard the agony, as well as the failure, almost as if everything had just happened.
Lainie stood straighter, her arms going across her chest. “So, he does have friends,” she said. “I was beginning to wonder.”
Colton walked over to where Ezra stood, nodding. “Oh, he has friends. Plenty.” Colton’s face grew somber then as he took a deep breath. “Friends who need his help now, actually.”
