Bear The Blaze (Firebear Brides 3) by Anya Nowlan Read Free Book Online Page A

put a hand on his thigh, squeezing it slightly. It felt like his heartache was hers and that was chilling, in a way. To care so much about someone so quickly was something she had never anticipated for herself and yet, here she was, living it.
    “Go on,” she urged, knowing he needed to get it out.
    “Royce and Redmond were with Mom, but Rhodes and I were at the house with Dad when he got the call. Well, he didn’t even need a call to know there was a fire. We could see it from the house. You remember where we were sitting? We used to have a forest there and that damn thing went up in flames so fast. Dad scooped us up and put us in his truck. He went back into the house to get his gear, but I saw Eric Hassleback run out of the woods right toward us.
    “He was grinning like a maniac. I think he wanted to take me and Rhodes and… hell, I don’t know what was going through his head. Next thing I know, my dad was on top of him, both of them rolling around, snarling at each other and fighting. They shifted and they were pretty evenly matched. Eric kept trying to get to the truck and my dad kept tearing him away until the fire was right at the edge of the forest. Last thing I remember was Dad dragging and shoving Eric into the fire. I guess he never made it out either, because that’s where we found his body when everything was put out.”
    Ragnar’s lips were pressed into a thin slit and his face was pale. His sunken eyes told Abigail clearly of a memory he had been trying to repress, yet it had governed his life. Why else would he be in the line of work he was now in? Tears welled in her eyes and Abigail had to fight hard to keep them down. It wasn’t just compassion or some kind of random reaction—she felt his pain. And it was suffocating.
    “I’m sorry, Ragnar,” she whispered, putting her arms around him.
    She loved Shifter Grove for what it was. No one gave them odd looks. Abigail was entirely certain that if they looked like they needed some compassion, Cerise would be the first one at the booth, asking what she could do. But they were also allowed their moment together and Abigail took it for what it was worth.
    Ragnar cleared his throat and she didn’t need to guess to know that he was pressing down tears that wanted to bubble up.
    “Thank you. But that’s not entirely why I asked you to lunch. Could you read those articles and tell me if you’re seeing what I’m seeing? I honestly hadn’t remembered much about the incident. I was very young back then and Rhodes even younger, but when I read them, they all came back. The feeling I got was that Eric Hassleback was the one who set all of those fucking fires with the express interest to get my family to leave the area. And I guess he succeeded. Now, I think his sons are doing the same thing to us.”
    Abigail let him go gently, starting at him with surprise in her eyes.
    “His sons ?”
    “Slade and Sear. They still live on the old homestead. It looks fucking abandoned, so I think they’re there alone. When I asked around in Shifter Grove, no one knew a damn thing about them. They never come to town if they can help it and from what I can tell, they’re practically ghosts. Slade works for Ares Goldplains in the mines, and I don’t know what the hell Sear does.”
    She nodded, shaken. “Of course I’ll read them,” she promised.
    “Good,” Ragnar said, taking a deep breath.
    His hazel eyes sought out hers and she felt that familiar sensation of the air getting sucked out of her lungs when he looked at her. It was magic what that man could do to her with a look or a touch.
    “I’m glad you’re here, Abigail,” he confessed.
    “I’m glad I’m here too,” she agreed, smiling softly.
    Returning to Los Angeles was starting to feel like a trip she didn’t want to take, despite the crazy arsonist werebears.
 

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Ragnar
     
    Sleep was fitful that night. He tossed in the bed, trying to find some kind of a position he would be