Detective Bear (Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (Bear Patrol Book 2) by Scarlett Grove Read Free Book Online Page B

filled her bucket with berries just to give them to her. Didn't he realized that if he tried to flirt with her that her stepbrother would shoot him in the face?
    “I was picking berries,” she said.
    Justin shoved his hand into the bucket and pulled out a massive handful. Lola frowned. What was with the men around here. Couldn’t they get their own berries?
    She felt grateful and a little bit charmed by Cody’s effort. She really had wanted some berries since it was some of the only fresh food that she ever got to eat.
    “I don’t want you leaving the compound for any reason. Even berries,” he said, taking another massive handful. If he kept this up, there wouldn’t be any left. “I don’t like the way the new guy looks at you. Has he tried to talk to you again?”
    “No. I don’t talk to anyone but you or Chris.”
    “Chris is a good man. One of the few men worthy of my sister.”
    Lola cringed inwardly. Chris had been a childhood friend, but the years since elementary school hadn’t been kind to him. He was as thin and sickly as the rest of the crystal addicted men in the compound.
    “I’ll remember that,” she muttered.
    “Just watch yourself, Lola. You’re already on thin ice.”
    “Sure thing, bro,” she said, giving him a mock salute.
    He glared at her and left her tent.
    She absentmindedly shoved her hand into the bucket of berries, grabbed a handful, and shoved it in her mouth. The sweet burst of berry flavor rolled over her tongue and she moaned at the sweetness.
    There was so little sweetness in her life that the flavor of wild berries was enough to do her in. That thought alone made her want to cry. Just realizing that she had a life so deprived of joy that a handful of wild berries was the most she had to look forward to for an entire year.
    She slumped in her chair and put her head in her hands. She couldn't do this anymore. The small act of kindness by the new guy, warmed her heart and melted away the pieces of herself she had kept frozen for so long.
    Angrily she slammed her fist into the bucket, sending berries flying across the room.
    Tears streamed down her face. She put her head in her hands, weeping silently into her palms. When she finally looked up again, she saw a plastic baggie covered in huckleberry juice. There was a folded piece of paper inside. What the hell was that? She stood from her folding chair and walked across the small tent to kneel and pick up the plastic bag.
    She opened it and pulled out the folded paper. After she unfolded it, she saw what had been written.
    "I am here to help you. Meet me at the same place tonight when the guards change shifts."
    It had to be Cody. She felt so much for him that she could not explain. Maybe it was because she had been alone on this mountain for so long and no one spoke to her and no one showed her any kindness.
    The slightest suggestion of kindness toward her was enough to make her feel there was some kind of attachment or connection between them when there probably wasn't.
    Lola slid the note into her pocket and began picking up the berries. She felt stupid for having knocked the bucket over in a moment of weakness and anger. She had always prided herself on having some type of emotional control. That was something that was important in the family she belonged to. Justin and her stepdad were both crystal addicts and could act crazy at the drop of a hat. Lola was a lot like her mother, the port in the storm.
    Just thinking of her mother filled her with anger and fear. They'd found her mom’s body in the forest, shot in the back of the head with an unmarked weapon.
    Part of her knew that if she stayed in this place any longer, she would suffer the same fate. Fear was keeping her here, but she would have to draw on the courage she needed to escape. Maybe this Cody guy really was here to help her. Or maybe he was manipulating her and wanted to rape and murder her in the woods for fun.
    Either way, she couldn't take it anymore. She