Double Bear Chase: Werebear BBW Menage Romance (Hockey Bear Season Book 3) Page 17

  “What’s going on here?” he asked, looking around.

  Hanna’s desk was bare, missing the usual notepad and laptop. And the pictures and diplomas that used to be on the walls were gone. Otherwise, the room still looked the same. But without those items, it might as well have been empty. It was Hanna’s personal touch that had made it so familiar. Now it was just a room.

  “Where are all her things?” Foster demanded, even though they both had to have realized the answer by now.

  “She doesn’t work here anymore, does she? That’s why her appointments aren’t being rescheduled. She didn’t just drop us, she dropped all her patients,” Finn said to Jasmine, who was looking uncomfortable in the doorway.

  Before she could answer, a male voice echoed out from the hallway.

  “Jasmine, what’s going on here?” he asked.

  The man Finn knew as a senior counselor at the center appeared behind Jasmine, frowning when he saw the men inside the room.

  “I apologize Mr. …” Foster trailed off.

  “You can call me Matt, Mr. Caldwell,” the man replied.

  “I apologize, Matt, but we needed to see Hanna,” Foster explained. “I’m Foster and this is my brother, Finn. We’re Hanna’s…”

  “I know who you are,” Matt interjected. “You almost throttled one of my potential patients.”

  Finn cringed at that. Would Matt be inclined to help them after what he had done?

  “I’m very sorry about that,” Finn said. “Thanks to Hanna, I’m trying not to be that kind of man anymore.”

  Matt nodded at that, pushing up the glasses on his nose.

  “It’s alright, Jasmine,” he said.

  She gave him a curt nod and quickly left, her steps echoing off the floor as she retreated to her post in the lobby. Studying both Finn and Foster, Matt finally sighed, and gestured toward the hallway.

  “Let’s talk in my office,” he said.

  Looking at each other, Finn and Foster followed, curious what the man was going to say. Matt’s office was bigger than Hanna’s, and with a view to the front of the building. His shoulders slumped when he sat down at his desk, gesturing to the two chairs opposite him.

  Finn didn’t feel like standing still, much less sitting down, but he did anyway. Since Matt was one of the few people that could help them actually find Hanna, it paid not to be rude. Foster did the same, and they both stared at Matt, anxiously waiting what he had to say.

  “You are right. Ms. Radley doesn’t work here anymore. She abruptly gave her notice and just picked up her things not long ago.”

  “I knew she had to have just been here,” Finn muttered, thinking back on how strong her scent had been.

  “Can you tell us why she quit?” Foster asked.

  “I shouldn’t be discussing this at all with you,” Matt replied, giving them a pointed look.

  “We think something might be wrong with her,” Finn explained. “We… became close to her during our sessions, and the way she told us she was referring us… She’s not acting like herself, is what I’m trying to say.”

  Pursing his lips, Matt raised a brow at them.

  “I had a feeling you were more friendly with Hanna than her other patients.”

  “We’re worried about her. I think you are, too,” Foster said.

  “I am,” Matt admitted. “When she was here, I could swear she was… scared. And she said she wasn’t just quitting, she was moving.”

  “Wait, moving?” Finn blurted out.

  “Trading in for a larger apartment moving, or jetting off to the other side of the country moving?” Foster quickly asked.

  “Away from Sioux Falls,” Matt replied.

  A cold realization started spreading over Finn’s body as put the pieces together. The abrupt, very much unlike Hanna way she gave them the brush-off, together with how she was suddenly quitting her job and moving away, for the second time in a short period of time.

  “It has to be Vince,” he ground out, sharing a meaningful look with Foster.

  “Who’s Vince?” Matt asked.

  “The crazy ex she tried to get away from by moving here in the first place,” Finn explained. “From what she told me, he was a real piece of work. What if he’s back? This definitely looks like she’s running away, and you said she looked scared? It all fits.”

  “Oh my god…” Matt muttered to himself.

  “Please, Matt. We have to do something. We can’t let her uproot her life again because of some scumbag. You have to have her address on file. We can go see her, try to convince her there’s another way.”

  “I can’t just give you her personal information like that. How do I even know you’re telling the truth?” Matt asked, fidgeting uncomfortably in his seat.

  “I’m betting you’ve dealt with enough liars to know when someone is being truthful. All we want to do is help her,” Foster said, leaning forward and staring Matt right in the eye.

  Finn almost held his breath as Matt considered that.

  If he doesn’t help us, I don’t know what we’re going to do. Once she leaves Sioux Falls, we’ll never find her…

  Thirty-Nine

  Hanna

  When she had seen Finn and Foster at the center, a crazy part of her wanted to run out of her car and jump into their arms. But she didn’t. And now she was back in what was no longer her home, sitting on a pile of suitcases and waiting for the landlord to show up.

  What could they have been doing there? she briefly wondered, thinking back on the brothers marching in to the center. Probably coming to tell me what I bitch I am, the answer came way too easily.

  The landlord, Jim, had just texted her, saying he was tending to some emergency in another one of his buildings and would be there as soon as he could. The more time Hanna had to wait around, though, the more time she had to dwell on her decision and if it was the right one or not.

  Doubt was something she couldn’t afford right now, so she jiggled her foot and kept her eyes on the door, willing Jim to show up so she could hit the road.

  No looking back, she promised herself, even though she already knew that wasn’t going to happen.

  No amount of time and distance could erase Finn and Foster from her thoughts, that much she knew. But she had to try anyway. Sighing to herself, she instantly perked up when she heard footsteps coming down the hall.

  “Finally,” she muttered to herself, opening the door to greet Jim and get all of this over with.

  Yet when she peered out into the hallway, it wasn’t Jim who she saw walking toward her door. The blood freezing in her veins, she stood for a second, stunned, as Vince smiled at her, strolling casually in her direction.

  Hanna wasn’t even aware how she managed to snap out of her shock, but somehow she had the clarity of mind to slam her door shut, her fingers trembling as she fussed with the locks.

  Vince’s steps sped up in the hallway, adding to her panic. Just as she was about to snap the deadbolts shut, the door started to push inward. Vince was shouldering it open, calling her name.

  “Come on, Hanna. We know how this is going to go,” he sneered, sending a chill down her spine.

  The chain lock was the only thing still keeping the door from popping entirely open. Putting all her weight behind the effort, Hanna tried shoving the door shut so she could get the deadbolts in place. That should buy her enough time to call the cops. But right, now, her efforts seemed pretty pointless.

  Vince was a massive man, not to mention a shifter. There was no way she was going to get the door closed with him pushing against it. The chain lock was strained taut, looking like it was ready to snap. Tears sprung to Hanna’s eyes as she watched the screws holding it in place slowly dislodge out of the wall, sending bits of drywall falling to the ground.

  “Leave me alone,” she screamed at Vince in desperation. “Help!” she added even more loudly. “You are violating your restraining order! Someone is probably already calling the cops. If you don’t want to go to jail, l
eave!”

  She knew trying to reason with Vince was a long shot, but she had to try something. With her feet sliding backward on the floor, her physical strength definitely wasn’t any help against Vince. The only hope she had was to not panic and try to think a way out of this.

  “The cops are never going to get here in time,” Vince replied, sounding entirely unconcerned.

  As if to corroborate that statement, the chain lock finally popped out of the wall, and Hanna was thrown back with the force of the door flying open. Slamming against the wall, she slumped onto the floor before quickly scrambling to get back on her feet.

  Vince slowly walked over, towering over her. She had considered him handsome at one point, but now she could only feel disgust when looking at him. With a square, wide-set face, thin nose and heavy brow, he looked like the stereotypical bad guy in a gangster movie.

  His fleshy lips twitched as he took in the fear in her eyes, baring a row of brilliant white teeth.

  Maybe criminals do have a dental plan, Hanna caught herself briefly thinking, probably delirious from the panic spreading through her veins.

  But she wasn’t going to let Vince have the pleasure of seeing her whimper and plead. Besides, she knew that wouldn’t work on someone like him anyway. So she set her jaw and straightened her spine, channeling her fear into anger. There was no way Vince was going to drag her out of here without a fight.

  “What do you want from me, Vince? You’ve already ruined my life. Is that not enough for you?” she demanded, staring daggers at him.

  She hoped if she kept him talking, stalled for long enough, someone might come and help her. At least one of the people living on this floor had to be home, and had to have heard the commotion. If she was right, then maybe the police were already on their way. She only had to hold on a little longer…

  That’s stupid. No one is coming to help you, that dark, pessimistic side of her whispered, but she chose to ignore it the best she could.

  The worst thing she could do right now was to give up.

  Vince’s laugh sounded hollow as he shook his head.

  “You think I care about that? This here is a fake life, anyway. I’m here not only to remind you where you really belong, I’m also here to teach you a lesson. Vince Pierce is not someone you walk away from. You are not done with me unless I’m done with you,” he narrowed his eyes at her.

  “Are you talking about yourself in the third person now? Wow, that’s a whole other level of delusional,” Hanna scoffed, unable to help herself.

  She was done playing the victim for Vince to terrorize. Clenching her fists, she tried to covertly look around the room, to see if she could find a weapon of some sort to defend herself with.

  But she didn’t get a chance to do anything, as Vince suddenly leapt at her. His arm went around her, tight as a vise, while his free hand grabbed onto her hair, yanking her head back.

  Hanna opened her mouth to yell out, but Vince pressed her closer to him, his voice nothing but a snarl, and she was suddenly too scared to make a sound.

  “You scream, I snap your neck, you understand me?” he growled, his hazel eyes turning almost black.

  Hanna had no doubt he would go through with that threat. Not doing what he said was the greatest insult to Vince. Tears leaked out from the corners of her eyes as his grip in her hair only tightened, tugging on her scalp painfully. She tried to turn away when he leaned close to her face, but the hold he had on her kept her in place.

  “Now I have a car waiting for us out front. And wouldn’t you know it, the good girl you are, you already have your bags packed. Probably already quit your job, didn’t you?

  “You’ve cut yourself off from everyone that might have cared for you, which means no one is going to come looking for you. You’re all mine now,” he said, before planting a kiss on her mouth.

  Squirming, Hanna pressed her lips together, her face scrunching up in disgust. Vince only laughed at her reaction as he started dragging her out of the apartment. With desperation taking over, Hanna realized Vince was right. She had made sure her disappearing from Sioux Falls and not contacting anyone here again wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows.

  Even Foster and Finn won’t come looking for me, not after what I did to them…

  Forty

  Foster

  With a Post-it note with Hanna’s address stuck to the dashboard, Foster sped down the streets of Sioux Falls, followed by angry shouts and honking horns.

  “Are you trying to get us killed?” Finn protested from the passenger seat, holding on to the door as Foster swerved and weaved through traffic. “We can’t talk to Hanna if we’re dead!”

  “I have a feeling she’s in trouble,” Foster replied, his knuckles turning white on the steering wheel.

  “You too?” Finn asked. “I have this feeling of urgency in my gut, and my bear is going crazy,” he said, perfectly describing how Foster himself was feeling.

  “Yeah, that’s pretty accurate,” he replied, tires squealing as he turned onto the road leading to Hanna’s apartment building.

  “Well, step on it then,” Finn said, bracing himself.

  Foster had never put much stock in what people called ‘shifter intuition’, but if Hanna really was their mate, then the connection between them could be triggering something in his bear’s instincts. Or maybe he and Finn were both overreacting because they were so afraid of her slipping through their fingers. Either way, they were going to get to her as fast as they could.

  “I think that’s it,” Finn exclaimed, pointing toward a red-brick, five-story building at the end of the street.

  Foster pulled up to the curb behind a small van and hopped out, looking up at the house. The address matched, and it certainly looked like the place Matt had described. But before he could rush inside, something caught his attention. Looking at Finn standing at his side, they shared a look.

  “You smell that?” Foster asked.

  “Bears,” Finn nodded.

  It wasn’t unusual to run into shifters out and about, but something made Foster stop and assess the situation. Looking over at the van parked in front of his car, he could see a man sitting behind the wheel, tapping his fingers on the dashboard and glancing over at the building’s front door.

  “Probably just waiting for a friend,” Foster remarked, but his bear was even more on edge than before.

  There wasn’t a lot of foot traffic around, with the apartment building being in a pretty private, out-of-the-way part of town. Trees obscured the front of the house, with a small stone path leading straight from the front door to the curb, where the man was waiting in his van.

  “Alright, apartment seventeen,” Finn said, as they started walking inside.

  But before they could even reach the path, the doors swung open. Foster’s eyes immediately fixed on Hanna, who appeared first. He almost smiled, so happy to see her, despite everything that had happened between them.

  His expression turned grim only a second later, when he realized there were tears streaking down her face, and her steps looked uncomfortable and forced.

  He could hear Finn growl beside him as a large, wide-set man came into view from behind Hanna, forcing her forward while twisting her arm behind her back. Hanna’s mascara was smeared down her face, and her hair in a tangled mess. She was barefoot as the man Foster could only assume was Vince pushed her toward the van now idling at the curb.

  “Stop!” Foster yelled out, stepping in front of the van.

  Hanna’s eyes snapped to him and Finn instantly, and for a second, a smile hovered over her lips.

  “Foster, Finn,” she said, sounding out of breath.

  “We’re here. And we’re not letting him take you,” Finn replied.

  “Damn right,” Foster agreed.

  “And who might these gentlemen be, hmm?” Vince said into Hanna’s ear as they stopped in their tracks. “And they’re shifters,” he stated after a moment, sniffing the air. “Got a taste for bears after me, did you
?” he sneered, putting more force into his hold on Hanna, making her yelp in pain. “No need to settle for these chumps, you’ve got the original right here.”

  “Let her go,” Finn snarled.

  With his bear stretching and thrashing inside him, Foster was tempted to just rush Vince and unleash all the anger he was feeling right now. He and Finn had been right in their assumption – she was running because of him.

  That had to be the reason she had been so cold to them, because she thought leaving was the only way and that cutting all ties with them would be the best way to move on.

  She had been completely wrong, of course, but they could discuss that later. Right now, he and Finn had to take care of this Vince guy, and make sure he never touched Hanna again.

  Wrapping a hand around Hanna’s throat, Vince bared his teeth at them.

  “Unless you want me to snap her neck, you better get the hell out of my way,” he said.

  Hanna had been struggling against his grasp, but now she stood very still, looking pale as she stared down at the fingers around her neck. Foster could feel his blood run hot as he tried to come up with a plan. There was no way he was going to let Vince walk away with Hanna. That was not an option.

  “Donnie! Time to go,” Vince called out, and both Foster and Finn glanced behind them, hearing the van door open.

  From the van in front of their car, a large, dark-haired man emerged, with tattoos up and down his arms. Grunting to himself, Donnie walked over to the back of the van and opened up the doors.

  Hanna whimpered softly as she looked at the van, knowing that’s where Vince planned to throw her. Despite the hand around her throat, she planted her feet when Vince tried to shove her forward.

  “I’d rather die,” she got out from behind gritted teeth.

  “That is an option,” Vince snarled in response.