Bear's Kiss (Bear Heat Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

and another black suit, and made to kneel on the ground. They
had told her that if she made a sound, they would hunt down the rest
of her staff and kill them all.
    Nurin, Ali and Jennifer would
be dead because of her.
    Kneeling in that dark, damp
alley with a gun to her head, Prisha knew that she was doomed but she
refused to accept her impending death. There was no way she could
outrun a bullet. She couldn't fight those two burly men. She was
alone and unarmed. But if her death could save the lives of her
three loyal employees, well, she could live with that—or
rather, die with that. But she didn't want to die. She refused to die.
    As she knelt in the dark,
Prisha had silently asked her grandmother for guidance and courage.
Her grandmother was her inspiration, her guide, and her guardian
angel. “I hope you're not disappointed with me, Nanni,”
she'd whispered. “I don't want this. I'm not ready.”
    Even stronger than her fear
was her anger. She was angry at her own helplessness. She had to
just shut up and die. Struggling and screaming would just make those
thugs madder, mad enough to go after Nurin and the rest after they'd
finished her off. She wasn't ready to die. There was still so much
left to do, so much to live for.
    “Nanni, help me,”
was her last whispered plea.
    And it seemed, her
grandmother had heard her. She had sent someone to save her.
    Caleb.
    When Prisha heard the pop of
a gun, she wondered for an instant if she was already dead but didn't
know it yet. As she tried to breathe, she was aware of Tom and his
partner slumping to the ground in rapid succession. Someone had shot
them in the chest.
    Were they dead?
    She didn't care. She only
cared that she was alive.
    Alive!
    She had been spared.
    She was saved. Her angel had
come.
    She saw Caleb then. He
looked mad as hell, his eyes glowing with raw, feral rage. His
movements were swift, silent and sharp, and in that moment, she saw
him as he truly was, a deadly, efficient predator and protector.
    As they ran on, Caleb asked,
“Is there anywhere you can go tonight?”
    Prisha shook her head. “I
don't want to put Nurin and Jennifer in danger. I'll be fine.”
    Caleb's jaw tightened. “In
that case, you're coming home with me.”
    “Home? But you live
just opposite me. There's no difference...”
    “Not this home. My
other home,” he answered.
    “Other home?”
    “I have a place farther
out, out of the city. We'll go there.”
    “You have a house?”
    “Yeah. I'm taking you
to my tree house.”
    “Okay,” she
replied automatically even though his words didn't really make sense.
She wasn't even sure if she'd heard him correctly. Her brain was
shutting down even as her legs and arms continued pumping. She just
kept running, even though she had no idea where she was going.
    Prisha felt everything
spinning around, going topsy-turvy as she ran. Nothing looked the
same anymore. Nothing looked right.
    She was just a hardworking,
genteel chef, whose hands had only ever held a knife to chop and dice
ingredients, not kill or maim a person. Yet she had almost been
executed by the Mob tonight, and she was now running for her life.
    Why?
    Why her?
    She heard Caleb's voice and
turned her wild, unseeing eyes to him.
    “Prisha! Breathe,
Prisha,” he ordered. “Take deep breaths. In, out, in,
out.”
    “I'm breathing...I'm
breathing,” she recited as she stumbled blindly forward.
“Breathing...I'm still breathing...”

CHAPTER
NINE

    Prisha was vaguely aware of
Caleb opening the car door for her and bundling her into the front
seat. He fastened her seat belt and gave her a quick kiss on her
forehead.
    She started and gasped, but
he had already closed the door and was jogging over to the driver's
side. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and tried to stop the soft,
whining sound wheezing through her teeth. Why was she making that
awful, pathetic sound? She sounded like a wounded animal, for God's
sake.
    She brushed her quivering
fingers across her