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Tonight was going to be impossible. His only chance of getting through what he needed to do was to have Hallie there. Why? Because his bear got quiet around her. Maybe he could keep his mind long enough to own the destruction he’d caused.
I like it here. He didn’t know how he could understand the animal. It was all in his mind, and there was no way bears could really speak the same language as him, but he understood all the same. Always had.
“You don’t matter,” Gunner gritted out as he started the truck.
I like it here, the animal repeated.
Gunner wouldn’t say it out loud, and was trying very hard not to think it, but he did too. Dilapidated cabin and all.
It was overgrown and wild, unloved and uncared for. He glanced in the rearview mirror one last time as he pulled away.
The 1010 had to mean something, didn’t it?
A text came through, vibrating his phone in the cupholder. When he lifted it up to check if it was Hallie, he was surprised by the name on the ID.
Lucia had texted, Getting warmer.
Gunner pursed his lips against a smile and set the phone back into the cupholder. He secretly liked having a little cheerleader. For some reason, Lucia’s faith in him gave him moments where he had a little faith in himself too. Hallie also served as a motivation, but he couldn’t explain that part yet. He’d just met her. She was a stranger.
No she isn’t.
Gunner shook his head. This shit right here was why he didn’t drive his truck much anymore. It was too relaxing, and his mind drifted into the bear’s possession too much. On the motorcycle he had to be hyperaware, and the bear grew quieter the faster he went.
He aimed for town and drove straight through, headed for the cheap motel he’d paid a few nights on. He needed food, and there was a little diner attached to it that served a decent steak. He needed red meat. The Changes made him feel like he was starving, and apparently he’d been Changed for freaking hours today. Not on purpose.
There was traffic ahead, and he guided his truck toward the inside lane to try and see around the line of cars. Up ahead there were a bunch of work trucks pulled to the side. Construction. Crap. He checked his blind spot to pull a U-turn and take a different way, but just then the car in front of him started pulling forward, so he stayed in line.
He pulled up slowly, and when he saw the flagger, he hit the brake.
Hallie was holding a Slow sign and gesturing cars past.
She worked construction? As a flagger?
It was her. She had her long, dark hair in a low ponytail under her hard hat. She wore thick work pants that cinched at her waist and thick-soled work boots. Makeup all done up, she was looking sexier than he’d ever seen a woman look before.
She frowned at his truck and gestured him forward. He eased onto the gas, rolled down the passenger’s side window, and gave a catcall whistle.
“Hey, asshole—” The words died in her throat as she peered through the open window and saw him.
“That’s the second time you’ve called me an asshole today.”
She spun the sign around, and it read Stop now. She lifted a walkie to her lips and said, “Hey, that’s all for now. Take a turn.”
“I only have three cars stacked,” a grumpy voice sounded from the other end.
“Congratulations to those three cars then,” Hallie barked.
God, she was gorgeous.
“You,” she said to Gunner. “I know you.”
He leaned onto the console and ran his hand down his facial scruff. “And I know every inch of you.”
A red hue tinged her cheeks in an instant, and her pretty hazel eyes went wide. “You sure do. Oh my gosh,” she whispered, pressing the back of the hand holding the walkie talkie to her pink cheeks as she checked the cars coming this way.
“You work construction?” he asked. “Do you even understand how hot that is to a guy like me?”
“I don’t hate that you’re a logger, either. I like them blue-collar boys.”
