“We know.” Naomi stepped forward, Ghost a half-step behind her. “We’re taking you anyway.”
“This is kidnapping.”
“Nope.” River straightened. “This is an intervention. With funnel cakes.”
Jax moved past River and sat on the arm of the couch. Nessie stood beside him with her hand on Oliver’s shoulder. Oliver looked at Greta with the earnestness of a seven-year-old who hadn’t learned to hide what he was feeling yet.
“Please come, Greta,” Oliver said. “Tate’s going to be there and Logan’s going and I want you to see X ride. He’s going to be really good.”
Greta looked at Oliver. Then at River, at X, at Naomi, at the rest of them filing into her living room and taking up space like they had every right to be there. Bear watched her face. The walls she’d been building were fracturing under the weight of people refusing to let her hide.
“I’m not ready for this,” she said quietly.
“You don’t have to be ready,” Naomi said. “You just have to come.”
Bear crossed to the couch. He stopped beside Jax and looked down at Greta, at Atlas with his head on her knee and her hand buried in his fur. “You don’t have to stay long. We can leave whenever you want. But I think you should come.”
Greta’s gaze cut to him. Slow. Cold.
Traitor.
She held it long enough that Bear felt every degree of it. Then she turned back to River.
“Fine,” she said. “But I’m not smiling for anyone and I’m not making small talk and if one person tells me they’re sorry for my loss I’m leaving.”
“Deal,” River said immediately.
“And someone better buy me a funnel cake.”
“Done.” X was already moving toward the door. “I’ll buy you two funnel cakes. Let’s go before she changes her mind.”
Greta pushed herself off the couch. She reached for her boots, pulled them on, grabbed her jacket from the hook. Atlas was already at the door, tail wagging, ready to go. King joined him, and the two dogs did the complicated dance of figuring out which human they were following.
She was halfway out the door when she stopped and turned back. Bear hadn’t moved.
She gave him a sweet, slow smile that should have warned him.
“You coming, Honey Bear?”
The living room went silent.
River’s head snapped around so fast Bear heard his neck crack. X froze with one hand on the doorframe. Jax made a sound that might have been a strangled laugh. Even Boone’s expression shifted into something that might have been amusement if you squinted.
“I’m sorry,” River said slowly, savoring every syllable. “What did you just call him?”
Greta’s face was innocent. “Bear. I called him Bear.”
Bear met her eyes. She held his gaze and did not blink.
Revenge.
“No.” River was grinning now. The kind of grin that meant someone was about to have a very bad time, and it wasn’t him. “You absolutely did not. You called him Honey Bear.”
“I don’t recall that.”
“I have witnesses.”
“Do you?” Greta looked around the room. “Anyone hear anything?”
