“Enough with the lip, Ember. Don’t you understand that you’re in danger right now?”
“Well, I’m confused,” she tried to move her wrists out of their binds. “Do you want me to keep on baking for you, or do you want to kill me? Because it seems like there is a major flaw in your plan.”
“No. There’s not. If you can’t bake for me, you won’t bake at all. I won’t compete against you and your little bakery and the show that comes with it.”
“Aw. You have faith in me. You think I have a shot at winning, after all. How heartwarming.” Though the binds were cutting into her skin, her left thumb was almost free. Thumbs are good. They’re opposable. That had to be good news.
“If you agree to leave the show and work for me, I will let you go.”
Ember blinked at Ciro, her free thumb hanging out of the binds, limp and useless without the rest of the fingers. So much for thumbs being the essential fingers. I have got one I would like to flip to this guy right now.
“Let me go? And what, I’m just supposed to ignore the fact that you hit me hard enough so that I passed out, bound me, and then backhanded me?”
“There are worse bosses,” he spat.
This guy—
“Ciro, right now, I’m really scared for your emotional well-being. You’re not making any sense. Are you listening to yourself?”
“The only bakery that is doing well is this one, because of you. I had to shut three storefronts last month. Three. I can’t lose any others. Do you understand?”
Ember blew out a breath as she wiggled her left index finger out from the rope. Finger guns did not make great weapons against crazy bakers.
“No, I obviously don’t understand. You’re not making any sort of sense. You want to kill me, but you want me to keep working for you? Ciro, seriously. Did you ingest some sort of drug? Maybe hit your head?”
“Stop mocking me!”
Then, something truly horrifying happened. Ciro burst out of his clothes, sprouting thick black-brown fur.
Finger guns were definitely not good weapons against bears.
Chapter Nineteen
Kai
Though the drive from his parents’ home to Ciro’s bakery only took ten minutes, Kai committed three-hundred traffic violations. He didn’t even remember driving his car, he was speeding with such determination.
Let the authorities come after him.
He fucking dared them.
They had cleared Ciro. They had called him and, supposedly, verified that he wasn’t in the country.
Obviously, that was a damn lie if the man had called Ember away. The bakery, as Kai had suspected, was not on fire. It was perfectly fine, in fact. The scent of Ember lingered in the air, along with the smell of her blood. Kai just about lost it when he sniffed his mate’s blood, tinging the air with its bad tidings.
The Closed sign was flipped on at the bakery’s door even though the listed hours stated that it should be open. He used his shifter hearing, putting his face to the glass. There was a low mumble of far off voices. Kai took a step back, assessing the building. To the left was an alleyway that would surely lead to a loading dock for deliveries.
Forcing himself to slow his movements to keep the element of surprise, he crept around the corner. The back of the bakery had a loading bay with a thick metal door. When he tried to open it, Kai wasn’t surprised that it was locked. He pulled a small tool from his wallet, something he kept on him at all times, just in case. The two small pins slid into the lock, and he wiggled them around expertly until he could turn the lock and open the door.
The fragrant odor of bread and pastries filled his nostrils as he crept into the empty bakery. To the right was the storefront. To the left was a narrow hallway that led down to a basement. He could hear voices coming from there. The old door was probably a creaking mess, but Kai eased it open inch by painful inch. Ember was definitely down there. Not only could he smell her, but he could hear her. And good lord, the woman needed to sheath her tongue before she got herself killed.
“Ciro,” he heard his mate say. “Right now, I’m really scared for your emotional well-being. You’re not making any sense. Are you listening to yourself?”
Kai held his breath. Ember was being dangerously sassy with the man who held her prisoner. From his vantage point on the stairs, he couldn’t see if Ciro had a gun or knife on her.
In fact, he had no way of knowing what kind of situation he was walking into.
The only information he had was that Ciro reeked of bear. The man who was holding his mate captive was a shifter. How big was the basement? Would it accommodate his lion shape enough to fight?
“The only bakery that is doing well is this one, because of you,” Ciro whined. “I had to shut three storefronts last month. Three. I can’t lose any others. Do you understand?”
“No,” his mate snapped with way too much attitude for the situation she was in. “I obviously don’t understand. You’re not making any sort of sense. You want to kill me, but you want me to keep working for you? Ciro, seriously. Did you ingest some sort of drug? Maybe hit your head?”
The sound of ripping clothes was indication enough.
Ciro was shifting into his bear.
Two shifters could play that game.
Kai launched himself down the steep, narrow stairs. By the time he landed on all four paws, he’d shifted into his lion. The beast roared loudly, jowl opened wide in a warning growl that made the shelves shake. It made his red mane tremble. Ciro, the bear, wasn’t as large as Kai had expected, but it didn’t matter.
He was going to kick the man’s ass.
With a massive golden paw, he swiped at Ciro. The bear staggered back, bumping into the shelves. Sugar, flour, and a whole other bunch of powders blanketed the air and floor. Kai’s hit only grazed the bear’s stomach. He pounced, pinning the animal onto the broken shelves, ramming the bear’s head into the wood and spilled ingredients.
He was going to make bear pie out of this mother fucker.
Ciro’s hind legs scratched at his belly, momentarily making him lose his grip. But it wouldn’t stop him. Kai was pissed as hell. Ember’s fear scented the air. This wasn’t how he wanted her to see his lion for the first time.
Kai slashed at the bear’s face, leaving deep gouges in the furry flesh. He wanted to go in for the kill, but not in front of Ember. Not like this. Kai pressed down on the bear, suffocating him, but Ciro flipped him off his body, using the strength of the injured and dying animal. Ciro tried to attack from the left, but Kai rebuked him with a swipe of claws. He tried for the right, but Kai was ready for him. The flesh of Kai’s underbelly bled, but he didn’t care. He would incapacitate Ciro somehow.
Using the stone wall as a spring board, Kai pounced on Ciro again, knocking him into a broken piece of wood. The sharp shard struck and pierced the bear’s paw, pinning him to the floor like a butterfly in a trap.
Kai had him.
But Ciro was a coward.
He shifted back into his human shape. “Don’t. You can’t kill me. What would the cops say?”
Kai growled low at him, keeping his lion’s shape. With the strength of his beast, he slammed Ciro’s head against the floor, leaving the man unconscious and bleeding from several wounds, including the wooden skewer.