Now I felt bad about sneaking into Ivan’s jacket. It seemed I was making assumptions about him like he’d done with me. Yeah, he should have asked me how I felt about being left behind, and he probably wouldn’t have agreed with me tagging along, but we would have at least had an upfront and honest conversation.
The jacket bounced and swayed as Ivan got into a vehicle.
Well… it was kind of too late now. Maybe I could just stay quiet and not let him know. Then I could sneak out as soon as we got home and pretend nothing happened. He was just supposed to be gathering information, anyway. Not getting into fights. This shouldn’t be a dangerous trip. I’d probably overreacted.
Yeah. I’d just chill, disregarding the fact that I kind of sucked at chilling, and try to stay still and quiet until we got home. We’d both fucked up a little. We could just start from scratch tonight.
My resolution to stay quiet lasted until the seventh door that Ivan knocked on. Four hadn’t answered. One had been a mom with three kids who said she hadn’t been home the day of the shooting, and one had been an older man who kept yelling at Ivan that he couldn’t hear him, no matter how loudly Ivan yelled.
“This is a waste of time,” Ivan grumbled to himself. Joey and Misha were within earshot, knocking on doors the same as Ivan.
As much as I wanted the guys to figure out who had kidnapped Pavlo and shot at their dad, I was glad it was turning into a boring day. Boring meant safe.
Door number seven didn’t open up, but hollered loud enough. “I don’t know who you are, but get the fuck away from my house. I don’t want nothin’ that you got.”
Ivan sighed, before shouting back, “My name is Ivan Novak and I’ve got some questions about the shooting the other day.”
“Novak? Oh hell no. I’ve got a shotgun pointed right at this door and if you don’t get the fuck away by the count of three… one…”
Ivan started backing away. “What the hell?”
“You okay down there, Ivan?” Joey called from one floor above.
Before Ivan could answer, the guy behind door seven skipped the number two and yelled, “Three!”
A hole appeared in the door, but Ivan turned his back in time to avoid getting a face full of buckshot. Or birdshot. I had no idea what people in Chicago liked to use.
I didn’t think. Or rather, all I could think about was if Ivan had been a little closer to that door, or hadn’t been as quick to turn.
I scrambled out of his pocket, chittering like a rabid squirrel, and launched myself toward the now six inch hole in the cheap door. A scraggly man who apparently didn’t know the words “personal grooming” stared wide-eyed at the door, the shotgun still in his hands. I flung myself at his face, tearing at his stupid skin with my tiny claws. How dare this man try and hurt my mate!
He fired a wild shot into the air as he reeled back from my attack, trying to escape my fists of fury.
Two seconds later, a giant bear crashed through and destroyed what was left of the door. Unlucky number seven dropped his spent shotgun and desperately tried to crawl away from Ivan. I leaped off the guy’s face and buried myself in the fur of Ivan’s neck.
“Facts… what in the name of all that is holy are you doing here?”
“Protecting you,” I said in a small, quiet voice. Now that the fear and adrenaline had faded, I realized how badly my impulsive action could have gone.
“Protecting—”
I could hear the astonishment and disbelief in Ivan’s voice as he shook his head. I squeaked and clung tight to his fur, and he stopped.
Joey shifted to human. “If that’s who I think it is, why don’t you get Tanner somewhere safe, and we’ll finish talking to this…” He looked at the gibbering mess on the floor. “This gentleman here.”
Ivan tried to turn around, but his butt knocked into the wall. There just wasn’t enough room for one big bear in the tiny apartment, let alone three. He shifted, and I scrambled for a hold on his neck and ended up clinging to his ear.
He cupped a hand under me and I dropped into it gratefully. He curled his fingers around me as I shivered in his hand. I could feel the tension and anger in his fingers.
I was surprised when he didn’t stop right outside of the apartment for us to talk. He walked all the way back to the SUV, parked on the road. He tried the door and sighed when it was locked.
“Tanner, would you be so kind as to climb in the window and unlock the door?”
The formal tone of his voice made me quake. He was furious.
I crawled through the slightly open window of the car and shifted in the front seat, then unlocked the door, which set off the alarm. Ivan didn’t bat an eye. He just walked around to the front of the car.
An old woman in the park across the street looked over, and then did a double take as she saw this giant naked man standing next to a car that was practically screaming “Look at me!”
And look she did. A satisfied smile crossed her face as Ivan squatted down and grabbed the front end of the car, astonishing me when he lifted it into the air.
And like magic, the alarm shut off.
He set the car down as gently as he could and walked over to the driver’s side door while the old lady clapped appreciatively. He gave her a cheeky wave as he crawled into the car.
“What did you do?” I asked. “Is that some magic button you’ve installed to stop car alarms or something?”
“Many cars are programmed to turn off their alarms if they’re lifted to a certain angle. It makes them think they’re being towed.” He scrubbed his hands over his face and wouldn’t look at me.
“Are you terribly mad?” I asked.
“Mad? Facts, you had me scared shitless when you leapt out of my pocket and went after that crazy bastard. I don’t know how I missed it, but I didn’t even know you were in there. And I had no idea if I’d find you alive or dead when I busted through that door.”
“I’m alive.” I tried to say it in a cheerful “ta-da” tone, but it came out melancholy.
“Thank god.” He grabbed me and dragged me across the seats, banging my side against the steering wheel and my knee against the gear shift, but I didn’t care. He clutched me to his chest. “Please don’t do anything like that again. I can’t protect you if I don’t know where you are.”
“So… you’re not mad at me?”
He shook his head against mine. “I’m too relieved to be mad. I’ll probably be mad later.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I overheard your conversation with Vasily and Joey about talking to me, and they were right. I was pissed when you just told me to stay home. And I was scared. Everyone in my life has left me, even if they didn’t mean to. Not that you knew that. I didn’t want to lose you so quickly after I found you. And when that guy shot you… I didn’t think. I just wanted to protect you.”
Ivan chuckled. “Oh man. Just wait until Joey and Misha tell the rest of the family about that. A big, bad bear protected by his tiny squirrel.”
“Flying squirrel, thank you very much,” I corrected him, my body relaxing as I realized he wasn’t going to yell at me or tell me how stupid I was. “But I should have talked to you too instead of just doing my own thing. I had a problem, and I should have spoken up.”