words. “That’s the other item on my list. I see you making trouble again, I’ll be in touch with your clan leader, and rest assured I know how to make shifters uncomfortable. Now, do you want to leave with your balls or without them?”
He let out a wicked snarl, but she forced herself to stay in one spot. Yeah, she wouldn’t want to meet him in a back alley, but a huge part of dealing with shifters was never letting them know that. She adjusted her grip.
His growl broke off into a grunt of pain. “We’re leaving.”
His buddies shuffled out as he gestured toward the door, Caroline still holding him pinned in place.
“Remember the money you owe,” Caroline tossed after them. She stared up at her captive. “Name?”
His nostrils flared as he glared at her. “Mick Lucerne.”
“Mick. Tell your clan leader the Takhini pack is watching.”
She released her hold on his groin but didn’t step back, staying in his personal space, her chin held high, spine straight. The hush in the room ebbed and flowed as whispers broke out, or people gathered coats and fled.
Here and there, though, things went back to normal. Anthony gingerly stepped around them to pick up the fallen chairs, as he and another waiter set the tables to rights.
Mick adjusted his hips and broke off eye contact, lowering his gaze. “I’ll pass on the message.”
She didn’t let down her guard until he was out of the room, pausing to press a wad of rolled bills into the wide-eyed waitress’s palm.
Okay. Her heart rate was nowhere near normal. Caroline considered ordering a new bottle of wine for herself. Damn, she enjoyed excitement, but that had been unexpected.
Frank met her three steps from their table. “You were insane.”
He didn’t sound pissed off, he sounded impressed.
Caroline gestured him back to his chair. “Half the idiots involved in the rumble were Takhini. I knew I could get them to smarten up pretty quickly, which you couldn’t. Thanks for wanting to help, though.”
Justin held her chair. “I don’t know if I should congratulate you or see if you’re running a fever.”
“Oh, just an average day in Whitehorse. Could I have another glass of wine, please?”
There was a bottle at her elbow before she finished speaking. The owner, gratitude on his face. “Caroline. I have to name something else for you, don’t I?”
“Dan, you need to stop serving such good food. Look at what you caused—they were fighting at the tables for the leftovers.”
Dan winked. “I’m sure. Well, whatever magic you pulled, I appreciate your help, as always. Dinner is on the house.”
Caroline accepted the full glass from Justin and drank deeply, working hard to get back the relaxed and distracted sensation she’d had going. Now, where was she?
Right, flirting with Tyler.
Only when she turned to smile at him, he didn’t return it. His expression seemed locked between admiration and horror. She lowered her glass and examined him closer.
He had a death grip on the edge of the table.
“Something wrong?”
Tyler cleared his throat. “You do that often? Wade without blinking into a situation that could end in death?”
Her last straw broke. She didn’t need a lecture. Not from him, not from anybody. “Why yes, I do. It’s like this addiction I have. You’re not truly living until you’re one paw swing from a painful demise, you know what I mean?”
She reached for her glass only to find she was airborne, her belly firmly planted in Tyler’s shoulder as he lifted her into the air.
“What are you doing?” She couldn’t see a thing, her head dangling toward the floor, legs locked in his grasp.
Tyler stomped toward the door.
Caroline snorted in disbelief. What the hell was going on?
“Is there a problem?” The owner’s voice.
Caroline planted her hands on Tyler’s ass and twisted in an attempt to solve this situation as well, but the big bear who’d snatched her up had found his diplomacy. Sort of. He turned on the charm with her still suspended over his shoulder.
“Dan, thank you for everything. Caroline’s a touch overwrought after the
“Why, thank you.” Tyler was moving again, but there was Dan, bent at the waist to dip his head to her level as she was carried past. “Caroline, always good to see you.”
She wasn’t about to call for help like some victimized heroine to announce she was being kidnapped. Not after she’d faced down a volatile fight. “Night, Dan. Wonderful as always.”
The simple response—the only one she could make without turning this into a major situation—struck her as hilarious, and giggles set in hard. She folded her arms and rested her head on Tyler’s strong back as he conveyed her across the road and into the park.
A set of fancy dress shoes and one beat-up pair of runners, both extra large, followed them.
Caroline got herself under control enough to speak. “Justin, does your boss do this all the time?”
“Not typically.”
“Ty’s gone out of his flipping mind,” Frank suggested. “What the hell is wrong with you, bro?”
Tyler lowered her to a bench then shook his finger in her face. “You, stay.”
Caroline had to be partly drunk. She curled her legs under her and made a face at him. “Woof.”
His expression didn’t break. He turned to Frank. “Thank you for joining us for dinner. It’s been great touching base, and we’ll get together again in the next couple days, deal?”
Frank nodded and stretched. “Nice evening. Think I’ll take a walk before heading back to the pack house. See you later, Caroline. Justin—hang loose.”
His brother ambled off happily as Tyler wrestled with the knot of tension inside him.
Caroline blinked at him from her spot on the bench, taking control of the wine bottle he’d grabbed from the table. She raised it in a silent cheer before putting the bottle to her lips.
He tore his gaze off her mouth and focused on his guard. “Go home.”
Justin didn’t move. “I don’t think so.”
Fuck it. What was the use of being the head of the biggest bear conglomerate when he couldn’t get anyone to listen? “Justin. I don’t need a babysitter.”
“But you do need a chaperone.” Justin motioned to Caroline. “Take your time, remember you’re in public, and I’ll be right over there just out of hearing, waiting until you get whatever the hell is wrong out of your system.”
Tyler wanted to rip something to shreds, preferably his best friend’s head, but the noncompromising stance Justin took forced Tyler to accept the truth.
As much as he wanted to vanish with Caroline, he couldn’t. He’d been over the line hauling her ass out of the restaurant, and that was only forgivable because she’d laughed and made it all right.
He dipped his head briefly at Justin then joined Caroline on the bench, collapsing without much hope of holding up his limbs any longer.
She sat quietly, the two of them looking over the smooth flowing river. She held out the bottle, and he accepted it, swallowing down a number of gulps like some street person.
“What a day.” Caroline stretched her legs in front of her and leaned back.
Tyler switched from watching the water to examining her legs, mesmerized. “It’s been interesting, yes.”
“So, what’s the most recent thing on the ‘this day can’t possibly get any weirder’ for you? Me, I got carried out of a restaurant by a cranky bear.”
