Bear-ly A Hero (Bear Claw Security 2) by Terry Bolryder Page B

heard him.
    The urge to start punishing each and every one of them was irresistible.
    At least it would be if he didn’t have Jamie to watch out for.
    As he went back to her office, he looked over at Milo’s, seeing the other man moving around inside.
    He didn’t like the way he looked at Jamie. He had a feeling there was history there that she wasn’t telling him. He didn’t like that either.
    He would be at that meeting, even if that guy didn’t know it.
    He walked back into Jamie’s office and propped his legs up again, ignoring her irritated look.
----
    J amie was more than ready for lunch by the time noon rolled around. She’d agreed to let Limes take her out, mainly to get him to stop giving the death glare to all her co-workers.
    True, some of them were sexist pigs, but she’d been getting along with them fine, and if she had to bow and scrape a bit to do it, so what?
    She liked her job. It paid well, had good hours and benefits, and gave her time to pursue the things she liked to do when she was at home in the evenings.
    She didn’t want him screwing that up when he didn’t understand how things worked.
    They walked together in silence out into the sun and then in the direction of Limes’s truck. She was getting better at getting into it, kind of swinging herself up and in.
    Limes gave her a smile of approval as he started it up. “How do you like the truck?”
    “It’s growing on me,” she said. “I sort of like being this high off the ground.”
    “Me, too,” he said with a wink. “Then again, I imagine it’s a new experience for you.” He drove them to a nearby taco truck, and after they ordered, they went to sit on a park bench.
    They ate in silence for a moment, Limes easily consuming three times the food she ever could, and then he spoke up.
    “I don’t like how they treat you… how you let them treat you.”
    “Not all of us are like you, Limes,” she said. “Able to run over everything in your path.” He was a bit like his truck, giant and able to mow over anything in his way. She was more like a lawn mower; she had to be careful not to break her blades.
    He seemed to sense the direction of her thoughts. “You have more power than you think. You’re just suppressing it.”
    “Oh, really?” she asked. “So you think I could just wage war against all the men in there, and they wouldn’t just find some bogus reason to fire me to find someone more… polite?”
    “There’s a difference between being completely rude and just letting someone walk all over you.”
    She raised an eyebrow. “And you would know the difference?”
    He barked a laugh. “Good point. No. But I bet someone as smart as you could find one.”
    “Is it boring?” she asked, feeling slightly self-conscious. “I know you’re used to doing much more advanced stuff.”
    “Sort of,” he said honestly.
    She didn’t know why it stung. Maybe he was just everything she’d be if she could choose. Impervious, smart, doing whatever he wanted in life with no thought to what anyone said about it.
    If she could be like that, maybe she’d be happy.
    She took another bite of her taco, thinking about the after work meeting with Milo. She wasn’t looking forward to that at all, not that she’d tell Limes that. She wished he could come into the meeting. But there was no point. She’d still be having these forced meetings long after they caught her stalker and Limes was done guarding her.
    She would just have to fend off Milo’s advances, as usual.
    But she wouldn’t tell Limes, because if he knew, he’d be in there in a second, possibly costing her a job she desperately wanted to keep.
    Still, the thought of him defending her warmed her. She’d never really had anyone on her side, and she’d had a lot of things to fight against. Even if she were paying (though Limes had said they’d discuss payment at the end of the job), and even if it had to end at some point, it was nice having a friend for a