Free Her Bear and a Baby: BBW Bear Shifter Baby Paranormal Romance (Who's the Daddy? Book 2) by Harmony Raines Page B

the other of them. It was hard in the dim light, but he wasn’t looking to see how pretty they were; instead, he was assessing them. If this came down to a fight, he wanted to be sure he could hold his own.
    “Have an appointment?” one of the guys asked, while the other circled around him.
    “No sir, but I know he’ll want to see me, I’m in the business for some of what it is he is selling, and I have the reputation to forgo an appointment.”
    “So give me your name and I’ll call his secretary and ask if he’s in.”
    Beau’s smile widened. “Funny man. I like a man with a sense of humor.” Then he let his smile drop. “But not when you are wasting my time. Now tell your boss I’m here, I’ll pitch my deal and then be on my way. I do not have time to stand around talking to lackeys.”
    Whether it was what he said, or the way he said it—and he knew he had always been good at delivering his lines ever since he got the lead in the school play in eighth grade—but one of them dragged a phone out of his pocket and dialed a number.
    They stood looking at each other as a minute ticked by and Beau began to think the number either hadn’t been dialed, or O’Dowd wasn’t picking up. Were they simply buying some time, waiting for back-up?
    “Hi. Sorry. There’s a guy here who wants to talk to you. Says he has a business proposition. No, he doesn’t have an appointment.” His eyes darted over to Beau’s. “Got any ID?”
    Beau held his hands up, and then slowly reached inside his pocket. He had seen this part of proceedings go wrong before when a trigger-happy henchman thinks a gun is about to be pulled. A bullet in the brain right now was not going to do anyone any favors.
    He slowly pulled out his wallet and then flicked it open. “Here.” He passed over his driver’s license; he was now John Abraham Rollings.
    It was snatched out of Beau’s hand and the flashlight shone on it, and the details read out. Then silence. Beau could imagine someone somewhere doing the necessary checks. They would see he was a badass, known for cutting both cocaine and pieces off his enemies. He hoped he wasn’t going to have to prove that part to anyone tonight.
    Inside his head, his bear offered to do the necessary if it was O’Dowd he had to carve up. It would have made Beau smile, but he knew his bear was thinking of revenge for what happened to Louisa, it was easy sometimes to forget what his bear had lost too. Days of racing across the mountains overlooking Bear Creek were remembered with a fondness that made his bear slip into a terrible melancholy for days.
    “Right.” The guy in front of him was talking again, his eyes flicking up to Beau’s face. Then he hung up and said to the other guy, who was behind Beau, “Make sure he isn’t armed.”
    Hands patted him down, and he had to grit his teeth to stop himself yelling at the guy to get his hands off. His bear was more than ready for action, and Beau knew he had to be careful: he was spoiling for a fight.
    We have to stay calm. If we show them who we are now, we might not get in through the door.
    His bear sulked. Loudly.
    “This way.” A hand was waved at him and he was led through the warehouses, before they stopped at one which looked in darkness. There the guy who had spoken on the phone knocked, and the door opened.
    Beau was not ready for what was on the other side of the door. The shell of the warehouse from the outside looked worn and beaten up, and on entering, they stood in a small loading area in a similar state of disrepair, purposely left in bad shape to fool anyone who might look inside. However, they walked straight across the dirty concrete floor and through another door.
    “Wipe your feet,” he was instructed, which he did, so as not to leave dirty footprints on the deep pale blue carpet. He took a moment to look around; it was surreal, as if they were now stood in the foyer of a high-class hotel, complete with bar to one side. No expense