Free Billionbear and Pair of Bears Boxed Set: BBW and Menage Bear Shifter Romance by Zoe Chant Page B

straight through his armor.”
    Eli paused, his fists clenching. Jackson briefly rested his hand on Eli’s shoulder. Paisley also started to reach out, without even deciding to do it. Eli looked so sad, and she couldn’t help wanting to comfort him. Then she reminded herself that getting emotionally involved with people led to nothing but heartbreak. Paisley yanked back her hand, hoping neither man had noticed.
    Jackson continued the story. “What Eli’s not going to tell you is that a bullet went through his armor too, when he ran into the line of fire to rescue his buddy. Eli made it. Ryan didn’t.”
    Paisley remembered the puckered scar on Eli’s chest. If that was what it was from, he was lucky to have survived.
    Eli went on, his voice roughened with emotion. “That was the end of my career as a SEAL. The bullet just barely missed my heart, and the surgeons couldn’t get it out. I can still do everything I used to do, but they wouldn’t clear me to go on any more missions.” 
    Paisley could see what a blow that had been to him. Awkwardly, she said, “I’m sorry.”
    “Thanks.” Eli spoke as if her ordinary words had actually meant something to him. “Well, I reported that the new armor didn’t work. SmartDefense confiscated our vests for ‘testing.’ They sent back a report that Ryan and I had messed with our armor before the ambush, taking it apart to see how it was made, and we’d put it back together wrong. They said it worked perfectly if it was used as directed. So I took my medical discharge and went home, and I told Jackson about those fucking bulletproof vests that don’t stop bullets.”
    The bitterness in his voice spoke to Paisley’s heart. Without meaning to, she heard herself saying, “That’s like what happened to my mom. Her car had a defective air bag. The company knew that sometimes the air bags exploded instead of inflating. But it was rare, so they didn’t do a recall. My mom got in a fender-bender, and her air bag blew up. A piece of metal hit her in the neck— killed her instantly. The only person who ever loved me died because some executive didn’t want to lose money on a recall.”
    To her surprise, Eli and Jackson looked at her as if they understood. She’d always thought no one could possibly understand.
    “We know,” said Eli.
    Paisley froze. “What? How?”
    Eli indicated Jackson. “Genius hacker here did some research.” 
    Jackson’s smile was so bright that it lightened the atmosphere in the room. “I found a series of burglaries targeting the CEOs of companies that made dangerous, defective products, plus a handful of burglaries targeting con artists. Not to mention mysterious payments to the people they’d victimized. The earliest ones I could find targeted the company that had made the cars with the exploding airbags. I figured someone was playing Robin Hood.”
    Paisley warily glanced from one man to the next. “So what if I am?”
    “We have to expose SmartDefense,” Eli replied. “They’ve invested millions in developing that armor. And they were the low bidder for the Navy contract. Unless we can prove that the armor doesn’t work, it’ll be issued to the entire US Navy.”
    Paisley stared at him, horrified. “Seriously?”
    “Seriously,” said Jackson. “The only way to stop them is to get hold of their product testing reports— the real ones, not the fake ones they showed the Navy. And some samples. We need to get into SmartDefense headquarters. And that means we need someone who can break into a building without anyone noticing.  I can hack their computers, but I’m not Spiderman.”
    “I can kick in doors and knock out guards, but I’m not Spiderman either,” Eli said. “But you are.  We figured you were perfect for the job. But we wanted to see you in action, to see if you were really as good as we needed. So Jackson used his hacking skills to figure out who you’d picked as your next target, we planted the info that he was