Bane: Trillionaire Shifter Club Book One (2 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

And then there was another bang. One
that didn’t seem to come from the inside of the van, but from the outside of
it. The man on Harper’s left let go of her arm as a dark figure appeared around
the back of the van, sticking its head out slowly.

“What in the
world –?” the man began.

The creature
to turned its head to face them and then a new kind of terror engulfed Harper
as its snout braced forth into the light.

“Fuck,” the
man gasped and turned to run.

But as he did
so, the nine feet tall grizzly bear was on his tail, sending him flying to the
concrete with one swipe of his paws.

The other man
at Harper’s waist released her, and she dropped to her knees, screaming wildly.

The man took
out his pistol and aimed it at the bear as it approached.

“Stay back!”
he shouted.

The bear
roared angrily at him, and the man discharged the firearm three times at the
bear. The fourth bullet didn’t work and the man threw the gun at the bear
before taking off screaming.

Harper tried
to back away from him, sliding her feet across the ground, as his great mass
advanced further. She closed her eyes, expecting the next sensation to be one
of horrific pain followed by her untimely death, but … instead…

The sound of
the van’s side door grated in Harper’s ears as it was ripped from its hinges.
Both Cordelia’s and Jayden’s screams rose above it as the door was discarded to
crash beside the first man still on the ground.

Harper opened
her eyes to see the bear pulling Jayden out from the van, holding him up to his
eyes.

Cordelia ran
to her side and pulled her back to her feet and then they bolted towards the
night club’s back entrance. The pair began pounding on it as hard as they
could.

CHAPTER SIX

A few moments later, Harper’s back
was pressed against the wall, looking back to where they had come from. Jayden,
who was still in the bear’s arms, was screaming in agony as his bones were
slowly crushed and broken. Satisfied, the bear flung Jayden twenty feet into
the air, and he soared over his friend on his way to the ground. The bear
looked on for a moment, and then turned his gaze towards the girls.

“HELP!”
Cordelia shouted. “SOMEONE OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR!”

The bear
started to back away into the darkness. And then for the briefest of moments
the bear’s entire entity seemed to shift away, leaving only the outline of a
man in his place.

Harper
grabbed hold of Cordelia. “Look. Do you see that?”

“See what?
Where is he?”

“He’s – He’s
–”

The door
opened behind them, and Cordelia rushed into the night club quickly.

It wasn’t
long before she was calling out again. “Harper! What the fuck are you doing?
Get inside!”

But no.
Harper wasn’t coming. Not just yet.

She walked
slowly around the side of the damaged van, blocking out Jayden’s cries in the
process. Around the other side of it, she saw the outline of the man again,
walking quickly away from the scene. He passed through the parking lot into
another road and turned the corner out of sight.

“Harper, what
are you doing?” Cordelia squealed.

And for a
second there she was about to return to her friend, and let the matter be.
Forget about it. Forget about everything. Turn up to the wedding on Sunday and
marry Joshua and have his children and live happily ever after.

It could have
been her life.

Her whole
life.

But there was
something else inside Harper.

Something
that told her to run.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

He was walking quickly. But not so
quickly that he was too quick for her. Just as she was about to reach him he
turned sharply, sensing her presence. Harper hadn’t registered the idea of it
turning out to be him, but she had felt it, known it somehow. They’d been
destined to meet again.

“It’s ‘Bane’,
isn’t it?” Harper said gently as they both stopped.

He looked her
figure up and down. “I never got your name.”

“It’s Harper,”
she answered. Then she took a step forward. “Thanks. Thanks for –”

“It was rude
of me to approach you as I did,” Bane said. “For that I’m sorry.”

“Oh, don’t
apologize. I’m the one who should say sorry for being such a meanie to you.”

“Sometimes I
find myself looking where I shouldn’t be,” Bane said. “Something will bring me
to a certain place, and I’ll search amongst the crowd for an answer. A reason
for being there.”

He turned so
he was facing her directly.

“When I saw
you,” Bane said, “something inside me wanted to reach out to you. To touch your
face. To kiss your lips. I’ve never been so drawn to a woman I haven’t met
before. There’s something about you. I still can’t figure out what it is…”

“Wow, gosh,
I’m really flattered,” Harper said unable to stop blushing. “I wish I could say
something that would…”

“You don’t
have to say anything,” Bane said. “You know the truth inside yourself.”

“The truth?”

“One day you
might be thinking about this night. It could be years from now. And because you
came to me here, because I can see you’re drawn to me, I want to tell you where
you can find me if you ever find yourself asking questions.”

Harper
swallowed. “Okay… Where?”

Bane stood
beside her and put a hand in his pocket. He opened his wallet and took out a
business card. It had a grey backdrop with bold red lettering on the front of
it.

“T.S.C.,”
Harper read out loud. “What does it stand for?”

“There’s an
address on the back of it.”

“Okay…”
Harper murmured. “You know, maybe after the wedding and everything I could just
stop by one time. Me and Josh, to see how you’re doing. And make sure your okay
–”

Bane took a
step backwards. “No, that’s not going to work.”

“What do you
mean?”

“You’re only
to come to this place once you’ve made a decision.”

“What
decision would that be?”

“A decision
to leave your life behind,” Bane said.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

Harper couldn’t explain it, but now
she was heading in the opposite direction as Bane, it just felt wrong. She held
the card he’d given her close as though it was a treasure of some sort, reading
the words printed on it over and over. She knew it was wrong to be thinking
about Bane in this way, wrong for what it meant for her relationship with Josh.
Although she didn’t want to admit it, if tonight had proved anything it was
that maybe, just maybe, she really wasn’t ready to marry him yet.

Cordelia was
waiting apprehensively at the space between the club’s parking lot and the road
where Harper had tracked down Bane.

“Sorry,
sorry, sorry,” Harper said quickly as she approached. “I didn’t mean to take
off like that but –”

“Who were you
talking to?” Cordelia demanded.

“It was that
guy from before, the one who was staring at us.”

Cordelia shook
her head in disbelief.

“Trust me, I
had to speak to him. He was the one that –”

“The one that
what?”

Harper
grabbed Cordelia’s arm and moved her away from the road. “I want to tell you.
I’m just worried now is not the right time.”

Jayden was
still screaming in agony a short distance away.

“Well, come
on, let’s go home then,” Cordelia said quickly. She began moving the direction
of the club’s front.

“What – what
are you doing?”

Harper
observed Cordelia pulling out her phone and dialing a taxi.

Once she got
off the phone, Harper said, “Aren’t we going to stick around for the cops to
show up?”

“Fuck that.”

“Well come on
– that guy tried to rape you –”

“And he won’t
be doing it again.”

They moved
road to the side of the road where the cab had appeared last time.

Harper looked
over at her friend. “Are you okay? You know, with everything.”

“I’ll be okay
when I open the vodka when we get home,” Cordelia replied.

“Oh,” Harper
murmured.

Cordelia
looked down at the ground. “I just – I’m just so disappointed in him. We used
to be really good friends.”

“Did you date
him?”

“No, just
friends. I don’t know what’s happened to him.”

“His friends
were holding me against the van too,” Harper said. “One of them had a gun. He
said they were going to have their turn with me after you and Jayden finished.”

“Just sick,”
Cordelia winced. “I’m gonna shame that guy so bad when I get to my computer.
He’ll have bears knocking on his door for the next year and a half.”

Harper
couldn’t help but giggle.

She stopped
herself before she went too far. But then her eyes met with Cordelia and they
both started giggling.

“I should
have taken a picture when that fucking thing came out,” Cordelia said. “I just
– I fucking shit myself.”

“It was
pretty scary,” Harper agreed.

“How did that
even happen – it was insane!”

“I’m going to
tell you,” Harper said. “Once we get back to yours.”

“Tell me
what?” Cordelia replied.

“Tell you
where the hell that bear came from.”

“Are you
kidding me? Look at us, smiling and joking around. What a crazy night.”

Harper clutched
the card in her pocket. “Yeah,” she said. “Crazy.”

CHAPTER NINE

It was becoming more and more
distant. More and more surreal. Had Harper really seen what she’d seen? How
much did Bane mean by what he had said?

Glancing
across at Cordelia through the darkened backseat of the cab, and she almost
seemed to blur. She was speaking. Her hands and lips animated. Harper nodded
and murmured her own words of agreement. But she could feel it sliding away
from them. A thought she hadn’t thought yet, would never be thought.

A feeling she
hadn’t understood yet, would never –

“This is us,”
Cordelia asserted.

Harper looked
up and realized they were parked out the front of Cordelia’s building. She
quickly pushed the door open and stepped out onto the sidewalk as her friend
followed. The cab sped away into the night.

“Are you
drunk?” Cordelia asked. “You’re acting drunk.”

“Maybe a
little,” Harper said.

The pair
entered the apartment complex and took the elevator to Cordelia’s floor. Inside
her apartment they each took turns to visit the bathroom, before they wound up
in the lounge area a short time later. Cordelia turned on the heating system
and poured them each a drink as promised.

“Cheers,”
Cordelia said clinking glasses.

“Cheers,”
Harper replied.

Her senses
came back with a jolt as the cold liquid entered her lips.

“This couch
is yours tonight,” Cordelia stated. “You okay with that?”

“Of course,”
Harper replied.

“So what do
you want to do? Watch a movie or – Oh shit. I forgot.”

Cordelia
stood up and went to the table. She pulled up her tablet off of it and sat back
on the couch, scrolling through to Facebook.

Harper leaned
over her shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna
post something to Jayden’s page. So all his friends know what a dirty rapist he
is.”

Harper pursed
her lips. “Is that wise?”

“Wise? What
the fuck are you –”

“It’s not
like you have proof or anything.”

“Don’t need
proof,” Cordelia said. “It could be bullshit and it would still hurt him.”

Harper
nodded. She stood up and went to the window which led out to the balcony,
looking over the city. She took another sip from the glass in her hand.

“How does
this sound?” Cordelia asked. “ ‘Jayden Towers is a RAPIST. Tonight he offered
to give me and a friend a ride home, but instead tried to RAPE ME in the back
of his van while my friend was held at GUNPOINT. He will try to deny it, but
you can’t trust a word he says. But you can trust me when I say THIS ISN’T
OVER!!!’ ”

Cordelia
looked up to Harper for confirmation.

“Well, that’s
what happened,” Harper said.

“I didn’t
mention anything about the bear,” Cordelia said. “I wasn’t sure how to fit that
part in. Sort of sounds like I’m making my story up if I put that in there.”

“Yeah, I
wouldn’t say anything about the bear.”

“Why not?”

Harper moved
away from the window and set the glass down on the table. Bane’s face wouldn’t
leave her mind.

“Harper – I
asked you a question,” Cordelia muttered taking another drink. “Hey – what were
supposed to tell me about the bear again?”

“Oh, it’s
nothing,” Harper said.

“It’s not
nothing. It has something to do with that guy you were talking to, doesn’t it?”

Harper fell
silent.

Cordelia
seemed to sense her anxiety and backed off. “Oh well. Another time. Okay, let’s
say if I don’t mention the bear, but then Jayden’s talking about it later –”

“Alright I’ll
tell you,” Harper said moving over to the sofa. “But you have to keep this to
yourself. Promise?”

Cordelia put
down the tablet. “What the hell is going on with you?”

“You ever
heard of … like, ‘shifters’?”

“Shifters?”
Cordelia repeated. “As in werewolves?”

“Well,
there’s all sorts of things they can shift into. Depends on type.”

“Oh yeah…”
Cordelia said. “My friend Maisey is always reading those type of books.”

“Books…” Harper
muttered. “Yeah I – I think I saw a real one tonight. I mean,
we
saw a
real one.”

“The bear?”
Cordelia exclaimed. “Are you serious?”

“I’m serious.
I think – I think it was that Bane guy.”

“What Bane
guy?”

“The guy who
was chatting me up in the club. And then I was talking to him after the
attack.”

“Come on,
Harps,” Cordelia said. “You trying to fuck with me or something?”

“No.”

“Did he
say
he was a bear shifter?”

Harper shook
her head. “I saw him shift. One minute he was the bear, and then the next, it was
a man standing there. I chased after him and it was the same guy who’d been
talking to me earlier.”

“This is
nuts. You’re being nuts!”

“Think about
it,” Harper continued, “was that bear acting like a real bear to you? Why
didn’t he try and attack either of us? Why did he rip the van door open and
pull Jayden off you? He wasn’t looking for food. He wasn’t attacking for no
reason. He was trying to save us.”

Cordelia
stared at her, eyes wide open. “Oh my God. You really believe this.”

“I – It’s
just what I saw,” Harper said standing up. She picked up her glass from the
table and moved on to pour her own drink. “Maybe I – just thought I saw the
change –”

“Pretty
possible.”

“ – But I
can’t shake this feeling. I’m sure, I really am sure. The bear was him.”