Devoted to the Bear Read Free Page A

should warn you,” she said, looking up at the heavily windowed apartment building she used to call home. “Robert and I almost dated.”
    “Oh,” he said, seemingly distracted by the mass of bodies moving around them on the sidewalk. “You cared about him?”
    “I think I would have,” she said honestly. “He asked me out several times. I thought it was just because we lived across the hall from each other and he wanted casual sex, so I told him no for months. But right when I had decided maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to go out on a date and forget the hell of the trial, Stone sent a man to my apartment to kill me. Jeremy picked me up the next day and took me to my first safe house. I only had time to beg Robert to store my valuables in case I ever made it back here again. Jimmy made sure everything else was sold and gave me the money. There wasn’t room in my new life for my stuff, much less a man I almost went out with once.”
    She turned and jumped when she saw Riker standing directly behind her. Leaning forward, he rumbled against her ear, “He missed out. If I ever see Stone, I’ll be sure to thank him before I break his neck.”
    God, but Riker was sexy when he was murderous on her behalf.
    Three flights of stairs later and she was huffing and puffing. Riker’s breath came steady, the irritating man. His eyes betrayed him, however, and glowed like a demon’s.
    “You want to stay out here?” She stopped at the door marked 415, her knuckles hovering over the warped wood, waiting. Purposefully, she didn’t look at the old door behind her. Ugly memories had been made in that place.
    “Probably best,” he murmured. “I’ll be out here when you finish.”
    Three knocks and she waited. If Robert still worked the same schedule, today should be his day off, and if not, it was the crack of dawn and he probably hadn’t left for his job yet.
    Riker leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. She shrugged and knocked again.
    “Coming, I’m coming,” Robert called.
    “That’s what you said last night,” Riker said low.
    A burning blush heated her cheeks by the time Robert opened the door. Damn Riker, he’d done that on purpose.
    “H-hi,” she stammered.
    Riker laughed.
    Robert stood in the doorway clad in only a pair of sweat pants. His chiseled stomach and chest heaved as he rubbed his eyes and studied her face again. “Hannah?”
    “I know it’s early, but I was wondering if I could pick up my—”
    “Is it really you?” he asked. Before she could respond, he pulled her into a rib crushing hug.
    Riker growled.
    Moving her feet, she pushed them both into his apartment and slammed the door closed, lest Riker’s bear get the idea to eat her former neighbor.
    “Whoa, okay. Come in.” He pulled back and ran a hand over his short dark hair. He hadn’t changed much. Perhaps he’d lost a little weight and it had done him good, but his eyes still held humor and concern, and his smile was still slow and shy. “The place is messy. I didn’t expect visitors today.”
    “It’s okay, really. I just dropped by to pick up the things I left here last year. Do you still have them?”
    “Uuh,” he drawled, frowning at something out the window. “I hid them. Give me a minute to track them down.”
    “Hid them. Why?”
    Obviously ruffled, he scratched his bottom lip with his thumbnail and disappeared into the back bedroom. Hannah followed and tried again. “Robert, why did you hide them?”
    “Some guy keeps coming by and asking about you. He drops in every few weeks. He’s a cop and I didn’t want to get in trouble for having your stuff. I was afraid he’d think I wasn’t telling him everything I knew or something.”
    “A cop comes by? But I’ve been in witness protection. Nobody is supposed to know where I am, so why is he…oh.” The rat. Jeremy had come back to New York to flush out a rat in his department who’d sold out every safe house she’d ever been in to Stone and his hit