Grizzly Love Read Free Page B

all laughed, Jess included. As if Betty-Sue would ever let him go.

Chapter Two
    “Over my dead body.” His mother’s exact words.
    Travis’ reply. “I have rope in the shed, and I’m not afraid to use it.”
    Because, really, he wouldn’t kill his mother, but neither would he let her stand in his way of partaking in the mission.
    As soon as Travis heard Jess volunteering to go, it became imperative he become a part of the group.
    Nothing, not even the skull-patterned duct tape that strapped him to a chair would stand in his way. As if he’d let his lady—who wasn’t quite his lady given she was married and not interested—go into danger without a mighty grizzly to watch her back.
    With determination as his strength, he snapped his duct-tape prison to announce his intent to join them.
    The laughter by the boys, while understood, was uncalled for. Sure, his mother wouldn’t like it, but in the last few months, what with everything that happened to his clan, Travis had come to a few realizations.
    One. Danger was everywhere. Even a usually quiet town like Kodiak Point could become a hotspot for nefarious activities. The snake dude who wanted to cause trouble didn’t care that the folks here just wanted to live in peace. Travis wanted to be one of the guys who helped take him down. And his curious bear wondered if it was true— does snake taste just like chicken?
    Two. His mother was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Travis finally took the blinders from his eyes and faced the fact that the people of his clan, and that included the men, deferred to her. Actually, most were kind of scared of his ma. Despite her claims she needed Travis to protect her, he knew she would be fine on her own.
    He could leave for a few weeks, and she’d survive. She might bankrupt their savings baking like a madwoman on a mission to feed the town to keep herself occupied, but at least everyone would have a nice layer of fat for the long winter.
    Could Travis get hurt, or worse, if he went on this mission? Yes. But he could also die from a stray bullet or if his truck went through the ice when he did the long hauls in the winter over the treacherous ice plains.
    He practiced these arguments in his head during the ride home from the meeting. Of course, when he did finally announce his plans—“Hey, Ma, I’m going with the boys to the desert to cut the head off the snake!”—the fine-tuned speeches devolved into—
    “No.” His mother didn’t even turn away from the sink where she rinsed some blueberries that would get added to the pie shell sitting on the counter along with some sugar.
    “I’m going. They need me.”
    “I need you.” She turned and pinned him with her stare. The famous stare. The one that made him squirm and want to agree to anything she said.
    It took only a thought of Jess, poor Jess all alone an ocean away, maybe making up with her estranged a-hole of a husband for him to fight the Medusa gaze. “Well, you’ll have to do without me for a little while. The town and the boys need me more.”
    She uttered a very unladylike snort. “Oh please. What kind of aid do you think you can give those boys? You have no experience.”
    “And why is that, Ma?” he said, not without a little bit of irritation. “I’ll tell you why. Because you won’t let me do anything.”
    “To keep you safe.”
    “I’m not safe. You’re suffocating me.”
    At that, she burst into tears and sobbed about how she tried so hard, and it was all because she loved him. However, Travis was finally wise to her tricks.
    “Not working, Ma. Not this time,” he stated as he jogged up the stairs to the second floor and his room.
    She switched tactics, resorting to anger instead. “Of all the ungrateful things. I did my best by you, and this is how you would repay me?”
    He didn’t even bother replying to her tirade, which led to phase three—implanting self-doubt.
    “You don’t have the right skills, baby boy. You’ll