How About No (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 3)

I had a witness that I needed to speak with, I had a few reports that I needed to type up, and I needed to call my insurance company and pay for the next six months of my truck insurance.

Landry fresh on my mind after stopping that bastard made me remember that she somehow was able to get better rates than I’d ever been able to get. When I’d asked her once shortly after we were married why she was always able to get discounts, she’d laughed and told me that being nice goes a long way.

And it was true.

Being nice did go a long way.

But, so did beating the shit out of people that pissed you off. I’d love nothing more than to string Kourt Chamberlain up by his testicles, and then put him near a fire ant bed while dousing him in sugar water.

My phone rang, and I groaned as I picked it up, thankful for anything that would distract me at this point.

“Hello?” I answered without checking to see who’d called.

“Um, yeah,” the tweaker that I was supposed to be meeting in a half an hour tittered. “This Wade?”

He knew it was me just like I knew he was Raoul Karding.

“Yes,” I answered, trying to conceal my impatience. “How can I help you, Raoul? We still on in half an hour?”

He made a grunting sound. “Yeah. Just wanted to make sure you’d be here.”

I sighed. “Yes, Raoul. I’ll be there. Just like I am every single time you ask.”

Raoul grunted. “Okay, bye.”

I rolled my eyes and hit End on the touch screen of the SUV’s hands-free display, and then drove the rest of the way to the station wondering about why Raoul was so goddamn twitchy today.

I thought we’d gotten past the point of him thinking I was going to bail on him.

He’d been my contact in a child trafficking ring case for going on four weeks now, and it’d gotten to the point where I thought we’d established at least a modicum of trust.

“Hell,” I muttered darkly, getting out of the SUV.

The moment my feet hit the ground, I heard someone call my name.

“Wade!”

I looked up and grinned when I saw Landry’s sister, Lina, standing on the sidewalk next to the public library, two doors down from the police station that I was seconds away from walking inside.

“Hello, Lina,” I said warmly.

Lina and Landry were polar opposites.

But Lina was sweet, and despite my being in a shit mood from having to deal with Landry’s new man, I tried to conceal that when I went over and wrapped one arm around Lina in a side hug.

She felt nothing like Landry.

In fact, everything about this woman was totally different. I didn’t even see a resemblance between the two of them.

That’d always surprised me.

From the moment that I’d first met her, I’d often wondered who Landry favored more. I wasn’t sure that it was either of their parents. I could see Lina’s resemblance with her mother, but Landry was everything that the other three weren’t.

“How are you, Wade?” Lina asked, grinning wide.

I let her go and stepped back, putting my hands in my pockets.

Despite my not being married to Landry anymore, I still felt awkward if I happened to run into Lina or her parents around town when Landry wasn’t around. The few times it had happened, I remembered the words that had spewed out of Landry’s mouth the day that I confronted her on not donating her bone marrow to her sister.

And each time, I wondered if I hadn’t pushed her in to making that decision, would we still be together.

“I’m doing okay,” I admitted. “How are you? You’re looking much better.”

I was okay with the fact that Landry and I weren’t together anymore if it meant that Lina got to live.

It sucked. It sucked so bad that sometimes I felt that I could hardly breathe.

But when another person’s life was at stake, I would choose life over happiness any day.

Which was likely my downfall.

I was a protector and always would be. I was just sad that Landry never understood that.

“I’m feeling better.” Lina shrugged. “I’m going to the doctor next week to make sure that I’m still cancer free, but I have high hopes that I’ll be okay.”

I did, too.

I didn’t want to give up my marriage for nothing.

“Well, I better go. I have to go turn in my traffic stop book and get a new one,” I grinned. “Take care of yourself.”

Lina smiled and leaned slightly toward me.

I didn’t move as she placed a chaste kiss on my cheek before saying, “Take care of yourself, Wade.”

I didn’t wait to watch her walk to the car.

Maybe if I would have, I would’ve seen the woman just a few cars down from Lina’s, glaring murderously at me. A woman that wasn’t supposed to care whether I was getting kisses, whether they were from that woman’s sister or not.