BEARed to You(24)

The car was humming along at eighty miles per hour, winding through miles and miles of pine forest. She said, “I don’t know what I would do if I learned my parents weren’t my parents and my life was a big lie.” The sweet-scented wind was whipping through the open windows, sending her hair flying all around her head. Steering with her knee, she gathered her hair into a ponytail and knotted it on top of her head. She glanced at Tarik. He looked so...troubled.

It probably wasn’t P.C. for a girl to feel sorry for a guy, at least from the guy’s point of view. Men tended to despise any form of pity.

But really, how terrible.

Tarik had thought all along that he was your average brilliant genetic researcher, or at least a member of the species Homo sapiens. How awful to find out that everything he’d believed about himself was a lie, right down to the most basic facts.

He wasn’t entirely human, nor was he an animal.

The people he’d loved and trusted all his life had lied to him.

He didn’t know who he could trust anymore.

“It isn’t great.” He glanced at her, and their gazes locked for an instant. She couldn’t look away. His eyes were full of emotion. Dark emotion. “I’m not a human being, Abby. I’m a...a dangerous product of a genetic experiment.”

Turning her attention back to the road, she reasoned, “You’re not dangerous. Not to people who aren’t trying to kill you...or me. What happened back at the hotel…that was different. I was in danger. You were protecting me. You haven’t...hurt anyone else, have you?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Of course you haven’t. Because you’re still a human being inside there, when you look like a bear.”

“That’s not entirely true, Abby. When I change, I lose some of my ability to think and reason like a man. Instinct takes over.”

“But you can still think,” she reiterated. Tarik needed reassurance now. He needed to know that he had a friend. That he wasn’t alone.

That she wasn’t afraid of him.

She wasn’t afraid of him. Was she?

“I’ve never hurt another human being before,” he said softly. “What I did to that man...it makes me wonder what else I might be capable of.”

Abby glanced at him again. Fear. Guilt. That was what she saw in his eyes. Poor guy.

She had to help him deal with it all, somehow. Maybe he just needed to rant, to let it all out. If she’d found out her parents weren’t her parents and she’d been concocted by her coworkers in a petrie dish, her DNA fused with an animal’s, she would’ve been on a rant for hours. And she could pretty much guarantee that even out there in the boonies, there’d be plenty of people who would’ve heard her bitch about it. Anyone within several miles, she’d bet.

And then she’d feel better.

She offered, “If you want to yell, scream, throw something, it’s okay. I get it. I can handle your ranting.”

He shook his head. “No. That won’t solve anything.”

“True, but it might make you feel better.” She flicked another glance his way. Crap, he looked so freaking depressed. She had to help him, somehow. “When I’m upset, I let it out. I yell. I scream. I punch a pillow. I...cry,” she confessed.

Why did she tell him that?

His hand covered right hand, which had been resting in her lap. She flipped it over, palm up and let him weave his fingers between hers. The gesture was simple, but sweet. And it gave birth to a little twinge of emotion, deep inside. Maybe what they said was true, that tragedy created instant, deep relationships. Facing danger, human beings sought out the comfort of others. And that comfort could lead to lifelong friendships...or romances.

Was that happening here? Now?

It can’t get attached to this guy. I’m going home. All of this will soon be a distant memory.

He cleared his throat. “Tell me about yourself. Where do you live? What do you do?”

“There isn’t much to tell. I’m a low-level administrative assistant. My job sucks. I have no interesting hobbies, unless online shopping counts, and I have no admirable qualities or aspirations.”

He chuckled. It was such a warm, rich sound. She liked it. A lot. “No admirable qualities? Aren’t you being a little hard on yourself?”

“Naw.”

“You know what I think?” he asked.

“What do you think, Tarik?” She slid a warning side-eye at him.

“I think all of this snark and smartass-ness is just an act. I think you’re afraid to trust and so you hide behind your bristles, like a porcupine.”

What did he know? What the hell did he know? What?