Bearly Accidental (Accidentally Paranormal Book 12) (18 page)

“Wait until you see me mow down a seventy-two ounce Porterhouse in less than twenty minutes. Then we’ll talk about appetites.”

“You’re making me all gushy and tingly,” he teased, his voice enveloping her like a warm blanket. “Anyway, Colorado just came to me one night. I was probably at my lowest point. I was cold, tired, hungry, hadn’t showered in days, and the wound from Andre’s bite had all but disappeared. So I was freaked about that, too.”

“So you still hadn’t experienced the shift?”

“Nah. That almost happened on the bus to Colorado.”

That made her eyes fly open. “Oh my God!”

Cormac groaned. “Yeah. Tell me about it. Anyway, I was low—really low. I fell asleep at some point, but sleep had become really restless, my dreams were always weird and broken. But this night, I guess it all got to me and I passed out cold at a rest area on the border of Pennsylvania. But I was startled awake by what I thought was someone yelling in my ear. All I remember was the word Colorado, clear as a bell, and from that moment on, there was this crazy drive to get there at all costs. So I bought a bus ticket, and here I am.”

“You’ll probably say this sounds nuts, but there’s a legend amongst us bears, you know. One that says you’ll find where your roots should grow when the spirit of an aimless wanderer shouts it in your ear in a dream. That’s how I knew going back to Colorado after college in Utah was the right thing for my life’s path”

“If he’s aimless, how come he’s giving advice on directions?”

Rolling to her side, Teddy smiled, tucking the pillow beneath her cheek. “That’s why he’s so good. Because he spent his living years roaming aimlessly, looking for all the good spots. At least that’s what my mom told me. He’s like your personal GPS.”

“Through the entire ordeal, it was the smartest move I could have made. Going to Colorado gave me the chance to catch my breath, get my feet under me. Meet you…”

Her heart skipped at least three beats. “I darted you. You couldn’t possibly mean that.” But she hoped he did.

“Teddy?”

“Yeah?”

“If I could actually get out of this bed without feeling like I’d just polished off an entire bottle of JD, and I was sure I wasn’t going to drool all over your pretty face, I’d kiss you. I’d kiss the hell out of you.”

She fought a sigh. The biggest, girliest sigh ever. “If I thought my lips would cooperate rather than feel like two rubbery worms at war with one another, I’d kiss you back,” she said, a little breathless.

“Maybe we should save it for our first date. Like official date. Nice clothes, nice restaurant with a big Porterhouse, no pressure from the kill squad. Like prom, but not.”

“I never went to prom,” slipped from her lips without warning.

God, why had she admitted that? It only made her sound pathetic.

“
What
? How could someone as beautiful as you miss out on a hot dress, spiked punch, a kitschy theme, and some guy with hands like an octopus, mauling you half to death?”

She giggled into her hand. “Just lucky, I guess? Though seriously, my mom died when I was just hitting my teens. My brothers don’t know prom dress from a pile of horse dung. They were young when they took on the responsibility of raising me, and back then, we didn’t have a lot of money to go around. I didn’t have the heart to ask them to spend it on a dress when it was hard enough just getting food on the table. So I skipped it. Besides, nobody asked.”

“Well, we’ll just have to see what we can do about that,” he murmured, though it was likely just empty words from Archibald’s special brew. “Date?”

As her eyes closed and sleep began to creep in, Teddy nodded. “Definitely a date.”

“Night, Teddy. Sweet dreams,” his whispered, his husky voice lazy and comforting.

“You, too…”

When she finally succumbed to sleep, she dreamt of floaty prom dresses made of tulle and sparkly things, balloons in pastel colors enveloping her and Cormac, drifting past them on a dance floor, where they clung to one another and swayed to a soft ballad.

Right in the middle of her dream, she decided it was probably the sweetest of dreams she’d ever had.

“
I
feel like my stomach’s about to explode,” Marty complained, yanking at the hem of her ultra-short dress, which made her figure look like she’d popped right out of a magazine for curvy women.

She was stunning in the slinky black Lycra that covered her from chin to mid-thigh like a sleek glove, and if the information Toni had once given to Marty during their many conversations about Stas, she should have no problem getting his attention.

“That’s because your fat ass is warring with your gut,” Nina said on a cackle as she shoveled a freshly baked frozen pizza in her mouth next to Lenny, who was happily eating yet another can of salmon.

Marty’s lips thinned. “Shut up and mind your own P’s and Q’s. Shouldn’t you be washing your driving gloves or something,
chauffer?
”

Nina planted the heels of her hands on the counter of the kitchen island and leaned over, growling. “I said I’d go in. I can do more than just drive. I told you, just because I’m fucking human, doesn’t mean I can’t still handle some shit.”

“With what? Your fierce glare of death and your awkward, slower-than-an-act-of-congress ninja moves? You stay in the car where you damn well belong, Nina. You are not a vampire anymore. I repeat,
not a vampire
!”

Wanda dropped a red duffel bag on the island between them with a loud thunk meant to startle the two women she called friends. “Not today, girls. Hear me? We all have to focus on our jobs. No arguing over anything or I swear, I’ll personally rip your vocal chords from your creamy throats. We each have tasks. Tasks that are best suited to our abilities. We will perform said task without a peep of dissention. Now knock it off. We’re all on edge. This is it. This is our chance to finally get Cormac out from under this damn dark cloud that’s been hovering over his head and reunite him with Toni.
Don’t screw it up
.”

Archibald cleared his throat as he entered the kitchen and sauntered across the floor like a runway model. He wore a pinstriped suit in a deep navy blue, double breasted, coupled with a black shirt and a white tie and a matching fedora.

He was just shy of a Tommy gun and cigar.

Arch did a little twirl and winked his eye at the women, followed by a saucy smile.

Nina wolf-whistled at him. “Every girl’s crazy ’bout a sharp-dressed man, Gansgta!” she whooped.

“I take it you approve, ladies?” he asked on a bow.

Wanda gave him one of those fond smiles she was always doling out, but she shook her head in admonishment. “We’re not going after Jimmy Hoffa, Arch. They’re Russian mobsters, not
The Sopranos
.”

Arch scoffed at her, clicking his heels together. “It never hurts to dress the part, Lady Wanda. How could I possibly pass up a hat as smart as this one? If I’m to be in charge of keeping our former mistress of the dark on task and in our getaway car, it can only benefit me to get into character.”

Marty rolled her eyes with a chuckle and squeezed his arm. “You be careful, you hear me, Arch? Ex-Elvira’s a crafty one. She’ll pull out all the stops to stick her nose in where it doesn’t belong. Make sure she stays put in the getaway car. No varying from the plan.”

Nina ripped a piece of her pizza off and chewed, jamming her middle finger up at Marty.

Darnell strolled in then, his wide grin and big personality sweeping through the kitchen and warming Teddy. He fist-bumped with Carl before yanking the zombie into a bear hug.

“Do you have what we need, D?” Wanda asked as she pulled on a pea coat and dark knit cap, completely changing her overall appearance and air of sophistication to one of anonymity.

“Yes’m.” He drove his beefy hand into his Giants jacket and pulled out a recording device Cormac had sent him to purchase.

“And you’ve located this bar the freak hangs out in with his goons?”

“Yep, an’ I got the dude’s cell number, too. A direct hotline to the bad guy. All right up in here.” He pointed to his head.

“Up top, Demon,” Wanda said on a smile, holding her hand up in the air for him to high-five her.

As they all prepared to put into motion this sting they’d concocted while she and Cormac slept the sleep of the dead after drinking Arch’s special brew, Teddy fought the urge to scream.

Everyone was laughing and joking and chatting as though they’d done this a hundred times. Like they were role-playing or something.

But she and Cormac were going to come face-to-face with a murderer. A guy who’d shown zero remorse after annihilating another human being. He was a psychopath with an army of people just like him, and she was going to saunter into his lion’s den and offer him a free kill.

Teddy stole gulps of breath as she made her way to a quiet place outside the kitchen where she could think and hopefully calm her nerves.

She went directly for the mantle of the fireplace in the great room, gripping it, panic began to claw at her, seep into her bones, drag her deeper and deeper to its anxiety-riddled depths.

This would never work. Stas would catch them. Carmine would catch them trying to deceive him and she’d be dead. Cormac would be dead. They were all going to die!

A shiver beginning in her toes worked its way up to her arms, violently assaulting her, leaving her body one big tremble.

But then Cormac was there, slipping his arms around her and turning her into the shelter of his body. “Just breathe, Teddy.”

She scrunched her eyes shut and gulped. “I shouldn’t be like this. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m a bounty hunter, for crap’s sake! Why am I so scared?”

“Because you don’t hunt to kill, honey. You hunt to capture. But I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you. If anyone makes a wrong move, I’ve got your back.”

Her heart began to crash hard against her ribs, panic-attack style. She’d had them after her last run-in with Dennis, she knew the signs. But now wasn’t the time.

“Tell me about why you got in on the bounty hunting.”

Her throat tightened, but telling Cormac her story helped her focus on something else. “Because of my dad. He was killed in a bar fight and the guy who did it was prosecuted and sent to jail, but he escaped. We were just kids when it happened initially, but when the guy got out, we were adults. My mom was gone by then, but we never forgot how hard life became because my dad was gone. How much she missed him, how much we all missed him. So we hunted the bastard. Tracked him and strung him up and brought him in for my father, who was the kindest man I’ve ever known. It was the beginning of what became a profitable business, for the most part. I learned from my brothers how to track when I was little. I got so much better at it than them, that now, whenever we get a bounty in the forest, I take it.”

“Which was why I ended up darted,” he chuckled, running his hands along her spine.

“If I make a million apologies, it’ll never be enough.”

“Nah. It’ll be a great story to tell our grandchildren someday, don’t you think? How Grammy and Paw-Paw met one cold winter day when Grammy was out huntin’ men.”

Teddy giggled against his flannel shirt, the tension in her back easing at the mention of a possible future.

“And Sanctuary? I never really got to ask you about it last night because, well, drugged, or whatever Arch did to us. Tell me about it. It’s a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, right?”

Her heart sank. He had no way of knowing the dire circumstances of her home away from home back in Colorado, but every bounty she took was because of the animals she loved so much. What would happen to Mr. Noodles, her deaf Macaque monkey, who was already angry and frustrated because he struggled with communication?

He’d end up sent to someone who didn’t understand him and would lock him away from the other monkeys because he was volatile. But what he needed was understanding and integration.

And Suits, her Emperor penguin who’d been born with a deformed foot? Who’d help him acclimate to new surroundings? And the giraffes and the otters…

“Yes, Sanctuary rescues and rehabs all sorts of wildlife, and even an exotic or two. And it was where I worked. By the time I get back, I’d lay bets Sanctuary will have closed its doors. The bank is foreclosing on them,” she said, her voice hitching. She should have been long done with her bounty by now and back with a nice bulk payment for the bank.

If things hadn’t gone so wrong.

Her chest ached for the animals that were her heart. They knew her. She knew them. Every idiosyncrasy, every quirk, every special need. They’d never known anything but her and the staff at Sanctuary. There’s nothing she’d miss more than her time with them.

“Where will all the animals go?”

“I don’t know. The bank’s in charge of that. I’m sick with worry over what’ll happen to them—where they’ll end up. Some of them are bonded and can’t ever be let out of captivity because they won’t survive. We tried to get the bank to appoint me their guardians, because I know each and every one of them and all of their needs. But they wouldn’t allow it. Likely, they’ll end up separated and shipped off to zoos around the country without the special care they need. I wanted to help. I thought this… Never mind. It’s over, I guess.”

“Hold up. Was the money from my bounty supposed to help save Sanctuary?”

She kept her face hidden. “Why would you think that?”

“I saw the price on my forehead on the news for information just leading to my arrest last night, Teddy. I imagine the bounty on me was pretty high, too. Were you going to use that money for Sanctuary?”

“Carmine made up the damn bounty on you. Falsified all sorts of databases. There
was
never any bounty for you…”

“Teddy. Just be straight with me. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right. Honesty’s right. So spit it out.”

Her sigh was ragged. “Okay, yes. But it doesn’t really matter anyway. They never wanted me to catch you. Just lead them to you. They would have killed me once they got you and the bounty deposit wouldn’t matter anyway. It was lose-lose to begin with.”