Bearly Accidental (Accidentally Paranormal Book 12)

by Dakota Cassidy

  She had to make a phone call and she had to make one now. Nina had reassured her there were all manner of proper safety measures taken to keep them safe, like cell phone jammers and security systems she’d set when they went to bed. Which meant, she needed to get outside to make a call before the alarms were activated.

  Wandering away from a silent and obtuse Cormac, Teddy headed toward the room connected to the great room and ducked inside, looking for an exit.

  She made her way down the long hall and found she was right back in the kitchen, where there was a six-paned glass door. Peeking outside the window, she saw the door led to one of the entries to the hedge maze.

  Popping it open and praying it didn’t sound an alarm, Teddy slipped outside and turned her phone on, shivering as she waited for it to wake up.

  She was calling this off. Right now. It was over. Screw the money. There had to be another way to get it.

  As her phone lit up, she saw two things. The picture she’d sent her brothers of Cormac laying in the snow had never sent, which was likely a good thing—and there was a message in her voice mail inbox.

  The piper was calling.

  Oh shit.

  Chapter 6

  She clicked on the name and inhaled deeply before putting on her most professional tone and saying, “Theodora Gribanov here.”

  “You found him yet?” the voice at her ear, gruff and heavily laced with a Jersey accent, asked.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity-fuck. “It’s been an entire thirty-two hours since you hired me. I told you these things can take time.”

  “Yeah, while you run up a fuckin’ expense account on my dime, that kinda time? I damn well knew I shouldn’t have hired a broad.”

  Moron. “Because there are so many places for a broad like me to shop in the forests of Colorado while I’m on a job. Speaking of, you can always fire me. In fact, I quit. Free of charge.”

  “Quit? What the fuck are you talkin’ about? You just got started!”

  Jesus, he was testy. What was the gig with this guy? “And now I’m damn well done, okay? So it’s been real and all.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” he hissed in her ear. “I gave you a hefty pile of cash as a deposit to do a job, you bitch!”

  Teddy clenched the phone in her hand, ready to lob it across the top of the hedge maze. “And I’ll send your hefty pile of cash right back at’cha the second I get off this phone and I can transfer it from my account to yours. I’m out, hear me? Out. Later!”

  She hung up while she still had the opportunity to cut him off and hit her bank account, transferring the lump deposit he’d made back to his account, and then she turned the phone off. She needed time with a computer to investigate this feeling in her gut that said something wasn’t right. Whatever this was, she wanted no part of it anymore.

  Teddy bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying. She’d needed that money to help Sanctuary, and now it was gone with the wind. But no way was she getting into something that grew shadier by the second.

  A tear slipped down her cheek for all the animals and wild birds that’d be farmed out to zoos and places they didn’t belong, to be put on display because she’d never be able to get Sanctuary out of hock now. Mr. Noodles and Suits and Kim and Kanye would all suffer.

  Then she swiped the tear away in anger. She was just tired. That was all. She’d figure out another way to do this.

  Once she wasn’t being hunted, that was.

  Slipping back inside, she let her face rest against the cool wood of the doorframe, in the hopes she’d gather her thoughts before she had to face a crowd of people.

  A hand thumped her back, clunky but gentle.

  Lifting her head, she encountered Carl. A zombie. Or a half zombie. Or a zombie that looked nothing like the terrifying zombies on The Walking Dead.

  Carl’s sweet smile beamed down at her, childlike and open, if not a little green around the edges. He held up a plate of broccoli with a hand wrapped in duct tape.

  Sucking in some air, she swallowed hard to keep from bursting into tears. “Oh, thank you, Carl. That’s very sweet.” Teddy took a stalk of broccoli and bit into it with a forced grin.

  He bobbed his head. “Goo…d.” He forced the word out.

  Teddy smiled up at him, because you couldn’t do anything but smile at Carl. “It’s delicious. Did you cut this up yourself?”

  Holding up his hand, she noted his finger was duct taped on and made a comical frowny face. “Assid…ent. Owwww,” he moaned out, making her giggle.

  Gripping his hand, Teddy pressed a kiss to his finger then held it to her cheek. “Aw, you cut yourself? I’m sorry, Carl. How about if tomorrow I show you how to chop vegetables so you never cut yourself again? I’m a really good cook.”

  His smile, if it was at all possible, grew wider. “Arrrrch, too?”

  “Archibald? Aw, you bet, buddy. I could probably learn a thing or two from a master like him.”

  “Date.” He pushed the word out from his lightly green-tinted lips before they turned upward in that ever-present smile.

  “Best date ever,” she returned.

  Holding her hand, the zombie led her back through the kitchen and down the long hallway. Her eyes glanced at the majestic paintings of rocky cliffs and knights on horses mingled with neon bar signs on the wall as Carl dropped her right into the fray once again—to find everyone staring at her expectantly.

  Teddy cleared her throat and made an attempt at keep her eyes direct. “Sorry…I got lost trying to find the bathroom. So where were we in Operation Keep Teddy in The Dark?”

  Nina came around the corner, Lenny tucked under one arm, and threw a pillow at her, her almond-shaped eyes weary. “The part where you’re grateful you have a place that’s fucking safe to sleep. It’s bedtime. I can’t stay up like you crazy paranormals anymore. I need eight or you won’t like the bitch you find in the morning over waffles and eggs over easy. So choose a room.” She lifted Lenny’s paw and pointed it at Teddy. “Tell the big bad bear it’s night-night time for all Nosy Nellies.”

  Teddy looked upward at the huge spiral staircase of wrought iron and gleaming mahogany leading from the first floor, and frowned. “How many are there?”

  “Twenty-two. How about I put you and your lumberjack right next to each other so you can sneak into each other’s rooms? Make a right at the top of the stairs, third door on the left. Clean pajamas are on the dresser.”

  Cormac held out his arms to take Lenny from Nina, but she shook her head, rubbing her cheek on the cat’s fluffy snow-white fur.

  “Lenny can stay with me, where common sense and reason have sweet, unicorn-filled dreams. Isn’t that right, Smooshie Face?” she asked the cat as he purred adoringly up at her.

  Clearly, she wasn’t going to find anything else out tonight, so she might as well get a good night under her before she found a way to break away from this group of women and figure this out.

  She and Cormac bumped into each other as they each gripped the same knobby baluster with a bat carved into it on the staircase.

  “Sorry,” she murmured, her breathing erratic.

  He backed away instantly and motioned for her to go ahead of him with a face carved of stone. As they made their way up the stairs, avoiding touching each other, her heart clenched in her chest. How could the two of them ever be life mates?

  It was ridiculous to consider—especially under the tense circumstances.

  And why had she blurted it out the way she had?

  Because she’d been caught like a hooker in a jail cell and she’d panicked.

  Not a good trait to possess in her line of side jobs.

  What was done was done. And there was no hard and fast rule that said she had to mate with him. None that was enforced anyway. Maybe her feelings, this pull, this crazy attraction that had cropped up from the moment she’d looked into his eyes, was really something else.

  Maybe it was adrenaline from the chase, or infatuation, and her heart, this
thing pounding in her chest every time she looked at him, was just on overdrive. Because wouldn’t a life mate reciprocate her chemistry? If Cormac was feeling anything, he gave good poker face.

  Still, tomorrow was another day. Another day to find a way to explain to him why she’d shown up in the forest. Another day to attempt to figure out why someone wanted both she and Cormac dead.

  “Night,” she whispered before she pushed the door to her room open and left Cormac in the hall without looking back.

  Upon entering, Teddy blinked. This couldn’t possibly be a room in Nina Statleon’s castle. It was pink—a millions shades of pink. Everywhere she looked it was pink, and ruffled, and so girlie-sweet, her teeth ached.

  The queen-size bed featured a gauze and silk cotton-candy pink canopy cinched with a tiara at the ceiling that flowed over the sides of the bed, creating an almost cocoon of lush swirls. The quilted spread, complete with ruffles and yard after yard of silk fabric, fell to the plush pink carpeted floor.

  Throw pillows in the shape of moons and stars in off-white were scattered over the surface and behind them, larger pillows covered in ruffled shams. A white rocking chair with a thickly padded seat sat by a window overlooking the hedge maze. Stacks of books sat to the left, everything from Goodnight Moon to Cinderella were piled high.

  The walls were papered in white and pale-pink candy stripes with pictures of every Disney Princess ever and the arched windows with billowy pink curtains looked like they’d been stolen straight out of a fairytale.

  A bathroom off to the left led to more pink and white tiles and a gorgeous porcelain pedestal sink in oyster with a shiny waterfall-like faucet at the center.

  Teddy couldn’t help but smile. This room was amazing—every girl’s dream come true, and if she did nothing else, she intended to enjoy it until tomorrow, when she had to explain everything to Cormac.

  Flipping the taps on the claw-foot tub, she gauged the water until it was nice and hot then dumped bubble bath, pink of course, by the boatload into the silky depths, smiling as the froth grew.

  Stripping her dirty, bloody, torn shirt off, Teddy let it fall to the floor to inspect her wound in the mirror.

  Almost all healed. The wound was nothing but a pink, puckered line along her side now, and by tomorrow it should be gone.

  Kicking off her boots, socks and jeans, she grabbed some fluffy pink towels to drop beside the porcelain tub and slid in, groaning her pleasure at the instant ease her aches and pains were greeted with.

  The aromatic scents of peonies and honeysuckle greeted her nose, making her close her eyes and inhale as she sank in up to her chin.

  So Cormac. What did she know so far? Someone wanted him dead. He’d obviously been hiding out in the forest in Colorado for a reason. There was a person named Toni involved in all this somehow, and a guy named Andre had taken extreme measures to snuff him out.

  And Cormac was delicious. Stoic, angry, sculpted, suspicious, maybe even a little resentful. But still delicious.

  How did Nina, Marty and Wanda know Cormac? Was Toni the connection? She wished she had the gift of super-hearing like Marty and Wanda, but alas, bears were great trackers, scent being their biggest power, aside from sheer brawn. What had happened to his ring finger? Did that have to do with Andre, too?

  Tomorrow, she’d have to find a way to call her brothers and explain—if that moron hadn’t already done it by then.

  Closing her eyes, she wondered about Andre. Andre sounded like a French name, but he hadn’t spoken a word, so she didn’t know for sure. Was Cormac a Russian bear like she and her brothers? Why did he look as though she’d asked him if he put his hair in curlers every night when she’d asked about his sleuth?

  That was off, too. Everything was off, from her instincts to her judgment.

  Yawning, she let her head fall back on the edge of the tub, stretching her calves and pointing her toes.

  Exhaustion was seeping into her bones, meaning, she needed to wrap this up before she drowned and all the answers to her questions were left without resolution.

  But it was so nice and warm, she was reluctant to leave. With a sigh, she sat up and grabbed the washcloth on the ledge of the window beside the tub and squeezed some of the luscious bath gel she’d found on the sink into it, lathering it up.

  Just as she lifted her forearm to begin soaping up, a sharp crack and the silence of a suspended moment before the crash of glass made her eyes swivel to the window. Pieces of the window’s heavy lead glass fell into the tub, sloshing bubbles and spraying water everywhere. A bullet skimmed her midsection before ricocheting off the picture on the wall opposite the bathtub.

  Someone was shooting at her now? What the bloody fuck?

  A million thoughts flew through her mind, but the foremost? Catch the son of a bitch who was taking potshots at her. Goddamn it, she was sick and effin’ tired of being shot at. Anger, rife and raw, skittered up along her spine.

  She didn’t pay much attention to the screams of Wanda and Marty, or the commotion outside her beautiful bedroom door, or the pounding on the door by Cormac, all she saw was the color red.

  She wanted the head of whoever was shooting at her on a pike.

  In an instant, Teddy was in full shift. Her bones realigned with a satisfying crunch, the bulk of her torso spread, her haunches formed in a thick pair of solid muscles, her hair sprouted from every available pore and without thought, she launched herself out the window, sheetrock flying in every direction as she broke the wall surrounding the arched opening.

  Dropping down to the first-floor roof, she lifted her nose, scented her target in seconds and hurled herself to the ground with a growl that would surely wake Nina’s neighbors and have animal control on their way.

  He was in a grand old oak tree, curled into a small ball in a corner where trunk met thick limb. He wore a bungee cord around his waist and climbing gear, likely how he’d managed to get up in the tree to begin with.

  But there was no hiding from her—especially not in a tree. If there was anything Teddy Gribanov was skilled at, it was tree-climbing. Her brothers didn’t even attempt to touch her record for hitting the top of a hundred-foot pine in thirty-four seconds flat.

  Maybe it was because she was smaller, lighter than they were, but she beat them every time they challenged her.

  Loping across the lawn at high speed, staying in the shadow of the hedge maze, the crunch of ice-covered grass beneath her feet, she headed straight for the tree, her eyes focused on the base.

  She heard a gasp, which she was hoping like hell meant the guy taking shots at her was surprised by the fact that a bear had just shot out of a window and was running across the lawn. And then he confirmed his surprise when Teddy saw the gun fall to the ground, leaving a perfect outline in a cloud of freshly fallen snow.

  There was no getting away from her, the shooter would have to repel down the tree and unhook his gear—she was too fast for him to accomplish that.

  With a roar—an ugly, irate howl meant to inspire fear—Teddy launched herself at the base of the oak and shimmied upward, moving from branch to branch with the grace of a monkey.

  Wanda, Nina, Marty and Cormac weren’t far behind her, their arms waving as they raced across the lawn with Nina at the back of their pack, huffing and puffing.

  But she couldn’t hear their warnings—she had the eye of the tiger and it was zeroed in on the bastard who, for whatever crazy reason, wanted her dead. Nothing mattered but getting her hands, er, paws on him.

  The air was thick with his fear, his wide-eyed terror as she reached for him with a swipe of her paw, her claws poised to rip his throat open. She vaguely wondered how he’d gotten over the security gates surrounding Nina’s vast property. But it didn’t matter. He’d somehow gotten in, anchored a bungee around the tree, wrapped it around his waist and climbed up.

  This was insane. Who wanted her dead this badly?

  He stood on the limb then, his binoculars rolling to the back of his neck, t
he branches shaking in a tremble of ice and residual snow with his weight. The three-quarter moon shone on his face for a brief second, and that was her downfall.

  Her complete shock. Her dismay.

  What the hell was he doing here?

  The shooter took that moment, that one faltered moment, to use the heel of his boot to knock her in the jaw, sending her crashing downward through branches that bashed against her back as she fell helplessly to the ground with another roar of frustrated anguish.

  Teddy hit the top of the hedge maze, bouncing off and thudding to the ground with a crack of bones, knocking the wind out of her.

  “Teddy!” Wanda screeched into the whistling wind. “Answer me!”

  “Goddamn it, Nina, he’s getting away!” she heard Marty yell.

  “Got his gun!” Nina hollered back.

  “Teddy! Where are you?” Cormac hollered, followed by heavy footsteps.

  “Goddamn this hedge maze. I’ve lost more than one thing in this hot mess of foliage. Last time it was an earring, now it’s a person. The next time I come through here, I’m doing it with a chainsaw, Vampire!” Marty bellowed.

  “You leave my damn hedge maze alone, you animal!” Nina shot back. And then she yelled, “Kiddo! Answer us!”

  “Do you think she’s hurt?” Marty fret, her voice pitched much higher than normal.

  “Nah. She fell from the top of a GD tree the size of King Kong, Marty. Don’t talk crazy, moron,” Nina groused back, breathing so heavily, Teddy heard the raspy gasps rattling across her eardrums.

  “Shut up, Elvira Wannabe! You know what I mean!”

  “Oh, blow me, Cupcake! How about you shut up—”

  “Both of you shut up and help find Teddy!” Wanda wailed. “Teddy! Answer me, please!”

  Teddy was too busy shifting back and attempting to catch her breath to muster the energy to yell, but she tried. “Over here!” she wheezed out. Damn it all, she’d definitely broken a rib on impact.

  And she was naked.

  Every lump and bump exposed when bright floodlights flashed on, turning the hedge maze into a football field.

  And of course she was naked, because Cormac was the first to arrive on the scene, scaling a smaller hedge and dropping to his haunches upon landing.