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

Oddly, there was no text about the job itself or the events that had unfolded last night. Probably because her treetop hit man didn’t want anyone to know what he’d done to the person he’d hired.

Finding Vadim’s number, she clicked on it and winced. Here went nothin’.

“Jesus Christ, Teddy, it’s been more than twenty-four hours! Are you okay? Do you need us? Where the hell are you and where’s Cormac Vitali?” Vadim shouted, his voice rife with panic and fear.

Blowing out a breath of pent-up air, she said, “I’m fine, Vadim. Relax. Everything is fine.”

“I’m putting you on speaker so Viktor can stop wearing a hole in the damn floor. Jesus and hell, Teddy! You scared the shit out of us!”

“Teddy?” her brother Viktor roared, curling her eardrums. “What in blazes is going on? Do you have any idea how worried we were? When I say call and keep in touch during a bounty, I mean call and keep in touch!”

She pictured Viktor and Vadim, pacing the worn length of the hardwood kitchen floor in their ranch house, running their hands over the light brown scruff on their faces, in tune with one another’s every move.

“Okay, okay! Wait, please! Just let me explain. Everybody calm down and let me talk. No interruptions. Agreed?”

“It better be good, Theodora,” Vadim hissed.

Most people couldn’t tell her identical brothers apart, but she didn’t have any trouble at all because their differences were distinct. Vadim was the less high-strung of the two; his swagger was more relaxed, his face less scrunched up in a frown, his overall vibe down to earth.

Viktor, on the other hand, was always wired for sound. Ready to go at a moment’s notice, all pent-up energy and motion. Both worried about her in equal measure, they just did so very differently, and right now, she wasn’t up to the interrogation.

Tucking her legs under her, Teddy sighed. “First, Cormac Vitali isn’t the bad guy here. Now, hold on…” She heard Viktor’s simmer, even over the phone. “Don’t start yelling about sympathizing or whatever psychobabble you two keep coming up with until I explain. And if you’re not going to stay calm while I do it, I’m hanging up.”

Vadim huffed into the speaker. “But that’s exactly what I’m going to do. What have we told you about sympathizing with the bounty, Teddy? Stop trying to figure everyone out and fix their damn boo-boos and just bring ’em in. That’s the job we gave you.”

“You’re not listening. I’m not sympathizing with the bounty. I’m telling you, Cormac Vitali isn’t the bad guy. That bastard of a client is! The one who hired us with his pathetic story about catching the guy who killed his friend! Know how I know? I’ll tell you how I know, brothers. That client tried to kill me last night.
Kill me
.”

She still had trouble believing it, but it was true. The man who’d been taking potshots at her last night was the very man who’d hired her to bring in Cormac Vitali.

There was a silent moment while Teddy allowed them to absorb her words. She’d stunned them speechless. That almost made her giggle. Except, that client had paid them a lot of money as a deposit to find Cormac, and they’d just
lost
a lot of money because he was dirty.

They had a mortgage to pay and a ranch to run. She’d have to find a way to make it up to them somehow.

“So you’re telling me, the client from Jersey, Arty McDaniels—”

“Probably not his real name,” she interjected.

“Okay, the guy with the potentially fake name who was carrying on about how Cormac had killed his friend, the friend he wanted justice for, was the same guy who tried to kill you last night?” The disbelief in her brother’s voice rang in her ear clear as a bell.

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you. Same guy climbed a damn tree opposite the room I’m staying in and took a shot at me just last night. I went after him and I saw him, Vadim. Saw him with my own two eyes. He got away, but it was the same damn guy.”

She was still parsing it in her mind, trying to make sense of all this. McDaniels told all three of them the sob story of his dead friend with real tears glistening in his eyes as he’d hired them. He’d told them all about how he was determined Cormac be brought to justice in honor of his alleged dead friend. All he wanted was for them to locate the mark and bring him in, where he’d gladly help her bring Cormac to the nearest police station.

That was when Viktor and Vadim had stopped him cold. They never asked for the emotional details surrounding a bounty—it was too personal. All they needed was the cash and the assurance that, once the bounty was found, the client agreed to let them aide in escorting the bounty to the police department. It was unconventional, yes. But their reasons for taking bounties to begin with were very personal.

But that wasn’t what Arty McDaniels had wanted at all—she knew it in her gut. He’d wanted Cormac found all right, he wanted him found so he could kill him, and she’d helped him find the man he wanted to murder.

The more she thought about it, the more she was sure she had a much better picture of what had likely really happened the night McDaniels’ “friend” was allegedly murdered, and it had nothing to do with Cormac.

He was damn well in cahoots with these Russians somehow. They needed to shut Cormac up before he found the right cop to listen to him—unlike the cops his sister had tried to convince.

“So all that bullshit about bringing Cormac to justice in honor of his buddy was crap? How the hell did he get this Vitali into the system to begin with? Did he hack it?”

Arty McDaniels had come complete with loads of information from official sites, all declaring Cormac was wanted for the murder. “I guess if he was willing to come to us for help in capturing Cormac with a fake name and a fake story, he’d surely be prepared to create falsified documents. And why else would he try to kill me if his story wasn’t bullshit? Why would he want me dead if I found Cormac for him? Did he get suspicious because I’d come to New York?”

“New York? What the hell are you doing in New York?” Viktor yelped.

Squeezing her temples, Teddy clenched her teeth. “It’s a long story, and I’ll explain in a minute. But what I’m sure of is, McDaniels wants anyone who came in contact with Cormac and might’ve heard the real story dead. He just needed him found. Was the plan always to kill us
both
after I’d found him, and make us disappear just like his buddy? No one would know the truth, right? You’d both think I got lost on the bounty. The forest is a big place, Viktor, but he needed someone who knows it like we do—like I do. Also, no one’s looking for Cormac but his sister, and she’s at the root of all this. She’s the one who saw what happened. So who’d know the difference?”

“What
is
the real story, Teddy? What happened with this guy’s sister and why the hell are you in New York?” Vadim asked.

As she explained what Cormac had told her this morning about Stas and Toni and why she’d come to New York, leaving out the part about Shamalot and life mates, her brothers listened in silence.

When she was finished, Viktor finally spoke. “That means this was all some kind of crazy setup. He just needed someone skilled to track Vitali. I’ll hunt his sorry ass down, Teddy. He’ll beg for death when I’m done with him!” he bellowed into the phone, followed by the slam of a fist. Probably on the center island, if the sound of plastic apples falling to the ground was any indication.

Then another wave of horror hit her. “You know what else this means, don’t you? If he came for me, he might come for you guys. He won’t want anyone left to identify him. You and Vadim aren’t safe.”

“Screw safe. I dare the jackass to come at me.”

“Viktor, save the Superman bit,” she scolded. “I’m just asking that you watch your backs. Please. At least until I figure this out. And maybe do a little investigating with some of your contacts. Find out who this Arty McDaniels really is.”

Viktor lowered his voice then, gentling his tone. “You don’t owe this Vitali anything, you know. How were you supposed to know our client was a maniac?”

Except, she did owe Cormac something. She’d helped this McDaniels find him. Handed him over on a silver platter. But it wasn’t just that. He was her intended. She’d avoid telling her brothers that for now, but she knew. She just needed to get used to the idea before she shared it with more people than those who already knew.

“I do owe him something, Viktor. I led McDaniels straight to him, and while I didn’t know that then, I know it now. What have we always said about this bounty business? Sure, it makes us money, but we find bad guys law enforcement can’t because we can track better than any human ever could. We do it because of what happened to Dad. In his honor.”

There was a low grumble from Vadim at the mention of her father, but it was a clear reminder of their reasons for taking up bounty hunting to begin with. It had begun to avenge his murder when no one else would investigate deeper. It had ended with Vadim near death, but they’d caught the bastard, and they continued to catch bastards for that very reason.

Some people managed to escape the law. Teddy and her brothers ensured criminals were brought to justice. They only took cases where the client agreed to meet with law enforcement officials if the bounty was captured—which McDaniels had agreed to do. In fact, he’d signed a contract saying as much.

They’d had all sorts of bounties over the years, deadbeat dads, murderers, domestic abuse cases, escaped convicts, and they never varied from their mission in honor of Maxim Gribanov. Put the bad guys away for good; truth, justice, the American way—or some such noble cause.

“But do you remember the last time you got this involved, Teddy? Look, I only say this because we almost lost you. That you’re even out on this bounty now was enough to send both of us over the edge. We didn’t like it. We’d have done it for you and given you the money if not for all that pride you have when it comes to being independent. I know you need the money for Sanctuary, but it isn’t worth your life.”

The animals at Sanctuary
were
her life, but no one understood that in quite the way another activist passionate about preserving wildlife would. “I remember what happened, and I promise you, this isn’t like that. Swear it on my trusty dart gun,” she joked.

“So why not just take this to the law there in New York, Teddy?”

“And say what? This random guy who probably gave us a fake name hired us for a bounty he never intended to pay up on because really, all he needed was someone who knew the forest to track down the guy he wanted to murder himself? Besides, did you listen to what I told you about the police and Cormac’s sister? What if the one guy we turn to is dirty like in Toni’s case? This is the mob we’re talking about, Vadim. They hacked off Cormac’s finger, for Christ’s sake.”

The idea made her want to spit nails. Toni had done the right thing, only to end up losing three years of her life in hiding because the cops were on the take. Who did you trust? No way was she taking a chance on trusting the wrong person.

“Okay, so we come to you and bring you home and keep you safe until we figure this out. End of,” Viktor said.

“No!” she shouted into the phone. “I’m not leaving.” Crap. How was she going to explain wanting to stick this out to them? She’d have to tell them the truth, and then they’d claim her judgment was clouded by lust.

“Why the hell not?” Vadim yelped.

“Because I’m not. I started this. I virtually handed Cormac’s location over to McDaniels. I’m not just going to run away from my part in this. Is that what you two taught me to do? Run away from my responsibility?”

Vasim blustered with a huff. “Don’t you think this is a little different than when you helped Kevin Lightfoot steal his brother’s X-Box 360 by hoisting him up onto the trellis so he could sneak into his brother’s room? It’s
way
different, Teddy. We’re talking a guy is trying to kill you.
Kill
you.”

She got his point. She’d definitely helped Kevin Lightfoot steal his brother’s X-Box 360. She’d gone into it with the promise she could play
Halo
. Okay, so she didn’t directly steal it, but her brothers had made her own up to her part in the whole mess because she was guilty by association.

“You’re right; it’s not the same thing exactly. But I’m not leaving. And I already told you, I have a werewolf and a hybrid and a very ragey ex-vampire watching my back. I’m safe with them. Promise.”

Vadim barked at her, “How do you know you can trust these people? You don’t even know them. That’s insane.”

“I don’t know anything. I just know I’m an adult. Cormac’s been on the run for three years. We were going to collect a hefty bounty if we caught him, and even after I sent that jackhole his money back, I ended up leading that prick McDaniels right to him and he tried to kill me. Because he now knows that I know he was full of shit, telling us Cormac killed his friend. No way I’m walking away from this. Look, I have to go. I love you both. I promise I’ll keep in closer touch. I have a confession to make to Cormac and the ladies. In the meantime, why don’t you two go drum up some business now that we’ve lost the Vitali bounty and it’ll be on me—”

“Teddy! This isn’t about the damn money!” Viktor shouted.

But she knew better than to try to convince them she was doing the right thing. “Stop yelling at me and listen. I’m going to trash this phone because it wouldn’t surprise me if McDaniels tapped it to track me. He managed to find out I was here in New York somehow. I’ll get the burner from my backpack and text you with the number. Talk to you soon. I love you both.”

She hung up to their loud protests and closed her eyes, blowing out a long breath.

Okay, so one confession down, one more to go. The worst of it was yet to come, but she was determined to get everything out in the open.

“
The Vitali bounty?
”

Fuck all.

C
ormac’s voice, full of anger, forced her to acknowledge his presence whether she wanted to or not. Flames crept up along the back of her neck and onto her cheeks. Licking her lips, Teddy gazed up at him. Gone were the soft glances he’d shot her way over breakfast, now replaced with hot eyes full of accusation.