Bearly Accidental (Accidentally Paranormal Book 12) (16 page)

“Yes. I’m fine. Just needed some air. Bears are unusually warm creatures—especially females—which is why Florida’s out, in case that was your dream retirement spot,” she joked. Hoping her voice sounded as light as she’d tried to keep it.

“Good to know. I was never much for sand in my shorts. Plus, I know I don’t look like it, but underneath all this hair on my face, I’m a little pasty.”

Teddy snickered, trying to relax.

“So who’s Dennis?”

And there it was. The big lead elephant in the room. She had no choice but to tell him. They hadn’t touched on their prior relationships at this point, so she figured it could wait until they took the life mate thing off the back burner, but with Dennis loose…

Clearing her throat, Teddy gripped his wide hands, calloused and warm. “He’s my ex-husband. He just got out of prison for assault and battery.”

Cormac’s face darkened as his eyes searched hers. “You were married?”

“For two years, until I knew better.” Two hellish years she’d spent coddling him, making excuses for him, allowing him to berate her, belittle her and, in the end, verbally lash her at every turn until his verbal abuse turned into domestic violence.

Tilting her chin up, he asked, “Were you going to tell me?”

She sighed, the cold air escaping her mouth in a puffy cloud. “Eventually. This wasn’t something I purposely kept from you. I’ve gotten good at my mental block where Dennis is concerned. And he wasn’t even a concern until tonight. I just didn’t think I had to say anything yet, seeing as we were putting everything life mate on the back burner.”

“So just a quick question before we go any further. If I’m your life mate, why did you marry Dennis?”

“Well, one, because I wasn’t sure I believed the legend, and two, in the beginning, he was a lot of fun. Charming, funny…”

“And then?”

“And then I became his punching bag. At first he just verbally beat me down. Gaslighted me every time he had the chance, leading me to believe I was crazy. Then it became physical and that’s when I left.”

That last night with Dennis before she’d finally thrown in the towel would always be an ugly reminder of how not to end a relationship. She’d asked for a divorce, and he’d almost choked her to death.

Cormac’s hands stiffened, the muscles in his forearms flexing. “He hit you?” His voice rang with the kind of disbelief only a man with true integrity would.

“He almost killed me,” she confessed, squashing a sob.

The road to recovery since that night had been long. The physical journey had been a snap. It was the mental trip she’d gone on that had knocked her for a loop and left her scrambling to regain her life, in the way an act so violent can do to you.

He brushed her hair from her cheek with the back of his hand, his next question gentle. “Okay, so I know this is going to sound like a ridiculous question in the midst of something so difficult, but how could he have almost killed you if you self-heal?”

“There are so many things you don’t know, I forget. When Dennis came after me because I’d filed for a divorce, I was on a bounty. He tracked me and found me out in the forest, and then beat me to hell and back. Broke my ribs, my collarbone, fractured my pelvis, and yes, those are all things that would self-heal, but when he kicked me over the side of a ravine, I was knocked unconscious. Your healing slows when you’re down for the count because you need to concentrate on the healing. I dropped about a hundred feet and landed on a sharp rock, and punctured my lung. If my brothers hadn’t found me when they did, I would have bled out.”

“Jesus Christ,” Cormac hissed, kneeling in the snow and pulling her into a tight embrace, his arms secure and warm around her. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to say any more. Just forget I asked.”

Curling her head into his shoulder, she squeezed her eyes shut. Not because Dennis evoked tears anymore, her eyes had long since dried out over him. But because they didn’t need this added stress in an already strained situation.

Still, that wasn’t the only reason. She didn’t want to remember how hard it had been to trust herself again, her instincts, her ability to judge another’s character.

“This really screws up everything, huh?”

Cormac set her from him and gave her a look of confusion. “What?”

“Now I’m not just looking over my shoulder for one bad guy who wants my head on a platter, I’m looking for two.”

Gripping her shoulders, he narrowed his eyes in the darkness. “And you think that’s somehow your fault?”

“Well, it sure doesn’t help. I did marry the man.”

“You know what doesn’t help, Teddy? You blaming yourself because some asshole beat you almost to death and now he’s free to do it again.
How
in the hell is that your fault?”

Without thinking, without even breathing, she gripped either side of his shirt and kissed him. Kissed him hard, smoothing her hands up over his broad chest to bracket his face. She kissed him because he’d accepted her answers without hesitation.

Cormac’s tongue slid into her mouth, stroking her own, the heat of the silken rasp against hers leaving her dizzy. His beard, crisp and coarse, scraped against her cheeks with delicious friction. The kiss deepened, becoming heated, their breathing harsh as their chests met.

He scooped her up, pulling her tight to him until they were standing, backing her against the house so the brick wall met her spine and then he melted into her, his rigid body, every muscle, every sculpted line pressed into her.

Cormac’s arms snaked around her, his hand splaying over her ass, pulling her deeper, closer, until there was nothing but the sound of their harsh breathing and their mouths, devouring one another’s.

The door popping open made them both jump, but not apart; rather, they clung to one another tighter.

Carl’s dark head poked out of the heavy door, his lopsided grin in place when he flipped the light on. He motioned them inward, the duct tape holding his index finger on shiny under the bright patio light. “Insiiide, pease,” he said.

“Hey, Carl,” Cormac replied with a warm smile. “We’ll be right in, okay? Go tell Nina and the others, would ya?”

Carl nodded, his grin widening, and then he pointed to the watch at his wrist, which in zombie-speak she’d learned meant hurry it up.

Teddy cleared her throat and nodded her head, smiling back at him. “We’ll hurry, promise. Get in there now so you don’t catch your death…er, I mean a cold. Wait. Can zombies catch a cold?”

Carl snickered and shut the door, leaving them to deal with what she’d just done.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, unable to look Cormac in the eye.

“Your words, they cut like a knife.”

“Huh?”

“Are you sorry you kissed me? Because I’m fragile right now, and I’m pretty sure if you tell me you’re sorry you kissed me, I’ll flat-out break,” he teased, letting his lips graze her jaw.

Shivering, Teddy shook her head and shrugged. “I’m not sorry I kissed you. I meant I’m sorry I was so abrasive. You telling me I wasn’t to blame just struck a sensitive place. I guess I got overwhelmed. I don’t know. I kissed you, okay?”

He grinned and winked. “Yeah, it was pretty okay. And damn right it’s not your fault. Listen, if the Teddy I’m coming to know is anything like I think she is, you blamed yourself for sticking it out for so long with Dennis, am I right?’

Oh, the endless nights of blame, of reliving all the moments she should have walked out the door and never looked back. “I stayed too long.”

“So you suppose the length of time would have changed the outcome of the end of your marriage? Do you suppose Dennis just wouldn’t have beaten you almost to death if you’d done it sooner?”

“You’re probably right.”

“No. I am right, Teddy.
I am right
. This fuck’s an abusive prick. He would have been just as angry had you left a few months into the marriage as he would have in a couple of years. And it’s damn well not your fault he got out of jail.”

“I still can’t believe his attorney managed to reduce the charges from attempted murder to assault and battery and jail time. But his parents have a lot of money and a lot of heavy-duty contacts in Denver.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe it either. But
you
can believe, if he shows up, the murder won’t be an attempt.”

Putting her fingers to his lips, she shook her head. “He doesn’t know where I am, and my brothers are aware he’s out. They’ll keep an eye out and if he so much as sneezes too loud, they’ll see to it he’s right back in jail. I don’t want you involved in this, Cormac. This is my baggage.”

“I’m sorry, isn’t it mine, too? You know, life mates and sacrifices and all?”

Jabbing a finger into his shoulder, Teddy giggled. “I’m sorry, weren’t you the one who gave me up to Nina to save your own pretty hide?”

He made a face. “Well, c’mon. Be fair. Nina’s damn frightening. I don’t care if she’s not a vampire anymore. She’s just as intimidating as a human. I had no choice but to hand you over. Who wants their face chewed off?”

Teddy’s head fell back on her shoulders as she laughed. “She’s a formidable foe even human. I agree.”

Leaning down, he brushed her lips with his once more, leaving her almost breathless. “We’d better get back inside before that foe decides we’re the enemy. But let’s discuss this more in depth later, okay?”

She shot him a warm smile, her toes curling inside her boots. “Done deal.”

Gripping her hand, he pulled her back inside and they were traversing the long hallway again when she heard Nina yelp, “That son of a motherfucking bitch!”

Cormac and Teddy exchanged glances as they followed the sound of the television to the family room, where everyone had gathered.

Sectional couches in plush fabric were scattered throughout the wide room, where the focal point was an eighty-inch flat screen.

With both she and Cormac’s faces flashing on it in vivid colors.

“What the hell is going on now?” Teddy almost shrieked.

“I’ll tell you what the hell,” Nina said from clenched teeth. “That fuck-knuckle Carmine Ragusi went on live friggin’ TV and accused the two of you of murder.”

T
he hits just kept on comin’, was Teddy’s first thought, second only to the sheer terror a murder charge with she and Cormac’s names attached to it brought.

“Murder?” Cormac thundered, dropping her hand and moving closer to the television as the reporter was just wrapping up the story.

“That’s what I said—murder,” Nina groused, rewinding the broadcast so they could watch for themselves.

As the reporter replayed the interview with that lying sack of smelly shit Arty, aka Carmine Ragusi, her knees threated to give out.

Carl came up behind her, driving his hands around her waist and squeezing her. “You are niii…ce.”

She shuddered out a breath and gripped his hands, fighting a sting of tears at how sensitive he was to everyone around him. His hands were cold, but they were comforting just the same.

So now the story was Carmine Ragusi believed his partner had something on Cormac and Teddy, and Carmine had some kind of evidence to prove they’d killed his partner? Without a body?

Whoa. Her head was spinning.

Teddy’s mouth went dry when she was finally able to speak. “How?” she managed to push out.

Wanda was on her feet in an instant, tucking her light sweater around her waist and approaching Teddy with worried eyes. “We think that’s who was murdered the night Toni found Stas and Andre standing next to a dead guy. He was Carmine Ragusi’s partner at the precinct. He needs someone to take the fall for his dead partner.”

“That’s insane.” Cormac’s jaw had gone stiff, his fist balled into a wad of anger.

Marty buzzed about them, too, her wheels spinning, her hands waving. “We have a theory. Carmine’s partner, whose name was Mauricio Benneducci, by the way, caught Carmine in the thick of this Russian mob thing and they took him out to keep his mouth shut. I’d bet all my lip gloss Carmine was at the dealership that night and he was the one who killed Mauricio. Toni may not have seen him there. Maybe he left. Or maybe he was hiding and waiting to kill Toni when she showed her face. Thank God she got away when she did. But I’d also bet Stas
ordered
Carmine to kill his partner because in this nut Stas’s mind, Carmine was to blame for his partner finding out he was on the take. Stas and Carmine had to be worried about how much Cormac knew after finding Toni with him. Cormac being a loose end like that is bad for Stas. So, Teddy, you were probably right when you said Carmine just needed you to find Cormac and the plan all along was to kill you, too. No one was supposed to know anything about Cormac or Toni to begin with. Eliminating you, and probably your brothers, would have shut that right down.”

“Hold on,” Cormac interjected. “There were no deaths or murders reported on the night Toni witnessed the murder at the dealership, or even in the vicinity, and not a single word of one from that night since this all happened. I’ve gone over the blotters for every single arrest hundreds of times. If Ragusi killed his partner—a cop, no less—why wasn’t there some kind of all-out manhunt? He was a cop, for Christ’s sake! Cops stick together, don’t they?”

Marty pressed a hand to Cormac’s arm and nodded, her logical tone a small consolation in this mess. “Here’s what we think. Yes, the cops would have let loose the hounds of hell to find who killed one of their own, but that’s only if they thought Mauricio was
dead.
Maybe Carmine somehow managed to make them believe there was suspicion surrounding his partner’s mental health or whatever. Sure, they’d look high and low for him, but you weren’t looking for a missing cop, Cormac. You were looking for dead bodies.”

Teddy was still trying to make sense of being a suspect in a murder. “How can they do this without a body? Where the
hell
is Mauricio Benneducci’s body?”

Marty’s lips thinned. “Carmine’s a cop, and I’d bet he’s pretty convincing when presenting the police with everything they need to at least investigate you two. I can only imagine the tale he spun, but you can be sure it’s a damn good one. They don’t need a body to question you surrounding the disappearance of a police officer, honey. And Carmine doesn’t need a body to get you out in the open. This is all an effort to smoke you two out. It’s a huge risk for him to take. I mean, what if other cops find you first—cops who aren’t dirty? He’s obviously pretty desperate at this point.”