Bearly Accidental (Accidentally Paranormal Book 12) (3 page)

Teddy attempted to struggle in his GI Joe grip of kung-fu steel one more time—and that was when she caught sight of his eyes.

They were green. Okay, so yeah, they were angry, too, but she saw beyond that.

Oh, sweet-sweet mother of pearl, his eyes were so green. Beautiful orbs in his head that shone like colored glass. Sharply defined jaw and cheekbones, ruddy skin and a beard of thick, coarse-looking hair on his face, all giving him that hot, casually laid-back look.

Teddy’s heart sped up again as he settled on her torso completely—and a tingle of heat in her belly swished upward to her cheeks as she got an even closer look.

Thick lashes gave the appearance of guy-liner, but in her gut, she knew a man like Cormac would never wear makeup. He was too gruff—too involved in other things to care about his appearance enough to be concerned about how to enhance that thick fringe of lashes and make his eyes stand out.

Teddy’s breath left her chest in a whoosh of air as he straddled her with thick thighs and his eyes bore a hole in her face.

But his anger didn’t matter. None of that mattered. What mattered was what she had just discovered.

Jesus Christ, how could this be?

“
Who are you?
” He ground out the demand.

“I—”

“Cormac!” the pretty blonde—Marty—shouted, yanking at his shoulder. “You’re hurting her! Get off!”

Who was this woman and why did she care if he was hurting her? Did they know each other? As she’d tracked Cormac tracking them, that wasn’t the impression she’d had at all.

His head swiveled upward, his eyes blazing hot. “For that matter, who the hell are
you
two?”

“Three!” the gorgeous brunette, Nina—wrapped up like she was planning a move to Antarctica—wheezed out as she stumbled down the hill, stopping short next to Marty and placing her hands on her knees in order to catch her breath. “Holy shitballs, it’s Lumberjack Bob.”

“Who are you people and what the hell do you want with me?” Cormac looked back down at Teddy, his eyes glowing with suspicion and rage. “Are you with them, too?”

Teddy only managed to shake her head, still in utter disbelief. This was wrong. Everything was all wrong!

Wanda, the one who’d managed to keep the other two from ripping each other’s throats out, gripped Cormac’s shoulder, huffed out a breath, and gave him a good hard shove, sending him tumbling off Teddy and into the snow with his grunt lingering in the air.

“Marty said get off! Now, do not move a muscle until we’re able to explain ourselves,” she ordered from tight lips with a wave of her finger, her chest puffing up and down. “Or so help me, I’ll take you out myself! I’ve had enough of everyone ignoring my wishes. Now hear this! I’ve had it up to my cerebellum with playing peacemaker for four days since we began this journey. You, Cormac Vitali, have the unfortunate circumstance of being my last damn straw. And don’t doubt for a single second I can’t take out a big, burly boy like you either. I’ll knock you clear to Kentucky. So you march your muscled ass on up that hill to your cabin, you do it without complaint, and you do it
now
, or so help me, as Charles Manson is my witness, I’ll kill you all!
Goooo
!”

Teddy’s eyes followed the direction of Wanda’s finger. This woman, whoever she was, had clearly had enough.

That was when she jabbed her finger down at Teddy, her eyes narrowed, her nostrils flaring. “That means you, too! I don’t know who you are or what you want, but we’re going to find out. And I’ll take the dart gun, Annie Oakley, thank you very much!” She reached for the backpack and threw it over her shoulder.

Teddy began to protest, but Wanda clamped her fingers together right under her nose. “I said
not a word
. Not a single word, or you’ll be the first on my list of things to kill while in Colorado. Got it? Get up and wallllk, goddamn it!”

Teddy only briefly looked into Wanda’s pretty blue eyes, acknowledging she had an air of authority that couldn’t be denied, before she crab-walked on her hands to back away from her. Rather than thicken the pot with confrontation, she hopped to her feet and began walking.

Marty followed Teddy closely while Nina, who looked absolutely frozen, fell in behind them.

There was nothing but silence as they made their way to the top of the hill and Cormac’s cabin came into view.

The entire time, Teddy attempted to construct a story in her head to explain why she was in the middle of nowhere, hauling Cormac away like she was some sort of female variation on a Neanderthal—because Wanda would want a story. Oh yes, she would. She didn’t look like the kind of woman who would put up with any shit.

When Teddy finally caught sight of Cormac’s cabin, she wondered how he’d found this place. She’d never, in all her tracking, encountered this section of the forest, and she knew the forest like the back of her hand.

It was a crude structure under the purple and orange twilight of the coming evening. The logs sturdy, but with no particular architecturally appealing design to them. There was a lone folding chair by the front door, sandwiched between two bushes and an enormous pine tree. Maybe a fishing cabin?

Smoke wisped upward out of the brick chimney, and a sagging clothesline off to the right side of the cabin, with a metal bucket beneath, waved in the light wind.

More snow began to fall, the distant roar of a rushing creek filling her ears. God, it was beautiful here. Even under these daunting circumstances, Teddy had to admit, she loved the forest far more than she loved the lights of the city.

What she probably
wasn’t
going to love? Explaining herself.

Cormac stopped at his front door, painted—of all things—an odd shade of eggplant purple, and turned to face them as they gathered, waiting for him to admit them entry.

“Well, open the door, dude. Jesus, it’s like frickin’ Iceland out here,” Nina demanded with a shiver, her lips dry and cracked.

But Teddy didn’t pay as much attention to Nina’s grousing as she did the smells these women gave off, assaulting her nose, one right after the other. Foreign, tangy, one even brought to mind the word “displaced,” if you could in fact smell such a thing. But it was strong.

She hadn’t heard all of their conversations in detail. Most of it had been just bits and pieces. She’d heard their names, seen their arms waving and middle fingers flying, sensed some general discontent, but she’d been so focused on capturing Cormac, she’d clearly missed something important.

As Cormac looked down at them, his gaze piercing, Teddy refocused her thoughts and waited. “I don’t know what’s going on, but this is as far as it goes until you explain who you are and what the hell you want from me.”

Then he crossed his arms over his burly chest to further the notion he wasn’t budging.

But it didn’t look like these women were up for any arguments. Especially the elegant one who’d demanded Teddy come with them to the cabin.

Wanda, the lady who’d shouted the orders, pushed her way past everyone and poked a finger into Cormac’s wide chest. “Open the door or I’ll use you as my battering ram. Got me, Bruiser? It’s been a long damn afternoon. We’ve been out on this hike from Hades for four bloody days. I’m cold. I’m tired. I’m done with every single person around me complaining about everything—and I do mean
everything
. Now, I get your suspicion, but you’re just going to have to trust that we’re the good guys, or I’m going to steamroll right over you if you so much as squeak a peep from your gorgeous lips.”

“But—”

Wanda clearly, visibly, undeniably snapped then. Her eyes went wild and furious, her mouth formed a sneer, and without so much as a grunt of exertion, she did exactly as promised. She steamrolled him, knocking Cormac, who was easily six-three and a good two-twenty, flat on his back.

Then, as dainty and graceful as any prima ballerina and just shy of pirouetting over his body, she hopped over him and entered the cabin, brushing the snow from her ski pants.

Cormac groaned from the ground, running a hand over his head, but the brunette held out her hand to him with a cackle. “Need some help, big boy? C’mon. Get up before Wanda whips out her clangers and things get really serious.” Then she cackled again as Marty grabbed Teddy by the hand and dragged her into the cabin behind her.

Once inside, when she got a good look at the interior of the cabin, Teddy’s mouth fell open on a gasp that took even her by surprise.

It was like FBI command central—or some special-ops mission.

Shit. What had her brothers gotten her into? Was this some kind of military facility—an outpost, maybe? Computer after computer lined the back wall, leaving only space for the hearth of the fireplace to the right, where a roaring fire burned, a small couch with mismatched cushions sitting in front of it.

There were monitors with all sorts of mugshots of some pretty rough-looking men, and maps with all manner of scrolling feeds of some kind.

But it didn’t look terribly official. Not from the way it seemed he’d jerry-rigged a bunch of tech she didn’t understand and several modems.

Wouldn’t it just figure this guy was of the tinfoil hat variety? Maybe some kind of doomsday prepper? It made sense, living all the way out here in the woods as far as he could get from civilization. He was probably one of those conspiracy theory nuts with a YouTube channel and more guns than the Armed Forces combined.

Wanda, who’d knocked Cormac down as if he were made of nothing more than tissue paper, ground out another order. “Sit.
All of you
. Anywhere. Introductions are in order.” She dragged her gloves from long, slender fingers and laid them over the crook in her arm before she folded them over her chest.

When everyone hesitated, she sneered and bellowed, “Do it!”

Teddy dropped where she was, crossing her legs and pulling her hiking boots up under her, right along with everyone else—except for Cormac, who had the audacity to resist.

Somebody was gonna lose their balls…

Because Wanda wasn’t havin’ it. She sauntered toward him, her eyes ablaze, her cheeks sucked inward. “You want another piece of this?” she taunted in a comical Brooklyn accent, pounding her chest with her palms.

As though he realized he’d be foolish to defy her for even one more moment, Cormac actually blanched and dropped down next to Teddy, but it wasn’t without an expression of palpable silent protest. He oozed defiance from every pore of his sexy-sexy brickhouse body.

“Thank you. So, how about we go around the room and introduce ourselves? I’m Wanda Schwartz-Jefferson from Staten Island, New York. Married, wrangler of the WrestleMania Twins, occasional dabbler in the authorial pool.”

Everyone remained silent until she nudged Marty with her toe.

“Oh! I’m Marty Flaherty from Buffalo, New York. Cosmetics company owner, mother, businesswoman, fashionista. Pleasure to meet you all.”

Wanda glared at Teddy, making her face flush hot and red. “Oh, sorry. Um, Theodora…uh…Jackson—Denver, Colorado. Wildlife rescuer, single, helluva Sudoku solver.” She cleared her throat, looking down at the floor and its colorful braided rugs. It wasn’t exactly a lie.

She was a crappy liar so she’d kept it brief, but no way was she telling them what she was really doing here. Nuh-uh.

Wanda’s gaze turned to the brunette, who was busily fishing through her backpack. She pulled out a Ziploc bag with a squashed sandwich in it and held it up like it was the biggest catch of the day. “Thank fuck. Found it!”

Marty rolled her eyes and unzipped her sky-blue down vest, shrugging it off to reveal a sapphire-blue turtleneck and colorful paisley scarf. “Phew. I was so worried you’d starve to death, you human garbage can.”

Wanda hissed in Marty’s direction before tapping Nina the Discontent on the shoulder. “Before you shove that in your mouth, use your words and introduce yourself.”

The brunette sighed, expelling a raspy breath. “What is this, fucking
Romper Room
? Nobody gives a shit who we are as people. I don’t give a shit who
they
are either. We don’t need a round-robin of bullshit surface stuff to do what we gotta do.”

Wanda swiped the sandwich bag from her friend’s hand, held it up for a brief moment, a maniacal gleam in her eye, then dropped it to the ground and stomped on it, flattening it until the plastic broke and what looked like tuna oozed out from the crust.

Everyone gasped. Even Cormac.

“
I said
, introduce yourself.”

Nina made a face up at Wanda but then she peeled off her thick black gloves and said, “Nina Statleon. Hungry. Cold. Hate everyone.”

Marty clapped her hands, a set of bangle bracelets clinking together. “Yay! Look at you, using your words and emotions.”

Nina scraped the crushed sandwich bag off the floor after she flipped Marty the bird.

When it was Cormac’s turn, Teddy turned to look at him, the lines of his face chiseled in granite, a tic in his unmoving jaw. Talk about a long simmer—he was like a Crock-Pot of slow burn.

Nina, who sat on the other side of him, elbowed him in the ribs. “C’mon, dude. I don’t want to see you lose your sacs in front of everybody. Plus, I wanna get the fuck out of here pronto. I like the woods as much as any bitch, but this shit for four days solid is for the birds. All this Grizzly Adams trees and fucking caribou just ain’t my rap, yanno? So stop prolonging my agony and play the game so I can get on up outta here. If you do, I’ll share my Combos with you. I got a shitload of ’em,” she coaxed with an enticing shake of her backpack and a grin that decidedly mocked.

When Cormac finally spoke, he sent a chill up along Teddy’s spine. Calm, his voice was like silk washed in honey. Rich and deep with a hint of a rasp.

“You already know who I am. The question is, why are you here and
how
do you know who I am?”

Wanda let out a sigh, crossing her feet at her furry-booted ankles. “We’re here to help you, Cormac. Toni sent us.”

Instantly, Teddy was on alert, coiled and ready to spring.
Who
was Toni?

Cormac cracked his knuckles, making a sucking noise with his teeth as though he was preparing for confrontation and his restraint was close to coming undone. “How do you know Toni?”