Her hands began to shake.
There was supposed to be another step here. She just couldn’t remember what the hell it was.
“Ah, malutka. Welcome!” he said jovially, as though he were hosting a Tupperware party. “Come! Drink with me!” He slapped his hand on the shiny bar as he sat on the barstool, and instantly a bartender appeared with a glass holding what she assumed was vodka.
Stepfourstepfourstepfour—what the hell was step four? Was she even on step four? Maybe she was on five?
Wait. She remembered. No booze. Don’t let Stas take you off course. Stick to the plan.
“I’m not thirsty,” she croaked. “I came here to make a deal.”
He cocked his dark head, his ponytail sleek and sultry, his bedroom eyes calling to her. Well, she could certainly see how Toni had fallen for him. He really was pretty hot.
Hot and a psychopath, Teddy Bear. Nutball alert—do not sympathize with the bounty.
Stas gave her his best wounded look, but then he grinned. “A deal? I like pretty girls who like to make deals. Why don’t you put the gun down and we talk. We are civilized people, yes?”
Step whatever the number was—tell him the deal. Present the deal.
Licking her lips, Teddy gripped the gun even harder. “Not a chance. I brought my part of the bargain, now you have to give me something in return or I blow your head off.”
Was it blow your head off or blow your balls off? She couldn’t remember that part very well because Nina had been so busy naming body parts, she lost track.
Stas’s head fell back on his shoulders when he laughed, revealing the deep olive tone to his skin. As he laughed, so did his goons. Because that’s what goons did. When the boss mock-laughed, you joined in.
She caught sight of Andre, the slimy, smelly prick who’d jammed a knife in her gut, and fought the impulse to rush him and knock his disgusting ass off the barstool.
Stas popped his lips and batted his eyelashes. “Tell me, my krasavitsa, what can Stas do for you? You say all these threats, but you do not say what is on your mind. Get to it. I’m a very busy man.”
Step six. Make him admit he’s a murderer.
Teddy gulped, running her tongue over her dry lower lip. “You can leave me the hell alone! I had nothing to do with any of this. That dirty cop Carmine sent me on a wild goose chase to help him clean up his mess, the incompetent jackhole, because he was too stupid to figure out where Vitali was on his own.”
Someone burst from the shadows with a hiss of rage. “I’ll kill you, you fucking bitch!”
Enter Carmine. Perfect. Two birds, one stone. She hadn’t expected him to be here, but she was prepared for him to show up. This was in the script.
Teddy waved the gun at him, her hands no longer shaking. Rather, she wanted to rip his face from his body. “Like when you tried to take me out on the Island? Back off, chicken-shit!” she screamed, spit flying from her mouth. “Or I’ll blow your head off, too! You used me to find the man you wanted to kill and then you came gunning for me. First you tried to kill me, which you blew sky-high, you bumbling idiot, then you broadcast my face all over the news to smoke me out because you’re too stupid to come and get me yourself, you big tattletale!”
Tattletale? Good use of forceful adjectives, Teddy Bear.
Stas was on his feet in an instant, grabbing Carmine and hurling him to the ground. He rammed his heel into his chest and pinned him to the floor. “Were you a mean boy to my malutka?” he taunted down at Carmine.
Teddy didn’t give Carmine the chance to answer. “You know damn well what he did to me! He set me up!” she shouted.
“Tut-tut, dirty cop,” Stas chided Carmine, using the toe of his pointed boot. And then he called out another order over his shoulder. “Check her.”
Three of the men were up on their feet in no time flat, but she was prepared for this. They wanted to see if she had some kind of recording device on her before Stas spoke to her.
Teddy whipped the gun upward and pointed it at Andre’s ugly mug. “Not him! He’s the asshole who rammed a knife in my gut because he was too much of a dick to take a beating from a woman. And his breath smells like toxic waste.”
The men all began to howl with laughter, jamming their fists into Andre’s ribs and razzing him while he scowled.
Stas snapped his fingers, eliminating all sound. He swished a finger at the biggest of the lot. “Bogdan. You. Go.”
Bogdan approached her with caution, his youthful face leery until she held her arms up. “If you go anywhere you shouldn’t on my body, I splatter your face all over this bar.”
Cormac coughed, likely reminding her she was taking her method acting too far.
As he patted her down, Stas eyed her, his gaze never straying from her face. When Bogdan nodded to show she was clean, he approached, totally unaffected by the gun in her hand.
He stood toe to toe with her, his arms crossed over his chest, oozing charm and sniffing the air around her. “You are like us?”
Teddy moved the gun between them and sniffed back. She couldn’t tell what breed he was, but he was bear shifter, just as she’d thought. With that, she prayed he hadn’t scented Marty or Cormac. Nina had covered them in something that was supposed to disguise their scents. The last thing they wanted was for Stas to discover Cormac and Marty were worthy opponents.
There was no use denying what she was, so Teddy gave him a curt nod. “I am. Coincidence, right?”
His eyebrow rose upward. “So what is it you want in return from Stas, eh? Tell me details, malutka.”
Now that he was this close, her heart began to clang in her chest again. But she barreled ahead into step seven.
Close the deal.
“I want you to let me go, free and clear. I had nothing to do with any of this. Your goon dragged me into it by setting me up with his bullshit bounty story. You should be paying me for finding this douchebag Vitali for you. I didn’t even know you existed until all this went down. I’ve heard the whole story about how you killed some guy, who I bet was chicken-shit’s partner, Mauricio, and Vitali’s sister saw you, then you kidnapped her and her brother, blah-blah-blah. But here’s the thing. I don’t care! I just want to get the hell away from you and them, and I want your assurance you’ll leave me alone. Have Carmine fix what he did by plastering my face all over the news and let me go. Forever.”
Stas looked at her a long time, the wheels of his mind turning with diabolic plots, no doubt. Then suddenly his face was wreathed in a wide smile, lighting up when his gaze strayed to the corner of the room where Cormac and Marty sat.
“Of course! How could I forget about my Antonia? It’s been so long since we saw each other. Where have you been? Come to me, my dove,” he said, holding out his hand.
Cue Cormac and his acting debut.
He shielded Marty from Stas, keeping her body behind him. “You leave her the fuck alone, Vasilyev!”
Stas sighed as though bored, his shoulders sagging as he turned to face Cormac. “You,” he said with a freakishly fond look of pride in his eyes and a stab in the air of his index finger. “You are strong, like bull. No crying or whining the whole time we keep you in cellar. We chop your finger off and you hardly make sound. Brave boy, dah?”
“You son of a bitch, you didn’t just hack off my finger. You ruined my goddamn life!”
“What?” He gave Cormac a look of utter astonishment. “You don’t like Colorado? It is much like my home. Beautiful snow, animals everywhere. I did you favor!”
“You killed a man, held me hostage, and I had to hide like the criminal. How the fuck is that doing me a favor?”
Stas clucked his tongue and stroked the fringe on his red scarf. “Your sister, she talks too much. Just like woman, yes? Always with the gab-gab-gab. It’s a pity she must die. She is so pretty. Pretty girls should live forever.”
Marty whimpered; for effect or as a signal, Teddy couldn’t be sure. One thing she could be sure of, Cormac wasn’t acting. His ra
ge, pent up for so long, was seeping out.
But Stas still hadn’t admitted to killing Carmine’s partner.
Stas made a move toward Cormac and Marty, but Teddy waved him away with the gun. “I didn’t hear you say we had a deal. Them in exchange for my freedom.”
“Shh, shh, shh, Poopsie. I’m thinking.” He tapped a finger to the side of his head.
“Don’t do it, Stas! Don’t let the bitch go or you’ll regret it!” Carmine yelled, scrambling up from the floor, his round face beet red. “She’ll run right to the cops. No loose ends, Stas. We fucking agreed!”
Teddy gritted her teeth and held up the gun, wanting nothing more than to shoot Carmine’s eyeballs out. All her anger, all her helplessness over the situation with Dennis rose like a hot air balloon and exploded inside her, taking her by surprise.
She didn’t know where it came from. She didn’t know why she wasn’t able to contain it, but she was mad as hell, and she wasn’t acting any longer when she belted out, “Shut up, you mealy-mouthed partner killer! You killed your partner because he found out about Stas greasing your palms, didn’t he?”
Carmine’s face became a mask of fury as he shuffled from foot to foot. “Fuck you, you dumb cunt!”
Teddy lifted the gun higher, aiming between his eyes with no interference from Stas. “That’s what you did, didn’t you, you prick! He found out what you were doing at that car dealership. He caught you sticking your hand in the pot, and then you and your filthy friend Andre took him out with Stas’s approval because he was going to fuck you right up the ass, wasn’t he? He’d ruin your career, your wife and children would have to hide in shame. And then you covered it all up, you coward! How’d you do it, Cop Killer?” she seethed. “Did you whisper in someone’s ear at the department, tell them maybe Mauricio was unstable? Or did you drop hints he might have disappeared because he was unsavory? You stupid bitch. You’re just someone’s little paid bitch!”
Carmine shook with anger, every vein in his neck bulging, his bloodshot eyes blasting arrows of pure hatred her way. “He was gonna goddamn snitch! I tried to do him a favor by bringin’ him into the mix. His kid gettin’ ready to go off to college was killin’ him on a cop’s salary. He needed the fucking money! I told him I could help. I gave Stas my word Mauricio was good for it. But he fucking blew it. He fucking blew it all with his whining about truth and justice! So I took him out. Yeah, I did! It happened so fast, he didn’t know what hit his snitch ass!”
Teddy fought to keep her horror on the inside, to keep from visibly shaking.
Stas sighed as though bored with the retelling of old kills. “It is true, malutka. He took my gun right from the waist of my jeans and pow-pow.” He made a pretend gun of his thumb and forefinger and aimed it at Carmine. “We were all very surprised with our Carmine’s behavior. He is, as you say, a dirty cop killer.”
“On his order! I did it because he told me to do it! He’s the one who told me to find Vitali, too. He said find Vitali or die!” Carmine wailed. “Don’t know why the fuck he had Andre follow me when I damn well had it covered.”
Stas scoffed his disapproval of Carmine. “Trust, you idiot! I cannot trust that you will do as you say! You are useless!”
Carmine hitched his jaw in fake Toni’s direction before his desperate gaze fell back on Stas. “This all started with you and your nosy girlfriend!” he screeched. “Damn shame that bitch showed up at the dealership right after I got the fuck out of there or I’da killed her right then, too. No loose ends!”
Pretend like you don’t care. Pretend like you don’t care.
Teddy squared her shoulders. “I don’t give a shit who you killed, you fucking baby! I’m warning you, stay the hell out of my damn way! If you don’t agree to this, too, I’ll shoot your damn dick off!”
“Fuck youuu!” he screamed, spit flying from between his thick lips.
“Enough!” Stas bellowed the order, his eyes like granite. Then he snapped his fingers and Bogdan was by his side again. He flicked his hand at Carmine. “Take him elsewhere. Now.”
Her chest heaved and her heart crashed against her ribs as she tried to catch her breath. But Stas wasn’t done taunting her.
“Ahhh, my malutka. You are so feisty. If I had more time, I would take you to my apartment. We would share vodka, maybe a kiss or two…a cuddle, yes?”
Teddy kept her eye on the prize, refusing to allow him to egg her on. “Do we have a deal or not? I give you the Vitalis, give you my word I’ll never rat on you about that bitch’s partner, and you let me split free and clear. Deal?”
Just as Stas opened his mouth to answer, someone else burst through the door of the bar, taking everyone by surprise—even Stas’s goons.
Teddy didn’t have time to turn around before a large hand had wrapped itself around her hair and yanked her backward, making her lose her grip on the gun.
Her gun fell to the floor, skidding across the sticky surface until it hit something she couldn’t see for the tight hold this person had on her hair.
Stas’s thugs, though sluggish to react, were up and at the ready, their guns cocked, their war faces on.
Teddy reached upward to try to get away, but that was when she felt the barrel end of a gun jammed between her shoulder blades.
And then a very familiar voice spoke, a haunting nightmare from her past.
“Hi, honey! I’m home!” her ex-husband, Dennis, crooned in her ear.
Chapter 15
Her stomach sank to the floor as Dennis began to drag her toward the door, but Stas had apparently taken a shine to her, because he thundered, “Don’t move, or I have my boys shoot you between the eyes!”
Dennis stopped cold, his breathing huffing from his chest.
“Bet you didn’t think we’d ever see each other again, huh, Teddy Bear,” he hissed in her ear to the tune of Cormac’s low growl.
“How did you find me?”
Jesus. What kind of stupid question is that? Who gave a shit how he found you? He found you!
Dennis cackled, nipping her earlobe. “Aw, Lovebug. You know how resourceful I am. I broke into the ranch and it was just my luck, Viktor and Vadim had written down your buddy Nina’s address. It was right there on the counter! Imagine my surprise when I saw you were in New York. I couldn’t believe it. You hate the city. So I borrowed Daddy’s plane and here I am. I watched. I waited while you were in that castle. A castle—crazy, right? Anyway, I knew you’d come out of there at some point and when you did, I followed you. Easy-peasy. And now here we are. Reunited.” He yanked her hair, sending a violent shiver down her spine.
Teddy held her breath as Stas approached.
He sucked his cheeks inward. “This is all very nice, but I am busy man. Now, where are you taking my malutka?”
Teddy felt Dennis tense behind her, tightening his grip on her by wrapping his arm around her neck and squeezing. “Stay the fuck where you are and no one gets hurt,” he ordered.
Stas’s chin lifted in indignation and his eyes narrowed dangerously. “Do you know who I am?”
“I don’t give a shit!” Dennis sneered. “This bitch is mine. Now back the fuck off, tell your shitheads to back the fuck off, and shut the fuck up, and we’ll leave here all nice and peaceful. I’ve waited a goddamn long time to get my hands on my wife. This is between her and me. Now I said, back off!”
“Oh dear,” Stas muttered and clucked his tongue in that condescending way he had, then made pleading eyes at Teddy. “You did not tell Stas you were married, malutka. This hurts me so. I thought we were beginning a beautiful friendship, but you start our journey by deceiving me?”
Her neck ached as she struggled against Dennis’s steel grip. “Dennis isn’t my husband anymore!” she managed to squeak out around the pressure constricting her throat.
Stas stood up straight and eyed them critically. “Then it would appear we have a standoff. I will not let you take my sweet bird, and you do not wish to give her back to me. Whatever shall we do, Dennis?
”
Her knees trembled. The last time Dennis had her in his clutches, he’d almost killed her, and now she had not one but two psychopaths fighting over her. She had to do something, but fear paralyzed her, rooted her to the spot as Dennis’s breath rasped against her ear, his heavy breathing making her cringe.
“Who is this guy? Is he your boyfriend?” Dennis spat, shoving the gun into her flesh again.
The sharp zing of pain made her arch away from him. “Dennis, let me go! You have no idea who you’re dealing with!” she shrieked, unable to contain her fear.
If nothing else, Dennis was the lesser of two evils, but with all these guns pointed at her, there was nowhere to go and she wasn’t leaving this room without Cormac and fake Toni.
“Tell me, Dennis,” Stas crowed. “Are you going to kill my pretty bird? What could someone so pretty have done to you?”
Teddy’s heart stopped. Yep. He was probably going to take her out. Finish the job he’d begun over a year ago, and she was helpless to stop him.
“It’s none of your business!” he screamed, his voice rising, his movements jerky and stuttered.
Teddy knew that tone. She knew it meant he was on the verge of cracking. He’d sounded exactly like this the moment before he’d pushed her over that ravine. When he realized she was never coming back to their marriage, he’d lost his mind, and he was going to lose it again.
She had to do something.
What? What could she possibly do without creating all-out havoc for everyone else?
Stas shook his head and put his hands on his hips. “You do know you will never get out the door alive, don’t you, foolish boy?”
And that’s when it hit her—Stas had nothing to lose. If Dennis dragged her out the door and his band of merry men took shots at them, Stas’s problems were solved. She’d be dead and then he’d kill Cormac and Marty. Game over.
Her guts tied all up in a knot. Her heart pulsed in her ears as the stench of Dennis’s indecision and sweat permeated her nose.
What to do, what to do? Teddy’s panic level rose by at least five hundred notches, but circumstances kept her from making a choice.
Bearly Accidental (Accidentally Paranormal Book 12) Page 16
