Page 68 of Bears Behaving Badly
“What…is…happening?” Nadia asked, sounding as bewildered as Annette felt. “How do you—” To David: “Did you… I don’t… What?”
“Eloquent and accurate, Nadia, which is why I love you.”
“Do shut up, Annette.”
“I’m confused,” Oz announced. “Very, very confused.”
“David’s dad and my dad were best friends,” Brian explained. “My family knows all about you guys.” He shrugged. “Well. I know Dave can turn into a bear. I don’t know what you guys turn into.”
“David doesnotturn into a bear. We don’t ‘turn into’ anything. We merely embrace our other selves,” Nadia shrilled, because the more confused or angry she got, the higher the pitch.
“He knows?” Annette asked, flabbergasted. Stupid question; he clearly did. And such things weren’t unheard of. Plenty of weres had Stable acquaintances: coworkers, bosses, friends, life coaches, dentists. Even spouses, sometimes. Shifters were vastly outnumbered; it would have been odd if they didn’t havesomeStables in their lives.
But having Stables on your periphery wasn’t the same as exposing your true nature. Now here was David, completely unperturbed by the knowledge that a dangerous predator—and his entire family!—knew what David was and, thus, his weak points.
He must have scented their fear. No, wait, Stables couldn’t do that… “It’s okay, ladies. I’d never say anything.”
“And if you plan to, Bri, you’d better hurry the hell up,” David teased. “You’ve had years to get around to it. And a generation. You’re the laziest whistle-blower I ever saw.”
“Yeah, sure. My dad would come back from the grave and kick my ass. And so would yours. Okay, well. Gotta get back to it. Nice seein’ you again, Dave. Give me a buzz about the cabin. Nice meeting you guys.”
“Ah…charmed…” Nadia said faintly.
“Thank you for helping us,” Annette added.
“Very, very confused.” (Guess who. )
Brian waved away helping Shifters avoid a judge so they could sneak around playing amateur sleuth (or, in David’s case, professional sleuth), and off he went. They could hear him whistling “Mambo No. 5” all the way down the hallway.
“I don’t know why you guys are so shocked,” David said, which was annoying. “Did you really think we could build an entire secret wing on the back and underneath a hospital without a few Stables noticing?”
Good God, he’s right. Why have I never considered this before?“When you put it that way, no,” Annette admitted. How many people knew about this? Shouldshetell people? Who? Her boss? His boss? Go higher up? But how high? It wasn’t like the president was a Shifter. But where did her responsibility lie?
“It could only have been a collaboration.”
“Wait. Back up. Just so I understand, David, you’re saying some Stables don’t just know about the nature of the Shifter wing—that I could understand, though it’s frightening to contemplate—but they actually assisted in the construction?”
David tapped his nose, which was also annoying, but there was no time to explore the concept further. The risk of discovery had climbed and would keep climbing until they could finish conducting their business and get the hell gone. There wasn’t time to wrap her frazzled brain around a concept she had never considered until thirty seconds ago.
“This isn’t over,” Annette warned.
“Are you trying to sound like a clichéd movie character, or is it organic?” David asked.
“It’s mostly organic. Let’s go.”
Then it was a matter of heading over to pediatrics, where Gomph was doubtless lying in wait, fretting over his abandoned salad and ready to stomp them into submission. Nadia agreed to seek out the judge and engage him while they headed to the peds wing.
“Just talk about how horrible it is to have a loose cannon like Annette for a partner, a maverick who plays by her own rules—”
“David, you want me to lie my elegant ass off to an officer of the courtanduse the most tired of tired clichés? Brilliant.”
“I’ll help, too. Um. Somehow.” Oz glanced around the group. “Suggestions?”
“You’re an accountant, darling. If we need you to look over someone’s tax return, you’ll be the first to know. In the meantime, whatcanyou do?”
Annette brightened. “If Gomph indicates he’s about to stomp Nadia, throw your body between them.”
“Or I could have a car waiting for you guys? So you don’t have to walk all the way back to the parking garage?”
