Page 72 of Bears Behaving Badly
“You said ‘that’s what they’re counting on.’”
Just be cool! Do you really want to be the poster boy for #NotAllShifters?“What?”
She turned her head. “When Dr. Tilbury said the missing kits were the ones nobody cared about.”
Oh. The case. Gotcha.“Yeah. The syndicate or cabal or fuckstick brigade or whatever the hell they are—”
“All right, first of all, we need to make ‘fuckstick brigade’ the official handle for those monsters. It’s just so…concisely evocative.”
“Thanks. Anyway, they all count on that.”
“Consciously? As in, it’s part of their plan?”
“Sure,” he replied, flaring his nostrils to take in more of her scent, then cursing those same nostrils. Of all the days to not have a sinus infection. “They’ve gotten away with this because all the caregivers and advocates have too many kids to worry about. That’s been true forever, it’s not something that just happened.”
“So it’s on us, too.”
“No.”Jesus. Does she really think that?“Annette, that’s not true, it’s on them. You haven’t done anything wrong. It’s the fuckstick brigade. It’s a cold, deliberate plan, and the system is set up to hamstring anyone who tumbles to it because everyone’s more concerned with hiding from Stables than anything else, and they count on that, and none of that is your fault.”
“But…we have to be. Concerned about the Stables, I mean. There’s so many of them. It’s just safer to keep to the Beneath,” she murmured back. “And yes, sometimes at the expense of the few. I—I hate the phrase ‘for the greater good.’ Most of the time it sounds like a lazy cop-out. But now and again, that’s what it is.”
“That’s the cage we’re all in, Annette. The worst kind, the one we putourselvesin.” Was he really giving his crush a lecture on his pet peeve while they were stuck in a closet? Yep. “And there’s no reason for it. It cuts us off at the knees at every turn. How much bad shit have you had to look away from because doing something would have meant exposure? What’s getting overlooked—who’sgetting overlooked—because our bosses figure the devil we know—ourselves—is better than the devil we don’t?”
Silence, finally broken with “I understand that your personal experience with Stables has been positive…”
“That’s underplaying it. A lot.”
“Fair enough,” she went on in a low voice. “But we can’t put millions at risk just because your dad was friends with a nice Stable.”
“And there it is. Like I said, it’s the cage we put ourselves in. And since we’re doing it to ourselves, I don’t look for that to change anytime soon.”
His speechifying was met with more silence, probably appropriately, and he sighed and shifted his weight. How long had it been? Five minutes? Seven days? He couldn’t reach his phone without poking Annette (groan). Nor could he shake the sense of urgency that had been growing the moment they’d found out Caro had been set loose by a person or persons unknown. He felt like they were trapped… Well, theyweretrapped, but even before now, it was like they were stuck in some hellish game ofBeat the Clock, where the best prize you could hope for was not getting fired. And the worst was… Well. The worst.
We have to get the holy hell out of here.
On the other hand, Annette was fragrant and wonderfully close.
Decisions.
“You were on the right track with Nadia,” she said abruptly.
“Sorry, what?”Jesus. At least pretend you’re thinking about something besides her proximity, you horny jackass.
“When you encouraged her to complain about what a trial I am. Having me as a partner is pretty horrible.”
“Are you always this hard on yourself?”
“Depends on who you ask.”
“Anyone who thinks you’re horrible is a goddamned moron.”
“That’s…sweet, David. But now you’re painted with the same brush. You were out of it, you could have walked away once you dropped Caro for booking the other night. You should have. But you stuck with me, and now…now…”
She buried her face in her hands and swallowed a sob.
“Hey. Hey.” His hands settled around her waist and he squeezed gently. “Everybody knows it’s all bullshit. Everybody. Annette, I amnotworried about me at all, okay? Not my job or anything else—independent contractor, remember?”
“You can still get arrested. And charged. And indicted.”
