Page 71 of Bears Behaving Badly
“Not the best. You’d think he’d be able to hear lettuce growing with those ears, but nope.”
Annette stifled a giggle; it wouldn’t do to waste Nadia’s efforts by being overheard.This is getting worse by the hour. Why in God’s name am I laughing?
Nadia’s hectoring started to get further away as they heard Gomph plod past the window. Annette let out a relieved sigh. Prematurely, as it turned out.
“Hey! You can’t be in here!”
They both flinched and looked to their left, and Annette was startled to see Taryn, Gomph’s clerk, framed in the doorway, hands on hips, sturdy legs in cream-colored Uggs.
“Shit.”
“The perfect word,” Annette muttered. Then to Taryn: “I know you have to report us to the judge, but would you consider giving us a head start?”
“You have to get out of here! Right now!”
“People keep saying that, and I’m really beginning to hate it.”
Taryn ran over, grabbed each of them by a wrist, then tugged until they were on their feet. “At best, you’re going to be suspended. At worst, arrested, then fired.”
“Actually, I think fired, then arrested, would be wor—”
“You have to goright now.” She was hauling them out of the room and down the hall, and Annette was reminded that when she was inclined, Taryn could dislodge a car stuck in a snowdrift by herself. Fortunately, at this hour there was hardly anyone in the hallway, and the ones who were kept their eyes on their charts or their phones. Or deliberately turned a blind eye, which took some of the sting out of all theYou can’t be herepronouncements. “I don’t know what you’re into, but you need to get gone. Far,faraway. You’ve got money? Passports?”
“Passports? Taryn, what—”
“We’re not leaving town, much less the country,” David added. “Not until we figure out—”
“Don’t you understand?”
“No! Not one thing, dammit!” Annette squashed the urge to rip her hair out and make confetti out of the clumps. “In all of this!”
“They think you killed Lund,” she said simply. “We just found out. The cops are bringing your arrest warrants to Judge Gomph for signature. The minute he signs, that’s it. You’ll both get popped for murder one. Shit!” she hissed, cocking her head to the left. “I think I hear him coming back.”
And then, with very little effort, and before either of them could utter so much as a squeak of protest, Taryn yanked open the nearest supply closet door and bundled them both inside, then shut the door and left them in ammonia-scented darkness.
Chapter 25
“Well, shit.”
“Well put.”
She shifted against him, which gave David another whiff of her hair, and he had to tamp down a groan.
“This is unbelievable,” she muttered.
“Yup.”
“A closet? Really?”
“Shhhhh.”
“GoodGod,” she hissed. “I can’t keep up with the clichés!”
The closet was tiny and Annette’s wonderful ass was inches away and he mentally begged his cock to be a gentleman.
Never, obviously.That’s what he needed to keep in mind. That, and strangling Oz and Nadia, whose idea of fun was apparently talking up imaginary relationships. He liked them both well enough, but the goddamned arrogance was staggering. He didn’t mind so much for his sake, but Annette had to be embarrassed at best and hating it at worst.
Argh, that wonderful ass.
