Bear Trapped (Bear Creek Grizzlies #5)

36. Lauren

LAUREN

S he had to focus to keep from doing a pee dance from sheer nerves. She hadn’t had to go before she started threatening the scary dudes, and yet the second she had to stand up for herself, all she wanted was to pee all over herself like a nervous puppy. Lauren hoped it didn’t show on the outside, otherwise she and Finn were both screwed. The three guys were even scarier up close. She hoped Finn helped her start walking once they left, because she didn’t think her knees would work. And it seemed like her boots had frozen to the ground under her no matter how she tried to move them.

Everything was mostly okay until someone else crashed through the undergrowth in the trees and started swearing. He did not look in any way like someone who spent time in the woods or liked hiking, at all. At all . Iron gray hair and masses of tattoos were the most defining features of the rather petite man. He wasn’t much more than an inch taller than her, and Lauren wasn’t particularly tall for a woman.

He eyed her and leaned to spit something gross off to the side, then sniffed and studied Finn where he lay on the ground. “What the fuck is going on here? Who killed these assholes?” And his boot collided with something next to Finn.

Lauren absolutely did not look. As long as she didn’t look, in her mind she saw a fallen log or a pile of leaves or something like that. Definitely not a body.

“Bordelon did,” the standing scary guy, Richardson, said. He didn’t look away from her, though, like it was supposed to be some kind of threat.

Lauren couldn’t keep up with who was going to try to kill whom. It was like she’d fallen into some kind of alternate universe and no one actually made sense.

“Bullshit,” Finn said. He scowled fiercely enough she saw hints of the bear, and he swiped up his rifle to use as a stick to stand up. Lauren started to help but froze when the other men tensed. Finn grunted as he straightened, brushing snow off his clothes. “Richardson shot them in cold blood and he’s trying to pin it on me. I won’t fucking stand for it.”

“Sounds like a big misunderstanding,” the newcomer said. Shotgun turned narrow eyes on her. “And who is this tasty little treat?”

She recoiled, disgusted and almost ready to do something about it. He sucked on his teeth, practically rocking back on his heels, and smiled like he knew perfectly well how awful he was.

Finn’s upper lip curled and if there hadn’t been a very clear wound in his shoulder, Lauren figured it might have been all over for Shotgun and his friends. The bear didn’t react with uncontrolled rage, though, which made her feel better. “My associate. Mind your manners or she’ll fuck you up.”

Lauren did her best to look unimpressed and hopefully a little intimidating, although she didn’t think it worked from the way the other man snorted and a sneer curled his mouth. Richardson and his two pals at least started to look nervous; they must have expected to blame Finn or kill him before Shotgun arrived. She didn’t know enough about the relationships between them all, but none of them seemed particularly trustworthy except Finn.

Shotgun spat again, then glanced down at the ground next to where Finn had been. “So these are the last of ‘em. Everything else is accounted for?”

“Near enough,” Finn said after the silence stretched. “Except for the payment.”

“Well, seeing as how Richardson had to handle…”

“You paid me to find them, not arrest them.” Steel filled Finn’s voice and Lauren shivered under her coat. She hadn’t seen that Finn before, not even when he confronted the guys who wanted to hurt her. He didn’t move. “And seeing as how your associate here murdered three detainees in cold blood and I have it on video, you’re better off paying my fee and never contacting me again.”

Shotgun’s eyes narrowed again and he looked over at Richardson, who just shrugged. The shorter man exhaled in annoyance and jerked his chin back the way he’d come. “Get the fuck out of here. Give me fifteen, then send in the team to clean this shit up. I’m fucking tired of your messes, asshole. This is the last time.”

From the way the other three paled, Lauren wondered if maybe an executioner waited for them in the woods, too. She wasn’t able to move her legs as the three briefly hesitated, like they wanted to argue, then retreated. Before they got too far, Finn said, “Leave the rifles. On the ground.”

Smart. He was so smart. She just wanted them gone, but it was a good point—they could shoot them both from a distance if they really wanted to.

Shotgun said, “Do it,” when the three bristled, and in a clatter of metal, the rifles and a few other guns hit the snow.

Then it was just them trudging away through the trees, muttering to each other, and Shotgun watching Finn. The short man waited until the others blended in amongst the shadows, then glanced at Lauren. “Why don’t you take a walk, honey, let us talk business for a minute.”

Even a couple of days earlier, she would have done it. Hell, even a couple of hours earlier, she would have immediately turned and started walking. But with Finn wavering a little on his feet, clearly uncomfortable and in pain, she wasn’t going to leave him there with a man who didn’t even blink when he learned three of his pals literally killed people in cold blood and tried to blame it on someone else.

“She stays,” Finn said. He never took his attention off Shotgun. “Since the payment concerns her, too. Like we talked about on the phone, there are a couple of charges to take care of. I wasn’t going to raise my fee, but having the asshole triplets shoot me doesn’t leave me very generous.”

Lauren braced for a negative reaction or maybe for Shotgun to shoot them both, but he just shrugged. “Gotta be careful in the woods, dick. Your own fault for not staying aware of your surroundings.”

“And you wonder why I don’t want to ever take a call from you again.” Finn shook his head, wincing slightly as he adjusted how he stood. “So here’s what’s going to happen. There are trail cams all over this place, and we’ve got it all on video. Lauren will lose that video when you pay my fee and resolve those charges we talked about.”

Her heart dropped. Charges? Did he meant her charges? She didn’t dare look too closely at Finn, just in case she panicked at him being hurt and made things worse. It was okay. It would all be okay. She just had to be brave a little while longer, maybe help him hike up to the trail. Then…then something good would happen or maybe Kira would show up to help and then she wouldn’t have to make any more decisions for a long time.

“I never agreed to deal with the charges, you never told me what they were for.” Shotgun lost some of that jovial threat as it faded into real threat. “So start with that and we’ll talk.”

“Attempted manslaughter,” Finn said calmly. “All a misunderstanding, of course, much like…” and he nodded at the bodies on the ground. Lauren swallowed a taste of bile and carefully adjusted her grip on the shotgun. She couldn’t feel her fingers but that didn’t matter. She just had to keep it together a little longer. “And failure to appear, a couple of other things. Nothing you haven’t dealt with before.”

“Manslaughter?” He turned a jaundiced eye on her. “What the fuck could you possibly have done to catch manslaughter? Did your dolly make you mad? Someone post something mean about you online?”

She really disliked that guy. Lauren wished she thought of something clever, but didn’t want to waste the brain power on it when she needed all her concentration to stay upright and breathing. “Guess you’ll find out.”

He snorted, then glanced at Finn. “Can’t make something like that go away, mate. Not anymore. Prosecutors are up our asses about that nonsense, I’m sure you can bankroll a good defense lawyer with…”

“You’ll fix it, or I’ll call the rat squad,” Finn said. He glanced at his watch, like he was bored with the conversation. “I’m sure they’d appreciate seeing the footage of Richardson shooting three perps already detained. Seems like it wasn’t so long ago you dodged similar rumors, so I’m guessing this one will stick. You’re going to go to the prosecutor and inform them Lauren Tucker was working for you as an informant when the bullshit at the site went down, and she kept her mouth shut about what you tasked her to do even when she should have told the public defender who shit the bed on her case. I don’t care what kind of flex you have to make, you’ll do it. Once you’ve fixed it and she’s clear, we’ll delete the footage.”

Shotgun’s eyes narrowed as he looked between them. “Why should I believe you about the footage? Who the fuck is going to believe either of you?”

Lauren’s cheeks felt frozen solid as she forced a smile, then tapped the black square on her shoulder strap. “Bigfoot research requires very small, almost unnoticeable cameras. I’m sure you didn’t notice any of them on the hike in, or in the meadow behind, or…here.”

The short man lost what was left of his expression, giving her a dead-eyed stare that made her nerves twitch. The silence stretched, broken only by Finn’s semi-labored breathing. Lauren’s heart sped up. What if Finn keeled over dead right here in the woods?

Finn finally said, “You really want to risk it, man? You really think the rest of your career and the rest of your life in jail is worth it? Blame it on Richardson fucking up the paperwork, make him sit a desk for a couple months to make up for it. Find some other way to make the asshole pay. I don’t give a shit. Fix it, send me the paperwork, then lose my number.”

Lauren had never heard him talk so much in the entire time she’d known him. Which was, well…two days? Three? It didn’t matter, they were really intense days. She couldn’t breathe through her nose anymore, not with the cold air and threatening tears and just the overwhelming pressure of pretending to be composed when she wanted to curl up in a ball and wait for someone to rescue her. How did Finn do this all the time? How did he look so casual, even though he was bleeding from a gunshot?

Shotgun leaned to spit again, really slowly, and made a big deal of rubbing his jaw and deliberating. It was all for show. He didn’t have a choice. The unknown and possible video footage might have been a bluff—and it was, although Lauren tried not to somehow think that too loudly in case he somehow picked up on it—but it wasn’t worth the risk.

The other man finally jerked his chin down in a nod. “Fine. The payment already in your account is the only money I’m sending you. I’ll do what I can on the charges.” When Finn started to growl, Shotgun held up his hands. “I can’t just make it go away, dude. You can think I’m bullshitting but this is for real. At the most she’ll get a ticket for lying to a cop or something, have to pay the bail, maybe do some community service. I’m sure you can deal with that.”

And he gave Lauren a hard look that made it easier to believe he really didn’t think he could erase everything with a magic wand. She took a shaky breath, about to accept the deal, when Finn said casually, “One more thing.”

Her heart jumped into her throat to choke her. What else could there possibly be? She could deal with community service, she could live with a ticket or even a misdemeanor charge. It would be an impossible improvement over hiding out in a falling-down shack in the woods. Was he really going to fight for every last thing? She swallowed hard and looked over at him, almost not recognizing him at all.