“Is this because I’m a poor country boy from Tenne—”
“Oh, shut up.”
Ricky laughed, unable to keep the pathetic look on his face. Didn’t matter. She always saw through that in seconds.
“This has nothing to do with any of that and you know it. But we are from different worlds.”
“You’re Romeo and I’m Juliet? Wait.” Ricky thought a moment. “Switch those.”
“That’s a stupid comparison, but it’s not far off. I’m a jackal. You’re a wolf. I mean,” she went on, “can you imagine me being part of a pack? Living only for the needs and wants of others—and my God! Why didn’t you tell me I sounded so idiotic?”
Chuckling, Ricky admitted, “I figured you were smart enough to figure that out on your own.” Because her whole life had been about living for others.
“Look, darlin’, all I’m saying is that when we get back, I don’t want to pretend that we don’t even know each other.”
“We can’t do that. Then everyone will know what we’ve been up to.”
“That’s a good point, but you know what I mean.”
“I do, but—”
“But . . . when we get back you’ll need to spend time with your family, making sure they’re all taken care of and that Kyle hasn’t finally gone to prison.”
“That is a worry of mine.”
“I know. So of course you’ll go see your family when you get back. Just like I’ll have to check in with my idiot brothers.”
“Make sure Reece isn’t getting more artery surgery?”
“You’d be amazed how many of those surgeries the boy has had.”
“I’ve met Reece . . . not that amazed.”
“So do we agree?”
“What are we agreeing to?”
“When we get back, we keep things going. At least until we figure out if whatever this is . . . is actually what we want.”
“It won’t be easy. We’re both pretty busy.”
“I’m as busy as I wanna be. And I like your kin. Don’t mind being around them.”
She rolled her eyes at that. “Sure you do.”
“They bring the entertainment to me. And we both know that’s all I ever ask.”
“I really can’t argue that point with you, can I?”
“Not really.”
Ricky reached over and pulled Toni sideways onto his lap. He stroked her back and kissed her shoulder.
“You think we’re really going to head back home tomorrow?” she asked softly.
Ricky glanced at his watch. “More like today . . . and yes, I do.” He pulled Toni closer, his arms around her, her chin resting against his collarbone. “I think when we’re done . . . those bears won’t know what the holy hell hit ’em.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
With Freddy attached to her like a backpack and Cherise and Blayne by her side, Livy headed back to the rental house. It had been a long night but a good one. She’d had fun.
Of course, the entire derby team hated her, but whatever. She had her family and friends and that was all that mattered to Livy. She didn’t need more friends. A small group of loyal friends was more important to her than a bunch of drinking buddies. So not going out with the team after the tryouts had been no big deal for her. Instead she’d been Responsible Olivia as Coop liked to call her when she said she needed to get Freddy home.
Cherise had gratefully tagged along and Blayne pretended that she wasn’t happy about it, but even Livy knew she just wanted to get home to that walking landmass she called a fiancé.
Standing on a city street, Livy waited for the light to change. As she did, she glanced around, taking in her location, surveying any nearby threats. It was a skill taught to her by her parents before she could feed herself.
And it was while she was looking around that she saw her. Across the street, coming out of some church.
“Hey. Cherise.” She nudged her best friend’s sister. “Do you see what I see?” There wasn’t much in this universe that stunned Livy, but seeing Delilah Jean-Louis Parker coming out of a goddamn church was definitely one of them.
“Holy crap!” Cherise burst out. “Is she robbing churches now?”
“Even my mother wouldn’t sink that low.”
Except that Delilah was talking to people from the church. Talking and hugging.
Livy shuddered at the thought of hugging Delilah.
Blayne stepped up beside Livy. “That’s not a church. Well . . . actually, it depends on what you think about religion and what you consider a religion and what you consider a—”
“Blayne,” Livy cut in. “Get to your point before I start hurting you.”
“It’s a cult. They took over the church a year or so back, but the people in the neighborhood have been trying to shut them down. Something about young people joining the church and then disappearing to some farm upstate.”
Livy sighed. “Lovely.”
Deciding she’d talk to Toni about it when she got back and was settled from her trip, Livy hiked Freddy up on her hip and continued on to the rental house.
When they arrived, Livy trotted up the stairs, Freddy giggling as he bounced around on her back. She reached the door and pulled out her key, unlocking it. But as soon as she stepped in, she froze in the doorway. She lifted her head, sniffed the air. By the time Cherise reached her, Livy was shoving Freddy into her arms.
“Take him across the street. Blayne, go with them.”
Cherise moved without question, just as she’d been taught. But Blayne . . .
“Are you—”
“Protect Freddy.”
That seemed to work and Blayne followed behind Cherise.
Livy silently stepped deeper into the house, sniffing the air, listening for any sounds. Glancing back and seeing that the others were now safely on the other side of the street as the wild dogs’ front door opened and they were welcomed in, Livy unleashed her long, steel-hard claws. She scented humans. Full-humans in her family’s home. At least her unofficially adopted family and if something—anything—happened to them while Toni was away because Livy didn’t protect them, she’d never forgive herself.
She locked on the strongest remaining scent and headed up the stairs. She could smell that the full-humans had been in each of the bedrooms although everything appeared untouched. Honestly, if she wasn’t a shifter, she’d never have known anyone had been here.
Livy went floor by floor, clearing each one, quickly realizing that no one was home. Although most parents had their kids in bed at this hour, the Jean-Louis Parkers were known to do things their own way when it wasn’t a school night. So chances were they’d gone out for ice cream or something. But when Livy reached the stairway that would lead to the fifth and final floor, she stopped and sniffed the air again.
“Jackie,” she whispered, and then charged up the stairs and into Jackie’s practice room. She pushed the door open and went inside, stopping immediately when she saw Jackie’s body on the couch, facing the back of the seat.
Heart breaking, Livy slowly approached Toni’s mother and, when she was close enough, she gently touched Jackie’s shoulder.
Which was when Jackie Jean-Louis screamed and flipped over.
Livy stumbled back as Jackie laughed hysterically.
“Goddammit, Livy! Don’t sneak up on me like that! You scared the life out of me!”
Livy had scared her?
After several seconds, Jackie’s laughter faded away. “Hon, what’s wrong? You look upset.”
Livy took a breath and said, “Someone broke into the house. I thought they’d killed you.”
Jackie blinked. “What? I didn’t hear a thing? Oh.” She held up her earbuds. “I was listening to Johnny’s playing before I fell asleep. It’s possible they came in then.” She studied Livy for a moment. “You look like you’re about to cry. Is that because of me? Oh, sweetie!”
“Jacqueline!”
“Sorry. Sorry.”
“Where’s everybody
?”
“Paul took them out to get ice cream.”
“Good.”
Suddenly Jackie got to her feet. “Oh, my God . . . Irene!” She ran out of the room, and Livy followed right behind her to the only other room on the floor.
Jackie threw the door open and Irene spun around in her office chair; computer equipment, papers, and books covered the two desks. A small bed was on one side of the room and looked very unused.
“What is wrong with you guys?” Irene demanded.
“We’ve been robbed!” Jackie shot back.
“No, no,” Livy quickly corrected. “We had a break-in. But I can’t see that they took anything. In fact, if I hadn’t scented them, I don’t think any of us would have known they’d been here. They’re good.”
“Government good?” Jackie asked.
Livy shrugged. “I guess.”
That’s when Jackie locked on her friend. “Again, Irene?”
“How do you know it has anything to do with me?”
Jackie’s eyebrow went up and Irene sighed.
“I’ll go home.”
“No.” Jackie shook her head. “We can’t assume this is about you. And if it’s about Freddy or Troy, I’ll need you here.”
“We’ll get security,” Livy said.
“And contact Dee-Ann,” Irene said.
Both Livy and Jackie took a step back.
“What the hell for?” Livy demanded.
“If there’s one person I know who has connections you and I can only dream of and, more important, can terrify those connections into giving her answers about why strangers are searching this home . . . it’s Dee-Ann Smith.”
As always, Irene was right.
“You take care of that,” Livy told her. “I’ll deal with security. But do me a favor, go over and wait at the wild dog house until I get back. Call Paul so that he knows to bring the kids back there rather than here.”
“Where are you going?” Jackie asked when Livy headed to the door.
“I’ll be back. And Jackie . . . make sure no one texts or calls Toni.” She narrowed her eyes on the woman she’d briefly mourned. “And that means you, lady.”
“But she should know—”
“Jackie!”
“Oh, all right! I promise! And you can just put those vile-looking claws back, little miss. There’s no need to threaten me!”
Reece Lee had just turned over, his dream about skating naked in front of an audience of beautiful She-predators making him smile, when a scent he’d just learned to recognize woke him up. He thought maybe he’d left the Infamous Book of Smells lying on the bed with him, but when he opened his eyes he saw the vicious honey badger standing at the edge of the bed, staring at him.
“Aaaah!” Reece screamed, scrambling back until his shoulders hit the headboard.
“You scream like a girl,” she observed.
“Why are you here? Have you come to kill me?”
“It’s crossed my mind, but no. I need a security team and I heard the company you work for is really good.”
“Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”
“No.”
Realizing that he wouldn’t be able to just get this feral little woman out of his hotel suite without a fight, Reece admitted, “Look, if you want the full team on this, it’s gonna cost you, darlin’.”
Livy lifted a dark green duffel bag from the floor, unzipped it, and turned it over, dropping a veritable shit-load of money onto Reece’s bed.
“That enough?” she asked. And when he only stared, she added, kind of defensively, “It’s clean.”
“You know, darlin’, I wasn’t actually going to ask you that. But now that you offer it up, it makes me think this money wasn’t always so clean.”
“Do you want it or not?”
“Don’t get tense. I was simply making an observation.”
“Can your people start tonight?”
“Yeah.” The company had a plan in place for last-minute protection teams. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Okay.”
“Is it just you?”
“No. The Jean-Louis Parker family.”
Reece sat up. “Toni’s kin?”
“They’re all okay and Toni’s still in Russia.”
“Yeah. I got a text from Ricky. They’re so far ahead, he’s afraid of calling when I might be sleeping.”
“We need to keep the family safe,” she said after a time. “I can’t have Toni coming home and—”
“Don’t you worry about it. If you think Toni will have your ass if something happens while she’s away, it’ll be ten times worse where my brother’s concerned.” He grinned. “He’s got a little thing for your friend.”
“I don’t think it’s little, but you’re male—I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.”
Reece’s grin widened. “Want me to toss this sheet aside and show you how male I am?”
And with no expression at all, Livy replied, “Do you want me to cut your dick off?”
Reece swallowed. “Not really.”
“Then I’d suggest keeping that sheet on until I’m in the next room. Okay?”
“Yes’m.”
“Good.” She walked out and Reece let out a relieved breath.
“Either that girl is gonna end up killing me,” he muttered,
“or end up one of my best friends.”
“More like I’ll end up killing you,” she called out from the living room.
Reece shrank down into the bed, pulling the sheet up to his chin. “Honey badgers are just mean,” he whispered, praying she didn’t hear him. “Mean.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Vic stopped the Range Rover and turned off the engine. “Everyone ready?” he asked.
“Yes,” Toni said from the back. Ricky would say she looked “brave,” but she didn’t. She looked determined. He found that much scarier than brave because when the woman made up her mind . . .
“And remember the rules.” Vic looked directly at Ricky. “Keep your feet off the table.”
“Why do y’all keep telling me that?” he demanded.
“Because you’ll put your feet on the table,” Vic and Toni said together.
“Fine, but I don’t see what the big problem is. Bears and all their dang rules.”
They opened the doors and stepped out.
Toni cracked her neck and moved her shoulders. She looked like she was about to step into a boxing ring.
“Ready?” Ricky asked her.
She nodded. “Let’s go bag some bears.”
They headed down the hallway to that room where the bears had continued to stick Toni every time she’d come for a meeting. She let one of them lead her toward that room, Ricky and Vic right behind her, but she cast for a scent and when she locked on it, she immediately made a left and headed down another hallway.
“You! Dog! Where you go?” demanded the bear behind her.
Toni ignored him and kept moving until she reached a room where she heard male laughter and scented bear. Lots of bear.
Taking a breath, she pushed open the door and walked in. “Morning, gentlemen!” she said, smiling. “How is everyone doing today?”
The laughter and words died, but Toni ignored all that and moved toward the long table. She spotted an open seat and walked over to it like she knew it was just for her. She didn’t ask permission, she didn’t stop to look around. Instead she remembered what Ricky had said about always looking like you know where you’re going, even when you don’t. She sat down, placing her messenger bag on the floor beside the chair.
“Okay,” she said, making sure her grin was large and confident. “Let’s get started.”
The bears looked at each other and then one with horrible facial lacerations—she assumed he was Yuri Asanov since he was the only one in a wheelchair—nodded his head.
“Good,” Toni said, reaching into her messenger bag and beginning to dig out papers.
While she pulled folders out, she sa
w from the corner of her eye one of the bears pushing away from the table and standing.
Toni looked up and said, “Where are you going, Ivan Zubachev?”
Walking toward the door, Zubachev didn’t bother to look at her when he replied, “I have business that cannot wait.”
“Then we’ll just sit here and wait until you get back.”
The grizzly stopped. “What?”
“No deal gets made in this town without you, Ivan Zubachev. I’ll be wasting my time talking to all these handsome but relatively useless bears if you’re not here. So we’ll wait for you. All day if necessary. All century.”
He slowly faced her, but said nothing.
“Let’s be honest here, Ivan. This isn’t about what Bo did to your boy.” Toni looked over at the team’s coach and said, “By the way, the wheelchair’s a bit much.” And when Yuri Asanov’s cheeks grew slightly red, she knew she’d been right. “But I do apologize, Yuri Asanov, for what he did to your face.” Because that was bad.
She looked back at Zubachev. “This is about what Novikov did to you. And what he did to you, Ivan Zubachev, is turn down your job offer.”
Zubachev folded his massive arms over his enormous chest but still said nothing.
“What you failed to understand was that it was not personal. The bottom line is that playing with your team would not have been a challenge for him. A team filled with bears, Siberian tigers, and Novikov—will do nothing but win. He knows that. You know that. That’s why you wanted him. But Novikov needs a challenge. He needs to know that he can’t just waltz off with a trophy. He wants to earn that win. So let’s forget the past. Let’s forget about cages. Let’s forget the insults. And let’s talk about money. Because a game between our teams in a neutral, shifter-only location, will have money coming down on us like snow in Siberia.”
That made Zubachev smirk and, after a moment, he walked over to the chair he’d just left, pulled it out, and plopped down into it.
He briefly lifted his hands, then dropped them. “Let’s negotiate . . . little doggie.”