Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles #3) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,100

being slammed. He didn’t think much about it, assuming it was some local teens acting like idiots. But then someone banged on the front door.

Zé stood and moved through the living room until he reached the doorway into the day room. He was about to walk to the front door, where someone was still banging, when the door was torn off its hinges and the thick wood came slamming into the room.

And all Zé could think was, Charlie is definitely not going to want to pay for that.

* * *

They went out the back door into the yard. Kyle was already up and setting off on a jog, with Dutch along to keep the kid out of trouble. Although Shen had been officially hired to protect Kyle, they all kind of kept an eye on him. None of them really minded. The kid was obnoxiously cute, with ego enough to fill Penn Station, but there was still something about him that stopped at least Max and Charlie from killing him.

“So,” Bernice began as soon as they were alone, “which one of you geniuses told your Uncle Will your father was back in town? ”

Stevie raised her hand and Charlie blinked, eyes wide. “You did?”

When Stevie nodded, Charlie and Max began to politely applaud.

“Stop that!” their aunt barked at them. “Your idiot father—”

“Or your idiot brother,” Max muttered.

“—actually requested a sit-down with your Uncle Will to ‘discuss’ all this.”

Max and her sisters stared at their aunt, their minds attempting to grasp what she’d just told them. When they finally understood, Stevie merely shook her head and sadly sighed out, “Oh, Dad.” But Max and Charlie just started laughing and didn’t stop.

Their father had to be the dumbest motherfucker! Will would do nothing but kill him.

Charlie was the first to get herself under control. “What exactly does he think that ‘discussion’”—she asked, using air quotes, like her aunt—“is going to accomplish?”

“He says he’s got the money,” Bernice replied.

“I thought the twins had the money,” Max said.

“They did, but then he took it back. Now he has it.”

“How is that possible?” Charlie wanted to know. “The man can barely tie his shoes, much less use a computer to transfer money anywhere.”

“Obviously he’s working with someone else; we just don’t know who.”

“I’ve been trying to find that out.” Max pointed to Charlie. “Irene Conridge set me up with some full-human hacker she knows. They’ve been working on it for a bit now.”

Stevie suddenly snarled. “Conridge? Why that bitch?”

Max raised a finger to her sister. “You need to get over whatever issue you have with Conridge.”

“Contact Conridge,” Charlie told Max. “Find out if the hacker knows anything yet.”

“Why are we getting in the middle of this?”

And, again, Charlie and Max looked at their sister in surprise. Usually she wanted to help everyone. She felt for everyone. Maybe now, though, with the help of her new medications, she understood that not everyone deserved her help.

“Because part of that is our money,” Bernice reminded them. “And Will is so pissed, he’ll just kill your father without waiting to find out where it is. It could be anywhere in the world, and the family wants it back.”

“Except the family doesn’t consider us part of it,” Max reminded her.

“Well, if ya wanna be, get our money back.”

“Yeahhhhh, we don’t.”

Bernice’s eyes narrowed and she took a step toward Max, but Charlie quickly stepped between them.

“Let’s play nice, ladies,” Charlie said, before telling their aunt, “Although my sister has a point. Why should we get involved? This is Dad’s fuckup and your fuckup for letting him get away with it in the first place. I don’t think that falls on us.”

“You ungrateful little—”

“We’re being ungrateful?” Stevie suddenly yelped, moving around a stunned Charlie so she was right in their aunt’s face. “All of you went out of your way to make sure we felt as excluded as possible; you let Charlie’s poor grandfather take the full financial responsibility of raising three girls even though only one was his actual blood relation, when any of you could have taken us in or just sent us a little money to get by. And you have the nerve to stand there and call us ungrateful?”

“What’s happening? ” Max asked Charlie. Like her older sister, she was stunned and impressed by Stevie’s outrage and ability to explain it without breaking down into sobs or shifting into a two-ton animal that could destroy the neighborhood.

Bernice pointed an angry, damning finger at Stevie, and Max waited for