Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles #3) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,107

easily, when she was growing up with him. A pillow over that pinhead and none of us would be having this conversation. Anyway, she did that thing and my baby sis totally took her down. She stood up for herself. She didn’t back down. And when she did get angry, she didn’t shed one tear or shift into a two-ton striped honey badger that could destroy the neighborhood. It was awesome!” She pointed a finger at Zé. “But don’t tell her I said that.”

She fell blessedly silent but that didn’t last. “What were we talking about? Oh, yeah! So, anyway, I realized that Zé didn’t know what he was. And although I could have left him there and let your team rescue him, I felt it was my duty to tell him what he is. I mean, he did try to help me so now I had to help him. Of course, there was a delay because he got really hurt during the firefight. Well . . . it was more knife-fight-slash-animal-mauling than it was a firefight, but anyway, he was really hurt but I knew he’d be fine in a couple of days. Even with that traumatic brain injury, I knew he’d be right as rain in no more than three days. And then once he was back on his feet, I would be able to tell him, ‘Dude, you’re a big black cat!’ But, of course, he didn’t believe me. So I had to prove it to him and that took some time and then he had that setback and tried to eat that bear cub and the bears all wanted him dead. But my sister fixed that by making honey buns for them for the next week or so and that usually works great. At least with the grizzlies and black bears. The polar bears, it helps if she uses more whale blubber, but she hates working with whale blubber. She does, however, enjoy working with bamboo for the pandas.”

Max looked back and forth between Zé and Kamatsu and finally ended with, “And here we are. Anything else you need to know?”

Kamatsu pushed her chair back and stood. “Can I talk to you outside, please?” she asked Zé.

“Yeah. Sure.”

She stalked out of the Starbucks and Zé gawked at Max.

“What?” Max asked with a shrug.

He didn’t even answer her. Just went outside, wondering who in Starbucks would be the first to call the cops.

* * *

Once Zé and his team leader were gone, Max looked at the people staring at her, including the baristas behind the counter. As they stared, she spread her arms wide and, as one, the entire room burst into a standing ovation.

“Thank you. Thank you,” she said to her fellow shifters, the only customers in the establishment. “I love you all!”

* * *

“I don’t know what the fuck that was,” Kamatsu laid into him as soon as he reached her. “And I don’t care. But if you wanted to leave the job, all you had to do was tell me.”

“I never said I—”

She stalked off and Zé had to jog a little to catch up to her.

“I don’t know what that embarrassing performance was about, but if she is a tenth of the crazy she seems to be, then the last thing you should be doing is fucking her!”

“I’m not—”

“I don’t care! She’s mentally ill! Get her help!” She stopped. “What is she? The boss’s daughter or something? Did he ask you to protect her? Because what she needs is a mental hospital, not a bodyguard.”

“You don’t understand, she’s—”

Kamatsu threw up her hands. “I can’t listen to this anymore. I can’t!” She turned and stalked off again. “Just . . . I can’t. I’ll call you some other time. Just let me know if you want in on any jobs, but . . . if not . . . I just can’t . . .”

Then she was gone.

Zé turned to head back but Max was already standing behind him.

“See?” she said. “They can’t accept the truth.”

“What the fuck was that?”

“What was what?”

Zé took a moment to get control. Because he wanted to yell. He wanted to yell so badly. But the thing he was starting to learn about Max was that although it might look as if she was doing random shit, she never really was. Even if the plan was made up between one breath and the next, she still always had a plan.

When he knew he had control, he said, “I thought