Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles #3) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,83

them back until she grabbed one of the chairs that had been abandoned by Max and her teammates.

Lifting it up, Charlie swung it, hitting the guards in their heads or chests. After knocking most out or, at least, to the floor, Charlie pulled Benji to the table, tossed him on it, flat on his back. She wrapped her hand around his throat and proceeded to drag him across the tabletop until she reached the end. He was punching her, but nothing seemed to stop her. She yanked him off the table, put him on his feet, took a step back, and then she kicked him. Right in the chest, sending him exploding through the glass conference room door.

By the time Charlie followed him into the bullpen of cop desks, the lion had crawled across the floor. He was shaking his head, trying to stop himself from passing out, most likely.

Charlie started after him but a roar stopped her.

It was the two who’d come in with Benji earlier. The grizzly was huffing, ready to charge, and the other one . . . the . . . the . . . ? What the fuck was that thing? Was he a wolf? Or a fox? She’d never seen a wolf or fox with such long legs—ridiculously long legs.

Both males had shifted and the grizzly shook his head, his anger setting off the cops in the room. None of them wanted to watch a grizzly mauling.

Charlie faced the males and, without hesitation, began to walk toward them. Another bear, a polar cop with a long white ponytail and a gray-and-black beard that made him look like a criminal biker, tried to grab her. Not to hurt her, though. To stop her from getting hurt. But Charlie just pushed his hand off her arm and, when the grizzly went up on his hind legs and roared, Charlie kicked him right in the nuts. When he bent over from the pain, she grabbed his giant grizzly head with both hands and proceeded to slam it into the polar bear’s desk. Again and again and again. When the wolf-fox thing came at her, she finally spoke, growling out a dismissive, “Oh, please!” before she backhanded the wolf-fox into the conference room so she could continue bringing down that grizzly’s head on the polar’s desk.

Then it came. The sound every human rhapsodized about. You know, all that Lion King shit.

Benji’s lion roar reverberated across the room and probably outside, confusing people on the street.

Charlie dropped the unconscious bear and faced him.

Benji launched himself toward her, front and back legs stretched out, maw open, fangs flashing—

And Charlie swung her fist—once. It collided with Benji’s face and sent the four-hundred-pound cat spiraling across several desks and through a bathroom door.

Charlie stood there a moment, waiting for another attack. But everyone who’d come for her was out cold or still recovering.

Finally, she let out a long breath and turned her head toward the office they were all hiding in. Well . . . “hiding” might not be the right word since the whole fucking room was made of glass.

Charlie strode over to the office and shoved the door open. That’s when Max realized that her teammates were hiding behind her. Seriously! Hiding! Honey badgers!

But Charlie didn’t notice any of them. Instead, her gaze locked with Dee-Ann Smith of all people.

She pointed a finger. “Your husband and his uncle—”

“Had nothin’ to do with this,” Dee-Ann quickly said. Usually the woman spoke as slow as molasses but not this time. “None of these people work for the Group, BPC, or Katzenhaus. And they ain’t cops. The Van Holtzes kept their promise to you.”

“That better be true, Smith. Because I warned them. I warned them all.”

“I know. It wasn’t us. This was all them.”

“Them who?”

Smith shrugged. “Got me. Ain’t heard a name yet.”

“Fine.” Charlie’s eyes—which had thankfully returned to their boring brown—lasered over to Max and her hiding teammates. “You five—out. Now.”

Max’s teammates ran out of the room and Charlie turned, following them. She assumed Max would be right behind them and she was right. She would . . . in one second.

Max walked across the room and immediately Dee-Ann backed up, throwing up her hands. “Woman, do not kiss me again!”

“Awwww, Dee-Ann. What about our love?”

“Get your sister out of here before these cops get real cranky.”

Laughing, Max walked out and caught up with her friends and sister at the elevator. Her teammates were huddled together against the wall but Charlie was