Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles #3) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,84

just standing there, quietly, seething. She was quietly seething.

Max decided to take over. “You guys find a cab when we get downstairs and we’ll—”

“No,” Charlie said, watching the numbers on the wall that told her which floor the elevator was currently on. “They’re coming with us.”

“Why?” Nelle asked, her voice ridiculously shaky.

Slowly, Charlie looked at the four of them over her shoulder and growled out between clenched teeth, “Because I said so.”

Max didn’t really think much about her sister’s statement until she realized that her teammates were silently crying. From fear.

Good Lord! The drama with these idiots.

chapter FIFTEEN

Rina knew she wasn’t alone. She was reaching for the light switch when she realized that she could see fine in the dark. Always could. She had to keep reminding herself that she wasn’t all that human.

So, instead of waiting for her eyes to “adjust,” she simply looked around her cabin and saw them. All of them. Most sitting on chairs or the chaise lounge or the desk, watching her. One of them, however, was holding her sister from behind, a knife to Tina’s throat.

“Hello, niece,” one of the older ones said. “I’m your aunt. By marriage, but still . . . You can call me auntie. Isn’t that nice?”

Rina sat up, but when she started to get out of bed, the one holding her sister pushed the knife into her neck. Not all the way, but just enough to bring blood and a bit of panic.

“Now, now. Let’s not forget we’re all ladies. Yeah?” her “auntie” said. “We’re just here to talk. You up for listening? I was told you two speak English . . . yeah? ’Cause I don’t know any Italian and I ain’t about to learn now.”

“Where are my men?” Rina asked, proving she spoke English.

“Those full-humans?” Her auntie laughed and the women with her joined in. “Yeah . . . they’re all dead,” she explained, her laugh abruptly ending. “You didn’t really think they’d stop us from gettin’ on your fine boat here, did ya?”

The woman pulled one leg up, resting her foot on her knee. She wore thick work boots like a man would. “We’ll make this fast, yeah? You see, little girl, this could have been a little skirmish between gods. But then you released the Kraken . . . didn’t ya? And now the Kraken’s running free.”

“What?”

“It’s Greek mythology. Thought you two would know that.”

“Italian,” she reminded them, punching her chest.

“It doesn’t matter. You released the Kraken, and now she’s going around, terrorizing the villagers.”

“I still do not understand—”

“Mairi,” another one said. “You let out Mairi.”

“Mairi hates us,” her auntie explained, “because we didn’t dig her out of prison. That’s what she wanted. And if it had been almost any of our other kin, we would have done it.”

“But Mairi’s a right bitch, ain’t she, Ma?”

“That she is, my darling girl. Our Mairi’s a right bitch. And you two let her out.” She studied Rina for a moment. “Do you know why we’re here, luv? Do you know how we found out where you are? Because Mairi told us. She wants us to kill you. And we could have, as you see. Poor Mairi, though, she keeps forgetting something about her aunties: Her uncles may be blood . . . but we’re just family. Married into this shit, didn’t we? We know we’re dealing with a right bitch and we don’t want her back. Because once she’s done with you two and those three illegitimate Yanks, she’ll be coming for us. She only told us where you two are because she wants”—she waved her hand, gesturing around the cabin—“all this tacky shit. And if she were any one of me other nieces, she could have it. But she’s the Kraken and we need her dead.”

The auntie stood and walked across the cabin. “So when I heard from her, I stopped and thought: Which is worse? Dealing with you two crazy cows, who blew up me husband and sons, or that psychotic cunt? That’s when I knew: I had three choices. One, I could just come here with me girls and kill ya both. Which, I have to admit, crossed me mind. Two, I could do nothing, and let Mairi kill ya when she’s done with the Yanks. Or three . . . I could let you know that the Kraken wants you dead. I went with three. And all I gotta say is, you two better get rid of her before she comes back here