Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles #3) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,87
Dee-Ann smiled. “My daddy taught me well.”
Miki snorted as she tapped away at her keyboard. “Anyone else hear banjos playing anytime this woman speaks?”
Dee-Ann’s wolflike gaze immediately locked on Irene’s protégé. “Well, ain’t you the cutest, tiniest, little full-human I ever did see? I could eat you right up.”
“I guess we’re done here,” Holtz said quickly, trying to escort Dee-Ann out the door.
But Miki Kendrick had been around wolf packs all her life and, just in general, was a difficult woman to terrorize.
So she laughed and shot back, “Bitch, I’m a black woman from the wilds of Texas. Trust me when I say I can have your wolf ass hunted, stuffed, mounted, and displayed in my living room before the day’s over.”
“This has been fun!” Holtz interjected into the following silence before he shoved Dee-Ann out into the hallway and left Irene and Miki to their work.
chapter SIXTEEN
The drive back to Queens in a limo ordered by Nelle was so silent that Max was sure her teammates were going to burrow out of the vehicle at one of the red-light stops. Because every time Charlie crossed her legs, every time she let out a loud breath, practically every time she blinked, the others jumped.
It was like they were expecting her to beat them to death right there in the car. But Max knew she wasn’t mad at them. Charlie was mad at her. Because she knew exactly how Max had made her money over the years. The things she’d done. The people she’d ripped off. Yeah, she liked to pretend she was sort of being Robin Hood. At least in the sense that she only ripped off people or organizations that she knew had the insurance and money to handle the loss.
But did it matter? She was still a thief. Just like the MacKilligans and the Yangs.
Max hadn’t known about her teammates, though. Not once had any of them discussed what illegal jobs they had done or were doing, aside from Mads occasionally asking for their help when she needed to get out from under her hyena family’s claws.
The limo pulled to a stop in front of their house and Charlie got out.
“Everyone in the house. Now.”
Max waited for the others to start moving but they just sat there, staring at one another. Terrified.
“Oh, my God. Would you guys just go!”
With sighs and grumbles, they got out of the limo and tromped into the gated yard.
Charlie was about to go up the stoop stairs when she heard Berg call to her from his house across the street. “Get inside,” she ordered the women. “I’ll be back in a second.”
She headed across the street to her boyfriend and Max jogged up the stairs to the front door. But it opened first and Stevie motioned her in with a quick wave of her hand.
“What?”
“Just come on!” she whisper-screamed at her.
Max glanced back at her teammates and, after making sure that Charlie was still talking to Berg, they all hustled into the living room.
“We have a problem,” Stevie said. She was no longer whispering, but still kept her voice low.
“What problem?”
She motioned at Max’s teammates. “Can they keep their mouths shut?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Because seriously.
“Fine.” She clasped her hands together and straightened her back. “Your mother was here.”
Max stared at her sister. “Whose mother?”
“Your mother, dumbass. I told her she had to go, but she wants to see you.”
Confused, Max scratched her jaw. “She was here? They let her out?”
“No. They didn’t let her out.”
Later, Max would be ashamed at how long it took her to understand what her sister was telling her. What she was explaining. Especially because it was so obvious.
“Oh, my God. Does Charlie—”
“No, but I don’t know what she’ll do when she finds out.”
“Kill us all,” Streep whispered desperately.
Max briefly closed her eyes. “Ignore her,” she told her sister.
“You better call her.” Stevie handed Max a small notepad with a number on it. “Before she shows up again and Charlie sees her.”
“Or,” Nelle suddenly suggested, “you could just tell Charlie what’s going on.”
“Oh, you mean, tell her that every time my mother comes here, we’re aiding and abetting a fugitive and might go to prison?”
“I’m sure it’s just jail time.”
“Thank you, Tock,” Stevie replied. “That’s very helpful.”
“Are you being sarcastic?”
“Very.”
The security door opened and Charlie came into the house. She stalked into the living room, stopped, and her gaze moved over all of them.
Max steeled herself for the explosion of rage and disappointment. Ready to shield her friends while