In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,112
her fingers; her nails red and white with swirls of blue glitter. “Thanks!”
“The color is in honor of . . .”
“We saw a Phillies game last week.”
“Ahhh.”
“Tell her,” Blayne ordered. “Tell Gwenie the truth.”
Shen frowned. “The truth about what?”
Blayne stepped into him, pointing one finger in his face. “You know what, panda. Tell her!”
* * *
Charlie heard a knock and opened the door. Her Aunt Bernice nodded at her. “You girls leaving soon?” she asked.
“Should we leave soon?” Charlie wanted to know. “Would they prefer we leave the back way? Or should we just burrow under the building so they don’t have to see our faces?”
Bernice squinted in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“They want us to leave, right? The family?”
“No. I just assumed you were leaving because you disappeared half an hour ago and we haven’t seen you since. Plus, Creepy Roy is getting . . . creepy. And handsy.”
“I’ll handle it!” Max announced, running out in nothing but a bear-sized T-shirt they’d found in a metal cabinet filled with bar paraphernalia.
“Stevie, don’t let her—”
“I’m on it!” Stevie said, running after Max.
“Anyway,” Bernice said with a small shake of her head, “your Uncle Will wants to see you before you leave.”
“To kill me?”
“Oh, no. If he wanted to kill you, he would just come in here and kill you. Besides, if he wants to kill anyone, it’s your father.”
“Why do you always call him my father when he’s really your brother?”
“Are we going to have that discussion again? He’s your problem now. I put in my time. Hard time. I got him through high school alive. My job is done.”
Charlie nodded. “Fair enough.”
“So come on,” Bernice said with a jerk of her head.
Her aunt walked off and Charlie followed her, but she stopped outside the partially open door to one of the rooms. The room Charlie and Stevie had stumbled into earlier. This time, however, Shen was inside with the two women.
The tall black female—who, for some unknown reason was wearing skates—had her finger pointed in Shen’s face while her Asian friend was smirking but quiet.
“Tell her, Shen. Tell her about the freakish size of that woman when she shifts!”
Charlie’s head lowered, but her eyes remained locked on the two women.
“She was huge,” Shen admitted, surprising Charlie. She’d thought he was more trustworthy than, say, Dutch. “Giant.”
“Yes!” Stevie’s chew toy chimed in. “Giant! She was giant.”
“Like Godzilla.”
“Yes! Well, wait . . . no,” Stevie’s chew toy corrected. “Not as big as Godzilla. But definitely big. Unusually, abnormally big. Right, Shen?”
“Right. Absolutely.”
“Told ya, Gwenie!” she said, facing her friend.
But as soon as she turned her back on Shen, he raised both his hands, holding them a foot or two apart.
The one called Gwenie snorted a laugh and dropped her head. The chew toy spun around but Shen had already lowered his hands.
“What?” he asked when she glowered at him.
“Tell her the truth!”
“I did,” Shen insisted. “She was giant. Like Godzilla.”
“No! Not like Godzilla!”
“Like Mothra.”
“So she had wings,” Gwenie tossed in.
“Yes!” Shen quickly agreed. “She had wings! And two, tiny Malaysian women who sang her to life!”
“That is not what happened!” Chew Toy insisted.
He frowned. “It’s not? Oh, wait. Were the women Filipino?”
“Shen!”
Charlie was no longer worried that her sister’s true shifter-self was being outed by some walking chew toy, and that’s all she cared about. That her baby sister was safe. Even if it meant taking out those who didn’t necessarily deserve it.
Relieved that she didn’t have to make any murderous plans for her evening, Charlie went in search of her Uncle Will.
* * *
Will MacKilligan had just lit his cigarette when two of his younger boys—the meatier ones—dragged Will’s half-brother from the street and into the alley beside the bear-owned pub.
“Where’s me money, Freddy?” he asked right away, not wanting to spend anymore time than he had to with the man he called “The Idiot.”
“I already told you I don’t have it . . . anymore.”
“That’s not good enough. You’d better get it back for me. And you’d better do it soon.”
“Or what?”
Two of Will’s other sons began to work Freddy over. Blows to the gut, kidneys, and spleen. Blows that wouldn’t take a honey badger down, but would make him hurt.
Will waved his hand and his sons immediately stopped.
“I’ll say it again. Get me money. Or I’ll give your daughters exactly what they’ve always wanted . . . you dead.”
“You know who has your money.”
“You gave it to them!” Will barked back. “Those two slits are running around