In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,119
group at a huge, half-circle booth, reserved just for them. It was between a similar booth on the left, filled with wild dogs, and another on the right, filled with a Pride of lions and other cats.
He sat down beside Kyle, taking the beer someone had put in front of the kid and drinking it down in several gulps.
“No alcohol,” he told Kyle.
“I didn’t ask for it.”
“Look,” Shen began, “I’m sorry.”
Frowning, confused, Kyle shook his head a bit. “You said I can’t legally drink.”
“Not that. I left you alone earlier today in that crazy bar with snakes. Dutch had to get you out. I’ll understand if you want to replace—”
“It’s not like you had a choice. Stevie was wrapped around your head like a spider monkey. And I’m not surprised she was your first priority.”
“She doesn’t pay me. Your parents do.”
“But you’re in love with her.” And the kid said it so . . . calmly! Why was he so calm?
“I am not. I’m—”
Kyle had already rolled his eyes and turned away to talk to Oriana. Where had she come from? Shen stopped talking, But then he noticed that Coop and their sister Cherise were also tucked into the booth and smiling at Shen. Like they knew something.
This whole wild dog “event” was turning into a nightmare.
* * *
“Okay,” Ward said, standing in front of the closed door, “this is what we need from you.”
“Need from me?”
“Take out the lions.”
“No matter what you may have heard, my sisters do not kill on command.”
“What? No! I want you and your sisters to go up against them.”
“Like in a street fight? Because MacKilligans don’t really do that either. Once Max starts stabbing and Charlie starts shooting, you’ll have a bloodbath on your hands, and there’s all that clean up afterward. Although Max probably knows a few places we can bury some bodies.”
“No, no.” Ward held up her hands, eyes wide. “Please stop talking.” She briefly looked off, then said, “I don’t mean attack them physically. I’m talking about taking them on with karaoke.”
Stevie couldn’t help but let her lip curl in disgust. “Why?”
Ward began to pace around what Stevie now realized was a storage room. “A few years ago, we started having monthly sing-offs. We provide the karaoke machine filled with several thousand songs, from as far back as the thirties up to today, or a live band if you prefer that. And it was all going great. Everyone was having a great time. Then the cats got involved,” she sneered.
“You mean like the guy who was just butchering Pat Benatar?”
“No,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “That’s Mitch. He was in my wedding. He has a pass. In other words, we’ve made him an honorary canine.”
“But you know he can’t sing, right?”
“You’ve got to let that go. It’s Mitch—we love him!”
“So it’s other cats you have a problem with?”
Stevie saw a bit of fang peek out from under Ward’s lip before she hissed, “The Brunetti Pride.”
“Okay. And your problem with them is . . . ?”
“They keep winning.”
Stevie fought hard not to roll her eyes. “When you have competitions that happens. I used to win all the time too. And the other competitors hated me for it. That’s a ‘you’ problem, though. Not a ‘me’ problem.”
“You don’t understand. The Brunettis are very wealthy, very bitchy, and very trifling. They pay top dollar for their costumes and choreographers.”
Stevie snorted out a surprised laugh. “They use choreographers for karaoke?”
“One of those choreographers used to work with Madonna.”
“Wait. I’m going to ask one more time, because I’m sure I’m mishearing this. They hired one of Madonna’s choreographers to create an act so they could win a karaoke contest?”
“Yes.”
“What do they win? A yacht?”
Ward walked across the room to a table. When she turned back to face Stevie, she held a cheap-looking trophy.
“Seriously?” she asked.
“Yes. True,” Ward clarified, “this is for second place. But,” she pointed out, “the first place trophy is only slightly taller.”
Stevie clasped her hands together. “I understand that this means a lot to you. I really get that. Lions can be very irritating. But I create symphonies. I can master any instrument I hear played for more than ten minutes. Any instrument. And I’ve been able to do that since I was two. But singing is not one of my singular gifts.”
“You sisters can back you up. They can cover for any imperfections in your voice.”
“It’s not about covering. I know this is going to sound really narcissistic,