In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,12
often told Mary-Ellen Kozlowski exactly what she wanted to hear while doing exactly what Charlie actually wanted to do. And when confronted by the cat, Charlie didn’t slap her down or shoot her in the head, as she’d been known to do with those who put her sisters at risk.
But Charlie was always direct and honest when she dealt with Bayla Ben-Zeev of BPC. Berg had originally thought that was due to his relationship with Bayla and BPC, but no. It had nothing to do with him; Charlie just respected Bayla and she was always direct and honest with those she respected. They often didn’t agree, but both ladies were too smart to ever challenge each other. They were aware neither would come out of that particular confrontation alive.
Then there were the Van Holtz wolves. Charlie never smiled at them. Was never honest with them. And more than once, Berg was terrified she was going to throw Max at them. Literally. Just pick her sister up and chuck her at Niles Van Holtz because throwing honey badgers at a person is an excellent way to get someone’s face ripped off.
She just didn’t like them. And they were as nice and polite as they could possibly be. Berg didn’t know wolves could be so polite. Yet no matter how polite they were or the fact that Charlie was half wolf, it didn’t seem to change her lack of desire to make the leaders of the very powerful Pack her allies.
And he thought he knew why. Because Charlie didn’t trust them. Not yet anyway. And if Charlie didn’t trust you, she had no use for you.
Sadly, the Van Holtzes hadn’t realized any of that yet, so they didn’t see the problem with asking Charlie to spy on her own family. She might have little patience or respect for the MacKilligans, but they were still her family.
“Again,” Van Holtz cut in, his voice curt, “and for the sixty-thousandth time . . . we are not asking you to destroy your family.”
“Just kill them,” Max casually tossed in, forcing Berg to sit in a nearby chair and look out the big windows of the office so that he didn’t laugh in anyone’s face.
“No!” the wolf barked. “We do not want you to kill anyone. Especially women and children.”
“Hhhmmm” the sisters said in unison, shaking their heads.
“Yeah,” Max said. “That is not a good idea. To kill the men first and leave the women and children alive . . . because they will retaliate. Especially the . . . uh . . . cubs?”
“I thought it was pups,” Charlie said.
“Maybe it’s badgerlings . . . like ducklings?”
“Aw That’s cute.”
Van Holtz placed his elbows on his desk and buried his head in his hands.
“So, yeah. The badgerlings . . . yeah,” she said to her sister, “I like that too. The badgerlings are definitely something you want to wipe out real early in the process.”
Max’s phone vibrated and she looked down at it. “Excuse me a minute,” she said before standing and moving to the far side of the room.
Charlie stared at Van Holtz. “So does that work for you?”
“No!”
“No need to snap, White Fang.”
Van Holtz’s younger cousin quickly stood and moved in front of the desk, blocking his uncle’s now-gold wolf eyes from Charlie’s view.
“How about we just let this go?” he suggested. “We’ll deal with the Will MacKilligan thing on our own. How about that?”
Charlie shrugged. “That’s fine with me.”
“Great! I think that’s it then.”
“Okay.”
“Wait, there is one thing,” Van Holtz said, slapping his cousin’s hip until he moved off his desk. “I was wondering next time when you come, if you could bring your sister.”
Charlie pointed behind her. “She’s right there.”
“Your youngest sister.”
“Oh . . . uh-huh.”
Max suddenly appeared in front of Berg. She leaned in and whispered against his ear—and he was working really hard not to cringe away from her; she was just so close to a major artery that it was uncomfortable—“We need to go.”
“Okay. Why?”
“Just trust me. But if I say it to Charlie, she’ll panic. So can you do it?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“Great.” She moved away from him—Thank God!—and toward the office door.
Berg could see Charlie again and she was nodding at whatever Van Holtz was saying, a halfway pleasant smile on her face.
With a shrug, Berg stood and went to her side, crouching down.
“I just think,” Van Holtz was saying, “that it would be great to meet her. I’ve heard so much about her.”