In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,137
his sister did. Then the kid would have a chance.
Of course, Kiki could have left after she’d blown the kid’s world up; she and Zhen could have headed back to the safety of Manhattan for some drinks and an expensive lunch at the latest hot spot downtown. But she wanted to get to know, at least a little, this woman who’d caught her baby brother’s eye.
Kiki didn’t care that Stevie Stasiuk was a hybrid. That she was part cat, part badger. She didn’t care that she was, at least physically, one of the whitest white girls she’d met in a long time with that pale skin and dyed, dark blond hair. All she cared about was that this one-time prodigy wasn’t an asshole to Shen. When people were as brilliant as she knew Stevie to be, they could be huge assholes because they felt they were better than everyone else. And Stevie was a genius on two fronts: science and music. She could slide from one to the other like an eel in water.
In fact, Kiki had already heard rumors that Stevie might have written a brilliant ballet, and New York was already sitting up and taking notice, people ready to spend a fortune on tickets just to hear Stasiuk’s music one more time.
And yet . . . this woman who could have anything she wanted, live anywhere she wanted, do anything she wanted, was in a relatively small, old-ish kitchen with a seemingly new oven and refrigerator, bickering with her sisters. One black. The other Chinese. The three of them didn’t look remotely alike, but Stevie had introduced them as her sisters, so who was Kiki to question?
The middle sister, Max, appeared freshly showered, still towel-drying her hair. The eldest sister, Charlie, was covered in flour and, at some point, she dropped a pile of what she called “bamboo buns” on the table and gestured to them.
Zhen immediately grabbed one, taking a bite and crossing her eyes in delight at the taste. Then she elbowed Kiki. A grizzly was hanging outside the kitchen window, sniffing the air.
“Hey, Charlie,” the grizzly greeted her. “Thought I smelled—”
Charlie closed the window in the grizzly’s face.
“Not cool, MacKilligan!” the bear barked, but Charlie didn’t seem too disturbed by it.
The back screen door opened and Shen came in. He looked right at Kiki.
“Good job. You destroyed another artist.”
“Don’t be so overdramatic.”
“Kyle will be fine,” Stevie said, handing each of the pandas in the room a big stalk of Chinese bamboo. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“Are you his mentor?” Kiki asked.
“I wouldn’t say that. I don’t know anything about sculpting. Instead I’m more his . . . pre-psychologist. We’re both sure he’ll need one in a few years, so I’m prepping him for that. Speaking of which . . .” She glanced at her watch and dug into the backpack next to her chair. After a few seconds, she pulled out a bottle of prescription pills.
Stevie shook a pill into her palm and Charlie smoothly placed a bottle of water in front of her younger sister. Max took the pill bottle from Stevie, put the cap back on, and returned it to Stevie’s backpack. Then, for some reason, Max slapped the back of her sister’s head while she was taking her pill, which led to a little bit of choking . . . followed by yelling.
“If I choke and die, it’ll be your fault!”
“I would never be so lucky!”
The doorbell rang and Max calmly stated, “I’ll get it.”
Zhen grabbed another bamboo bun. “So . . . you’re on medication?” she asked Stevie.
Kiki winced and their brother barked, “Zhen!”
Their sister didn’t say much, but when Zhen finally did talk . . . oy.
“What are you doing?” Kiki softly asked her through clenched teeth.
“She’s dating our brother,” Zhen replied, softly and also through clenched teeth. “What if she’s a nut?”
“It’s rude.”
“This from a woman who just destroyed some kid’s will to live.”
“It is not the same thing.”
“You do know we can hear you, right?” Charlie asked.
Stevie held up her hand. “It’s okay. Really.” She smiled at Zhen. “I have a panic disorder and bouts of depression. But I manage both with medication and therapy.”
“It’s really none of our business,” Kiki said.
“Like hell it’s not,” Zhen snapped.
“Like hell it is,” Charlie growled.
“Charlie,” Stevie said, quickly raising her hand at her sister. “You promised. Just last night.”
“Zhen,” Shen said, “maybe you and Kiki should just head out.”
“You’re throwing me out because I’m worried about you?”