In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,141
sisters, sending both women to the ground.
“Wow,” Coop sighed out in awe. “It picked up speed.”
Stevie began to explain how she’d calculated the potential velocity, but she saw the blank expression on Coop’s face and just ended with, “Physics. It’s the best.”
* * *
Shen dropped Livy and Vic off at their vehicle and headed to the Sports Center. They’d already given the copied drives to Irene Conridge, who had been waiting for them. She had someone at the ready to hack into those things and he hadn’t wanted to lose a minute getting the information into Conridge’s hands. Now he just wanted to get back to Stevie. He knew she was safe, but he still didn’t feel right without her in his sight, which was ridiculous. He was just being pathetic and needy at this point.
Even though there were no big games going on, he still had a hell of a time finding a parking space. When he finally did, he was parked on the roof, which meant it would take him ages to get down to the lower levels where all the shifter activities took place.
He got on the elevator with a full-human family, watching as the numbers moved slowly from one to the other in reverse order.
Shen blew out a breath, tapped his foot, and continued to watch the numbers. At least he did until he felt a small hand grab his T-shirt.
He slowly looked down at the toddler. His father had just realized he was touching a stranger.
“Oh. Sorry.”
The child held out his stuffed giant panda toy at Shen and said, “Pan-daaa.”
“Yes. Panda,” the mother replied, which had Shen confused for a second until she grabbed the stuffed panda from her son and wiggled it in front of him. “Pan-da.”
“No!” the child snapped, angry, pointing at Shen. “Pan-daaaaaa!” He reached for Shen, trying to wiggle out of his father’s arms.
“What is with you?” his father asked, becoming as frustrated as his son.
“No, sweetie,” his mother corrected, pointing at Shen. “Man.” She held up the stuffed toy again. “Pan-da. Panda.”
The elevator doors finally opened and, with a nod and a smile at the family, Shen stepped out. That’s when the kid started screaming, because his real-life panda was walking away.
Shen never knew what it was, but kids under the age of four seemed to know a panda shifter as soon as they saw one. When it came to the other predators, kids that age usually just started crying or trying to move away from them to the safety of their parents. But they always knew the pandas and they always wanted to cuddle them.
Shen reached the private entrance to the floors that were for shifters only, passing the fox and jaguar security guards who kept the full-humans out. One sniff and they pulled the door open for Shen so he could go inside.
He saw Dag standing in line at Starbucks. He hurried over, tapped his shoulder. “All cool?”
“Yeah. Charlie and Max are in room twenty-B. It’s one of the offices. They’re going through the paperwork they grabbed. Hoping to find a property address.”
“Okay. I’ll go get Stevie.”
Dag nodded. “Want a coffee?”
“I’ll get one later.”
Shen left Starbucks and went over to the elevator, which he took down to the floor where the soccer field was located. As he stepped out, he could see crowds coming through the main doors. It looked like the game was over. He went on his toes to look over the big cats and bears. He spotted Stevie arguing with a couple of the Brunettis.
“Don’t tell me they play soccer,” he muttered to himself.
Shen, trying to push his way past unhelpful bears and bitchy cats, raised his arm. “Stevie!”
She looked up, went on her toes. Their eyes caught and she smiled. Waved. She walked away from the Brunettis and a fast-talking Coop, who thankfully blocked the She-lions from following her with his long jackal body.
Shen headed toward her, trying to keep eye contact, but it seemed a lot of people had come to the game tonight and Stevie kept dipping in and out of his . . .
He stopped. Looked over his shoulder, then back to where he’d last seen Stevie.
Moving forward, now pushing past the bigger breeds, he ran to the last spot he’d seen her, but there was no sign.
“Coop!” he called out. “Where’s Stevie?”
The jackal turned away from the Brunettis and took a quick look around. “She was just here. I saw her.”