In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,49
like he’s okay with it.”
“He was fine with the first six questions,” Kyle insisted, “but after that, you were just testing his will to live.”
“And he didn’t punch me,” Stevie went on. “He accidentally slapped me with his elbow when he was turning away.”
For some reason that seemed to only make them laugh harder, forcing them to lean against each other for support.
The locker room door opened and Shen returned with an ice pack. He pulled her hand away from her face, fingers gentle against hers. That gentleness was still there as he placed the ice pack against her eye and cheek. He positioned her hand so she could hold the ice pack in place and stepped back.
That’s when he exploded into a fit of laughter and asked, “How do you piss off a giant panda yogi? They’re the nicest yogis!”
Growling to herself, Stevie turned away from the three people who were now laughing at her and thought about all the ways she could bring this entire building down with nothing more than toilet paper, roach spray, and some raw almonds.
* * *
A bear-shaped bottle of honey was carefully placed in front of Max. It seemed the She-tiger had returned but not her pit bull friend.
“Thanks,” Max said cheerfully. She loved the gift of honey and, in her opinion, not enough people in the world gave that gift.
The She-tiger sat down across from Max and smiled. “Hi. I’m Cella Malone.”
Max, sipping her drink, waved.
“So I guess you know why we’re here.”
Max placed her cup on the table and gazed at the She-tiger, making sure her smile stayed in place. But she didn’t speak. She’d found over the years that smiling without speaking freaked people out. Effective, especially since she really had no plan to answer this chick’s question.
At least not such a vague one. For all Max knew, this cat could be here for all sorts of reasons. What if Max guessed wrong? She could easily open up another can of snakes.
Yummmm. Snakes. Gosh, she hadn’t had snakes in weeks. She could really go for some snake. Maybe a boa. Or a python, which was one of her favorites. Or perhaps she could risk it all and go for a black mamba. Eh. Probably not. Charlie would just get pissed again. She hated when Max played with her food and ended up briefly dying.
“Are you listening to me?” she heard the She-tiger snap.
She hated lying. “No.” Max shrugged. “Sorry. I was thinking about snakes. I guess I’m hungrier than I thought.”
The apology seemed to confuse the feline more than anything.
Max picked up the bottle of honey, twisted the top off, and poured half of it into what was left of her honey macchiato.
“Anyway,” the woman continued, “we thought we’d have heard from you by now.”
Max frowned. “Heard from me about what?”
The feline tilted her head the slightest bit. “Your aunts? Your cousin?”
“You’ll need to be more specific than that. I have lots of aunts and a ton of—”
“Caterina and Celestina Guerra. Mairi MacKilligan.”
“Oh! Right. Them.”
That’s what the feline was asking about. Nothing else. Good.
It wasn’t that Max didn’t think the shifter organizations that protected their kind wouldn’t find out about what had happened with Stevie. She knew they absolutely would. But she was hoping to keep it under wraps at least until they could make sure that their baby sister was a little more . . . in control. Her shifted size freaked out everyone, but the real issue would be that she had little to no control over her shifting. That was what Max and Charlie were truly worried about.
Stevie was working on it, though. Hard. But, until the situation was managed properly, Max wanted these “agents” to be distracted from her little sister.
“Not much to hear, really,” Max admitted about the three women it seemed everyone was looking for. “The twins haven’t been seen since my cousin’s wedding. And Mairi . . . don’t know what to tell ya about Mairi.”
“Do you know her?”
“No. I’ve only met a few of my Scottish relatives. Usually when my father fucks up something.”
“A large group of them are heading this way from Scotland.”
“Good for them.”
“Maybe you could—”
“My sister already made this clear. We’re not spying on them for you. So stop fucking asking. It’s beginning to annoy me.”
“What if the twins have made a deal with your uncles?”
“What if the moon didn’t rise? What if detergent was actually dirt? What if aliens made you set yourself on fire?”