In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,86
because the Feds finally backed off.”
“Then what kind of deal are you talking about?”
“I don’t know. Something called Wild Dog Night. She was really vague . . . what are you laughing about?”
They’d reached the bottom of the brownstone steps and Shen was bent over at the waist, his laughter coming out so hard that it hurt his chest.
“What is so funny?” Stevie asked again.
“You didn’t say yes, did you?” he barely got out.
“I had to. The contractor was talking a six-figure restoration of the ballroom. I couldn’t afford that right now.”
“You said you’d go?”
“Yeah.”
“Just you?”
“I said I’d bring my sisters . . . what is so funny?”
Shen wiped the tears from his eyes, “You’ll find out. I don’t want to ruin it for you.”
“You’re being a very bad boyfriend right now. I just want you to know that.”
“Still worth it,” Shen admitted out loud after Stevie had already gotten in the car.
* * *
As they headed back to Queens, with Kyle in the backseat, Shen softly asked, “So what did Conridge say?”
“She didn’t seem to like the idea of me involving Max. Something about her husband losing skin. But he’s a wolf, so I don’t know if she just meant shedding.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Not sure yet, but I’ve got to come up with something. We need to find out what’s in Well’s lab. Maybe even his apartment.”
“Are you two having sex?” Kyle suddenly asked. He was stretched out lengthwise in the backseat, his upper back resting on his messenger bag, phone in his hand.
“What?” Shen snapped.
“Yes!” Stevie cheered.
Shen wanted to press the palms of his hands against his eyes, but he couldn’t take his gaze off the road.
“What are you doing?” Shen asked Stevie instead.
“What am I doing about what?”
“Why are you answering him?”
“What’s the point of lying? He’s not two.” Stevie looked over her shoulder. “How did you know?”
“Because you two are acting very . . . wife-and-husband-like. Similar to my parents. Clearly your relationship has changed.”
Stevie tapped Shen with the back of her hand. “We’re husband-and-wife-like!”
Now he was worried. “You do know that we’re not husband and wife . . . right?”
“Of course we’re not.” She reached for the radio, turned it on. “Yet.”
Shen turned the radio back off. “Okay. I need to make this clear to you.”
“Sure.”
“What we have is just casual. Just friendly—”
“Fucking,” Kyle tossed in from the backseat.
“Shut up or I’m going to make you stay with your family.” He refocused on Stevie. “We just have a casual relationship. Right?”
“No, actually. Very wrong. Our love is grand and never ending.”
“Never ending!” Kyle repeated.
“We will be together until you die.”
“Until you die!” Kyle repeated.
“You know,” Shen told the air, “I really have no one to blame but myself.”
“But yourself!”
“Shut up!” Shen barked at the annoying jackal.
“It’s okay,” Stevie gently told him. “We’ll be great together.”
For a moment, Shen was soothed until he realized that Stevie was rubbing her head against his arm.
“Are you marking me with your scent again?”
“Is that a problem for you?” she asked.
“Well—”
Kyle’s jackal head was suddenly in the seats between them, looking back and forth for a moment before he said, “It could have been worse. She could have unleashed her anal glands.”
“Get thee back, Satan!” Shen barked.
“You know,” Kyle remarked, “if I believed in the concept of a power higher than me, I’d be insulted right now. Lucky for you . . . I don’t.”
He relaxed back into his seat, again lengthwise, with one arm behind his head. Shen came to a red light and hit his brakes, sending the boy rolling off the seat and into the foot well between the rows.
“Ooopsie!” Shen called out.
chapter EIGHTEEN
Stevie walked into the house behind Kyle, who threw his bag onto the couch and his arms into the air, calling out, “I’ve returned home!”
“You’re just visiting!” Charlie yelled from the kitchen. “Stevie?”
“Yeah?”
“I need to speak with you.”
Stevie dropped her head forward and girded her loins. “She’s going to be upset about earlier.”
“Not necessarily,” Shen replied. “Maybe she’s found a whole new way of handling you and Max now that she’s going to therapy too.”
Stevie smiled. He really was the sweetest of all the bears. She kissed his cheek. “You’re cute when you lie to me.”
“It’s a gift.”
Stevie left Shen in the living room with Kyle, and as she entered the dining room, she met Max coming down the stairs. They stopped and glowered at each other for a few seconds before ramming into each other and putting themselves into mutual