In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,90
their connection. “That’s my girl.”
“Always, Ma. Always.”
chapter NINETEEN
It was the third Exorcist movie that upset the Dunn triplets the most. Shen sat next to them while they jumped and growled and sat curled in the corner of the couch, looking a little green. That had been Dag specifically.
Shen was worried that having three panicked grizzles this close would freak out Stevie, but she was sitting on the floor by Charlie’s feet, eating popcorn and dark chocolate M&M’s, and laughing. All three of the sisters were laughing hard, thoroughly enjoying the horror unfolding on the big-screen TV in front of them.
It became evident that they really loved horror movies. All of them. They cheered. They tried to scare each other. They especially loved to laugh. Not a typical laugh either. They each had their own versions of what they referred to as a “demonic laugh,” and all of them were disturbing.
When the final film was over, Charlie asked, “What do you want to watch now?”
It was after midnight but none of them appeared tired. Still . . .
“What about Suspiria?” Stevie suggested.
“No,” Shen immediately said.
“Why not?”
“My sisters made me watch that when I was ten. I’m not sitting through that shit again.”
Max smirked. “Was it the maggots?”
“When that chick fell in the spiral wires?” Charlie asked.
Stevie crinkled up her nose. “The music?”
“What happened to the blind guy?” Max continued.
“All of it!” Shen barked.
“Can we just watch something not horrifying?” Berg begged.
“Like what?”
“Anything,” all the bears in the room said at the same time.
Charlie laughed. “Okay, okay. How about John Wick?”
“Yeahhhh!” the bears cheered. Happy for some regular ol’ violence and revenge without the vomiting and head spin.
While Charlie went through her streaming collection to find the movie, the rest of them took bathroom breaks, got more junk food and drink, or simply stretched.
Kyle came back to the living room with a sandwich big enough to choke a rhino. The grizzlies saw it and quickly made their way into the kitchen to build their own sandwiches.
“Found your phone,” Kyle said between bites, tossing the device onto the table.
“Where did I leave it?”
“Bathroom.”
Shen swiped the phone off the table and sat on the floor, his back against the couch, to check his messages. A few from his sisters forwarding the latest ridiculous video or horrifying news story that always seemed to involve murder and Florida, but that was it.
Stevie came back into the room, but instead of returning to her spot by her sister, she came around the coffee table and sat down in front of Shen. He spread his legs so she could settle between them, and she rested her head against his shoulder so his jaw pressed against her temple.
What he really appreciated, though, was that no one said anything about it. No one even looked at them.
Then those behemoth dogs came in. The male went one way around the table, and the female came around the other. They sat down next to Shen and the male placed his massive head on Shen’s left shoulder and the female on his right.
“Should I find this concerning?” he asked Stevie.
“They’re just protective of me,” she said. “And they haven’t quite figured you out yet.”
Shen looked over at the triplets sitting on the couch behind him. “Do you three have any control over these—”
“Nope,” Berg replied.
“Out, you two,” Charlie calmly ordered as she reached over and took half of the sandwich Berg offered her.
And with that, the dogs walked out of the living room and into the front room. The front door was closed, preventing the canines from returning to the Dunn house. Shen assumed they would sleep on the floor or one of the couches, which worked fine for him. Since he didn’t appreciate being threatened by dogs. No matter their size.
* * *
The gun fight scene in the Russian-owned club was a couple of minutes away when Max again heard the scratch coming from upstairs. She rubbed a spot between her brows with her forefinger, allowing her to glance at her sisters without their noticing.
Worried that a raccoon or a squirrel had made its way into the house, Max got up.
“Where are you going?” Stevie asked, looking awfully comfortable cuddled up to her panda bear that way. And Shen didn’t seem to mind, no matter how much he bitched. “Gunfight at the club.”
“I’ll be back. And it’s not like I haven’t seen it ten thousand times.”
Max stepped over Charlie’s legs.
If a squirrel had made it into the house, she wanted to get