In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,97
used to choke me out, too, until I finally learned to get out of it.”
“How did she manage not to kill you?” he asked, holding out his arm for her to take.
“Charlie,” she replied, briefly resting her head on his shoulder. “The answer to any question like that, especially when it comes to me and Max, will always be Charlie.”
* * *
Charlie had assumed that the pew her Aunt Bernice had told her about would be in the back somewhere. Hidden from the disgusted eyes of the rest of the MacKilligan family. But it wasn’t in the back. It was the third pew from the front, which meant that they had to sit close to the main family. Something that confused Charlie.
“Stop it,” Max whispered next to her.
Trying to get comfortable on the wooden pew, Charlie asked, “Stop what?”
“Scowling. You look like you’re about to open fire.”
Charlie let out a sigh, but she still had to ask, “Why do you think they have us so close?”
“To the dead body?” Max shrugged. “No idea. Maybe they’re worried he’ll come back to life and they hope he’ll come after us first.”
“That’s stupid, Max,” Charlie snapped. “If he comes back as a zombie, he’s going to start on those toddlers in the front row. You know . . . young brains. Much tastier.”
“Like an appetizer.”
“Exactly. And if he’s reborn, like, into some god, he won’t be interested in us anyway.”
Berg, who sat on the other side of Max, leaned forward and asked, “What are you two talking about?”
“Zombie attacks,” they said in unison.
Berg’s mouth opened as if he was about to respond, but then he shook his head and sat back again.
After a few minutes, Charlie glanced at her watch and wondered how long this service was going to be. She was already bored and they’d just arrived. And sadly she was not good at hiding her expressions. When she was bored, it showed on her face. When she was angry . . . same. Happy . . . same. It was a flaw that, thankfully, made many people trust her when she needed them to, but also revealed when she really disliked someone.
She simply couldn’t hide it. She’d learned early in life that she would make a terrible con artist.
“Psssst. Psssst.”
Charlie studied the area, expecting to see a gas leak somewhere. But she quickly discovered that her cousin Kenzie MacKilligan was trying to get her attention from the front pew.
She frowned and mouthed, What?
Behind you, Kenzie mouthed back.
Charlie looked over her shoulder and she was positive her heart stopped.
With no regard to the priest who’d just begun the service, Charlie screamed out, “Oh, my God!”
Max was reaching under her jacket for the Glock she had holstered to the back of her black skirt but she froze and gawked too.
“What the fuck is he doing here?” she finally demanded in a furious whisper.
“I can’t believe it.” Charlie forced herself to face forward, ignoring the priest glaring at her from the pulpit. “He can’t be that stupid,” she chanted. “He can’t be that stupid. He can’t be that stupid.”
“We both know he’s that stupid,” Max snarled.
And Max was right. They both knew he was that stupid.
Berg leaned forward so he could see Charlie’s face. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Dad,” she spit out between clenched teeth, her anxiety spiking so high Charlie was sure she’d blow out a blood pressure machine.
“Oh . . . no.”
“What are we going to do?” Max asked, sounding shockingly panicked. “What are we going to do?”
Charlie heard a sharp gasp and realized that her baby sister had finally seen their father.
“Oh, shit.”
“Exactly,” Max muttered.
Now Stevie leaned forward and whispered, “What are we going to do?”
Freddy MacKilligan reached their pew and stopped. He gazed down at her, and Charlie wondered what he could possibly say at this moment to—
“Move.”
Charlie blinked and felt Max tense next to her.
“What?” she had to ask.
“Move,” he said again. As if she was supposed to follow his orders without comment.
Charlie took a moment to let that sink in before she reacted in the only way she could think of. She released her fangs and hissed at her father like he was a pushy lion male at an African watering hole.
“Oh, come on!” he snapped.
Max joined in, the pair hissing at him simultaneously.
“Just move,” Freddy ordered, as if he had any real power when it came to his daughters. “I’m not leaving. So you might as well move the fuck over.”