“Forced?”
“While KZS and the Group have been going after pissant hybrid dogfights, the bears have been focusing on the real hunters going after real shifters. Their methods have improved.”
“Not liking your tone, son,” Smith warned. She had a real warm spot for the hybrids, although she’d never admit having a warm spot for anyone.
“Don’t you?” He stood up, towering over Smith. “Well, that’s not really the problem right now. Is it?”
“And what is the problem?”
The grizzly pointed across the room into a far corner. “She is.”
As one, they all looked at the full-human girl standing in the corner. She was Italian American, Cella would guess. Pretty and young, wearing an old leather jacket with some bloodstains on one side and driving gloves. And, at the moment, just realizing she was in serious trouble.
Mikey’s grip tightened on Cella’s hand and she looked at him.
“She brought me here. She saved my life. You know what that means to us, Cella.”
Mikey Callahan, like Cella, was another Traveller, although the Callahan Pride had lasted a little longer before they’d been asked to go their own way and leave Ireland. Loyalty was all to the Callahans, like it was to the Malones. If the girl had saved his life—and why would he lie when he was bleeding out onto the Group office floor?—then she had to be protected.
But before Cella could move, MacDermot stepped in front of the girl, her face swollen, but the Bronx attitude firmly in place.
“If I were you,” MacDermot said to the tall grizzly, “I’d just walk away.”
“I know you feel like you have some power here, full-human. But you don’t. Just breeding one of us, doesn’t make you one of us.”
Charlene kneeled on the floor and placed Mikey’s head in her lap. The fox was small compared to the rest of them, but she had a .45 holstered to the back of her skirt and when the fox nodded at her, Cella knew she’d watch out for him.
Standing, Cella and Smith slowly made their way around the room, closing in on the two grizzlies.
“I think you better go,” MacDermot pushed.
“We’ll go, but we’re taking her with us. Since we can’t trust you to do what needs to be done with her.”
“You’re not taking her anywhere.”
He reached for MacDermot, his hand grabbing her jacket, but MacDermot already had her hand on her gun. Still, none of them actually expected little Abby to jump between the bear and MacDermot, barking and baring her teeth, biting at his wrist so he’d release MacDermot.
“Shit,” Smith snarled, her bowie knife out, she and Cella moving fast. But before either could reach him, the bear casually kicked Abby out of the way. He knocked her into the chairs. The girl gave a surprised yelp.
They were all so focused on Abby that they didn’t see Hannah until she rammed into the tall grizzly, knocking the bigger bear into the door. Smith went to help, but Cella caught her arm, holding her in place as Hannah battered the second bear with her forearm, hitting him across the chest and then up into his jaw.
Abby shifted to human and grabbed the bigger bear by his hair. She dragged him away from the door, ignoring his surprised roar of pain, and MacDermot leaped forward to help the pup, ramming her foot into the bear’s knee.
The full-human girl, seeing her chance, charged out, barreling through the doors and into the freezing cold outside.
Smith looked down at Cella’s hand and then at her. “Reason you did that?”
“Figured the girls could handle themselves.”
The two bears got back to their feet and Abby shifted back to canine, running and hiding behind Cella. Poor thing, she never knew whether she should be escaping or fighting. Hannah, though, now blocked the door, giving the full-human girl more time to get away.
MacDermot placed her hand on the kid’s forearm and tugged until Hannah moved to her side.
“I think you need to go,” MacDermot said again to the grizzlies.
“Or what?”
She shrugged. “I’ll let a naked girl beat you up again. Because
that
was funny.”
One of the bears snarled, aggressively stepping into MacDermot, but then Crushek was there. He got between his partner and those bears, his hands slapping against the bigger grizzly’s head and digging his claws into his face, the pair roaring at each other. Windows and furniture rattled; Group members poured into the room, guns raised. But they weren’t needed because Crush yanked the big grizzly close, nearly tearing the other bear’s face off in the process. “My partner said it was time for you to go.” He pushed the bear into the second grizzly, sending both of them careening out the door, and roared, “
So go! Go run home to Mommy!
”
The grizzlies fled and Crushek stood between the two sets of doors, his back to them, chest heaving, hands now covered in grizzly blood.
The front office was completely silent, everyone staring. Which was when Smith leaned in and whispered to Cella, “You may want to take it down a notch, darlin’—your nipples are hard.”
Cella brought her fist up, her knuckles colliding with Smith’s nose, then she returned to Mikey Callahan’s side.
C
HAPTER
S
EVENTEEN
C
rush sat at his kitchen table, chin resting on his raised fist, and stared across the room. He’d crossed a line. Not with his boss or even his own moral code. No, he knew he’d crossed a line with Peg Baissier. She’d always hated him, which seemed only fair since she was the one woman Crush openly admitted detesting. But Baissier was very protective of the BPC “brand.” And what had happened to her “boys” tonight was not something she’d let go. Crush knew Baissier well enough to know that she’d never let this insult slide. Not her.
Yet she would never come at him directly. That was too easy. No, she’d find another way to get to him. Or, as she’d put it more than twenty years ago, she’d find a way to “make you hurt.” Since he knew she wasn’t one for idle threats, he felt pretty sure she’d make good on that promise. Especially now.
Still, Crush wasn’t worried about himself too much. Not that he wanted to suffer or anything, but it was what it was. Yet there were others who had now crossed her, too. MacDermot. Van Holtz, Smith, Malone. Even those two hybrid girls. They’d all unknowingly crossed a line with Baissier. Crush had warned Van Holtz and Gentry, who’d shown up at the Group offices an hour after everything went down. They understood, and when he and MacDermot had left, they’d been meeting with Smith and Malone, and Van Holtz had promised to ensure the girls would be protected.
But Crush couldn’t shake the feeling that ...
He heard the knock at the front of his house, and Lola raised her head from the kitchen floor. She snarled and Crush stood, removing his .45 from its holster and heading to the door. But one sniff had him lowering his weapon and pulling the door open.
“It’s you.”
“Is that any way to talk to your pretend girlfriend?”
Rolling his eyes, the adrenaline practically pouring out of his body, Crush said, “You are
such
a strange feline.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” She lifted her hands. “You going to let me in or what?”
“It’s late, Malone. And I’m just not in the mood to—”
“Great. Thanks.” She pushed past him and walked into his house. Gritting his teeth, he followed her into his kitchen.
As soon as Malone stepped in, Lola barked at her, running around Malone and sitting down at Crush’s feet. Still barking.
Crush reached down and picked up the fifty-pound dog. “I know, girl. I know. No one wants these nasty cats in their home. Worse than rats.”
“I can’t believe you buy into that canine-media propaganda.”
“For someone so anti-dog, seems you’re kind of close to them.”
“Well, Smith and Van Holtz aren’t like those
other
dogs. You know, they don’t talk like ’em or strut like ’em. They’re different.”
“I’m becoming completely uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation,” he said, ignoring her laughter.
Crush kissed Lola’s head and walked into the kitchen, going right to the cabinet where he kept all her treats and taking out an extra-large bully stick.
“Here.” He placed Lola on the floor with her treat. “I think you deserve this, baby-girl.”
“Why don’t you just accept that she’s your dog?” Malone asked, dropping into one of the chairs around the kitchen table.
“She’s a foster. One day I’ll find her a nice family with kids.”
“Why can’t she just stay here with you?”
“No one for her to play with.” Crush opened the refrigerator, glanced in, then closed the door again.
“You’re restless,” she observed.
“It’s been an ... interesting day.”
“More like average for us.”
“Great. Wonderful to hear. And good to know that I have more to look forward to. Next, I guess Gentry will ask me to ...”
“Kill someone?”
Crush shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and hunched his shoulders.
“Doubtful,” she said. “Usually MacDermot’s department is busy just cleaning up my mess and Smith’s. And Smith and I sure are messy.”
“Are you saying I’ll have to clean up corpses?”
“Oh, God, no. We have specialists for that sort of thing. I just mean that you’ll probably spend a lot of time keeping me and Smith out of prison.”
“That’s what I’m reduced to? Keeping you and your wolf friend out of prison?”
“Trust me. There will be more to it than that. In some ways our world is much more difficult than the full-humans’.”
“I understand their world. It’s easy. Dangerous, but easy.”
Malone threw her legs up on the kitchen table like she owned the joint, crossing them at the ankles.
“So you want to tell me what’s going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, let’s see. First off, you went after your two replicas—as I like to call your brothers—as if they were covered in whale blubber. And then those two grizzlies at the office—”
“They kicked a child, threatened my partner, and went after that full-human girl. What was I supposed to do? Just stand there?”
“First off—”
“Again with the first off?”
Malone scowled at him and Crush raised his hands, knowing he was snapping. “Sorry.”
“First off, what happened at the meeting—totally righteous. But you challenged them
before
the meeting, too.”
“So there’s no ‘second off’? You have all these first offs, but no second offs?”
Malone folded her hands over her stomach.
“What?”
“Are you going to keep playing this game to avoid telling me what’s going on? Or are you just going to talk to me?”
“About what? Because something tells me you already know.”
“That Baissier was your foster mother? That she had you quietly outed as a cop? Yeah. I know. But I still want to hear it from you.”
Crush crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t think much about the fact that Malone knew all those details about his life. She was KZS, so it wasn’t surprising. Instead, he did kind of wonder what it would be like to discuss this with someone other than himself or the dog. Usually he kept personal stuff ... well ... personal.
But the crazy woman before him had little room to judge when it came to personal drama, so perhaps talking to her would be better than nothing.
“In the eyes of the law, Baissier is a foster mother. But what she was really doing was recruiting. She only took in bears under the age of twelve. I was five by the time I held my first gun. A little .38. Could fight with knives by the time I was ten, and could tell you a whole lot of different ways to kill people by the time I was thirteen.”
“That’s why you asked about Hannah and the others.”
“I knew if Van Holtz was recruiting kids, we’d have a problem.”
“He’s not. I promise. That is not happening. Smith—Dee-Ann—travels around. She’s found the majority of these hybrid pups and cubs living on the streets. She brings them in, gives them food and a place to sleep. If they stay, Van Holtz makes sure they either go to school or get tutoring and Blayne helps with teaching them how to handle being two or more things at once.”
“I get everybody else, but what’s the deal with Abby?”
“Dee-Ann found Abby in an alley, eating out of a trash can. She’s been with the Group for a while and she shifts only when she feels like it. And I can assure you no one has tried to recruit her to do anything except get her to use the ladies’ room rather than going out back to pee ... because we all find that really weird.”
“You find
that
weird?”
“Yeah. Don’t you?”
Ignoring her question, Crush said, “And Van Holtz said Hannah was rescued from dogfights?”
“She was. I was surprised they didn’t just put her down.”
“They didn’t pick her up at the pound, Malone.”
“No, but she’s been through a lot. More than most could ever hope to handle. You just don’t snap back from that.”
“But do you really think being around people like Smith and you is good for her?”
“Good for her? I’ve been nothing but nice to that girl.”
“I’m not talking about how nice you’ve been. I’m talking about the influence on a damaged young woman by hanging around a KZS killer and some backwoods hillbilly hit-wolf.”
“I’m a contractor!”
“I don’t care.”
“And it’s not like Smith and I sit around, telling tales to Hannah about who we’ve taken out over the years. All we’ve ever tried to be for that girl is a support system.”
“Not everyone’s made out for this life, Malone.”
“I absolutely know that. My Meghan’s not. Neither is Josie. They’re both going to be doctors. And Hannah can be anything she wants. I know for a fact that Mace Llewellyn offered to pay for her and Abby to go to any school they like, anywhere in the world. And maybe she will. Maybe she’ll go to college. Become an engineer. A scientist. A very strong forward,” she finished on a mumble.
“A strong ...” Disgusted, he took a step back from the heartless feline. “Oh, Malone!”
“
What?
We’re talking opportunities here. That’s all. Besides. . . did you see how she handled those grizzlies?”
“You’re recruiting!”
“For hockey!” Then she calmly added, “God’s game.”
“You really call hockey God’s game?”
“All Malones call it God’s game. Because it
is
.”
The bear blew out a breath. “I think I’ll let this go now.”
“I would.” Because Cella had her mind made up.
“So how’s the lion male?” he asked.
“Better. Docs took care of him and once he’s ready, the Group will move him to a safe house. And my uncles have already gone to the Callahans to let them know.”
“Your uncles? Why not KZS?”
“The Malones are closer to the Callahans than KZS will ever be. We understand them and we can get on their territory without being shot at.”
“I always thought tigers and lions didn’t get along.”
“We don’t. But even you can tell we’re not your typical tigers. And the Callahans aren’t your typical lions. You won’t be seeing them trading their males around like used cars. That’s not their way.”
Studying her, he guessed, “I have a lot to learn about your family, don’t I?”
“You could say that. But not tonight. I’m not up for that.”
“Fair enough. But maybe you can tell me what happened to the lion?”
“That grizzly was an asshole, but he was right. Mikey had been hunted. Unfortunately, he has no idea where he was, but he said he was like in some kind of animal reserve. A local one. And since the bears scared off that girl who helped him, I don’t know when we’ll be able to track the place down.”
Crush stepped closer, his hands still in his pockets. “I know why MacDermot and I let her go, but why did you?”
“For lots of reasons, but mostly because Mikey asked me to. She saved his life and that deserves our loyalty.”
“You’re not worried she’ll say something?”
“To who? I mean who’d believe her? Not anyone who could really hurt us.”
“You have a point. Besides, she can’t talk even if she wants to.”
“And why’s that?”
Crushek grinned. “She’s a car thief. A really good one. Only takes high end. Has specific clients.”
“You know her.”
“I know a couple of dealers who’ve hired her for special requests. She’s also a driver. She’s been involved in a few heists, but being a car thief is her true love. She’s been doing it full-time since she was sixteen.”
“You know her,” Cella repeated. “But you won’t ever tell anyone who she is ... will you?”
The bear shrugged, smiled. “I can’t risk the information getting back to BPC. Plus, she protected one of our kind—for that she deserves our loyalty. Right?”
Okay, so the bear was judgmental, uptight, and so straitlaced it made her laugh, but he was smart, brave, and wicked fast. And loyal to a car thief he didn’t really know.
“You want this girl safe,” Cella suggested, “we need to bring Baissier down, and we need to do it now.”
“What makes you think we can do that? I’ve known that woman for a very long time, Malone. You can’t take her down just because your friend wants to protect some girl.”
“I know. I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but I think Whitlan’s the key.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Do you really think Baissier’s after some taxidermist? She was watching that taxidermist for a reason. Smith and I think that reason is Whitlan.”
“So? What if he is the reason?”