Authors: Shelly Laurenston
A blur dashed by them, dove at the box, rolled a few feet away, bounced back to relatively small feet, and held the box up, triumphant.
“You dropped this!” said the pretty wolfdog as she bounced over to them. She held the box out to Vic and he took it, raising his brows at Toni.
The jackal closed her eyes, let out a breath.
“Hi, Toni!” the wolfdog chirped.
After a moment, Toni replied, “Hi, Blonde.”
Blayne’s smile vanished and her lip curled. “It’s
Blayne
!”
“Whatever.”
Blayne focused on Vic, her smile quickly returning. “So what’s going on?” she asked.
“Livy got picked up by the cops,” Vic told her, hoping one of Blayne’s overreactions to any situation that had nothing to do with her would distract Toni long enough for Vic to get away.
“Oh no!” Blayne’s hands briefly covered her mouth, her eyes wide. “I was afraid that would happen after the way she reacted this morning at the meeting.”
“What are you talking about?” Toni asked.
“She came to our meeting about the wedding and she went after Mrs. Malone like a rabid squirrel. And in case you weren’t aware, squirrels are way meaner than any predator I’ve ever met.”
“Why would Livy be at a meeting about your wedding?” Toni briefly closed her eyes before asking, “You didn’t ask her to be one of your bridesmaids again, did you?”
“Not after she threw that locker at me.”
Vic raised his hand. “I’m sorry. I need clarification on that one. Livy threw a locker at you? A
locker
?”
“Yeah. We were in the locker room after a derby bout. I asked her to be one of my bridesmaids—assuming she’d take it as the compliment it was—but she didn’t say anything. Instead she just walked over to the lockers, pried one off, and
wham!
Next thing I knew, I was dodging a locker.” She grinned. “Good thing I’m spry!”
Vic nodded. “Good thing.”
“So I didn’t ask her to be a bridesmaid.”
“Good,” Toni said.
“Instead, I asked her to be my wedding photographer!”
Vic stepped out of the elevator and grabbed hold of Toni before she could get her hands around Blayne’s throat, sweeping her up in his arms and holding the snarling, snapping jackal against his body.
Blayne stumbled back. “What the hell?”
“You,” Toni spit out. “
You
asked one of the great photographers of our time to be your
wedding
photographer?”
“I intend to pay her!”
“That’s not the point! Would you ask Ansel Adams to photograph your baby shower? Or Renoir to paint your bedroom?”
“Well . . . if they were alive today and available for that sort of—” Blayne leaned back as jackal claws nearly slashed her face off.
“You’re being unreasonable!”
Vic moved back to pull Toni farther out of claw range, and he nearly walked into Ricky Lee.
“What’cha doin’ with my woman, hoss?” the wolf asked calmly.
“Keeping her from killing Blayne.”
“Who’d wanna kill Blayne?”
“Blayne asked Livy to be her wedding photographer.”
Ricky Lee shook his head. “My Toni gets real protective of her family’s talents. And she considers Livy family. Blayne’s lucky you were around. I’m not nearly as speedy as you. Now, why don’t I take her.” Ricky Lee put his arms out and Vic transferred the jackal over. “And I’ll get us both on that plane to Russia. You handle Livy.”
“Will do.”
Now safely in Ricky Lee’s arms, Toni pursed her lips and glared at both men. “This is ridiculous. Put me down, Ricky.”
“Nah.” He leaned in, kissed her cheek. “Let’s get you to the airport, darlin’.”
“Wait—”
“I’ll take care of Livy,” Vic promised, knowing that was what was bothering her.
“You can’t just take care of Livy. You have to get her
and
her cousins out. Trust me when I say, you can’t leave Kowalski cousins in lockup. They don’t like being trapped together. They’ll tear each other apart and end up in actual prison.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got this all covered.”
“And,” she went on, “you’ll need to keep Livy away from Melly once you get them out. She’s really cranky when she’s been in jail for a while, and Melly knows every button to push to make Livy snap.”
“I’ll deal with it. Now go before you miss your plane.”
“Vic—”
“Go.”
“She’s erratic when she’s upset,” Toni warned as Ricky Lee walked off with her. “And being asked to be some heifer’s wedding photographer is bound to make her upset!”
Blayne stamped her foot.
“You’re still being unreasonable!”
“This is what you wanted, isn’t it?” Melly accused, her eyes locked on Livy across the cell they were sharing with their cousins and several other full-human women Livy didn’t know. “To see me back here. Where you think I belong.”
“Where I think you belong is in rehab or a maximum-security mental hospital.”
“You are such an evil bitch, Livy!”
“
I’m
evil? You trashed my apartment.”
“I had a little party with family and a few friends. Why are you so uptight?”
“A little party does not involve cobras and puff adders.”
“And black mambas,” Livy’s cousin Jocelyn muttered.
Livy closed her eyes in horror at the thought of one of the deadliest snakes in the world skittering through her defenseless neighbors’ plumbing. “You have to be,” she growled at Melly, “the dumbest twat this side of the
universe
.”
“I was hungry!”
Melly screamed back.
Livy held up her hands. “I can’t with you, right now. I’ve got a lot on my mind and—”
“Boo-hoo,” Melly singsonged, her voice a nasty sneer. “My father died so everybody must pity me.”
Jocelyn’s eyes grew wide. “Wow. She went there,” she said to the other cousins. “I mean . . . she actually
went
there.”
“Shut up,” Melly snapped at Jocelyn.
“But who the fuck says that to someone who just lost their father?” Joce demanded. “Who?”
“Livy’s always been a bitch. Uncle Damon dying doesn’t change shit about that.”
Livy didn’t say anything. She didn’t move. She didn’t growl, snarl, or hiss. But a true honey badger never actually needed those warning signs to know when a fellow HB was about to go off like a bomb. Quickly, Jocelyn knelt in front of Livy, placing her hands on Livy’s knees. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Livy.”
Jocelyn cocked her head to the side. “I can’t let you.”
Studying her cousin, Livy asked, “Because you care if Melly continues breathing? Or because of her talents?”
“Don’t be silly, Liv.” Jocelyn, the oldest and most mature of the Kowalski cousins, reached up and gently petted Livy’s cheek. “If she didn’t have talents, I would have killed her myself before she graduated kindergarten. But this goes beyond our instinctual need to destroy the weakest of our kind. So I can’t let you. Understand?”
Livy let out a breath, nodded. Besides. If she was going to kill her own cousin, she should do it without surveillance cameras and so many witnesses.
Jocelyn, satisfied by Livy’s nonverbal response, smiled and stood. When she turned, Melly was standing there.
“You would have killed me in kindergarten?” When Jocelyn didn’t reply, Melly began to sob.
Jocelyn, disgusted, glanced back at Livy, eyes crossed.
“I can’t believe we share blood,” Jocelyn whispered at Melly before she walked off.
Livy heard someone sniffing, and she looked at the bars she was trapped behind. She recognized the face of the polar bear standing there, sniffing the air. Slowly, dark brown eyes focused on her.
“Olivia.”
“Crushek.”
He gestured to a uniformed cop. The door was opened and Livy stood. “I’ve gotta bring them,” she said, motioning to her cousins.
“Then bring them.”
The bear turned and walked off. With a shrug, Livy and her cousins followed. They were near the elevators when another plainclothes cop ran up to them.
“Hey! Crushek! You can’t just—”
Crushek faced the man, stared down at him.
“I can’t what?” Crushek asked.
The full-human swallowed. “These . . . women . . .”
Crushek blinked. “What about them?”
“They put two of our officers in the hospital.”
Crushek looked down at Livy. “What did you do?”
“They got between me and my cousin, but it wasn’t that big a deal. Couple of busted noses, a few broken fingers, and some bruised egos . . . but everybody’s alive.”
“Don’t do that anymore,” he told her, pointing one, big, blunt finger. “Understand?”
“Yes.”
Crushek looked back at the other cop. “They won’t do that anymore.”
“Look, Crushek, you can’t just take people out of here . . .” He cleared his throat, tried again. “Take people out of here . . .” Another throat clear. “Whenever you feel like . . .” He gawked up into that unrelenting polar bear stare and, after a few moments, threw up his hands. “Do whatever you want,” he snapped before walking off.
Frowning, Crushek asked Livy, “What was that about?”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Livy offered.
“Yeah. You’re probably right. Let’s go.” The polar walked toward the elevators.
“He has no idea, does he?” Jocelyn asked.
“Like most bears . . . he’s completely oblivious.” Livy shrugged. “That’s kind of what makes him cute.”
Her cousins moved off and Livy was about to follow when she looked over her shoulder at Melly. The little idiot was talking to a cop. She had her butt on his desk and was leaning down so that her top was probably giving him a very nice shot of her braless tits.
Livy briefly entertained the thought of leaving the bitch here, but she didn’t want to hear about it later from her mother. So she walked up to her, grabbed Melly by the back of her head, and yanked her off the desk by her hair.
Instead of fighting while Livy dragged her ass across the floor toward the elevators, Melly waved at the detective and called out with a giggle, “Call me!”
C
HAPTER
11
V
ic, leaning back against his SUV, glanced over at the full-human female standing next to him.
“I really appreciate you guys helping me with this,” he said.
Dez MacDermot smiled up at him, squinting one eye closed against the midday sun. “It’s no problem. Things are pretty quiet right now for me and Crushek anyway.”
“You know, I heard from Dee-Ann that her bosses and Cella’s have had them back off the Whitlan case. Any idea why?”
“Nope. But our department hasn’t been pushing us, either. Which is weird, because for a while there, that’s
all
they had me and Crush working on. But Dee-Ann quietly mentioned that you were looking into it for us.”
“Yeah. Just seeing if I can find out anything on my own.”
“Well, just let me know if me and Crush can help you. It bothers me that Whitlan might be able to get away with all this bullshit. I’ve heard rumors there are a lot of fellow law officers who don’t want Whitlan caught. Some high-level guys whose careers will be very hurt if Whitlan’s brought in.”
Frankie “The Rat” Whitlan had turned out to be quite a piece of work, using cops to protect his illegal business by turning rat on fellow criminals who were in his way.
Yet none of that was why shifters of every breed and species had been after the son of a bitch. It was because he’d run one of the most successful shifter-hunting businesses in the world. For an exorbitant fee, Whitlan could arrange a hunt involving anything from lions, bears, tigers, wolves . . .
any
type of shifter. And for hard-core hunters, shifters were the ultimate prey. The power and strength of the predator combined with the intelligence of thumb-possessing humans.
The fact that an untold number of shifters were stuffed and on display in rich people’s homes was what made Whitlan “most wanted” among their kind. So for any of the protection agencies to be backing off this guy was strange.
“You don’t think that’s what’s happening here, do you? That someone from our side is trying to protect Whitlan?”
Dez jerked a bit in surprise at Vic’s question. “No. I wasn’t thinking that at all. Are you?”
“No. But I do feel something’s going on.”
She snorted. “There’s always
something
going on. You guys are always involved in such complicated politics.”
“True.”
Crushek walked out the side door, Livy and six other honey badger females behind him.
Vic studied Livy as she caught sight of him and began to move his way. Despite some already healing bruises on her face, she appeared to be just fine.
Until one of the other badger females said something to Livy. Something only Livy could hear. But whatever was said, it was enough.
Livy turned wickedly fast, her open hand flying out and slapping the other female right across the face. Hard. So hard, the blow had the other female stumbling, briefly dropping her to her knees. She was up fast, though, charging Livy.
“Crush!” Dez called to the polar.
“What?”
She motioned to the women behind him, and Crush turned, eyes widening in shock. But before he could move, the other females stepped in, separating the cousins and moving them away from each other.
Vic motioned them over with a wave of his hand, now recognizing Melly as the one Livy had slapped.
Once the females were in front of him, Vic announced, “Listen up, ladies. I’m going to make this very quick. You have not been bailed out. Instead, you’ve been released, and any record of your arrest has been expunged.”
Melly threw both fists high in the air. “Rock on!”
“Hold it,” Vic cut in before she could walk off feeling invincible.
Vic pointed at Dez. “This is Detective MacDermot. She’ll be accompanying you ladies back to Livy’s apartment, where you will clean up whatever mess you left there.”
“Fuck her,” Melly snapped.
“You’ll clean it up,” Vic continued on, “or Dez will be dragging
your
ass”—he pointed right at Melly—“back to prison.”