Livy held up a color print of Bo Novikov trying to force a smile. “This is what nightmares are made of.”
“I know,” Toni agreed while she licked her spoon free of Greek yogurt. “That’s why we need you.”
“This isn’t really my thing, Toni. I—”
“If you say you’re an artist, I will hit you.”
Chuckling, Livy tossed the picture back onto Toni’s desk and ate more of the French fries she had purchased. After spending some time catching up, they’d gone to the Sports Center food court and had picked up their lunches. Fish and chips for Livy. Yogurt, salad, and a burger big enough to choke a rhino for Toni. She’d bypassed the fries, but now she was regretting it while she watched Livy eating hers.
“I was not going to say that. At least not to you.” Livy shrugged. “But I hate sports. I hate sports guys. I hate people. I hate dealing with them. Talking to them. And portrait photography means talking to people. I also hate—”
“Yes, Livy. I know. You hate . . . pretty much everything.”
“Pretty much.”
“But this will be good money.
Clean
money, Liv. And God knows you can’t even think about trying to do another office job.”
“Why? I’m a fast typist.”
“Yes. But then you throw the computer at the office manager and I’m bailing you out of jail . . . again.”
“He was rude.”
“You think everyone is rude. But with shifters, you’ll be right and they can fight back. At the very least they’ll be fast enough to duck a flying PC.”
“That hard drive did ram right into his head. He was out for, like, ten minutes.”
“Is that restraining order still in effect?”
“I think it expired last year. But I wasn’t planning on going back to Utah anytime soon.” Livy took a handful of her fries out of the newspaper they were nestled in and dropped them on the plate with Toni’s burger. “Honestly, though, how much money could this really get me?”
“A lot.”
“Really?”
“You should think about it. You’d be able to live some place you’re paying for rather than just crashing on someone’s couch . . . like the couches of people you don’t know.”
“It’s called squatting and it has its place in society. And one paycheck isn’t going to—”
“I realized that. So I talked to a few of the other teams’ promotions people here and in Jersey.”
“Which means what?”
“I’ve got you other jobs with the local shifter teams.”
Livy smirked. “So you’re my agent now?”
“If I have to be. Clearly your agent doesn’t understand your true needs and skills.”
Livy thought a moment. “Well . . . it would be nice having a place of my own eventually.”
“Where are you living now?”
“Some guy left his window open on Thirty-Second Street and Fifth, so I—”
“Okay. That’s enough.” Toni shook her head to remove the image of her best friend climbing into some guy’s temporarily vacant home so she had a place to sleep for the night. It was in Livy’s nature, Toni understood that. But it was in Toni’s nature to put her siblings in burrows . . . she didn’t actually do that, though, now did she? “The family is in Manhattan for the summer, so you can stay with us. But come end of August, you’d better have your own,
rented
apartment, Olivia. You can’t keep living this way. It’s not right, especially when you don’t
have
to be homeless!”
“Okay, okay. Calm down.” Livy smirked. “So emotional.”
“Shut up. I’m trying to help.”
“I know. And thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“But you do understand I have money, right?”
“Not clean money.”
“It’s clean . . .
ish
.”
“Well, I prefer to think of you as penniless—clean or not—so that I can justify your need to live rent free.”
“I don’t need to live rent free. I just don’t like staying in one place when there’s all these available spaces I can fit into.”
“I don’t want to discuss this,” Toni insisted. “It upsets me.”
“Okay. Okay. So when do I get started?”
“Well—”
The door to her office opened—without a knock—and Ricky Reed walked in, pulled one of the chairs that sat against the wall to her desk—this one wasn’t bolted down at least—and dropped into it.
“Do you ever think to yourself,” he suddenly began, “ ‘How did I
not
know she was a delusional narcissist?’ ”
Livy stared at the wolf and replied, “Every day.”
Ricky focused on Livy. “Hi. I’m Ricky Lee Reed.”
“I’m Livy.”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am.”
Livy quickly looked at Toni, eyes wide, and mouthed,
Ma’am?
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Toni admitted. She wanted to be annoyed with him about earlier, but she was having a hard time when he looked so despondent.
“My ex-girlfriend is running around telling my Pack that I ran away from her yesterday crying.”
“Did you?” Livy asked.
“No, I did not. I was just chasing her,” he said, pointing at Toni. “And if anyone was crying, it was her.”
“I was not crying. I was merely panicking.”
The wolf suddenly looked around Toni’s office. “I thought you were quittin’.”
“I had to put it off.”
“Why would you quit?” Livy asked. “This job seems tailor-made for you. Taking care of useless idiots.”
“My siblings are not useless.”
“Freddy’s not useless . . . and the twins are too young to know definitely about them yet. But the rest of them . . . pretty useless.”
“Shut up,” Toni snapped.
“You shut up.”
“You shut up more.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“Excuse me,” the wolf cut in. “We were talking about
me
. Not y’all.”
“He has a point,” Livy kindly said, which only annoyed Toni more.
Reece Reed walked into Toni’s office—again, without asking if it was okay to come in—and threw his hands up at his brother. “I was trying to talk to you, Ricky Lee.”
“No. You and Rory were laughing at me, and I’m in too bad a mood now to sit around and listen to it.”
“Look, I told you Laura Jane was crazy back in high school. Don’t be mad at me
now
because I was . . .” Reece sniffed the air. “Because I was . . .” He sniffed the air again. Then he dropped to his knees and buried his face into the side of Livy’s neck.
Livy’s body tensed. She didn’t like to be touched . . . ever. “Could you get your redneck nose off me?” she deadpanned.
“What
are
you?” Reece asked.
Toni briefly closed her eyes, knowing that over the years that particular question had led to all sorts of bad situations.
“Don’t be rude, little brother,” Ricky warned.
“Smell her,” Reece ordered his brother.
“I’m not smelling anyone. It’s rude.”
“Seriously, though,” Reece pushed. “What are you?”
“Your worst nightmare if you don’t get away from me,” Livy said calmly.
“Are you a hybrid?”
“No, Livy!” Toni nearly screamed when she saw her friend’s hand come up and those deadly claws explode from her fingertips. “Don’t you dare. He’s on the hockey team and he needs his eyes.”
“Then,” Livy said, staring right at the much bigger wolf, “he needs to go away.”
“Reece . . . move.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Reece!” Toni pointed at another chair pushed against the wall. “Go sit down.
Now
.”
Grumbling, the wolf got to his feet and stomped across the room until he could drop into a chair. “I was just asking a question.”
“See?” Livy, her claws thankfully retreating, said to Toni. “You’re perfect for this job.”
“Shut up,” Toni said with a laugh.
“You shut up.”
“You shut up more.”
“I still don’t know what you two are talking about,” Ricky complained. “And we’re supposed to be talking about
me
.”
“Really?” Toni asked. “Because I don’t remember that being something I agreed to.”
“Would it kill you to give me five minutes of your time after all that Chinese food I bought you yesterday?”
“I didn’t know I owed you for the Chinese food.”
Not getting the response he wanted from the jackal, he turned to her friend. And Reece was right . . . Ricky didn’t know what she was. Unlike hybrids, which were sometimes a combination of scents, this female smelled like something completely different. Not bad, like some hyenas who didn’t bathe regularly could smell. Just . . . different. She was pretty, though, with short, straight, pitch-black hair that had a white streak just off to the side, and dark,
dark
brown eyes. Her coloring and the shape of her eyes suggested that she was part Asian, and even though she wasn’t standing, he could tell she wasn’t very tall or lean but she was strong with wide shoulders for such a small female. There was a lot of power in that very compact body, which he assumed was why Reece was still staring at her. Well, that and he was still trying to figure out what she was.
“She dragged me to her new apartment last night—” Ricky began.
Toni’s friend—Livy, was it?—abruptly looked at Toni. “You have your own apartment?”
“No.”
“But—”
“No.”
The jackal suddenly dug her hands into her curly hair, making it look kind of wild and even sexier. “First off, I don’t think it’s even my apartment.”
“What does that mean?”
“And second, even if it was my apartment, as much as I love you, Livy, I’d never let you stay there.”
“What kind of friend are you?”
“One that knows her boundaries.” Toni took a small slip of paper from a stack on her desk and wrote on it. “Here.” She slapped the paper on the desk close to her friend. “The address of where my family is staying. You
will
stay there,” she ordered.
“You let her stay with your defenseless kin, but you won’t let her stay at your apartment?”
“Because she’s messy.”
“I’m not messy.”
“Oh, my God, Livy!”
“If you got a maid it wouldn’t be an issue.”
“I’m not getting a maid just so you can be a slob.”
“Fine. I’ll pay for one, you cheap heifer.”
“I’m not getting a maid!”
Realizing that these two were like sisters and sensing these weird little arguments of theirs could go on
forever,
Ricky decided he had to take action. Pulling out the cash he had stuffed in his front pocket, Ricky handed over a couple of twenties to Toni’s friend.
Livy stared at the money before asking, “I usually charge more for blow jobs.” She said it so flatly that it took Ricky a second to realize she was being sarcastic.
“You can take that up with your momma and the Lord, but I’ve given you cash for you to take a cab and go away.” He took the slip of paper with the family’s address off the desk and put it in Livy’s hand with the money. “Nothing personal, but I want Miss Toni focused directly on
me
so I can whine in peace, like a proper wolf. Can’t do it with an audience. My kind considers it a sign of weakness.”
Reece had eased up behind Livy and, once again on his knees, asked, “What does
your
kind consider weak?”
“Your face,” Livy shot back before she got to her feet, picking up her backpack and swinging it onto her shoulder, which caused it to slap into Reece’s head since he was in the process of standing to his full height. “See you later,” Livy told her friend, then walked out. There was no chatter about calling each other or what are you doing later or anything about going shopping. None of what Ricky’s daddy called “lady stuff.” Nope. She’d said “see you later” and walked out.
Ricky had to admit . . . he liked that in a female. He especially liked that Toni didn’t seem bothered by her friend’s abruptness.
“So,” Reece began as he started to sit in the chair Livy had just vacated.
“That ass,” Ricky warned, “better not hit that seat or your face will be hitting the floor.”
Reece stood back up. “You know, big brother, there are nicer ways to tell me to go.”
“But none of those will you actually listen to.”
Reece grunted and walked out.
Now that they were alone, Ricky looked at Toni.
“You’re pouting,” she noted.
“Because my entire Pack is pissing me off.”
“I thought the problem was your ex-girlfriend.”
“My ex-girlfriend is just a giant pain in my ass. But my Pack actually believing her . . . ? Their loyalty should be to me. Don’t you think?”
Toni leaned back in her chair, her brows pulling down into a fierce frown. “What are we doing?” she suddenly asked.
“Chattin’.”
“Are we friends now?”
“We’re not enemies.” He raised a brow. “Are we?”
“Don’t threaten me with your eyebrows.”
“I’m not. I’m interrogating you with my
one
raised eyebrow. If I was threatening you, I’d use both eyebrows. Like this.” He leaned forward and raised both brows while widening his eyes. When she burst out giggling, Ricky leaned back in his chair and said, “See the difference?”
No. Toni didn’t see the difference, but the fact that he had the balls to actually give her a demonstration of something so ridiculous did impress her. Other than Cooper and their dad, there wasn’t a lot of deliberate silliness among the Jean-Louis Parker clan. There was unintentional silliness, of course. How could there not be with Kyle and Troy around? But you’d never convince them of that.
“All right.” Toni finally sighed. “Go ahead and tell me about your—”
“Oh, good. You’re still here,” Cella said from the doorway. Dee-Ann was beside her, leaning against the doorjamb.
“Where else would I be?” Toni looked at her watch. “It’s not even two o’clock yet.”