The brothers stared at each other, then started laughing.
“Lord,” Ricky finally said, “that would have been very bad.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s just better that
you
are going,” Rory insisted. “Now, you have your passport, right?”
“As much as my family travels? My mother’s agent actually has a schedule when we all have to get our passports renewed.”
“Excellent.” Rory waved off his brother. “I know you’ve got what you need. I’ve already touched base with Llewellyn and he’s arranged with that company y’all are flying with. Madra Air?”
“Yeah.”
“He says just bring your nine, but nothing else.”
Toni sat up straight. “You’re bringing a gun on a plane?”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“I’d rather not end up on Madra’s Do Not Fly List if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t worry about that.” He looked at his brother again. “So Dee-Ann has already contacted Vic for us. And he’s still in Russia?”
“For now, yeah, he’s been helping with tracking Whitlan.”
“Wait,” Toni cut in. “Who the hell’s Whitlan?”
“Vic will get you whatever you need once you get to Russia,” Rory went on, ignoring her.
“Better be more than a nine,” Toni muttered, and she realized that both brothers were staring at her. “These are bears and Siberian tigers. A nine isn’t going to do anything but irritate them.”
“How do you know that?” Rory asked.
“When you’re a small canine in a world filled with big cats, wolves, and bears, you find other ways to fight. Trust me, if full-blood jackals had thumbs, they’d know how to take down lions with a .416 Remington, too.”
Ricky grinned. “Too?”
“Could you two flirt later?”
Toni growled at Rory. “I wasn’t flirt—”
“Y’all need to remember that these Russian bears are not to be trifled with,” Rory went on. “So if it looks like things are getting out of hand”—he looked directly at his brother—“let Toni do the talking.”
Toni blinked. “
Me?
Why me?”
“If you can calm down Novikov, then Lord, woman, you can calm down damn near anybody.”
“Thank you?”
Rory walked around the couch until he was right in front of Ricky. “Listen to me, little brother. Things explode out there, you let Vic do what he does best and you get yourself and our little Toni here out. Don’t try to be anyone’s dang hero.”
“That’s Reece’s weakness, Rory. Ain’t never been mine.”
“Keep it that way.”
The brothers stared at each other a few seconds longer, then they hugged.
And that’s when Toni finally yelled out, “Is anyone else concerned that we’re doing all this just to negotiate a contract for a goddamn sports team?” She threw her hands up in the air.
“Anyone?”
The brothers pulled away and Ricky admonished, “You shouldn’t blaspheme.”
Toni’s eyes crossed. “Shut up.”
They walked right into the middle of a melee. It wasn’t pretty, either. Fists and legs flying, screams and snarls and yips filling the air.
But Ricky had to admit he was impressed. Because while the two oldest were trying to figure out what to do, Toni walked right into that pit of swinging arms and legs and began yanking pups apart and tossing them around the room until she got to Oriana, who was too old to toss anywhere.
“That is enough!”
Toni bellowed over the continuing screams and threats while she held her fifteen-year-old sister in a nice little choke hold.
“I mean it!”
That seemed to calm them all down, and she pushed her sister away before facing Cooper and Cherise. “Where’s Mom and Dad?”
“They went out with Aunt Irene.”
“When?”
Coop looked off, clearly embarrassed, and admitted, “Fifteen min—”
“Fifteen? You couldn’t keep them under control for
fifteen
minutes?”
“It’s not his fault,” Cherise chimed in from behind Coop.
“He was practicing and I told him I’d take care of the kids, but things spiraled so quickly . . .”
Toni folded her arms over her chest and gazed down at her feet.
“Hey,” Coop said, putting his hand on Toni’s shoulder. “It’s not a big deal. We’ll figure this out. We’ll make it work. Just give us a little more—”
“Time?” Toni asked, looking up at her brother. “We don’t have time. I’m going to Russia tonight. For work.”
“You’re deserting us?” Kyle scrambled to his feet and gawked at his sister. “You’re deserting us for that ridiculous
job
?”
In that second, Ricky saw Toni begin to waffle. She didn’t want to desert her family.
She began to speak, probably to change her mind, but Cherise came around Cooper and stood by Toni’s side. “Yes, she is going. Toni’s going to Russia. Without us.” Cherise smiled and it was a very pretty smile. She should do it more often so she didn’t always look so terrified. “And we’re going to be very proud of her when she goes.”
“But Kyle the idiot is right.” Oriana glared at her brother. “As much as I loathe to admit it.” She focused on the rest of them. “She can’t just go off and leave us! Nothing has been organized. Mom and Dad don’t know what they’re doing. Coop is busy preparing for his next concert, and his agent is constantly calling here about another record deal with the London Philharmonic, and Cherise is just goddamn hopeless.”
Cherise frowned. “Hey.”
“And you think you can just
leave
?” Oriana demanded of her eldest sister.
Toni looked over the faces of her siblings before replying, “Well—” she began, but that’s when Ricky grabbed her around the waist and walked out of the room.
“Excuse us, y’all.”
“Hey, country western fellow!” Kyle barked. “Where are you going with our sister?”
Ricky took Toni out into the hall and to the stairs. “Go upstairs. Pack.”
“But—”
“No, ‘but,’ woman. Just do it.”
Freddy walked around Ricky and took his sister’s hand. “Come on, Toni. I’ll help you pack.”
The little boy started up the stairs, glancing back at Ricky and winking at him.
At least one of her siblings thought about someone other than himself. It was a nice change.
Ricky returned to the large living room and faced the children. “Now, y’all,” he began, “I know it’s hard to let your sister go when you need her so badly. But you really have to let her do this. You have to grow up a little and show your sister what big boys and girls you are.” He gave them his best smile. “Right?”
After all the pups stared back at him, it was Kyle who dramatically threw his arms up in the air, rolled his eyes, and fell back on the couch behind him while Troy muttered, “And the common man speaks.”
“You should bring something pretty,” Freddy told Toni while he watched her pack, his little body on top of her dressing table.
“Why?”
“Because.” He gave her an adorable closed-mouth smile and looked up at the ceiling.
“Frederick Jean-Louis Parker . . . what are you getting at?”
“I may be a kid, Toni, but I’m not a
child
.” Yes, he was. “That wolf likes you. And you like him. But you have to look pretty. To keep his interest. So you two can be boyfriend and girlfriend and he can give you things that you can sell for profit.”
Chuckling to herself, Toni folded another pair of jeans. “Where do you get this stuff from, Freddy?” She knew it wasn’t from their mother or Aunt Irene. And it definitely wasn’t from their dad, who to this day referred to himself as a male feminist, “because I have too many girls of my own now not to be.”
“Delilah.”
Toni froze in midpack at Freddy’s answer, her folded jeans held over her case. “You’ve been spending time with Delilah?”
“A little. She’s nice and fun.”
Toni forced herself to continue packing and to keep her voice casual. She knew if she overreacted, Freddy would panic. Freddy and panic were two words that were very bad together. Very bad.
“She’s fun? Really? What have you two been doing?”
“Making money for the orphans. First at home, but she said we’d start here now. A lot more orphans in New York.”
Unable to keep packing, Toni turned and gazed at her baby brother. “Making money for orphans?”
“Uh-huh.”
“How have you been doing that?”
Freddy looked at the open bedroom door. “I’m not supposed to tell,” he whispered.
“You can tell me. You know that.”
Freddy’s trusting smile broke her heart. “I know I can.” He motioned her close. When she stood right by him, his little knees pressed against her hips, he said, “Sometimes we just sit in the park and I look sad and Delilah asks people for money. Sometimes they don’t want to give it to her or they want her to go somewhere with them to give her money, but she doesn’t want to do that. So she makes up stories to tell them. I know that you and Daddy say we shouldn’t lie, but to help orphans, I think it’s okay. Don’t you?”
Instead of replying to that, Toni asked, “What do you two do other times?”
“Delilah gives me this little TV to watch and a headphone that I can talk into while she plays cards with some people. Then I . . . I . . . I . . .” His little face screwed up as he tried to think of the right words.
“Count cards?”
“That’s it!” He grinned. “It’s easy for me.”
“No one notices what she’s doing?”
“No. But I think that’s because they’re mostly men and they stare right at her, but they don’t see the thing she wears in her ear. They stare at her a lot. Probably because she’s so pretty.” Freddy frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Toni lied. “But you’re starting classes on Monday. You won’t have time for all this once that happens. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Hey.” She placed her hands on either side of his hips and leaned in. “Will you do me a big favor?”
“Sure!”
“I’ll need travel supplies. The
good
stuff.”
“You want me to hit Mom’s stash of those fancy chocolates?”
“You read my mind.”
She quickly gripped her brother’s nose with her lips and twisted around while he giggled and pushed at her. Then she wrapped her arms around his waist, kissed his neck, and lifted him off the dresser. She spun him around once before putting him on the floor.
“And when I’m gone—”
“I know. Don’t let Kyle make me feel like a loser because I’m not an artist. And don’t let Troy make me feel like a loser because he’s older and thinks he’s smarter than me.”
“And?”
“Don’t steal. Don’t set the house on fire.”
“Good man. Now get what you can and bag it for me.”
“Okay!” He charged out the door, and when Toni heard his little feet hit the stairs, she started for the doorway. That’s when she was grabbed from behind and dragged back toward her bed.
She wasn’t really startled by that grab, because she’d known that Livy had been asleep under her bed the entire time. Livy wasn’t the normal guest that people had over. She really liked that feeling of sneaking around someone’s home even when she’d been invited, and no one in the entire Jean-Louis Parker family gave a shit.
“Don’t even think about it, Antonella,” Livy said in her ear as she wrestled Toni back.
“I’m going to twist that bitch’s neck until it snaps,” Toni snarled, desperately fighting the strong little arms wrapped around her. “I’m going to put her down like the sick pup she is!”
Toni was thrown on the bed, and Livy climbed up on her chest, pinning her down.
“You’re not being rational,” Livy said calmly.
“Fuck rational! She dies tonight!”
“Uh . . .” Ricky said from the doorway. “Is everything all right?”
Livy motioned Ricky in with a tilt of her head and said, “Get in here and close the door.”
Ricky’s grin was
huge
. “Well, all right then.”
“This isn’t about you, hillbilly.” Livy looked down at Toni. “You need to calm down. You can’t go around killing your relatives. Even when they deserve it. As you know, I’ve tried and it just didn’t work out well for me. Those ankle bracelets they use to monitor your movements are really
not
comfortable.”
“That horrible bitch is using my baby brother to scam people.”
“Who?” Ricky asked.
Livy smirked. “Delilah.”
“The blonde?”
“Yeah,” Livy replied. “And what really bothers you,” Livy said to Toni, “isn’t that it’s just one of your siblings, but that it’s Freddy.”
“Because Freddy’s the only one she could scam into doing this. Kyle and Oriana won’t go near her. Zia and Zoe cry whenever she’s around. Troy could do it and probably would, but he’s such a ballbuster, he’d want hard cash from counting cards. And he’d never believe that orphans story.”
Hands in the front pockets of his jeans, Ricky asked, “Isn’t Troy, like . . . nine?”
“Your point?” Livy asked.
“And not to be indelicate, but . . . aren’t y’all kind of rich?”
“Kind of rich?” Toni pushed Livy off her and dragged herself up until she was sitting. “My mother could buy the property we’re currently sitting in outright . . . and in cash. But my sister likes to scam people for money. Do you know why?”
“Just another bored rich girl?”
“I wish. The twins are bored little rich girls. I can handle bored little rich girls.”
“But sociopaths . . .” Livy muttered.
“Now come on,” Ricky said. “I took psychology in college—”
“You went to college?” Livy asked, which got her a punch in the ribs from Toni. “Ow! It was just a goddamn question.”
“—and y’all shouldn’t be bantering around words like sociopath when you’re talking about a family member.”
“Believe what you want.” Toni swung her legs over the edge of the bed so that she and Livy were sitting right next to each other. Toni thought a minute and decided what she had to do.