“And what you did to Mr. Machenski’s Rottweiler,” Max tossed in.
“I just warned him off. He was scaring Stevie.”
“He didn’t scare me. He startled me,” Stevie argued. “There’s a difference.”
“And you didn’t just warn him off. You made that dog pee himself, and after that he didn’t come out from behind his house ever again.”
“So I’m a horrible person?”
“No!” Stevie quickly cut the distance between them and grabbed Charlie’s hand. “You’re a loving sister! You’ve protected us all these years.”
“Do you actually think I’d be alive if it wasn’t for you?” Max asked.
Charlie thought a moment, and replied, “Yeah, I do.”
“Yeah,” Stevie agreed. “You would have totally survived.”
“Okay.” Max raised her forefinger. “Let’s try this . . . would I have survived outside of prison, if it weren’t for you?”
“Oh, no.”
“No, no. You wouldn’t have.”
Max nodded. “Exactly.”
* * *
Stevie hugged her sister. “We love you, Charlie. You know that.”
“I know.” She stepped away, wiping her eyes. “Just wish you guys would tell me what’s going on. I can’t protect you if you don’t tell me.”
“Yeah,” Max said, her hand caressing Charlie’s cheek. “We’re not falling for that, Charlie.”
Stevie shook her head. “Not even a little. But the tears were a nice touch.”
“Come on! Tell me!”
“No! You’ll just go on a rampage.”
“Tell me . . . or I’ll start taking out people anyway.”
“We’ll tell you,” Stevie said, pointing at her sister, “if you promise not to flip out.”
“Fine. I promise.”
* * *
Shen was wondering if he should go looking for Stevie when he saw Charlie tearing through the packed dance floor—a group of She-dogs were singing the Go-Go’s “We Got the Beat” and it had set off a firestorm of bad dog dancing—and heading straight for him and Dutch.
He nudged Dutch with his elbow.
“You better run.”
“What?”
Charlie shoved some wild dogs out of her way before raising her gun and aiming it at Dutch’s head.
But then Max and Stevie were there, running up behind her. Stevie grabbed her eldest sister around the waist and Max put her hand over Charlie’s weapon, removing the slide and disabling the weapon all in one motion before she tackled her sister from the front and carried her back through the dancing crowd.
Shen looked at the wolverine, who’d jumped into his arms at the sight of Charlie coming for him.
“Seriously?” Shen had to ask, still holding the man like the giant baby he clearly was.
“What do you want? I panicked.”
* * *
Charlie had her arms crossed over her chest and she seethed while her sisters paced in front of her.
“You promised,” Stevie reminded her.
“I lied.”
“How do you expect us to tell you anything when you lie to us?” Max wanted to know.
“I should have killed Dutch the first time I met him.”
“He was twelve!”
“Your point?”
* * *
“They’re coming back,” Shen warned and Dutch immediately got behind him. “I am not your human shield.”
“You are at the moment. She likes you, hates me, and I’m relatively certain she wouldn’t kill an innocent person just to get to me.”
“That does not make me feel better.”
The three women walked up to them and Stevie gestured at Dutch. “Go ahead,” she pushed when Charlie just stood there.
Charlie took a deep breath before she exploded with unadulterated rage. “You scumbag! I should have killed you when I had the chance! And you, Shen! I am so disappointed in you! You’re supposed to be a protector and—”
Shen didn’t hear the rest of what Charlie had to say because her sisters each hooked an arm through one of Charlie’s and carried her back to where they’d come from.
* * *
“That’s it.” Stevie marched up to Charlie. “You will be nice and you will apologize to Dutch and now Shen!”
“I will not.”
Charlie could be very obstinate so Stevie did something she only did with her sister when she was forced. Right now, she was forced . . .
“Aaaaaaah!” Stevie screamed in her sister’s face.
“Do not—”
“Aaaaaaah!”
“Stevie, stop—”
“Aaaaaaah!”
“You better promise,” Max warned. “Or she’ll just keep it up.”
“Aaaaaaah!”
“I will not apologize but—”
“Aaaaaaah!”
“—I will let it go!”
Stevie studied her sister. “You promise?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not lying again, are you? Because I will keep this up. All. Night. Long.”
“Her energy is limitless when it comes to this,” Max reminded Charlie.
“I know. I know. But I will tell you both that I’m very disappointed in you. You for not telling me that Devon is out,” she said to Max. “And you for helping a woman you still refer to as ‘that evil cunt.’”
“She is an evil cunt. But what’s going on is more important than my never-ending hatred for Irene Conridge.”
“PhD,” Max tossed in.
“Shut up!”
* * *
“Hey, they’re coming . . .” Shen looked around. “Are you hiding behind the bar?” he asked when he spotted the top of the wolverine’s head.
“Do you blame me? That woman is a nut!”
“I thought wolverines were as tough as honey badgers.”
“Oh, we are. But, unlike badgers, we’re not crazy.”
“Well . . .”
Charlie and her sisters stopped, and Charlie stepped a little closer.
“Shen, I have to say that I’m . . . disappointed that you did not come to me when you found out what Stevie was up to.”
“I feel bad, too, but she is so persuasive.”
“What did it for you?” Max flatly asked. “Her skinny-ass legs or her nonexistent tits?”
Max’s head jerked back at the blow to her nose from Stevie’s elbow while Charlie continued her chastising.
“And although I’m disappointed in everyone involved in this bullshit, I have promised my sisters that I will no longer threaten those who merely suggest they may want Max’s or Stevie’s help. So, Shen . . . I have forgiven you.”
Shen gave a courtly bow. “Thank you, my lady.”
“Suck up!” Dutch complained from behind the bar.
Charlie ran over to the bar and leaned over so she could yell at Dutch, “You, I am never forgiving! I will not kill you now. And as long as Max likes you, I won’t. But let me tell you . . . when she gets tired of your ass, I am so wasting you!”
“Understood!” Dutch called out from his safe position.
Charlie stepped down and began to walk away, stopping when Dutch called out, “One thing . . .”
“What?”
“I’d like to do my thing on karaoke night. And I can’t do it without you three,” he finished in a singsong voice.
Shen didn’t know what Dutch’s “thing” was, but he was disturbed by the look Charlie had when she turned around.
“I am not singing backup for you.”
“But you already know the routine, and you’re really good at it. The wild dogs will love it.”
“I don’t care what the wild dogs will love.”
“Come on, Charlie,” Max pushed, grinning. “It’s gotta be all three of us.”
“And,” Stevie added, “it’s a lovely way to make amends.”
“‘And it’s a lovely way to make amends,’” Charlie mimicked in a brutal mockery of a little girl’s voice.
Dutch, now leaning on the bar, smiled. “Is that a yes, Charlie of my heart?”
* * *
“What is happening?” Britta asked, standing between her brothers while Shen positioned himself near Berg. Coop and his siblings were right in front of them.
“I have no idea,” Berg replied. “But it’s . . . unique.”
“It’s an old eighties song,” Coop explained. “From Kid Creole and the Coconuts.”
“How do you know that?” Britta asked. “I’ve never heard of them.”
“Encyclopedic knowledge of music. Stevie has it too.”
“It’s less the music, more the dance moves that I’m concerned about.”
“They’re just basically mirroring the video . . . which was taken from a movie. It’s a whole thing.”
“The wild dogs seem to love it.”
“I could be wrong,” Oriana noted, “but I’m pretty sure we can keep our rental house forever.”
Coop laughed. “As long as we stay friends with the MacKilligan sisters.”
The siblings suddenly fell silent and they all looked at their younger brother. Kyle gazed back, until he barked, “If Stevie hasn’t gotten tired of me yet, I don’t think you bitches have anything to worry about!”
* * *
Irene didn’t realize how late it was until she heard the text arrive on her phone. That’s when she noticed the time. She cringed just a little, knowing her husband would complain about her hours again.
But as she made her way down the hall of their New York home, he met her near the stairs, wearing nothing but sweatpants that exposed his perfect body . . . despite his age.
She held up her phone. “I heard from the brat. Her sister knows, but she says all is fine.”
“Really?” her husband asked, holding up his phone. “Because I heard from the psychotic and according to her the next time she sees me, she’s going to rip my face off.”
“Well . . . at least we’ve gotten past the skinning.”
chapter TWENTY-FIVE
They returned to the Queens house at three in the morning and everyone sort of went off and did their own thing.
Kyle walked into the living room, threw up his hands, and suddenly announced, “I must create!” Then left the house and went to the unattached garage out back.
Max shifted to a badger and trotted out of the house. Shen assumed she was going to raid some beehives. Until he heard a hiss and saw a cat run by the window, followed by Max.
“Leave that cat alone!” Stevie yelled, running through the house until Shen heard the back screen door slam open and closed.
When the screaming started in the backyard, Britta and Dag immediately walked out, heading back to their house, but Berg waited for Charlie.
“Tomorrow,” she said to Shen, pointing her finger, “we have a meeting. All of us. Get all the details and information out on the table.”
“Sounds good.”
“Still disappointed in you.”
“I know.”
She stalked out, Berg silently following. Probably going to the triplets’ house so she could complain about her sisters without worrying they’d hear her.
Shen scratched his head and sat on the couch. He unholstered his weapon, dropped the clip, cleared the chamber. It needed a cleaning, despite the fact he hadn’t used it in a while—he hadn’t made it to the range in several weeks, not since he’d taken on the job of protecting Kyle—but it was now three thirty in the morning and he was exhausted. All he wanted to do was go to bed and get some much needed sleep. Especially if he had to spend his morning listening to more of Charlie MacKilligan’s chastising.
Putting the clip back and re-holstering his weapon, Shen was about to stand up when he decided that he could get some sleep just as easily on this couch. He’d slept on it before and it was pretty comfortable, having been built for grizzlies. But before he could stretch out, the back screen door opened and slammed shut again.
Stevie marched into the living room. The look on her face suggested she’d been unable to reason with her sister, but Shen didn’t doubt the cat had gotten away. That was a wily cat and she was much faster than any badger.
“Where is everybody?” she asked.
“Charlie went with Berg to his house.”
“Probably to complain about us so we wouldn’t hear.”
“Most likely.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Always.”
“I had Charlie order some fresh bamboo. I think it’s in the kitchen.”
“Awesome. Thanks.”
“Yeah. Sure. I’m going up to take a shower.”
Shen nodded and stretched out on the couch. He was so tired, he figured he could get the bamboo later.
He put his arm behind his head and let out a large breath, closing his eyes and relaxing into the cushions.
He was just falling asleep when he heard the shower in the second floor bathroom come on.
Shen opened his eyes, gazed up at the ceiling, and asked himself, “What am I doing?”
* * *
Stevie stepped into the shower and let the warmish water pour down on her. It had been a long day and she was just glad to be home, even if that meant spending ten minutes yelling at her sister for trying to take out that damn cat.
Pouring shampoo into her palm, she scrubbed her head, wanting to get the “club smell”—as she called it—out of her hair and body. The bathroom door opened and she called out, “Shen?”
“Yep.”
“If you’re still looking for the bamboo,” she said, now rinsing the shampoo from her hair, “Charlie put it in my room for some reason.”
Stevie stared at the six different types of bath foam her sisters had. Were so many necessary? Wasn’t soap . . . soap?
“But I’m hungry now,” she heard Shen say from right behind her.
Stevie glanced over her shoulder. He was in her shower, his naked shoulders taking up a lot of room.
Facing him, she asked, “Can I help you with something?”
“Hungry.”
“Bamboo’s in there,” she said, pointing.
He moved in, making her back up until she was stopped by the wall behind her. His big hands slid around her waist, easily holding her.
Stevie slid her fingers across his forearms and up his biceps; Shen leaned down, his lips hovering over hers for a moment before he pressed his mouth against them. As soon as their lips touched, Stevie’s entire body became hot, her nipples hardening, her pussy getting wet. She gripped his muscles, slid her tongue around his. She suddenly couldn’t get enough of him. Wanted all of him. Their kiss intensified, each of them demanding, grasping.
Then Shen abruptly pulled away, and dropped to one knee in front of her. He lifted her right leg over his shoulder before he pressed his face against her pussy and began to lick her, deep and long.
He was hungry. She could feel it.
Stevie placed her hand behind his head, digging her fingers into his wet hair, fighting the wetness of the tub beneath her feet, afraid she’d lose her footing and slip, and then he’d stop. She didn’t want him to stop. She never wanted him to stop.
His tongue moved to her clit, circled it, flicked it, sucked it between his lips. She tightened her fingers in his hair, wanting him to take her over the edge, but he moved his tongue back to her pussy, slid it inside her, stroked her like it was his cock.
“I need to come,” she begged. Because she really did. She needed it. Now. And she wasn’t one for waiting.
And Shen didn’t make her wait. He gripped her clit again between his lips and slid two fingers inside her. Then he just went to work, sucking and stroking her until Stevie felt crazed. Until she couldn’t think straight. Until all knowledge left her head and nothing remained but need and want and more hunger.
She screamed out when the orgasm hit, but quickly shoved her free hand into her mouth. The last thing she needed was for local, night-wandering bears to come running to the house, thinking
there was a problem. There was no problem.
Shen pulled away, dragged his fingers slowly out of her and, with water still pouring down on him, he smiled up at her.
“Better?” he asked.
“Much, but,” she added, pushing him away, “fucking in a shower is never as easy as it looks in the movies.” She reached around him and shut off the water, then threw open the shower door. “And I need you inside me now.”
* * *
She was making him crazy.
Instead of that orgasm calming her down so they could casually play around in the shower, she was telling him what she needed—demanded!—and it was for him to fuck her. Not in some cute, romantic way either. Not the way she was dragging him from the bathroom and back to his bedroom. Both of them dripping wet, leaving a trail as they made their way across the hardwood floors.
Once they were in his bedroom, the door closed firmly behind them, she threw a condom at him before flopping onto his bed, her legs open.
He didn’t argue. Didn’t try to slow her down. Instead, he put the condom on as quick as he could, then reached out and grabbed her arm, yanking her off the bed. He spun her away from him and bent her over his dresser, her body knocking over everything he had on the glossy wood top.
Shen slid his hand under her right knee and lifted it up, placing it on the dresser, before he entered her hard.
Stevie cried out, but there was a laugh there, too, along with a gasp of surprise.
He fucked her hard, one hand gripping her left hip, his other clutching her raised leg. To stop her head from hitting the mirror, she pressed her forearm against it, her rough gasps making Shen even more insane.
How was he supposed to be slow and playful when she made sure he couldn’t think straight?
Shen pulled his cock out of her and flipped Stevie over, dropping her ass on top of his dresser before pushing his cock back inside her. She grinned at him, spreading her legs wider and resting her heels on the wood.
He gripped her ass tight, lifting it up so he could get a better angle. He pounded into her, staring down into her eyes. And she stared back. Not looking away. No shyness. No awkwardness.
“God, that feels good,” she said, slapping her hands against his shoulders, digging her fingers into the muscles.
Shen broke out into a sweat despite the cold air from the AC hitting his still shower-wet body. He could feel it on his scalp, under his arms. He felt like he didn’t have enough of her. He wanted more. He wanted all.
In a Badger Way Page 34
