Although Mads always retorted, “You threw me in with a bunch of scorpions? Are you insane? What is wrong with this family?”
“Why are you yelling? You lived.”
When it came time for Solveig to get Mads used to snake venom, she remembered the story of how the British had killed Ragnar Lothbrok: by tossing him into a pit of snakes. She had no intention of doing that to her great-granddaughter. Instead, she started off by giving her small drops of “minor” poison and putting harmless garter snakes in her crib. According to Solveig, “You started chewing on those like pacifiers by the time you were a month old.”
When Mads was forced to move to Wisconsin with her mother, Solveig had already introduced her to four of what were considered the ten most poisonous venoms. As a French chef would introduce a student to the five mother sauces. After meeting her honey badger teammates, Mads had finally been introduced to the rest of those venoms. Mostly through venom-infused tequila. Sometimes through a live snake.
By the time she’d been bitten by a taipan at an illegal zoo, she’d built up quite the toxic storage capacity in her system.
“Are your friends dead?” Shay asked, quickly putting his jeans and T-shirt back on. “We get the feeling they’re dead. They seem a little . . . stiff.”
“It’s the toxins.” She held up what remained of the taipan. “It paralyzes. Destroys blood vessels and muscles. Can usually kill a human in about forty-five minutes or so.”
“Yet you’re eating it,” Keane noted, his back to her as he got dressed. It was cute how they were all so shy. Was it because she’d had sex with their brother? So now she wasn’t supposed to see them naked and they weren’t supposed to see her?
“Honey badger.”
“So are they,” Finn pointed out, his towel back around his waist. He came to stand beside her, and she instantly began sneezing.
“Dander! Dander!”
“I’m not taking another shower and you’re really complaining about my dander while eating a poisonous snake?”
Mads rubbed her nose. It was so itchy now! “What does one have to do with the other? I’m not allergic to taipans.” She sneezed a few more times. “I need to get my allergy meds.”
“Wait,” Finn called out when she started off toward the kitchen where she’d left her backpack. “What about your friends?”
“Teammates. What about them?”
“Are we just going to leave them here to start . . . rotting?”
“Give ’em a couple of hours. If they don’t wake up, we’ll just bury ’em in the backyard. The poison should do the rest. It’ll eat away that flesh before you know it.”
Mads watched the Malone brothers’ matching expressions of horror and, without saying anything else, she walked away. Not bothering to tell them that an alive Max was now standing right behind them—smiling. Because it was so much fun to hear their startled, panicked roars while she was digging through her backpack for the allergy meds that Charlie had given her.
* * *
Finn just wanted breakfast. But before he could make that happen, Big Julie called him, begging for help.
It seemed that news about Charlie MacKilligan’s raw talent on the football field had spread throughout the league and now, according to Julie, “Everyone wants her! We have to lock her down and lock her down now!”
See? That’s what a lot of people did not know. They watched those Animal Planet documentaries about lions on the Serengeti, lounging around all day under the boiling African sun. Then a herd of buffalo wandered by and the females suddenly moved into action with military precision, hunting down food for their entire pride because they couldn’t expect the males to get off their lazy asses and help. And to the human world, it seemed as if lions were calm, rational animals. When, in fact, they were as prone to panic as any other house cat.
And it was Julie’s She-lion panic that caused Finn to reply, “No,” to her demand and disconnect the call. But then she began to call him back over and over and over again. Until Mads grabbed his phone and nearly chucked it out the back door into the yard before he managed to grab it away from her. He grudgingly explained the situation to her and also told her that his plan for the day involved nothing more than getting some breakfast and lounging around the house with her until football practice later that afternoon.
He honestly thought Mads would be charmed by that answer. Why? Because she was one of the few beings on the planet he wanted to spend time with. Wasn’t that cute? Wasn’t that lovable? Didn’t she want to have more sex with him? Possibly right now, before breakfast?
“So you’re going to let some football conglomerate shove a shitty deal down Charlie MacKilligan’s throat without you watching her back? Even after she helped you with Max? Something I didn’t even do?” Mads asked.
“How did this become my problem?”
“You and your brothers dragged Charlie into this. You can’t just let her go to a contract meeting alone.”
“Actually I can. It’s my right as an American to be selfish and uncaring.”
“And it’s my right as an American to never touch your cock again. Are you okay with that, too?”
“Are you using sex to manipulate me?”
“Yes.”
He scowled and looked away in case he couldn’t keep his smile tamped down.
“I don’t like that,” he lied.
“You like it a little.”
Next thing Finn knew, he was packed into his SUV with Mads, Charlie, Shay, Tock, and Stevie. Nelle and Streep had stayed behind at the house because they were still feeling the effects of the taipan snake poison, if the retching sounds from the first-floor toilet were any indication. Keane and Max had gone off in search of Max’s Uncle Carl for information.
Of everyone, including those retching in the bathroom, Keane seemed the least excited about the rest of his day.
The only one whose presence Finn didn’t understand was Stevie. She just popped up and got into the car, with nothing more than a tiny backpack hanging from her shoulders and a pleasant smile.
Julie didn’t want to meet at the Sports Center. She’d noticed sports agents and other team coaches lurking around since she’d gotten in to work early that morning. Finn offered to bring Charlie to Julie’s place in Brooklyn, but she didn’t want a badger hybrid around her She-lion cousins, who were staying with her at the moment. She feared what would happen, which was smart when dealing with a MacKilligan.
She’d suggested meeting at Charlie’s house but he’d looked out the window of Mads’s house and seen that the bears had already surrounded the place. Immediately knew that wouldn’t be a good idea. Mads’s house was out for the same reason. He finally offered his place since his mother would be at work, his baby brother taking college courses, and his baby sister at the summer camp for deaf kids where she was a camp counselor. It would be perfect.
Now he just had to drive them to Long Island, which suddenly seemed like a much longer trip than he remembered.
“Do you like playing football?” Stevie MacKilligan suddenly asked into the silence of the SUV.
“Are you asking me or Shay?”
“Both. Either. Doesn’t matter.”
Finn decided to answer since Shay was staring out the window and didn’t seem in the mood to be communicative. “Uh . . . sure.”
“Did your family force you into it as a way for you to prove you’re a straight male? Or because they felt you weren’t smart enough to do anything else?”
“Stevie!” Charlie barked.
“What?”
“That was rude.”
Stevie reached over the seats and patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“No problem,” Finn said, already dismissing her question.
They went back to silence for a few minutes, until Stevie asked, “Ever worry about brain damage?”
“Stevie!”
“What now?”
“Just shut up!”
“I’m curious.”
&nb
sp; “Don’t be.”
More silence until Stevie asked, “Is the rape culture as prevalent in shifter football as in full-human foot—”
“Oh, my God, Stevie! Stop talking!”
“We’re here!” Finn announced, never so relieved to be home before.
He pulled the SUV into a spot in front of the house and turned the motor off. Everyone got out except Mads, because she was too busy laughing.
“You can stop,” he told her.
“I really can’t,” she squeaked out.
“This is all your fault.”
“How is this my fault?” she demanded, wiping tears.
“I don’t know. But we both know it is.”
He got out, slamming the driver’s door behind him, and walked around the SUV. A still-giggling Mads met him on the other side. Julie and the team lawyer were already waiting, standing beside Julie’s bright red pickup truck, which she needed to carry around her giant, not-even-fourteen-years-old-yet sons.
“Hello, all!” Julie called out. “This should be fun, right?” She motioned to the team lawyer. “This is Scott. He put the contract together for us.”
“This is my sister Stevie. She’ll be handling my legal interests for me.”
Julie glanced at Finn with a slightly raised eyebrow.
“Um . . . okay,” she said, trying not to sound mocking. Not easy for a She-lion. “Do you have a lot of... uh . . . law experience, Stevie?”
“A little. I started when I was about fourteen. My father kept threatening to get back his custody of me, and to be quite honest, I wasn’t sure if he could or not and I didn’t want that to happen. I felt that if I understood the law better, I would panic less, which was sort of true when it came to family and contract law; not so true when it came to criminal law, but that could be because of my other sister. Surprisingly, though, I did find law in general much more interesting than I’d thought it would be and while I was at Oxford running my own lab, I took some courses and eventually got a couple of degrees in it. Then when I got back to the States, I decided to take the Bar in New York to see if I could pass, which—of course—I could. Took the Bar in a few more states. Passed those, too. Then took the equivalent of the Bar in several other countries, so I could practice law any place I figured I might end up working. Now my whole goal in life is to ensure that no one fucks over my big sister legally while she’s throwing her body in front of giant men on a field of death. So, yeah . . . you could say I have a little law experience. What about you, Scott? Harvard grad, are ya? Princeton?”
“Hofstra.”
“What now?”
“It’s a very good university out here on the Island,” Finn explained, not mentioning it was his brother’s “safety” school since he kept saying he wanted to move away from the family.
“Well, why don’t the three of us have a little talk and let me take a quick look over the contract?” Stevie glanced at Charlie. “Charlie, go wait in Finn’s house until we’re done.”
“Okay.”
Charlie walked toward the house and Mads slipped her hand into the front pocket of Finn’s jeans. “What are you doing?” He leaned down and whispered, “Not that I mind much.”
“Getting the house keys.”
Still whispering, “And Charlie just follows Stevie’s direction without question? Since when?”
“When it comes to legal stuff. Stevie kept Streep out of prison. Serious prison. In Romania. We all listen to her when it comes to legal stuff.”
* * *
Mads reached for the door, with the keys out, but stopped when she saw it was slightly open. She glanced at Charlie, who gave one nod.
Tock disappeared around to the left side of the house and once she was gone, Charlie quietly eased the door open and stepped inside. As she did, she reached under the light denim jacket she wore and pulled out the gun she had tucked into the holster attached to her jeans.
Mads still didn’t have any of her own guns. She knew the sight of her strapping on one of her many .40s might upset Finn. It was a little early in this thing they’d just started, so she’d strapped blades under her green T-shirt when he wasn’t around, assuming that would be enough.
Now she kind of regretted that decision. Especially when they reached the living room and Finn’s youngest brother was brutally shoved to the ground by three men. Even more concerning was their baby sister, Nat. She was on her knees with a gun pressed to the back of her head. But, like any true honey badger, she was about ready to do something very stupid. Mads could see it in her eyes. Could taste the girl’s rage in the air. She was moments from doing something that would get her or her brother killed. And that was something Nat would never forgive herself for. No matter how tough or hard edged a badger she thought she might be.
Charlie took in the men holding the two kids hostage and Mads knew exactly what she saw. These men were young. They were full-human. They were hopped up on something other than the steroids they took to have those ridiculous muscles that the Malone brothers had naturally due to thousands of years of shifter breeding, Irish pagan rituals, and Mongolian warrior-shaman intervention. And they were seriously out of their depth.
Killing them would be easy. And quick.
But an opportunity would be lost.
The one holding the gun on Nat had raised it at Charlie. She had her gun pointed at him. His hand was shaking. Possibly from fear. More likely from a slight overdose. Charlie’s hand, however, was steady. She also wasn’t sweating. Her pulse wasn’t racing. And her pupils were dilated the normal amount for the light they were standing in.
At that point, Charlie gave a small nod and Mads pulled out one of the blades she had holstered to her body. She sent it spinning across the room with a flick of her wrist. She’d learned the skill from Max a decade ago and had practiced ever since. So Mads nailed her target easily, severing nerves in his arm so that the gun he’d held fell from his hand without his being able to pull the trigger.
In horror, he gazed at his now useless extremity, unaware that Tock had crept into the house through the fireplace. She kicked his gun under the nearest couch and had disarmed the others before they even had a chance to think about what was happening right in front of them.
“Mads, get Finn and Shay, please.”
Mads walked back to the front door and motioned for the brothers. They were bickering about something on the front lawn but as soon as Finn saw Mads’s face, he came toward her, with Shay right behind him. Stevie and the coach and lawyer from the football team didn’t even notice, they were so busy arguing over the contracts that were strewn across the hood of the red pickup.
Mads led the cats to the living room, and neither spoke as they took in the situation.
As soon as Nat saw Finn and Shay, she began signing, but Charlie stopped her with a simple finger point.
Once Nat lowered her hands, Charlie looked around the room and asked, “What did you do?”
One of the full-humans began babbling, but Charlie cut him off with a cold “I’m not asking you.” She faced Nat. “What did you do?”
The youngest Malone brother was translating in ASL for Nat and she began to answer the same way, but again Charlie cut her off.
“Don’t even try it,” she snarled while Dale translated. “I haven’t had time to learn ASL and we both know it. And you’re not going to sit here and speak to your brothers in a way that I don’t understand just so you can lie to them, which is what we both know you’re going to do.”
The honey badger in Nat came out, her eyes narrowing dangerously on her half-sister’s face as she replied out loud, “I didn’t do anything. This is a home invasion and we should kill them all. On principle.”
“Principle?” Charlie shook her head. “You are such a bad liar.”
“My brothers know I didn’t do anything,” Nat shot back.
Charlie pointed at Dale. “What did she do?”
“Uh . . . noth—”
“DALE!” Finn bellowed so loudly t
hat the windows shook, the intruders screamed, and Dale panicked.
“She stole money from drug dealers!” Dale blurted out.
Nat, no longer on her knees, punched her brother in the shoulder. Charlie walked across the room, grabbing both teens by their arms and pushing them down on the couch. She then took a straight-backed chair and plopped it down in front of Nat and Dale. She sat in front of them, motioning to Dale to translate for her while she spoke directly to Nat.
“You stole money from drug dealers? Why? Are you poor?”
Nat glanced back and forth between Dale and Charlie before asking, “What?”
“Are you poor? Does your mother have no health care and she’s dying from cancer? Is your family about to lose their home? Is there some compelling reason that you felt the need to steal money from drug dealers? Or were you just fucking bored and thought it would be fun?”
Mads watched Nat struggle with whether she should tell the truth or not. She knew because she’d seen that expression on every badger she’d ever known in her life. She’d probably worn that expression herself. But when it came to Charlie, truth was Nat’s best friend right now.
Wisely, the kid owned up. “They were stupid and it was easy. It’s been a long summer.”
“Easy? Does this seem easy to you?” Charlie asked, gesturing around the living room and the sobbing men on the floor. “You have drug dealers in your house.”
“I would have handled them.”
Charlie shrugged. “Yeah. I know. But would you have done it without getting your brother killed?”
Dale’s hands suddenly stopped moving and he asked, “Wait . . . what?”
Charlie motioned for him to keep translating as she went on.
“And what would you have done with the bodies? Buried them in your mom’s backyard? Let the dogs eat ’em?” Charlie quickly looked around. “Oh, my God. Where are the dogs?”
“Locked in my room upstairs. I didn’t want them to get hurt. I know how attached Shay is,” she added with a little bit of contempt.
“First thing you did right. But let me tell you from experience, even big dogs can’t eat that much. Not in the time you have before your mother gets home.” Frowning, Finn looked down at Mads, but she just shook her head. This was not the time to start asking questions about how in the world Charlie would know that. They probably didn’t want to hear anyway. “And if you’re thinking hyenas, do you have them on speed dial? Do you know which ones will actually come over and eat human remains? Because not all will do it. Believe it or not, some have moral compunctions. You’ve gotta know the difference between spotted hyenas and striped when you call hyenas in to feed. Because if you pick the wrong one, they’ll rat you out in a second and you’ll end up in jail. And let’s make this clear right up front . . . I’ll only protect you if you kill someone to protect the life of an innocent or if your life is in danger due to no fault of your own. You start killing people because you’re bored and I will make sure you end up in one of those German prisons specifically made for badgers. Do you know why? Because that’s what sociopaths do! They kill when they’re bored. And I will not spend my life wrangling a sociopath!”
Breaking Badger Page 30
