Livy glanced back at her cousins and chuckled.
“Could you move your foot?” the wolf beneath her asked.
She did, and walked over to Reece and the others. “Don’t blame him,” she told Reece’s brother. “I made him bring me here.”
“He could have said no.”
“Then I would have ripped his pretty little face off for not keeping his promise to take me ‘and mine’—his words—‘paint ballin’ with his kin.’ Also his words.” Livy smiled, which made all the wolves scowl. Then she jerked forward and all of them jerked back.
“Well,” she said, walking over to her own “kin,” “this was fun. Thanks, guys.”
Livy winked at her cousins, then said, “Kowalskis, in honor of our hosts . . .”
Jake, as always, picked up on what Livy was suggesting. But the others instantly caught on as soon as Jake tipped his head back and began to howl.
Even with all the howling now going on, Livy could still hear the wolves behind her quite clearly.
“Good Lord! What are they doing?”
“Make them stop! Make them stop! It’s like hell on earth!”
“No wonder the felines complain when we do it . . .”
Livy let her cousins continue as her phone rang.
The ID said “unknown caller,” but she answered anyway.
“Hello?”
“It’s Vic.”
“Well, hi, Vic.”
And as soon as she said his name, her cousins instantly stopped howling.
Livy watched them carefully as Vic asked, “Are you coming back to the house soon?”
“Yeah. Everything okay?”
“Things are moving. Might be better if you’re home.”
Livy couldn’t help but smirk a bit. “You worried about little ol’ me, you big, strong, take-charge man, you?”
“Huh?”
Livy laughed. “Forget it. I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Good.”
Livy disconnected the call and wondered how she could be so into a guy who had no real grasp of good comedy.
“So that was Vic, huh?” Jake asked, her cousin suddenly close. “Calling to check up on you?”
“Yes. So?”
“Well, I heard from that weird kid, Kyle, that he found you two in bed together. Fully clothed and cuddling.”
“Awwww,” the rest of her cousins chimed in. “Cuddling!”
Livy thought about saying something, but instead she just went ahead and shot her cousin in the leg. When he screamed from the pain of the paintball ramming into him at close range and dropped to one knee, she shot him in the head and neck until he was on the floor and covered in red paint.
“God,” Jocelyn sneered with a sad shake of her head, “you’re being so weak, Jake. Get up and act like you’ve got some real honey badger balls!”
CHAPTER 22
Vic waited for Livy on the stoop. Her uncles had left for Florida earlier in the day. And her mother had left about an hour ago with several of her own family, the Yangs. Vic knew this because he had a contact in the hotel the Yangs were staying at, and he was keeping an eye on them. There was always a risk of what Vic liked to call “blowback.” And he was determined not to let any of that blowback hurt Livy. No matter what her family did or didn’t do.
A cab stopped in front of the house, and Vic smiled as soon as Livy stepped out.
“Hey,” he said when she slowly walked up the stairs.
“Hey.” She dropped her backpack by the door and sat down next to him.
“How did your day go?” Vic asked.
“It was all right. I left work early to hang with my cousins.”
“You can just leave your day job when you want to?”
“I hadn’t thought to ask anyone about leaving. I do it all the time. No one says anything as long as I make my photo shoots on time, especially the shoots with Novikov. And as long as I hit my deadlines . . . they leave me alone.”
“That’s pretty cool. Most day jobs are a lot less . . . flexible.”
“Are you trying to make me feel better about this job?”
“Yes.”
“Well . . . thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Livy rubbed her eyes, yawned.
“Tired?”
“Just a little. Beating the Smith Pack males in paintball can wear a girl out.”
“You played paintball with wolves? Livy . . . no.”
“My cousins needed a way to work off some excess energy.”
“But beating up on wolves?”
“What makes you think we won?”
To effectively reply to that, Vic just stared at her and raised one side of his mouth.
“All right, all right,” she said around a laugh.
“You know how emotionally vested the wolves get about dominance. Why don’t you just go beat up some puppies, too?”
Vic heard what sounded suspiciously like a giggle.
“Okay! I get it,” she said. “I’ll send them an ‘I’m sorry’ basket of Milk-Bones to make it up to them.”
“You are so mean.”
“I know. It’s a genetic flaw.”
“Speaking of genetic flaws, where are the cousins you played paintball with?”
“They went out to eat. But I wanted to come home and see you.”
Vic placed his hand under Livy’s, wincing at the size difference. His hands looked like giant dinner plates next to hers. But when she curled her fingers in between his, clasping their hands together, Vic realized that the size difference didn’t matter.
“Do you want to get out of here?” he asked.
“And go where?”
“My house. Just for the night.”
Her nose wrinkled a bit when she grimaced. “We shouldn’t leave Coop, Cherise, and Kyle alone in the house.”
“Because of what Coop and Cherise might do to the kid when they can’t take it anymore?”
“Kyle will have to learn to deal with his siblings on his own. I’m just concerned that with my family out doing what they do—”
“Shen’s here. He’ll watch out for them.”
“Why is Shen here? Doesn’t he have a home?”
“Somewhere, but hell if I know where it is. But it’s not in Manhattan. Or any of the five buroughs. So until we’re done with this, he’s not going anywhere.”
“You think he’ll mind?”
“Coop just ordered Mexican for dinner. Shen will not mind staying.”
“Big Mexican food fan, is he?”
“He’s a big fan of food in general.” Tightening his fingers a bit so Livy couldn’t pull away, Vic stood, tugging until she got up, as well. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. Just for tonight.”
“As long as Shen is watching out for them, that’s probably a good idea.”
Vic led Livy down the street to where he’d parked his SUV. While they walked, he pulled out his cell phone and sent Shen a quick text to let him know what was going on.
He reached his vehicle and opened the door for Livy. Because of its enormous size, she had to step up and then into the SUV. But she turned and faced him before sitting down in the seat, her hands resting on the frame.
She gazed at him for a long moment, then asked, “Do you have honey at your house?”
Vic swallowed. “We can stop at a place I know to pick some up. It’s open late. Bear owned.”
Livy reached out with one hand, stroked her fingers down his jaw. “Good plan.”
Vic waited until Livy was in her seat before he closed the door. He moved around the SUV, trying really hard not to run. It wasn’t easy. He wanted to run. And speed. All the way back to his house. That would be tacky, though. He didn’t want to be tacky.
Right? He didn’t want to be tacky?
Coop was having a pleasant evening. He was sitting on the couch, working on the symphony he’d started to write a few days ago on a whim. Cherise was on one end of the couch, the remote control in her hand, indulging her secret love of reality television. His music had him pretty well sucked in, but it was entertaining to occasionally look up and see people yell at each other for ratings. On the other end of the couch was Kyle. He was in a sketching mood tonight, and Coop was grateful. When Kyle sketched, he was so absorbed by his work that he was quiet for once. Wonderfully, beautifully, amazingly quiet.