“Jacqueline!”
“Sorry. Sorry.”
“Where’s everybody?”
“Paul took them out to get ice cream.”
“Good.”
Suddenly Jackie got to her feet. “Oh, my God . . . Irene!” She ran out of the room, and Livy followed right behind her to the only other room on the floor.
Jackie threw the door open and Irene spun around in her office chair; computer equipment, papers, and books covered the two desks. A small bed was on one side of the room and looked very unused.
“What is wrong with you guys?” Irene demanded.
“We’ve been robbed!” Jackie shot back.
“No, no,” Livy quickly corrected. “We had a break-in. But I can’t see that they took anything. In fact, if I hadn’t scented them, I don’t think any of us would have known they’d been here. They’re good.”
“Government good?” Jackie asked.
Livy shrugged. “I guess.”
That’s when Jackie locked on her friend. “Again, Irene?”
“How do you know it has anything to do with me?”
Jackie’s eyebrow went up and Irene sighed.
“I’ll go home.”
“No.” Jackie shook her head. “We can’t assume this is about you. And if it’s about Freddy or Troy, I’ll need you here.”
“We’ll get security,” Livy said.
“And contact Dee-Ann,” Irene said.
Both Livy and Jackie took a step back.
“What the hell for?” Livy demanded.
“If there’s one person I know who has connections you and I can only dream of and, more important, can terrify those connections into giving her answers about why strangers are searching this home . . . it’s Dee-Ann Smith.”
As always, Irene was right.
“You take care of that,” Livy told her. “I’ll deal with security. But do me a favor, go over and wait at the wild dog house until I get back. Call Paul so that he knows to bring the kids back there rather than here.”
“Where are you going?” Jackie asked when Livy headed to the door.
“I’ll be back. And Jackie . . . make sure no one texts or calls Toni.” She narrowed her eyes on the woman she’d briefly mourned. “And that means you, lady.”
“But she should know—”
“Jackie!”
“Oh, all right! I promise! And you can just put those vile-looking claws back, little miss. There’s no need to threaten me!”
Reece Lee had just turned over, his dream about skating naked in front of an audience of beautiful She-predators making him smile, when a scent he’d just learned to recognize woke him up. He thought maybe he’d left the Infamous Book of Smells lying on the bed with him, but when he opened his eyes he saw the vicious honey badger standing at the edge of the bed, staring at him.
“Aaaah!” Reece screamed, scrambling back until his shoulders hit the headboard.
“You scream like a girl,” she observed.
“Why are you here? Have you come to kill me?”
“It’s crossed my mind, but no. I need a security team and I heard the company you work for is really good.”
“Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”
“No.”
Realizing that he wouldn’t be able to just get this feral little woman out of his hotel suite without a fight, Reece admitted, “Look, if you want the full team on this, it’s gonna cost you, darlin’.”
Livy lifted a dark green duffel bag from the floor, unzipped it, and turned it over, dropping a veritable shit-load of money onto Reece’s bed.
“That enough?” she asked. And when he only stared, she added, kind of defensively, “It’s clean.”
“You know, darlin’, I wasn’t actually going to ask you that. But now that you offer it up, it makes me think this money wasn’t always so clean.”
“Do you want it or not?”
“Don’t get tense. I was simply making an observation.”
“Can your people start tonight?”
“Yeah.” The company had a plan in place for last-minute protection teams. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Okay.”
“Is it just you?”
“No. The Jean-Louis Parker family.”
Reece sat up. “Toni’s kin?”
“They’re all okay and Toni’s still in Russia.”
“Yeah. I got a text from Ricky. They’re so far ahead, he’s afraid of calling when I might be sleeping.”
“We need to keep the family safe,” she said after a time. “I can’t have Toni coming home and—”
“Don’t you worry about it. If you think Toni will have your ass if something happens while she’s away, it’ll be ten times worse where my brother’s concerned.” He grinned. “He’s got a little thing for your friend.”
“I don’t think it’s little, but you’re male—I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.”
Reece’s grin widened. “Want me to toss this sheet aside and show you how male I am?”
And with no expression at all, Livy replied, “Do you want me to cut your dick off?”
Reece swallowed. “Not really.”
“Then I’d suggest keeping that sheet on until I’m in the next room. Okay?”
“Yes’m.”
“Good.” She walked out and Reece let out a relieved breath.
“Either that girl is gonna end up killing me,” he muttered,
“or end up one of my best friends.”
“More like I’ll end up killing you,” she called out from the living room.
Reece shrank down into the bed, pulling the sheet up to his chin. “Honey badgers are just mean,” he whispered, praying she didn’t hear him. “Mean.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Vic stopped the Range Rover and turned off the engine. “Everyone ready?” he asked.
“Yes,” Toni said from the back. Ricky would say she looked “brave,” but she didn’t. She looked determined. He found that much scarier than brave because when the woman made up her mind . . .
“And remember the rules.” Vic looked directly at Ricky. “Keep your feet off the table.”
“Why do y’all keep telling me that?” he demanded.
“Because you’ll put your feet on the table,” Vic and Toni said together.
“Fine, but I don’t see what the big problem is. Bears and all their dang rules.”
They opened the doors and stepped out.
Toni cracked her neck and moved her shoulders. She looked like she was about to step into a boxing ring.
“Ready?” Ricky asked her.
She nodded. “Let’s go bag some bears.”
They headed down the hallway to that room where the bears had continued to stick Toni every time she’d come for a meeting. She let one of them lead her toward that room, Ricky and Vic right behind her, but she cast for a scent and when she locked on it, she immediately made a left and headed down another hallway.
“You! Dog! Where you go?” demanded the bear behind her.
Toni ignored him and kept moving until she reached a room where she heard male laughter and scented bear. Lots of bear.
Taking a breath, she pushed open the door and walked in. “Morning, gentlemen!” she said, smiling. “How is everyone doing today?”
The laughter and words died, but Toni ignored all that and moved toward the long table. She spotted an open seat and walked over to it like she knew it was just for her. She didn’t ask permission, she didn’t stop to look around. Instead she remembered what Ricky had said about always looking like you know where you’re going, even when you don’t. She sat down, placing her messenger bag on the floor beside the chair.
“Okay,” she said, making sure her grin was large and confident. “Let’s get started.”
The bears looked at each other and then one with horrible facial lacerations—she assumed he was Yuri Asanov since he was the only one in a wheelchair—nodded his head.