Page 38 of To Kill a Badger (The Honey Badgers Chronicles #6)

K eane pulled on a black T-shirt and dark blue sweatpants.

He grabbed his equipment bag and walked out of the room his brother shared with Mads.

He’d showered and gotten dressed as quickly as possible, wanting to get back into the city and to practice early, the way he liked.

That hadn’t been happening as it should of late.

Too much going on. But if he got there early, he could get some additional stuff done.

What he really wanted was to at least get into the playoffs this year.

The last few seasons hadn’t exactly been about winning.

More like about not dying of embarrassment.

He quickly walked down the stairs, passing that full-blood coyote heading up to the bedroom Keane had just left. The animal smelled like strawberries, and he realized that Mads had washed that canine with the same shampoo that was in the bathroom he’d used.

It annoyed him more that he smelled just like a coyote than it did that Mads was washing wild animals! Although both were ridiculous!

Keane had just entered the hallway when, heading to the front door, Nelle stepped in front of him. She had on denim shorts and bright, white sneakers that appeared fresh out of the box. The cropped white T-shirt showed off her toned abs, including what looked like a knife scar on her left side.

It was a perfect late-summer outfit, and it was driving him crazy! Especially the scar. He really liked the scar.

Dammit!

“Oh, good,” she said, lifting her foot so she could scratch her ankle. “You’re ready.”

“Ready? To do what?”

“I have to deal with some things today, and you’re coming with me.”

“No, I’m not. I’m going to practice.”

“We should stick together.”

“Why?”

“Charlie said.”

Apparently if Charlie said anything, it was law?

“I don’t care what Charlie said.”

“You should.”

“Because. . . ?”

“She’s been baking .”

“I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean.”

“Still? Really?”

She glanced at the diamond-encrusted watch she wore on her wrist. “We better go, so we can stop at Charlie’s first. Maybe get you a muffin.”

“I’ve already eaten, and I need to get to practice.”

“You need to practice pouncing on people when their backs are turned? Because that seems like something already built into your DNA.”

“Coach will get pissed if I’m not there today.”

“ I’m not going to practice today. Do you think I won’t have to hear about that later from Mads? But I’m willing to put up with that to save the lives of our people.”

He had to say it. “You are so full of shit.”

The grin spread across her beautiful face. “I am!”

She came around to his side and slid her arm through his. He tried to pull away, but she yanked him forward with that surprising amount of strength he’d noticed yesterday.

“While you were getting dressed, I went outside and offered to get your mother some coffee,” Nelle told him as they walked through the living room toward the front door. “Her response was rather unpleasant.”

“Of course she was unpleasant. She’s a cat. ”

“I come from an unpleasant people, as well.” They stepped out of the house. “But we still have basic manners.”

“Only when you’re getting ready to manipulate and steal from your next target.”

Nelle looked up at him, like she was ready to correct such a disparaging remark about her “people.” But she only shrugged instead.

“You know, I can walk without you clinging to me like a spider monkey.”

“Rude like your mother, I see.” She unhooked her arm from his.

He silently let out a relieved breath until she took his hand in hers, intertwining their fingers. An action which only made things absolutely worse!

“Better?” she asked with that damn smile.

“No.”

“Great. Let’s go.”

She tried to walk away, but he pulled her back. “Where? Where are we going that I have to miss practice? Are you going to try to shoot people again? And where’s Charles? Isn’t he your protection? And do you even need protection? I mean, what is happening ?”

Nelle released his hand, so she could take the tiny purse with its tiny chain strap off her shoulder and pull out the phone from inside.

Did she have anything else in that ridiculously small bag?

He was thinking that other than maybe a credit card, she probably didn’t.

She couldn’t fit anything else in there!

She held the phone in front of his face and waited.

“What am I supposed to be looking at?”

“You can’t read it?”

“No. I can’t read Chinese.”

She gasped. “It’s Nihongo! You don’t know Nihongo?”

“I don’t know what that word is.”

Nelle let out a long, labored sigh. He hated when she made him feel stupid. He wasn’t stupid! Sometimes he had memory loss after colliding into a seven-four grizzly with a grudge, but that didn’t mean he was stupid!

“It’s Japanese. This is in Japanese. How do you not know that?”

“Because I know one language. English.” He thought a moment and added, “American English.” Thought a moment longer, then, “New York English.” Blinked. “Long Island English.” He nodded. “Yeah, I know Long Island English.”

Clearly disgusted, she stuffed her phone back into her tiny purse, put the tiny strap over her shoulder so the bag hung right under her armpit, and—again!—intertwined her fingers with his.

“Just trust me,” she said.

“I don’t. I don’t trust you.”

“That’s okay. Let’s just go.”

He refused to move, but that didn’t stop Nelle from yanking him forward again.

Not wanting a fistfight with a badger, Keane went along.

But he quickly noticed their little discussion in front of the house had attracted the attention of the entire Malone clan.

Well . . . they had attracted the attention of the females.

But it was Nelle on her own that had attracted the attention of the males.

The lusting, worthless males! His kin. How he hated them.

Deciding it wasn’t the right time to slap his cousins around, he kept walking but picked up speed so that they could get out of this particular area a little faster.

But they’d barely gotten ten feet from the door of Mads’s house when his mother stepped out of one of the RVs, her eyes going wide at the sight of another son’s hand clasped with yet another honey badger.

That poor woman. What she must be going through.

The expression on her face gave Keane flashbacks to the time his mother had terrified his first girlfriend when he was fifteen.

Laura De Cicio had run from his house, never to return.

Or talk to him again in the hallways of their high school.

Or even look at him in trig class. Not that he blamed her.

In the end, she’d finally just changed schools.

“And what’s going on here?” his mother asked, gaze moving from his face to the hand gripping his and back to his face. “Hhhmmh?”

Keane didn’t know how to answer that question, but he didn’t have to, because Nelle volunteered, “Your son is madly in love with me, and I haven’t quite figured out how to shake him from my life yet.

But you know what? Maybe I shouldn’t shake him.

Maybe we were meant to be together. Forever. True soul mates.”

His mother stared at Nelle a moment before returning her gaze to his. “Keane?”

Again, Keane didn’t know what to say. So he just stood there, silently panicking, gawking at his mother. He’d been hit by four polar bears at the same time, and that had done less damage than Nelle Zhao and her words.

When his mother continued to wait for him to say something—anything!—he let out a confused, “Uhhhh . . .”

“You know, Lisa—”

“Lisa?” his mother repeated, shocked “some whore”—the word she would probably use later to her sisters when she told this story—had the nerve to use her first name like they were girlfriends.

“—we’re actually running quite late,” Nelle said. “But we’ll definitely check in with you sometime tonight. We can discuss the plans of our upcoming wedding. You are going to love working with my mother on the color scheme and bridesmaid dress designs!”

Keane didn’t think he could move, but that didn’t stop Nelle from yanking him away from his stunned mother.

“What did you do?” he asked when they were crossing the RV-FILLED street.

“I lied to your mother so we could distract her from our business. I do the same thing with my own mother. Although I usually involve Max if I really need to un-focus her.” She glanced at him. “She hates Max.”

“Everyone hates Max.”

“Not true. I find her delightful.”

“I think that’s because you’re clinically insane.”

“Doubtful,” she insisted, before leaning in and whispering, “I haven’t heard the voice of Satan coming from the family cat in years .”

* * *

Lisa Zaya-Sarnai Malone watched the smart-ass little honey badger walk across the street with her son. That’s when her sisters “attacked.”

“Are you okay, hon?” her older sister, on her right, asked with fake concern.

“That was just so awful for us to watch,” her younger sister on her left lied.

“So awful.”

“I thought for sure you would have ripped her tiny little badger head off. Especially when she talked about wedding plans.” Her baby sister dramatically cringed, briefly showing her fangs. “You poor thing!”

“And now you’ve lost a total of three sons to badgers,” her older sister said with a sad, fake sigh of sorrow. “You must be devastated .”

“I would be devastated, I guess . . .” Lisa began.

“But?”

“But that one is rich.”

Her older sister blinked. “How rich?”

“Gold-toilet-in-her-Fifth-Avenue-apartment-type rich. Her-family-has-a-fleet-of-jets rich. They-have-a-giant-yacht-with-a-fleet-of-smaller-boats-attached-until-the-orcas-destroyed-it rich.”

Her baby sister swallowed. “Oh.”