Page 54 of To Kill a Badger (The Honey Badgers Chronicles #6)

C harlie had her head on the kitchen table. Max was slumped down in the kitchen chair, her gaze locked on the ceiling above. And Stevie watched them all with a bit of disgust.

“You can’t kill our father,” she was forced to say, yet again. “It’s morally wrong.”

“You said Max has no morals,” Charlie explained into the table.

“And I stand by that.”

“Then let me do it.” Max sat up straight. “I promise not to have one guilty feeling about it.”

“No.”

“You’re unreasonable!” Max exploded.

“There is only room enough for one mentally unstable She-badger in this family— and that’s me !”

Berg lumbered into the room. “Dinner’s here,” he said, his naturally baritone voice even lower than usual. “We’re eating in the living room. We can put on a horror movie and enjoy the Chinese food, and maybe the flying body parts and splattering blood will help you guys relax a little.”

Stevie glanced at her sisters before telling Berg, “I don’t think we’re hungry right now, Berg. Just save us some?”

Frowning, he stared at the top of Charlie’s head, then said, “Okay.”

She understood the bear’s concern. In some ways, it was definitely less terrifying to see Charlie MacKilligan so upset she could only sit and do nothing, but it was also sad.

Stevie hated seeing her sister this upset about anything, but especially this upset about their father.

A badger even Stevie had to admit was completely worthless.

And she didn’t like to believe that about anyone . . . except him. Because it was true.

Even worse, he wouldn’t leave! He was still in their yard now, trying to remove duct tape from the hairy parts of his arms. Max offered to do it herself, but the look in her eyes—and the fact she was holding a butcher knife at the time—made it seem like a bad idea to everyone.

Since this whole family-only nightmare had begun, the bears, tigers, and the lions from the next street over had come to surround the house Stevie and her siblings were living in, forcing their father to keep his distance.

No one was asking for baked goods. No one even tried to swim in their pool.

Instead, everyone kept quiet and kept Freddy MacKilligan away from the house and his daughters.

Stevie thought about going to her father alone and trying to “reason” with him.

Of course, her idea of reasoning with him was giving him money to go away before his head was separated from his shoulders.

Giving their father money, though, was one definite way to make Charlie snap.

She did not believe in giving their father a cent, even if it was the easiest way to get him to go.

Then again, she had a very good point. Give him money once, he would keep coming back for more.

Berg walked back into the kitchen with a confused expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Stevie asked, since her sister still had her face pressed against the kitchen table.

“Did you guys ask for wolves to stop by?”

“Wolves?” Stevie asked. “What wolves?”

“They say Van Holtz. Older guys.”

Finally, Charlie lifted her head, and the three siblings exchanged glances. Then Max said, “Husbands of the crones, I bet.”

“Oh. Right.” Charlie let out a sigh. “Why would they come here, though?”

“Looking for their wives?”

“They’re not here. Wait . . . are they?”

Stevie and Max shrugged. Then Charlie shrugged at Berg. “Let them in, I guess. And Max, do me a favor, don’t call those women crones in front of their husbands.”

“Even if they are?”

“Max.”

* * *

Hel followed the grizzly into the MacKilligan sisters’ rental home.

Of course, he wasn’t surprised by the presence of a bear inside, because there were already so many bears outside .

There were bears literally everywhere. On the porch.

In the front yard. In the backyard. All down the street.

And all different breeds, too. Grizzlies, polars, black, sloth, Asian black, a giant panda, and Hel could be wrong but .

. . a cave bear? Didn’t they go extinct in the last ice age?

No, no. That was not possible. And the fact that there was a giant man hanging out on their porch—bigger than any other bear there—didn’t mean it was a cave bear. That was insane.

Anyway, they were everywhere, and none of them liked the presence of any wolves in this miasma of their own bear smells.

Especially Van Holtz wolves. Back in Germany, generations ago, the Van Holtz were well known for hunting down and eliminating brown bears for amusement and meat.

It was something most bears from long-standing families had not forgiven.

Then there were the damn cats . . .

Jeez. He and his brothers left the country for a few weeks, and everything went to shit.

What made Hel happy, though, was that although their mates were involved, they hadn’t started anything.

Such a nice change of pace! Usually, many a nightmare could be dumped right at the feet of their women, but not this.

That’s why they were happy to help when needed if it didn’t involve talking to their Uncle Edgar who, these days, barely tolerated Hel and his brothers.

Trace had texted Wolf, and the next thing Hel knew, they were headed to Queens. A place they rarely went to, because it was Queens .

When they entered the kitchen that late evening, Charlie MacKilligan immediately asked, “Are you also here to tell us you’re not going to help? Because we really don’t need to hear it twice.”

“That’s not why we’re here,” Wolf explained.

“Are you here to cook us dinner?” the little blonde with orange and white roots eagerly asked. Stevie, right? Yeah. The little one was Stevie.

“No.”

“Oh. Okay.” Apparently done with them, Stevie pushed back from the table, grabbed a bottled water from the refrigerator, and walked down some back stairs.

“Then what do you want?” That was from Max, the middle sister. The last time he saw Max, she had green hair. Tonight, it was orange and, if he cared more, Hel would tell her that color did not work on her.

“We saw your father out in the yard and, with that particular situation, we can help.”

“You are not killing our father!” Stevie yelled from beneath the house.

“He tried to scam his own daughters!” Max yelled back.

“I’m not protecting him! I’m protecting you guys! You’ll never recover from the guilt!”

“Yes, we will!” both older sisters yelled at the same time.

“I said, no !”

The two older sisters looked at each other, and something unspoken passed between them. Something that was keeping their hated father alive. It was sweet, actually. That they cared enough for their baby sister to not kill the one being who made them absolutely miserable.

Charlie sighed and asked Wolf, “Can you get rid of our father and not kill him?”

“We were never going to kill your father.”

“Why not?” Max asked.

“That’s not really our job.”

“How much to make it your job?”

“Max!” Stevie bellowed from below, making the windows shake. A little scary, considering the size of that tiger-badger hybrid when human.

“I’m sorry,” Charlie said, holding up her hand, “but knowing your wives and the Russian, I really don’t believe it’s not your job to kill people.”

Wolf smirked. “Then let me rephrase. We don’t kill anyone without direct orders from the President of the United States. But we can deal with your father in other ways. If you ladies would like.”

“Are you calling us ‘ladies’ sarcastically?” Max asked, using air quotes.

Hel’s brother smiled. “I’ve known my wife for at least forty years.

I’ve seen what a honey badger female can and will do when she feels a male of any species is not being nice or is using his sarcasm to insult her.

So when I use ‘ladies’ with you guys . .

. I always mean it politely, if not honestly. ”

“Totally fair,” Charlie replied.

* * *

Charlie hadn’t slept in more than twenty-four hours, and although she wasn’t in the mood to eat, her body was about to give her no choice.

The smell of that delivered food was starting to get to her.

But she had to deal with the Van Holtz wolves in her house.

Giant bear faces, with those adorable small eyes, kept appearing at the kitchen windows, glaring at the wolves.

Apparently, it was one thing to have big cats hanging around, but wolves were somehow a step too far?

Nope. She still didn’t understand the shifter world, and that was probably okay.

“Look,” one of the handsome Van Holtz wolves said to Charlie and Max, stepping closer, “I get it.” Although, when Charlie thought about it a little, all of these wolves were handsome.

They looked like those young male models who had salt-and-pepper hair to make people believe they were in their forties or fifties.

But these three actually were. Yowza. Lucky She-badgers, those three.

“You two are exhausted. You sound exhausted. And I’m guessing that if Fred MacKilligan is around much longer .

. . both of you are going to snap and upset your little sister. ”

He wasn’t wrong. Every time Charlie heard her father call out in pain from still removing that duct tape or when he kept insisting that, “I can explain everything!” she wanted to cut his head off.

Because it was clearly the only way to be done with him.

Cut off his head, salt his body, and toss the head into an active volcano.

Anything else, and the bastard was liable to return.

Charlie glanced at Max, and she saw the agreement in her sister’s eyes. They both knew the handsome wolf was right.

“So,” the canine went on, “let us deal with him, and you ladies focus on what’s happening here. I promise, nothing permanent and, sooner than either of you will probably like, I’m sure he’ll be back. But it will give you guys a little breathing room.”