Page 64 of To Kill a Badger (The Honey Badgers Chronicles #6)

“I know. You were right.” She threw up her hand to halt her nephew before he could speed off on his Japanese motorcycle.

“You go back,” she told her brother and his son.

“Do what you can to get this handled with our people.” Reaching the bike, she held her hand out.

Her nephew removed his helmet and handed it to her. “I’ll deal with the rest of it.”

“Elise—”

“Go. Now.” She straddled the still-running bike and pulled the helmet on. “I’ll contact you soon.”

Her brother stopped her one last time to say, “If you get a chance, sister . . . kill that cat !”

* * *

“Manse!”

Now surrounded by ten full-humans, Nelle gritted her teeth when the man holding her abruptly stopped and yanked her around. Again, he pressed the muzzle of his weapon to the back of her head.

Four She-badgers stood there, and despite their covered faces, she knew exactly who they were before she even caught their scent.

“Rutowski,” the man called Manse said. “Long time.”

“What a surprise to see you again, old friend. Too bad I can’t let you go this time. At least not with her.”

“I’m not giving her up.”

“You better.”

“She’s coming with me, and you cunts better not get in my way.”

American? This man was American? That surprised Nelle since his accent, in any language he’d used, had been so good. That’s when she understood this man was probably some ex-agent, probably trained by the best. A man who knew that information was more powerful when used judiciously.

“Come any closer, and she’ll get a bullet in the back of the head. What are you going to tell her father then?”

“That she died with honor.”

Nelle’s eyes widened at that answer. What kind of answer was that? These bitches were crazy! Just like the old Van Holtz had said! Crazy!

The man, unfazed, started to back away, pulling Nelle with him.

“Kill them,” he ordered his mercenaries. “Kill them— fuck !”

It was like being in the van again, with something big slamming into her and Manse, both hitting the ground hard.

The spikes in her arms tore at her flesh and damaged her bones again.

But instead of barely moving in time to avoid a tire sawing off her head, Nelle barely moved in time to avoid gunshots from the mercenaries while big, heavy, rage-filled paws trampled across her body.

* * *

Tracey heard the She-badger scream as those metal poles were nearly ripped from the backs of her arms. Dodging the gunfire, she ran over to her and grabbed the metal bar that was caught between the big cat, Manse, and three of his men.

They’d all gone down when the cat had struck from out of nowhere.

Keane Malone. He’d traveled with Nelle, but she’d known that he couldn’t have been with her when she’d been captured by Manse, because Malones weren’t known for their shifter-control.

If he’d been grabbed and put in a van, he would have just shifted to cat and killed everyone.

Even if they’d been cops instead of mercenaries.

And yet here he was, making this thing even messier.

Holding the bar with both hands, Trace kept a tight grip as the squirming pile of human flesh and angry black-and-white cat fur rolled around on the ground.

She had to use both hands and keep moving so that the spikes that had been driven into Nelle’s arms weren’t pulled out yet.

She knew from experience the damage it could do to bone and how long that would take to heal.

The men and cats turned one way, and Trace held onto that bar like her life depended on it. They turned another, and she went with them.

While she kept hold of poor Nelle, her friends were fighting mercenaries. But honestly, she wasn’t worried about them. They’d been fighting men worse than this group—with all their fancy tech gear and years of training somewhere in the Sudan—for decades.

“You need to get out!”

Trace searched for that voice she recognized immediately. Elise!

“Trace-eee!” Elise yelled her name with that thick accent Trace loved. “Go! Now!”

Knowing there was only one way out of this, Trace screamed, “CeCe!”

CeCe finished cutting the throat of a mercenary and ran over. Together, they dove onto one of their most hated enemies. CeCe stabbed at him, and Tracey kicked Manse in the head and stomped on his hands until he released the chain holding Nelle.

Manse blocked CeCe’s knife with his Kevlar-covered arm before shoving her back. He pointed his gun at her, but Ox forced him to run instead of firing as she unleashed a fresh clip of bullets at him and, of course, everyone else.

Trace covered Nelle’s body until Ox stopped firing. Then she got to her feet and helped the kid up. The cat was busy taking down the last full-human male, not realizing that Manse had run right past him.

“Go!” she said to Elise. “We’ve got this!”

Elise nodded and raced off through the trees on a sports bike as Steph came running in from the road.

“Brace for it!” she screamed out as she suddenly dove to the ground, the explosion happening behind her.

The power of it shook the ground so hard that CeCe went down on her knees and Ox fell into a tree she stood next to.

Trace held on to Nelle, and they managed to keep standing, but it wasn’t easy.

When Steph got back up, she gave a triumphant smile.

“What did you do?” CeCe demanded.

“Distracted the cops!”

Steph moved over to a clear spot, dropped to her knees, and began digging. She put something in the hole and pulled out her phone. She pressed the screen, and another explosion opened a hole.

“Let’s go!” she said, pulling off her mask and crawling inside.

With an “I am sorry,” Trace pushed poor Nelle into the hole after Steph. “It will hurt,” she yelled after her. “But you must dig, Nelle!”

She motioned to the others. “Ox! CeCe! Now!”

“Manse,” Ox snarled through fangs.

“Fuck him! Let’s go!”

“What about the cat?” CeCe asked, running to the hole.

“Malone!” Trace yelled.

He faced her in all his fabulous tiger glory.

“Drop the head!” she yelled at the cat. He was swinging some man’s head around like one of her dogs with a new chew rope. “Drop it!”

He snarled but finally did what she ordered once Ox ran by, making sure to yank his tail hard.

Trace let Ox go before her and waited for the cat.

He was over to her side in seconds, but paused when he realized he’d have to go into the hole.

He was a water cat. A tree cat. He was not a burrow cat. But he was about to learn.

Standing behind Malone, Trace rammed her foot against his ass and shoved as hard as she could.

Startled, the cat fell in headfirst, his big cat ass standing straight up out of the hole.

She then leapt up and landed on his butt with both feet, jumping up and down on his ass until he was forced to go forward.

Once she could only see his back paws, she followed behind him with one warning.

“I swear to God, Malone, if you fart in my face, I will kill you.”

* * *

Pain tearing through her arms, Nelle kept going. She had to. She could hear the sirens. The one time any honey badger shifter ran was when they heard sirens. Getting caught in the middle of a big pile of bodies and explosions would be a nightmare for all of them.

She kept moving until she saw light and the bottom of someone’s Nike sneakers. Hands reached down and lifted her up. Nelle gritted her teeth, not wanting to cry out and appear weak around other She-badgers. They hated that.

álvarez and Yoon dragged her out of the hole. The pain was so bad that Nelle had no idea where she was. She just closed her eyes and waited until the pain passed. Unfortunately, it was taking a long time doing that.

When, finally, she could open her eyes without doing more than wince, she saw nothing but . . . chest.

A beautiful, chiseled chest.

Nelle lifted her gaze, then leaned back her head, so she could see his face.

His brows were drawn together so tight, she was afraid they would turn into one big brow. Like a Neanderthal.

Then, standing there naked, he spoke.

“Are you okay?”

His voice was soft, his hands barely touching her shoulders. As if he didn’t want to hurt her more.

“We need to get this off her,” he said to one of the She-badgers.

“No time,” the Russian replied, walking around him. But Keane caught her arm; held her in place.

He didn’t say anything. Neither of them did. They simply glared at each other.

Honestly, if that particular fight happened, Nelle wasn’t sure who would win. It could go either way.

Thankfully, a fight didn’t happen. Rutowski pulled herself out of the hole and ordered, “C! Help me get these things off her.”

álvarez came over, and both females pulled out tactical knives. Keane stepped in front of Nelle.

“What are you doing with those?”

“You want them off, don’t you?” álvarez asked.

“Not if you’re just going to cut her up.”

“We’re not. Now move.”

Keane looked at her over his shoulder, and she gestured him away with a simple flicker of her eyes.

The two She-badgers went around her, and she waited for the pain to start. She waited. And waited.

Finally, she had to ask, “What’s going on?”

“Uh . . . these are different from the ones used on me,” Rutowski explained. “Newer. Very fancy.”

“You look like you should be on a Milan runway with these.”

“Can you get them out or not?”

“Huh.”

Nelle gritted her teeth. She didn’t have patience for any of this.

“We do not have time for you two to stare and think,” the Russian told her friends.

“Yeah, but if we aren’t careful—”

The Russian moved in front of Nelle.

“Your sister’s wedding comes, yes?”

Surprised by the question and feeling more paranoid than usual, Nelle asked, “How the fuck did you know that?”

“We are all invited.”

“You are?”

“Are you in the wedding?” the Russian asked.

“Unfortunately.”

“How sad if arms are too damaged for pretty dress.” She raised a blonde eyebrow.

“Do it,” Nelle told her.