Page 82 of To Kill a Badger (The Honey Badgers Chronicles #6)

“H i, Daddy.”

“Hello, my little crested serpent eagle.”

“Daddy.”

He smiled at his beautiful daughter. “I’m glad to see you’re safe, if a little . . . mauled.”

“It’s nothing.” She wiped at the still-healing wounds on her face. “I’ll be fine.”

“Yes, but will you be fine by the time of your sister’s wedding?”

Through his phone, he watched his daughter’s transition from Happy to see you, Daddy! to I hate this family.

“Daddy,” she began, an angry scowl on her face, “you and I both know that this is utter bull—wonderful event!”

Without looking over his shoulder, Arthur knew his wife now stood behind him, and Nelle could see her.

Their daughter forced a smile. “Hello, Mummy.”

“Where are you?”

“I’ll be home soon.”

“Because you promised your sister you would be here for her.”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said through clenched teeth while still forcing that smile.

“I also have come to learn that Jules something Polish is still alive? Is that true?”

“I don’t think ‘something Polish’ is her surname,” Arthur reminded his wife, “and we discussed this, my heart.”

“It doesn’t bother you she’s taking orders from crazed Americans now?” When he raised a brow, she amended it to, “ Old crazed Americans.”

“Tracey Rutowski made it sound like you two are the best of friends.”

“We’re not,” Lorraine snapped back at their daughter. “I tolerate her because she pays very good money for our legitimate shipping services.”

“Can we just call it our shipping services?” he asked. No need to explain over the phone how they laundered their money.

“Do whatever you want,” Lorraine said to their daughter. “You always do.”

Nelle’s jaw clenched, and he knew he should get them both off this phone call before things became nasty.

But, unfortunately, his wife was in a mood.

“And is it true you’re trying to bring Max MacKilligan to your sister’s wedding?”

“She invited her.”

“Only to get you to come.”

“Max is looking forward to it.”

“If she steals one damn thing from our guests . . .”

“It’ll be fine, Ma.”

“It better be.”

“Where are you now?” Arthur asked before things could get worse.

“Switzerland.”

Confused, Arthur asked, “Why are you in Switzerland?”

“Well, in order to finish the deal with the Von Sch?fer-Müllers, I had to get”—she held up a black book with a five-point star on its cover—“this.”

“What is that?”

“A waste of my time,” she said with an eye roll. “But it was part of the deal, and Tracey Rutowski—”

“Was lying to you, foolish child!”

“Lorraine.”

“She is foolish! Everyone knows not to listen to Tracey Rutowski unless they want to be involved in an international incident. Oh, that’s right . . . you already are !”

“What do you mean she’s lying to me?”

Arthur replied, “There’s no need for a deal with Jules or anyone. The de Medici Coalition was taken down last night.”

Nelle frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t know?”

“Do you think I would have wasted any of my time getting”—she held up the book again—“ this , if I’d known?”

Lorraine leaned in, nearly forcing Arthur out of camera frame. “You see? Foolish. If you were home, being a good sister and helping with this wedding, you wouldn’t be in this situation. Now you just look—”

“Lorraine.”

“—stupid.”

Nelle was quiet for a moment before she said, “You’re right, Mother.”

Lorraine frowned. “I am?”

“You are. You’re absolutely right.”

And, with that, Nelle leaned back into the cat that had been sitting next to her but out of the phone’s camera range. He was mid-bite with what looked to be a waffle topped with a small pile of bacon.

Realizing he could be seen, the cat nearly choked on the food he’d been shoveling into his mouth like the barbarian he appeared to have descended from. He wasn’t even dressed! He only wore a thin sheet over his lap, but he was naked otherwise.

“Who is that ?” Lorraine demanded.

“This is Keane Malone. Keane, this is my mother, Lorraine Ming-Zhao.”

The cat forced himself to swallow the food he still had in his mouth and muttered, “Hello, Mrs. Ming-Zhao. Nice to meet you. Hello again, Mr. Zhao.”

“Young man.”

Arthur did not like to think about his daughter in bed with anyone, but he still felt bad for the cat.

He was clearly shocked at being put on camera with Nelle’s parents while mostly naked, but the poor boy was trapped between a mother and daughter who had been waging war in the most polite and vicious way since before Nelle’s first words.

The cat was simply in over his giant head!

“Malone?” Lorraine repeated. “As in the Malones? You and a Malone ? Are you trying to destroy this family?”

“Of course not! But I do hope our wedding is as beautiful as my sister’s!”

The cat quickly looked away, and Arthur could do nothing more but blow out a breath and shake his head.

With a startled gasp at that particular blow, Lorraine stormed out of the hotel suite they’d been using for the wedding, slamming the door behind her.

Arthur smiled at his beautiful daughter even while he chided her, “You do insist on playing with your food, my little crested serpent eagle.”

“I know, Daddy.”

* * *

“I wasn’t wearing clothes!” Keane yelled when Nelle had disconnected the call.

“Those evil bitches!”

“I did not want to meet your mother for the first time while naked, Nelle!”

“Oh, calm down. She doesn’t hate you because you were naked.”

“She hates me?”

“She hates you because you’re cat.”

“But she doesn’t even know me. And we’re getting married?”

“Not right now.”

Nelle got off the bed. She’d been dressed for a while, from what Keane could tell, and had let him sleep until room service had arrived, which Keane had greatly appreciated.

He’d needed the sleep. And “those evil bitches,” as Nelle was currently calling them, had been pretty brutal when they’d dug out the bullets from his side and back.

Not even a local used. Or tools. They’d just used their claws and ignored his roars of pain.

But he couldn’t complain much . . . he didn’t even get a fever, and the wounds were nearly healed.

Nelle stood in front of him in cute denim shorts and a crop top, so he was reaching out to drag her back to bed when she suddenly headed toward the hotel room door.

“Are you going to leave me like this?” he asked, pointing at the tent his cock had created in the sheet.

“You have a hand,” she snapped before storming out.

Frustrated, Keane fell back on the bed.

“And if we are going to get married,” he said to no one in particular, “she’ll have to ask me properly.”

* * *

Nelle raised her hand to knock on the door of the crone’s room, but she decided to kick it in instead.

She was shocked when she got inside. She thought only Rutowski was in here, but álvarez, half-naked as usual, was passed out on the floor; Yoon, dressed like a bank robber, the hoodie pulled over her head, was snoring on the couch; Rutowski was drooling while splayed out on the king bed; and the Russian came out of the bathroom, a toothbrush in her mouth.

“You do not knock?” the Russian demanded.

“Not when I am this pissed off.”

She waved that away. “You are always pissed off. You are never happy. How does anyone tolerate you, little badger?”

“I was happy before you bitches came into my life.”

“That is not first time we have heard that . . .”

Fed up, Nelle stomped across the room, grabbed sleeping-Rutowski’s foot, and yanked her across the bed.

She woke up swinging, but failed to connect any punches.

“What? What? What’s wrong?”

Nelle held up the black book she’d gotten from Lavoie once she’d woken him up in his bed with a gun to his head and Keane roaring beside her in his tiger form.

The full-human had handed it to her immediately.

And he really was a Satanist. He had his black and red robes professionally cleaned and hung up outside his walk-in closet.

Weird. Why not put those inside his walk-in closet?

“Why did I get this?” Nelle asked.

Rutowski narrowed her eyes to look at the book. Apparently the older badger needed glasses.

“Oh. That? Wasn’t that the deal you made with Jules?”

“What deal? She betrayed us! We forced her to do what you needed by the Russian threatening her nephew with an axe! And I don’t know why any of that was necessary, because someone took down the de Medicis last night!

While I was wasting my time with Jules and her useless family! And I bet that someone was Charlie!”

“Of course it was Charlie. Who else could do it but Charlie?”

“You unleashed Charlie MacKilligan on the tri-state area without Max or me or anyone else? Are you insane?” She shook her head. “Of course you’re insane. You’re clinically insane!”

“Stop worrying,” the crone said dismissively with that annoying eye roll. “It went perfectly.”

“It shouldn’t have happened at all!”

“Why are you yelling?” Yoon demanded.

“Because you all lied to me! All this bullshit! You were just distracting me! That’s why you wouldn’t let us leave! It wasn’t for this stupid plan of yours. It was to keep me away from Charlie!”

“That’s not true at all,” Rutowski said. “Well, mostly not true. We were distracting you, but my plan’s a go.” And she sounded so ridiculously proud that Nelle realized she wasn’t lying. She really thought all of this insanity had been a success!

What was wrong with this female? It couldn’t be mental illness. No one mentally ill was this ludicrous!

“What plan?” Nelle demanded. “The de Medicis are done, yes?”

“The de Medicis don’t matter. They were just the ones that brought the efforts to wipe us out to light.

Now that we know about it, now that we all see it, we can fight it.

Together! ” the woman cheered, her arms in the air and her left leg raised and out to the side.

Nelle had been at American-run schools long enough to know what that particular move meant .

. . Tracey Rutowski had been a high school cheerleader! Which only made Nelle hate her more.

“Isn’t that wonderful?” the crone asked after lowering her arms and legs.