Page 84 of To Kill a Badger (The Honey Badgers Chronicles #6)

“So proud!” the kid cheered with a little fist pump, a big happy smile on her pretty face. He’d never seen her smile like that before. He was so glad for her.

Of course, Max couldn’t be.

“Why are you fucking crying?” Max demanded.

“I’ll cry if I want to, you mean bitch!”

Then the yelling started, and the two sisters went for each other, Streep and Mads trying to stop them while Tock sipped her coffee and Charlie motioned for him and Nelle to follow her outside into the backyard.

“Hi, Mr. Weber!” Charlie called out to an older bear boar.

“Hello, lovely Charlie. Any baking today?”

“I’ll probably start in a little while. You want anything specific?”

“Your brownies are my favorite.”

“Nuts or no nuts?”

“Pecans, please. If you can.”

“You’ve got it.”

“Marry me, Charlie!”

“You’re already married, Mr. Weber.”

“She won’t mind if you make her those apricot muffins.”

Charlie laughed and walked to the other side of the pool Keane loved to lounge in when he was forced to stay in this neighborhood with all these bears. Water always relaxed him.

Well, water and now Nelle. She really relaxed him. He hadn’t hit Finn or Shay once! Even when he found out they weren’t doing their job! Stop Nat from ending up in prison! How hard was that?

“Charlie—”

“No,” Charlie cut Nelle off. “I talk. I know what you did. I know why you did it. And I need you to understand why I did what I did.”

“I do. I really do. I hate that it involved”—she closed her eyes, cleared her throat—“Rutowski. Especially after I told her to leave you alone. I will not forgive that.”

“She’s aware. And she doesn’t seem to let it bother her. It’s okay, though. We get along.”

“That’s what worries me.” Nelle clasped her hands together as if she were pleading for understanding. “I need you to know, Charlie, that I do what I do because you and I are the only ones between the world and absolute chaos.”

“Oh, I know. I’ve always known. We’re good. You do your thing and, when necessary, I do mine. But I could no longer wait on dealing with the de Medicis. Not after I got that message asking for my help.”

“Your help? From Rutowski?”

“No.” She held up her phone, and Nelle read the text.

“Oh,” she said, nodding. “Okay. I get it now.”

* * *

Gio stood by the doorway while his siblings sat on the chairs and couches on one side of the room and the females of the de Medici Coalition sat on the other side, holding onto their cubs like they expected them to be torn from their arms at any moment.

Pina cleared her throat and offered, “We can make some pasta if you’re hungry.” When they only stared at her, she said it again in Italian. “Or we can order pizza from Pizza Hu—Uh . . . Delminico’s down the block.”

He almost laughed at his sister’s quick save. At least she didn’t mention that the pasta she would whip up for everyone included jarred Ragú sauce.

The doorbell rang, and before Gio could go see who it was, one of the She-lions, a blood-related cousin, jumped off the couch and ran toward the door. Not sure what was waiting on the other side, Gio nodded at his brothers, and he unleashed his claws behind his back.

But a few seconds later, his cousin returned with a young male, hugging him and kissing his face as they returned to the room. The boy held her so tight and cried in her arms as they sat down on the couch that Gio put his claws away.

He could already tell the kid had seen too much and may never fully recover. But he also felt he would not be the meanest lion male to ever roam the earth when he became an adult. Not the way he was holding onto his mother right now.

Analia de Medici walked in from the backyard.

She motioned to the females she’d brought to the Medici home for safety and recovery.

It had been a deal brokered by Charlie MacKilligan, which still fascinated him.

He thought for sure she would either kill Antonella when they’d left her alone with his sister, or Antonella would tear the badger hybrid down to the bone.

Neither happened. MacKilligan had simply talked and, with a nod from a still-in-her-lion-form Antonella, she’d done the rest until these females and their offspring had shown up at their door in the late evening.

He wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.

Antonella hadn’t told him or Pina anything, but now that he was seeing the boy sobbing in his mother’s arms, he knew.

The de Medici Coalition was done. Not all dead, he was sure.

If nothing else, there were the older ones living in Italy who could still breed, but they would never be the same.

No pride would ever take them in, and any males in those prides would kill them if they tried to force it.

So that had been the deal. Their pride takes in these She-lions and their cubs, and Charlie MacKilligan handled the destruction of the de Medici Coalition.

It was a good deal. One that kept them from losing any of his siblings and made their pride stronger.

Whether Charlie MacKilligan had survived all this, though, he didn’t know. It wasn’t like they were friends on social media.

Analia motioned to the cubs, and they ran outside to play with their American cousins. She went over and kissed her nephew on the head and wiped his tears, telling him he was safe. Then she faced Pina and said in English, “We will be staying a while.”

“Great.”

“And we will make food for you. To, uh, celebrate, yes?”

“Oh, are you sure you don’t want us to—”

“No!” Analia cleared her throat. “I mean, no thank you. We will do it for you. As gift. And that is not from a jar,” she added under her breath, before Bria led the She-lions to their kitchen. He whistled at his baby sister, and she looked at him over her shoulder.

“Let them order what groceries they need and have it delivered.”

Because to be honest, all they had were take-out menus and jarred sauce. He didn’t even think there was a fresh tomato in this house.

“Are you okay with this?” Pina asked him.

“Very.”

With that, he walked over to the boy and sat down beside him.

“Do you normally wear glasses?” he asked the kid in Italian.

Tear-filled eyes focused on him, but he didn’t answer, just looked back and forth between Gio and his mother.

“He should be,” his mother said.

“You can wear them here. And we’ll take you to get new ones tomorrow. I have a great place I go, and they offer lots of frame options. You like books?” he asked the boy.

The kid nodded.

“Great. I’ll show you my library. You can take whatever you want.” He looked at the boy’s mother. “Is that okay with you?”

“I will come?” she asked in English, unwilling to let the son she’d just gotten back out of her sight.

“Of course. This way.”

“You have nothing!” Analia suddenly yelled from the kitchen in English. “Nothing! How do you cats eat? Do you all starve? What is wrong with all of you?”

Pina looked at him. “Oh, wow. It’s like having Mom back from the Bahamas.” She let out a small sigh. “Great.”

* * *

Charlie started baking, and the bears lined up outside.

The Malone caravan . . . disappeared. Literally.

One second they all seemed to be hanging outside, and the next, all the RVs, cars, picnic chairs, and tables were completely gone.

The bears were relieved; the Malone brothers were not surprised.

Nelle sat on the porch swing sideways so she could rest her bare feet in Keane’s lap.

She had been on her phone for at least an hour, and he had been sitting there, staring straight ahead, all that time.

He hadn’t said a word or seemed annoyed she hadn’t really said anything to him. He was just a comfortable cat, staring.

So she was really pissed off when her sister showed up to yell at her.

She just stomped up those porch stairs and started screaming. And, of course, Nelle screamed back. Because she didn’t want to hear her bullshit!

It went on for a while because no one intervened. But her sister was the one who stopped first, finally pointing at an oblivious Keane.

“Is he okay?”

Her sister never cared about anyone. Nelle didn’t understand why she was asking.

“He’s fine.”

“He hasn’t looked at me once. Everyone looks at me.”

Nelle had barely crossed her eyes when the five Belgian Malinois came running up to the porch and ran to the door, scratching at the wood screen. Her sister simply stood there, doing nothing as always!

“Open the door for them!” Nelle ordered.

“Ewwww, no! You do it!”

God, Nelle hated her.

One of the dogs went up on its hind legs, tilted its head to the side, and managed to get the screen door open with its mouth. Then all five dogs scrambled into the house.

“Wow. Dogs are smarter than you,” Nelle sneered.

The mutual yelling started again until Tracey Rutowski followed her dumb dogs onto the porch.

“Mimi?”

“Tracey!”

Nelle sneered when her sister and Rutowski kissed each other’s cheeks like they were all back in Europe. Then her sister hugged álvarez, ignored Yoon, and air-kissed the Russian.

“All of you are coming to my wedding, yes?”

“Would not miss it, my love. And I have a wonderful present for you.”

Her sister clapped her hands together. Nelle hoped whatever Rutowski gave her was a fake.

When Mimi faced Nelle again, her smile flowed away, and she scowled. “You better be available tomorrow.”

“I have practice—”

“I don’t want to hear it!” she yelled, before hugging Rutowski again and walking down the stairs and back to her waiting car, the driver holding the back door open for her.

“Charlie inside?” Rutowski asked her.

“Am I her party planner? How the fuck should I know?”

“As always, a delight to see you again, too, Nelle Zhao. Although hard to believe you and Mimi are sisters. So different.”

“I actually pride myself on that.”

The screen door opened, and Keane’s baby sister, Nat, walked out. Trailing behind her was Kyle. His infatuation with the badger had been obvious from the beginning, and Nelle immediately looked to see what Keane was going to do about it.