Bite Me (23 page)

Vic helped Shen plug in all his equipment. They’d found a room in the enormous house with a desk and chair, so they made the executive decision that it would be their office.

When Vic had gone back to his house to pick up his stuff, he’d found Shen still there, watching the History Channel while sitting on Vic’s couch and munching away on long stalks of bamboo.

At first, Vic had been really annoyed. He didn’t want a roommate. He especially didn’t want Shen as a roommate. But as soon as Vic told Shen what Livy had found in Allison Whitlan’s apartment, the giant panda’s whole attitude had changed. Vic didn’t even have to ask Shen for help, Shen just assumed he would be helping. He’d gotten off the couch and packed his equipment. And while packing, he’d asked, several times, how Livy was holding up, true concern in his voice.

That had meant a lot to Vic because Livy meant a lot to him. And getting her through this wouldn’t be easy.

“How tall are you?”

Crouching beside the desk, Vic had to lift his head to see who’d spoken to him. It was Kyle Jean-Louis Parker, which was strange. Why was he here? Weren’t most kids in school?

Deciding it was none of his business—and he didn’t really care one way or the other—Vic went back to his work and replied, “Seven-one.”

“Really?”

Vic realized he was missing one of the cables, and he again raised his head to ask Shen to hand it to him, but he found that Kyle was now leaning over the desk and right next to Vic’s face.

Jerking back, Vic snapped, “What are you doing?”

“You have amazing bone structure. Such dramatic lines. Are you of Slavic descent?”

Vic frowned. “You don’t recognize me, do you, Kyle?”

“Should I?”

“I helped save your brother from a cult last year.”

“Which brother?”

“You’ve had more than one brother kidnapped by a cult?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t really pay attention to what the rest of my siblings do. Their lives bore me.”

Shen, who’d been wiring the other side of the room, suddenly stood so he could get a good look at the person Vic was talking to. And as soon as he saw twelve-year-old Kyle, he widened his eyes at Vic.

“So,” Kyle went on, “have you ever modeled before?”

“No. And I don’t plan to start now.”

“You’d be foolish to throw away this opportunity.”

“What opportunity?”

“To be immortalized by
me
.”

Vic had no idea how to respond to that. He’d never met a child with so much arrogance.

“You don’t mind being naked, do you?”

“Livy!” Vic yelled out, not willing to continue this conversation. It could only end badly for him. Very, very badly.

“Believe it or not,” Kyle said, “Livy understands me better than most. She’s an artist. At least as much an artist as anyone who uses a
camera
. But she has an excellent grasp of my sensibilities. My needs. Which is considerably more than the rest of my family understands.”

Kyle’s older brother appeared in the doorway and Vic was so relieved to see the man.

“Did he ask you to pose naked?” Cooper demanded.

“Unlike you,” Kyle sneered, “I’m not constrained by society’s ridiculous norms. Nor have I sold my soul for record deals and an easy career. I believe that
challenge
is what brings out true artistic genius!”

Cooper stepped up behind his brother, dropping his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “Take your brilliance and wait in your room until Livy is done.”

Turning the boy around, Cooper shoved Kyle, but he missed the open doorway and rammed the boy into the wall next to it.

“Sorry, little brother. Total accident.”

Hands over his nose and mouth, the boy glared at his brother. “Liar,” he snarled before walking out of the room.

Cooper faced Vic. “Sorry about my brother.”

“No problem.”

“You guys here to help Livy?”

“Yeah. Cooper, this is Shen Li.”

“His business partner,” Shen volunteered.

“You are not my business partner.”

“Well, not until the contracts are signed.”

Vic decided not to argue with the man now. It was too much trouble.

Cooper closed the office door and asked, “How’s Livy holding up? Really?”

With a shrug, Vic admitted, “At first, she just took off, and the next thing I know, she’s in jail for hitting a cop.”

Cooper grinned. “You could call that Livy’s five stages of grief. Avoidance, followed by indescribable rage, followed by three more stages of avoidance.”

“Not this time,” Vic replied, grabbing one of the duffel bags and pulling out the needed cables. “Now she’s running right into the fray.”

“Look”—Cooper stepped closer, lowered his voice—“we’ll have to watch out for her. Livy’s family doesn’t always have her best interests at heart. Especially when it comes to getting even with people.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

The jackal stared up at him. He looked just like Toni—except for the hair. Hers was kind of a wild curly mess, but Cooper’s was just slightly wavy.

“I’m glad she has someone like you watching her back,” Cooper said. “Livy needs that. She can get in over her head sometimes, hurt innocent people while getting out of that trouble, and although she’d never admit it, end up feeling a little guilty about it all.” Cooper opened the door and stepped into the hallway. “And I’m sure none of us wants to deal with a feeling-guilty Livy, now do we?”

Vic stared at the doorway long after Cooper had walked off, until Shen came up beside him and asked, “Problem with the kid?”

“Which one?”

“The one you’re still scowling after.”

“No. No problem.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You think they ever dated?” Vic asked.

“Who?”

“Cooper and Livy? He seems awfully . . . familiar.”

“Doesn’t she consider Toni’s family
her
family?”

“Yeah. I guess.”

Shen pulled out a short bamboo stalk from his back pocket. “He is good-looking, though,” he said as he chomped. “For a dude. The kind of good-looking that girls like.”

Vic glared at the panda. “You’re just pissed that Kyle didn’t ask you to pose for him.”

“I may not have your cheekbones, but I do have these adorable dimples!”

Livy sat down at the smaller wooden table in the kitchen, right by the window that looked out over the large—for a city—backyard. Melly was still out there and still on the phone.

Her uncle Bart walked in. “Yes,” he said to Livy. “You need to sit. I get us drinks.”

“I don’t need a drink, Uncle Bart.”

“You need drink. We drink in your father’s honor.”

“You know,” Livy had to admit, “his death doesn’t make him less of a bastard.”

Bart chuckled. “Yes. He was that. Just like our father. Another bastard.”

Bart placed two glasses on the table and poured vodka into both. He dropped his substantial bulk into the chair across from Livy. He was not a fat man. Like most honey badgers, his power was in his shoulders and chest. If he were taller, he’d appear less cumbersome, but because of his height, he lumbered when human.

Tapping one knuckle on the table, Bart said, “I know he never say . . . but your father was very proud of you.”

“He thought my being a photographer was stupid.”

“True. You have brains to manage this family. And the ones who manage the family get a cut of the jobs even when they risk nothing. But you, little Olivia, were always . . .”

“Difficult?”

“We are
all
difficult. We are badger. But you were different. Always went your own way. As a baby, you used to watch everyone. Everything. Even then . . . always plotting.” He chuckled again. “Plotting to get out. Get away. Which is okay.”

“It is?”

“Not everyone can live this life. Not everyone should. Some of us have no choice. This . . . it is all we know. All we want to know. And some of us . . .” He gestured out the window and Livy watched Melly hysterically scream,
“Why won’t you love me, you son of a bitch?”
into her cell phone. “Some of us have exactly what we deserve.”

“I didn’t get far away, though. I’m right back with all of you.”

“Do not be foolish, girl. You are not back. You will never be back. But we are still family. And when you need us, you call. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now”—he reached into his jacket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes—“what happened to your father—”

“There’s no smoking in this house, Uncle Bart.”

The cigarette now dangling from his lips, Bart glared at Livy. “A little smoke does not harm
us.
We are badger.”

“It isn’t about us. No smoking. I also don’t want any snakes in this house, either. Absolutely
nothing
poisonous, and nothing bigger than a garter snake, for snack purposes only. And only if that garter snake is dead before it hits the front door.”

“But—”

“I’m just borrowing this house from friends. So please don’t ruin their home.”

“Do not worry. We treat this house like we treat your grandma’s house.”

“You only treat Grandma Kowalski’s house well because she’d shoot her own children in the back with her crossbow.”

“Yes. She would. And we still think she’s more tolerant than you, little Olivia.”

Livy snorted at that—since her uncle was right—and reached for the glass of vodka he’d poured for her. She didn’t drink, just held it in her hand.

Her uncle Bart, however, downed his in one gulp, and poured himself another. “Now, this is what we have planned so far . . . me and your uncles, we stay here. So will Jake and Jocelyn, since you like them.”

“Aunt Teddy?”

“She likes Ritz Hotel, so she will stay there.”

“The Ritz is letting her back in?”

“Jake has given her new identity so that will not be problem.”

“Unless the staff remembers her . . . and something tells me they will.”

“Not our problem.”

Livy agreed. It wasn’t as if her aunt didn’t know how to take care of herself.

“You know,” Livy felt the need to point out, “it won’t be easy finding Frankie Whitlan. The BPC, KZS, and The Group have all tried and failed.”

Bart stared at her. “Who?”

“The bears, the cats, and the rest of ’em.”

“Oh, them. That is because they all have their rules. Honey badgers . . . we have no rules. We will find this Whitlan . . . and we will find anyone who helped him.” He finished off another shot of vodka and poured one more. “You do know, little Olivia, that your father never trusted full-humans. Ever.”

“I know.”

“He only met with them face-to-face when one or all of us, his brothers, could go with him. He said full-humans were traitors to their own, so how could they not be traitors to us?”

“He used to tell me that when I was still in the high chair.”

“And he was right, which is why I know truth.”

“Truth? What truth?”

“Shot in drive-by, thrown out window, found castrated behind strip joint . . .” Bart shrugged. “We would bury Damon’s body again and go about our day. But killed like this . . . hunted . . . like
this
? That would never have happened to your father.”

Livy leaned back in her chair. “What are you saying?”

“I think it was shifter. Shifter lured your father . . . then human killed him.”

“We don’t know that, Uncle Bart. And I don’t want us distracted.”

“Distracted?”

“We are out for Whitlan. And only Whitlan.”

“Someone is hiding him. Helping him.”

“And they’ll suffer. But this isn’t an excuse for the Kowalskis to go on a killing spree. You guys get the information, and we get Whitlan. If, and only if, someone tries to stop us from getting Whitlan, then they pay the price. Understand me?”

Bart smirked, nodded. “Strong-willed. Like your father. You would have made great boss.”

Livy didn’t reply to the compliment. Instead, she looked out the window in time to see Melly screaming, “
I will track you down! I will track you down and
make
you love me!
”

“Don’t worry, little Olivia,” Bart said, patting her hand. “I make sure your aunt Teddy takes little Melly with her.”

Livy smiled at her uncle Bart. “Thank you.”

C
HAPTER
20

I
t was decided over many more glasses of vodka that Livy would go back to work. She would continue on with her daily routine because her uncles didn’t think it was a good idea to involve her in the hell-making of other people’s lives. Although what it really came down to was her family wasn’t sure that Livy’s artistic sensibilities wouldn’t suddenly come into play at the worst time possible. They insisted it wasn’t a lack of trust so much as her not understanding how the Kowalskis liked to do things. Livy, however, understood better than most. It was hard not to when one had grown up with her father.

Still, she didn’t argue the point. Arm twisting wasn’t really her thing. She didn’t enjoy hearing people in pain. She didn’t enjoy making people cry . . . usually. So Livy would happily go back to her day job and let her family do what they had to do.

But what her uncles needed right now was someplace to start. So she led them upstairs and searched the multiple rooms for Vic or Shen.

She found Shen first. Asleep faceup on a bare mattress in one of the small rooms, the giant panda’s body was stretched out across a twin bed, his head and arms hanging over the side, And there was snoring.

“Like giant stuffed toy,” Otto muttered.

Deciding not to wake him up, Livy continued searching. She finally found Vic in one of the bigger rooms, making up the bed.

Livy watched him for a moment. Hospital corners. He was making hospital corners with the sheet. Livy, a known sleep-twister, didn’t bother going to all that trouble with her own sheets.

Shaking her head, she said, “Hey, Vic—”

“Hey.” He was busy smoothing out the sheets, so he didn’t turn around immediately. “I was going to put us in the master bedroom, but Kyle already had it and he’s already turned it into some kind of terrifying art studio. Just FYI, that kid has bones in there. I didn’t look too closely so I don’t know if they’re human or not, but you may want to have Cooper look into that. Anyway, I grabbed this room since it had a king and a bathroom attached, but if there’s another room you want us in, just let me know and”—Vic finally stood and turned—“I’ll make sure to put . . .
you
in there all by
yourself,
” he finished, spotting her uncles standing around Livy. “Because you sleep alone. Yes, you do. Alone is how you sleep.”