Bite Me (12 page)

Vic was surprised that Livy had gone to Chicago. As far as he knew, she had no connections there. No family. But after a little digging, he found out that the Kowalskis and Yangs had safe houses all over the States and a lot of other countries. Where those safe houses were specifically located, though, Vic couldn’t find out.

Yet he still found it strange that Livy had sought out her family. For as long as he’d known her, she never went to her family for anything. If she needed help of any kind, she went to Toni or Toni’s parents. No one else seemed to be of use to her. Including Vic.

He’d tried calling her, texting her, e-mailing her . . . everything. And Livy never once called him back. He had no idea what she’d seen in that apartment or why she wasn’t talking to him. But hearing from Shen that she was back did make him feel a little better.

Vic got out of bed and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

“Do you even know where she’s going?” Shen asked.

Vic stopped and faced the panda. “I have no idea.”

“I checked your cabinets before I came up here . . . no Livy.”

Disappointed to hear that, Vic said, “I’ll try the Sports Center first.”

“Good plan. You also going to give Dee-Ann a heads-up about what’s going on?”

Vic thought on that a moment before deciding, “Probably not.”

“Probably also a good plan. That woman terrifies me.”

Livy walked into the private dining room of the Van Holtz Steak House in Midtown and dropped into one of the chairs around the big table.

There were already six people in attendance. Blayne, Gwen, two older felines, plus the future grooms, Lock MacRyrie and Bo Novikov, whom Livy knew through her work with the Carnivores hockey team.

Blayne waved at Livy from across the table but before she could speak, the wedding planner, a She-tiger whom Livy had heard was the mother of Cella Malone, leveled bright gold eyes on Livy.

“Well, well. If it isn’t the overpriced wedding photographer. Glad you could join us.”

“Barb,” Blayne said to the feline. “You promised to be nice.”

“I don’t like it when my clients are taken advantage of.”

“Livy would never take advantage of me! She’s one of my closest friends!”

Barb shook her head. “Blayne, you say that about everybody.”

“Because it’s true.” She grinned. “People love me.”

“I can’t believe you’re okay with this female’s outrageous cost, Bo.”

“I know she’ll be on time,” Novikov said flatly. “That makes her worth every cent. Now if I could just get the rest of this wedding on some kind of schedule—”

“This is going to be fun, Bo,” Blayne argued. “I’m not turning it into some kind of nightmare event so you can feel we’re on time.”

“I don’t think I’m asking for a lot for this thing to at least start at a certain time.”

“This
thing
is our wedding.”

“It sounds like it’s going to be complete chaos. Chaos!”

Livy didn’t really pay attention to the bickering. Instead, she was busy staring down the She-tiger across the table. The lioness beside her—Gwen’s mother, whom Livy had met at one of the derby bouts—watched silently, but Livy could tell she was happily anticipating a good fight.

“You’re being unreasonable!” Blayne yelled at her mate.

“
I’m
being unreasonable? By expecting some order out of what’s quickly turning into an insane event?”

The She-tiger, still staring at Livy, suddenly raised an eyebrow. A move that Livy found . . . offensive.

So, in a calm, reasonable way, Livy scrambled across the table, her fangs out, her claws leaving gouges in the shiny wood.

She nearly had all those fangs and claws embedded in the roaring She-tiger’s face when big grizzly bear arms wrapped around Livy and yanked her off the table. Lock, like most grizzlies, was surprisingly fast and smart, pinning her arms to her sides so that she couldn’t claw at him or anyone else.

As Livy hissed at the She-tiger, and everyone stared at her, Bo Novikov nodded his head. “Livy’s right. This meeting is taking too long.”

Now everyone looked at Novikov, watching as the seven-one hockey player stood up. “I’ve got training.”

He walked out and Livy decided that was a good idea, too. She pulled away from MacRyrie. Picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

“Send me a schedule of when you’ll need me there,” she told Blayne and Gwen. Then she walked out of the restaurant.

Once outside, Livy debated where she should go next. The fact that she hadn’t been able to get into it with that She-tiger left her feeling . . . empty.

So Livy did the most unreasonable thing she’d done in a very long time . . . she went home.

C
HAPTER
10

L
ivy pushed on her apartment door. She had to push hard . . . because there was a body in front of it.

Using her shoulder, she shoved and one of her cousins finally rolled away, allowing Livy to walk in.

She stepped over bottles of beer, wine, vodka, and whiskey; nearly empty bags of junk food; and puddles of vomit and blood. Yet Livy didn’t understand just how bad this party had gotten until the king cobra slithered across her feet.

They’d brought in poisonous snakes. A honey badger–shifter delicacy, which Livy wasn’t against now and then. Yet she was relatively certain her neighbors didn’t want to go to their bathrooms to find king cobras slithering out of their toilets.

Livy walked through her living room and down the short hallway to her kitchen. She stopped in the doorway. Melly was passed out on the floor, a half-eaten puff adder lying across her stomach.

Crouching down beside her cousin, Livy gently pushed the hair out of Melly’s face. “Melly? Honey? Can you hear me?”

Slowly, Melly opened her eyes, looked up at Livy. She smiled.

That was when Livy punched her in the face.

Melly came up swinging, dragging Livy to the floor with her. The rest of Livy’s cousins roused themselves from their drunken stupor to try to separate them.

Completely sober, however, Livy was able to push her cousins off and grab hold of Melly by the front of her dress. She lifted her cousin up and dragged her, kicking and screaming, to the bathroom.

By the time Livy had the toilet seat up and Melly’s head shoved under the water, the rest of her cousins had Livy by the arms and hair and were pulling her back.

Melly jumped away from the toilet, black-and-white hair dripping wet, gasping for air. Then she came at Livy.

Yanking her arms away from the hands holding her, Livy rammed into her cousin. Snarling and hissing, they battled their way out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, across the bedroom, next to the bedroom window . . . and eventually
out
of the bedroom window.

Still fighting, the pair fell the sixteen flights until they landed hard onto the roof of a black-and-white sedan. Livy landed on her back, but she quickly flipped over, pinning Melly underneath her by holding her cousin’s arms down with her knees.

Far away, Livy heard raised voices yelling at her as she pummeled her cousin repeatedly on the face and neck, but she chose to ignore all that.

Finally, hands grasped Livy and yanked her back.

Someone leaned in and tried to help Melly. It took a second for Livy to realize it was a cop. Whether Melly even realized that, Livy didn’t know. She just knew her cousin started swinging at him while screeching,
“Let me at that cunt! Let me at that cunt!”

“You little
weak
bitch,” Livy hissed, a greater insult not known to the honey badgers.

“You ungrateful whore!”

“
I’m
ungrateful?”

“A
weak,
ungrateful whore!”

Livy yanked her arms away from whoever was holding her and dove at her cousin. She took her, and the cop holding Melly, down hard.

Far away, Livy heard raised voices yelling at her again as she pummeled her cousin repeatedly but, also again, she chose to ignore it.

“Vic! Vic!”

Vic turned around, but all he saw were the oversized, treelike sports guys walking toward him. But amid all that bulk was a raised arm waving.

He waited until the guys moved past him, a few stopping in front of him, expecting Vic to move instead, but he wasn’t about to move for anyone. Especially not hockey players, a sport he simply did
not
understand on any logical level.

Once the players cleared, Vic was able to see Toni rushing up to him. And ambling behind her, Ricky Lee.

“I’m so glad I found you,” Toni said when she reached Vic, her hand resting on his arm.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need your help.”

“Sure.”

“I need to go to Russia. Now.”

“Well—” he began, quickly searching for an excuse that would get him out of making a trip back to Russia as part of Toni’s security team. He still hadn’t found Livy, and until he knew what had happened to her, he wasn’t about to go anywhere. But he also didn’t want to alarm Toni by telling her that Livy had gone missing.

“But I just got a call,” Toni went on, a bit of panic in her voice. “Livy’s in jail.”

Shocked, Vic demanded, “What? What the hell happened?
When
did that happen?”

“It doesn’t matter. I just need to get her out.”

“No problem. I’ll post bail.”

Toni frowned, confused. “No, no. I need
you
to go to Russia.
I’ll
get Livy out of jail.”

Vic studied Toni a moment before turning his gaze to the wolf standing behind her.

Reed gave that annoying grin of his, which told Vic the woman was serious.

“You want
me
to handle negotiations with those Russian bears for a sport I don’t even respect?”

“Of course not,” she said, exasperated. And they’d only just started this goddamn conversation. “Just stall them until I get there.”

“I see. And that makes sense . . . how?”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“You want me to go to Russia to
stall
bears while you bail Livy out of jail rather than you going ahead to Russia and letting
me
pay her bail? How is that remotely logical?”

“Because I manage Livy when she gets into trouble.”

“No. You manage those ridiculous meatheads who fight while skating. You also manage your terrifying siblings. Livy you do
not
manage. Nor should you, since she’s a grown woman.”

“You say that, but where is she? Jail!”

“I didn’t say she was a grown woman who made good decisions. But I’m not about to take a seventeen-hour flight just so I can stall a bunch of cranky Russian bears while you bail your friend out of jail so you can then lecture her about how bad it is for her to go to jail.”

“I can’t believe you’re being so unfeeling!”

“Unfeeling because I’m simply not giving you what you want?”

“That’s exactly what I mean!”

Chuckling, Reed put his arm around Toni’s shoulders. “I know you don’t wanna hear it, darlin’—”

“No!” Toni snapped. “I don’t.”

“But Vic here is right. This deal is too big for you to walk away. You’re about to sign the most important deal this team has ever had. You don’t want to risk that.”

“But I’m
not
walking away. I’m just asking Vic to—”

“No,” Vic said calmly. “I’m not going to Russia. Not for this. Zubachev is expecting you, but if
I
show up?” Vic shook his head, thinking of the Russian shifter team owner’s reaction to that little change in his schedule. Ivan Zubachev, like most grizzlies—Russian or otherwise—was just not good with change. Any change. Ever. “I’d rather set myself on fire, Antonella.”

Toni stomped her foot, most likely ready to argue the point until she “accidentally” missed her plane. At least Vic was sure that was her subconscious plan.

“Vic—”

“Forget it, Toni,” Vic cut in, unwilling to continue this argument. Instead, he patted Toni’s head. His hand was big, so he pretty much covered her entire head and a good portion of her face. “It’s all right, little canine. I’ll take care of your friend for you.”

Toni slapped off Vic’s hand. “It’s not that easy, you know.”

“I’m sure it’s not,” Vic said as he walked away, choosing to ignore what he secretly called her “dog yapping.” He had to; the feline in him wanted to start clawing at things when her voice got so unbearably yippy. And absolutely no one wanted him to unleash his claws.

Toni continued to yell at him as he walked away, but he still refused to listen. He’d take care of the problem. What more could the damn woman want?

But once he was in the elevator, Toni’s hand slammed against the open door to keep it from closing. “You can’t just walk away,” she told him.

Vic pulled out a box of bamboo sticks that he always kept on him in case Shen ran out. The container resembled a pack of cigarettes but the marketing read “Bamboo for the Giant Panda on the GO!”

“Now,” Toni went on. “What you’ll need to do is—”

Vic tossed the box a few feet away. Toni stopped talking, looked at the box, and back at Vic, her eyes narrowing in warning. “I’m a jackal, Barinov,” she snarled. “I’m not some stupid Labrador retriev—”