Bite Me (40 page)

Tears fell down her cheeks. “Because this is so wrong!”

“But . . . they
shot
you and you didn’t cry. You found your father’s body stuffed and in a woman’s apartment and you didn’t cry. But the bears break your camera and . . . you’re weeping.”

“I don’t understand your point.”

“Okay.” Shen leaned back into the couch, nodded at Vic. “I’m done.”

Livy cleaned up her tears and worked on her camera until an elderly honey badger with a vicious long scar running down one side of her neck slowly made her way past the living room archway, her walking stick tapping against the marble flooring.

“Great-Aunt Li-Li?”

“Don’t mind me.”

“I don’t mind you,” Livy replied. “I just didn’t know you were still here.”

“Well, I am.”

“Why are you still here?”

“Livy.”

“What?”

“Be nice.” Vic leaned in and whispered, “She’s old.”

“Yes. And that doesn’t make her any less mean. So, Aunt Li-Li—” Livy stopped talking, and Vic realized that her great-aunt had disappeared.

“Where did she go?” Shen asked.

Vic shook his head. “Something tells me we probably don’t want to know.”

“We don’t,” Livy promised. “You don’t get to be one step below matriarch of the Yang family without some . . . let’s just call it edge.”

“One step below?”

“Until her mother dies, she’ll be one step below.”

“Her
mother
is still alive?”

“Oh yeah. She’s outlived eight husbands, too.” Livy glanced at Vic. “Some of them even died naturally.”

“You know,” Shen said low to Vic, “you
really
need to stop asking her questions about her family.”

“You’re right, because the answers continue to freak me the heck out.”

Livy walked into the room she shared with Vic. He was in bed, reading a
Star Wars
novel.

“Exactly how high is your geek level?” she asked.

“Pretty high. Is that a problem for you?”

“I just like to know what I’m getting into here.”

Livy walked over to the garbage can in the room and dropped the towel filled with what was left of her digital camera into it.

“Just giving up?”

“Sometimes you have to.” She started toward the bed. “My camera’s fucked.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It could have been worse. They could have done this to my Hasselblad. Then, of course, I would have had to destroy the entire bear nation and all of Russia.”

“Why?”

“Because my Hasselblad rig cost more than your SUV when you bought it new.”

“For a camera?”

“The
best
camera.”

Livy turned away from the bed and toward the bedroom door when she heard a knock. She opened it and smiled up at Vic’s father.

“Hello, Vladik.”

“Hello, beautiful Olivia,” he boomed. The man didn’t seem to have any volume control. “Is my son too busy to see his papa?” He leaned down and said in what he probably thought was a whisper but was still more yelling, “You two were not busy, were you? I hate to interrupt.”

“Papa.”

Vladik walked past Livy, not waiting to see if he was interrupting anything. Just lumbering by as bears liked to do.

“What is the tone?” Vladik asked his son. “I am just glad you found woman. I was a little worried,” he said to Livy. “He is very shy, my handsome son, and his mother and sister coddle him.”

“Papa, please stop talking.”

“I only speak truth. But my little girl”—
Ira’s little?
—“she says she likes you, beautiful Olivia. You are small, but very strong. You will make my son good mate.”

Vic tossed his book across the bed. “Papa!”

“Again with tone! Why tone?”

Vic rubbed his forehead. “Olivia and I are just—”

“Just? Just what? Why waste time with just?”

“Papa, do you
need
something?”

“We leave.”

“Leave?”

“Go.”

“When?”

“Now.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. We have things to do. We came to check to make sure you were safe and that beautiful Olivia had not been killed. You are safe. Olivia is alive. We now go.”

“Are you sure it’s safe? Chumakov—”

“Does not worry me. But don’t you be foolish. You see what he will do.”

“Yeah. All to protect a full-human.”

Vladik snorted. “He does not protect Whitlan to protect Whitlan.”

“What does that mean?”

“It is about honor for him. He has given Whitlan his protection. If he can’t protect Whitlan, his precious honor will suffer. That is all he cares about. Remember that. Now we go. Come say good-bye to your mama.”

Vic slid off the bed while Vladik hugged Livy, which was like being briefly suffocated by a giant.

“Take care, beautiful Olivia.”

“Should I go down and say good-bye to Nova?”

“No,” both males immediately replied.

“I won’t be long,” Vic added sheepishly.

He walked out with his father, closing the door behind him. Livy yawned, pulled off her clothes, and naked, stretched out stomach-down on the bed. She picked up the book Vic had tossed and read the back cover. She barely made it halfway through before she rolled her eyes and tossed the book back onto Vic’s side of the bed.

Vic walked out the front door of Novikov’s house. His mother sat sideways in the rental car, her legs hanging out and crossed at the knees, while she freshened up her lipstick.

Coming down the stairs, Vic stopped by Livy’s honey badger uncles. “Mind not staring at my mother like that?” he asked, trying desperately to keep in mind they were Livy’s blood relatives.

“Your mother is very pretty,” Balt remarked, his brothers smiling beside him.

Vic gave a short roar that managed to shake the house windows and moved the car a few feet.

The smiling turned to badger sneering. “That is annoying, hybrid,” Balt snarled.

“We have no time for this.” Vladik grabbed Balt and Gustav from behind and, ignoring the hissing and claws, tossed them toward the front door, quickly followed by Otto and Kamil. He was reaching for David when that badger held up his hands.

“I can walk, bear. I can walk.”

“Come.” Vladik moved to the car, remotely releasing the Mercedes-Benz trunk. “Take this.”

Vic opened the heavy briefcase, looked in, blinked, gazed at his father. “Seriously?”

“Take it. Use it. You cannot just sit around all day using your tail inappropriately with that She-badger—”

“Papa!”

“—and not do something to help yourselves out of this situation.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Victor,” his mother called out. “Victor, my dear. Come to Mama.”

Vic closed the briefcase and walked around the car to his mother. He crouched down in front of her since he knew she wasn’t about to stand.

“Take this,” she said, touching the case. “Use it.” She lowered her voice to a whisper, “Hide it from badgers. They are nothing but thieves.”

“Mama.”

“I do not mean your little Olivia. She has no distinct criminal record for at least a decade now. That is good. But her family.” She rolled her eyes. “Good luck protecting your wallet.”

Before Vic could ask his mother to stop—or just simply repeat “Mama” with tone—she went on. “The thing you must remember is getting this Whitlan person is just part of what you need to do. If you want to protect your badger, you’ll need to ensure Chumakov is made impotent.”

Vic reared back a bit from his mother. “That doesn’t sound right. Are you sure you’re using the right word?”

“Do not insult me, Victor Barinov. Ungrateful boy!”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Be smart. Take care of this.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Now kiss me so we can go.”

“Where are you going?”

“To do what we can from our end.”

“Which is what, exactly?”

“Why do you question me so?”
his mother bellowed. “It is like you do not trust me!”

“I trust you! I trust you!”

Vic kissed his mother on both cheeks and stood while he was grabbed by his father in one of his all-encompassing hugs, then kissed twice on both cheeks.

“My brilliant, amazing son!” Vladik boomed. “Do not get yourself killed or my rarely seen rage will be unleashed on the entire world!”

“I know, Papa.”

“Good. And you take good care of our little Olivia. Your mother may find her too tiny to be worthy of love—”

“When did I say that?”

“—but I like her. She is good for you and doesn’t appear to find your awkward silences off-putting.”

“Thanks, Papa.”

Vic walked back into the bedroom, a briefcase in his hand. Shen was beside him, but when they saw Livy naked and on top of the comforter, Vic shoved the leering panda out of the room by poor Shen’s face.

“Hey!” Shen yelled through the door. “What was that for?”

“What are you doing?” Vic asked Livy.

“Waiting for you.”

“How about some clothes?”

“I felt like being naked.”

“What do you mean, you felt like being naked?”

“I really don’t know how to make that sentence any clearer.”

“There are people all over the house.”

“My family’s seen me naked. And there are no cubs . . . so I’m not sure what the problem is except you’re jealous that Shen saw my ass.”

“Yes,” Vic replied. “I am jealous he saw your ass.”

“It is a nice ass!” Shen yelled through the door. “You should feel very proud!”

“Thank you!” Livy called back.

Vic yanked the door open, and Livy heard Shen’s big panda feet running away.

“Enjoy that, did you?” he asked, slamming the door.

“I do so like being naked,” she teased. “If I could, I’d walk around naked all day long.”

Vic chuckled. “And if I could, I’d let you.”

Vic placed the case his parents had given him in the closet and stretched out on the bed with his back against the headboard. If Livy noticed the case, she certainly didn’t show it.

“Sorry about my father,” Vic said. “He has no boundaries. Especially when he likes someone.”

“I find his directness refreshing. Like Kyle, without the personality disorder.”

“Kyle doesn’t have a personality disorder.”

“No. He just makes other people have them.”

Vic studied the cover of his book and asked, “My father didn’t . . .”

“Scare me off?”

“You like your space.”

“I like tight spaces, but I don’t like to be crowded and I don’t like to be backed into corners. I don’t feel that way with you. Never have. That’s why I was always in your cabinets. Tight space but no crowding. Which, considering the height and width of your immediate family, is extremely amazing. More importantly, there’s something you keep forgetting.”

“And what’s that?”

Livy placed Vic’s book aside and crawled into his lap, her thighs on either side of his, her arms resting casually around his neck. “I don’t scare. Kyle told me my lack of fear was a sign of my sociopathic nature. I told him that should make him very worried that I would kill him in his sleep. So he stopped saying it.”

Vic laughed and stroked Livy’s naked back. His fingers traced the healed wounds—now scars, he guessed. Some were indented, reminding him of the holes they’d made. Others were raised, keloids. It reminded Vic how close he’d been to losing Livy.

“You make me want to burrow,” Livy told him, her arms moving down to his waist as she snuggled into his chest. “Usually I want to burrow away from people,” she murmured. “You’re the first I’ve ever burrowed
toward.
”

Vic wound his arms around Livy, making sure to keep her close so that she couldn’t see his smile. So that she wouldn’t know, not yet.

Because her words meant everything to him. More than he’d ever thought they would.

C
HAPTER
33

L
ivy woke up swinging, her fist ramming into Vic’s palm, which he was quick enough to raise so that she didn’t hit his face.

“Good morning.”

Livy cleared her throat. “Sorry about that. I dreamed I was fighting rampaging squirrels . . . and Blayne.”

“Were you winning?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She sat up. “You going out?”

“Back to the City.” Vic lowered his head. “I’ve got important work to do.”

“You look adorable when you’re trying to be terrifying.”

“Are you saying I’m not terrifying-looking?”

“No. I’m saying that I find your terrifying look . . . extremely attractive. Should I be worried about where you’re going?”

“No. Just organizing a few things. But there is something you should know.”

“What?”

Vic gave a weird, almost guilty smile, which made her nervous. “Well . . .”

“What?”

“It’s funny you mentioned Blayne.”

Livy scrambled to her knees. “She’s here . . . isn’t she?”

“She wanted to talk to you about the wedding. Since apparently she still plans for you to be the photographer. But, if it helps, Gwen, Lock, and Novikov are with her.”

“You’re not lying to me, are you? She is here. Just to torment me.”