Home > In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2)(12)

In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2)(12)
Author: Shelly Laurenston, Charlotte Kane

“There is one thing, though.”

“Which is?”

“My husband has expressed concern about your sisters.”

“If my sisters find out you’ve involved me with this,” Stevie said matter-of-factly, “they’ll kill you and your husband, and the cries of your devastated offspring won’t interrupt their REM sleep one bit. So if I were you, I’d keep my mouth shut.”

“Fair enough.” Dr. Conridge pointed at the piece of paper Shen still held. “When you go to the Behavioral Center, bring your sisters. My contact will want to meet them too. Her name is Dr. Becca Morgan. A trained and highly respected psychiatrist and, I believe, some kind of cat . . . or dog . . . or something. Something furry that can do tricks if I promise her enough treats.”

“How does your husband tolerate you?” Stevie sneered.

“The same way I’m sure this one tolerates you. He ignores the bullshit and focuses on the ass. At least that’s how Holtz has always explained it to me.”

Shen shook his head. “We’re not . . . together.”

“I make him uncomfortable,” Stevie admitted. “He told my sister Max that his penis becomes erect every time I hug him.”

“I said no such—”

But before he could finish, Stevie reached over and grabbed his cheeks. “But look at this adorable panda face! Just so cute!”

Shen gently pushed her away. “I really need you to stop doing that.”

Dr. Conridge suddenly laughed. “Oh, look. His penis does become erect!”

chapter FIVE

Shen had tried to get away. From both Dr. Conridge and Stevie MacKilligan, but he and his company had been hired by the Jean-Louis Parker family. That meant they could assign him to a different child or, in this case, friend, any time they wanted.

Which was exactly what happened.

Kyle graciously offered to stay with his family while Shen “escorted” the ladies to the Manhattan Behavioral Center.

“Why can’t Berg do it?” Shen had asked, not really in the mood to chaperone anyone at the moment. Even the MacKilligan sisters.

“Yeah,” Berg asked, “why can’t I take them?”

In response, Kyle simply pointed . . . up.

And he did that because Stevie was hanging from the hallway ceiling by her claws.

“Oh, come on, Stevie,” Berg had sort of whined. “I thought we’d gotten past this.”

“You’re an apex predator,” Kyle had reminded Berg.

“You’re kidding, right?” Shen had to ask. “Am I the only one who saw her?”

Kyle started to reply but Stevie had unhooked herself from the ceiling and dropped to the ground, startling all three males. Then she was on Shen in seconds, her hand over his mouth, her eyes wide, head shaking.

Not sure what the problem was, Shen had gently pulled her hand off his mouth and asked, “What?”

Up on her toes, she’d glanced over his shoulder and whispered, “Just don’t talk about it. Don’t talk about what you saw. Trust me on this.”

She’d pulled her hand away after that and moved around him, smiling as her sisters had come down the hall.

Now they were driving in silence on their way to the Behavioral Center.

The building had underground parking and the whole complex seemed to be owned and operated by the Behavioral Center. As Dr. Conridge had promised, they were expected. The bear security guard gave a grunt as he lifted the gate. His way of telling Shen to drive on.

Shen parked the SUV and followed the sisters to the bank of elevators. They stepped into the first one and took it to the twelfth floor. A pretty receptionist smiled at them as soon as they walked in.

Shen was fascinated by the reactions of each sister to such an innocent and important—for the company—business move.

Charlie smiled in return, but while she smiled her intense gaze bounced from one side of the room to the other. A predator on the lookout for any danger that might put her weaker Packmates at risk.

Max grinned, but it was the grin of a predator catching sight of prey that had no idea how much danger she was in. The honey badger wanted to “play,” but Shen wasn’t going to let that happen.

And Stevie? She stopped in her tracks, eyes narrowing on the receptionist, expecting the absolute worst from that smile. Seeing all sorts of danger where there was none. That was Stevie’s major problem in Shen’s opinion. She saw no danger where there was danger—like taking Bo Novikov’s wife for her own personal cat toy—and believed there was major danger where there was none. Like with the poor receptionist.

“Dr. MacKilligan?” the female asked Stevie before the sisters could say a word.

Now glaring at the woman—and Shen knew it was because she was trying to figure out how the woman knew her name . . . so smart and yet so honey badger—Stevie started to bare a fang, but Shen leaned past her and said, “Yes. This is Dr. MacKilligan.”

“Excellent. Dr. Morgan is waiting for you, Dr. Mac—”

“We’re all coming,” Charlie abruptly cut in.

Max, who was in mid-sit on one of the couches, a recent copy of Rolling Stone in her hand, sighed loudly before straightening and tossing the magazine aside.

“That’s not necessary, Charlie,” Stevie stated quietly.

“Together or we all leave,” Charlie insisted.

“Don’t argue with her,” Max said, heading off down the hall. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Wrong way,” the receptionist called out, smirking when Max spun around and came back, crossing by the desk and heading down the other hallway.

“Get that look off your face,” Max warned, “before I rip it off your head.”

Charlie and Stevie followed Max, and Shen went to a couch and dropped on it.

The receptionist, still smirking, asked, “Would you like some bamboo tea, sir?”

He grinned at the fox. “That would be awesome.”

* * *

Dr. Becca Morgan sat across from the three females who’d come to her office.

Conridge, an old associate she’d never have called a friend, but whom she understood well because prodigies and geniuses were one of her specialties, had warned her that the two women would invite themselves into the appointment.

“They are very protective of their sister.”

She understood. Child prodigies—former and current—often had protective families. Usually the parents but sometimes siblings or a spouse. Even when the prodigy was grown up, almost an elderly adult, they often had some relative fluttering around them, attempting to protect the genius from themselves. Totally understandable.

But as the eldest—who seemed to speak for the group— gave the backstory of her youngest sister while the middle sister sat there, studying Becca’s office with curious, plotting eyes, and the youngest kept her eyes completely shut while she softly chanted something to herself the entire time, Becca realized this was not a simple case of “former prodigy with protective family.”

Not even close.

This was something completely different that needed her immediate attention.

As much as she hated to admit it, Conridge had been right when she’d said, “Trust me on this . . . you’re going to love this one.”

* * *

“And that’s it,” Stevie heard Charlie say to Dr. Rebecca Morgan, a psychiatrist with an impressive reputation and a list of books that she’d written or cowritten that could fill an entire bookstore shelf. She was a much respected practitioner with degrees from Wellesley, Harvard, and Columbia. Plus a Rhodes Scholarship. “And that’s it?” Dr. Morgan repeated back.

“Yes.”

There was a moment of silence, but Stevie barely noticed it because she was busy reciting the chant she’d been using the last few weeks: “Please don’t eat me. Please don’t eat me. Please don’t eat me.”

She was chanting it to herself because she’d found it was the only thing that kept her from screaming and running out of the room anytime she had to be around bears she didn’t know. She didn’t mean to be scared of fellow shifters. She didn’t want to be this scared of them, but she couldn’t help it.

Grizzlies and polar bears were known maneaters. Something Stevie simply couldn’t get past. That at any moment, they could shift to their animal form and pop her in their mouths like a Tootsie Roll! Unless she shifted herself and destroyed the entire building.

A situation that also wouldn’t end well for her.

“What is she doing?” Dr. Morgan asked.

“She’s chanting,” Max replied. “She’s afraid of you.”

“Me?”

“You’re a bear. And bears eat people.”

“So do tigers.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Okay,” Dr. Morgan suddenly announced and Stevie heard something hit the floor. It sounded like Dr. Morgan’s feet.

Had she been sitting at her desk with her feet up while Charlie had been telling their story? Was that normal for a mental health expert?

“First,” Dr. Morgan went on, “open your eyes, Dr. MacKilligan. Now.”

Stevie managed one eye.

“Both eyes, Dr. MacKilligan,” Dr. Morgan insisted.

It took a few seconds, but Stevie did it. Making her kind of proud of herself.

All six feet, three inches of Dr. Morgan still sat behind her desk, her arms on the wood, her fingers interlaced. Brown and gold hair reached below her ears without any real style to it. In fact . . . she might just cut her hair herself. Her glasses didn’t look like the latest style either. They were just big, which probably made it easy for her to read lots of books and paperwork. But they made her already big brown eyes look even bigger. She had to be nearing sixty, but she was a very healthy and strong nearly-sixty-year-old.

“Let me see if I understand this,” the psychiatrist began. “All three of you ladies are half-sisters because your father is, to use your words, Ms. MacKilligan, ‘a whore that can’t stop fucking anything that moves.’ When you were still adolescents, your mother”—she gestured to Charlie—“and the woman who adopted you two”—she gestured to Max and Stevie—“was brutally murdered in front of all of you. Forcing you three ladies to make a desperate run for your lives, by yourselves, across country, to get to the safety of a wolf Pack that really only tolerated you two.” Again, she gestured to Max and Stevie. “Because of your father, all three of you have had to protect each other, and sometimes—I’m assuming based on the vagueness of your wording, Ms. MacKilligan—you’ve killed people.”

   
Most Popular
» Nothing But Trouble (Malibu University #1)
» Kill Switch (Devil's Night #3)
» Hold Me Today (Put A Ring On It #1)
» Spinning Silver
» Birthday Girl
» A Nordic King (Royal Romance #3)
» The Wild Heir (Royal Romance #2)
» The Swedish Prince (Royal Romance #1)
» Nothing Personal (Karina Halle)
» My Life in Shambles
» The Warrior Queen (The Hundredth Queen #4)
» The Rogue Queen (The Hundredth Queen #3)
romance.readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024