Wolf with Benefits (36 page)

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Great.” She motioned to the rink. “Come on. I’ll give you the list while I’m setting up for morning practice.”

“Okay.” Toni worked hard to not audibly sigh. It was a big drop to go from negotiating with Russian bears to cleaning up the coach’s office, but it made Toni even more determined to impress Cella Malone. She
would
impress her.

Toni followed Cella into the rink, swinging her backpack around so that she could pull out a notepad and pen to take notes. But as she stumbled to a stop, digging into her bag trying to find her stupid notepad, she heard banging. A weird banging.

Toni looked up and blinked, her mouth dropping open a little in surprise.

Because the entire Carnivore team was on the ice in their hockey gear, including their home jerseys, banging their sticks against the ice while the office staff, including her assistant Kerri, and the team’s current staff photographer, Livy, stood outside the ice clapping and cheering.

Reece Lee skated across the ice, his arms behind his back. When he reached the very edge of the ice, which was right next to where Toni stood on the carpeted floor, he stopped and brought his arms around. He held two dozen roses wrapped in cellophane in one hand and a box of expensive chocolates in the other. He grinned at her and winked.

With shaking hands, Toni took the gifts and Reece skated backward. That’s when he howled and the rest of the team joined in. Except each player did their own thing. So the room filled with roars, growls, howling, and violent hissing. She didn’t even realize she was crying until the tears hit her bare forearm.

Cella slung her arm over Toni’s shoulders and hugged her in close. “After the way you fucking rocked in Russia, little girl, you better start getting your family ready. Because the Carnivores are not letting you go anytime soon.” Cella shook her head and added with a laugh, “And Ivan Zubachev called and, after praising you to heaven and back, he wanted to know if you were single.”

That made Toni laugh until Ricky, standing next to her, said, “Nope. She’s not.”

Both Toni and Cella looked at him, and the wolf shrugged. “What? You’re not.”

T
oni couldn’t believe how busy her day turned out to be. She had meeting after meeting, and a bunch of phone calls to handle. Yeah. Sure. Everyone was really impressed with what she’d done in Russia, but now they expected her to keep impressing them.

She didn’t know if she could manage that. Maybe the Russian negotiations were just a fluke. And she had had Vic Barinov’s help, hadn’t she? So she’d need to tread carefully to make sure she really deserved all the attention she’d gotten today.

Well, if nothing else, being so busy meant her workday had flown by. It was already four o’clock and she was ready to head home, check on the kids, and order dinner before Ricky’s mother showed up.

Toni peeked over at Ricky Lee. He’d sat in that chair all day, taking phone calls and remotely working on other jobs for his security company. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to mind being stuck here with her. That was good. She didn’t know if she could keep him entertained when she kept having to answer e-mails from Bo Novikov every couple of hours asking about team travel.

“You ready to go?” she asked.

“Yep.” He and Vic Barinov, who occasionally left the office to do a “sweep of the area” as he called it and get coffee and more food than seemed natural from the food court, stood.

That’s when Livy walked into the office, a tablet computer in her hand.

“Hey, hey.”

“Hey.” Toni smiled at her friend. “Where did you go? I haven’t seen you since this morning.”

“I wanted to finish this up.”

Livy put the tablet in front of Toni and touched the screen. Toni’s face lit up. “Oh!” Then her smile began to fade. “Oh.” The smile faded completely, replaced by a frown. “Oh . . . my God!
Why are they naked?
”

Ricky and Vic practically sprinted across the room to see what Toni was looking at.

“Good Lord!” Ricky stepped back from her desk. “Why am I looking at my brother’s penis?”

“What’s wrong?” Livy asked. “This is some of my best work that didn’t involve getting shot at.”

“So to speak,” Vic mumbled under his breath.

Toni flicked through the other photos. They were mostly in black and white, but some were in color but just gave the illusion of being black and white. Each player was beautifully lit, showing off every muscle and vein. Yes. This was some of Livy’s best work.

And completely useless for Toni’s needs!

“What am I supposed to do with this, Livy?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I needed team pictures for the fans. For the kids. Not boudoir pictures for their wives.”

“Come on, these are—”

“Useless to me!” Toni leaned in closer. “I don’t even know who this is. He’s headless!”

“He has kind of a ‘butta’ face.”

Barinov snorted a laugh at Livy and walked back to his chair. “What’s so funny?” Livy snarled at him.

“Do I really have to tell you?”

Toni stood up and she did something she’d never done before. She made demands.

“Fix this,” she ordered her friend.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean”—Toni faced Livy—“fix. This. I don’t want your bullshit art. I don’t want moody lighting. I want amazing,
useful
pictures of the team. That’s what I’m paying you for. Remember? Check out
Sports Illustrated
for ideas or something.”

“Sports Illustrated,
Livy.
Not
Mapplethorpe. Mapplethorpe is not and should not be your inspiration for what I want for this job. Do you understand me?”

Livy looked off and Toni snapped her fingers in her friend’s face. “Do you?”

“Yes. I understand you.”

Toni grabbed her backpack, swung it onto her shoulder. “I’m heading home. Talk to Kerri about setting up new appointments with the team.”

“Fine.”

Toni stopped. “If you can get releases from the guys, I’d suggest using these for an art show.”

“I don’t care what my brother signs,” Ricky said, pulling the office door open and holding it for Toni. “I better not see his naked ass or penis on anyone’s damn wall.”

Livy’s eyes crossed and she swiped her tablet off the desk. She stormed out, pushing past Ricky.

Shaking her head, Toni followed. As she walked past Ricky, she complained, “Artists.”

 

While sitting on the couch in the Jean-Louis Parker living room, Cooper stared at his sister. “You need me to do
what
?”

“I need you to play in Siberia.”

“Why?”

She cleared her throat, clearly uncomfortable with asking her brother for this favor. “Because I promised the bears you’d go out there and play for them.”

“They’re real big fans,” Ricky told him. “Once they realized Toni was your sister, they couldn’t help her enough.”

“Can’t they just come to Moscow or Saint Petersburg to see me . . . like everyone else in Russia?”

“I promised.”

“You promised without asking me. You used my name to get what you want.” He wiped a non-existent tear. “I’m so proud.”

“Oh, shut up!”

“Maybe Kyle’s right. You’d make a great business manager for him.”

“Is that a yes or a no?”

“It’s a ‘my agent will handle it.’ ”

“They’ll want dinner with you.”

Coop snorted, elbowed Ricky. “Great. Dinner with bears. I know that’s something I love to do.”

“You do it in Italy all the time.”

“Do you know how the Italian bears eat? Like gods, big sister. Like gods.”

Toni and her brother laughed. Ricky didn’t even think they noticed when Dee-Ann silently entered the room and stood behind the couch. But they did. Both immediately stopped in mid-laugh and slowly looked over their shoulder.

“Hi, Dee-Ann,” Toni said, trying to smile.

“Hey.”

“Is there a problem?”

“Nah. That badger around?”

Toni quickly looked at Ricky, her eyes wide.

“Why?” she asked Dee.

“Yeah,” Ricky chimed in, “why?”

“Ain’t your never mind, Ricky Lee.”

“I will not never mind if this is about Laura Jane.”

“Laura Jane’s on her way home. Your momma handled that right quick.”

“She did?”

“Yep.”

Ricky was surprised. His mother had arrived at the Jean-Louis Parker house less than an hour after Ricky and Toni. She hadn’t said another word about Laura Jane. But she had come with groceries, planning to make her famous fried chicken. Jackie had told her it wasn’t necessary, but his momma wouldn’t hear it. She’d been busy in that gourmet kitchen ever since.

“Besides,” Dee added, looking around the room, “some of those lacerations that badger gave her had gotten infected.”

Ricky cringed at that. He didn’t want Laura Jane to suffer or anything, he just wanted her to forget he’d ever existed since he was sure she didn’t really care about him.

“Anyway,” Dee went on, “y’all see her, tell her I need to talk to her. Ya hear?”

“Okay.”

With that, Dee-Ann ambled out of the room and Ricky’s momma walked in. She had a paper grocery bag in her hands and it smelled delicious.

“Here,” she said, handing the bag to Ricky.

“What’s this?”

“Your dinner and dessert. Y’all get now.”

“Get now?” Ricky looked at Toni and she shrugged. “What are you talking about?”

“It seems Miss Antonella has her own apartment. I think it’s high time she learns to enjoy it. And her momma and daddy agreed with me.”

“But I thought we were all having dinner together,” Toni said, getting to her feet.

“We’ll do that. For now, I think y’all need some time away from these kids.”

Toni blinked, her head tilting. “Why don’t I hear them?” she asked.

“I’ve been keeping them busy making cookies.”

“You kept
my
brothers and sisters busy making cookies? Really?”

“It wasn’t that hard. I just had Dennis and Kyle design the look of the cookies—told them to try and outdo each other—while Oriana analyzed the fat content and tried to come up with a less fattening cookie, and I got Troy to help her with that by dealing with the actual percentages. Cherise monitored them all and the twins watched and tried to sneak licks of the batter. See? Easy.”

But before Ricky could congratulate his momma on her skills managing the kids, Toni beat him to it, suddenly racing over to Tala and hugging her.

“Oh, Miss Tala! Thank you!”

Tala chuckled and patted the She-jackal’s back. “Good Lord, you’re just like your momma.”

Reece walked into the room. “Hey. When are we gettin’ to eat?” he began, but Toni turned on him like a snake.

“You be nice to your mother!” she roared at him, one finger pointing.

Reece stumbled back. “I was just asking a question, woman!”

“Ask it nicer!” She hugged Tala again. “This woman is a saint. A saint! And you boys don’t forget it or I’ll come down on you like the wrath of God!”

Reece shrugged and whined,
“But I’m hungry!”

 

They walked into Toni’s apartment. Sitting on the side table by the door was a small stack of mail.

“I’m already getting mail here?” she asked him.

“Seems so. And someone to bring it in.”

She looked around, sniffed the air. “I smell Lysol. I think I have a maid.”

“I’m sure you do.”

Ricky headed into the dining room and set the food out. By the time he went into the kitchen and retrieved plates, glasses, and silverware, Toni was sitting at the table pulling things out of envelopes.

“What’s all that?” he asked as he put down place settings.

“The lease for this place. Ric wants me to sign it. It’s apparently a rent-to-own.”

Ricky flinched. “I’m afraid to ask how much that’ll cost ya.”

Toni didn’t answer, just stared.

“You’re kidding?” he asked. “That cheap?”

“I could put it on a credit card.” When Ricky’s mouth dropped open, Toni giggled and said, “I’m kidding. It’s not that bad. But . . . Ric is definitely charging a hell of a lot less than he probably should.”

“You’re family, darlin’. What did you expect him to do? Charge you a bazillion dollars?”

“Yes. I did.”

She took in a deep breath, eyes closing. “Man, that chicken smells
amazing
.”

“My momma’s award-winning fried chicken. And you’ll hear that award-winning part more than you want to.”

“It smells like she has a reason to be proud.”

“I hope she gave us enough to have cold chicken tomorrow. Nothing is better than her next-day fried chicken with a couple of cold beers.”

Grinning, Toni stepped closer to Ricky. “How about her couple-hours-later fried chicken?”

Ricky returned her grin and wrapped his arm around her waist, tugging her closer. “That might be the
best
way to eat it.”

He leaned in and Toni could already taste him on her lips, feel his hands on her body. Until ...

“Dinner ready?”

Snarling, Toni spun on her best friend. “Livy!”

“What? I’m hungry.”

“You’re not staying here.”

“You were serious about that?”

Toni started to head over to her friend, but Ricky kept his grip on her, pulled her back to his side.

“Dee-Ann’s looking for you,” he told Livy.

“Dee-Ann who?”

He scratched his head. “Smith.”

“Oh. Why?”

“No idea.”

“And did you attack Laura Jane Smith?” Toni asked.

Livy gazed at Toni. “Who?”

“The She-wolf you attacked a few days ago?”

“You’ll have to be more specific than that.”

“I think my brother was involved,” Ricky said.

Livy thought a moment. Nodded. “Oh. Yeah. Okay. I think I know who you mean.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

Toni growled a little, then asked, “Why did you attack her?”

Livy had to think on that for a second, as if she attacked so many people during the day, she couldn’t just recall them easily. “It was time for his appointment with me and she was in my way. Plus,” she added, “I didn’t like her face. So I slapped it around.”

Ricky studied the woman closely. “So, Livy . . . what are you?”

He expected her usual, “None of your business response,” but this time she was as direct with her answer as she was direct with her beat downs.

“Honey badger.”

“Ahhhh.” He nodded. “Explains everything.”

Then Ricky had to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Toni asked.

“Laura Jane pissed off a honey badger,” he said, unable to hide his smile. “It really doesn’t get any better than that.”

Toni put her arm around his shoulder. “It really doesn’t.”

 

Dee-Ann disconnected the call and walked into her house.

Irene had been right about one thing. This break-in to the Jean-Louis Parker house hadn’t been . . . minor, but that was all she knew. That there was activity among her full-human brethren. Stone-cold killers like herself who did specialized work for the government. These were not people to fuck with. But if they wanted someone dead, they would have moved by now. So death wasn’t what they wanted. It was something else.

And she was going to find out what it was and end it. Because Dee-Ann got a little cranky when pups and cubs were involved. That had always been the line she never crossed when she was in the Marines and definitely not now. Even if it was hyena pups, deadly from birth, she waited until they were at least in their early twenties before she considered taking them on.

Dee walked into her living room.

“I—” was the only word Dee heard before she’d pulled her .45, spun, dropped down to one knee, and locked on her target.