“I didn’t take it,” Charlie said.
“You didn’t?”
“Nope. I ended up teaching our baby sister here how to bake.”
“But you said you didn’t know how to teach people to bake,” Max replied. “That you just knew how to do it, but you didn’t know how to pass any recipes on.”
“Maybe she just didn’t want you to burn down the house,” Nat Malone said.
The kid was deaf, having lost her hearing when she was much younger, but she was pretty good at reading lips. Although with the other Malones, she only used sign language. All the brothers had mastered it so they could communicate with Nat. Tock kind of loved that. Shifters weren’t always the best when one of their own was a little different.
“Where’s Zé?” Charlie asked before Max could respond to her youngest sister by dragging her to the floor and kicking the crap out of her.
“He’s with Stevie and Shen. Stevie wanted to go to her lab to conduct tests on whatever they got from Tock, and I knew you’d want her to have more protection than a goofy panda.” Then she turned to Nat. “I would not burn the house down,” she snapped at the kid. “And why are you sitting in her lap?”
Max hadn’t even known she had another sister until very recently. None of the three sisters had known about Nat. Because their father was the worst. Freddy MacKilligan: con artist, lowlife, impregnator. Just the worst. But Max and her sisters would never hold the sins of the father against the kid because people did that to them all the time. The whole MacKilligan family loathed Freddy so much, they barely acknowledged his daughters’ existence, much less invited them to holiday dinners. Charlie’s mom had done the best she could to raise her daughter and two of his children that were not her own, but then she was killed. Charlie’s grandfather took the three girls in, but his pack didn’t really want them around. When Max graduated from high school and Stevie, just fourteen, had already earned several degrees, they left the pack and started off on their own.
The fact that the three of them had survived still amazed Tock a bit.
“I heard you already did burn the house down,” the kid said to Max, smirking, before wrapping her arms around Charlie’s neck. “And I’m on her lap because I wanted a hug from my big sister!”
Max leaned in close so Nat could see her mouth. “That fire was not due to baking. Now get your hands off my sister!”
“Max,” Charlie warned, “be nice.”
“But . . . but I thought we were all sisters!” Nat said, sniffing, before burying her face in her hands.
Charlie was so busy ordering Max to “Apologize! Apologize right now!” that she didn’t notice Nat giving Max the finger with both hands by pushing her fists into her eyes while raising the middle finger of each hand. All the while, her shoulders shook and she made sobbing sounds.
Dutch quickly stood up and walked out the back door before Max could see how hard he was laughing. Kyle simply got up, put his plate and milk glass in the sink, and headed to his rented space in the basement.
The triplet bears, having helped themselves to all the food they might need for the next ten minutes, grabbed three gallons of milk from the fridge and headed off toward the living room and TV.
“Now!” Charlie bellowed when Max refused to speak.
“Fine. I’m sor—”
“She can’t see you,” Charlie reminded her.
Max rolled her eyes before tapping the kid’s shoulder. Nat slowly looked up at her older sister and patiently waited. Her eyes did look wet, if not as teary as Streep’s would have been. But Streep had a real talent when it came to fake tears. She could turn them off and on like a faucet in a fancy hotel.
Still, not bad for an untrained kid. Good enough, in fact, to fool one sister, and piss the other off.
“I’m sorry if I offended you,” Max said, overenunciating each word just to be a bitch.
“And we’re sisters?” the kid asked. “Forever and ever?”
“Of course, we are,” Charlie said, rubbing Nat’s back with one hand and pointing at Max with the other. “Tell her we’re sisters.”
“Seriously?”
“Max,” Charlie bit out between clenched teeth.
“Yessss,” Max hissed. “We’re sisters.”
“Forever and ever?” Nat pushed, eyes wide and hopeful.
“Oh, come the fuck on!”
Charlie stood, placing the kid on her feet at the same time. “Max Genji Yang-MacKilligan, you be nice to our baby sister!”
“Fine. Forever and ever.”
Nat launched herself at Max, hugging her tight. “You’ve made me so happy!”
“You have a Chinese middle name?” Nelle asked, ignoring everything else. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“Why would I tell you that? So we can bond as two Chinese chicks?”
“Yes!” She gestured to the kid still clinging to an unhappy Max. “Knowing that information could bring us closer together, Max . . . like sisters.”
“I hate all of you.”
Charlie motioned to the food. “You guys take what you want. After that, I’m giving the rest to the bears outside.” She turned away from her sisters and asked, “How are you feeling, Tock?”
Tock was so surprised by the question, it took her a few seconds to reply.
“Um . . . fine?”
“You don’t know?”
“No. I know. I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”
“Yeah. Sure. I’m going to go take a shower.”
“Van Holtz was looking for you,” Max threw in while trying to pry Nat off her.
“What? Why?”
“No idea. But he wants you to call him. I have his card—”
“Later. I need the shower first.” She grabbed a random muffin and walked out. Not a second later, Max and Nat began to struggle, each attempting to drag the other to the ground.
But the floor shook when Charlie slammed her foot down three times in the dining room to ensure everyone could “hear” her warning. The sisters pulled away from each other and Nat backed out of the room, both middle fingers raised at Max, a huge grin on her face and her tongue hanging out.
When she was gone, Mads announced, “If I wasn’t sure about you two being sisters before, Max . . .”
*
Van stopped in the middle of the doorway. “What’s happening here?”
He felt like he was being tricked. That this was an ambush.
“I think we should all talk,” Imani said. “Calmly.”
“Calmly? Really?”
“Niles!” the female greeted. “My old friend.”
“We are not friends, Mira.”
“We’re not enemies.”
He raised an eyebrow at that because both of them knew it was bullshit.
Van and Mira had a very long history. It wasn’t that she’d ever attacked him or hired anyone to attack him. But she did tend to make his job much more difficult. Even now, just seeing her sitting there in her black business suit and low-heeled shoes, legs crossed at the ankles, understated gold jewelry on her wrists and around her neck, simple diamond studs in her ears, and her hair cut in a fashionable bob, he might take her for any other stylish grandmother with a little money in the bank. A woman who loved to play with her grandchildren and make them Sunday dinner while donating to a conservative cause.