“Fine.”
“Really? Because your bullet holes are still bleeding,” her cousin pointed out. Which was true, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t fine. The wounds were still bleeding because they were healing. Bad blood pouring out so the wounds could heal up without infection. Ahhh. The wonders of being a honey badger shifter.
Not that the healing didn’t hurt. It always hurt to be a honey badger, but Tock would take temporary pain over permanent death any day.
Her cousin helped her clean the wounds and wrap them before finally leaving, briefly pausing at the front door to warn, “You know Savta is involved now, right? I mean . . . more than she was before. And old gal is pissed.”
But Tock wasn’t exactly surprised to hear that. Her grandmother protected their family with an Angel of Retribution approach that she took very seriously. Whatever Mira Malka-Lepstein might feel about Tock’s teammates didn’t matter, because whoever had attempted to kill them had also gone after Mira’s granddaughter. A mistake one simply did not make if one hoped not to have the older honey badger involved.
Once her cousin had gone, Tock packed up her stuff quickly and tossed anything with her blood on it into the trash that would be taken to an incinerator later that afternoon. By the time she was ready, Shay was bounding down the stairs, hair wet from the shower, black T-shirt, sweatpants, and sneakers covering up almost all the scrapes and bumps from the earlier attack.
“Let’s go!” he ordered, heading toward the front door.
Tock grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the couch in the living room.
“Sit.”
“We don’t have time—”
“Sit,” she said again, pushing him down until he was on the couch. “You’re bleeding a little.”
“Dani—”
“Don’t worry,” Tock told him as she dug into the leftover first aid supplies so she could deal with the bleeding scrape on his forehead. “I have eyes on her. She’ll be safe until we get there.”
“Eyes?” Shay lifted his frowning face, gazing right at her. “You called in your family?”
“Something like this . . . They’re going to be involved anyway. Might as well get them involved in a way I can manage. So, I’ve got eyes on your daughter, your mom, and your little brother. And my one cousin who likes dogs is picking up the puppies and the three adults from your house.”
“Seriously?”
“Dani is not going to forgive you if you don’t grab those dogs and bring them along. I don’t want her feeling any panic over this. She’s too young for that.”
He suddenly gripped her wrist, gazed at her with those big green-gold eyes. “Thank you.”
Shay said it so earnestly that Tock had to frown to keep from feeling things. She hated feeling things. Feeling things was just an annoying weakness. She was not weak.
“That’s fine. No big deal.” She cleared her throat. “We STEM daddy’s girls have to look out for each other.”
Tock pulled her wrist away and focused on the wound across his forehead.
“There,” she said, once she’d cleaned and bandaged it. The cut wasn’t that deep, so she hadn’t had to sew it closed. And she couldn’t help but chuckle when she’d first seen all the different shades of bandages in the bag her cousin brought. Her politically correct cousins wanting to make sure there was something that would match Tock’s skin tone. But there were ones light enough to match Shay’s skin tone as well and that was actually kind of cool. “All done. Now you won’t freak your daughter out when she first sees you.”
She looked at her watch. “Let’s get going. We have thirty minutes to—”
Tock stopped talking when Shay took her hand and held it.
“What? What’s wrong?” she asked, worried he might be hiding more serious damage. Then again, he’d been naked until the last five minutes, so she would have seen any additional wounds.
Shay got to his feet, towering over her. She thought he was about to say “Thank you” again and she really didn’t want to hear it. But he just stood there, looking down at her with this intense expression on his face. She had no idea what to make of it until he leaned in.
Leaned in to kiss her.
He didn’t just grab her, though, and pull her close. He leaned in until he was kind of close and then he stopped . . . and waited.
Shay waited for her.
*
He didn’t know why he was doing this. Why he was risking what was turning into a very nice friendship with this move. But he really wanted to do it. He wanted to kiss her. He just needed to know she wanted the kiss as much as he did. He wouldn’t force himself on her. That was not something a woman like Tock would appreciate one bit. She didn’t play games. She didn’t tease. She was just Tock. A dangerous honey badger who had been shot at least seven times and was still standing strong, making sure his daughter was safe.
How could he not want to kiss this woman?
He had to wait, though. He had to wait for her.
“We have to go,” she said, staring back at him.
“I know.”
“We don’t have time for foolishness.”
“I know.”
“We’re on a schedule. That helicopter is not going to wait for us.”
“I know.”
“People clearly want us dead.”
“I know.”
Still . . . he waited.
“So, we should really go.”
“Okay.”
As she stared at him, her entire face abruptly scrunched into what appeared to be a huge frown. Shay had no idea how to read her expression, but he figured it was his cue to walk out the front door.
She pulled her hand away from his, and he started to straighten up until she pressed that same hand against his cheek.
Startled, Shay looked down at Tock again and watched in awe as she went up on her toes. When that wasn’t enough, she slid her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him closer until their lips met.
The first touch shook him hard. Harder than he expected. He could feel that first touch down to his toes. Then she turned her head a little and he opened his mouth. Her tongue slid inside and brushed against his.
That’s when he slid his hands into her curly hair and held her in place as he kissed her back. When he did, she gripped the back of his neck with one hand and his waist with the other.
It was the kind of kiss that seemed to go on forever and not last long enough.
When she finally pulled away, Shay let out a little growl. He didn’t want it to end, but he knew it had to. Because life was unfair.
Brushing her hand against her throat and blinking, Tock said, “We really . . .” She pointed at her watch. “Time,” she said.
Her momentary incoherence gave him tremendous hope.
“Right,” he replied. “Time.”
She pushed away from him and strode toward the door. Shay happily followed.
Chapter 18
Charlie gazed up at the mile-high ceilings and down at the marble floors. This wasn’t some small, overpriced Hamptons summer home for those trying to pretend to be wealthy.
Nope. This was a mansion. A true Dynasty-type TV show mansion for the extremely wealthy. There were at least three floors that she could see from the front of the house, she didn’t know how many rooms, a sweeping marble staircase, and acres of land surrounding the whole thing.