Unless, of course, one scent stood out.
“Brownies,” the kid sighed. “I smell brownies.”
Now Dani’s father lifted his head, but instead of just sniffing, he opened his mouth, pulled his lips back over his teeth and stuck his tongue out. It looked ridiculous, but it was something that tigers did to catch different scents in the wild.
“Dani’s right. Brownies. I think Charlie’s baking.”
With that announcement, father and daughter started toward the kitchen, but Tock grabbed them both by their T-shirts and yanked them back.
“What the hell—”
“Run,” Tock ordered. “Run for your lives.”
Shay and his daughter exchanged confused glances before Shay offered, “Or we could just . . . you know . . . go get a couple of brownies.”
*
Walking through the halls of his New Jersey home, he triple-checked all the windows and the doors. Made sure all his nieces and nephews were safe inside the house. Made sure nothing was on his territory that wasn’t supposed to be there. He wanted to be sure everything was secure.
He had known from the start that today was going to be a bad day, but he hadn’t known it would be like this. Idiots. What had they been thinking? They could destroy everything by trying to kill all their problems at one time on the same day.
He pushed open the door to his den with his lion head and stepped inside.
What had gone down was absolutely insane and put them all in danger. But he’d have to deal with that later. For now, he just had to protect the ones who lived under his roof.
So he’d had the house locked down with everyone safe inside. His siblings were watching every possible entrance. Any entry point where someone could—
He spotted the red dot on the floor and stopped, wanting to pounce on it. Wanting to chase it around the house. But it moved from the floor to his chest. He sat back on his haunches as more red dots hit his chest and, he was sure, his head.
Although there were many intruders in his den right now, he couldn’t see any of them. He couldn’t even smell them, which was strange. He also knew, if they were planning to kill him, he’d be dead by now. But that wasn’t what they wanted. At least not yet.
He looked toward his favorite chair. The one by the window, where he sat and read from actual books made of paper and thread and ink. She sat in that chair now, looking so tiny.
In one hand she had a glass of his favorite scotch. In the other she had a Desert Eagle that, with the right ammo, could easily blow a huge section of his lion head into juicy chunks.
“Giovanni Medici,” Mira Malka-Lepstein greeted him. “It seems you have a little bit of a problem, my friend.”
*
Shay watched as Tock slowly pushed open the swinging door that led into the kitchen. He looked at Dani, but she could only shrug. Because Tock was acting so weird. He’d known her for a little bit now, and she never seemed scared of anything. Especially not baked goods. Who’d be afraid of baked goods?
She leaned into the kitchen and almost immediately pulled back.
“Dear God,” she whispered, hand pressed against her chest.
“Can I just get a brownie?” Shay asked.
“You don’t want to go in there,” Tock whispered. “Stay away!”
“I’m going in,” Dani announced.
Shay wasn’t sure that was a good idea and was about to tell his daughter so, but Tock actually tried to stop Dani, grabbing at her with both hands. But Dani was fast and slippery, and she made it into the kitchen.
“Wow!” he heard his daughter say after a moment.
Panicked, Shay shoved past the door and into the kitchen. He stopped short right next to Dani, taking a moment to look around the giant room.
Every possible clear space had been filled with baked goods. Shay didn’t know how Charlie had had time to make so much stuff. Cookies, cakes, pies, pastries. She was still going, too.
“Hey, Dani,” Charlie said. “Hungry?”
“I was hoping for one of your brownies.”
“Sure.” Charlie came over holding a platter filled with brownies. Different types of brownies. Even blondies.
“Do you have any nut allergies?” Charlie asked.
“No.”
“Good.” Charlie held the platter out and Dani reached for a brownie. “That’s dark chocolate. With walnuts. Do you like dark chocolate?”
“Uh . . . I don’t know.”
“Then try the lighter brownie next to it first. That has pecans.”
Dani took the lighter brownie and took a bite. His daughter closed her eyes and made a low growling sound from the back of her throat.
“Daddy, you have to try one!”
With a closed-mouth smile, Charlie held the plate out to Shay. He didn’t like that smile. It was ridiculously off-putting. But the smell of those brownies . . .
“The dark chocolate one,” she pushed when he started to grab the same kind his daughter had.
“I don’t really like dark—”
God, the way she was staring at him.
“Okay.” He grabbed the dark chocolate brownie instead and took a bite. “Oh, my God,” he gasped, no longer caring about how off-putting Charlie was at the moment. “This is the best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.”
“Thank you.” Charlie looked around. “Where’s everyone else?”
“I think they’re hiding from you,” Dani said. She was still at that age where she just said the truth when asked. Especially when she was in the thrall of delicious brownies, her face and hands already covered in chocolate.
“They’re avoiding me?” Charlie repeated. “Why?”
Shay let his gaze move over all that food out on display before looking back at Charlie and replying, “Who can say?”
*
Tock burst into the bedroom and announced, “I left them both to die!”
“Who?” Mads asked.
“Shay and the kid.”
“Tock!”
“She wanted a brownie!”
“Charlie does make good brownies.”
“What is it with you and those brownies?” Max wanted to know.
“I like a good brownie,” Mads said. “Most people use a mix. But your sister makes them from scratch.”
Tock moved across the room and hugged Ashley. “That’s not all she’s made, though.”
“How bad?” Max asked.
“Dude, she’s filled that kitchen with baked goods. And it’s a really big kitchen. It looks like a bakery.”
Nelle leaned forward. “Should we make a run for it?”
“No!” Stevie pointed at the floor. “We should tunnel our way out.”
“Why are you all acting insane?” Ash asked. “It’s true that Charlie bakes when she’s stressed, but she’s just working through stuff. She’s just trying to figure out what happened to you guys and why and what her next steps will be. The time you have to worry about Charlie is when the first thing she does is grab a knife. We all know that’s when rational thought is not part of the equation. She’s literally just reacting. Reacting Charlie is bad. Baking Charlie is good!”
While the rest of them grudgingly nodded in agreement, Max just stared at Ash. Tock didn’t know why until Ash, staring back at Max, suddenly exploded, “Oh, my God, Max! Cass and I have been together since tenth grade! You’ve come on vacation with us! I spent a week in Switzerland with Charlie and Stevie while you five were doing that heist in Marrakesh! You RSVP’d to our wedding next year! In fact,” she added, “you checked off the steak for your entrée, but then you crossed it out and wrote in lobster, then wrote, ‘Why are you doing paper invites anyway? You should just do this shit online!’ ”