“What did you want them to do?” Mads asked.
“Not shift into tiger. Even their idiot cousins didn’t do that.”
Mouths full of food, the three tiger males turned on their high stools and glowered at Rutowski.
“What?” she demanded. “Each of you is nearly a thousand pounds and more than seven feet tall. Even in fucking Manhattan that’s not going to be ignored.”
With an angry snarl, Keane got off the stool, shifted to tiger, shook off his clothes, and charged out the open double doors.
The wolves outside barked and growled at the sudden invasion of big cat, but—wisely—scattered so that the cat could make his way around the compound on his own.
Sighing, Finn followed his older brother. “I’ll keep an eye on him,” he said to Shay before shifting and running out.
Grabbing several more Danish and a paper towel, Shay also walked out. As human and in the opposite direction from his brothers. Tock guessed he wanted to check on Dani.
“That went well,” Nelle sneered.
“I am not here to baby a bunch of cats,” Rutowski snapped back.
“They haven’t done anything wrong,” Streep argued, rubbing her sore chest through the fabric of her T-shirt.
“They wouldn’t let it go.”
“They wouldn’t let what go?” Mads asked, but she only got a raised brow from her aunt. “You mean the death of their father?”
“The murder of their father,” Max amended.
Tock folded her arms over her chest. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“That’s what I’m waiting to find out.”
“From the Group?” When she only got another raised brow . . . “My grandmother? You’re working with my grandmother? You have to be kidding.”
“Don’t get your titties in a vise.”
“Ew. What?”
“We’ve been working with your grandmother for decades. She already knows us.”
“ ‘Working with,’ ” álvarez said with finger quotes, “is a generous way to describe our relationship with Mira, Trace.”
“That’s true. But only because that woman does know how to hold a grudge.”
“So you work for Mossad?”
Rutowski and her friends burst out laughing.
“Fuck no!” álvarez finally said when she could manage to speak.
“We don’t really have an affiliation with anyone,” Yoon added. “We’re what you would call . . . independents.”
“We had a lot of impact, though,” Rutowski added. “I mean, do you really think the Berlin Wall just came down due to the desire of the German people and the end of the Cold War?”
Tock looked at her teammates and, together, they replied, “Yes.”
“No,” she immediately replied. “It was us. It’s amazing how much damage four honey badgers can do to a concrete foundation when they keep burrowing under it to escape into and out of East Germany.”
“Why were you escaping into East Germany?” Tock asked.
The four older honey badgers studied her with narrowed eyes before Rutowski said, “You ask a lot of questions.”
“I really don’t.”
*
“Did you know that, according to my sources, your father came into the States about five days ago?”
The lion male finally faced her, his gold eyes wide. “What are you talking about?”
“You didn’t know?”
“That can’t be right. Did he arrange all this as a distraction or something?”
“No. He just took his private jet to Teterboro Airport with a small security team, drove off in an SUV . . . and that was the last anyone has heard from him.”
“Why would he do that? My father hates coming here. I haven’t seen him since I was thirteen, when I stopped going to Italy. Why did he come here?”
“I thought maybe you could tell me.”
“What? You think my father came here to see me and I killed him?” Medici snorted a laugh. “I may not have seen my father since I was thirteen, but I also haven’t talked to him since I was thirteen. Me or my brothers. We’re all dead to him. The only sons he has are my half-brothers in Italy. Paolo and the others. And before you ask, we’re not friendly with them either. Medicis and de Medicis . . . like Hatfields and McCoys. So my father coming to the States to see any of his American offspring just wouldn’t happen. Ever.”
He turned away from her again. “But I’m sure my father is somewhere. Plotting. You just have to find him.”
“Anyone you know who might be willing to tell me why he came?”
“My Uncle Silvio might know. He lives in Little Italy. He’s the only one who deals with both sides of the family, kind of a diplomat. But I should warn you that doesn’t mean he’ll tell you anything. Silvio’s a little nuts.”
“Aren’t we all?”
“No, no. I mean, he’s nuts. Like if you go there, watch out for the towering piles of old newspapers and the big bottles of urine he keeps around his shitty apartment.”
“Great,” Mira said on a sigh. “Thanks.”
“And the cats.”
“Pardon?”
Medici looked at her over his shoulder and, for the first time, smiled. It was not friendly, though. “He has a lot of cats. And they’re not big fans of strangers.”
Chapter 20
The wolves finally invaded the kitchen once Charlie made plain vanilla cupcakes with an icing made of vanilla yogurt. It was the yogurt. Wolves, for some unknown reason, loved yogurt—and tequila, but everyone knew why they loved tequila—and they couldn’t get enough of those cupcakes or, after that, anything else Charlie MacKilligan made.
Tock smirked when she saw those upright, uptight Van Holtz chef siblings acting like they were having orgasms every time they bit into one of the delicacies. And their overwhelming devastation when Charlie suddenly announced, “I’m going for a walk.” Meaning she wasn’t baking anymore. They watched her leave the kitchen as if they were watching the love of their lives abandoning them for a younger, smarter partner. It was hilarious.
Although no one knew why the attack had happened—still—things had settled down inside the Van Holtz compound. Mostly because Niles Van Holtz and his younger cousin Ulrich had shown up. The disaster at the docks had been contained and the story out to the world was “wild animal smuggling gone wrong!” Tock hadn’t been sure that would work, but it had. On social media, everyone was having a blast, making jokes about the new “Tiger Mayor running City Hall” and the “Tiger Cops taking down criminals.” Jokes, sure. But closer to the truth than most of those people would ever realize.
Tock was still worried about what her grandmother might be doing at the moment, though. That badger would tolerate a lot, but not a direct attack on her granddaughter. It didn’t help that Tock’s mother had texted an hour or so ago asking, What’s going on? Family coming in from Israel? Are you okay? Should I be worried?
After that, Tock got rows of question marks, which was something her mother would do with absolutely no clue how annoying it was. Tock lied and told her mother everything was fine and she’d talk to her soon. Then she begged her to “stop abusing the question mark!”