Bite Me

CHAPTER 9

Livy stepped off the plane and headed through the airport. She didn’t have any luggage. Just her trusty backpack and a whole lot of bitterness.

But the thought of going back to her apartment and facing whatever nightmare was there had Livy dropping into an empty seat in the middle of busy JFK.

She had no idea how long she sat there, staring at absolutely nothing. But, eventually, a text came in on her cell phone. At first, she was going to ignore it, assuming it was Vic again, who’d been trying to get in touch with her ever since she’d left him standing by that van. But then she decided to look anyway.

Hi. It’s Blayne. Can you come to a meeting about the wedding?

Although Livy knew this was probably a bad idea, she realized going to a meeting about a wedding she wanted nothing to do with was way better than going home.

Livy stood and headed toward the exit and, hopefully, a cab. But after less than a minute, she stopped and looked behind her. That was when she realized that airport security was following her.

She didn’t know why. She hadn’t done anything. Then again . . . Toni had mentioned that when she was in a bad mood, Livy had a tendency to growl under her breath and glare a lot.

If she was doing that at the moment, Livy didn’t know. Still, she did jerk her body toward the security team, smirking when they backed up and instinctively placed their hands on their weapons.

Livy turned and walked out of the airport and grabbed the first cab that could take her back to Manhattan.

Vic snapped awake as soon as Shen walked into his room.

“She got a plane back from Chicago,” Shen said. He’d been monitoring her movements as much as he could from his computer. But Livy, unlike the rest of the universe, wasn’t much for revealing her whereabouts through her cell phone or social media. So Shen had to use more unsavory means in order to locate her.

Vic was surprised that Livy had gone to Chicago. As far as he knew, she had no connections there. No family. But after a little digging, he found out that the Kowalskis and Yangs had safe houses all over the States and a lot of other countries. Where those safe houses were specifically located, though, Vic couldn’t find out.

Yet he still found it strange that Livy had sought out her family. For as long as he’d known her, she never went to her family for anything. If she needed help of any kind, she went to Toni or Toni’s parents. No one else seemed to be of use to her. Including Vic.

He’d tried calling her, texting her, e-mailing her . . . everything. And Livy never once called him back. He had no idea what she’d seen in that apartment or why she wasn’t talking to him. But hearing from Shen that she was back did make him feel a little better.

Vic got out of bed and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

“Do you even know where she’s going?” Shen asked.

Vic stopped and faced the panda. “I have no idea.”

“I checked your cabinets before I came up here . . . no Livy.”

Disappointed to hear that, Vic said, “I’ll try the Sports Center first.”

“Good plan. You also going to give Dee-Ann a heads-up about what’s going on?”

Vic thought on that a moment before deciding, “Probably not.”

“Probably also a good plan. That woman terrifies me.”

Livy walked into the private dining room of the Van Holtz Steak House in Midtown and dropped into one of the chairs around the big table.

There were already six people in attendance. Blayne, Gwen, two older felines, plus the future grooms, Lock MacRyrie and Bo Novikov, whom Livy knew through her work with the Carnivores hockey team.

Blayne waved at Livy from across the table but before she could speak, the wedding planner, a She-tiger whom Livy had heard was the mother of Cella Malone, leveled bright gold eyes on Livy.

“Well, well. If it isn’t the overpriced wedding photographer. Glad you could join us.”

“Barb,” Blayne said to the feline. “You promised to be nice.”

“I don’t like it when my clients are taken advantage of.”

“Livy would never take advantage of me! She’s one of my closest friends!”

Barb shook her head. “Blayne, you say that about everybody.”

“Because it’s true.” She grinned. “People love me.”

“I can’t believe you’re okay with this female’s outrageous cost, Bo.”

“I know she’ll be on time,” Novikov said flatly. “That makes her worth every cent. Now if I could just get the rest of this wedding on some kind of schedule—”

“This is going to be fun, Bo,” Blayne argued. “I’m not turning it into some kind of nightmare event so you can feel we’re on time.”

“I don’t think I’m asking for a lot for this thing to at least start at a certain time.”

“This thing is our wedding.”

“It sounds like it’s going to be complete chaos. Chaos!”

Livy didn’t really pay attention to the bickering. Instead, she was busy staring down the She-tiger across the table. The lioness beside her—Gwen’s mother, whom Livy had met at one of the derby bouts—watched silently, but Livy could tell she was happily anticipating a good fight.

“You’re being unreasonable!” Blayne yelled at her mate.

“I’m being unreasonable? By expecting some order out of what’s quickly turning into an insane event?”

The She-tiger, still staring at Livy, suddenly raised an eyebrow. A move that Livy found . . . offensive.

So, in a calm, reasonable way, Livy scrambled across the table, her fangs out, her claws leaving gouges in the shiny wood.

She nearly had all those fangs and claws embedded in the roaring She-tiger’s face when big grizzly bear arms wrapped around Livy and yanked her off the table. Lock, like most grizzlies, was surprisingly fast and smart, pinning her arms to her sides so that she couldn’t claw at him or anyone else.

As Livy hissed at the She-tiger, and everyone stared at her, Bo Novikov nodded his head. “Livy’s right. This meeting is taking too long.”

Now everyone looked at Novikov, watching as the seven-one hockey player stood up. “I’ve got training.”

He walked out and Livy decided that was a good idea, too. She pulled away from MacRyrie. Picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

“Send me a schedule of when you’ll need me there,” she told Blayne and Gwen. Then she walked out of the restaurant.

Once outside, Livy debated where she should go next. The fact that she hadn’t been able to get into it with that She-tiger left her feeling . . . empty.

So Livy did the most unreasonable thing she’d done in a very long time . . . she went home.