Wolf with Benefits

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Delilah Jean-Louis Parker dug through her sister’s clothes. Sometimes Oriana kept cash in her dresser drawers. Since their parents pretty much paid for everything and all Oriana cared about was dancing, she rarely spent her allowance. Actually, most of the kids didn’t spend their allowance and a few of them didn’t realize when the money was gone. Which was a nice little boon for Delilah.

Finding a healthy wad of cash, Delilah took more than half and put the few remaining bills back in Oriana’s dresser. She closed the drawer and stepped out of the room. She looked up and down the hall, saw no one around, and went into the next bedroom over.

She searched quickly and quietly, bored by anything but cash or something she could sell for cash. The best thing about her family was that they were so absorbed by what they did every day that they barely noticed anything she did.

Not finding any cash or cash-worthy items, she sat on the bed. She saw a backpack and eased the zipper open. She went through it until she found a notebook that seemed out of place. Delilah pulled it out and began flipping through the pages. Unlike the rest of her siblings, Delilah didn’t consider herself one thing or another. She knew she was a good artist. For her, drawing was easy. But so was math and science. She’d been offered multiple academic scholarships before she left high school. She said “left” because she never actually graduated. Her parents thought she’d graduated. She’d told them she’d graduated. Del had even managed to walk into the hall at graduation. Until, you know, that bomb threat got called in and the rest of it was canceled. Then, with the help of Troy’s PC and her design skills, she’d been able to show her parents a lovely diploma.

But when you were as smart as Delilah was, who needed a real diploma or a degree? What was the point? Because even without them, she still knew she had something worthy in her hands now. Something she could really make money on.

“What the hell are you doing in here?”

At first, Delilah thought it was Toni when she heard that snarled question, but she looked up into the face of Oriana.

Putting the notebook back—why steal it when she’d know exactly where it was at all times?—Delilah stood up. “Nothing. Just being nosey.”

Oriana watched her for a moment, then shook her head. “I’m telling Toni you’re stealing our shit again.”

The little snitch would, too.

Delilah watched her sister turn around and start to head out to find Toni. And if there was one thing Delilah was not in the mood for, it was one of “those” discussions with Toni.

So Delilah grabbed the back of Oriana’s neck. Not by the extra flesh that all young canines had. This wasn’t some loving correction given from one sibling to another. Instead, she just grabbed the cunt’s throat and yanked her back until Del could press her mouth to her sister’s ear.

“How about—” Del began.

“Get off me!”

“—you just forget what you saw, little sister?”

Oriana started twisting her body and reaching back for Del’s arms. “Get off me, Delilah!”

One of Oriana’s hands slapped Delilah’s face. It hurt but Del didn’t care. She’d always had a high tolerance for pain and, most times, didn’t even remember the pain a day or two later. Sometimes even ten minutes later.

So it wasn’t anger that had Del pressing the point of her little butterfly knife to her sister’s face, right below her eye. In fact, Delilah felt nothing at all except a little bit of pleasure when her sister abruptly stopped moving.

“I’ll say it again . . . forget what you saw. Or I’ll make sure you stop seeing all together. Understand?”

“Yes.”

Delilah held her sister a little longer. Not to make her point clear but because she was really struggling with her desire to cut her sister’s eyes out of her head. But she knew if she did that . . . she’d have to deal with Toni. Delilah hated dealing with Antonella. So cutting up her younger—and prettier—sister would have to wait.

She shoved Oriana away from her, grinning when her sister hit the wall and spun around to glare at her.

Delilah dragged the blunt side of her blade across her own cheek, just so her sister understood exactly what she was risking by fucking with her. She took a step toward her, and that’s when Toni’s best friend stepped into her line of sight.

Quickly dropping her arm behind her back to hide her knife and closing it, Delilah smiled at Livy Kowalski.

“Hello, Olivia.”

Livy moved her gaze back and forth between Delilah and Oriana. After a moment, she asked, “Everything all right, Oriana?”

Gritting her teeth, Oriana bit out, “Yes. Everything’s fine.”

“Good. I’m going to be crashing here for a while.”

Oriana nodded. “Okay. I’ll let Mom and Dad know.”

“Thanks.”

Oriana walked off, and Delilah went to follow her. But Livy reached across and slammed one hand against the doorjamb, blocking her way out.

The little freak leaned in, going up on her toes to get near Delilah’s neck, and breathed in deep.

God, Del hated this bitch. Always had.

But at the same time, she wasn’t about to engage her, either. Del shoved Livy’s arm out of her way and took a step into the hallway. Livy seemed to be letting her go, but as Del passed, Livy snatched the closed knife out of her hand. She heard the bitch expertly open it.

Delilah spun around without thinking and found her own knife pressed against her throat. The freak’s head tilted to the side as she studied her.

“Threaten one of the kids again,” Livy told her, “and I’ll cut your throat and watch ya bleed out.”

“I think Toni might have a problem with that.”

“No, she won’t. And we both know it.”

And damn her, but Delilah knew the bitch was right.

They stopped at the hotel first to get Ricky’s travel stuff. He offered to meet Toni back at the house her parents were renting, but the look of panic on her face had him quickly changing that offer to immediately promising he wouldn’t leave her side.

So he opened the door first and walked in, sniffing to make sure there were no Packmates lurking around.

Toni leaned in. “Embarrassed to be seen with me by your girlfriend?”

“Ex-girlfriend, and no. I just don’t want you to face the Smith Pack Female Interrogation.”

“You made that sound like all those words were initial capped.”

“They are. I’m surprised you’ve never heard of it. There’s lots of girls in mental institutions across the United States who’ve faced the Smith Pack Female Interrogation.”

“Okay.” She pushed past him and walked into his hotel room. “This is nice.”

“Yeah.”

She looked up at him, her little nose wrinkling. “Isn’t it kind of expensive, though? To live at the Kingston Arms rather than getting your own apartment in Brooklyn or Queens?”

“Are those actual places?”

“Very funny.”

“And my sister will be bearing the hybrid freak of the hotel’s owner.”

“Hybrid freak?” she demanded.

“Don’t worry. I’ll adore the little bastard like the moon.”

She rolled her eyes and walked fully into the room. Ricky followed, closing the door behind him.

“Make yourself comfortable,” he told her, heading toward the bedroom. “I’ll be out in a bit.”

“Why did you get a suite?” she asked.

“I didn’t demand it, if that’s what you’re thinking. Brendon Shaw gave one to me and each of my brothers in the hopes we’d stop just showing up in his apartment upstairs whenever we like.”

“Did you?” she asked from the other room.

“Nope!” Ricky pulled out the trusty black duffel bag that had gone with him to all sorts of places all over the world.

“Isn’t Brendon Shaw a lion?”

“Yep.”

“So you fully understand that just having you show up in his house is a form of torture for a man who truly does consider himself king of . . . well . . . probably everything.”

“Of course we do. That’s why we do it. Plus he gets this really good Greek plain yogurt that just seems to taste better being eaten in his apartment than in ours.”

Ricky packed quickly and efficiently. He’d learned to do that a long time ago. Although he hadn’t traveled much out of the States when he was growing up, his father and uncles sent him and his brothers—sometimes together, most often not—to different countries to meet with other Reeds and to learn about basic defense. It was something the Reeds felt was important. Sure, most everybody called them the junkyard dogs of the Smith Pack, but the truth was they really believed in being able to defend the Pack—and definitely the Reed family—whenever necessary.

The Smiths ruled as a Pack, so to speak, because they were willing to destroy anyone who even thought about touching one of their own. But the Smiths were also wild fighters. Like that kid in the schoolyard no one wanted to fight because he’d pick up a shovel and smash someone’s head in rather than throwing crazy punches like any normal seven-year-old. The Reeds, however, prided themselves on being smarter fighters, just like the full-blooded wolves. They’d strike at night, find the weakest points, and do their best to ensure no—or at least less—“collateral damage.” Ricky’s grandfather once compared it to unleashing the berserkers (the Smiths) from the front while the Roman soldiers (the Reeds) snuck in from behind and destroyed the enemy.

The relationship between the Smiths and the Reeds had worked for centuries, ever since they’d landed on these shores a few years before those pilgrims ever did, and Ricky respected that relationship more than he could say. He didn’t see the Smiths as separate from him, but a part of his life just like his momma and daddy and siblings. And he knew the Smiths felt the same way. When Bubba Smith said things like, “Come after the Smiths and we’ll come down on you like hell itself opened its doors and let out the worst of its kind . . .” he wasn’t just talking about protecting blood relatives. He was talking about anyone considered one of the Smith Pack. That was the Smith philosophy.

So when the Reeds raised their pups, they raised them to “protect their own,” which meant protecting blood kin and Pack kin. It meant protecting their siblings and their cousins as well as old Missus Sandy Mae up the street who often ended up on the wrong side of full-humans in a nearby town because she was kind of crazy.

And protection was something the Reeds did not take lightly.

That’s why working for Llewellyn Security was such a great job for Ricky. Not only did it allow him to protect the New York Smiths, a job he’d been born into, but also protect others for money, a job that helped him have a very healthy retirement fund as well as go on little excursions like this one.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that he was getting to go with sexy little Toni Jean-Louis Parker. Nope. That didn’t hurt at all.

“Speaking of protection . . .” Ricky studied the unopened box of condoms in his medicine cabinet. After a moment, he shrugged and grabbed one box . . . then the second. “Couldn’t hurt,” he murmured after tossing the boxes into his duffel bag.

Ricky lifted his head, sniffed the air. Rory.

By the time he made it back into the small living room, his brother was walking through the door. His expression told Ricky he was not happy.

“You’re going to Siberia?”

“No. We’re going to Russia. Probably some place close to Moscow. Right, Toni?”

She reached into her backpack and pulled out the itinerary she’d been given by Cella Malone.

“We’re going to Lake Baikal. Wait.” She blinked, lowered the paper. “That is Siberia.”

Ricky’s eyes crossed. Good Lord.

“We’re going into Siberia?” Ricky demanded.

“That’s probably where the team is from. Most of the Russian teams likely train there off season.” It made sense. She doubted any nosey full-humans were going to bother the shifter-only teams while they were training for games in Siberia. And Lake Baikal had freshwater seals, which the polars probably loved.

She looked at the wolf and immediately felt bad for him. He hadn’t signed on for this. Moscow, or a place close to Moscow, was one thing, but asking him to travel to Siberia was definitely asking too much of the man.

“Look, Ricky, you don’t have to—”

“I’ve already contacted Vic,” Ricky’s brother said, and walked around the couch Toni was sitting on and laid a case he had on the coffee table. He opened the case. “He’ll be meeting you at the airport and he’ll get you to Lake Baikal.”

Toni, confused by all this, held up her own papers. “I have an itinerary.”

“I know, darlin’,” Rory said while at the same time removing the paper from her hand and putting it back into her bag. “It’ll help you once you get there, but I want to make sure y’all get there safe and then stay safe once you arrive. Vic will make sure of that.”

“Who’s Vic?”

“Dee recommended him awhile back. He helps our company when we need contacts in Eastern European countries.”

“He was born and raised in Chicago, but his area of expertise is Eastern Europe,” Ricky explained.

“You look worried,” Toni told Rory. “I feel like I should be freaking out. Should I be freaking out?” she asked Ricky.

“No. Everything’s going to be fine. This is just a precaution.”

“How come Cella Malone didn’t have to take these kinds of precautions?”

“You said it yourself, darlin’. She’s a Siberian tiger and a Malone. No one’s messin’ with her.”

“But it’s probably best she’s not going,” Rory admitted. “Her reputation ain’t much better than Novikov’s with the Russian teams, and she probably would have asked Dee-Ann to go with her . . .”

The brothers stared at each other, then started laughing.

“Lord,” Ricky finally said, “that would have been very bad.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s just better that you are going,” Rory insisted. “Now, you have your passport, right?”

“As much as my family travels? My mother’s agent actually has a schedule when we all have to get our passports renewed.”

“Excellent.” Rory waved off his brother. “I know you’ve got what you need. I’ve already touched base with Llewellyn and he’s arranged with that company y’all are flying with. Madra Air?”

“Yeah.”

“He says just bring your nine, but nothing else.”

Toni sat up straight. “You’re bringing a gun on a plane?”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“I’d rather not end up on Madra’s Do Not Fly List if you don’t mind.”

“Don’t worry about that.” He looked at his brother again. “So Dee-Ann has already contacted Vic for us. And he’s still in Russia?”

“For now, yeah, he’s been helping with tracking Whitlan.”

“Wait,” Toni cut in. “Who the hell’s Whitlan?”

“Vic will get you whatever you need once you get to Russia,” Rory went on, ignoring her.

“Better be more than a nine,” Toni muttered, and she realized that both brothers were staring at her. “These are bears and Siberian tigers. A nine isn’t going to do anything but irritate them.”

“How do you know that?” Rory asked.

“When you’re a small canine in a world filled with big cats, wolves, and bears, you find other ways to fight. Trust me, if full-blood jackals had thumbs, they’d know how to take down lions with a .416 Remington, too.”

Ricky grinned. “Too?”

“Could you two flirt later?”

Toni growled at Rory. “I wasn’t flirt—”

“Y’all need to remember that these Russian bears are not to be trifled with,” Rory went on. “So if it looks like things are getting out of hand”—he looked directly at his brother—“let Toni do the talking.”

Toni blinked. “Me? Why me?”

“If you can calm down Novikov, then Lord, woman, you can calm down damn near anybody.”

“Thank you?”

Rory walked around the couch until he was right in front of Ricky. “Listen to me, little brother. Things explode out there, you let Vic do what he does best and you get yourself and our little Toni here out. Don’t try to be anyone’s dang hero.”

“That’s Reece’s weakness, Rory. Ain’t never been mine.”

“Keep it that way.”

The brothers stared at each other a few seconds longer, then they hugged.

And that’s when Toni finally yelled out, “Is anyone else concerned that we’re doing all this just to negotiate a contract for a goddamn sports team?” She threw her hands up in the air. “Anyone?”

The brothers pulled away and Ricky admonished, “You shouldn’t blaspheme.”

Toni’s eyes crossed. “Shut up.”

They walked right into the middle of a melee. It wasn’t pretty, either. Fists and legs flying, screams and snarls and yips filling the air.

But Ricky had to admit he was impressed. Because while the two oldest were trying to figure out what to do, Toni walked right into that pit of swinging arms and legs and began yanking pups apart and tossing them around the room until she got to Oriana, who was too old to toss anywhere.

“That is enough!” Toni bellowed over the continuing screams and threats while she held her fifteen-year-old sister in a nice little choke hold. “I mean it!”

That seemed to calm them all down, and she pushed her sister away before facing Cooper and Cherise. “Where’s Mom and Dad?”

“They went out with Aunt Irene.”

“When?”

Coop looked off, clearly embarrassed, and admitted, “Fifteen min—”

“Fifteen? You couldn’t keep them under control for fifteen minutes?”

“It’s not his fault,” Cherise chimed in from behind Coop.

“He was practicing and I told him I’d take care of the kids, but things spiraled so quickly . . .”

Toni folded her arms over her chest and gazed down at her feet.

“Hey,” Coop said, putting his hand on Toni’s shoulder. “It’s not a big deal. We’ll figure this out. We’ll make it work. Just give us a little more—”

“Time?” Toni asked, looking up at her brother. “We don’t have time. I’m going to Russia tonight. For work.”

“You’re deserting us?” Kyle scrambled to his feet and gawked at his sister. “You’re deserting us for that ridiculous job?”

In that second, Ricky saw Toni begin to waffle. She didn’t want to desert her family.

She began to speak, probably to change her mind, but Cherise came around Cooper and stood by Toni’s side. “Yes, she is going. Toni’s going to Russia. Without us.” Cherise smiled and it was a very pretty smile. She should do it more often so she didn’t always look so terrified. “And we’re going to be very proud of her when she goes.”

“But Kyle the idiot is right.” Oriana glared at her brother. “As much as I loathe to admit it.” She focused on the rest of them. “She can’t just go off and leave us! Nothing has been organized. Mom and Dad don’t know what they’re doing. Coop is busy preparing for his next concert, and his agent is constantly calling here about another record deal with the London Philharmonic, and Cherise is just goddamn hopeless.”

Cherise frowned. “Hey.”

“And you think you can just leave?” Oriana demanded of her eldest sister.

Toni looked over the faces of her siblings before replying, “Well—” she began, but that’s when Ricky grabbed her around the waist and walked out of the room.

“Excuse us, y’all.”

“Hey, country western fellow!” Kyle barked. “Where are you going with our sister?”

Ricky took Toni out into the hall and to the stairs. “Go upstairs. Pack.”

“But—”

“No, ‘but,’ woman. Just do it.”

Freddy walked around Ricky and took his sister’s hand. “Come on, Toni. I’ll help you pack.”

The little boy started up the stairs, glancing back at Ricky and winking at him.

At least one of her siblings thought about someone other than himself. It was a nice change.

Ricky returned to the large living room and faced the children. “Now, y’all,” he began, “I know it’s hard to let your sister go when you need her so badly. But you really have to let her do this. You have to grow up a little and show your sister what big boys and girls you are.” He gave them his best smile. “Right?”

After all the pups stared back at him, it was Kyle who dramatically threw his arms up in the air, rolled his eyes, and fell back on the couch behind him while Troy muttered, “And the common man speaks.”

“You should bring something pretty,” Freddy told Toni while he watched her pack, his little body on top of her dressing table.

“Why?”

“Because.” He gave her an adorable closed-mouth smile and looked up at the ceiling.

“Frederick Jean-Louis Parker . . . what are you getting at?”

“I may be a kid, Toni, but I’m not a child.” Yes, he was. “That wolf likes you. And you like him. But you have to look pretty. To keep his interest. So you two can be boyfriend and girlfriend and he can give you things that you can sell for profit.”

Chuckling to herself, Toni folded another pair of jeans. “Where do you get this stuff from, Freddy?” She knew it wasn’t from their mother or Aunt Irene. And it definitely wasn’t from their dad, who to this day referred to himself as a male feminist, “because I have too many girls of my own now not to be.”

“Delilah.”

Toni froze in midpack at Freddy’s answer, her folded jeans held over her case. “You’ve been spending time with Delilah?”

“A little. She’s nice and fun.”

Toni forced herself to continue packing and to keep her voice casual. She knew if she overreacted, Freddy would panic. Freddy and panic were two words that were very bad together. Very bad.

“She’s fun? Really? What have you two been doing?”

“Making money for the orphans. First at home, but she said we’d start here now. A lot more orphans in New York.”

Unable to keep packing, Toni turned and gazed at her baby brother. “Making money for orphans?”

“Uh-huh.”

“How have you been doing that?”

Freddy looked at the open bedroom door. “I’m not supposed to tell,” he whispered.

“You can tell me. You know that.”

Freddy’s trusting smile broke her heart. “I know I can.” He motioned her close. When she stood right by him, his little knees pressed against her hips, he said, “Sometimes we just sit in the park and I look sad and Delilah asks people for money. Sometimes they don’t want to give it to her or they want her to go somewhere with them to give her money, but she doesn’t want to do that. So she makes up stories to tell them. I know that you and Daddy say we shouldn’t lie, but to help orphans, I think it’s okay. Don’t you?”

Instead of replying to that, Toni asked, “What do you two do other times?”

“Delilah gives me this little TV to watch and a headphone that I can talk into while she plays cards with some people. Then I . . . I . . . I . . .” His little face screwed up as he tried to think of the right words.

“Count cards?”

“That’s it!” He grinned. “It’s easy for me.”

“No one notices what she’s doing?”

“No. But I think that’s because they’re mostly men and they stare right at her, but they don’t see the thing she wears in her ear. They stare at her a lot. Probably because she’s so pretty.” Freddy frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Toni lied. “But you’re starting classes on Monday. You won’t have time for all this once that happens. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Hey.” She placed her hands on either side of his hips and leaned in. “Will you do me a big favor?”

“Sure!”

“I’ll need travel supplies. The good stuff.”

“You want me to hit Mom’s stash of those fancy chocolates?”

“You read my mind.”

She quickly gripped her brother’s nose with her lips and twisted around while he giggled and pushed at her. Then she wrapped her arms around his waist, kissed his neck, and lifted him off the dresser. She spun him around once before putting him on the floor.

“And when I’m gone—”

“I know. Don’t let Kyle make me feel like a loser because I’m not an artist. And don’t let Troy make me feel like a loser because he’s older and thinks he’s smarter than me.”

“And?”

“Don’t steal. Don’t set the house on fire.”

“Good man. Now get what you can and bag it for me.”

“Okay!” He charged out the door, and when Toni heard his little feet hit the stairs, she started for the doorway. That’s when she was grabbed from behind and dragged back toward her bed.

She wasn’t really startled by that grab, because she’d known that Livy had been asleep under her bed the entire time. Livy wasn’t the normal guest that people had over. She really liked that feeling of sneaking around someone’s home even when she’d been invited, and no one in the entire Jean-Louis Parker family gave a shit.

“Don’t even think about it, Antonella,” Livy said in her ear as she wrestled Toni back.

“I’m going to twist that bitch’s neck until it snaps,” Toni snarled, desperately fighting the strong little arms wrapped around her. “I’m going to put her down like the sick pup she is!”

Toni was thrown on the bed, and Livy climbed up on her chest, pinning her down.

“You’re not being rational,” Livy said calmly.

“Fuck rational! She dies tonight!”

“Uh . . .” Ricky said from the doorway. “Is everything all right?”

Livy motioned Ricky in with a tilt of her head and said, “Get in here and close the door.”

Ricky’s grin was huge. “Well, all right then.”

“This isn’t about you, hillbilly.” Livy looked down at Toni. “You need to calm down. You can’t go around killing your relatives. Even when they deserve it. As you know, I’ve tried and it just didn’t work out well for me. Those ankle bracelets they use to monitor your movements are really not comfortable.”

“That horrible bitch is using my baby brother to scam people.”

“Who?” Ricky asked.

Livy smirked. “Delilah.”

“The blonde?”

“Yeah,” Livy replied. “And what really bothers you,” Livy said to Toni, “isn’t that it’s just one of your siblings, but that it’s Freddy.”

“Because Freddy’s the only one she could scam into doing this. Kyle and Oriana won’t go near her. Zia and Zoe cry whenever she’s around. Troy could do it and probably would, but he’s such a ballbuster, he’d want hard cash from counting cards. And he’d never believe that orphans story.”

Hands in the front pockets of his jeans, Ricky asked, “Isn’t Troy, like . . . nine?”

“Your point?” Livy asked.

“And not to be indelicate, but . . . aren’t y’all kind of rich?”

“Kind of rich?” Toni pushed Livy off her and dragged herself up until she was sitting. “My mother could buy the property we’re currently sitting in outright . . . and in cash. But my sister likes to scam people for money. Do you know why?”

“Just another bored rich girl?”

“I wish. The twins are bored little rich girls. I can handle bored little rich girls.”

“But sociopaths . . .” Livy muttered.

“Now come on,” Ricky said. “I took psychology in college—”

“You went to college?” Livy asked, which got her a punch in the ribs from Toni. “Ow! It was just a goddamn question.”

“—and y’all shouldn’t be bantering around words like sociopath when you’re talking about a family member.”

“Believe what you want.” Toni swung her legs over the edge of the bed so that she and Livy were sitting right next to each other. Toni thought a minute and decided what she had to do.

“I’ve made my decision. I obviously can’t go on this trip. I can’t go.”

That’s when Livy slammed Toni to the floor and pinned her there—because the woman simply didn’t know the meaning of the word subtle.

Ricky grabbed the small but surprisingly strong and vicious female off of Toni.

“Tell her,” Livy ordered him once he’d gotten her off Toni. “Tell her that she is going.”

“How can I go now?” Toni shot back. “At first I thought I just needed to deal with the schedule issue, which is challenge enough. But now . . . after what I’ve found out about Delilah?”

“Excuses!” Livy accused, pointing a damning finger at Toni. “You’re using bullshit excuses to get out of this. Because you’re scared.”

“They’re bears! Of course I’m scared!”

“Not of the bears, you idiot.” Livy swung her arms until Ricky was forced to drop her. Then she re-adjusted her T-shirt and denim mini-skirt. “You’re scared of change. You’re scared of taking this chance and going out on your own.”

“They need me.”

“Because you’ve made them helpless. Which, I’d like to remind you, is not your job. Your job as the eldest jackal sibling is to prepare them for life on their own.”

“But what about Delilah?” Toni demanded. “She’s a problem all on her own.”

“Isn’t that something your parents should be concerned with?” Ricky asked.

“My parents are in denial. I’m not.”

“I’ll watch out for Freddy,” Livy said.

“I can’t ask you to—”

“I’ll watch out for Freddy, so just suck-it-the-fuck-up already.”

“Don’t curse at me, whore!”

“Birthing cow!”

“All right!” Ricky cut in before he was hurt trying to stop these two females from getting into a claw match. “That’s it!” He focused on Toni. “The bottom line is, if you don’t take this trip, I can assure you that Cella Malone is going to fire your ass, no matter whose cousin you are.”

“I don’t care,” Toni said, her voice firm. “Let her fire me. I’m not leaving. At least not until we get things . . . organized.”

“Organized?”

“Right. Once I get their schedules organized, everything will be fine. That’ll just take me a couple of days. Cella won’t mind that, I’m sure.”

Toni walked out, leaving Ricky and Livy standing there, gazing at the open door.

“Will that Cella Malone chick mind that?” Livy asked him.

“She sure will.”

“Then we have to take away her excuses.”

Ricky shrugged. “I may have an idea.” He pulled out his phone. “But my baby brother won’t like it.”

“Your baby brother? Was that the other wolf who was in the office with us?”

“Yep.”

“Then I don’t give a shit he won’t like it.”

Ricky laughed and began making calls.