She rammed her hands into the tiger’s chest and said, “You can’t just take her away from us.”
“Watch me.”
“Natalie can stay if she wants to,” Berg said. “Why don’t we ask her what she wants?”
“Why don’t you shut up?” Keane snapped back.
“Talk to my brother like that again . . .” Britta warned.
“Hold it!” Max stepped into the middle of the fray, right where she liked it. “Before this gets ugly, why don’t we see if Charlie has anything to say.”
That’s when all those heads turned toward her. Even Mr. Vargas’s. They all looked at her as if they expected her to say something that could help resolve the situation. But what did they expect her to say?
* * *
“Well,” Charlie began, looking directly at Natalie, “let’s face it. You’re doomed. Your life is over. All your hopes and dreams are gone.”
Oh, shit. Max hadn’t realized that her sister was in one of her “moods” as the Pack used to call it. Of course, she should have realized. The only person who ever managed to make her like this was Freddy, but still . . . Max had never thought her sister was this far gone. Into the world of despair and misery.
Stevie tried to cut in. “Charlie, I’m sure you don’t mean—”
“There’s nothing you can do about it,” Charlie continued, sounding sadder and sadder by the second. Even if Natalie couldn’t hear it, she could read it all over Charlie. Like a misery shroud.
“And why?” Charlie asked. “Because you have a disability. The worst disability anyone could ever have.”
Max quickly caught Keane’s arm before he could storm over to Charlie and slap the crap out of her. “Let her finish.”
“You have the painful, cruel disability . . . of being the daughter of Freddy MacKilligan.”
“There it is!” Max announced.
“So, you might as well go back to your home,” Charlie said to Natalie. “Go back. Pretend you’re a Malone. And pray that being a MacKilligan won’t catch up to you . . . but it will. It will catch up to you. And when that day arrives, come back here. Because if there’s one thing the three of us can do, it’s help you through the nightmare of your bloodline.”
With that, Charlie sadly looked off across the street, placed her left hand over her heart, and let out a long, pathetic sigh of despair and misery.
See? It was always despair and misery.
After a few seconds, though, Charlie suddenly announced, “Now I must bake.”
She disappeared into the house, and that’s when Max finally noticed the older man who had been sitting on the stoop with her sister.
“Mr. Vargas?” she asked.
He gave her a faint smile and held up the paperback book she’d written her address in.
Zé came to the top of the stairs and glared down at his grandfather. “What are you doing here?”
Nope. Max didn’t like that at all, but she knew she couldn’t be the one to interfere. Zé knew her too well. He’d never take her seriously.
“Stevie,” she said, motioning her sister over. “That’s Zé’s grandfather and Zé is being rude to him.”
“He’s your grandfather?” Stevie shook her head. “Zé, don’t be rude to your grandfather! Grandfathers are the best! Well . . . not all. But most! And you should be nice. Whatever he did or didn’t do, he did for you.”
“Stevie,” Zé said kindly but firmly, “stay out of it.”
Stevie gasped and Max cringed.
“Not smooth, dude,” Max warned.
“I will not stay out of it!” Stevie told Zé. “You will be nice to your grandfather! In fact,” she added, looking around at everyone, “all of you will be nice! Do you know why? Because we’re all family now! Whether we like it or not! So here’s how this is going to roll!” She turned and pointed her finger at Natalie. “You’re our sister and we do care about you. I have no idea if we like you, we may not, but we won’t know until we get to know each other. We will get to know each other.” Her finger moved to Keane. “You will not keep your sister away from us. Do you know why? Because we’re all family! All of us. So if she wants to come see us, you’ll let her. If she wants to call, you’ll let her. But you guys are welcome here, too. Because you’re family.”
Stevie spun again and now that finger was pointed at Zé. “Now you will take your grandfather into the house. You will invite him to dinner. The triplets will arrange for the meal. While we’re waiting for food, you two will talk. It will be a nice conversation because it will be between a grandfather and grandson who love each other!”
Max winced because that last bit was screamed quite close to her ear.
Stevie took in a calming breath and let it out before asking, “Have I made myself perfectly clear to everyone?”
When no one answered, Stevie’s face turned a bright red and her hands curled into those tiny fists again.
That’s when everyone quickly agreed that yes, she’d made herself clear.
She relaxed and the redness left her face. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” she said before going back into the house. Shen and the triplets followed behind her.
Max looked over her shoulder at Natalie. They smiled at each other and Max winked. Then Keane and his brothers stepped between them.
Turning toward the tigers, Max threw out her arms in direct challenge and asked, “What? Ya got a problem?”
With growls and snarls, the tigers led their sister away, and Max really hoped she’d see the kid again. Then she remembered that “kid” had taken out their cousin Mairi, and she wondered if seeing her again would actually be a good idea.
“Eh,” she said with a dismissive shrug. She wasn’t going to sit around worrying about her murderous little sister right now. She had more important things to deal with!
“Would you gentlemen like a couple of beers?”
“That would be nice,” Mr. Vargas said. “As long as it’s American beer.”
“We always have Coors for my friend Dutch.”
She carefully stepped around the full-human. When she was next to Zé, she pointed at the old man and mouthed, Talk to him! Zé rolled his eyes, so she added with a vicious frown, Be nice!
Confident she’d gotten her point across, Max changed her frown to the smile she was much more comfortable with and went up on her toes to kiss Zé on the cheek. But before she could, he brushed his head against her cheek, her chin, her throat. She felt his purr moving across her flesh.
When he pulled away, Max walked to the door and went into the house. Once she was inside, she bent over at the waist, put her hands on her knees, and let out a long, shuddering breath.
There wasn’t a lot in the world that rocked Max to her toes, but those feline moves . . . ?
Damn.
* * *
When Max disappeared into the house, Zé looked down at his grandfather. “Are you coming or what?”
“Are you going to help me up?” he snapped back.
“Why are you sitting down there anyway?”
“Just help me up.”
Zé held out his hands and with a simple heave, he easily brought Xavier to his feet. They stared at each other.