“See what I mean?” she said to her sister, tossing up her hands.
The little blonde pushed away from the table and came to Zé’s side. “Here. You sit down.” She led him back to her chair. “Coffee?”
“That would be great.”
“Since my sister has no apparent breeding and doesn’t know how to properly introduce people to each other—”
“Because suddenly you’re incapable of introducing yourself?” Max snapped.
“—I’m Stevie.”
She placed a mug filled with coffee in front of him.
“Zezé Vargas. Accent over the last E. But everybody calls me Zé.” He glanced around at the three completely different women. “Sisters?” He let his gaze bounce to each one until he settled on Charlie. They were the two brownest people in the room.
She chuckled. “Half-sisters. Same useless, worthless bastard of a father; different mothers.”
That made more sense.
“And where am I exactly?”
“Did you tell him anything, Max?”
“How is this my—”
“You’re in Queens, New York,” Charlie said, not letting her sister finish.
“Great. I’m originally from the South Bronx. So being in Queens is good. That works for me.”
“Would you like a cinnamon bun?” Charlie asked.
Zé shrugged. “Sure.”
“You didn’t offer me a cinnamon bun,” Max complained.
“No buns for liars!” Charlie ended on a bellow before placing a plate with two delicious-looking cinnamon buns in front of him and returning to her seat.
Stevie sat in the only other empty seat and smiled at him. That’s what they all had in common. Their smiles.
“I didn’t lie,” Max insisted. “I just didn’t tell you anything.”
Charlie held her hand up, palm out. She didn’t even look at her sister but at Zé.
“Why don’t you tell us what happened yesterday, Zé?”
“You don’t have to tell her anything,” Max cut in.
She sat catty-corner from him, so he leaned in and whispered to her, “Would it be better for you if I said nothing?”
She grinned at him. “Yes.”
Zé leaned back and looked at Charlie. “I’ll tell ya anything you want to know!”
Max’s grin faded. “You are such a cat.”
“What was my sister doing there?”
“She had been kidnapped. These men are ex-military, now mercenaries. We’ve been tracking them for months now—Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Pakistan, the Sudan. We weren’t even sure they’d take this job since it seemed so small compared to their usual work. But the man who hired them paid a lot.”
“What man?”
“Don’t know him and I only heard one name. Not sure if it’s first or last. Devon.”
Charlie closed her eyes and clenched her jaw before demanding, “You went after Devon?”
Sighing loudly, Max replied, “I figured if I could find him, I could kill him, and we could be done with all that. We’ve got so much else to worry about right now.”
“The homicidal twin aunts?” Zé asked.
Stevie frowned. “How do you know about that?”
“Those genetic anomalies you have roaming around mentioned something about it.”
Charlie tapped the table. “So did you find Devon or not?”
“Unfortunately I did not track him down.”
“Why not?”
Max shrugged. “Things got a little out of hand.”
“She killed everybody,” Zé offered before biting into one of the cinnamon rolls. It was the most delicious thing he’d ever had. He pointed at it. “This is amazing. Did you buy this or bake it yourself?”
“She baked it herself, and I didn’t kill everybody . . .” Max brushed nonexistent lint off her T-shirt.
“But?” Charlie pushed.
“Just most of them.”
“So the rest saw you and got away?”
“I think her friends got the rest,” Zé said, a flash of memory flitting through his still-aching brain.
But as soon as the words left his mouth, Zé knew things were about to turn very ugly between the women.
“Friends?” Charlie demanded. “What fucking friends?” Her dark eyes narrowed dangerously and she exploded. “That idiot!”
Max immediately raised her hands. “It wasn’t Dutch! It wasn’t Dutch!”
“Who’s Dutch?” Zé asked Stevie.
“Max’s best friend since junior high.”
“Then who, Max?” Charlie pushed, hard. “Who are these friends he’s talking about?”
“He got hit in the head. I’m surprised he remembers anything.”
Charlie motioned to Zé. “With that hard head? Cats fall from the top of redwoods and their heads are just fine. Now tell me.”
“So is it LSD all of you are taking?” Zé asked Stevie. “Or something new? I’ve heard bath salts can be a real problem.”
Stevie crinkled her nose at him. “You are so cute!”
“It was my basketball team,” Max finally admitted, causing everyone to stare at her.
“Your basketball team?” Charlie asked. “What basketball team?”
“My team. The one I played with in junior high and high school. We made it to the championships?”
Stevie nodded, apparently knowing exactly who her sister was talking about, but Charlie just continued to stare, her face completely blank.
“Remember?” Max gently pushed. “Tock? Mads? Nelle? Streep?”
“Meryl Streep?”
“Meryl Streep?” Max repeated. “You really think Meryl Streep is helping me to take down a bunch of mercenaries and helped the team get to the championships?”
“I don’t know what secret life you have!”
“Well, it’s not one that involves Meryl Streep!”
“All right!” Stevie yelled before she let out a breath. “I know her basketball team, Charlie. I know them.”
“You do? They exist?”
“Yes, they exist. And, honestly, I must say if it wasn’t us with Max, watching her back, I know that those four can do the job without a problem.”
“Does any of that make this situation better?”
Stevie shook her head. “No.”
And again Max threw up her hands. “What are you doing to me, woman?”
“Helping?”
* * *
“You know what?” Max said, deciding to end this. “We’ve got bigger issues than whether I—”
“Slaughtered a bunch of people?”
Max glowered at the cat before finishing with “—found Devon.”
“Like what?” Charlie asked, appearing extremely angry. Max knew that expression on her sister’s face. Knew what it meant. Her sister hated when Max went off to “do something stupid.” And “stupid” to Charlie was anything that involved violence but didn’t involve her as Max’s backup.
Fair enough. Charlie was awesome backup. Max would enter any dangerous situation if her sister was with her, but Charlie had enough shit to worry about on a daily basis. Why would Max add to that when Devon wasn’t her sisters’ problem? He was Max’s problem and only because her mother was still in prison and unable to deal with him on her own. Because Devon refused to believe that Max’s mother didn’t have the money from their last heist together. The heist that Freddy MacKilligan had managed to fuck up as only Freddy could.