“I know. She’s amazing.”
Charlie leaned closer to him and said loudly, over the roaring crowd as the timer counted down, “Can I start introducing you as ‘my sister’s boyfriend’?”
“Only if it annoys her greatly.”
“It will.”
It was the final minutes and Streep was shoved aside by a player on the opposite team. She didn’t just fall, though. She did a very long stumble for several feet, until she stretched out on the ground, grabbing her knee and wailing. Loudly. Her teammates ran to her, then Mads threw the first punch at the other team. That led to a small fistfight and, of course, Max was right in the middle of it.
When the dust had settled and everyone had calmed down, the ref called a hard foul and Streep limped her way over to the free-throw line.
Wiping tears, she threw the first shot and bam! Nothing but net. The ball was passed to her again and she took a big, deep, shaky breath and boom! Same as the first.
After waving at the crowd, Streep headed back down the court . . . with no limp.
At this point, the two teams were neck and neck, but the Butchers fell behind when a cheetah for the other team leaped into the air, spun, and reverse dunked the ball over her shoulders. The move brought the crowd to its feet, screaming. Especially when she hung there, her tongue hanging out, her fangs flashing. If she hadn’t been up against her sister’s team, Charlie would have loved it even more.
The ball was passed to Nelle and she took it back down the court. From there, the ball was stolen, going back and forth between the teams until there were only four seconds on the clock. The dunking cheetah had the ball again and was racing down the court to the Butchers’ basket.
That’s when Max got it, dashing in front of the cheetah and stealing it from her. She headed back the other way but the rest of the cheetah’s team was coming right for her. She had no time to reach that basket.
Charlie assumed Max would pass the ball to Nelle, who was closer. She probably wouldn’t make the basket either but it was worth a try. But when Max realized she was blocked, she made a jump shot, that lateral leap coming into play again. The ball flew over the heads and hands of extremely tall women and whoosh! Went into that basket just as the final buzzer blasted, signaling the end of the game.
Charlie only had a second to see Max’s hilarious expression before her teammates tackled her to the floor. Her grin wide, her tongue out, and her hands thrown out like, “Of course I made that fucking shot!” Then she was gone under a pile of cheering teammates.
* * *
She grabbed the girl’s throat and began to squeeze. She smelled weird. A cat scent Mairi didn’t quite recognize. Then she noticed the girl had something in her ears. Hearing aids.
“You sick fuck!” she laughed, looking back at her uncle. “She’s fucking deaf? How do you live with yourself? And now you’re making me kill her!”
She looked back at the girl and yelled, “You’ve gotta die! Sorry about that!”
Mairi decided to make this quick. No use torturing the kid for no reason. But just as she started to squeeze that skinny little cat neck, her uncle began to completely lose his shit, which seemed strange. He was a bastard. She’d expect him to try to use the distraction to make a run for it. He was badger, after all, and with just a little effort, he could get out of that binding. That’s why she was planning to shoot out both his knees before she drove off.
Still holding the girl, she leaned down and used her free hand to yank the bandana out of his mouth.
“What are you trying to say to me?”
“You kill her,” he said, “Will won’t get his money.”
“You think you can hold out, do ya? No matter what Will does to you? All for this piece of ass?”
“No, you dumb twat, she’s the only one who knows where the money is.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Really. You kill her . . . Will gets nothing. The family gets nothing.”
“All right, then.” She dropped her and the girl bent over at the waist, coughing and taking in big gulps of air. “But then we don’t need you . . . now do we?”
Freddy’s eyes grew big when she pulled the .45 from the holster attached to the back of her jeans and pointed it at him. But just as she pulled the trigger, her arm jerked. Because her body jerked.
Two more shots went through her chest and she stumbled forward, then spun around.
She stared up at the buildings in the distance, trying to see who it was. Who had shot her?
“Come out, Max! You and your sisters! Show yourselves!”
It hurt to breathe, but the shots to the chest hadn’t hit the right spot.
She glanced down and thought it again: The shots hadn’t hit the right spot.
Whoever had shot her, it wasn’t one of the sisters. They knew how to take down a badger better than anyone.
Then who—
The blade slid into the back of her neck. Right where the spine and the skull attached. Blood poured from her mouth and her body began to convulse.
Mairi turned and faced the deaf girl. She held the bloody blade in her hand; Freddy was still hog-tied in the boot.
Two more rifle shots hit Mairi in the chest, right through the heart. And she knew where the next shot would be coming. But it didn’t matter. Not anymore.
* * *
The last shot went through Mairi MacKilligan’s head and Dee-Ann nodded at Cella Malone. “Not bad.”
“What do you mean, ‘not bad’?” Malone asked. “I nailed that bitch with each shot. Center mass and head.”
“But she still didn’t go down.”
“Not my fault. Bitch is a honey badger.”
“What about your cousin? Should we go get her?”
Malone began carefully taking her rifle apart. “No way. I get near her and there will be another civil war between the Malones.”
“I don’t understand you cats. Smiths never have these problems. Someone gets out of hand, the Pack just turns on ’em, then we go about our day.”
“It’s always fascinating when you tell your family stories.”
“Now, now. Don’t be jealous, darlin’. Not everyone can be lucky enough to be a Smith.”
* * *
Natalie waited to see if there would be any more shots. There weren’t. Apparently, all they’d wanted was Mairi MacKilligan.
She stared down at her body. Could still feel the honey badger’s hand around her neck. It had been risky, taking her on. But she hadn’t had a choice.
She reached down and searched the body. She took some cash and the car keys.
Once she had what she needed, she looked down at Freddy MacKilligan. The biggest mistake of her life.
But she was ready to rectify that, too.
She took the bandana she now held and shoved it into his open mouth. He was probably screaming at her. He always thought if he screamed loudly enough, she could hear him. He didn’t seem to understand what the word “deaf’ actually meant.
Once she knew she’d made him quiet, she retied his bindings so that he couldn’t slip out of them for a few hours.
Then she closed the trunk, grabbed her bags and laptop, and got in the car.
It was a Mercedes, which was a very nice car. She started it up and moved on to the last phase of this huge fuck-up.