It went on for a long time and shook the house windows.
It was such a strong scream that eventually their deaf sister tapped Max’s arm and asked, “Is she screaming?”
Max nodded. “Yes.”
“So I’m not the only one he makes do that?”
Max laughed. “Nah, kid. You’re not the only one.”
chapter THIRTY-ONE
They all stood in the sunroom, staring through the big windows. Together, they watched Charlie sit on the porch and seethe. No one seethed quite like Max’s big sister. She did it silently but Charlie didn’t need words when the very air around her pulsed with her anger.
“She hates me, doesn’t she?”
Before Max could reply to Natalie Malone’s question, Stevie did.
“No! Of course not. She just feels so bad for you.”
“Why?”
Max finally looked away from Charlie to see Stevie give the saddest shrug. “Because you’re a MacKilligan,” Stevie said, wiping a tear. “That’s so horrible for you.”
“She’s a Malone,” Keane growled, still glaring out the window.
“Oh, of course! Of course!” Stevie nodded, but then she scrunched up her face and asked, “But is she? Really? Because your mother’s not a Malone, right? It was your father.”
Damn! Max couldn’t believe her sister had gone there.
The Malone brothers faced her, and the triplets quickly moved behind Stevie while Shen stepped in front of her; all of them were ready to protect her with their very lives.
“Cool,” Zé whispered to Max. “Fight.”
“No, no, no!” Stevie jumped in front of Shen. “There’s no need to fight. We can all get along.”
Max studied the bears and the cats before asking her sister, “Are you fucking kidding?”
Stevie’s little hands balled into fists. “I am trying to do something,” she growled.
“What, exactly?” Max asked, laughing. “Because so far you’ve managed to fuck this up spectacularly!”
Stevie didn’t reply; instead her eyes narrowed.
“What?” Max pushed. “What are you going to do?”
Britta shook her head and ordered, “You two, don’t start this—”
But it was already too late. They were in mutual headlocks, both of them screaming at each other. Max could feel hands on her, attempting to pry her away from Stevie as they battled each other across the room. It wasn’t until they were right in front of the windows that Max felt something in the air change. So did Stevie. At the same moment, they released each other and looked up to see Charlie standing in front of the window, fangs peeking out from under her gums, eyes a bright wolf gold. Then she snarled and Stevie yelled what they were all thinking but would never say out loud, “Run for your lives!”
* * *
Charlie watched an entire group of predators disappear deep into the house. The only one still standing there was Berg. But he was laughing so hard, she simply turned away and returned to her spot on the porch steps.
As she rested her elbows on her raised knees and her chin on her fist, she wondered how much more damage one man could do. How could Freddy MacKilligan be that much of a fuck-up? How was it possible?
“And that poor girl,” she sighed out, thinking of Natalie Malone. She rubbed her eyes with both her fists, wishing she could wipe away all of it.
“Excuse me?”
Charlie lowered her fists but didn’t open her eyes. “Sorry. I’m not baking today.”
“Pardon?”
That didn’t sound like the voice of any local bear. It was too polite. So Charlie opened her eyes and spotted a slight older man standing on the other side of her fence. He held a paperback book in his hand and watched her with great caution.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought you were someone else. Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Zé Vargas. I was told he was staying here.”
Charlie leaned back a bit, letting her gaze look the man over. “You’re his grandfather.”
He nodded and Charlie smiled, getting to her feet. She walked over to the gate and unlocked it.
“Hi, Mr. Vargas,” she greeted. “Come on in.”
* * *
“Wait . . . why did we run?” Keane Malone asked.
“Because you’re weak and pathetic?” Zé asked.
Dag gawked at him. “Wow. You went full-cat fast.”
He really had. What was wrong with him? He was the quiet, observant one. That’s how he’d always been described, whether it was playing football in high school or dealing with insurgents in a battle zone. Zé was always “quiet and observant.”
What he’d never really been was snarky and mean. Until now. Until he’d become part of this world.
Even worse . . . he was really enjoying it.
“We should just get Natalie out of here,” Shay said to his brothers.
“You’re not taking our sister anywhere,” Max said and she suddenly had the full attention of the Malone brothers. They locked on her the way those lions locked on that gazelle in the documentary he’d watched.
“She’s not your sister,” Keane snarled.
“She is now. She’s already been through the gauntlet.”
“The gauntlet?” Finn asked.
“Yeah. The Dad-gauntlet. Where he does something so ruthless and shitty that you realize you’re stuck being his child. At least this time he didn’t sell her.”
“Sell her?”
“Yeah. Once he sold me to a family. Indentured servitude, I think it’s called.”
Stevie nodded sadly. “He sold me to lots of people. The most infamous, though, was the Peruvian drug lord.”
“Yeah. Charlie and I dealt with that situation.” That’s when Max smiled. The smile said it all, and Zé knew he was in real trouble with this girl. He was no longer falling . . . he’d fallen. Because she was a nut. And he liked it. He liked her lethal nuttiness.
“Whatever,” Keane finally snapped. “You’re not keeping our sister.”
“You can’t raise her,” Max argued. “You giant house cats don’t know what to do with a honey badger.”
As the two families bickered, Zé saw Natalie roll her eyes and wander off. She studied the trees and the house, then looked into the glass door of the garage and disappeared inside.
* * *
Kyle heard someone come into his studio. He didn’t bother looking to see who it was. If it was Charlie, then food would be left on his desk. The woman constantly worried about his health. If it was Max, she would take a couple of basketballs from the shelves on the far side of the space and go outside to play. And if it was Stevie, she would simply look over his current work, nod her approval, and leave.
He appreciated that the MacKilligan sisters didn’t really bother him while he was working and only occasionally got in his way. Like when he was going to destroy his worst work. He didn’t see what the big deal had been but Charlie and Stevie were adamant. If he pulled out the sledgehammer again, they were going right to Toni. Just the thought of his sister’s lecture had him tossing the hammer aside and simply moving his least favorite sculptures to the back of the garage so he didn’t have to see them whenever he walked in.