So far that plan had worked just as well as hitting them with the hammer.
Kyle rubbed his nose, then lifted his head. He sniffed the air, surprised by the strange scent filling the garage. That’s when he saw her standing in front of his work. She was in a long black skirt, a black T-shirt with some no-name band on it, and bright yellow Doc Martens boots. Her black hair was long and separated into three pony tails, one of them hanging in front of her face.
The “lost” MacKilligan sister, as he’d started calling her when he’d discovered who she was. When Charlie had let out that scream of rage at her father, Kyle simply went into the garage and got to work. He didn’t want to get in the middle of his own family’s drama, much less someone else’s. But now he had the lost sister roaming around his workspace. Uninvited. Badgers and cats . . . they had absolutely no respect for other people’s boundaries, did they?
Although he did have questions. For instance, would Natalie turn into a giant tiger-striped honey badger like Stevie? Or would she simply be a honey badger? Or maybe shift into a tiny tiger? Or . . . would she shift into something even more interesting than any of those options?
Yeah, see? He had so many questions!
* * *
Natalie was impressed by the work she was seeing. Not only the statues that took up so much space, but the rough drawings tacked to the wall.
She wasn’t an artist herself. She could doodle a bit, but only when her computer was doing something that required her to wait until it finished. Otherwise, she was all about computers and games. She loved games! Of course, she’d have to convince her brothers that she should go to college to get a degree in game engineering, rather than just engineering. She was already dreading that conversation. Her mother knew what she wanted but her mother left almost all decisions about her only daughter to her eldest sons. Especially Keane.
Natalie loved Keane more than seemed possible, but he tended to drown her in concern. He was convinced she was this weak kitten he’d found dying under his house. He had no idea what Natalie and her friends got up to when he wasn’t around. What had happened with Freddy MacKilligan was nothing, really. And she’d only gone off with him so she could spend some time with the man who was her father.
Ech! What a mistake. He was such an idiot. She could deal with almost anything, even pure evil. But pure stupidity? Who had time for that?
About to move over to another statue, Natalie abruptly realized that someone was right next to her. She looked over the kid standing at her side. She’d seen him in the house earlier, before he’d slipped away. He smelled like dog.
“What?” she finally asked.
“What do you look like when you shift?”
Natalie blinked. She had her hearing aids on and she could kind of read his lips, too. But the question was so bizarre that she immediately assumed she’d misread and misheard him.
“What?”
“Oh,” he said. “That’s right. You’re deaf.” That didn’t stop him from talking, though. Only he spoke a little slower and used his hands a lot more. Not to speak in ASL, but to gesture.
“When you shift . . . are you all honey badger? Or all cat? Are you a giant”—he lifted his arms in the air—“tiger? Or a giant honey badger?” He brought his arms down and spread his hands a couple of feet apart. “Or a tiny tiger? Do you have fangs? Or are you fangless? Do you have a snaggle-fang?”
A snaggle-fang? Oh, boy.
“Um . . . who are you?”
“I’m Kyle. I’m a genius. Literally . . . a genius.”
“I’m walking away now.”
“Can’t you answer any of my questions?”
“I don’t want to answer any of your questions.”
“Is it because you’re shy?”
“No. It’s because you’re weird.”
“I am weird. But that’s because I’m a genius.”
“Of course it is.”
After a much-deserved eye roll, Natalie walked away from the kid, but he caught up to her at the door. He took her hand so that she had to look up at him.
“Do you date?” he asked.
“Not you.”
“Because I’m a genius?”
She pulled her hand from his grasp. “If that makes you feel better . . . sure.”
“Are you positive you don’t want to go out and—”
The glass door swung open, slamming right into the kid’s face. Natalie covered her mouth with her hands, shocked when she saw blood smeared on the glass from his broken nose.
Keane stood in the doorway. “What are you doing?”
She just shook her head.
Keane pointed at the glass. “Blood?”
She pointed at the kid. He was still behind the door, two bloody hands covering his nose. But Nat knew she didn’t need to point him out; her brother could see him through the clear glass. She knew Keane had seen Kyle before he’d even opened the door! That’s why he’d opened the door. He’d seen a boy talking to his baby sister. Once again, her psychotic brother was attempting to ruin her social life!
“Oh.” Keane nodded at Kyle. “Hey.” He jerked his thumb at Nat. “Let’s go.”
Keane walked out and she began to follow, but she did stop long enough to shrug at the kid and mouth, Sorry.
* * *
He’d needed a few minutes, so she’d let him sit down next to her on the porch stairs. His name was Xavier Vargas and he was a very nice man. He also missed his grandson. That was obvious without his even saying it.
“How long have you lived here?” he asked, continuing the small talk of the last few minutes.
“Not long actually. Just a few weeks.”
“Do you like it?”
“It’s nice. I wouldn’t say the people are friendly . . .” Charlie thought long and hard about how to finish her sentence. After a good sixty seconds, she went with, “But I like that they’re easily manipulated by food.”
Mr. Vargas nodded, but then he began to rub his forehead with his fingers.
“This was a mistake,” he finally said after blowing out a long breath.
“No. You guys need to talk.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Tell him the truth. Tell him you did what you had to in order to keep him safe. He’ll understand.”
“You don’t know my grandson.”
“No. Not completely. But the more comfortable he becomes with himself... the more he’ll understand. Just give him time.”
Those words didn’t seem to help and she worried that Mr. Vargas would leave before he had a chance to see Zé. So she quickly added, “But you know what? You’ve made the first move, which I’m sure he’ll appreciate. And you’ve come to the perfect place to have this discussion. It’s a nice, quiet house with quiet neighbors and—”
Her next words were abruptly cut off when the front security door was thrown open and Keane stalked out, dragging his baby sister behind him. Bears and cats and badgers followed.
“There’s nothing left to talk about!” Keane barked, stepping over Mr. Vargas as if the man wasn’t even there. “I’m taking her home!”
Stevie dashed around everyone, jumped over the porch steps—and Charlie and Mr. Vargas who were still sitting on them—and skittered to a stop in front of Keane and Natalie.