“I liked him. He was young. Very handsome. Good amount of insurance on him. Tragically died in Qincheng Prison.” She pressed a perfectly manicured hand to her chest. “Broke my heart.”
Semenova laughed. “It’s fun to pretend that either of us has one.”
The badger, grinning, reached into her large handbag with the atrocious flower pattern and pulled out a bottle of the best vodka that Russia had ever produced.
She slammed the bottle onto the table. “Let’s drink, feline. Drink . . . and chat.”
The bottle slid across the table and into Semenova’s outstretched hand.
Curious and desiring a taste of home, Semenova opened the bottle and took a deep drink. “Yes, old woman. Let us chat.”
Vic glanced away from the TV to see Livy walk into the living room. She sat down on the floor near his legs and stretched a large towel out.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Jake stopped by my office and picked up my camera.” She placed the damaged equipment on the towel. “I’m going to see if I can fix it.”
“You know how to fix cameras?”
“I’ve restored cameras. Fixed a few minor problems.” But never had the inside of a camera been in so many pieces before. She looked at Vic. “If I hadn’t already killed those bears . . . I’d totally kill them again. Because this”—she held up her damaged camera body that still made those very disheartening rattling sounds—“is just wrong.”
Shen leaned forward so he could see around Vic. “Are you crying?”
Tears fell down her cheeks. “Because this is so wrong!”
“But . . . they shot you and you didn’t cry. You found your father’s body stuffed and in a woman’s apartment and you didn’t cry. But the bears break your camera and . . . you’re weeping.”
“I don’t understand your point.”
“Okay.” Shen leaned back into the couch, nodded at Vic. “I’m done.”
Livy cleaned up her tears and worked on her camera until an elderly honey badger with a vicious long scar running down one side of her neck slowly made her way past the living room archway, her walking stick tapping against the marble flooring.
“Great-Aunt Li-Li?”
“Don’t mind me.”
“I don’t mind you,” Livy replied. “I just didn’t know you were still here.”
“Well, I am.”
“Why are you still here?”
“Livy.”
“What?”
“Be nice.” Vic leaned in and whispered, “She’s old.”
“Yes. And that doesn’t make her any less mean. So, Aunt Li-Li—” Livy stopped talking, and Vic realized that her great-aunt had disappeared.
“Where did she go?” Shen asked.
Vic shook his head. “Something tells me we probably don’t want to know.”
“We don’t,” Livy promised. “You don’t get to be one step below matriarch of the Yang family without some . . . let’s just call it edge.”
“One step below?”
“Until her mother dies, she’ll be one step below.”
“Her mother is still alive?”
“Oh yeah. She’s outlived eight husbands, too.” Livy glanced at Vic. “Some of them even died naturally.”
“You know,” Shen said low to Vic, “you really need to stop asking her questions about her family.”
“You’re right, because the answers continue to freak me the heck out.”
Livy walked into the room she shared with Vic. He was in bed, reading a Star Wars novel.
“Exactly how high is your geek level?” she asked.
“Pretty high. Is that a problem for you?”
“I just like to know what I’m getting into here.”
Livy walked over to the garbage can in the room and dropped the towel filled with what was left of her digital camera into it.
“Just giving up?”
“Sometimes you have to.” She started toward the bed. “My camera’s fucked.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It could have been worse. They could have done this to my Hasselblad. Then, of course, I would have had to destroy the entire bear nation and all of Russia.”
“Why?”
“Because my Hasselblad rig cost more than your SUV when you bought it new.”
“For a camera?”
“The best camera.”
Livy turned away from the bed and toward the bedroom door when she heard a knock. She opened it and smiled up at Vic’s father.
“Hello, Vladik.”
“Hello, beautiful Olivia,” he boomed. The man didn’t seem to have any volume control. “Is my son too busy to see his papa?” He leaned down and said in what he probably thought was a whisper but was still more yelling, “You two were not busy, were you? I hate to interrupt.”
“Papa.”
Vladik walked past Livy, not waiting to see if he was interrupting anything. Just lumbering by as bears liked to do.
“What is the tone?” Vladik asked his son. “I am just glad you found woman. I was a little worried,” he said to Livy. “He is very shy, my handsome son, and his mother and sister coddle him.”
“Papa, please stop talking.”
“I only speak truth. But my little girl”—Ira’s little?—“she says she likes you, beautiful Olivia. You are small, but very strong. You will make my son good mate.”
Vic tossed his book across the bed. “Papa!”
“Again with tone! Why tone?”
Vic rubbed his forehead. “Olivia and I are just—”
“Just? Just what? Why waste time with just?”
“Papa, do you need something?”
“We leave.”
“Leave?”
“Go.”
“When?”
“Now.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. We have things to do. We came to check to make sure you were safe and that beautiful Olivia had not been killed. You are safe. Olivia is alive. We now go.”
“Are you sure it’s safe? Chumakov—”
“Does not worry me. But don’t you be foolish. You see what he will do.”
“Yeah. All to protect a full-human.”
Vladik snorted. “He does not protect Whitlan to protect Whitlan.”
“What does that mean?”
“It is about honor for him. He has given Whitlan his protection. If he can’t protect Whitlan, his precious honor will suffer. That is all he cares about. Remember that. Now we go. Come say good-bye to your mama.”
Vic slid off the bed while Vladik hugged Livy, which was like being briefly suffocated by a giant.
“Take care, beautiful Olivia.”
“Should I go down and say good-bye to Nova?”
“No,” both males immediately replied.
“I won’t be long,” Vic added sheepishly.
He walked out with his father, closing the door behind him. Livy yawned, pulled off her clothes, and naked, stretched out stomach-down on the bed. She picked up the book Vic had tossed and read the back cover. She barely made it halfway through before she rolled her eyes and tossed the book back onto Vic’s side of the bed.
Vic walked out the front door of Novikov’s house. His mother sat sideways in the rental car, her legs hanging out and crossed at the knees, while she freshened up her lipstick.
Coming down the stairs, Vic stopped by Livy’s honey badger uncles. “Mind not staring at my mother like that?” he asked, trying desperately to keep in mind they were Livy’s blood relatives.
“Your mother is very pretty,” Balt remarked, his brothers smiling beside him.
Vic gave a short roar that managed to shake the house windows and moved the car a few feet.
The smiling turned to badger sneering. “That is annoying, hybrid,” Balt snarled.
“We have no time for this.” Vladik grabbed Balt and Gustav from behind and, ignoring the hissing and claws, tossed them toward the front door, quickly followed by Otto and Kamil. He was reaching for David when that badger held up his hands.