“And she was high?” Smith shook her head. “Damn, girl.”
“It’s really not that big a deal.”
“Well, what did the doctor say?” Malone asked, showing real concern for once for someone other than herself. It was a nice change.
“I didn’t go to the doctor.”
Malone punched Crush’s shoulder and ... ow. “You didn’t take her to the doctor?”
“I didn’t need to go to the doctor,” MacDermot cut in, getting defensive.
“You were unconscious and you didn’t go to the doctor?”
“I wasn’t unconscious. I didn’t even black out.”
Malone and the She-wolf blinked in surprise. “Wow,” they both said together.
“Okay,” MacDermot sighed. “Now you guys are just making fun of me.”
“No, we’re not. You were hit by a She-bear.”
“And you’re full-human.”
“So?”
“Look, look at this.” Malone pulled her cell phone out of her sweatpants pocket.
“Don’t show her that,” Smith nearly begged, her gaze moving up to the ceiling.
“Look what happened to this guy who had a run-in with a not-high, black bear sow ... which is way smaller than a grizzly, and the grizzly who did this to you was startled.”
MacDermot took one look at the picture, squealed, and quickly slapped the phone out of Malone’s hand. “What the fuck are you showing me that for?”
Crush was kind of wondering the same thing.
He also wondered if all that bear talk had conjured up its own set of problems when the perky fox admin said from the front desk, “Mr. Van Holtz? There are two grizzlies outside. They’re asking me to buzz them in.”
“They’re not ours?”
“No, sir.”
MacDermot walked around to the other side of the admin’s desk and looked at the fox’s computer screen. With her one open eye, MacDermot studied whoever was at the front door. “Nope. They’re not ours.”
Van Holtz nodded. “Let them in, Charlene.”
“Yes, sir.”
He pointed at Malone and Smith. “And you two, don’t start anything.”
“Even if they deserve it?”
“Dee-Ann ...”
The two grizzlies walked through the door, the taller one smiling at Van Holtz.
“Mr. Van Holtz?”
“Yes.”
“Hello. I’m ...” The grizzly caught sight of Crush, his words trailing off. Their gazes locked and clashed, and the grizzly’s lip curled. He recognized Crush and not merely as a fellow bear.
Cella didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t for Crushek to suddenly stand up, place Cella on her feet, and then snarl at the grizzlies, “What? You got something to say?”
Suddenly all those proper bear manners went out the window and the grizzlies were moving toward the polar, and Crush was moving around Van Holtz, going head-to-head with these two assholes. But before any of that could happen, Smith stepped between them all, facing the grizzlies, one side of her mouth lifting into a slight and rather scary smile.The grizzlies stopped, refusing to go any closer, not surprising considering Smith’s past history with BPC.
“Why don’t you gentlemen sit,” Charlene, the admin, said, running over and offering chairs near the door, her smile wide. “Mr. Van Holtz has a meeting scheduled right now, but he’ll be back as soon as he’s done. Okay?” Without waiting for an answer, she offered, “Would you gentlemen like something to drink? Coffee, tea, or some honey?”
Smith sucked her tongue against her teeth. “That Charlene,” she teasingly complained about the admin, “always ruinin’ my fun.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
They all headed toward Van Holtz’s office, the BPC grizzlies left behind to seethe. As they came around the corner, Cella realized that Crush wasn’t with them. She stopped and retraced her steps, finding the bear standing outside the game room where many of the Group’s rescued hybrid teens hung out. He stood there, staring in and she stood next to him.
“You okay?” she asked when he didn’t say anything. “What was the deal with those bears?”
“That was nothing.” Crush pointed at the window and quickly changed the subject, which made her think whatever had happened between him and the grizzlies was not “nothing.”
“Why are there kids here?” he asked.
It was his tone that made her concerned, but she still didn’t know if that tone was due strictly to the BPC reps or not.
“Smith found them on the streets,” Cella explained. “She brought them in.”
“Why didn’t she turn them over to CPS?”
“Child Services had most of them and lost them. All these kids are runners. Dee-Ann”—she kind of hoped using the She-wolf’s first name would loosen him up a bit—“was just trying to help out by bringing them in.”
“Helping them or helping the Group? Are you people training them as agents?”
He sounded so accusatory, Cella felt her hackles go up.
“I’m not training them to do anything. At all. This is Dee’s deal, not mine. I’m not even in the Group.”
The bear faced her. “What do you mean you’re not in the Group?”
“I mean I’m not in the Group.”
“Then what the hell are you doing here?”
“Can’t I just come to see you?” When his expression grew impossibly darker, she quickly said, “I’m kidding. I swear I’m kidding. I’m just here to represent KZS as per Van Holtz’s request. So don’t worry, I’m not stalking you if that’s—”
“Wait,” he cut in. “You’re KZS?”
“Yeah. I didn’t tell you that? I could have sworn I told you that.”
“No. You never told me that.”
“Oh.” She shrugged. “Oops.”
“Oops? That’s all you can say?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Nothing.” He walked around her and headed off down the hall.
Cella followed Crush, catching up to him as he stood in the hallway trying to figure out the way to Van Holtz’s office.
“Okay, what’s the problem, Crushek?”
“You’re in KZS.”
“Yes. I just said that.”
“So you’re basically a well-trained assassin who can handle herself in any situation.”
“There’s no basically about it.” When his eyes narrowed, she explained, “Look, you’re either one of four things at KZS: management, administrative, clean-up, contractor. I’m a contractor.” A good one, too, known for her long-distance taps.
But Cella could tell by the look on the bear’s face that he was absolutely horrified about what she did, about who she was, and she felt really insulted by that!
“Oh, whatever.” She brushed past him and headed to Van Holtz’s office, the bear right behind her. She opened the door and stepped in, dropping into a seat on the far side of the room—away from all judgmental bears.
“Everything all right?” Van Holtz asked, his gaze moving back and forth between Cella and the bear.
When the pair did nothing more than nod, he went ahead and got started.
Crush was impressed with how things were run between the three organizations. They worked together, concentrated on each other’s strengths rather than what they couldn’t do, and helped to keep each group honest.
So Crush wasn’t really surprised that BPC wasn’t a part of this meeting. Peg Baissier, with her title of “Chief Technical Advisor” had been running BPC since 1762 ... at least that’s how it felt to Crush. And she was a sow who liked her control. She definitely didn’t believe in sharing it. And to share anything with any other species besides bear she considered treachery. She didn’t announce that last part to the tri-state bear populace she and her people were supposed to be protecting because lots of bears worked for lots of different people. But Crush knew for a fact that’s what she believed.
He also knew she was an evil bitch, which was why he stayed away from her.
Yet Crush wasn’t really thinking about Peg Baissier as he listened to, and approved of, what was being said around him. Instead, he found his gaze straying constantly over to Malone. She pretended to ignore him, but he knew he’d pissed her off. But he couldn’t help it. He’d thought she was just some dingbat hockey player, not part of KZS. If she was KZS that meant she was trained in nearly every form of hand-to-hand combat, most weapons, and foreign languages and cultures. She would be well traveled and highly intelligent. And Crush knew this because KZS was the one organization that Baissier kept her distance from. She’d take them on if necessary, but it was never her favorite plan.
And yet, this woman, this feline, who said she was a KZS “contractor”—read “killer”—also said she needed Crush to be her “pretend boyfriend” because she couldn’t seem to control her own elderly aunts that she might have to beat up?
Huh? What?
“Detective Crushek?”
Crush looked up, realizing that everyone was staring at him. “Yes?”
Van Holtz handed him a picture. “Do you know him?”
He took the picture, glanced at it, nodded. “Yep. I know him. You know him, too, MacDermot.”“I do?” MacDermot took the picture, glanced at it, and handed it back to Van Holtz. “Oh, yeah. Wow. He looks kind of different. Real cleaned up.” She nodded. “Yeah. We know him.”