“Look, Crushek, you can’t just take people out of here . . .” He cleared his throat, tried again. “Take people out of here . . .” Another throat clear. “Whenever you feel like . . .” He gawked up into that unrelenting polar bear stare and, after a few moments, threw up his hands. “Do whatever you want,” he snapped before walking off.

Frowning, Crushek asked Livy, “What was that about?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Livy offered.

“Yeah. You’re probably right. Let’s go.” The polar walked toward the elevators.

“He has no idea, does he?” Jocelyn asked.

“Like most bears . . . he’s completely oblivious.” Livy shrugged. “That’s kind of what makes him cute.”

Her cousins moved off and Livy was about to follow when she looked over her shoulder at Melly. The little idiot was talking to a cop. She had her butt on his desk and was leaning down so that her top was probably giving him a very nice shot of her braless tits.

Livy briefly entertained the thought of leaving the bitch here, but she didn’t want to hear about it later from her mother. So she walked up to her, grabbed Melly by the back of her head, and yanked her off the desk by her hair.

Instead of fighting while Livy dragged her ass across the floor toward the elevators, Melly waved at the detective and called out with a giggle, “Call me!”

CHAPTER 11

Vic, leaning back against his SUV, glanced over at the full-human female standing next to him.

“I really appreciate you guys helping me with this,” he said.

Dez MacDermot smiled up at him, squinting one eye closed against the midday sun. “It’s no problem. Things are pretty quiet right now for me and Crushek anyway.”

“You know, I heard from Dee-Ann that her bosses and Cella’s have had them back off the Whitlan case. Any idea why?”

“Nope. But our department hasn’t been pushing us, either. Which is weird, because for a while there, that’s all they had me and Crush working on. But Dee-Ann quietly mentioned that you were looking into it for us.”

“Yeah. Just seeing if I can find out anything on my own.”

“Well, just let me know if me and Crush can help you. It bothers me that Whitlan might be able to get away with all this bullshit. I’ve heard rumors there are a lot of fellow law officers who don’t want Whitlan caught. Some high-level guys whose careers will be very hurt if Whitlan’s brought in.”

Frankie “The Rat” Whitlan had turned out to be quite a piece of work, using cops to protect his illegal business by turning rat on fellow criminals who were in his way.

Yet none of that was why shifters of every breed and species had been after the son of a bitch. It was because he’d run one ofthe most successful shifter-hunting businesses in the world. For an exorbitant fee, Whitlan could arrange a hunt involving anything from lions, bears, tigers, wolves . . . any type of shifter. And for hard-core hunters, shifters were the ultimate prey. The power and strength of the predator combined with the intelligence of thumb-possessing humans.

The fact that an untold number of shifters were stuffed and on display in rich people’s homes was what made Whitlan “most wanted” among their kind. So for any of the protection agencies to be backing off this guy was strange.

“You don’t think that’s what’s happening here, do you? That someone from our side is trying to protect Whitlan?”

Dez jerked a bit in surprise at Vic’s question. “No. I wasn’t thinking that at all. Are you?”

“No. But I do feel something’s going on.”

She snorted. “There’s always something going on. You guys are always involved in such complicated politics.”

“True.”

Crushek walked out the side door, Livy and six other honey badger females behind him.

Vic studied Livy as she caught sight of him and began to move his way. Despite some already healing bruises on her face, she appeared to be just fine.

Until one of the other badger females said something to Livy. Something only Livy could hear. But whatever was said, it was enough.

Livy turned wickedly fast, her open hand flying out and slapping the other female right across the face. Hard. So hard, the blow had the other female stumbling, briefly dropping her to her knees. She was up fast, though, charging Livy.

“Crush!” Dez called to the polar.

“What?”

She motioned to the women behind him, and Crush turned, eyes widening in shock. But before he could move, the other females stepped in, separating the cousins and moving them away from each other.

Vic motioned them over with a wave of his hand, now recognizing Melly as the one Livy had slapped.

Once the females were in front of him, Vic announced, “Listen up, ladies. I’m going to make this very quick. You have not been bailed out. Instead, you’ve been released, and any record of your arrest has been expunged.”

Melly threw both fists high in the air. “Rock on!”

“Hold it,” Vic cut in before she could walk off feeling invincible.

Vic pointed at Dez. “This is Detective MacDermot. She’ll be accompanying you ladies back to Livy’s apartment, where you will clean up whatever mess you left there.”

“Fuck her,” Melly snapped.

“You’ll clean it up,” Vic continued on, “or Dez will be dragging your ass”—he pointed right at Melly—“back to prison.”