“Sorry, little brother. Total accident.”

Hands over his nose and mouth, the boy glared at his brother. “Liar,” he snarled before walking out of the room.

Cooper faced Vic. “Sorry about my brother.”

“No problem.”

“You guys here to help Livy?”

“Yeah. Cooper, this is Shen Li.”

“His business partner,” Shen volunteered.

“You are not my business partner.”

“Well, not until the contracts are signed.”

Vic decided not to argue with the man now. It was too much trouble.

Cooper closed the office door and asked, “How’s Livy holding up? Really?”

With a shrug, Vic admitted, “At first, she just took off, and the next thing I know, she’s in jail for hitting a cop.”

Cooper grinned. “You could call that Livy’s five stages of grief. Avoidance, followed by indescribable rage, followed by three more stages of avoidance.”

“Not this time,” Vic replied, grabbing one of the duffel bags and pulling out the needed cables. “Now she’s running right into the fray.”

“Look”—Cooper stepped closer, lowered his voice—“we’ll have to watch out for her. Livy’s family doesn’t always have her best interests at heart. Especially when it comes to getting even with people.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to her.”

The jackal stared up at him. He looked just like Toni—except for the hair. Hers was kind of a wild curly mess, but Cooper’s was just slightly wavy.

“I’m glad she has someone like you watching her back,” Cooper said. “Livy needs that. She can get in over her head sometimes, hurt innocent people while getting out of that trouble, and although she’d never admit it, end up feeling a little guilty about it all.” Cooper opened the door and stepped into the hallway. “And I’m sure none of us wants to deal with a feeling-guilty Livy, now do we?”

Vic stared at the doorway long after Cooper had walked off, until Shen came up beside him and asked, “Problem with the kid?”

“Which one?”

“The one you’re still scowling after.”

“No. No problem.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You think they ever dated?” Vic asked.

“Who?”

“Cooper and Livy? He seems awfully . . . familiar.”

“Doesn’t she consider Toni’s family her family?”

“Yeah. I guess.”

Shen pulled out a short bamboo stalk from his back pocket. “He is good-looking, though,” he said as he chomped. “For a dude. The kind of good-looking that girls like.”

Vic glared at the panda. “You’re just pissed that Kyle didn’t ask you to pose for him.”

“I may not have yourcheekbones, but I do have these adorable dimples!”

Livy sat down at the smaller wooden table in the kitchen, right by the window that looked out over the large—for a city—backyard. Melly was still out there and still on the phone.

Her uncle Bart walked in. “Yes,” he said to Livy. “You need to sit. I get us drinks.”

“I don’t need a drink, Uncle Bart.”

“You need drink. We drink in your father’s honor.”

“You know,” Livy had to admit, “his death doesn’t make him less of a bastard.”

Bart chuckled. “Yes. He was that. Just like our father. Another bastard.”

Bart placed two glasses on the table and poured vodka into both. He dropped his substantial bulk into the chair across from Livy. He was not a fat man. Like most honey badgers, his power was in his shoulders and chest. If he were taller, he’d appear less cumbersome, but because of his height, he lumbered when human.

Tapping one knuckle on the table, Bart said, “I know he never say . . . but your father was very proud of you.”

“He thought my being a photographer was stupid.”

“True. You have brains to manage this family. And the ones who manage the family get a cut of the jobs even when they risk nothing. But you, little Olivia, were always . . .”

“Difficult?”

“We are all difficult. We are badger. But you were different. Always went your own way. As a baby, you used to watch everyone. Everything. Even then . . . always plotting.” He chuckled again. “Plotting to get out. Get away. Which is okay.”

“It is?”

“Not everyone can live this life. Not everyone should. Some of us have no choice. This . . . it is all we know. All we want to know. And some of us . . .” He gestured out the window and Livy watched Melly hysterically scream, “Why won’t you love me, you son of a bitch?” into her cell phone. “Some of us have exactly what we deserve.”

“I didn’t get far away, though. I’m right back with all of you.”

“Do not be foolish, girl. You are not back. You will never be back. But we are still family. And when you need us, you call. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now”—he reached into his jacket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes—“what happened to your father—”

“There’s no smoking in this house, Uncle Bart.”

The cigarette now dangling from his lips, Bart glared at Livy. “A little smoke does not harm us. We are badger.”

“It isn’t about us. No smoking. I also don’t want any snakes in this house, either. Absolutely nothing poisonous, and nothing bigger than a garter snake, for snack purposes only. And only if that garter snake is dead before it hits the front door.”