“You should tell her that, too.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

Then the Marauder just stood there. The guy with the fastest reaction time on record just stood there, beginning to look mildly panicked.

Not one to leave a fellow bear just hanging—even one who was only half bear—Crush pointed down the hallway. “I’ll show you where her room is.”

“Okay.”

They started walking, Novikov carrying that enormous bouquet of flowers.

“Speaking of enforcers,” Crush said into their moment of non-talking, “who’s going to replace Cella?”

“No one. Instead, I’m going to be stuck with a bunch of wannabes and MacRyrie, Van Holtz, and Bert.”

“Probably. Or you could ask Cella to help you out.”

“Help me out?”

“Let her pick out who should take her place. She’s got a good eye and she’ll worry if you don’t have someone she approves of backing you up.”

“Will that bother her? Asking her to do something after what happened?”

To Crush’s surprise, he didn’t think so. None of this would be easy for her, but for Cella, hockey went beyond just getting on the ice and playing. “I think Cella will handle whatever comes her way with great dignity.”

The Marauder stopped, looked over at Crush. “We’re talking about Cella Malone, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Dignity? Really?”

“Well, yeah. I know on the ice she can be ...” Crush’s words faded away when he saw little Josie suddenly run out into the middle of the hallway. She turned in a circle, her hands flapping wildly. She was panicking.

Crush walked toward her. “Josie? What’s wrong?”

Josie saw him and small hands reached for him, latching on to his forearm. “You’ve gotta get in there!”

She yanked him around the corner with an amazing amount of strength as Meghan ran to meet them.

“Thank God. I was just coming to look for you.”

“What’s going on?” Crush immediately thought of Baissier, worried she’d sent more trouble.

“Ma got a gun.”

Crush stopped, Novikov right beside him and still holding those stupid flowers. “Excuse me?”

“Yeah,” Dee-Ann Smith drawled, her back against the wall, an ice pack to her face. “My fault.”

“You brought a gun to the hospital?”

“Hoss, I bring a gun everywhere.”

Wait. Did she just call him “horse” or ... forget it. He didn’t have time for this.

“She’d already slapped around a couple of little nurses,” the She-wolf went on, “so they sent for the bigger ones. I was trying to get her back into bed, when she snatched my .45 from my holster.” She pulled the ice pack from her face, revealing aswollen eye, cheek, and jaw on the right side. “That’s when the bitch clocked me with my own damn gun.” She pressed the ice pack back to her wounded face. “That point, figured I’d better walk away instead of cuttin’ her throat with my knife. ’Cause I was sorely tempted.”

“Right.” Crush looked at Meghan. “She didn’t threaten you, did she?”

“No, no.” She shook her head. “Of course not.”

“Good.”

“But she is holding a black bear hostage.”

Crush rubbed his face with both hands. “I was gone fifteen minutes and there’s now a hostage situation?”

Meghan patted his shoulder. “Welcome to my world, Detective Crushek.”

The door opened and Cella snarled, “Where the hell have you been?”

“I went to get something to eat.” Crush and a large moving crop of flowers behind him walked in. He rested his hands on his hips. “You’re standing,” the bear accused. “Why are you standing?”

“Calm down, I’m not putting any weight on my knee.” Instead, she leaned against the wall and kept her brace-covered leg stuck out in front of her. It wouldn’t be such a problem, either, if it wasn’t for the black bear she currently had in a headlock who kept sobbing. Geez. Punch a big black bear in the nose, and he becomes all sorts of weak.

“Put the black bear down, Cella.”

“He’s in this position because he put his hands on me. I don’t like to be bear-handled. Unless, of course, it’s by certain bears.” She grinned and winked at him.

Crush’s face turned red and he glanced over at Cella’s mother and aunts. They hadn’t left the room, but they hadn’t actually been much help, either. Then again, they knew how Cella was when she felt cornered, and why get into the middle of all this when they didn’t have to?

“What do you mean he put his hands on you?”

“He tried to pin me to the bed. And not for what I’d call a fun reason, either.”

“These people are trying to help you.”

“Helping me is leaving me alone. Not ripping the bandages off.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There’s a bit of a problem,” Cella’s mother explained to Crush. “While her knee still has some work to do before she can walk on it, her skin healed so fast that the bandages are sort of ... attached now.”

“They were trying to rip the skin off my legs,” Cella clarified. “Without a painkiller.”

“They were actually going to give her one.” Barb smirked at her daughter. “But little Miss Overreaction decked the nurse before she had the chance to give her the shot. That poor bobcat.”