Grinning, Livy looked over at Reece and his Pack, who were still standing but also covered in red paint. And it was his packmates who were glaring at poor Reece for getting them into this. He seemed reluctant to turn around and face them. Not that she blamed him.

“What a good idea this was,” Reece’s brother Rory snarled at Reece. “I’m so glad I took off work to do this.”

“We got beaten by a bunch of mighty midgets,” one of the other Packmates grumbled.

“No,” Rory corrected. “We got beaten by a bunch of dang honey badgers.” Rory slapped the back of Reece’s head. “You put us up against goddamn honey badgers!”

Livy glanced back at her cousins and chuckled.

“Could you move your foot?” the wolf beneath her asked.

She did, and walked over to Reece and the others. “Don’t blame him,” she told Reece’s brother. “I made him bring me here.”

“He could have said no.”

“Then I would have ripped his pretty little face off for not keeping his promise to take me ‘and mine’—his words—‘paint ballin’ with his kin.’ Also his words.” Livy smiled, which made all the wolves scowl. Then she jerked forward and all of them jerked back.

“Well,” she said, walking over to her own “kin,” “this was fun. Thanks, guys.”

Livy winked at her cousins, then said, “Kowalskis, in honor of our hosts . . .”

Jake, as always, picked up on what Livy was suggesting. But the others instantly caught on as soon as Jake tipped his head back and began to howl.

Even with all the howling now going on, Livy could still hear the wolves behind her quite clearly.

“Good Lord! What are they doing?”

“Make them stop! Make them stop! It’s like hell on earth!”

“No wonder the felines complain when we do it . . .”

Livy let her cousins continue as her phone rang.

The ID said “unknown caller,” but she answered anyway.

“Hello?”

“It’s Vic.”

“Well, hi, Vic.”

And as soon as she said his name, her cousins instantly stopped howling.

Livy watched them carefully as Vic asked, “Are you coming back to the house soon?”

“Yeah. Everything okay?”

“Things are moving. Might be better if you’re home.”

Livy couldn’t help but smirk a bit. “You worried about little ol’ me, you big, strong, take-charge man, you?”

“Huh?”

Livy laughed. “Forget it. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Good.”

Livy disconnected the call and wondered how she could be so into a guy who had no real grasp of good comedy.

“So that was Vic, huh?” Jake asked, her cousin suddenly close. “Calling to check up on you?”

“Yes. So?”

“Well, I heard from that weird kid, Kyle, that he found you two in bed together. Fully clothed and cuddling.”

“Awwww,” the rest of her cousins chimed in. “Cuddling!”

Livy thought about saying something, but instead she just went ahead and shot her cousin in the leg. When he screamed from the pain of the paintball ramming into him at close range and dropped to one knee, she shot him in the head and neck until he was on the floor and covered in red paint.

“God,” Jocelyn sneered with a sad shake of her head, “you’re being so weak, Jake. Get up and act like you’ve got some real honey badger balls!”

CHAPTER 22

Vic waited for Livy on the stoop. Her uncles had left for Florida earlier in the day. And her mother had left about an hour ago with several of her own family, the Yangs. Vic knew this because he had a contact in the hotel the Yangs were staying at, and he was keeping an eye on them. There was always a risk of what Vic liked to call “blowback.” And he was determined not to let any of that blowback hurt Livy. No matter what her family did or didn’t do.

A cab stopped in front of the house, and Vic smiled as soon as Livy stepped out.

“Hey,” he said when she slowly walked up the stairs.

“Hey.” She dropped her backpack by the door and sat down next to him.

“How did your day go?” Vic asked.

“It was all right. I left work early to hang with my cousins.”

“You can just leave your day job when you want to?”

“I hadn’t thought to ask anyone about leaving. I do it all the time. No one says anything as long as I make my photo shoots on time, especially the shoots with Novikov. And as long as I hit my deadlines . . . they leave me alone.”

“That’s pretty cool. Most day jobs are a lot less . . . flexible.”

“Are you trying to make me feel better about this job?”

“Yes.”

“Well . . . thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Livy rubbed her eyes, yawned.

“Tired?”

“Just a little. Beating the Smith Pack males in paintball can wear a girl out.”

“You played paintball with wolves? Livy . . . no.”

“My cousins needed a way to work off some excess energy.”

“But beating up on wolves?”

“What makes you think we won?”

To effectively reply to that, Vic just stared at her and raised one side of his mouth.

“All right, all right,” she said around a laugh.