“Someone better,” Toni snarled. “No more lion males if they can’t handle a couple of bratty three-year-olds.”

Bratty three-year-olds the twins might be, but that didn’t mean they were any less dangerous. But Livy wasn’t about to say that to her best friend. Not when she was this angry.

They reached the front door and Toni faced Ricky. “I know your brother handled this job, but I want you to evaluate all the personnel involved directly with my siblings. You understand them, Reece doesn’t.”

“Done.”

Smart wolf. He knew better than to argue with Toni when it was about her siblings. Because there would be no winning that fight. Only lonely nights.

“Good.” Toni grabbed the doorknob and yanked the door open. Her limo driver reared back.

“Oh,” he said. “I was just coming to—”

“Just go already!” she yelled at him.

“What are you screaming at me for?” the feline demanded. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Shut up and drive, you idiot!”

Bickering, the pair stormed out of the house. Ricky looked at Livy, sighed, shook his head, and followed.

Livy did not follow. She knew better.

It took Ricky nearly half a day to get his brother on the phone. Rory had been in client meetings and other than texting him to “stop bothering me,” he’d been pretty quiet. But now that Ricky had him on the phone, he was forcing Rory to go through each team member he’d brought onto the Jean-Louis Parker job and which kid that team member was attached to. His brother wasn’t happy about this—he never liked it when anyone questioned him but especially when it was Reece or Ricky. But with Stewart stuck in the hospital in the throes of an ugly fever while his leg healed, Rory knew he had no choice.

So far, though, Ricky was fine with the team Rory had assembled to watch the kids—he wasn’t about to blame any male, even a feline, for being freaked out by the Jean-Louis Parker twins. Then Rory told him who he’d put with Freddy.

Sitting in Toni’s office, which was filled with flowers from individual players—especially the ones of Russian and Mongolian descent who would now have a chance to visit distant relatives at team cost—and other Eastern Europe shifter hockey teams who’d clearly heard about Toni through Zubachev, Ricky told his brother flatly, “No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I mean no. I don’t want Roy with Freddy.”

“Why not?”

“He’s lazy.”

“Dude, come on. How much effort is needed to watch a seven-year-old?”

“I don’t want Roy on this.”

“Who then?”

Ricky thought a moment. “What about Miranda?”

“Miranda? Is she remotely good withkids?”

“I don’t care. And I can promise you Freddy’s sister won’t care. It’s about whether he’ll be safe, and Freddy has a lot of outside classes. So put her on it.”

“Okay. Okay. Lord, you are gettin’ snarly. Startin’ to sound like Daddy.”

“Only because you’re irritating the shit out of me.”

“I said okay! I’ll take care of it. But Miranda’s in Queens today on another job. I can pull her, but it’ll take a bit to get her back to the city, so Roy will have to stick with the kid while he’s at school.”

Ricky looked at his watch. “Yeah. All right.” He’d replace Roy himself but the coyote would wait until Ricky could get there.

“Have her meet us at the Parker house.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Then his brother chuckled. “Parker house. Aren’t those rolls?”

Yep. The Reed family secret—Rory was kind of goofy.

“Does your hot, new girlfriend smell like rolls, too?”

Ricky looked over at his “hot, new girlfriend.”

“Rory?” Ricky said to his big brother.

“Uh-huh?”

“Momma’s in town.”

“Wait. What?”

“Bye!” Ricky disconnected the call and then turned his phone off.

“What’s going on?” Toni asked. She was focused on her computer monitor, her hands flying across the keyboard, and he didn’t think she’d been paying attention.

“Just freaking my brother out.”

“You mentioned Freddy. What’s going on with Freddy?” Damn, the woman was good.

“I’m going to go pick up Freddy from school today.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“You don’t trust me with your brother?”

“I don’t trust that he won’t talk you into letting him drown himself in a chocolate sundae as big as your head.” She smirked. “He’s quite persuasive, my baby brother.”

“And I wonder where he learned that from?”

“Quiet, you.”

Freddy Jean-Louis Parker hated school. He hated professors. They always got so mean when he corrected them. How was it his fault when they got it wrong? How was it his fault that they didn’t know as much as they thought they did?

It wasn’t! It wasn’t his fault! And it wasn’t fair to yell at him! He didn’t do anything wrong. And even when he did do wrong things, his parents didn’t yell at him. Even Toni didn’t yell at him and Toni yelled at pretty much everybody. She did slap those matches out of his hand that time, but he didn’t blame her for that. But then she calmed him down. Toni always calmed him down. She was real good at that.