“I’ve got ’em,” Cherise now chanted. “I’ve got ’em. No one panic!”

Coop handed Toni the other half of his sandwich. Ham and cheese on sourdough. “I wasn’t panicking,” he said, setting up a large bag of chips between them. “Are you panicking?”

“Nope. She’s got ’em.”

“Ow!” Cherise screamed from another room. “You little viper! Give me that!”

“Okay,” her brother said. “Maybe this looks bad. But we all have to learn to function on our own.”

Toni heard the front door open and she looked at the archway. Delilah had returned, floating silently by, followed a few moments later by what Toni could only assume was some poor, full-human homeless person. Toni immediately looked at Coop, and he was already staring at her, his eyes wide. He was definitely panicking now.

“No!” Toni ordered. The full-human stopped and turned to her. “Go,” she snapped in a harsh growl. “Go now!”

The full-human gazed at her, brow pulled down in confusion.

Delilah floated back, her hand lightly touching the full-human’s arm. “It’s all right,” she soothed in her soft, lilting voice. “Come on. I have food for you. Something cool to drink.”

“No!” Toni jumped to her feet. She used that same tone when unleashed aggressive dogs randomly charged her family on the streets. As canines that sort of thing happened to them more often than it did to other families.

“Out.” She watched the full-human analyze the situation. He wasn’t a nice man. He wasn’t homeless because of mental illness or unmanageable circumstances that could happen to even the best people. Instead, he’d ended up this way because he stayed in the shadows and did things for quick money and a quick fix. But that didn’t matter to Toni. She couldn’t allow it to matter. Not in her parents’ house.

So she did what she had to do. She bared her fangs and barked and yipped until the full-human ran off.

She faced her sister. “We had this discussion,” Toni said calmly, softly. She didn’t bother raising her voice with Delilah. It was ineffective and probably just made things worse.

“You were very cruel,” her sister softly chastised. “He could have used a good meal.”

“Again, we’ve had this discussion. You don’t pick up strangers off the street. You don’t pick up anything off the street. No squirrels, no cats, no full-humans. No postman, no Arctic foxes. Understand?”

Delilah didn’t answer, she simply stared and Toni stared back.

The twins shot into the room again from another doorway. While keeping eye contact with Delilah, Toni caught hold of her sisters by the hands still gripping weapons. She yanked the knife and scissors away and handed them off to Coop—handles first, ofcourse, because his hands were insured for nearly a million dollars. Then she grabbed both pups and held each under an arm.

“Do you understand?” she pushed her sister.

“Yes,” Delilah replied. “I understand.” Then she floated off down the hallway.

“I’m sorry!” Cherise yelped as she stumbled into the room. She wore shorts, and Toni could easily see blood dripping down her legs from cuts, as well as blood all over her forearms, which was probably because she hadn’t used her hands to try to grab the twins—not when those hands were insured for five hundred thousand. “I’m so sorry!”

“It’s all right. I got them.”

No, Toni realized with an internal sigh. She couldn’t go off and abandon her family no matter what her father or Aunt Irene said. Mostly because Toni was the only one with hands that could be sacrificed if necessary.

She’d have to tell Ulrich—

“Uh . . . Toni?”

Toni looked over at her brother. “What?”

He dipped his head a bit and Toni looked down to see that Zia had her phone. Her little fingers pushing on the bright screen.

“Oh . . . crud.”

“Bonjour, Oncle Ric!” Zia cheered, holding the phone up for Toni to see. “Bonjour!”

Coop leaned in when the phone vibrated and read the new text. “And Ric replies, ‘Welcome aboard, cousin!’ ”

“Dammit!”

Toni tried to maneuver the twins around so she could get the phone back and quickly text Ulrich a retraction, but Coop took the phone from their baby sister and began texting while walking away.

“What are you doing?” Toni demanded, following her brother with the giggling twins still in her arms.

“Telling Ric thanks for the welcome and that no matter what I text him tonight, ignore it because it’ll just be my usual stupid panic.”

“Cooper!”

“Ric replies that it’s too late for any of that. He’s already sent an e-mail to the team that you’re on board. Oh, look, sis! You’ve already started getting e-mails. A thank-you from someone named Malone and a list of things to do from someone Russian. Novikov? Look at you with your fancy friends.”

“Coop, come on!”

He stopped walking, faced her. “Let it go, sis. You’re in.”

Toni lifted her arms to show Cooper the twins. “And what am I supposed to do about these two? Who is going to take care of them?”

“Their mother.” Toni turned and her mother stood there, smiling at her. “Just got a text from Ric congratulating me on my wonderful daughter.”

Good God! How fast does Ric text? He was shooting out e-mails, sending texts . . . it was like he was a twelve-year-old girl!