Toni looked around at her siblings. “All right. Everyone in the living room. Calmly. Quietly. No arguing.”
She started to follow after them, but Ricky caught the back of her shirt.
“Who was that?” he asked.
“My sister.”
“Really?” They seemed unbelievably different to actually be related. “Was she adopted?”
Toni shook her head. “No. She’s one of us. Turned eighteen a few months back.” She started to walk off but stopped, glanced back at him. “I know my sister’s pretty,” she said, her voice very low. “But stay away from her.”
“I’m not interested in her.”
She nodded, then added, “Tell your brother to stay away from her.”
“Because she’s so young? Because she’s family?”
Toni studied him for a moment before replying, “No. That’s not why.”
Without another word, she walked into the living room and Ricky let himself out.
As Ricky walked down the stairs, he noticed another limo sitting in front of the house. The driver opened the back door and a woman stepped out. She was full-human but covered in wolf scent. Some wolf ’s mate. She walked toward him, stopping at the bottom of the stairs and gazing up at him with disturbing blue eyes.
“I know you,” she said. She shook her head. “No. Not you. Someone related to you. You have very similar cheek bones and eyes. That friend of Dee-Ann’s.”
“You know Dee-Ann?”
“I’m Irene Conridge Van Holtz.”
“Ric’s aunt. I’ve heard a lot about you. And I think you met my sister, Ronnie Lee.”
She looked up at the town house. “Is there a problem?”
“Pardon?”
“You work in security, right? That’s what Dee-Ann says. You and your brothers. So if you’re here at my friend’s house with the children I consider family, I’m wondering if you’re here about a problem.”
“No problem.”
“Dee-Ann’s cousin lives across the street with that wild dog pack, correct? That’s what Holtz told me.”
“Holtz?”
“My husband. I call him Holtz. Anyway, I assumed you were here to make sure there were no threats to the wild dogs.”
Ricky smiled. “That was checked out before they put down their first piece of luggage.”
“I see.”
“Anyway, I’ll let you get in and see everybody.” He again started down the stairs. “Maybe you can rescue poor Toni. It’s as if her kin descended on her like the hounds from hell.”
“Have a nice night,” she told him.
“You, too, ma’am.”
Irene watched the wolf head across the street. She had to admit, she’d always thought her mate was unnaturally large, especially around the shoulders and neck. But every one of the wolves she’d met from the Smith Pack had proved to her what unnaturally large truly was. Thick necks. Enormous shoulders and chests. And bizarrely large feet—especially on the women.
Yet what Irene really liked about all wolves was how easy it was to figure out what they were thinking or feeling just by watching the expression on their faces.
And Irene knew what she’d seen when the wolf mentioned Toni.
Irene walked up the stairs and into the house, motioning for the limo driver to put her bags on the floor by the door.
While he took care of that, she headed down the marble hallway until she found the Jean-Louis Parker family in the living room. Toni stood in front of her seated family, a notepad in her hand.
“All right,” she was saying, not realizing that Irene was there. “This will not be hard to manage. I’ll pull together schedules for everyone, and I’m sure there is a way to manage the number of rooms we have in this place for you all to get in your work or daily practices.”
“I should get the ballroom,” Oriana snapped. “I need the most space.”
“And the most mirrors,” Troy muttered.
“Don’t you have a protractor to stick in your mouth . . . pointy side first?”
“Spell protractor.”
“I can spell pathetic lonely loser!”
“Yes,” Kyle dryly cut in, “which when you hit thirty-five and your career is over you’ll so definitely be.”
“Enough,” Toni barked. And it was, literally . . . a bark. “I alone will decide which rooms go to whom and you will suck it up when I do.”
There was some angry muttering but none of the children were brave enough to challenge their sister.
Toni looked down at her notebook. “Now, let’s see . . .”
That’s when Irene realized something: Toni wasn’t going to tell them. Anything.
So it was a very good thing that Irene was known for her cold, brutal, and heartless ability to cut through to the heart of everything. If Toni wasn’t going to say anything, Irene would.
“Congratulations, Antonella,” Irene said from her spot by the big entryway.
Toni’s head snapped up, brown eyes locking on Irene.
“Hey, Reeny!” Paul called out. Since Jackie had dragged that poor jackal home so many years ago, he’d insisted on calling Irene “Reeny.” Irene had hated it initially, but then the nickname, like Paul, had grown on her.
“Hello, Paul.”
“So what are you congratulating my girl for?”
Irene feigned surprise by raising her brows. “She didn’t tell you?”
With the entire family’s attention focused on Irene, they didn’t see Toni bare a fang in warning.
“No. She didn’t tell us anything.” Paul looked at his daughter. “What didn’t you tell us?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Is it about your job interview? Did you get the job?”
And that’s why Paul had grown on Irene. Not a lot of men had that sort of hope and eagerness in their voice when asking an adult daughter about an office job that would mostly involve using a copier.
Toni shrugged. “They made an offer, but with all that we have going on here—”
“What?” Kyle dryly asked. “You’re not snapping up that job where you can be an office drone all day? What are you thinking?”
“Oh,” Irene informed the family, slowly walking into the library. “They’re actually giving that job to someone else. Probably a college kid since it’s just for the summer. It only paid an intern stipend and was really for college credit.”
“So she couldn’t even get the office drone job?” Oriana snickered.
“No. But she did get the Director of Team Travel and Promotions job, which I believe starts in the six figures, comes with a company car, extensive travel, full benefits, including artery repair—apparently all those who join the team get that and I decided not to delve further into why it’s necessary—and a yearly, substantial bonus depending on her performance. I seriously doubt this will be a little office drone job for our Antonella. This is a full-time career for her. Aren’t we all proud?” she asked, and began to politely applaud.
But no one joined Irene. Instead, Oriana pointed an accusing finger at her eldest sister. “You’re deserting us?”
“I—”
“You’re leaving us for your own . . . what did you call it, Aunt Irene? Your own career?”
“I thought we were your career,” Troy said.
“Exactly!” Kyle agreed. “I have every intention of making you my personal assistant when my career takes off so that you can manage my schedule and take care of my harem of women.”
Cooper smirked. “And what exactly would you do with a harem of women, Kyle?”
“Duh. Allow them to cook me dinner and do my laundry after they hunt me down a gazelle. Just like what Mom does. What else would you do with a harem?”
Relieved by that description from the eleven-year-old, Irene said, “You all had to know that this time would come. That your sister would be going off to her own life . . . her own family.”
“Why would we know that?” Troy asked. “No one ever discussed that with us
. Not once. Not ever.”
“So,” Cherise suddenly asked, “you thought Toni was going to stay with us forever?”
“Why wouldn’t she?” Kyle asked. “We’re special. We need the attention. She’s just . . .”
Irene folded her arms over her chest. “Your sister is just . . . what, Kyle?”
With wide eyes, Kyle stared at Toni. “She’s . . . just . . . amazing? Right. She’s just amazing at taking care of us.”
“So my special quality is being a babysitter?” Toni asked.
“You should feel grateful,” Troy said, getting to his feet. “We allow you to be part of our lives. We allow you to bask in the glow of our brilliance! And you dare threaten us with leaving for some ridiculous job?”
Fed up, Irene looked to her best friend. “Jackie . . . do you have something to . . . to . . . by the flawed logic of Albert Einstein, Jacqueline Jean-Louis—are you crying?”
“I’m . . . I’m . . .” Jackie buried her face in her hands, her sobs racking her small body.
Toni, horrified, rushed forward. “Mom, please don’t cry. I won’t—”
Before Irene could stop Toni’s next ridiculous, emotion-based words, Paul caught his eldest daughter’s arm and forcibly dragged her from the room. Irene went to Jackie and helped her stand. “Come on.”
Irene headed toward the door, telling the kids over her shoulder, “You all stay here until I come back.”
“Or what?” Oriana sneered.
Irene stopped, turned, focused on the young girl. Focused . . . and stared.
Oriana stared back at first, but then she began to look away. Irene continued staring at her until Kyle jumped in front of his sister and screamed at Irene, “What is wrong with you? Stop it! Just stop it!”
Satisfied, Irene escorted her friend away, confident the children would wait like she’d told them to.
“I’m a horrible sister,” Toni sobbed, her face in her hands. “And an even worse daughter!”
“You do understand you’re listening to Troy, Kyle, and Oriana?”
“They’re right!”
“They’re selfish!”
“Apparently so am I!”
Paul sat down on the marble bench in their rental home’s backyard and stared up at his beautiful daughter. “You’re not doing this.”
“I know,” she said quickly, wiping her face with the palms of her hands. “I’m not doing this. I’m not taking the job.”
“No, Toni. I meant you’re not letting your siblings guilt you into giving up the chance of a lifetime.”
Toni gazed at her father. “What?”
“You heard me. You’re taking this goddamn job. You’re taking it. You’re going to do great at it. And you’re going to get your own life.”
“I can’t desert you guys.”
“Toni?”
“Yes?”
“You do know these aren’t your children, right?”
Appearing disgusted, Toni snapped, “Of course I do.”
“Then how can you desert them if you’re not their mother? We—your mother and I—can take care of our own children.”
“But—”
“We,” he pushed, “can take care of our children. We had them . . . we’re responsible for them.” He shrugged. “It’s kind of the law.”
“So I’m just being pushed out? Like a lion male pushed out of a pride? You’re just done with me?”
Okay, Paul recognized this. Toni’s mother reacted the same way when she became over-stressed. The “nothing you say will make this better” moment.
So Paul didn’t say anything. Instead he just took his daughter’s hand and pulled her until she sat on his lap like she did when that internationally famous conductor’s cat mauled her when she was seven. He put his arms lightly around her waist and smiled when her head dropped onto his shoulder.
“Congratulations, baby.”
“Thanks, Daddy.”
“So . . . that wolf seems really interested in—”
“Don’t even go there right now.”
Chuckling, he kissed her forehead. “Not tonight. But you know I’m not letting it go.”
“I know, Daddy. I know.”
“Sobbing?” she heard Irene sigh. “Really?”
“You don’t understand.”
“I don’t understand how much you rely on Antonella? How else would I ever get our spa times together if it weren’t for Toni arranging it for us?”
“It’s not that.”
“You don’t want to have to deal with Kyle and Oriana on a daily basis? I fully understand that. Perhaps we can put them, Troy, and my demon spawn in an apartment together, and leave them there . . . forever. You’d have the rest of your kids and I’d still have my boys . . . it could work perfectly.”
“Don’t you see?” Jackie demanded. “I’m losing my baby girl!”
“Losing her? You mean she’s growing up.”
“Whatever. All I know is that my baby, my first born, is leaving me to—”
“Start her own life? Her own family?”
“Don’t give me that tone, Irene Conridge. Like I’m being irrational.”
“You are letting your emotions override your reason. That would be considered by many as irrational.”
“Irene.” Jackie sat down on her bed. “I don’t need rational, logical Irene. I need the Irene who takes her kids to IHOP without telling her husband.”
“They like the waffles.”
“Wolves like waffles.”
Irene sat down beside her. “I understand this won’t be easy for any of you. But you have to let her go. You have to give her a chance to find out what her own life can be even if it’s not going to be as groundbreaking as her siblings’.”
“I never cared that she’s not a prodigy. Toni is special to me.”
“You never cared about that, but she does. She doesn’t tell you, but I think part of her feels like she’s . . . let you down.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Of course it is. But if she can shine at this job—and from what I heard from Ulrich, she was tailor-made for this position—she’ll realize how special she is just by being Antonella. Sometimes that’s all someone needs.”
Jackie stared at her friend. “My God, Irene.”
“What?”
“That was . . . beautiful.”
“I’m not heartless, you know.” She thought a moment, then added, “I can be, of course . . . but I chose not to be at that moment.”
“I appreciate that.” Jackie took a deep breath. “Irene . . . will you help me do this?”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me that.”
“I know. I know.” Jackie threw her hands up. “I’m pathetic. Asking you to help me manage my own children.”
“No. That’s not what I mean.”
“It’s not?”
“No. I mean if it hadn’t been for you, all those years ago, always making sure the pantry was stocked with peanut butter and crackers, that the electricity bill was always paid, and that I got a good four to five hours of sleep at least every other day . . . I probably would have died a tragic but senseless death.”
“Or you would have just gone to the McDonald’s down the street from our old house and worked out of your office when the electricity was shut off.”
“Not without you suggesting it. You kept me alive until I met a wolf shifter with a whole pack of people who ensured I didn’t starve to death in a darkened room. So you don’t ever have to ask me to help you manage your brilliant but extremely narcissistic children.”
Jackie sighed. “They are a bit narcissistic, aren’t they?”
“A bit?”
Toni sat on a nice leather couch in one of the many rooms on the first floor. The house was beautifully furnished. The wild dogs had done a great job. Although Toni still thought her mother was paying too much for this place, but there was no point in telling her that. Instead, Toni just sat on the nice leather couch and gazed witlessly across the
room.
Her phone vibrated and Toni swiped it off the end table. It was a text from Ulrich.
On jet heading to Germany. Still need an answer. In or out Jean-Louis?
Toni stared at her phone, unsure what to do. Because this was the chance of a lifetime, right? That’s what her father said. But what about her family?
“Dad said they could take care of themselves. Maybe I should just believe him.”
She typed the word “In,” her finger about to hit SEND, when Zia ran by screaming. Not really surprising. Zia had always been a bit of a screamer. But then Zoe came charging after her . . . holding a steak knife in her hand and chanting, “Kill, kill, kill, kill!” A few seconds after that came Cherise. She hard-charged past the couch and across the living room, chanting, “I’ll get her! I’ll get her! Don’t worry!”
Finger still waiting to hit SEND, Toni watched her siblings bolt out of the room.
“This is why you’re trapped,” Coop said as he dropped onto the couch beside her.
Toni glanced over. Her brother ate a sandwich and stared at her. “Why am I trapped, O wise giant-headed one?”
“Because you spend every minute trying to save us from ourselves.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do here. Notice that I didn’t move. I know Cherise can handle this.”
Zoe ran back through the living room, still holding the steak knife. But now Zia had gotten her little hands on a big pair of scissors and was in hot pursuit. Cherise, though, was still trying to catch the youngest members of their family.
“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.
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