By the time Livy had the toilet seat up and Melly’s head shoved under the water, the rest of her cousins had Livy by the arms and hair and were pulling her back.

Melly jumped away from the toilet, black-and-white hair dripping wet, gasping for air. Then she came at Livy.

Yanking her arms away from the hands holding her, Livy rammed into her cousin. Snarling and hissing, they battled their way out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, across the bedroom, next to the bedroom window . . . and eventually out of the bedroom window.

Still fighting, the pair fell the sixteen flights until they landed hard onto the roof of a black-and-white sedan. Livy landed on her back, but she quickly flipped over, pinning Melly underneath her by holding her cousin’s arms down with her knees.

Far away, Livy heard raised voices yelling at her as she pummeled her cousin repeatedly on the face and neck, but she chose to ignore all that.

Finally, hands grasped Livy and yanked her back.

Someone leaned in and tried to help Melly. It took a second for Livy to realize it was a cop. Whether Melly even realized that, Livy didn’t know. She just knew her cousin started swinging at him while screeching, “Let me at that cunt! Let me at that cunt!”

“You little weak bitch,” Livy hissed, a greater insult not known to the honey badgers.

“You ungrateful whore!”

“I’m ungrateful?”

“A weak, ungrateful whore!”

Livy yanked her arms away from whoever was holding her and dove at her cousin. She took her, and the cop holding Melly, down hard.

Far away, Livy heard raised voices yelling at her again as she pummeled her cousin repeatedly but, also again, she chose to ignore it.

“Vic! Vic!”

Vic turned around, but all he saw were the oversized, treelike sports guys walking toward him. But amid all that bulk was a raised arm waving.

He waited until the guys moved past him, a few stopping in front of him, expecting Vic to move instead, but he wasn’t about to move for anyone. Especially not hockey players, a sport he simply did not understand on any logical level.

Once the players cleared, Vic was able to see Toni rushing up to him. And ambling behind her, Ricky Lee.

“I’m so glad I found you,” Toni said when she reached Vic, her hand resting on his arm.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need your help.”

“Sure.”

“I need to go to Russia. Now.”

“Well—” he began, quickly searching for an excuse that would get him out of making a trip back to Russia as part of Toni’s security team. He still hadn’t found Livy, and until he knew what had happened to her, he wasn’t about to go anywhere. But he also didn’t want to alarm Toni by telling her that Livy had gone missing.

“But I just got a call,” Toni wenton, a bit of panic in her voice. “Livy’s in jail.”

Shocked, Vic demanded, “What? What the hell happened? When did that happen?”

“It doesn’t matter. I just need to get her out.”

“No problem. I’ll post bail.”

Toni frowned, confused. “No, no. I need you to go to Russia. I’ll get Livy out of jail.”

Vic studied Toni a moment before turning his gaze to the wolf standing behind her.

Reed gave that annoying grin of his, which told Vic the woman was serious.

“You want me to handle negotiations with those Russian bears for a sport I don’t even respect?”

“Of course not,” she said, exasperated. And they’d only just started this goddamn conversation. “Just stall them until I get there.”

“I see. And that makes sense . . . how?”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“You want me to go to Russia to stall bears while you bail Livy out of jail rather than you going ahead to Russia and letting me pay her bail? How is that remotely logical?”

“Because I manage Livy when she gets into trouble.”

“No. You manage those ridiculous meatheads who fight while skating. You also manage your terrifying siblings. Livy you do not manage. Nor should you, since she’s a grown woman.”

“You say that, but where is she? Jail!”

“I didn’t say she was a grown woman who made good decisions. But I’m not about to take a seventeen-hour flight just so I can stall a bunch of cranky Russian bears while you bail your friend out of jail so you can then lecture her about how bad it is for her to go to jail.”

“I can’t believe you’re being so unfeeling!”

“Unfeeling because I’m simply not giving you what you want?”

“That’s exactly what I mean!”

Chuckling, Reed put his arm around Toni’s shoulders. “I know you don’t wanna hear it, darlin’—”

“No!” Toni snapped. “I don’t.”

“But Vic here is right. This deal is too big for you to walk away. You’re about to sign the most important deal this team has ever had. You don’t want to risk that.”

“But I’m not walking away. I’m just asking Vic to—”

“No,” Vic said calmly. “I’m not going to Russia. Not for this. Zubachev is expecting you, but if I show up?” Vic shook his head, thinking of the Russian shifter team owner’s reaction to that little change in his schedule. Ivan Zubachev, like most grizzlies—Russian or otherwise—was just not good with change. Any change. Ever. “I’d rather set myself on fire, Antonella.”