Teacup held out a sheaf of papers. “Evaluations.”
Dee took the files and quickly flipped through them. “Well?”
“What we’ve both been saying. Most are doing well, but a few . . .”
“Hannah?”
Teacup grimaced. “Okay. She’s a little resistant to . . . everyone. I’m working with her, though,” she added quickly.
“I know, Blayne.” Dee always used the woman’s real name when they discussed business. It was proper. “But she makes the higher-ups nervous.”
“Why? Because she’s broody and stares and snarls and snaps when anyone gets too close?” Her nose crinkled a little. “Now that I think about it . . . that might make me nervous, too.” She shook her head and stood tall. “Nope. Not ready to give up on her yet. Hannah’s young. Lots of potential. And, oh, my God, she’s so smart!”
“She can also rip a man’s heart out of his chest with her bare hands.”
“Well, who can’t do that?”
Dee shoved the papers back at Blayne. “You want her to stay, you deal with her.”
“I was thinking, though . . . it might be good if you stepped in as her mentor.”
“Why?”
She blinked. “What do you mean why?”
“I mean why.”
“Shouldn’t you just feel, like, honored that I’m asking you?”
“No.”
“Asking you to take her under your wing and—”
“No.”
“But—”
“I let her live. That means my good-deed job is done.”
“Please, Dee-Ann.”
“Forget it.”
The wolfdog’s bottom lip began to tremble, her eyes welling with tears, but those tears seemed to be a siren song for bears because as soon as Teacup turned them on, every bear from miles around came to her aid. This time it was a grizzly, polar, and a sloth. And they were all glaring at Dee. She hadn’t even lunged at Blayne yet.
Yet.
“Problem, Blayne?” the polar asked, brown eyes glaring at Dee from under one giant white uni-brow.
Bursting into hysterical sobs, Blayne turned and buried her face in the seven-nine polar’s . . . well, stomach since she didn’t reach his chest.
“Jesus Christ, Dee-Ann! What did you do to her now?” the polar demanded.
“Well, I started off by minding my own business. You should try it.”
The grizzly sow pushed her shoulder. “Why are you so mean to her?” she wanted to know.
“ ’Cause it makes me smile. And if you touch me again, I’ll destroy every nerve that allows you to walk upright.”
“Touch you again? You mean like this?”
The sow reached for her but a hand caught hold of the sow’s wrist and bent it back.
“Now, now. No need for everyone to get testy.”
Malone released the sow and stepped next to Dee, Desiree on the other side of her. It had been a long time since Dee had felt she had some backup during these day-to-day office dramas. It was nice.
“Problem, Dee?” Desiree asked, folding her arms across her chest so her light jacket opened up enough that everyone could see the .45 she had holstered on her hip.
“No, no,” Blayne said quickly, suddenly able to get control of her torrent of tears. “It’s no problem. Everything is fine.”
“You sure, Blayne?” the polar asked.
“Positive. Thanks, guys.”
With a little jaw popping in warning, the bears walked off and Blayne faced Dee again. “This is so not over. I will bend you to my will.”
“Sometimes I look at you,” Dee stated flatly, “and I just want to pull your little head off and play basketball with it.”
“You are so mean,” Teacup snapped, storming off before Dee could bother not arguing with her.
“You are kind of mean, Smith,” Malone told Dee.
“There’s no ‘kind of’ about it. I just am.”
Desiree grinned. “And yet you sound so proud.”
“Girl’s gotta know her strengths.” Dee cracked her neck. “What’s on the schedule?” Although the previous evening’s raid had gone well and they’d dug up a little more info from the ones they’d gone to see right after, they still had a ways to go until they tracked down the money and the ones truly responsible.
“We’re on hold for a few hours.”
Malone looked around the training room. “Since we are, you up for a little training session, canine?”
“What kind of train—”
Dee’s words were cut off by Malone’s fist slamming into her face.
Desiree stepped back. “On that note, I think I’m going to go take a nap in the sleep room you guys have. You two have fun. Let me know when it’s time to go.”
Dee touched her nose. “You never know how to act, do ya, Malone?”
The She-tiger shrugged. “It depends on who you talk to.”
“Do you really think your father would steal from his Pack to open his own restaurant?”
“I think he’d steal from a sleeping baby to open his own restaurant.”
“Why?”
“He wants to prove he’s better than Uncle Van, which is stupid. Because no one is better than Uncle Van.”
“You still have that six-year-old’s love of him, don’t you?”
“He taught me how to butcher my first gazelle, how to pick up chicks that are way dumb compared to Aunt Irene, and how to not get beaten by the French chef you’re working for. These are things that I can never forget.”
“You going to tell him?”
“I can do that. Adelle thinks I should do that. Or I can just give my father the money so he won’t need the Pack’s money, or I can replace the money he stole.”
“Because you suddenly owe your father any of that?”
“Maybe I’m a son desperate for his father’s love.”
“You don’t even like your father.”
Ric grimaced. “I know. I really don’t. I really don’t like him at all. That makes me a bad person, doesn’t it?”
“No. It means you’ve got good wolf instincts. And to be really honest with you, Ric, no one likes your dad. I don’t think your dad likes your dad.”
Leaning back in his chair, Ric admitted, “I have to tell Uncle Van, don’t I?”
“Let me ask you this . . . do you feel you have to tell Van because you’re afraid of what will happen to you if you don’t? Or do you have to tell him because you love and respect the man and your Pack?”
“I’ve never been afraid of Uncle Van.” But, when he was younger and weaker, he had been afraid of his father. And as much as he wanted to love him, he didn’t.
“Then you know what you have to do. And you’ll be doing it because it’s the right thing. No matter what your father will accuse you of—you’ll be doing what’s right.”
Feeling a weight lift, Ric said, “Thanks, man. That really helps.”
“I’m a bear, tiny wolf man. We’re all about the wisdom.”
“Really? Then tell me how to make Dee-Ann Smith mine forever.”
“Dude,” Lock laughed, “that’s never going to happen.”
“Thank you, wise bear.”
The grizzly shrugged. “Just trying to help.”
CHAPTER 18
Ric walked into the Group office. He felt better after getting Lock’s perspective and now he needed to get some office work done before he made that call, using the three-hour time difference between New York and the West Coast as an excuse to delay the inevitable.
“Morning, Charlene.” He stopped by the front desk and took the mail from the perky fox admin, who always had a smile. “Everything going all right?”