Without thought, only abject fear, Chuck went to close the door in the woman’s face, but a hand from behind dug into his hair and a knife pressed to his throat.
“Hello, darlin’,” another female voice growled in his ear. “You don’t mind, do ya? But me and Malone here have just a couple of questions for ya.”
The one he assumed was Malone walked inside the church, closing the door with her foot. She smiled again, and that’s when Chuck would swear he saw fangs.
“Come on. Let’s go someplace comfortable to talk.”
Then the woman who held him, who was so damn strong, dragged him down the hallway and Chuck knew this couldn’t possibly end well.
“A notebook?” Toni shook her head at Dee-Ann’s words. “What notebook?”
“No idea.”
“If all Delilah wanted was a notebook, why didn’t she just take it?” Cooper asked. “She had to know that taking Freddy would set us off.”
“I can only think Freddy didn’t have it for some reason.”
“He probably hid it,” Oriana said softly while holding a bag of frozen peas against her swollen forehead. “He does that sometimes. Like a Labrador, he’ll dig a hole and put something that means a lot to him in it.”
“Well, it can’t be one of his notebooks,” Toni reasoned. “He doesn’t care about his own shit. So it had to be something he stole and . . .” She looked across the kitchen table to Irene, but her mother’s best friend immediately shook her head.
“I haven’t had anything missing and you know I’d notice unless it was food.” But then Irene looked off, her hand briefly covering her mouth. “Oh, no.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I think I know where this started.” She rested her elbows on the table, dug her hands into her hair. “Miki.”
“Kendrick?” Irene’s mentee and friend who they’d just visited at the hotel only a couple of weeks ago. “What about—” Toni nearly slapped her forehead. “The box of tissues.”
“The box of tissues.”
“He stole a box of tissues?” Cella asked.
“No. But he was alone in Miki’s room for a bit. He adores her. He’d take one of her notebooks. His way of keeping her close. He wouldn’t give that to Delilah.”
“So she took him?” Ricky asked.
“He has a photographic memory. If she couldn’t get the notebook, taking him would be just as good.”
Standing tall by Cella, Dee-Ann folded her arms across her chest, and stared hard at Toni. “What do you want us to do?”
Toni didn’t hesitate. “I want you to find out who she’s going to sell this information to. I think they wanted to bypass her and that’s why they broke into the house and then just tried to take him.” She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “Dee-Ann, I want you to find out where this is coming from and deal with it.”
“And you?”
“What do you think? My mother’s upstairs sobbing. My father’s trying to keep the younger kids calm.” She gestured to her fifteen-year-old sister. “She split Oriana’s head open.” Toni barely managed to bite back a growl when she saw how swollen poor Oriana’s face currently was. “I’m going to go get my brother back.”
Ricky didn’t bother arguing with Toni. There was no point. Instead, he turned to Vic. “What do you have?”
“We traced the license plate number Troy got off that car to a farm upstate. Dug a little, it’s owned by the church.”
“Good.” Ricky focused on his brothers. “Reece, I want you to stay here. I want this place locked down until you hear from me.”
“It’s done,” Reece said, then he got up and walked out of the room.
“Rory, I want you with me.”
“Yep.”
“Y’all take care of this,” Dee-Ann said. “Take Barinov and Malone with you.”
“Don’t you need backup, too, Dee?” Oriana asked, sounding remarkably kind since that hit on the head.
“Aren’t you just the sweetest little thing?”
“No,” Oriana answered honestly. “Not really.”
Dee snorted and headed out. “Y’all be careful,” she ordered before she left.
Toni got to her feet. “Irene—”
“I’ll take care of your mother. You just . . . fix this, Antonella. Fix it.”
“I will.”
Yeah. Ricky didn’t doubt that for one second.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Dee-Ann stopped the rental car in the driveway, a healthy distance from the mansion. She looked through the windshield and gave a little whistle. For a bunch of classless, lowlife bikers—her daddy’s words—the Magnus Pack must have some serious cash lying around in order to live so well in Northern California.
Opening the driver’s side door, Dee-Ann stepped out onto the gravel and went to stand in front of the vehicle. She just stood there, waiting. She didn’t go to ring the doorbell. She didn’t howl to get anyone’s attention. It was how one shifter wolf handled entering another shifter wolf ’s territory.
Dee had been standing there for a good twenty minutes when she heard the roar of engines behind her. She glanced over and saw several tricked out motorcycles ride up the curved driveway. They passed the car and kept going a bit farther before pulling to a stop. The wolves got off the bikes, took off their helmets, and headed into the house. Only one, a female, stopped to look at Dee. She looked but said nothing, and eventually walked into the house, closing the door behind her.
It was another five minutes before that front door was flung open and a female in nothing more than a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt and holding a shotgun came marching out. Yep, this could only be Sara Morrighan, Alpha Female of the Magnus Pack and all-around crazy bitch, according to any other Pack, Pride, or Clan leader who’d had the misfortune of meeting her.
As the She-wolf stormed over to Dee, she cocked the shotgun she had in her hands and Dee really wondered if the insane heifer was just going to shoot a strange wolf on sight or if this was all for show.
A familiar-looking Latina dressed in a very tiny nightie came charging after the angry She-wolf and grabbed hold of the shotgun. The two females struggled over the weapon until the Latina rammed her foot into Morrighan’s knee.
“Ow! You whore!”
Yanking the shotgun away from her friend, the Latina backed up and snarled, “I thought we discussed this! No shooting without actual signs of aggression!”
“Just her presence on my territory is aggression!”
“That was not on Miki’s list!”
That’s when Miki stumbled out of the front door, her hand immediately shielding her eyes from the early morning sunlight.
“What the fuck is going on?” the small full-human asked her friends.
“Sara tried to shoot strangers again.”
“Sign of aggression!”
Studying Dee through narrow slits, Miki asked, “Hey . . . don’t I know you?”
“Dee-Ann Smith.” Miki frowned at that reply. “Mate to Ric Van Holtz?” The confused frown worsened. “We met through Irene Conridge?”
“Well . . . I know Irene.”
“How,” Morrighan asked, “do you have a photographic memory but not remember people?”
“Is that a trick question?”
The Latina sized Dee up. “Didn’t I help you get a dress once?”
Eyes wide, the other two females now gazed at Dee.
Annoyed, Dee snapped, “I’ve been known to wear a dress or two over the years.”
Morrighan cringed. “With those shoulders?”
Miki had ripped her bag apart but the notebook was gone. Gone. And she hadn’t even realized it.
“Well?” Angelina pushed.
Letting out a breath, Miki faced her friends and the She-wolf she should remember but didn’t. “I . . . uh . . .”