Missy Llewellyn lifted her gaze from the paperwork in front of her and blinked in surprise at the sight of her brother standing in her office doorway . . . glaring at her.

She relaxed back in her chair and asked, “What did I say to your precious wife this time to insult her?”

“You haven’t spoken to Dez since the wedding,” he shot back.

“Then I don’t know why you’re standing there—scowling at me.”

“I was going to wait to see how this worked out but I need to ask you something and you need to be straight with me or we’re going to have some real problems.” Not understanding what in the holy hell her brother was talking about, Missy shrugged and said,

“Ask.” So that he could leave more quickly.

He stepped farther into the room. “Have you been financially backing an organization that’s been trapping and using hybrids as fight dogs?”

Missy gazed at her sibling. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“Yes, but I believe I must have had an aneurysm while you were speaking because your words made no sense.”

“Don’t fuck around with me on this, Missy. Seriously.”

“And, seriously, I think you’ve lost your mind. Just like our father, apparently.”

“Answer me.”

“No. I have not. It’s true that I don’t want mutts dirtying up the Llewellyn gene pool and I’m at least grateful for the fact that your bride is trash but full-human trash so that my nephew is pure Llewellyn. But other than those issues, I haven’t actively bothered with anyone. I have things to do. This Pride is not easy to run and I don’t have the time to chase around after genetic mistakes.”

“Amazing,” her brother said. “You managed to insult an entire group of people with your open hatred, while at the same time proving that you are, in fact, too lazy to kill off what you term ‘genetic mistakes.’ ”

“And your point?”

“My point is that you have a problem. Because someone is using your name and, more importantly, your bank account to fund this little operation.”

“That’s impossible, Mason. You know how I am about my money. And because this Pride belongs to me, it’s all my money. There is no way that I would not notice if . . .” When she stopped speaking, Mace moved closer to her desk. “What?” Missy shook her head, refusing to believe that what she was thinking could remotely be possible. “Nothing.”

“Like hell it’s nothing . . . what?”

“No . . . it’s . . . it can’t . . . it’s not possible.”

“What’s not possible? Talk to me, Missy.”

“No. We will not discuss this further.”

“You don’t seem to understand the situation you’re in.”

“What do you mean?”

“If it’s proven that you’re involved in this, one night you’re going to go to sleep and youwon’t wake up again.”

Missy sat up straight in her chair. “And you’d allow them to do that to me? Your own sister?”

“No. But the people who handle this sort of thing know how to bypass people like me and Smitty. So if you know something, you need to tell me. Now.”

“There’s only one other person who has unlimited access to Pride accounts. All Pride accounts.” He briefly closed his eyes. “Please don’t tell me it’s Allie or Serita.” Their younger sisters.

“No, no. Of course not. Like me, they’re much too lazy to do such a thing. But . . .” She swallowed.

“Who?” Mason pushed. “Spit it out already.”

“Our grandmother. As former head of the Pride, she has complete access and unlimited usage of all our funds.”

Mason dropped into the chair across from her. “Oh, my God.”

“This can’t be right, though, Mason. It can’t. It’s our grandmother. Matilda Llewellyn. Blue blood, actively involved in some of the most prestigious local charities, on the Getty and MOMA board of directors—”

“And one-time Nazi supporter!”

“That was never proven!”

They stared at each other again and then burst out simultaneously, “Oh, my God!”

“Okay, okay,” Mason said. “We can’t panic.”

“But what are we going to do?”

“What can we do if she’s involved in this?”

“Mason, she’s our grandmother.”

“And a sociopath!”

Missy pressed her hand to her mouth. “Could she really?” she asked around her fingers. “Would she really?”

“I don’t know.”

They were silent for several minutes until Missy finally said, “Do whatever you have to, Mason. I will not be a party to this.”

He let out a relieved sigh. “The first sensible thing you’ve said in quite a while.”

“Well, of course. I can’t allow the taint of our grandmother’s involvement in the wiping out of those genetic misdeeds bring down the Llewellyn Pride name if it gets out what that old sow has been up to.”

Mason threw up his hands. “Oh! Well as long as we have our fuckin’ priorities straight!”

“Don’t you dare curse at me, you motherfucker!”

CHAPTER 28

R ic found Dee by the lake on his cousin’s territory. She’d taken down a small deer, but she’d only gnawed on the remains a bit. She’d had a big early dinner cooked to perfection by Uncle Van, who seemed to feel the need to prove something, but Ric knew Dee wouldn’t miss the chance to do a little free-range hunting. She could have hunted with the Pack, Ric’s presence ensuring she’d be accepted at least for the few hours they planned to stay, but that wasn’t something she wanted to do. Like her father, Dee enjoyed hunting alone.