“Does Dee know you’re here?” Ric asked.

“Not yet. But she will.” She turned to Lock and opened her arms. “Lachlan MacRyrie.” Lock went in for the hug, squeezing the She-wolf tight but gently. “I’m so glad to see you, Miss Darla.”

“You never come to visit like you used to.”

“My schedule’s no longer aligned with Dee’s and coming to Smithtown on my own—even for the honey cream pie—seems a tad foolish. Even for me.” He pulled Gwen around. “This is my fiancée, Miss Darla. Gwen O’Neill.”

“My goodness, ain’t you just the prettiest little thing.”

Gwen actually blushed a little. “Thank you . . . uh . . . ma’am.”

“Why are you here, Miss Darla?” Lock asked.

“I’m here with Eggie.”

All eyes focused on Ric and he suddenly felt like he’d just been handed a speedy death sentence.

“Not for that!” Miss Darla gasped, then added with a firm nod. “Don’t you worry one bit, Ulrich.

I made Eggie fill in that shallow grave before we drove up here.” Lock grimaced and Ric swallowed. “Thank you?”

Mace Llewellyn walked up to the group, golden lion eyes narrowing. “Why are you all standing out here? I’m not going in there alone.”

“Mace Llewellyn,” Miss Darla chided. “Is that how you say hello?”

“Miss Darla?” Smiling with what seemed to be true welcome, the large male bent down, kissed her on the cheek, and hugged her. “How are you?”

“I’m doing just fine. And you look wonderful.”

“Thank you.” He frowned a bit, shook his head. “What are you doing here?”

“She came with Eggie,” Ric explained.

“Oh,” Mace said. Then he blinked. “Oh.” He thought another moment and, flinching the slightest bit, “Oh.”

“Not sure it could possibly get any more awkward,” Mitch muttered, earning a punch to the ribs from Sissy.

They left the bedroom, Malone stopping long enough to gaze at the bed Dee now permanently shared with Van Holtz.

“Dee . . . this bed.”

“Bear-sized queen.”

“Frightening.”

Dee chuckled, reaching into her purse and pulling out her phone, answering it. “Yeah?”

“It’s Ric. When are you getting here?”

“We’re on our way.” They headed down the hallway.

“Heads-up,” he warned her. “Your mother’s here.”

“Good Lord, why?” Considering the She-wolf referred to Manhattan as “that den of true evil where my Sugar Bug is forced to keep everyone in line.”

“She came with your father.” Ric’s voice dropped to a whisper. “She says he’s not here for me.” If Eggie Smith had been, Dee would be burying Ric at this moment, not chattingabout her father’s arrival.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be there in a few—”

“Dee-Ann?”

Dee stopped in front of Ric’s pitch-black living room, her eyes searching the shadows. Her mouth dropped open a little. “Daddy?”

“Sugar Bug. You look mighty pretty.”

“Thank you.” She motioned to Malone. “Daddy, this is Marcella Malone.” Her father sneered a little. “Feline.”

“Daddy,” Dee warned before gesturing to Desiree with her hand. “And this is Desiree MacDermott-Llewellyn. You remember Mace? This is his wife.” Her daddy stared at Desiree so long that Dee could feel the woman itching to reach for the gun she also had stashed under her clothes.

“Daddy? What’s wrong?”

He reached into the darkness behind him and yanked something out, tossing it at their feet.

White hair and claws were the first thing Dee saw before that head lifted and—

“Holy shit,” Desiree murmured. “It’s Matilda Llewellyn.”

The She-lion, her face bloody and her dress-covered body bruised in all the visible places, hissed and roared at them, backing away until Dee’s father planted his big foot against Matilda’s back, halting her progress.

“Daddy,” Dee snapped, stepping forward. “What in all of heaven or hell are you doing?” She worried that her father had finally lost his mind; that what he’d done for so many years had finally gotten to him. Because this was not discreet. This was not the Smith way of handling things.

“Tell them,” he snarled at Matilda. “Tell them,” he pushed when the old bitch’s hissing turned to wheezing laughter.

“Kill me,” she told them all, but specifically Desiree, “and you, whore, and my betraying bastard of a grandson will never see your boy again.”

CHAPTER 31

Dee hit the gas and maneuvered Ric’s SUV around slow Friday night traffic. Her father sat in the backseat, quiet, staring out the window. Malone was beside him, loading up the weapons they’d quickly grabbed on the way out the door. Desiree was in the passenger seat, her gaze steady on her phone as she continued to redial her house phone and Blayne’s cell. But typical Blayne, her phone was probably buried in that endless pit she called a bag and who knew what was going on with the house phone.

Then again, none of them ever saw this coming. Not only sending out full-humans to kidnap her grandson so that, according to the old bitch, “I can have him raised correctly as a Llewellyn Breeding Male.” But using the boy as leverage to keep her worthless hide alive. Yet once they’d all heard the plan, like the well-trained team they’d become, the three females moved with purpose, Eggie willingly taking orders from his baby girl, while Malone had KZS sending in choppers to monitor the house and follow if the full-humans managed to get Marcus out.