“In fact, I think we should keep the computer whiz part to ourselves. Unless you have a record. If I were the killer, I’d have run a background check on you.” Lex watched her as he fished for information about her past.

“My record was all juvenile stuff. I got smart enough not to get caught after I’d turned eighteen. My juvenile stuff was petty, no computer related anything. I don’t even have internet access at home. There’s no reason to believe I could crack it,” she hedged.

“Have you been clean since you turned eighteen, then?” Lex asked.

She yawned. “I hope you’re better at this when you’re on the job. If not, you wolves must be pretty stupid.”

“I have a right to know, Nina!”

“You don’t have a right to everything of me when it concerns my past, Lex. It’s my business. I told you I’ve been clean for seven years and that’s the truth. That’s all you need to know.”

“What are you hiding, Nina?”

“Nothing, Lex! Nothing that means anything to anyone but me. Now drop it, studly, or we’ll have to have our first fight. In the last hour.”

Cade laughed and then quickly coughed to cover it as Lex threw a glare his way.

“Fine,” he said through clenched teeth and she rolled her eyes.

“So back to planning. We’ll go to the Pack house—what’s that anyway, like a frat house for werewolves? A flophouse? Where you keep your chippies?”

“Chippies?” Lex grumbled. “I had no need to keep a chippy! And I’d hardly call a Victorian mansion with twelve rooms a flophouse. It’s a communal house where we often meet. Many of our single wolves live there. We have offices there so that we can work. It’s a way of establishing a familial atmosphere.”

“Without getting werewolf hair on the two-thousand-dollar couch here?” she said dryly.

“Precisely. My father nearly died because he had no filters between running the Pack and his home life. He had a heart attack ten years ago, it’s why Cade took over the Pack. He and my mother were barely speaking, which as you might imagine, is a serious thing for a bonded couple. Anyway, we have big gates out front for a reason.” Lex wanted her to know he was planning to put their relationship high on his list of priorities.

“Okay so we go to the Pack house tonight and what? Hang out? Have some beers and I get to get dirty looks from all of your old girlfriends? Will the suspects even be there?”

He wasn’t going near that girlfriend comment with a ten-foot pole. He knew enough about women to know that was a trap and he wouldn’t go willingly.

“Yes, Melissa lives there and Carter and Eric will be there because Wednesday nights are gathering nights. There’s a big dinner there, a sort of social. All of the single females will be around and Eric is always on the prowl,” Cade said with a wry grin. Eric would be eminently pleased that Lex wasn’t competition anymore.

“And these are your three suspects? You know it has to be one of them?”

“Well, the money that has gone missing came from accounts that only the Inner Circle of the Pack had access to. In other words, Cade, me, Melissa, Carter and Eric. No one else had that level of control or the ability to get into accounts. Tommie seemed very sure it was one of those three.”

“Okay then. Let’s go and see what we see, shall we?” She stood up and tossed the glass container into the recycling. “Nice. Eco-friendly wolves.”

“You think she’ll be accepted by the Pack?” Lex murmured to his brother when she got on the phone with the manager of her shop.

“I’d like to see the first wolf who tries to give her any shit,” Cade said with a laugh. “Rey was easygoing and took a lot. I don’t think this apple is from that tree.”

Lex laughed at that. Yes, he thought she’d handle herself just fine, but if any wolf in Cascadia Pack even thought they could treat her as anything less than his mate he’d grind them into a greasy spot.

She came back into the room and looked them both over. Hands on her hips, she cocked her head. “A few things—first, I hope you had fun talking about me, punks. Second, I need to go to my shop starting tomorrow. Third, I want to plan a memorial service for Gabriel. Lastly, I need to get changed before we go to Kappa Kappa Werewolf. I’ll be right back.”

Before she could get out of the room Lex had stopped her. “You can’t go back to work! Jesus, Nina! People are out to try and hurt you. You think some f**king daisies are more important than your life?”

Her eyebrows went so high at that comment that he knew immediately what a stupid thing he’d said. Cade got very quiet behind him.

“Let go,” she said in a quiet, flat voice.

“I’m sorry, that didn’t come out right.”

“No, I think it came out just exactly right. Oh no, I’m not an architect, I don’t own multiple businesses and wear watches worth more than my late-model sedan. Clearly my life’s work—my shop—can’t possibly be as important as what you do. Isn’t that right, Lex?”

“Nina, I think your business is great. I’m not trying to belittle it. I just don’t think flowers, or anything else for that matter, are more important than your life. You’re my mate, I am biologically determined to want to protect you. And I quite happen to like you in one piece.”

“There are three weddings and a business reception that I am contractually obligated to provide flowers for. These couples shouldn’t have their wedding plans ruined because you people want to kill everyone in your sights! I have a business to run! It’s a small business, I do well but if I just let it go I stand to lose everything. You grew up rich, you have no idea what it means to have built something like this on your own.”