“Anyone who wants to destroy a few countries?” Angie kindly suggested. The bitch. And when Miki glared at her, “Tell me I’m wrong?”

“I just don’t like your tone.”

“I just don’t like your face!”

“For the love of God!” Sara exploded. “Would you cut it!”

They all fell silent, Angie rubbing her forehead. As they did, the bedroom door opened and Conall walked in. Miki’s big wolf mate stopped, looked at the women in the room.

“What’s going on?” he asked, but before Miki could answer him, he shook his head and said, “You know what? I don’t want to know. Instead I’m going to ask, where’s my daughter?”

“Our daughter,” Miki again felt forced to remind him since he continually seemed to forget that fact, “ is on my computer in my office.”

Conall stared at her. “Really? You let her go on the computer even after that little visit we got last week from the FBI about strange computer use during odd hours when you were out of town? That computer use involving the Pentagon?”

“Well—”

“You know what I’m going to do?” he said calmly but, again, Miki could hear the tone. “I’m going to take our beautiful daughter to Ihop for breakfast, and while we’re gone, you’re going to go onto your computer and undo whatever the hell she did that could get us all arrested. Okay? Great. Love you.” He nodded at the other women. “Ladies.”

The door closed behind him and Angie looked at Sara and then they looked at Miki.

“Yeah,” she said to her friends’ unasked question. “I could do it.”

“Do what?” Lady Fullback asked. She took a step back. “What are y’all plannin’?”

“To find out who wants my notebook. That is what you need, isn’t it?”

“That’s awful risky, darlin’.”

Miki looked at Sara again. It was risky but for Freddy she was willing to take the risk. The question, however, was Sara willing to take that risk, too? This was her house and her Pack.

After a moment, Sara nodded. “Do it.”

“What are you going to do exactly?” Fullback asked.

Miki got to her feet. “The same thing I almost went to prison for when I was sixteen.”

When the She-wolf just gazed at her, Miki shook her head. “Don’t worry. As long as I don’t hack into the banks again and spread my money to my Dungeons & Dragons friends . . . federal prison time should be minimal.”

The She-wolf sighed. “You genius types . . . so much damn work. I don’t know how Toni does it.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

It was a farm somewhere in Upstate New York where they all headed. A cheap parcel of land the church had purchased and where they sent their converts when they were ready to move to the next level of mind control.

Funny thing was, they didn’t lock the small gate or secure the fence around the acres of property. So Ricky Lee just ambled on in. Just parked the SUV, and walked down the lane. As he walked, the cult members nodded at him, smiled, but didn’t stop him. He made sure to smile in return, but he kept moving. He kept his pace brisk, making sure to look like he knew where he was going. Most of the housing was cabins. One-floor deals made of unfinished wood with porta-potties sporadically placed. It wasn’t as bad looking as what the Manson gang had back in the day, but it wasn’t much better, either.

But he did finally see a large, finished building and he immediately knew that this was where they’d put their “Prophet” as he was called.

That’s where Ricky headed. He walked right up the stairs and into the building.

“Hey,” he said as he passed several members working on notebook computers.

“Uh . . . sir?”

Ricky kept walking, not stopping until he reached a large set of double doors. He pushed those open and walked inside, closing the doors behind him.

“Well hi there,” he said to the three men standing by the long mahogany table.

The one in the middle, looking just like a false prophet would with his worn jeans and sandals, shaggy hair, scraggly beard, and gold watch that probably cost somewhere in the twenty-grand range, smiled a little.

“How y’all doin’ today?” Ricky asked.

“You’ve come for the boy,” the prophet said.

Ricky nodded. “I’ve come for the boy.”

“Unfortunately I can’t help you.”

“And you’re gonna regret that decision.”

The cheap, wood fence surrounding the cult’s property was not exactly a challenge for Livy. She’d been trained at an early age to get around all sorts of fences, walls, armed guards . . . whatever might be between her and what she wanted. Yet Livy was under no illusion that this would be easy. Although she hadn’t discussed anything with Toni, Livy knew that Delilah just wanted money. Now that she was eighteen, she wasn’t about to spend her life playing second fiddle to the rest of her siblings. Nor would she allow herself to be ruled by Toni’s brilliant scheduling skills. She wanted her freedom, but unlike the rest of the world, she wasn’t about to do something like work to maintain her expensive lifestyle. So she’d come up with this ridiculous plan. Ridiculous because Delilah had to know that Toni wasn’t going to just let her run off with Freddy. Of all her siblings, he was the one that Toni would destroy the entire universe to get back. Not because Toni loved him any more than the others but because he was the one that needed her protection more than the others. He was the one whose soul was so pure and loving that they all knew just about anyone with a smile and a lollypop could get the boy involved in all sorts of crap.