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“Well, I’m glad for the two of you. I couldn’t be more pleased. But you know how our mother is. So you’d better let her in on the secret sooner than later. How much money is involved in this deal with Calla and her parents?” Ian asked.
“A half million.” Guthrie hated to say it.
Ian digested that. Then swore.
Guthrie saw Duncan and Cearnach snap their gaping jaws shut.
“All right. Let me…let me call her parents and see what they know about this. I’ll get back to you. Just don’t let her out of your sight,” Ian said.
“Got it.” As if Guthrie had any notion of leaving her alone for a second. He ended the call with his brother and slipped the phone into the pouch on his belt. “Ian’s calling her parents.”
“Hell, Brother, we all were fairly certain you and Calla would be mating soon, but…did you ask her properly?” Cearnach asked.
Guthrie shook his head. He watched the doorway to the broker’s office, wanting to pace but forcing himself to stand in place and keep an eye out for her.
“We’ll take care of it,” Cearnach said. “You know Ian will want to do everything for her that we can.”
Being more pragmatic, Duncan said, “I want to congratulate you and your lovely mate, but I’m in agreement with Cearnach. Couldn’t you have told me at breakfast?” Before Guthrie could respond, Duncan asked, “Well, you’re our financial manager, Guthrie. Can we do it?”
“It’ll take a hell of a lot of finagling. We’ll have to sell some of our stock. We’ll have to see what her parents say and what Calla has in her piggy bank. Maybe among all of us we can come up with the funds.”
Guthrie’s phone jingled and he saw it was Ian. “Aye, what did you learn?”
Ian explained all about the loan.
“Bastard,” Guthrie said.
“Aye. Guthrie, her mother and father both want you to marry her. They told me they believe you’ll be good for her, and they know the MacNeill pack is the kind of wolf family she needs. So looks like you’re not in any hot water there.”
Despite the severity of the situation, Guthrie smiled. They’d marry when her parents returned. Nothing lavish, just the pack and her parents, most likely. The pack would be poorer again. But the pack members always had each other and pulled together when needed. They would manage somehow.
“You’re our financial wizard. They have gathered thirty thousand. See what Calla has, and then let me know if we can put up the rest.”
“I will, Ian.” Guthrie glanced at the doorway to the broker’s office as he heard the doorknob turn.
Calla exited, saw him and his brothers, and headed for them. She looked beaten, not pleased with the news.
“Calla, you can’t believe that we’d let you do this on your own, lass,” Guthrie said, taking her into his arms. “Ian and Julia run the pack, and they’ve okayed me using pack funds to help you out. As second-in-command, Cearnach is in total agreement.”
Cearnach nodded.
Duncan said, “Me too, if anyone cares.”
Guthrie smiled at him. “As financial manager, I’m signing off on it. The rest of the pack will agree that there is no way they’re turning you over to the McKinleys, and we’ll do what we have to for one of our own.”
She looked up at him, a question in her beautiful green eyes as they filled with tears.
She sniffled and swallowed hard and then broke down, tears dribbling down her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around him. “You can’t,” she said in such a wee pitiful voice that his heart broke for her.
“We can, and we will.”
“Do you know how much? You couldn’t have enough.”
“Somehow, we’ll have enough.”
“Half a million?” she whispered to him.
He held her close and took in her worried scent, her sweetness and softness, and loved her. “Aye, lass. Somehow we’ll manage.”
“But, Guthrie, you can’t. You could be as destitute as me. You can’t do that to your pack for me or my family.”
“We would do it for our pack members, lass, whatever it takes. Your father and mother gave me their blessing to wed you. We’ll talk about it more later, but we might have to plan something simple.”
She gaped at him. Well, he hadn’t meant to say so in front of his brothers. He was doing this all wrong. His brothers smiled at him and shook their heads.
“Ian said Julia told him about…you know…that we mated. And my brothers were listening,” Guthrie said somewhat hesitantly.
“And we couldn’t be happier,” Cearnach told her reassuringly.
“About time, by our reckoning,” Duncan said, trying to cheer her.
“So there’s nothing to worry about,” Guthrie said. “We’ll take care of it.”
Cearnach said, “Guthrie, can you at least get on bended knee for the lass?”
Guthrie frowned at his brother. “In an office building?”
“Don’t you dare,” she warned Guthrie. Turning on Cearnach, she added, “You, mind your own business.”
Calla explained that she had close to two hundred and seventy thousand in stocks that she had her broker sell off to help pay the debt. Calla looked despondent, but Guthrie was impressed. He felt terrible for her that she would have to use her savings and investments to pay off her parents’ debt, but her business smarts and quick thinking would help mitigate the loss. She was everything he had always wanted in a mate and more.
Guthrie arranged to sell off the necessary stocks that the MacNeill clan had as well and prepared to pay off her parents’ loan. The interest the Stewarts would pay back to the MacNeills was much less than what Baird was charging them, and as long as they could get their hotels back into full operation, her parents should be able to pay off the funds over time.
Calla seemed numb over the whole situation as her parents signed the loan agreement over the Internet. Guthrie squeezed Calla’s hand as they returned to the car.
They got into the backseat of the vehicle while Cearnach drove and Duncan sat up front.
“As soon as the money has cleared the bank to pay off Baird’s loan, he’ll have no more claim to your parents’ properties. Once your parents are financially able, they can begin to pay back the monies they borrowed from us.”
