“Maverick.”
“And a turtleneck sweater.”
“You need serious help.”
“Are you volunteering?”
“Hell no. Now, can you get your feet off my desk? I’m supposed to be saving your company.”
He reluctantly put his feet back on the floor.
“On that note, I’m going to need raises for everyone in my department, and at least a dozen more people hired to help us. Preferably two dozen.”
“Yes to the raises, no to the people.”
I put a hand on my hip. “There is an eye-watering amount of shit to do here. I need two separate teams—one to keep up with the new deals, laws, and paperwork, and a separate one to take care of everything that’s been ignored since Arthur was promoted ten years ago. We don’t have enough people. This is a requirement, not a request.”
“I can’t hire new people while we’re investigating two murders, Bloom.”
“Then stop pursuing new investments for a while and give me the people who would be doing that. If the human government looks into the company before we’re done, the missing paperwork is going to cost you more money than you could make while we fix this.”
He grimaced. “I’ll need to talk to Celeste and Rhone.”
“Then talk to them. And hire a real detective while you’re at it.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Do you even have any suspects?”
“Of course we do.”
I waited.
He folded his arms, staring me down.
I stared back.
Finally, he sighed. “There’s a wolf pack in Erren. Four hours from here. It’s the second biggest in the country, and its Alpha is both cunning and patient. I wouldn’t put it past her to hire a vampire to take us down. One of her enforcers designed the company’s system, which would make it significantly easier for her to get in.”
“Women can be Alphas?”
He looked at me like I was a total dick. “Of course they can.”
“I’m not a werewolf, Mav. I don’t know much of anything about you guys. I assumed thealpha malething came from you.”
“Alphas and Betas are just werewolves with more affinity for mental connection than most. A pack is only strong when it’s connected.”
My eyebrows lifted. “So you have some kind of mind magic?”
“Magic is the wrong word, but yeah. I can connect to the minds of everyone in my pack, as well as all of the Alphas who have pledged allegiance to me. Which is all of them.”
“Including the woman you suspect might be behind the murders?”
He nodded. “Cassidy.”
“Can’t you just poke around in her mind to figure out if she did it, then?”
“The link is mental connection, not control. I can communicate well enough to tell if she’s lying to me, but that’s it. If we find more evidence she could be behind it, I’ll have to go talk to her to see if I can get anything.”
