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“Maybe there’s nothing to find,” I snapped. “Look. Our CASE team has been ordered to stop looking into the East Coast packs. Someone high up the ladder is making them back down. Forget the ranch. She’s not there. Whoever called the FBI off is clearly trying to hide something. They’re who we should be focusing on now.”
“No.” Denny’s expression didn’t change.
My temper flared. “What do you mean, no?”
“I mean, I’m not your beta, and I’m not taking orders from you,” he said flippantly.
“You’re not, huh?” My brows raised as an acidic sting seeped into my tone. “I think you’ll find I’m paying you to do exactly that.”
He raised a shoulder in a half-shrug. “Too bad. I’ve got a good feeling about the ranch. Call it a hunter’s intuition. I say we give it a few more days.”
“We don’thavea few more days.” God, I wanted to punch him. “Every second we wait, our boys get farther away.”
“Send your own people up there, then. See how much good it does you,” Denny suggested. “Those packs are well-organized and fucking impenetrable. You’d need an army just to get through the gates—”
“Then, I’ll form one,” I growled.
“And start a war?”
“If I must.”
He clicked his tongue at me. “You don’t know war like I do. Mark my words, you go on the offensive with any one of those packs, and all the rest will come running to their aid. You, and anyone you bring with you, will go home in body bags. But assuming you do survive the slaughter long enough to search their territory, anything or anyone they don’t want you to find will already be long gone.”
“You want us to do nothing,” I scoffed.
“No, I want you to wait. The Houghton girl’s got a feral streak in her blood, and she knows it. She won’t be running into the embrace of strange packs. She’ll be looking for safety somewhere familiar. Somewhere she can control.” His tone was even, stern. It made me feel like I was getting a talking-to from someone else’s dad.
That only pissed me off even more.
This fucking guy. Taking our money. Wasting our time. Rage burned through me like wildfire, consuming every other emotion as it coursed through my veins.
“We’re done waiting,” I snarled, my eyes flashing. My aura rose up around me, prickling like needles against my skin.
I took a step forward, fully prepared to bash his face in, but the soft touch of Felicity’s hand on my elbow stopped me.
“Xander,” she said, her voice hitching. “Please.”
I glanced down at her pale face. Her eyes met mine, pleading.
Instinctively, I dropped my aura, like I’d done when she’d been pregnant with the boys.
Denny cleared his throat and gave Felicity a nod. “Smart woman you’ve got there.” He turned back to me. “Look, I’m a hunter, Miller. I intend to act like one. When you can’t track your prey in the wild, you find their den. You watch. You wait. That ranch? That’s the place. That’s where she’ll go. I’d bet my life on it.”
“Consider it done,” I growled at him.
If he was wrong—if he failed us—I’d be coming to collect.
Chapter10
Felicity
Xander helped me back inside, up the stairs, and into our room after Denny left. His anger had dissipated in Denny’s absence. The tides of his emotions had quickly shifted into concern for me as soon as the bounty hunter was out of sight.
I was grateful for his arm around my back and his hand in mine. I’d needed it a lot more than I’d thought. With the ranch looking like another dead end and no other leads to turn to, his comforting touch was a blessing I wished I’d asked for sooner.
I’d been flinching away from him for much too long.
The room spun slightly as Xander guided me to the bed so I could lie down.
