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“Of course.” I gave her a brief kiss before she went out onto the back deck. I knew she was giving Hawk and me some time alone to discuss what had happened, but before I could say anything, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

I pulled it out; there was an unfamiliar number on the screen. “Hello?” I answered.

“Ace.”

My blood ran cold. I hadn’t heard that voice in a long time, and I had hoped I would never hear it again. I put the phone on speaker and set it down on the counter. “Thames.”

“I’ve got some information for you,” the man growled.

“I’m listening.”

“Your brother hired me for a hit job. Asked me to put a call out for your head.”

“Interesting. And did you?”

“Not yet,” Thames said. “Sean promised me some premium property as payment, but he’s dragging his feet on the deposit. You know I don’t make any deals without a deposit.”

“So why, exactly, are you telling me this?” I asked.

“I’ve got new priorities,” Thames said.

Hawk and I exchanged a look at the slight waver in Thames’s voice. The Vahdat clan had obviously contacted him already. He wasn’t just antsy. He was scared.

“The deal’s garbage,” Thames continued. “And your brother’s a loose cannon. He’s got nothing left to lose. That’s the most dangerous man there is.” Thames snorted, pulling mucus into his throat, and then I heard the sound of him spitting. “There’s nothing for me in this state. Business is dead. I don’t want any involvement here. I won’t be in touch.”

The line went dead.

“In thisstate?” Hawk repeated. “He’s skipping out of the state entirely?”

“Sounds like it,” I said.

My phone pinged with a new text.

Suri:You’re welcome. You’ve got it from here.

Hawk grasped my shoulder and squeezed. “This won’t be easy. Just because Thames is out of the picture, that doesn’tmean Sean will just roll over. If anything, I’d bet Thames is right—he’ll be even more unpredictable than ever.”

“I know,” I said. “But God, I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that scumbag.”

“Me, too,” Hawk said. “I’ll call the enforcers. You go talk to your mate.”

I stepped out onto the back porch. I expected to find Striker and Dylan roughhousing or practicing their partial shifts while Harley and Cassidy supervised, as they often did, but they weren’t anywhere to be seen on the lawn. A bolt of anxiety zipped through me. “Harley?”

“Over here!” her voice called.

The anxiety dissipated as quickly as it had arrived. God, I was ready for all of this to be over so I could stop worrying whenever Harley and Dylan weren’t right in my line of sight. I walked down the steps and around the side of the house. A narrow stone walkway led from the gravel lot out front around the house to the backyard. The path had long, narrow flowerbeds on either side of it. When I was a kid, Mom had filled the beds with lush, colorful flowers of all kinds, so the path was like a little slice of paradise. It was always buzzing with bees and butterflies, and I remembered returning from school and running around the house to jump in the lake.

There hadn’t been any flowers in the beds in years. I’d been too busy as the alpha, and I’d let my mother’s hard work fade into dead old bushes and dense weeds.

“What are you doing?” I asked when I spotted all four of them on their hands and knees in the dirt.

“Dad, was this a garden?” Dylan was covered in dirt and had somehow even gotten it on his face.

“Yeah,” I said with a fond smile. “It was your grandmother’s. She loved tending this garden and growing as many differently colored flowers as she could.”

“I want to do that, too,” Dylan said with a huge smile. “I’m gonna dig out all the weeds and make this garden pretty again, the way Grandma kept it.”

“I think that’d make her really happy,” I said. “She’d be really proud of you.”