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The answer came to me like a punch to the kidney: the pack businesses.

The alpha family owned a small stake in every pack business.

It granted them a small cut of the profits that were, in turn, funneled back to the pack through decreased rent and utility costs, among other things.

If Dad had leveraged that ownership, then this Kyle Alexander guy could have a claim to all the pack-owned businesses.

Legally binding or not, it wasn’t good. If it was legal, then we could get lawyers involved and sort it out.

The fact that this was all under the table meant we had no recourse.

Farrah and I hadn’t talked since I’d confronted her about Avery and Ashton.

I’d been too pissed off to look at her, much less talk.

But this was too important to keep her in the dark.

Regardless of what she’d done in the past, this was still her pack, and she and I had to figure this out.

That meant she needed the whole story. I texted her, telling her to get her ass to the alpha house.

When she arrived a while later, I could see the fear in her eyes. She probably assumed I wanted to chew her ass out again.

“I’m here,” she said as she came through the front door. “Is everything okay?”

As pissed off and betrayed as I felt toward her, the terrified, chastened look on her face made me regret how things had gone.

If the roles were reversed, would I have done the same thing?

A promise to an alpha was something you couldn’t back out of.

Still, it would take time for me to wholly forgive her.

“Calm down,” I said. “I’m not going to yell at you. We need to talk about Dad.”

“What about him?”

I explained all that I’d heard from Dallas and Maria that morning, then I showed her the file I’d found. She sank into the office chair, looking like I’d hit her with a shovel.

“This can’t be happening,” she said. “What are we going to do about this guy?”

“It’s worse than that,” I said, tapping Kyle’s signature.

“He confronted Avery in a store the other day. Didn’t threaten her, but he made it clear that he and I were somehow business acquaintances.

I have a feeling this is going to escalate soon.

The guy wants his money. He won’t stop until he gets it. ”

“How did Dallas know all this when we were in the dark?” she asked.

“That’s what I don’t know yet. Dallas didn’t stick around long enough for me to ask questions.” I sat on the edge of the desk and put a hand to my forehead. “We really fucked up.”

“We can’t blame ourselves, Cole. We weren’t here.”

“That’s why you and I are both somewhat to blame.

We left Harbor Mills behind, and Dad screwed everything up because we weren’t here acting as a counterpoint to him.

We knew he was drinking heavily back then, but we never tried to stop him.

We were both too pissed at him to care. As soon as we could, we hit the road and never looked back.

If we’d been here, maybe we could have stopped this from getting out of control. ”

Farrah sat forward and slapped her palm down on the table.

“We were young, and Dad was a dick to us. Leaving out of self-preservation was all we could do. I refuse to accept blame for doing what was best for me, and neither should you. Mom died, and Dad spent the years after doing everything he could to push us away. This is his problem, not mine. I’ll help you fix it, but I’m not taking any responsibility.

” She leveled a finger at me. “He used his influence on me so I was forced to lie to you. That was the last straw.”

She was right, of course. Doing that had broken whatever trust might have been left between Dad and Farrah. I’d have bolted, too.

“I know,” I said. “You’re right. We didn’t cause this issue, and we shouldn’t have to deal with it, but here we are. You and I are all that’s left of the Garrett family. We’ve got to fix this one way or the other.”

Farrah eyed me, her brow furrowed in concern. “How dangerous do you think this Kyle guy is?”

I grunted. “In my experience? Loan sharks get that name for one reason and one reason only. Once there’s blood in the water, they bite.”

“Do we need to call Trent?”

“Probably a good idea,” I said, and pulled my phone out. My friend had done a lot of off-the-book stuff in the military. If anyone in town could help with a threat, it was Trent.

“What do you need, Cole?” Trent answered.

“Where are you? Farrah and I need to talk to you.”

“I just finished installing that security system at Avery’s house a few minutes ago.”

A warm shiver went through me at the mention of her name. I’d almost forgotten he was going over there today.

“Can you get to the alpha house? Fast?”

“I don’t like that tone in your voice. Something wrong?”

“You could say that,” I said. “Get here as soon as you can.”

“I’m on it.”

He arrived ten minutes later, still in his work clothes.

“What’s the big damn hurry?” he said as he walked in to join us in the living room.

“You know how the pack finances are shit?” I said.

Trent nodded, brows furrowed. “Yeah. What’s up? Did you figure out why?”

I proceeded to tell him everything. Dad’s gambling, the loan, my theory that he’d leveraged the pack businesses, and my fear that he was going to do something dangerous to force us to pay up.

He took in the information in a much more stoic way than Farrah had, simply nodding along while eyeing the floor.

“This fucker needs to be dealt with,” he said.

“That’s what I think,” I replied. “We can’t pay him. There’s literally not enough money for that. Fuck, I had to pay Maria Blankenship’s electric bill with my own credit card today. The problem is, I have no idea how to find this guy to negotiate.”

“Let me work on it,” Trent said. “Do you have a description?”

“Ugly, around forty years old.” I shrugged. “Call Avery. She’s the one who spoke to him in person. She’ll have a better description.”

“Got it,” Trent said. “Kyle Alexander.” He spoke the name as if rolling it over in his mind. “Gonna find your ass, my man.”

“Just be careful,” I said.

Trent pointed at me and Farrah. “You two are the ones who need to be careful. My last name isn’t Garrett.”

I glanced at my watch. It was almost noon. “Damn! I gotta go. I’m supposed to pick up Ash in a few minutes. I’m taking him to Al’s diner for lunch.”

“See you later,” Trent said. “I think you’re okay. Those two had barely gotten out of bed when I showed up a couple hours ago, and they weren’t moving too fast when I left.”

I rushed out to my truck and headed for Avery’s house. The entire trip, I thought about when we’d spoken a couple of days before, and the look I’d seen in her eyes. As much as I didn’t want to get my hopes up, I wanted to make the best of the situation.

When I got there, I was happy to see the camera Trent had installed above the front door. It made me feel a little better about Ashton and Avery’s safety. I knocked, and it took a few moments for Avery to open the door.

“Hey,” she said. “Sorry, I almost forgot the code Trent gave me to disarm this thing.”

I smiled at her. “That’s fine. How do you like it? Trent wasn’t too intrusive, was he?”

She ran a hand through her hair, and I noticed she wasn’t looking me in the eyes.

“It was fine. He was only inside for twenty minutes. The rest of the time, he was outside installing cameras and in the crawlspace, doing some wiring or something.” She turned and called into the house. “Ash? Come on, Cole’s here.”

“Be right there,” he answered.

“Are you guys having a good morning?” I asked, trying to make small talk.

She finally looked at me and smiled. “Summer. We slept late. You’ll probably need to feed him. Between getting up late, the security system, and some work I had to get done this morning, we haven’t had time to eat breakfast.”

I suppressed a grin, seeing my chance to be a good guy and also take care of her.

“Go get dressed,” I said. “I’ll take you both out for lunch.”

“Sweet,” Ashton said as he emerged from the hallway. “Where are we going?”

Avery, looking flustered, shook her head. “Oh, no, you guys go. I’ll have some toast or something.”

“Nah.” I grinned at her. “You deserve a nice, hot meal. Let’s go. I insist.”

“Come on, I’m starving ,” Ashton said, his tone pleading and desperate, as if he hadn’t eaten in days.

Avery glanced back and forth between her son and me, obviously trying to come up with an excuse that wouldn’t sound rude or disappoint Ashton.

“I’ve got so much work to do,” she said lamely.

Ashton rolled his eyes and walked toward the door. “Go get dressed, Mom. I’m gonna die if I don’t eat soon, and you and I both know Cole isn’t leaving until you’re in the car.”

He slipped around her and out the door, jogging toward my truck. Avery glared after him, but I could see her resolve cracking. Finally, she heaved a sigh and gave me a defeated look. “You really aren’t leaving without me, are you?”

Leaning against the doorframe, I grinned. “No, ma’am.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” she grumbled and turned away. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

It was all I could do to suppress the urge to throw a fist pump of victory. Instead, I headed to the truck to join Ashton.

“I think you’ve got your mom wrapped around your little finger,” I said.

Ashton shrugged uncomfortably. “Maybe.”

“It’s okay. It’s not a bad thing.”

“I know I can get her to do stuff if I ask.” He quickly added, “I don’t take advantage, though.”

I belted out a laugh. “I know your mom has probably changed a lot in the years since she left, but if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that no one can take advantage of Avery Carlisle. Whatever she agrees to, she does it because deep down she wants to.”

The statement was true, and it also gave me hope. She could have easily waved us off and told us to go. Had she pushed the issue even a little bit more, I’d have relented, but she was joining us. I couldn’t help but think it was a good sign.