Riordan (19 page)

on one of us.”

“You can and you will. Had you not taken me in when you did, I would have been put into

the system. And I think you’ll both agree that I wasn’t really a model child.” Aunt Sally laughed.

Storm did, too. “I was lucky you didn’t have me put in a home the day I moved in with you. And

now that I’m back, as you have put it, I’m going to take care of you. If you’ll let me.”

Aunt Lynn leaned back on the couch. “It would be nice to be close to you. But we can’t just

live here for nothing. We can work, you know. We might be old, but we’re far from dead.” Aunt

Sally told her to speak for herself. “We can put in a garden and do that. You know we need to

keep these old bodies moving. The doctor told us that just last month.”

Storm looked over at Bri. She was watching her aunts like they were a tennis match. Back

and forth her head went. It was funny to see someone else bemused by the two of them. Storm

had been living with them forever, it seemed sometimes, but she loved to watch them work

through something.

“How long have you been staying with them?” Storm told her since she’d been eleven.

“They love you very much. And I’m sure that they’ll be moving in.”

“Me too. And while they try and see things my way, I have to tell you something, too. I

know that we’re not really related as yet, but Riordan says that me calling you Mrs. H is driving

you insane. I’m sorry about that.” Bri laughed. “I’d like to call you Bri if you don’t mind. And

maybe…well, if you want to think about it some, I understand, but I’d like to someday call you

‘Mom.’”

Bri put down her cup and saucer. Storm watched her and wondered if she should have

waited for Riordan. But when Bri hugged her to her body, Storm did something she’d not done

for years—she hugged her back.

“I’d very much be honored if you would call me Mom
.
I don’t think I’ve been more touched

by something….” She pulled back and looked at her. “You won’t mind then? I mean, I know you

had a mom and that she passed and all, but she was still your mom.”

“‘Mom’ didn’t any more suit her than calling you Mother would. She was Mother, the

person that gave birth to me, raised me as required by law, and pretty much stayed as distant

from me as one would a skunk.” Bri wiped at a tear as Storm continued. “I’m not a girly girl. I

don’t do shopping unless it’s under threat of death, and I hate with all that I am doing the country

club thing. I don’t play tennis, don’t shoot game, unless I need to. And for the love of all that is

holy, never ask me to put on a party or tea. You’ll be sadly disappointed. However, if you want

to learn to shoot a gun, take down an attacker, or to learn how to curse, I’m so there for you.”

“I think we can work around that. And speaking of shopping, I received our invitation to the

banquet at the White House. It only says that we’re invited, but it doesn’t say what we’re going

to.” Storm told her that it was a formal thing and that there would be a dinner and some dancing.

“That’s not what I was asking and you well know it. What is going on that you are avoiding

telling me about?”

“It’s sort of a—”

Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket, and she excused herself. One look at Bri made Storm

think that she’d only dodged the bullet, but the gun was still loaded. Saying her name in the

phone, Storm wondered if she could get out of this dinner thing altogether, and knew that it was

going to be impossible now.

“What if I told you that I’ve found something for you that you’re going to love me for?”

Storm tried to think beyond the feeling that had just hit her. Christ, she was already in love with

Riordan. “Baby? Are you there?”

“Yes. I’m here. I was…what did you find?” He laughed and asked her what she was going

to give him for the information. “This is not funny. I’m here with your mom and my aunts. There

are contractors coming by today to tear up the kitchen at June’s say so. We’re going to have a

mutiny on our hands when my aunts find out how large of a checking account we’ve set up for

them. And you’re at work letting me deal with all this alone.”

His laughter again warmed her in ways that nothing else had. “I’ve found some accounts,

and Darcy said to tell you that he’s found an IP address coming from somewhere close. He’s

having some trouble pinpointing it. He wants to talk to you about it.”

“How much is in the accounts?” Storm had a pretty good idea. Something had been said to

her several days ago in passing that had stuck with her. It was why she’d had Darcy helping her

with some computer stuff. Not that she couldn’t do it herself, but she wanted him to help.

“Fifty-four million, seven hundred and twenty-three thousand, nine hundred and twenty-one

dollars and some change.” Just what she thought there would be. Almost to the dollar. “There’s

more too. I think I found the phone records you asked me to find for you. You’re not going to

believe who they belong to.”

“Danny Gunning is one of them, and I’m betting I know who the other one is as well.” He

told her she was right. And she pretty much knew who had bought them, too.

Storm moved into the room as silently as a mouse. She knew that Riordan was just outside if

she needed him, but for now, she had this. As she moved deeper into the room where she was

going to have a seat, she thought about how much fun they’d had today in the living room. Mrs.

H…Mom was going to be a big hit when they were able to get the bakery up and going again.

Dressed from head to toe in black and armed with more than she had been in several

months, Storm looked around on the desk but didn’t hold out much hope of finding anything out

where she could see it. Running her hands under the top drawer revealed nothing there either, but

she knew that somewhere in this room was a computer that wasn’t on the desk. Something that

no one was supposed to know about. It took her almost ten minutes, but she finally found it and

spoke quietly in the mike at her mouth.

“Got it.” The man at the other end laughed at her, and she had to smile. Darcy was having

entirely too much fun at this, but she was glad that he knew how. “I have the drive. Tell me when

you’re ready for me to put the program in for you.”

“Is the computer on?” She told him it wasn’t. “Then you’ll have to start it with the drive in

it. That way you don’t have to do much more than click a few buttons. Provided that he has no

password on it.”

As she waited for it to boot up, she looked around the room again from her position on the

floor. The computer had been in a false bottom of the bookshelf. Clever if she hadn’t herself told

him that was where she’d found one stashed once. Darcy said her name.

“You should know that once this is up and running, someone is going to have to man this all

the time. While I’m loving helping out, I can’t miss that much work. I’m pretty sure that Aedan

will murder me.” She asked him why. “Because since you and Riordan are a couple, he’s not

been to work that much and the two of us are doing a lot more. And we have two meetings, two

very important meetings tomorrow, and I’m not sure that Riordan is going to leave you for that

long.”

“I’ll make sure that he’s there. I need to go into town anyway. I had no idea there was so

much involved in upgrading a kitchen. I think that rebuilding the entire fucking house would

have been less hassle.” The computer made a small sound and she told him what the screen said.

“Okay, hang on a second. I’m checking to see what I can find.” The computer was being

cloned. The program that Darcy had put on the thumb drive that she was currently trying to load

onto the computer would make it so they could see everything that the owner did. And get into

his files at the same time. “Um, Stormy, I don’t think you’re going to need proof to see if he’s

involved. It’s all right here. I’m looking at orders, correspondence between him and some man

by the name of Pilchard, and a few between him and a man calling himself Viper. What do you

want me to do?”

“Save it. And what you can’t figure out, I’ll take care of when I get there.” He told her he

would. “Leave the clone on this. If this doesn’t work out tonight, I’ll have to keep up on him.”

“I have his schedule, too. I’m downloading it as we speak. Christ, there are pictures on here,

too. Better ones than you have at the house.” She’d already figured out that there might be. As

she did a few adjustments on the computer herself, Darcy asked her what she was doing. “You

do know if he checks his history, he’ll be able to see what you’re doing.”

“He’ll know because I want him to know.” She also sent an email to the president. “And if

you tell anyone what I’m doing now, I will hunt you down and torture you.”

His laughter made her smile. Then she heard from Riordan.
A car is pulling up the drive.

Limo with flags. That our boy?

Yes. Hide but don’t go far.
He told her that he wasn’t going anywhere.
And when this is

done, and I mean tonight, I want to find a nice quiet place for you to change me. I’ve had enough

of this shit of not being able to talk to all of you. I could have done this without a single noise.

I’d love that, but you’ll be down for a few days.
He laughed then.
But knowing you, you’ll

just sit up when I’ve changed you and demand that I fuck you right now. You’ll never do things

like I expect, will you?

No. What fun will there be in that?
She heard the front door open just as she was putting the

computer back, pulled out the thumb drive, and then went to the door. She was going to see if he

was alone, and if not, she’d leave the same way she’d come in.

He was alone, and she moved out of the office door into the hall where he was standing.

When he turned and saw her, she could see that he was not just surprised to see her, but he was

afraid, too. Crossing her arms over her chest, she made sure that he could see that she was armed

as well.

“Storm. I suppose that breaking and entering is something that you’re used to doing. But it’s

frowned upon when you do it to your friends.” She asked him if they were friends. “Of course

we are. You know that.”

“Do I? Because the last time I thought of a friend, I never thought of him selling me out.

And you did, didn’t you, Tony? For fifty-five million…not very much when you think of all the

lives that you’ve fucked up, and the amount of time that was invested in my getting better. But

back to the money that you received to give Viper all the information that you could. I

remembered that you told me once that there was this island that you were thinking of buying

when you retired, and it was just under that dollar amount.” He hung up his coat, and she

watched to make sure that he wasn’t arming himself, too. “Put your hands where I can see them

and I won’t kill you right now.”

“What is it you think you’ve found? So what, there’s an island that is for sale and I

mentioned it to you in passing. That means nothing and you know it. You’ll have to do better

than that, Storm, if you think to bring me down.” She saw his wolf move along his skin and was

glad that she’d taken the time to find out about silver and what it did to his kind. “I’ve been

really careful. No one, not even the president, knows anything. You don’t either. Unless you’ve

caught the rest of my men, and I know for a fact that you haven’t.”

“The mike is still on, just so you know. And I’m recording this.” She wanted to kiss Darcy

when he spoke in her ear. “And Riordan is spitting mad and currently making his way to the

front of the house. I’m pretty sure that he’s not going to be as quiet as you were when you

climbed up the trellis and into that window to break into that house. I wish I could have seen

that. Good going by the way. You’ll have to…sorry, I’m nervous for you.

“I found your emails to Viper and to Gunning. Not very smart of you to think that I’d not

find out about them. Gunning is currently in custody, by the way. Just after you left him

yesterday, we took him. Burkhardt, too, now that we have his wife and children in custody.

Viper won’t be free for long. I have a team working on that, too.” Tony didn’t say anything but

smiled at her. “Putting the money in Brewer’s accounts and moving it around like you did, that

was brilliant. Did you know that you leave a marker when you do shit like that? Everyone knows

everything nowadays. There are any number of reasons why I think I should just kill you, but

I’m not going to. You’ve really fucked up, and I want to see you go to prison for it.”

“I won’t go to prison and we both know it. If anything comes of this, which I don’t see

happening, I’m going to be killed in a nice, quiet way that will never make a ripple of noise

about what I’ve done.” She knew he was more than likely right. “That is if you think you can