Teddy’s rubbing his forehead again. “What now?”
“The real bad news is that Daisy came to your cabin shortly after you left. She's calling an emergency town meeting. Darius is going to be there.”
“Darius?” I repeat. Teddy’s chest rumbles with a growl.
“Yeah. Daisy says Darius is presenting his idea to save the town. We're all supposed to vote on it.”
“When?” Teddy barks.
“Tonight.”
“I'll talk to her,” Matthias says. “See if she can put it off.”
Hutch scratches his head. “I don’t know, big bro. Daisy's pretty determined. She says it's time to put up or shut up. And Darius flew in.”
“All right,” Teddy rumbles. “First things first. We coordinate with the Black Wolf pack. Make sure we clean up our mess.”
“What about the town meeting?” Canyon asks. “Do you want Darius to win?”
“Fine,” Teddy grouses. “If everything goes well in the next few hours, we’ll all show up to vote. But I think we can all agree, keeping Lana safe is a priority.”
His brothers chorus assent, and all the warm fuzzies filling me threaten to make me burst into tears.
10
Lana
After a few precious minutes cuddling with Teddy on the couch, he gets a text from the Black Wolf pack.
“They need me for a debrief.” He pockets his phone with a sigh. “I need to go. You need to stay here, where it’s safe.”
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll be okay.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, babygirl.” Teddy kisses me, once on the lips, once on the forehead.
“I'll just take a little nap.” I cover my mouth to hide a yawn. “I'm tired.” And overwhelmed. Not even because of all the bombshells exploding everything I thought I knew about the world or the attempt on my life but because of the way Teddy and his brother’s have welcomed me. After years of my immediate family freezing me out, I feel like I’ve come in from the cold. Like I’ve been taken in.
“You can nap right here. Hutch and Canyon will be around. They’ll get you what you need.” Teddy kisses me again and turns to point a finger at two of the Terrible Threes. “I’m trusting you to keep Lana safe.”
Hutch and Canyon draw themselves up to attention. “Sir, yes, sir!” Canyon throws a salute. “We’ll guard her with our lives.”
“An army could show up to get her, and we’d fight them all off.”
“Victory or die!”
“Okay. Good,” Teddy says. “I’m counting on you.” He ducks out of the cabin, and I dash the tears from my eyes before Hutch and Canyon see.
I end up falling asleep right on the couch. When I wake, I’m covered in a blanket. Hutch is moving around the kitchen, but no one else is around.
Hutch hears me stirring and comes over with a glass of water. I take it with a murmured, “Thank you,” and tip the glass to hide my smile. These Bad Bear brothers are such gentlemen.
Hutch hovers at my side. “Did you sleep well?”
“I did. Did I miss anything?”
“Nope. Teddy’s not back yet, but he should be soon. Canyon and I are going to make dinner. Grilled salmon and salad with goat cheese and blueberries.”
“That sounds good.”
“It’s Teddy's favorite. After dinner, we’re all going to the town meeting. Matthias couldn’t convince Daisy to move it, so Teddy ordered all hands on deck. All of us will be there to stop Darius. Every vote counts.”
I sit up and push my braids back. “And this meeting is about saving the mountain?”
“Yep.” Canyon pokes his head out of the hall.
“So, in all the excitement, I haven’t had a chance to ask. Why is it so important to stop Darius? You say you need to save the mountain, but why? Who's threatening it?”
“It’s a long story.” Canyon pads over and plops into a worn armchair facing the couch. “It all came down to the town council needing money to do some things. They wanted to build some new roads. Fix the water tower, upgrade the sewer system, stuff like that. They took out some loans.”
“Issued a bond,” Hutch corrects. “That's how they put it.”
“Whatever.” Canyon waves a hand. “Unfortunately the bond got bought by some cutthroat hedge fund. And now they want all their money back.”
“Plus an insane amount of interest,” Hutch says. “Daisy said she'd rather owe the cartel than a hedge fund.”
“Yikes. I know what she means,” I say. GoddessWear gets its fair share of offers from interested investors, including hedge funds. Cutthroat is a polite way to describe them. “So how much do you have to pay back?”
“Like ten million,” Hutch tells me. “For a small town, it's a huge amount.”
“But it's okay,” Canyon kicks back and puts his boots on the coffee table. “We can make the money back. I have tons of ideas.”
Hutch snorts. “We've tried everything. We started keeping chickens, so we could sell the eggs. But we eat most of them.”