LITMIR.BIZ

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from the wall he’d been leaning on and came up to Jamie. “Why the hell not? What’s your purpose here if you can’t do what we tell you to?”

      “I don’t work for you, Jack. I’m more like…free-range protection.”

      “Can’t you set up those wards or whatever you call ’em?”

      “We already have those in place,” Mac cut in from her place across the room. “And we renew them each full moon, but it still doesn’t help with your particular problem.”

      “Why not?”

      “Because the boundaries we’ve created are to keep full-humans away and pure evil out.” Jamie shrugged. “They won’t keep out or harm animals and that pretty much includes you.”

      “We’re still human. Mostly.”

      “True. But shifters are protected by the same gods who’ve empowered us to create those boundaries. That includes Buck Smith.”

      “So there’s nothing you can do?”

      “I didn’t say that. We can do lots of things. Some of which will leave nothing but charred remains and fond memories. But if he hasn’t done anything to warrant such an attack from me or my coven, I’m only putting our powers at risk.” And Tully knew she’d never do that.

      “Which is what I told you, Daddy,” Tully reminded him.

      “You want him here, don’t you?” And if it sounded like Jack was accusing Tully…he was. “So you can talk through all your bullshit like you’re in a goddarn therapy session.”

      “Old man, I can think of a thousand tortures I’d rather endure than dealing with Buck Smith, but it doesn’t change the fact that we can’t stop him from coming here with his Pack for a vacation.” Which was what Wanda Pykes had told Seneca at check-in but Tully would never be stupid enough to believe it.

      “And if they decide to stay?” Gwen McMahon asked.

      “That I won’t allow,” Tully said simply.

      “And how are you going to stop him?” Jack demanded.

      And Tully answered his daddy the only way he knew how. “Any way I have to.”

      “I could talk to him,” Jamie offered and it amazed her how quiet the entire room became. So quiet she could hear the crows and jaybirds outside the window get into a vicious fight over tree territory.

      “Talk to him about what, exactly?” And what insulted Jamie was the question came from her own damn cousin. Where was the loyalty?

      “Sweetie, I was a cop for years. I know how to do this. I’ll go and check him out, talk to him, figure out what he’s up to.”

      Mac stood beside her now, her arms folded over her nonexistent tits. “Or you can start shit.”

      Insulted, because her loyalty to Tully had grown leaps and bounds in less than twenty-four hours and she’d never put him at risk, Jamie snapped, “I will not start shit.”

      “You don’t know how not to start shit.”

      Jamie turned so she stood toe-to-toe with her cousin. “And maybe you need to back up off me, cuz.”

      “And maybe you need to make me.”

      Jamie raised her hand. Not to hit her cousin but to toss her out of the room with one well-placed spell when Tully reached over and firmly gripped her fingers with his and pulled her in to his side. “I’d love for you to talk to Buck.”

      “Now, see,” Jamie complained, “that sounds like sarcasm.”

      “It’s not sarcasm,” Jack said, watching his stepson. “The idiot actually wants you to do it.”

      “I value her opinion, Daddy.”

      “Like I said,” the older man muttered, turning away. “Idiot.”

      Tully caught a ride with Kyle back to the hotel and Bear met them out front. The witches were climbing out of Jamie’s SUV when Tully asked Bear, “Where are they?”

      The grizzly, capable of catching a scent up to twenty miles away, lifted his head. He sniffed. Once. Twice. After the third, he nodded toward the west part of the resort. “Racquetball court.”

      Tully and Kyle stared at Bear. Buck playing racquetball?

      “Seriously?” Kyle finally asked.

      “Yeah. Seriously.”

      “Okay.” Tully turned in time to see Jamie walking off in that direction. In several long strides he was beside her. “Are you sure about this?”

      “I thought you trusted my judgment.”

      “I said I trusted your opinion. And we’re not talking about either here.”

      “Well, you’re going to have to trust me, Marmaduke.”

      “You make it impossible when you call me that.”

      She grinned up at him and winked as she trudged forward. Tully was keeping up with her when he felt someone grab him from behind and pull him back. He turned and came eye to eye with Mac. “Why do you want to hurt me?” she asked.

      “I didn’t know I was, darlin’.”

      “This can’t go well.”

      “You don’t know that.”

      “I know my cousin.”

      “Was she a good cop?”

      “She was an excellent cop. One of the best.”

      “Then what’s there to worry about?”

      “This isn’t about her helping strangers.”

      “It isn’t?”

      “Of course not. She’s doing this for you guys, which can only spell disaster.”

      “Really? Because it doesn’t seem like your cousin has warmed too much to everybody ’round here.”

      “Actually this is the friendliest I’ve ever seen her.”

      Tully blinked a few times before he asked again, “Really?”

      “Yes. Really.”

      He shrugged. “All right then.”

      Letting out a rather overly dramatic sigh, Mac pushed past him. Tully followed and they quickly caught up to the rest seconds before they made it to the courts.

      Buck was nowhere in sight but his sons were. Buck had at least three sons—that everyone was aware of—and not one of them worth a damn. Of course, they felt the same way about Tully.

      Not surprisingly, they didn’t find Buck’s boys by the racquetball court, but the archery range right next to it. The thought of his idiot half-brother Luther playing with a bow and arrow did nothing but deeply concern Tully.

      Jamie walked up to Luther, smiled. “Is Buck around?”

      “Nope.” Luther already had his bow loaded, the arrow nocked.

      “Do you know when he’ll be back?”

      “Nope.”

      Tully rolled his eyes. Thank the Lord for his momma because obviously his ability to think, reason, and communicate clearly came from her.

      “Is there someone else I can talk to?” Jamie asked. “Because you’re not fulfilling my needs.”

      Tully heard a chuckle and was shocked to realize it came from Bear. The man didn’t laugh about much. It wasn’t in his nature.

      Luther studied Jamie close, then his big, dumb gaze examined the rest of them. There was only Luther and Tully’s two other half-brothers, so maybe he wasn’t in the mood to fight

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