“Will they fold if we take away their money?” Anthonyasked.
Oliver rubbed his forehead. “Yes, but that might be harder than you think. It’s not as if they keep it stashed in one handy bank account. This kind of people have money all over the world, hidden in shell companies within shell companies. I’d also like to go visit and feel them out. See if they blame you for Quain goingmissing.”
“Good idea. If they are suspicious, we’ll have to be extra careful.” Anthony rubbed his hands together. “We’ll need to hire a discreet team strictly forresearch.”
“And recruit the families we know have been targeted,” Silversaid.
“Maybe we can send Quain out to meet with some of them. It will get him out of town while we settle with the wizards here and give Peter a break to bond with his mate while they travel,” Anthonysuggested.
Silver nodded. “I’ll talk to Peter and see what he thinks about the idea. If he can’t do it, we’ll ask Dare and Steven. They could use an outing, and Dare would be a goodambassador.”
“You could send out a couple of teams,” Oliver proposed. “That would get the word outfaster.”
“That could work.” Anthony ran over the possibilities in his head. “I would say we just call them, but no one is going to believe a stranger on the phone. That can be our first contact, but they are going to want to see proof and meet a representative inperson.”
“Then let’s get planning.” Silver clapped his handstogether.
The trio sat around Silver’s small conference table and plotted their next course of action. Bringing down a wizard cabal would take a great deal ofstrategy.
Chapter 10
Peter pulledup in front of the two-story craftsman home. It stood in the middle of a small forest with no other houses visiblearound.
“No wonder you asked about trees.” Squirrels chattered in the trees and dapples of sunlight broke through the canopy above. “Why didn’t you come here to run,” Peterasked.
“I like to try out different plots of land. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong one on the day of mycapture.”
Before Peter could say anything else, a man and a woman exited thehouse.
“Quain!” The woman rushed to the truck as the lynx shifter slid out. She wrapped her arms around Quain and rocked him back andforth.
“She’ll be at that a while. We were quite upset when he went missing. Brian Ilves, nice to meet you.” Quain’s father stood as tall as Peter and had Quain’s gorgeoussmile.
“Nice to meet you too, Mr. Ilves.” Peter shook hands with Brian, happy to see the other man didn’t try to make it a strength match. A bit of red beneath Brian’s fingernails caught his attention for a minute before being distracted withconversation.
“Call me Brian please. I never thought my boy would find his mate. We’re both very happy for youtwo.”
Brian’s neutral expression didn’t reveal any of his proclaimed joy, but maybe he wasn’t an exuberant person. “I didn’t even know if I had one, so I was happy to meetQuain.”
“Why wouldn’t you? I could see not meeting your mate, but why wouldn’t you have one?” Brianasked.
“Brian, come and greet our son,” Quain’s motherinterrupted.
Brian rolled his eyes. “Excuse me. Apparently I’m being a neglectfulparent.”
A chuckle escaped Peter as he watched Brian greet his son with a hug and a noogie on his head. “Don’t get kidnappedagain.”
Quain escaped and straightened his hair. “It’s not as though I did it onpurpose.”
Watching the small family entertained Peter for several minutes until Quain’s mom caught sight of him. “You must be Peter. I’m Naya. It’s good to meet you. Welcome to thefamily.”
A lump caught in Peter’s throat, and he numbly returned the hug. He’d never had a warm cozy family as those shown on television shows. Naya exuded a motherly aura Peter had never encountered in real lifebefore.
“It’s nice to meet youtoo.”
“Thank you for saving Quain,” shesaid.
“I didn’t exactly save him.” Peter refused to take credit for something accidental. “He got free on hisown.”
