Dani closed her eyes, breathing very carefully through her nose. Rage boiled up from her belly, settling around her heart like acid. She blew out a long breath through her mouth and inhaled deeply. She had to calm down. Getting this upset was terrible for her talent. She wouldn’t be able to work for days if she kept this up. And she had to work. She had to impress the hell out of Jillian and the other League muckity-mucks with her amazing work on the rift. She had to earn her full fee, plus the built-in contract bonuses for working effectively and quickly. She had to kick ass, while staying very calm and collected and not rushing through and hurting herself.

Right, no problem.

“I’ll get it, Tru. This job I just started, the contract is pretty big. With that and my savings, I’ll be able to pay it in a few months.”

Trudy clucked her tongue. “Oh, hon, I think I can talk the bank into a payment plan if we can pay off a little bit now. But it won’t be just your money. Grandad has agreed to sell off some of the older farm equipment, the stuff he doesn’t use as much anymore. Jim and I have some savings.

“No, Tru, that money is for taking care of your kids, the kids I can hear yelling in the background for fruit snacks. They’ll need college tuition and braces and a never-ending stream of expensive shoes they’ll outgrow after two wears because you chose to have five children with a half-Viking with enormous feet.”

Trudy snorted on the other end of the line. “The girls’ feet are growing faster than the boys. It’s terrifying.”

Dani snickered. “I’ll wire you the money for the down payment as soon as I can get a dependable internet signal. This is my father’s debt. He made this mess. And I’m going to take care of it. It’s the least I can do for Grandad, for limiting how much damage that jackass was able to do to my life.”

“That’s not how Grandad would want you to think of it.”

Dani pointedly ignored that and asked, “How’s Grandad handling it?”

Trudy sighed loudly on the other line. “He’s quiet. Real quiet. He misses you, but . . . honey, I think he’s just a little too upset to talk to you right now.”

Dani covered her face with her hand and willed the hot tears welling up in her eyes to go away. She sniffed, standing and crossing to the ancient stove to heat another potful of water for tea.

“I’ll FaceTime him this weekend,” Dani said.

“I’ll let him know to watch for your call, hon. So, where are you again? Is it still Hungary? Taking pictures of those old churches?”