“Let’s go somewhere else,” Buck said. “I need to talk to you alone first.”

Icy fingers gripped the back of my neck. This couldn’t be good. “All right. Text me with a location. I need to check on something first.”

“Good enough.”

Buck was a good man. He’d never worked for my father and he came highly recommended by Leif, who I trusted.

First, though, I had to check on Zee.

I walked swiftly to the conference room where she was meeting with Hank Morgan but wrinkled my forehead. Morgan sat alone in the conference room.

I entered. “Where’s Zee?”

“She left.”

“That’s obvious. What happened, Morgan?”

“I don’t owe you any explanation.”

Hank Morgan was an enigma. At first, he’d seemed highly cooperative. He wanted to get to the truth, and he seemed to believe that none of us, especially Rock and Lacey, had been behind the murder of our father.

Each day, though, he seemed more distant. More ready to pin this on someone just to get it out of his hair.

Was he crooked?

I wasn’t sure.

“Fine,” I said. “If you’re done here, get off our property.”

He slammed his file folder shut. “I’m leaving, but I’m far from done here.” He picked up his files, shoved them into his briefcase, and then brushed hotly past me.

Yeah. Not good.

I walked out the door only to run into Zach Hayes. “Hey, Zach. What the hell happened in there?”

“It was ugly,” Zach replied. “He asked Zee why she didn’t get into prostitution in Vegas.”

Anger erupted through me like hot lava from a volcano. “That mother—”

“He’s a dick,” Zach interrupted, “but something else bothers me even more.”

“What’s that?”

“He said something out of anger. Or he started to.”

“What?”

“He said the Wolfes didn’t scare him, and then he said, and I quote, ‘half my colleagues were on…’ and then he just stopped.”

“My father’s payroll?”

“That was my first thought.”

“What an idiot. Why would he even let something like that come out of his mouth?”

“I don’t know,” Zach said. “He knows better. He’s not brilliant, but he’s not stupid either.”

“I was just thinking about how he’s been less cooperative each day,” I said.

“I’ve noticed that as well. Would he say something like that to throw us off track?”

“Who the fuck knows what he’d do?” I scoffed. “Is Zee all right?”

“Moira’s taking care of her. They’re probably in her office. Zee was a little shaken. Moira was awesome. She became a beast in there.”

“Moira’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” I agreed. “I figured Zee would be comfortable with her. I’ll go check on her, but I only have a few minutes. I’m headed out to a meeting. Thanks for everything, Zach.”