“Not me.” Round face wrathful, Lee got to his feet. The tension rose. I eyed Lee, then David, looking confident even though he was seated. Neither man was going to back down.

“Sign the paper, sir,” David said softly. “I’m just the messenger. Don’t get the lawyers into this. Then they’re the only ones who get any money and you become uninsurable.”

Lee took a hasty breath, his dark eyes pinched in anger.

I jumped at the sudden ring of my phone. My eyes widened. It was playing the theme to the Lone Ranger. I scrambled to turn it off, not knowing how. God help me.

“Grace!” David barked, and I jumped again. The phone slipped from my fingers. I fumbled after it, face flaming. My emotions warred between panic that they were both looking at me and my relief that Ivy was ready.

“Grace, I told you to turn that phone off when we were in the drive!” David yelled.

He stood, and I looked at him in helplessness. He snatched the phone out of my hands. The music cut off and he threw it back at me.

My jaw clenched as it hit my palm with a sharp snap. I’d had enough. Seeing my hot anger, David moved between me and Lee, gripping my shoulder in warning. Ticked, I knocked his arm away. But my anger caught when he smiled and winked at me.

“You’re a good operative,” he said softly as Lee punched a button on his intercom and had a hushed conversation with what sounded like a very upset Candice. “Most of the people I work with would have gone for my throat at the front door with that subordinate-bitch comment. Dig your feet in. We can get a few more minutes out of this conversation, and I still need him to sign my form.”

I nodded, though it was hard. The compliment helped.

Still standing, Lee reached for his coat and slipped his arms into it. “I’m sorry, Mr. Hue. We will have to continue this at another opportunity.”

“No, sir.” David stood unmoving. “We will finish this now.”

There was a commotion in the hallway, and I rose when Chad, the vampire with the charm, stumbled in. Seeing David and me, he swallowed down his first, probably frantic, words.

“Chad,” Lee said, the faintest bother in his expression as he took in the vamp’s disheveled appearance. “Will you see Mr. Hue and his assistant to their car?”

“Yes, sir.”

The house was quiet and I stifled a smile. Ivy once took out an entire floor of FIB agents. Unless Lee had a hell of a lot of people hidden about, it wouldn’t be long until I had my charms and Lee would be wearing handcuffs.

David didn’t move. He stood before Lee’s desk, his Were mien growing. “Mr. Saladan.” He pushed the form forward with two fingers. “If you would?”

Red spots started on Lee’s round cheeks. Taking a pen from an inner jacket pocket, he signed the paper, making his name big and unreadable. “Tell your superiors that I will be compensated for my loss,” he said, leaving it on the desk for David to pick up. “It would be a shame if your company found itself in financial straits by a number of your more expensive properties becoming damaged.”