Right then his palatial log cabin looked like a fairy house in a fairyland setting. A giant evergreen wreath with a monstrous red bow covered the huge arched door. Inside, it was breathtaking, with a Christmas tree that reached all the way to the ceiling. He still didn’t know how he and his father had gotten the tree in the stand without the use of hydraulics, but they had. It held a million tiny, colored lights, hundreds of exquisite handblown ornaments from all over the world that had been collected by his mother and father. The mantel was decorated with artificial boughs of evergreen and family treasures his father had unearthed from somewhere. Piles of presents, all wrapped with silver paper and huge red bows sat beneath the tree. The entire house smelled wonderful.

A fire blazed in the fireplace.

For his family. That was how he thought of them. The staff, the recruits, his father, and, of course, Alpha.

Pappy walked through his family room to the dining room, where the table was already set. It could seat twenty-four and had been custom-made, and would seat his employers and associates when they came to visit. It was set with fine china, silver, and exquisite crystal from Bavaria, which matched the shimmering Bavarian chandelier.

It was said among his employers that he set a good table.

He had no idea what the dinner menu was. His father hadn’t shared that with him.

He knew he had put it off long enough. He walked back to his bedroom, dropped to his knees, and opened his dresser drawer. He took a deep breath before he reached down for the framed picture. He pulled the picture out of the frame, carried it out to the fireplace, and dropped it into the flames. Good-byes were always so hard. Adrian had said her own good-bye the day she left the mountain. He’d refused to accept those final words, convinced somehow that she would come back. Two weeks later she was dead, the victim of a deadly hit-and-run accident on an icy road in Austria. “Good-bye,” he whispered.

In the kitchen, he popped a bottle of beer and carried it back to his favorite chair. He reached down automatically to scratch Alpha behind the ears, but the dog wasn’t there. He clenched his teeth so hard he thought his jaw would crack.