Pappy let his eyes go to the tall, fragrant Christmas tree. The mound of presents beneath it showed that, for someone who hadn’t seen the inside of a store in over ten years, he’d done rather well. He’d simply emailed Harrods in London, asked for a personal shopper, given instructions along with his black American Express card, and everything was taken care of. You could only get a black American Express card if you were willing to deposit a million dollars. He’d been willing. He’d been told he was one of only fifteen or so people who had a black card. His packages had arrived within six days, all gift-wrapped and tagged. It was cheating, he knew, but that was okay. He wasn’t good at tucking in ends and tying ribbons. He didn’t think his little family would mind.

He’d really gotten into the spirit when he went through the recruits’ files to see their likes and dislikes. He’d made his Christmas list from that information. As he sipped at his beer, he wondered if any of the team members would buy him a present. Not that he expected any.

He shrugged, then, startled, he looked up when Alpha appeared. “Nice to see you, big guy,” Pappy said quietly. The dog padded toward the chair, looked up at him, and nuzzled his leg. Pappy smiled. “You don’t have to apologize. It is what it is.” The wolf-dog settled himself at the side of the chair. Pappy, obligingly, scratched him behind the ears. When the dog drifted into sleep, Pappy reached for the pile of folders on the table near his chair. The recruits’ charge slips from their trip to New York. He could hardly wait to read them; but before he started, he glanced at the totals on their individual cards. He rifled through the slips looking for Samantha Rainford’s charges. He was stunned to see a note attached by Poke Donovan that read, “Ms. Rainford would like the earrings charge to be deducted from her personal bank account even though she charged them on the company card.” Other than the earrings, her charges were in the lowball range. A few clothes, some toiletries. Not so the other recruits with the top amount going to Kayla for sixty-six thousand dollars. The woman did love clothes. Still, a forty-four-thousand-dollar pair of earrings was right up there. He wondered if the earrings would look like headlights.