Page 41 of Handcuffed to the Bear

And besides, they were her family. She loved them. Even if none of them deserved it.

“Did you ever go along?” Avery asked.

“Only once.” Her breath hitched in something that wasn’t quite a sob. “It was ... I didn’t ... didn’t go any more after that. I don’t think they knew how much it bothered me. Honestly, I don’t thinkIknew how much it bothered me. I just tried not to think about it too much. Every family has a few points of disagreement, don’t they? I did my job, and let them go enjoy their hobby.”

“Their hobby of killing people,” Cho said, her voice so frigid it would’ve sent an actual gecko into hibernation. “Just so we’re clear on that.”

“I know,” Debi whispered. She raised her free hand to press against her face.

Avery nudged a box of Kleenex in her direction, though she still wasn’t quite crying. It was more a sort of emotional overload.

“Where are Roger and the rest now, Debi?” Avery asked.

Debi shook her head.

“You can save a life, Debi. Maybe two. But you have to tell us.”

Her breath caught again, and she whispered, so softly he could barely hear her, “There’s an island.”

Avery’s glance flicked sideways, to meet the electric snap of excitement in Cho’s eyes. “What island, Debi? Where?”

“Up the coast a little way. Our family owns it, but it’s not in our name.”

That plausible-deniability thing again. The Fallons were good at covering their asses. “Holding company?” Cho asked.

Debi nodded. “The name on the paperwork is RMD Investments. For our initials—Roger and Rory, Mara, Debi and Derek.”

Cho sprang to her feet and was out the door like a shot.

Avery had to fight down his own surge of eagerness. “What’s on the island?”

“Nothing,” Debi said, shaking her head. “Nothing at all. Maybe a few falling-down hunting and fishing cabins from before we bought the place, but mostly we just keep it wild to hunt on. And not,” she added sharply, “notwhat you’re thinking. Not only what you’re thinking, anyway. We keep it stocked with deer and moose and other game animals. Whenever one of us needs a getaway, we’ll take the yacht up there and spend a weekend.”

As an urban shifter, Avery understood the appeal of a getaway island where a shifter could embrace all the hidden aspects of their nature. It sounded like a dream come true, in fact. “Are Roger and the others up there now?”

Debi gave a silent nod.

Cho stuck her head in. “Well, now we have the name, it took ten seconds to find it in the property records we’ve been looking at. Stiers is getting clearance from the Canadians right now to send our S&R chopper up the coast. If you want to be on it, better get your ass in gear.”

“Coming. Someone get a relief shift in here, okay?”

Cho nodded and vanished. Avery levered himself out of the sucking grip of the couch, staggered a moment before his bad leg would take his weight.

Debi had a crumpled tissue wadded up in her hand; she plucked at it, picking off little pieces and rolling them into balls. “What’s going to happen to me now?”

“I don’t know. That depends on my boss.”

The door opened and Vic Mendoza sauntered in. “Hey, looks like I get to sit out the S&R and keep grilling our guest here. Lucky me. From what I hear, it’s monsoon season out there.”

Debi looked anxiously at Avery.

“Just cooperate with him,” Avery said. Against his better judgment, he patted her on her shoulder, feeling the muscles beneath the business suit. He still wasn’t sure if he believed that she’d only gone on one hunt with the rest of them, but it didn’t matter now. “The more you can tell us about your siblings’ methods and their past hunts, the more chance we can get Casey and Jack out of there alive.”

“Y’all have fun storming the castle,” Vic drawled.

Avery limped quickly out the door, almost running into Eva in the hall.

“Gear up and meet us at the helipad,” she was saying into her radio. “If we’re gonna make it anywhere, we gotta go now. It’s pouring buckets out there, and blowing a regular hurricane up the coast—” She looked up and saw Avery. “Oh no, you aren’t coming.”

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