“Alice Anders,” she said firmly. “You owe me fifty million dollars.”
She was expecting to surprise him, but could not tell if she actually had. “You found out what Scarlet’s shift form is,” he said approvingly.
“Yup,” Alice said.
There was a moment of silence. “And...?” the man prompted.
“And you owe me fifty million dollars,” Alice said firmly. “I’m sure you know my bank account numbers and probably my passwords.”
“What kind of shifter is she?”
“If I tell you, are you going to actually pay me?”
Alice couldn’t miss the rich humor in his answer and she thought that was a good sign. “If you tell me the shift form of Scarlet Stanson, I will wire you fifty million dollars this very day.”
“She doesn’t have one.”
Graham’s hand squeezed hers and there was silence on the line.
“What is she?” he finally asked.
“Noooooope,” Alice drawled. “That wasn’t what you asked. I was sent to find out her shift form. I did that. It’s not my fault the answer is ‘nothing.’”
There was another silence long enough that Alice actually checked the connection.
She exchanged an anxious look with Graham.
N. Padrikanth Moore began to laugh.
Alice chuckled nervously, but wasn’t actually relieved until he stopped laughing and, to her shock, said, “Very well, Alice Anders. You have technically kept your end of the bargain and I will keep mine. What do you want for the remainder of the information I’m seeking?”
“Don’t have it, don’t want it, won’t do it,” Alice blurted. “There’s no price you can offer me.”
“Everything has a price,” the mysterious Mr. Moore insisted.
Alice looked at Graham, at the relief she felt mirrored in his face. “I think you’re wrong,” she said thoughtfully.
Graham slowly smiled and Alice felt her world fall into all the right places.
“It’s been a pleasure doing business, Mr. Moore, I look forward to seeing your payment,” she said, over whatever the man was trying to say. She hung up the phone and tossed it back onto the bedside table.
Graham’s smile was like sunlight and strawberries.
“You want to make love to a millionaire?” Alice asked.
Chapter 38
Mary and Neal’s wedding was simple and joyous... and completely lacking in battles, supernatural interruptions, and earthquakes.
Scarlet officiated, serene and solemn, with her red hair piled on top of her head, and Graham thought she looked soft and thoughtful, if a little sad, when Neal swept Mary into a passionate kiss at the end of the ceremony.
Alice squeezed Graham’s hand, and when he looked at her, her eyes were dancing in anticipation and glee.
They all retired back to the event hall as night began to fall, for a reception where Chef seemed to feel he had something to prove. There was a groaning table of food, and a five-tier cake decorated with animal footprints and real fresh flowers, topped with a plastic deer and a timber wolf stained reddish.
“Our supplier didn’t have any red-maned wolves available,” Darla said apologetically. “I had to improvise.”
After the food had been enjoyed and the cake had been cut, Conall and Tex did a hauntingly beautiful guitar duet, and Lydia and Saina gave a salsa-bellydance fusion performance. Saina sang a song that set a glittering feeling of optimism and peace over the crowd.