Page 79 of Into the Lion's Den (Secrets of the Northland Shifters)

When I returned, Joe was standing at the side of my desk and looking at some of the bank statements I’d been reading.

I tried not to bristle at the invasion—particularly since they were a much better read than they’d been several weeks ago—but it took some effort. My territorial impulses were sharper than ever before.

“You look happy,” Joe said when I came to stand beside him.

“Do I?” I was surprised to hear it, but I supposed there was some small part of me you could call happy. I wasn’t researching bankruptcy attorneys anymore.

“I’m surprised,” Joe said, “with all the trouble you’ve been having.”

I lined up the shot glasses at the edge of my desk and took the bottle from Joe, unscrewing the cap. “I settled with our injured guest, and his attorney sent the signed Release of Claims this morning. Our check to them is in the mail, so that chapter is behind us.”

“How did you pull that off?”

“Sarah.” I couldn’t help but smile when I said her name. When it came to her, I might have the worst case of blue balls since I was in my early teens, but I knew in the end—and Iwouldhave her in the end—it would be worth the wait. So long as I could keep it at just sex, without becoming an actual mated pair.

That was my brilliant compromise.

Joe’s eyebrows shot up. “Sarah? Isn’t she your events coordinator?”

“Look at this.” I opened the Instagram app on my phone and went to the Maddoxes’ account. There was photo after photo of their weekend at the lodge, starting with the barn lit up like a fairy tale and the band looking like rock stars.

The terrible weather report hadn’t panned out, so after the rain cleared, there were breath-taking shots of the northern lights—the sky awash with streaks of green and purple.

The rest of the photos were of canoeing on a sparkling lake, someone feeding a carrot to one of the horses, and lush green hiking trails.

I mean...the lodge and the land looked amazing in real life, but these photos made us look like paradise. The phone had been ringing for days.

“Because of Sarah, we made enough on this one weekend to pay the settlement, get the loan payments caught up, and fix the dining room roof.” I filled two shot glasses.

“She’s a real find,” Joe said.

That she is, I thought.

Joe raised his glass. “To Tony.” He looked heavenward. “Happy birthday, buddy.” Then he lowered his eyes to me. “And I guess we’ll drink to Sarah too.”

We both downed our shots, then I sat back in my chair behind my desk while Joe resumed his seat on the couch.

“Which is why,” I said, “I gave Sarah the honor of putting the Caldwell purchase offer through the paper shredder.”

“I hadn’t heard.” Joe crossed his ankle over his opposite knee and stretched his arms out wide along the back of the couch. “That’s a lot of money to turn down.”

“Mmm,” I said with a nod. He wasn’t wrong.

Sarah rushed in completely breathless. She didn’t even seem to notice I had company. “Reese!”

My inner cat sat up at attention. “Sarah, I’m—”

“Reese, listen.” She waved a piece of paper in her hand.

“If this is about the staff-appreciation party, can it wait until tomorrow?”

“It’s not about that,” she said. “It’s about whoever shot your dad.”

Alarm squeezed my chest. We'd never told Joe the truth. “Sarah—”

“What’s she talking about?” Joe asked.

Sarah sucked in a breath and turned around. Her hand rose to touch the “S” pendant that hung from the thin, gold chain she often wore. “Oh my gosh. I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were in a meeting.”

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