his baby was saying, but Colin sure sounded confident.
“So occasionally in one of her many… many… photos, I’d catch these two super odd hashtags. One is clearly a jumbled code word, for searchability. The other is just a string of numbers. Neither of them means anything in Instalamb or to Blanc’s followers. There’s no point in hashtags like that, unless you’re communicating to specific individuals. But since she uses a ton of tags already, no one really cares that there’s this string of random numbers hidden among them.”
Judd tried to gently press Colin along, because frankly none of them understood what the hell he was talking about. “What’s it mean, baby?”
Colin’s green eyes shone with victory. “One tag for searching, the other for GPS coordinates. She dropped these at different points all along her tour. Different locations.”
Judd knew exactly what that meant. “Drop-off coordinates.”
“You betcha.”
“SBI could corroborate that those were all stolen goods being transferred.” God, his baby was so smart and so hot.
“SBI could, indeed.” Colin raised both eyebrows. “I also bet, if they looked into her finances, they’d find some seriously suspicious purchases and investments.”
Judd nodded. “Money laundering.”
“Yep.”
Kevin laughed suddenly. “Colin, our mother is a criminal.”
“I know, right? Finally, she does something for us to be proud of.” Colin played along, pleased with himself.
Judd could feel the biggest grin split over his own face.
“You can’t prove it was me,” hissed Blanc. “My manager does most of the uploading to my accounts and such.”
“Oh, dear me,” said Alec. “Unfortunately, your manager seems to have departed. And who do we have left holding the phone and wearing the jacket?”
Colin was grinning. “Why, that would be you, Mother.”
“Someone check Isaac’s backpack for silver handcuffs, please,” said Alec. “Very nicely done, Colin.”
“Thanks, Alpha.”
The backpack lay off in one corner, where Isaac had chucked it before running after the selkies.
“Of course Isaac has handcuffs in his backpack,” said Kevin, rummaging about and extracting them.
Tank chuffed at him. Isaac just sat there, tail thumping, looking regal and pleased with his preparedness.
While Alec cuffed Lexi Blanc, Judd texted Agent Faste, to let him know that they might want to come back to Bean There, Froth That and collect Risa’s accomplice. Or was Risa Blanc’s accomplice? Or was Blanc just a pawn? Either way, it was fun to see her in cuffs. Even if Judd never got to hit her.
When they got back to the pack house, Marvin was in top form. They heard the music before they even got inside.
Fangs, fangs, fangs!
Fangs in the—
“Oh hell no,” said Judd, with feeling. He turned to Alec. “Alpha, make it stop.”
They opened the front door.
Max was in the den sipping a glass of grape juice and egging Trick and Marvin on. They seemed to be having a lip sync battle meets slinky dance off. Lovejoy was in the kitchen making stew and humming along.
Lovejoy spotted them first. He was shaking his ass while he stirred the pot. He stopped, pointed the dripping spoon at them, and yelled over Blanc’s caterwauling. “Where have you lot been? Leaving me alone to slave over your dinner with only these three characters for company. They come running in, smelling like salt, get sand all over our new carpet, and tell tall tales of gold jackets and selkie mobsters. I swear to god, you guys! I leave you alone for one weekend.”
Alec raised his voice just enough to be heard. “Children, please turn that off. I believe this pack has had enough of Lexi Blanc.”
Trick dove for his phone and unplugged it from the speakers.
“Boyfriend!” Marvin ran across the living room and threw himself at Alec, who plucked him easily out of the air. Marvin was wearing a silver fringed 1920s flapper dress. “You haven’t sexed me up in days. You don’t love me anymore.”
Alec plopped his mate back down next to him. “We fucked this morning.”
“Oh, yes, how could I forget?”
“I don’t know. How could you?”
“You should remind me, babes.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
“Well, if I must suffer such hardship. I was just wondering what that dress would look like on our floor.” Alec tossed Marvin over his shoulder into a fireman’s carry. He spoke to the rest of the pack over Marvin’s pert little butt.
“Everything okay now, boys? You lot are good? We caught the bad guys. Well, bad girls.” He looked at Colin and Kevin. “You two aren’t all torn up about your mother being a thief or anything, are you?”
“What?” came Marvin’s upside-down voice. “What’d I miss?”