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caught by the wrong ears."

At his paranoia, every single one of us perked up. This was getting interesting. I nodded, not bothering to lower my own volume. "This is probably the safest place you could talk at the moment. We recently had some rather special guests visiting. Their security team checked for bugs several times a day."

Gil didn't bother to hide how he'd somehow known. "Yeah, it had to be rough having the American secret service crawling all over. I couldn't imagine entertaining foreign dignitaries. Sometimes a guy needs to be able to adjust his dick or scratch his ass, especially in the privacy of his own home. I doubt you got much alone time this past week, did you?"

I grinned at his accurate assessment of my own thoughts on the subject. "You're not wrong, Gil. As sad as I was for Nick to see his parents go, it felt good to know I was free to fart again."

While everyone else chuckled, Dan leaned forward to get Morty's attention. "Before you tell us your confidential intelligence or whatever, can we please address why you apparently want us to work with the Blythe brood? Because I can’t see that happening. Ask Gil. They don't even like to work with anyone outside of their own family. Tell me I'm wrong, Blondie. We both know how you feel, don't we?"

Gil tossed his hair so the curtain of straight, silky tresses landed over his right shoulder. "How about we hear the man out, Dan? And while we’re at it, maybe you can lose the attitude? Spoiler alert: it's not always about you, hot stuff. Sheesh, narcissistic much?"

Dan growled, already halfway out of his chair and working himself into a lather from Gil’s teasing. Gibby shoved him back down with a well-timed hand to the shoulder.

When Dan shot him a dirty glare, Gib shook his head. "Calm down, Dan. You deserved every bit. If Mortimer thought bringing the brood in on this was important, then Gil is right. We need to hear him out without you being an asshole."

Dear winked at Gib. "Aw, that’s not nice, Gibby. Asking Dan to change his natural dickish personality isn’t fair. Especially without advance notice." His playful grin dropped as he turned and pointed at Dan. "But don't make me remind you again about how helpful Gil and his brood were when my mate and I needed it."

Morty looked back and forth between them as if fascinated by the interplay. Like he was a dog, I whistled to get his attention, even going so far as snapping my fingers, since I knew he would be irritated. As a wolf shifter, our handler wasn't fond of dog jokes.

When I caught his eye, I smiled innocently. "Forgive the interruption, Mortimer. You were saying?" Morty also hated being called by his full name, which was why we tried to slip it into every conversation as many times as we could.

Morty gave a longsuffering sigh and pulled his phone out. "If you'll all remember Clay's aborted mission, he came across a group called OPEN EYES. I told you guys to forget about them at the time because that was a job for someone else. Well, now it's back on our laps. Salvador Dominguez, the leader, has spent the last six months quietly moving around the world and building his organization."

Clay's jaw tensed. "What about the other guy I saw at their rally? Tell me you at least told COME the director's personal assistant was involved with a secret society whose only mission is blowing the lid off the secret of our existence."

Morty held his palms up. "Easy now. We were able to get him alone and work things out to our satisfaction. For the past six months, Shane Gottlieb—the man you saw at the OPEN EYES rally in Washington D.C.—has been working for us as a double agent. He was simple to persuade when we found out he was simply an angry employee with an ax to grind."

Dear tilted his head to one side. "What kind of ax? Do you trust your leverage? Because sometimes double agents can easily be flipped back, you know. Do you trust this Shane so much?"

Morty nodded confidently. "I do. Turns out his brother was an omega dating a human, and their parents are traditionalists. They forced him into an arranged mating, even though he’d asked the director to use his clout to keep it from happening. One of my operatives made the omega's alpha permanently disappear, which