What do we have, Gabe?” Troy asked an hour after they all knew Riley was actually asleep instead of just staring off into nothing.

“I’m working on it,” Gabe mumbled, typing furiously. “A lot of this I’ve already figured out. But they started to break down where the money came from. Offshore accounts, several of them.”

“So…” Brenton sighed. “We still do not know who the money is coming from.”

“No,” Gabe groaned. “But now I have a better lead on it. Some of these transactions can get buried really easily. I might be good, but we’re talking hacking into banks that I don’t have a physical connection to. I’m going to need more time but… this is good. He gave me some good stuff. Better leads. Shell companies, pass-through companies. I just need a few hours to follow the breadcrumbs.”

Troy raised an eyebrow at his brother. Well, wasn’t that some shit. They could end the day knowing what to do with themselves.

“Keep on it, and thank you,” Brenton said quietly.

“No need for thanks,” Gabe chuckled. “Call Keith and thank him. I promise he didn’t give us everything, but… he probably gave us what he could without raising every red flag.”

“That is all I needed from him.” Brenton said shortly. “Thank God.”

“You boys and your technology,” Sheriff groaned. “Tell me in twenty-four hours, we can all go home.”

“Cranky without Mrs. Bear?” Troy offered him a small smile. Sheriff just narrowed his eyes at Troy. Troy shifted uncomfortably. “I need us all to chill out for just a moment. Fuck, I need a drink.”

“Stop that,” a groan came from across the room. Troy’s head swung toward the beds, and he cried out in joy at the sight of ice-blue eyes and a pissed off look visible on Zachary’s face. He shot up from his chair, and Gabe knocked his own over as he did the same.

“Zachary,” Brenton breathed out. One moment they were huddled around the laptop, the next, Troy was nearly on the bed trying to hug Zachary, who protested violently.

“Get off me. Fuck, I hurt, asshole,” Zachary snarled as Troy laughed. Tears were in his eyes, and he grinned at Zachary who had a small smile himself.

“You nearly…” Gabe trailed off as he stood behind Troy. “Fuck, it’s good to see you awake.”

“How long have I been out?” Zachary groaned, looking between them. Troy glanced at Brenton, a man who looked like he’d found God again.

“A bit over twenty-four hours,” Gabe answered, leaning forward and putting his forehead to Zachary’s. Troy swallowed his emotions as Zachary raised a hand slowly and held Gabe’s head to his. Once Gabe moved over again, Troy did the same. Zachary was a glue they often forgot about.

“Brenton,” Zachary groaned as Troy backed away again. “My brother.”

“Zachary,” Brenton choked out and Troy wondered if Brenton had ever been so shaken, so shocked, or so thankful.

Brenton stepped closer, sat on the edge of the bed and leaned forward. Troy watched as they embraced slowly, Brenton’s head going onto Zachary’s chest. Zachary gently laid his hands on Brenton’s back.

“How are you?” Brenton asked quietly. Zachary chuckled weakly, and Troy nearly wanted to strangle the tiger. He was about to try and be funny.

“I was shot, Brenton!” Zachary tried to laugh. “How the fuck do you think I am?”

“Ass,” Brenton groaned.

“How are you?” Zachary grunted, pushing Brenton back. “How are all of you?”

“We’re trying our hardest to hold it together,” Brenton sighed. “Look to your right.”

Troy and Gabe cleared the way for Zachary to get eyes on Andrew.

“Oh, shit,” Zachary whispered. “Is he going to be okay?”

“The knife wound and minor and moderate bruising will be fine. The head injury though…” Troy tried to make it sound better than it was, but there was no avoiding that Andrew looked like he’d been pummeled into the ground.

“Turns out, being shot in the back twice is better for you than whatever happened to Andrew,” Gabe mumbled. “They don’t know if he’s going to wake up. He could very well be comatose.”

“Don’t freak out,” Brenton whispered, holding Zachary to the bed as the tiger tried to get up. “There was no hemorrhaging in his brain, and the CT scans came back fine. A lot of broken bones in his face, but no obvious damage to his brain.”

“Let me up,” Zachary snarled. “Let me up to see him.”

“Zachary,” Troy hissed, helping Brenton hold Zachary down. “You can’t. You have a small spinal injury that could be exacerbated by physical activity. You can paralyze yourself, and that would do none of us any good. As a shifter, healthy and in your prime, you are healing quickly, but you were shot in the back twice. Probably by a high-powered sniper rifle. You can’t just jump out of bed like nothing happened.”

Troy rarely used anything he had learned about medicine for any good. He knew a lot of things, he studied more in his free time. He paid attention to doctors and, if he had the time, he’d be out there learning more about what Andrew and Zachary needed.

Now was the perfect time to put his foot down.

“Why does it hurt so much?” Zachary groaned, easing back into his pillows.

“You were shot,” Brenton sighed.

“Fuck,” Zachary hissed, then he added more softly, “Where’s our girl?”

“I’ll get her up. She’s going to be mad we haven’t, yet,” Troy chuckled, patting Zachary’s leg.

“I’ll get some coffee,” Gabe groaned. “She’s only gotten about an hour of sleep in the last day…”

“Then let her sleep,” Zachary muttered, looking around Brenton to Troy near the couch. “She’s beautiful when she sleeps.”

Troy looked down at her and smiled. He kneeled slowly, ignoring Zachary’s request to let her sleep. She was going to stab one of them if they didn’t wake her up for this. He gently shook her shoulder, trying to ease her up instead of startling her.

“You all are being real quiet,” Zachary grunted. Troy heard some shuffling and remembered the other people in the room. He looked over his shoulder to see Sheriff shuffling closer to Zachary.

“We didn’t want to interrupt,” James mumbled. “It’s good to see you awake, man.”

“Thanks James. Antonio, nice to see you both here. I’m just going to assume Thomas is nearby.” Zachary shifted uncomfortably in his bed, and Troy could smell the anguish from pain. Zachary could have a tough face all day, but they all knew he hurt. James quickly mentioned that Thomas was on watch outside the door before Zachary leveled his pained stare on Sheriff. “Sheriff, got something to say?”

“I thought I had lost you, boy,” Sheriff growled. “Don’t get shot again.”

Troy couldn’t stop the laugh as he watched Sheriff, for the first time, lean down and hug Zachary. Sheriff had never really admitted he even liked them all that much, much less that he cared for them.

“I have coffee,” Gabe mumbled from behind Troy. Troy nodded quickly and went back to stirring Riley from her short slumber.

“Pretty Girl,” Troy whispered. “Pretty Girl, Zachary is awake.”

That did it. Her eyes flew open, and he saw her nostrils flare as she took in the scent of Zachary and his pain. Troy fell back on his ass as she sat up.

“Zachary,” she cried out, hauling herself up and diving to the bed. Troy felt tears come to his eyes as he watched her blonde waves flying around when she climbed onto the bed and held Zachary. “Zachary.” Her voice was choked with tears, and Troy swallowed a lump. He was always amazed with how big her heart was, how deeply she felt.

“Riley,” Zachary whispered, holding her.

“I love you,” she sobbed. “I thought you were going to die, and…”

“It’s okay, Riley,” he continued to whisper. “I love you and the guys too much to go down like that.”

Troy knew there wasn’t much to say to that. Zachary was awake again, and that was a ray of hope for them. Keith had brought them information—another beam of light on the dark time the Pride had fallen into.

Now, they just needed to hold on to the light while they struggled to get out of the hole they were in.