Wolf Shield Investigations: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “We’ll keep trying,” Logan promised. “From now on, Braxton will take your unlisted calls. Or whoever you’re with at the time.”

  “I’m fine with that.”

  “Meanwhile,” Braxton added. “We just left Ben’s house. We checked, just in case, since he was visiting with Serenity earlier and things didn’t go well. He’d been busy doing other things since he left. We’ll just leave it there.”

  “Got it. Well, at least we know. That’s a good thing.”

  Meanwhile, Jace’s phone was ringing. “Santiago,” he announced before picking up. Logan ended their call so Jace wouldn’t have interference with his own.

  “Okay, thank you,” he murmured after a few seconds. “We’re on our way back to the house now.”

  It looked like they were going to have company. He wished he could tell how she felt about that, how she felt about any of this. He couldn’t even sense what was going on under the surface, not the way he normally could.

  It seemed like when she was determined, she could put up walls that even his wolf couldn’t overcome.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  In a sick sort of way, it all made sense.

  Now that she knew Lola had been sleeping with Ben, Serenity didn’t understand why she hadn’t seen it before. They were from the same world, the same sort of people. They had shared experiences to fall back on—both of them with their brief brushes with fame, living off royalties they’d earned years ago.

  They were both has-beens, only in their mid-twenties. That seemed awfully young to already have the best of your career behind you, but that was how it looked for both of them.

  They were meant for each other, in other words.

  “Really, I’m okay,” she insisted when she found Braxton looking at her in that meaningful way. He’d been looking at her like that through the entire car ride home and ever since they’d gotten inside. Even when Detective Santiago was there, when he listened to the recording Braxton had made, that didn’t stop Braxton from checking in on her time and again.

  Either he was extremely sensitive to her inner feelings, or he figured she had to have a breaking point, that so many things had happened already and this might be the thing that finally made her snap. And it didn’t seem like she could convince him otherwise, no matter how she tried.

  Now, all she wanted was a nap. Fatigue dragged her down, pulling at her. Walking through the house was like trying to walk through the pool. She was moving but not freely, not as easily as she should have been. Had she ever been this tired in her entire life?

  “Of course I have.” She didn’t know she’d whispered it out loud until Braxton turned to her with a look of surprise.

  “What did you say?” he asked, sitting at the dining room table and making notes on a legal pad. She sort of liked that about him, the fact that he preferred taking notes longhand rather than using a tablet or phone the way most people did nowadays.

  From what she’d overheard so far, it seemed like his team worked with some pretty high-tech equipment. She wouldn’t have expected him to go old school like he was.

  “I was just talking to myself. Don’t worry about it.”

  “No, I want to know. What’s on your mind?” He winked then, surprising her. “Hey, Melody won’t be here for probably another ten or fifteen minutes. You might as well get it out of your system now before she monopolizes the rest of your night.”

  She didn’t laugh because it was funny. She laughed because it was painfully true. “You’re very observant,” she said, grinning.

  “It doesn’t take much for me to pick up on things. I’m not completely oblivious.”

  She turned on the sofa so she could face him more comfortably. “I was just thinking, have I ever been this tired ever in my life? I barely slept last night, and then all this stuff happened today. On top of everything that happened yesterday and the day before that…”

  “I get the picture,” he murmured with a sympathetic nod.

  “But then I think, yeah. I’ve been tired before. I had to work to support myself through the second half of high school once Grandpa died. His social security barely covered the basics, so I took a job at night and on weekends to make ends meet. Then Grandma got sick, and I needed extra money to help pay for her medical expenses. Insurance didn’t cover all of it. I know other people have it worse,” she was quick to add, thinking of some of the stories she’d read on social media, stories about families going bankrupt thanks to exorbitant healthcare costs.

  “Still, that’s a lot for a kid to take on herself.”

  “And then, I was living on my own my whole senior year. I managed to cut back on my hours at work since I had both of their social security payouts to keep me afloat. Thank God they had the house paid off long before then.” She rested her head against the couch cushions, reflecting as she sometimes did on how far she’d come. “I promised myself back in those days that I would never be so tired again. I would have somebody doing all the heavy lifting for me when the time came. I would just coast by, resting on my laurels.” She snickered, shaking her head how naïve she’d been. “There never is that time, is there? That time never comes.”

  “It’s sort of like trying to reach the horizon.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The horizon is an imaginary point. Sure, we see it, but we’ll never reach it. It just keeps stretching out ahead of us. That’s how we live our lives—pretty much all of us. We think we’re finally going to reach that endpoint where everything is easy, where all the work will have paid off. And sure, the work might pay off,” he added, waving her hand in her direction. “It did for you. But along with it came a bunch of other problems, probably the sorts of things you never could have imagined back in the day.”

  She snorted. “Yeah, that’s the truth.”

  He unfolded his very tall body from her dining room chair and came over to her. He sat at the other end of the couch, though he was so big he might as well have been sitting closer. He took up so much space. She didn’t mind.

  The touch of his gaze on her was welcome. He wasn’t studying her. He wasn’t ogling. He was just looking, regarding her, treating her like a person instead of a piece of ass. How refreshing.

  “I want you to feel like you can rest, even if it’s only for a little while. I’d hate to see you burn yourself out over this whole thing,” he fretted with a frown.

  “My body is so tired, but my brain is spinning a mile a minute.” She moved both forefingers in a circular motion around either side of her head.

  He snickered, his generous mouth curving up in a smirk. “You mean to tell me that living out here in California, you don’t know how to meditate? God, even I know how to do that.”

  She giggled. “Point taken. Yeah, I guess I could try that. But then there’s the problem of feeling like I’m always going to miss something if I do manage to go to sleep. What if something else happens and I end up missing it?”

  He leaned in a little, looking at her from under his lowered brows. “Would that be the worst thing in the world? Honestly? It isn’t like I wouldn’t tell you about it when you woke up. The whole reason I’m here—we’re here—is to make life a little easier for you. So what if you miss something? So what if Melody gets here and you’re in bed, God forbid? She’ll live. We all will. You gotta take care of yourself.”

  Why couldn’t she breathe deeply? Why did it feel like something was sitting on her chest, squeezing her heart? And the butterflies in her stomach, fluttering like crazy.

  It had to be the vulnerable state she was in.

  Finding out her so-called best friend had been sleeping with her boyfriend behind her back.

  The phone call.

  Paul’s murder.

  The flat plane of Braxton’s cheek. His sharp jaw. His mouth.

  All of it, everything combined.

  All of that and so much more made her dart forward, catching his mouth with hers the way he’d done to her on the stairs. Only when th
eir lips touched did she know she’d been thinking about this in the back of her mind every minute since that kiss happened. It was like he had woken something up inside her, something new and fresh and precious, something wild and wicked and primal—something true for the first time in so long. This was true, this was real, and this was what she wanted.

  He grabbed her up in his arms, crushing her against him with a force that took her breath away. The surprise only lasted for a second, giving way to something deeper. Satisfaction. Knowing he was big enough, strong enough, to do whatever he wanted with her.

  For the first time in forever, she didn’t have to be in control. She didn’t want to be. She wanted him to crush her, to use her just like she would use him. They could find peace in each other, if only for a little while, even if it meant tearing each other to pieces in the process.

  She straddled his lap, and instead of pushing her away and telling her this was a bad idea, that this was unprofessional, he took her by the hips and jerked her closer. His fingers dug into the denim of her jeans, and she never wished so much that she’d chosen to put on a dress or skirt.

  She wound her fingers through his hair, pulling gently, holding his head in place while she kissed him as hard as she could, hard enough that her lips ached, and she wondered if they’d bruise. She hoped they would. Just the thought of it excited her more than ever, and she thrust her hips against him. His groan was music, sending shivers rolling down her spine.

  The hardness between them sent a fresh round of shivers moving through her. Knowing he wanted this the way she did was more satisfying than his skillful hands running all over her body, touching her and kneading and stroking. Exploring. He was gentle but demanding, rough but tender. She never would’ve imagined in her darkest fantasies that a single finger tracing a slow line from her neck to the base of her spine would make her nipples harden and set her core on fire.

  “So sweet,” he rasped, his lips nipping at her throat. She thought she might’ve felt teeth against her skin once or twice, and the sensation made her moan, eyes closed, pleasure washing over her in delicious waves.

  Wrapping her arms around his neck, she held him close—close enough that his racing heart pounded against her chest—and rocked her hips back and forth, grinding against him. He growled in her ear, his hot breath making her shiver while scorching heat started to build between her legs.

  “Yes… Braxton…” she whimpered, moving faster when one of his hands found her breast and cupped it through her tank top, his thumb brushing over her already peaked nipple.

  “That’s right,” he grunted, his other hand gripping her backside. “Ride me, baby.” He hooked his fingers under the top of her shirt and freed one breast, lowering his head to take her flesh into his mouth. She cried out in relief when he sucked the tender bud between his teeth, humping like mad as he sent her higher and higher.

  The front door opened. “Hello?” Melody called out.

  Just like that, the moment ended. It was like a bubble bursting. Serenity scrambled off Braxton’s lap, where he struggled to hide what was so clearly straining against his jeans. She put herself together as well as she could, checking to make sure everything was where it needed to be in the less than ten seconds it took for Melody to make it in from the foyer.

  “Hey,” she murmured in what she hoped was an offhanded manner, deliberately keeping her gaze focused on the TV rather than turning her head. She knew she was flushed, her lips swollen and red. Braxton didn’t say anything, pretending to be absorbed in the game show playing on the screen.

  Still, Melody’s sharp footsteps came to a stop. “Am I interrupting something?” she asked with a strained laugh.

  “No.” Damn, she sounded so guilty. It was so obvious something had just been going on only moments ago. Then again, it wasn’t like Melody was her mother. She didn’t have any say in what Serenity chose to do with her personal life.

  Still, nobody liked to be interrupted in the middle of a heavy make-out session. It was almost enough to make her giggle, the thought of getting caught that way like she was a horny teenager who just couldn’t help herself.

  Even then, she wouldn’t know how that felt. She had never been a normal teenager, having too much responsibility to even consider having fun the way kids her age always had. At least, that was how it had seemed from her perspective. The grass was definitely greener on the other side of the fence.

  “I’m going to make some coffee if you don’t mind.” Melody didn’t bother waiting for an answer before she strode into the kitchen. Only then could Serenity let out the breath she’d been holding. It didn’t matter if Melody treated the kitchen like it was her own so long as she was in there long enough for the two of them to get themselves together.

  Except Braxton got up a moment later. “I need to talk to her,” he whispered. For a second, she wanted to ask if that was really the reason he was in such a hurry to leave the room. Maybe he wanted to get away from her. Maybe now that the blood was flowing back to his brain, he was asking himself why he’d let things go as far as he had.

  She guessed she would never know because she had too much pride. Pride that would never let her ask such a question. Pride strong enough that all she could do was nod, wide-eyed, like it didn’t matter one bit that he’d just turned her already off-balance world completely upside down.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “You want some?” Melody held up the bag of coffee when Braxton entered the kitchen.

  “No, thanks. I’m good.”

  “Yeah, you seem like you’re good.” She didn’t bother to turn away before smirking a little.

  “Don’t worry about that,” he muttered, watching her as she scooped coffee beans into a grinder. He should’ve known even the act of making a cup of coffee wouldn’t be simple.

  “Hey, you won’t get any pushback from me. She needs a new man in her life, somebody better than Ben.” She fixed the top of the grinder in place and pressed it down, making the blades turn. He waited through the ear-piercing noise. Patience had never exactly been one of his virtues, but he could be patient when he needed to, when something was important enough.

  And this was definitely important. Once she finished and poured the ground coffee into a filter, he said, “Funny, he’s exactly the person I wanted to talk with you about.”

  “Ben? Why? Don’t tell me he’s bothering her again.” She went about her business with her back to him, and anyone with ears would be able to hear how falsely her voice rang out. How nervous she was. She knew something was up.

  “How did he know?”

  Melody stopped, turning to him. “Excuse me? How did who know what?”

  “How did Ben find out what happened at that meeting yesterday?”

  “Meeting?” She turned away again, filling the coffeemaker with water.

  “Oh, come on. Give me a break. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You’re stalling for time. Don’t even bother. All I want is an answer. How did he know? Serenity didn’t tell him. She didn’t really want to tell anybody, but you were on the phone constantly from the minute we got back to the house. Who were you talking to? How did anybody ever find out what happened to her?”

  Her features shifted when she looked back at him, and he recognized her panic. She wanted to deny this. She wanted to pretend she had no idea what he meant.

  She wanted to keep faking her innocence.

  “Look.” He lowered his voice, coming a little closer. When she flinched back, he shook his head. “Come on. You know I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not here to hurt anybody. I’m here to help her, and it doesn’t seem like you’ve done much helping lately.”

  Her chin quivered. “I didn’t know what was going to happen!” she hissed. “Besides, I only told Lola and Angelica. I have their numbers. Sometimes, I reach out to them when it seems like Serenity needs a pick-me-up, a little girl time, whatever you want to call it. I figured she’d need them. How was I supposed to know how things would end up
?”

  “And somehow, through them, somebody found out what happened at that office.”

  “Wait a second. I thought you were assuming your stalker followed us to the meeting.”

  How had this woman managed to earn a job doing anything more than scraping bits of burnt leftovers off the grill at a local fast food joint? This whole time, he assumed Serenity didn’t suffer fools gladly. Instead, it seemed like she’d done nothing but surround herself with them all this time.

  It took effort to keep his voice neutral. “Yes, that’s what I thought before I knew you went and indirectly told half the world what happened! You get it?” It was a real test of his patience, and he was almost proud of himself for not screaming at her. No sense in alerting Serenity to what they were talking about.

  “I didn’t know they were going to tell anybody. I made them promise not to!”

  “Are you a child? Don’t answer that,” he added when she opened her mouth. “From now on, no more spreading gossip, even if you tell yourself you’re doing it for her sake. Got it?”

  She started to nod, then stopped herself. Her cheeks reddened. “You know you’re basically telling me not to do my job.”

  “What is that mean? What does spreading gossip have to do with being her manager?”

  “Come on. Who’s being the child now?” Yes, she enjoyed that little line—he found himself wondering if she hadn’t maybe wanted to be an actress at some point, the way she was playing this little scene. Her posture changed, becoming straighter, more confident. “Part of my job is to drop little hints and rumors with the media, to spread stories through her friend network so eventually somebody will pick up on it.”

  “I thought publicists did things like that.”

  “Yeah, well, her publicist wasn’t doing a very good job, so I took over. She’s been consistently one of the trending topics online for days now.” She said it like she expected congratulations.

  Instead, she got him looming over her, his fists clenched. “Do you mean to tell me you’re using this situation as a way to increase her popularity? Is that what you’re saying?”