Would she ever feel that way again? He wanted it that way. He wanted her to be happy, to feel like the world wasn’t an entirely wretched place where all the odds were against her. That was how she felt now, like she couldn’t trust anything.
And the girl in the photo with her, the one with the thick glasses and short, purple-streaked hair had to be Beth. He hadn’t exactly gotten a decent look at her that night in the woods. The fact that she’d been dead at the time hadn’t helped.
Funny how these two had ended up being best friends. He got the sense from Beth’s appearance that she took chances—at least in that department. Piercings up both ears and one in her nostril, hints of ink peeking out from the neckline of her sweater.
Marnie couldn’t have been more different. Miss Conservative. Maybe that was how they’d complemented each other. Fate had brought them together. He’d never been one to care much for the concept of fate before the wolf came into his life.
The wolf cared a great deal about fate, hence the instant attachment to the mate meant to be theirs. Jace and Braxton had already been through it, and Sledge was starting to suspect he was going through it now.
He had to stop wasting time. Marnie was doing something on the other side of the wall separating the two offices, but she wouldn’t be there forever. In his pocket was a thumb drive that he inserted into the laptop’s port before opening the lid.
“Thank you, Val,” he whispered when whatever she’d installed on the drive got him into the machine without having to log in. She was truly the best at what she did.
He then inserted a fresh drive and began the process of copying the machine’s files. This way there wouldn’t be a chance of Marnie hiding anything she thought her best friend might’ve wanted to keep private.
Was it shady? Yes. Did he feel like a real piece of shit going through this subterfuge? Sure. Marnie would never forgive him if she knew, but there were times when that sort of thing didn’t matter, and this was such a time. Finding out if Beth had any pertinent files or communications with this client of theirs was more important than nurturing the fragile relationship that he and Marnie were building.
She’d see this was for the best. She had to. She was a smart person.
And he’d blame it on Logan if she confronted him about it.
“I guess nobody’s gonna be coming back—” Marnie froze in front of the office, the glass wall leaving nothing to the imagination. She saw everything he was doing now that she’d wandered out of her office on what must’ve been wings since he hadn’t heard her.
And he had the displeasure of watching her face go slack.
“What are you doing?” she whispered, her lips pulling back from her teeth as she bared them like a rabid animal.
Chapter Sixteen
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded again when he didn’t answer the first time. Even if he hadn’t been doing something so obviously sneaky that she could tell what it was right away, the look on his face would’ve told her all she needed to know.
For somebody as huge and strong and sometimes scary as he was, he could look for all the world like a little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Just when she thought she could trust him, too. Was she ever going to get anything right? What was it about her that made her such a target for lies?
He didn’t even have the grace to apologize. “You said Beth was the one who had the most contact with your client. We have to access Beth’s files without you hiding anything or withholding it, and we need to get started now, rather than wasting time. There are two other lives in the balance, not just yours.”
It took her breath away, how stern he sounded. Nothing like the way he’d been in the bathroom. No matter how many times she told herself to stop thinking about that, it kept coming back.
It meant nothing. She had to forget it.
“So what?” she demanded. “You thought you could go behind my back? Why can’t you just be honest? Why do you keep lying? Do you think I’m that unreasonable? All you had to do was tell me you needed access to her computer.”
“Did you even know how to access her files? Did you know her login?”
That wasn’t something she could find a quick comeback for. “No,” she admitted.
“Right.”
“What? You know Beth’s login?”
Now it was his turn to look uncomfortable. “I found a way around it. It’s what we do, remember?”
“So, you broke in.”
“I worked around the login credentials.”
“That’s a nice way of justifying breaking into her machine. Just like you justified hacking my system. Let me make this as clear as I can.” She went to the desk, slapping her palms on the surface. “I don’t want lies. I have no time for lies. Neither of us does. You talk about not wanting to waste time, but you wasted it by lying. We could’ve picked up her machine and taken it to my house, and you could’ve done everything you wanted there. Now, we’re having this stupid argument. Time wasted.”
“So stop arguing then, and let me finish what I’m doing.” He grumbled to himself while turning back to the monitor.
“What have I done to make you not trust me?”
“Nothing,” he muttered. “I’m almost finished here.”
“You could give me a real answer while you’re waiting instead of brushing me off. What is it about me that makes me seem untrustworthy? You could’ve come to me and told me what you wanted instead of sneaking around behind my back. You assumed I would say no without bothering to check in with me first. Why did you do that?”
He threw his hands into the air. “I don’t know. Okay? There’s my answer.”
“It’s not an answer. It’s a pitiful excuse.”
“I don’t owe you anything. Sorry, but I’m not the one who got into this situation. That was all you. You have no business getting on my back when all I’m trying to do is clean up the mess made by people other than myself.”
She now had to lean on the desk to keep herself standing. Nobody had ever made her feel so connected and so alone all at once, and it left her shaking and weak and hating herself more than a little bit. “You’re the one who told me it wasn’t my fault. Now you’re blaming me. What’s wrong with you? I thought I was the one who was supposed to have a hard time dealing with people and making connections and not coming off as a complete jerk.”
“You are the one who comes off that way sometimes, in case you were wondering.”
“I know that!” she shouted. It felt good, shouting in his face, shouting him down, putting him in his place. She gained some of her personal power back, and it gave her strength.
It didn’t last long. Not when he stood, leaning over the desk the way she was. They almost met in the middle—and she couldn’t help, even now, wishing he would lean in just a little more and…
No. She pulled back before he had the chance to do any such thing, though maybe he wasn’t about to do anything but shout back. It was too tempting having him that close.
The temptation faded when he smirked. Like he knew a secret she didn’t want to share. “What? Do you think I might hurt you? You afraid to be too close to me?”
“I think we both know that’s not true,” she countered, her brows lifting. “And if you think you can use that against me like you have something on me now, you’re dead wrong.”
“What?” he snorted. “What does that even mean?”
“You know what it means. You think you can just do whatever you want and act like a dick and lie and be sneaky just because of what happened. Is that why you did it in the first place?”
“You have trust issues.”
“I generally have a hard time trusting people who lie. So yes, maybe I have trust issues. Who could blame me?”
“No, it’s deeper than that. This isn’t about what I’m doing here. It’s about something more.”
“Whatever. Finish violating my trust and let’s get out of here. I’m taking t
he laptop with me—I won’t leave it here unattended.”
“As if I would let you.”
“Right,” she muttered over her shoulder before going back to her office. “Because I need your guidance on every little thing.”
Once she was alone—somewhat, anyway, since he was just one office over—she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. Her heart was about ready to pound out of her chest, beating hard enough to be nauseating.
He was disgusting and a liar. How was she supposed to believe he had her best interests at heart when he couldn’t seem to go an hour without lying? And using her? No wonder he didn’t mind coming in so early. He needed a way to steal the information on Beth’s laptop.
She unplugged her own laptop from the wall and shoved it into a bag along with the cord. Jerk. Idiot. Ass. And the smugness! The smirking! The way he looked at her with those eyes of his darting back and forth over her before boring into hers.
Making her feel… exposed—seen—like he knew how desperate she was to kiss him again and thought it was funny.
Thank God his footfalls were loud enough that she knew he was coming before she saw him. It gave her time to straighten herself out, to stand up with her shoulders thrown back and her head held high.
“I don’t understand this.” He practically took up the entire doorway with those shoulders of his—it was surprising that he didn’t have to turn sideways to get through. “I should’ve come clean with you instead of sneaking around. Fine. But what does it have to do with anything that happened last night?”
“I’d rather not talk about last night if you don’t mind.” That was exactly the opposite of what she really, truly wanted, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. Not now.
What she really wanted was the chance to kiss him again, even though she hated him or at least resented and distrusted him. How could she still want someone so badly when he’d hurt her?
It was for the best that she’d kept herself away from men all this time. She couldn’t possibly have achieved as much as she had if she’d always been worried about some stupid man and his stupid motives and whether she wanted to kiss his stupid, stupid mouth from which so many lies poured.
“Why do you have to be such a tight ass all the time? Do you know how much easier life would be if you weren’t like this?” he asked. “Honestly. Relax a little.”
“Relax?” Of every stupid thing he could say, that had to be the worst. “Were you dropped on your head as a child? What is wrong with you? You expect me to relax and go with the flow when my office is empty since half the people who used to work here are dead? When I walked into Beth’s office and found you stealing her files?”
“I wasn’t stealing. My team—”
“Was going to process the information for the better of everybody, right? Don’t waste your breath. For God’s sake, just tell me the truth from now on! Stop underestimating me, please.”
That brought him up short. “You think that’s it? Is that what’s really bothering you?”
“I know you are! You underestimated whether I could be rational, whether I could handle you needing to get into Beth’s files.”
“Would you have given me the machine?”
“After talking about what you planned on doing with the information.”
“Which is as good as saying no, you wouldn’t! What do I have to do to get through to you, Marnie?” He advanced on her. She had a choice to make. Freeze like a deer in headlights or throw something at his head.
There was never a chance to do either.
It all happened so fast.
Glass shattered.
Marnie screamed, more afraid of the sudden noise than of where the noise might’ve come from. It didn’t hit her at first, what broke the glass when they were so far above the street.
Even when Sledge threw himself over her and knocked her to the floor, it didn’t make sense. Not until they hit the floor and the sound of more glass breaking—including the wall opposite the window—filled the air did she understand.
Somebody was shooting at them.
Chapter Seventeen
“Sledge! Sledge!” Marnie cowered under him, screaming his name again and again as gunfire tore through the room, shattering the window and the glass wall. The sound was earsplitting—especially for him.
He lowered his head, his arms wrapped around hers. “Stay still!” he shouted, looking into her eyes. “Stay calm.” He winced as fresh fire tore through the room, splintering what was left of the glass. She jumped and cringed and squealed under him.
Hadn’t he only just been imagining what it would mean to have her under him? Squirming and squealing? Screaming his name?
This was hardly what he had in mind, covering her as glass shattered all around them.
It stopped, the room going quiet in stages. Before long, all that could be heard was the sound of their breathing—ragged, heaving. And the howling of his wolf, though only he could hear that.
“I can’t breathe,” Marnie gasped. He realized he must be crushing her and lifted himself slightly, giving her room. Good thing she’d said something—he might’ve crushed her otherwise, too busy worrying about keeping her from getting shot.
Yet she still shook her head, eyes wide and wild. “Can’t. Breathe.” Her face was chalky, her chest rising and falling in hitching gasps.
She was having a panic attack. Who could blame her? She’d probably never heard the firing of a weapon outside of TV, movies. She’d especially never heard it in reference to herself. She’d never been shot at before now.
“You’re safe,” he whispered, their faces close enough that their noses nearly touched. “I’m here. I have you. Breathe in. Breathe out.” He did as he said—slowly, deliberately. “You can do this. Come on. One breath at a time.”
How much did he want to stroke her face? How much did he want to wrap his arms around her, to really hold her? It would be exactly the wrong thing to do in a moment like this—both for her and for him. He stayed where he was, just the same, making sure she had enough room to breathe as he hovered over her trembling form.
Only when she was breathing normally and some of the color had returned to her chalk-white face did he dare get up—and when he did, she surprised him by clutching him, holding him in place. “No,” she whimpered.
“I have to get up now,” he murmured with a faint smile. “I have to call the team.”
“What if—”
“Believe me,” he grunted, working his way up until he was on his knees—though he was careful to keep his head low. “Whoever did that wanted to get out of there. Fast. They weren’t about to hang around and see what happened. I have to get the team down here now.” He wished he’d thought to have them follow him into the city.
Logan answered on the first ring. There wasn’t much to be said. “Shots fired from across the street. We’re all right.”
Logan’s response was terse, to the point. “We’ll be there. Stay in place.”
He sat with his back to the desk, still breathing heavy. Marnie hadn’t moved from the floor, still on her back. “You can sit up,” he whispered, sweeping glass aside. “Be careful, though. Don’t cut yourself.”
She moved slowly, trembling, bits of glass falling from her shirt and hair. He reached over. “Hold still,” he murmured, sliding a hand under her hair and shaking it out. It was soft, fragrant, and his wolf wanted nothing more than to hold it to his nose and soak in the scent. “You’ll need a shower when you get home. Make sure there’s nothing hiding in here.”
“Did you ever feel like you’re living in a dream?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“Sure. All the time.”
“Not really.”
“Really.” He held her gaze, unflinching. “Really. All the time.”
“How do you manage it without losing your mind?”
“Not sure. It might already be gone.” He had to laugh softly. “Yeah. I think it’s long gone by now.”
“Has anythin
g like that ever happened to you before?”
“Being shot at?” She nodded, and so did he, in response. “Sure. More than once.”
“Is that why you’re handling it so well now?”
“Does it look like I’m handling things well?” he snickered. “I’m getting good at acting.”
“You’re not afraid, are you?” She looked him up and down with those probing, sapphire eyes. “You don’t look afraid.”
“I’m not afraid for myself. That’s not the problem. And if it wasn’t for you being here, I’d have already crossed the street and torn apart the nest our assassin used out there.” He nodded to the window, now almost empty of glass.
“But you’re not.”
“No. I’m not.”
“Because of me?”
“Yes.” He rolled his head to the side, looking at her. “Because of you. I’m not worried about myself. I’m fine. It’s you I’m concerned about. You’re the reason I’m here, and the thought of what might’ve happened if I wasn’t here in this room with you scares me worse than anything has lately. I’ll tell you that much.”
“Hmm. Something we can agree on.” He sensed she tried to use humor to mask her fear, which he understood too well.
“Stay still.” He reached out, gently working a shard of glass from her hair. It was tiny, practically minuscule, but he couldn’t stop touching her. He would’ve stroked her hair all day, so long as it gave him the chance to be close. To share this intimacy, innocent as it was.
She was so nervous, tensing at his touch. He moved slowly, as carefully as he could. “Don’t forget to breathe,” he murmured, even as his own breathing became more erratic. His wolf wanted her so badly, more so than ever now that she’d come so close to dying. Twice.
While under his care. That small fact didn’t escape him. It nagged him, picking at one corner of his mind like one would absentmindedly pick at a half-healed scab.
He’d been with her in this very room, and he hadn’t thought even for one second that this skilled assassin knew where Marnie worked. Why hadn’t he thought of it? Wasn’t he supposed to be the best? Weren’t they all?
Wolf Shield Investigations: Boxset Page 61