by Lynn Hagen
I just knew it.
“Tonight’s fiasco isn’t going to stop me,” he said with arrogance. “If anything, I’m even more determined now.”
Determined to do what? Get shot at again? I was completely lost in the conversation, but my head was fuzzy and I was lightheaded. I wasn’t even sure I could get off the ruined couch and stumble to the guest room. My ears were filled with buzzing, and I had to keep telling myself not to flirt with Max, not to throw myself at him, but the wine was trying to win the battle, because, goddamn, Max was eye candy and I had a sweet tooth.
I was a lightweight, never able to hold my alcohol. More times than I cared to remember I’d woken up on the floor, and not always in my apartment. Even wine coolers did me in if I drank more than two.
“Bed,” Max said.
I gave him a shitty attempt at a salute, hitting myself in the eye with my wineglass. I cursed and dropped the glass, slapping a hand over my eye as I listened to the glass shatter on the floor.
This was not my friggin’ night.
I tried to set the bottle on the coffee table, my eye watering and burning, and felt when the bottle left my hand and tipped over. It hit my foot, and the wine splashed on my pant leg as Max snarled out a curse.
I was so fucked. So drunk. So dizzy. So nauseous.
Derek the klutz at his finest.
I stood too fast, the room spinning out of control, and passed out before I was able to sit back down.
Chapter Five
Maximus…
My jaw dropped, and instinct kicked in. I burst across the room, trying to stop Derek from hitting his head on the coffee table. I didn’t reach him in time, but thank fuck he missed the table.
He was a crumpled mess on the floor, and my couch was stained with red, like a murder had just happened. Half a bottle of wine and the human was three sheets to the wind.
With a shake of my head, I scooped him up and carried him to the guest bedroom, wondering if I’d made a mistake not firing him. Then I thought of how close he’d come to dying in the backseat of my car, and my anger dwindled.
I kept telling myself that Derek was nothing more than my personal assistant with benefits, but the tight feeling in my chest at the thought of the danger he’d been in said otherwise.
Was he getting under my skin? How? Derek was nothing special. Hell, he wasn’t even good at his job. I scowled, annoyed that this slip of a man was getting to me.
I was Maximus Russo, a powerful wolf shifter on the seat of the council. I was respected, feared, had come from nothing, a truly fucked-up past, and had gained everything. My heart was encased in ice, and I never allowed anyone to get close enough to fuck with my head.
Derek had been a mere temptation, a distraction in my busy day. I wasn’t even into humans.
Tell that to your dick that was buried deep in his human ass.
With a grunt I put him to bed, removed his shoes, and covered him before I left the room and closed the door. I’d have a cleaning service come to my penthouse to get the stains out of the sofa.
And the cost would come out of Derek’s pay.
I never coddled my employees, and I wasn’t going to start now. The human was nothing to me, held no place in my stone heart. I reminded myself of that as I went to the door and answered it when someone rang the bell.
It was Gary, looking like a bruised side of beef. He stuffed his hands into his front pockets and looked toward the floor. “I just wanted to apologize for what happened in the garage, sir.”
Natural instinct. I couldn’t fault him for that, but I was livid that he’d tried to attack Derek. “Call Edward and tell him his services will be needed.”
Gary nodded and walked away. Edward not only cleaned and cooked for me when I needed him to the wolf shifter was damn good at protective details. With Derek in my home, Edward would keep Derek safe.
And also keep a close eye on him. I didn’t need the male snooping around where his nose shouldn’t be.
I’d started to shut the door after Gary walked out when Lucas Drago arrived. He walked past my driver and entered my apartment.
“I can’t believe that piece of shit tried to gun you down.” He dragged his fingers through his dirty-blond hair, his lip curled. “I knew we should’ve taken that punk out a long time ago. His ego’s gotten too big.”
I needed a damn drink. The more I thought about what Antonio had done, the angrier I became. I wanted his damn head on a platter. I wanted his crew torn apart. Literally. I wanted to shut down his operation and hand it over to someone who abided by the rules.
Without rules there was chaos.
Most of all, I didn’t want Derek leaving the penthouse. Tonight had been too damn close. I ignored the seething pain in my chest, the way my hand shook as I thought about how terrified the male had been, as I thought about those two bullet holes in the backseat where Derek’s head should have been.
“How do you want to handle this?” Lucas helped himself to a drink as I walked over to the sofa, tumbler in hand, staring down at the red stains on my snow-white couch.
My fucking skull ached. My stomach was knotted. All I saw was Derek’s blood instead of wine stains. Gah. Why am I letting him get to me?
“We shut Antonio Malkovich down.” I clutched my glass with an iron fist, shattering it in my hand. I cursed as the glass and liquid added to the already fucked-up couch.
Now my hand was bleeding. I looked over my shoulder, but Lucas wasn’t reacting to the scent. He better fucking not be. I wasn’t prey, and if he came after me, I’d put him down.
Permanently.
Still, I didn’t want to take any chances. My night had already gone up in flames. I didn’t want to fight with Lucas, so I went to the downstairs bathroom and cleaned my cuts.
“You want me to call The Cleaner?” Lucas rested his shoulder against the bathroom doorframe, sipping his cocktail, watching me intently. His gaze was on my hand, but he remained calm.
If I’d wanted the situation with Antonio handled quickly and quietly, his crew taken out one by one so there was no blowback on the council, then I would’ve told Lucas yes.
I didn’t want this to be covert. I wanted Antonio to know who was coming after him and his men. I wanted to see that smug look wiped off his face when he knew the council was killing his pack members.
Normally, I tried really hard not to get my hands dirty. I paid others handsomely to do that for me. But this was personal. Antonio had directly assaulted me. He’d flipped me off and ordered his men to open fire.
I would be polite enough to return the favor.
“Gather some of our men. I want this to go down Saturday night. Let Antonio think he’s gotten away with this.”
I knew exactly where Antonio would be. He owned a strip club and liked to indulge himself on Saturday nights. I knew the layout of the club. Knew the exits and where the hidden rooms were.
The guy wouldn’t be able to hide from me, or my wrath. My heart was encased in ice, frozen, unyielding. I had no love for anyone, especially someone who wanted me dead.
Lucas smirked. “I like the way you think.”
* * * *
It was a little after six in the morning as I stood by the balcony door and overlooked the sleeping city. I was annoyed with myself for thinking of Derek as soon as I opened my eyes. I also hated the fact that I wanted to go into his room and check on him.
The guy had been pretty wasted last night. More than likely he hadn’t had enough hours to sleep it off yet. But we had to get to the office, and I didn’t have time to deal with a drunken personal assistant.
After setting my coffee aside, I went to the guest bedroom and opened the door. To my utter shock, not only was Derek awake but he was showered and dressed. His blond hair was wet and curling at the ends, his green eyes filled with trepidation.
“Good to see you can still function the morning after a bender.”
Derek yawned and scratched at his hair. “I’m not really awake. I’m p
retty much sleepwalking right now. I normally don’t get out of bed before noon.”
“The car is downstairs. Grab something to eat from the kitchen that you can take with you.”
Derek’s eyes narrowed. “Is Scary Gary driving us? If he shows one damn tooth, I’m walking to work.” His gaze fell to my hand. “What happened to you?”
His question made my palm throb. I was thinking about you and how you could’ve died last night. “It isn’t important. Be ready to leave in ten minutes.”
I had to put distance between us. I didn’t like the fact that my gut had clenched and my heart had skipped a beat when I laid eyes on him. Love was for suckers who wanted to be vulnerable, who wanted someone who could tear their heart out at a moment’s notice.
I refused to give anyone that much power over me.
I was a rank bastard, and I owned that fact. But I wasn’t without compassion. There was a drop of it somewhere inside me, and that droplet surfaced as I walked to the kitchen and made Derek a quick breakfast, even though I’d told him to get his own.
When it came to Derek, I seemed to be contradicting myself a lot.
We were going to have a long day, and I didn’t need him passing out on me. That was my reasoning and I was sticking to it.
Derek zombie-walked into the kitchen, his shoulders hunched forward, his arms dangling. “Coffee. Need coffee and possibly ten more hours of sleep.”
My smirk hidden, I poured him a cup and set it on the counter in front of him.
“Cream. Lots of cream and sugar. Drown my coffee in that shit.” Derek took a seat at the counter and rested his head on his arms. “A shot of espresso would help.”
“Do I look like a damn barista to you?” I snapped but added cream and sugar to his cup. I didn’t have any espresso, so Derek would have to make due. “Now eat your food before it gets cold. We’re already running behind.”
Rarely did I cook, so Derek better eat the damn food.
He munched on his English muffin and scooped a forkful of fluffy scrambled eggs into his mouth. He looked as though he was chewy on autopilot.
“Come on, Dad,” Derek groaned. “I promise to make up my work if you let me skip school.”
Despite my attempt to keep things professional between us, his whining statement forced a laugh out of me. “I bet you skipped a lot of school.”
“Did not,” Derek protested before shoving a piece of bacon into his mouth. “I was a straight A student.”
“In elementary school?”
Derek gave a faint, good-humored smile that sucker-punched me in the gut. “How did you know? High school was hard. I’m not very good at science and social studies. I failed Spanish, but I’m a genius at math.” He shrugged and yawned, the sparkle in his eyes gone. “You can’t always be the brightest bulb at everything.”
No, you couldn’t. I’d been average in school, barely passing my classes. It wasn’t until college that I exceled. I’d found that I was damn good at arguing in debates and a whiz when it came to remembering the law. I’d eaten my textbooks up, aced my tests, and my MBE and essay scores were through the roof.
I was also a genius when it came to finding loopholes and getting my clients out of messes. That was why I was paid the big bucks and had some elite clientele. I was on retainer to movie stars, hotshot execs, and a few senators.
And believe me, the shady senators needed me the most. I’d squashed more scandals and kept more guys from going in front of senate committees than hookers had johns.
And that was mostly what they were trying to hide, too.
One would think that high-profile senators would buy themselves pricey call girls who knew the score and knew how to keep their mouths shut, but a lot of guys liked their dirty pay-by-the-blowjob whores.
Whatever blew their skirts up. I wasn’t one to judge. I just made the messes go away.
Ten minutes later Derek was at the front door, his eyes closed, his body leaning forward. He looked as though he’d topple over at any second.
“Come on, sleepyhead.” I opened the door and grabbed his shoulders, guiding him into the hallway, refusing to admit how much I’d liked the domestic morning we’d just shared. I wasn’t going to examine those feelings. Not now. Maybe not ever.
The elevator dinged, and I instantly pushed Derek behind me. Who the fuck was coming to my place at the crack of dawn? My hackles rose then fell when I saw Edward getting off the elevator.
He looked startled when he saw my canines. “Sir?”
My breath caught when Derek leaned into my back, as if he needed my body to hold himself up. I reached back and placed a hand on his hip, refusing to admit that I liked his weight against me.
It seemed I was refusing to admit a lot of things this morning—like how the heat of his body made my wolf howl in pleasure, how Derek felt so comfortable around me that he didn’t care if there might have been a threat. He trusted me to take care of it, and that made my chest feel tight.
“Sorry, Edward. Rough night.” I said as I pulled my hand away from Derek’s hip. “You can go inside and get started.”
“Clean from top to bottom or just surface stuff?”
“The works,” I said. “Dinner would be nice, too.”
“Very good, sir.” Edward was in his mid-thirties with mahogany hair and gorgeous hazel eyes. He was tall, slim, and athletically built. I would’ve tapped that if I hadn’t had a policy against fucking my employees.
Too bad I hadn’t enforced that policy with Derek. Besides, Edward wasn’t gay and, if I remembered correctly, was dating some chick who worked at Starbucks.
I wasn’t sure because I didn’t keep up with my employees’ lives. I had a hard enough time keeping up with my own. I might’ve heard about Edward’s girlfriend in passing, a conversation he’d had with Gary.
“Call a service to have my couch cleaned,” I said. “You’ll see why.”
“Yes, sir.” Edward nodded and went inside the penthouse.
“Is he your maid?” Derek asked as he peeled himself from my back. I instantly missed the warmth he’d created.
“I prefer to call him my domestic house cleaner.”
“A maid.” Derek stumbled toward the elevator. “Chop, chop. We mustn’t be late, your lordship. We have contracts to sign and bullets to dodge.”
I was completely annoyed that Derek was so damn charming. The short shit had me fighting a laugh as the doors slid closed and took us to the underground parking garage.
* * * *
Saturday night had arrived. I was in my penthouse putting on my shoulder holster over my dress shirt. Derek was on the balcony with a glass of wine. I wasn’t sure that was the smartest decision since he was a lightweight drinker. The railing reached his chest, but as klutzy as he was, I wouldn’t put it past him to fall over.
Over the past two days he’d tripped over his own feet leaving my office, had spilled coffee down his shirt, gotten his fingers caught in the copier machine—I was still trying to figure out how he’d done that—and had hung up on multiple people on his desk phone.
I still wasn’t sure why I kept him and hadn’t found someone to replace him.
“Edward, fetch Derek before he falls to his death.” I slid my Glock into the holster and pulled my suit jacket back on. “And make sure he doesn’t go back out there tonight.”
I was fighting the urge to watch Derek as the breeze caressed his blond hair, making some strands dance. He looked so damn lonely out there, his glass clutched in his hand.
Now I was wondering what he was thinking about. He had a faraway gaze in his eyes, as if he’d transported himself to another world. I’ve had that look many times, like when I’ve wondered what my life would’ve been like as an average person, no corporation, no packs of wolves to keep under control, and no bloodshed. Admittedly, there were times when I was lonely as fuck, wishing I had someone special in my life.
I was too hardened, too set in my ways, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I knew how to open myself
up enough to allow anyone to get close. That required being vulnerable and the thought of anyone having that kind power over me terrified me.
Edward opened the door and spoke to him. Derek looked my way. He rolled his eyes and stepped back inside. “I’ve been nursing this drink for an hour. I swear I’m not gonna tumble to my death.”
I pinched my brow and sighed in resignation. Not really in the mood to deal with his mouth, I headed for the door. “Stay the fuck off the balcony. Got that?”
“Yes, your lordship.” Sarcasm dripped from his words. I clenched my jaw, telling myself not to go over to him and paddle his ass for his cheeky words. I’ve killed men for less, and the temptation to lock him in his room was overwhelming.
I crossed the room and towered over him. “I will not tolerate your glib attitude. You’ll show me respect or I’ll drop you back in your neighborhood, understood?”
Why the fuck did I feel like a rank bastard for handing him that threat, especially when true, very real fear crept into his pretty green eyes. I had an insane need to pull Derek into my arms and soothe away that expression.
Even crazier, an apology was on the tip of my tongue.
Even if I wanted to acknowledge any feelings that might be developing for Derek, I was no good for him. I was a monster, and he was too damn innocent. But returning him home wasn’t an option, not after I’d pulled him into my world. Antonio would kill Derek before Derek even reached his door.
No. Derek was here under my protection. That was it, and I needed to keep it that way. I didn’t need anyone using him as leverage against me.
That apology was stuck in my throat, but I refused to set it free. Instead I headed to the door and walked out without a backward glance.
* * * *
Reese, Lucas, and Gabe joined me a block over from Antonio’s strip club. They’d gathered about six of our pack members to infiltrate the Malkovich pack. We weren’t going through the front. That would’ve been suicide. The parking lot was full, which told me the club was packed.