Wolf

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  “I am,” I said sincerely. She didn’t realize how much I loved her. I was going to great lengths to keep her, and I didn’t regret it for one minute. This woman was worth ten of any other woman out there.

  I took the ring out of the box and slid it on her finger. It was stunning. Simple, but elegant, just like Reese. I smiled at her and kissed her again. She didn’t pull away this time, so I deepened the kiss and pulled her against my body. She wrapped her arms around my waist and it felt like fireworks going off inside. Finally, she was mine. I just had to have that little piece of paper to make it legal.

  We went out shopping, and I bought anything for Reese that she wanted. She actually smiled when she found the dress she was going to wear. I got myself a tux and then called a chapel for us to get married in. Everything was going perfect.

  We pulled up to the chapel, and just as expected, Knight was waiting for us, dressed all in black with visible guns for added effect. Reese stopped in her tracks and gripped onto my hand like she was about to keel over. I smirked slightly and sent Knight a tight nod.

  “Knight.”

  “What are you doing here?” he growled at me.

  “I’m getting married.”

  “To her?”

  I looked to Reese and gave her an encouraging smile. I needed her to play her part, or at least, I needed her to think that. God, this was the best plan ever.

  “Knight, whatever you’re here for, you need to walk away.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s going to be my wife. You remember what I did for you. Now, I’m asking you, whatever your job is, walk away.”

  “I can’t do that,” he said, raising his gun at Reese. I quickly stepped in front of him and raised a hand in front of my body, gesturing for him to take it easy. I didn’t want Reese to have a totally fucked up wedding day. But of course, Knight had other plans.

  “I can’t go back without blood.”

  “Knight-”

  I didn’t get another word in before he shot me in the fucking shoulder. I quickly pulled my gun and aimed it at him, ready to fire if necessary. What the fuck was he doing? Reese was trembling behind me and I could feel her fingers digging into my suit coat. The woman was terrified. Not that I liked that, but it did work wonders for my plan.

  “Just wanted to be sure you were actually willing to die for this woman,” he smirked. “Let’s do this then.”

  He gestured for us to move toward the chapel doors. I took Reese’s hand in mine and led her forward.

  “Are you okay?” she whispered.

  “I’m fine. We just need to do this and then he’ll leave.”

  She nodded and swiped at her face. I grinned at Knight over Reese’s head. The man was brilliant. Yeah, I wouldn’t be able to fuck her quite as hard as I wanted tonight, but the sympathy vote just went sky high.

  I checked in with the woman behind the desk and the wedding music started. Knight walked behind us down the aisle and kept glaring at Reese. Her fingers were wrapped so tightly around mine that I was sure I would lose the circulation. I swallowed hard when it hit me. My moment was finally here. Reese was all mine and it was forever. She would never leave my side now.

  I said my vows to Reese and I meant every fucking word. I couldn’t say if the same was true for her, but she said it and, well, no take backs and all. When the chaplin declared us husband and wife, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her hard, flinching only when her hands came up to my shoulders and squeezed. She immediately pulled back, flinching in horror.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

  We turned to leave and Knight glared at us again. The man was brilliant at being an asshole. I would have to send him a fruit basket or something for helping me out. We walked back down the aisle, signed the papers, and then we were headed out the door. Knight signaled that he needed to talk to me, so I walked Reese to the car and motioned for her to get inside.

  “Are you sure this is okay?” She looked to Knight, worry in her eyes. “I don’t like you talking with him.”

  “Don’t worry, baby. He won’t hurt me.”

  “He already shot you!”

  “Trust me. I’m good.”

  She nodded, not believing it at all, and sank down into the seat. I closed the door behind her and walked back over to Knight with a grin on my face.

  “That was perfect. Great idea, shooting me.”

  “That was for Cap. He said that you deserved it.”

  “Well, you can thank him. That’s gonna win me major points with the little woman tonight.”

  “Just don’t stay too long. You have a lot of explaining to do when you get back to Pennsylvania. Cap is gonna have your ass.”

  “Yeah, well, I plan to have Reese wrapped around my finger by then.”

  He snorted and turned to leave. “You know,” he stopped and looked back at me. “I can’t blame you for doing things this way. Can’t say I would have done it differently, but you know she’s gonna find out. You’d better think about how you’re gonna keep her when she does.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Reese

  I didn’t relax until we were back in the hotel room. I was so scared that Knight, my assassin, was going to come back and shoot me, despite his relationship with Craig. Which I still wasn’t quite sure how they were friends or why, but that was something to worry about later. As soon as Craig had the door to the suite open, I was dragging him over to the bed and pushing him down none too gently.

  “I can’t believe he shot you!”

  “I’m fine-”

  “You are not! You have blood dripping down your shoulder. Your shirt is no longer white. That does not signal in any way that you’re okay.”

  “Reese,” he said, taking my hand and forcing me to look into his gorgeous eyes. “I’m fine. I promise, this is not the worst I’ve dealt with.”

  I sniffled, hating that I was crying over my stalker, or kidnapper. Savior? Whatever, I was crying over him and this was all his fault anyway. I swiped at my nose and nodded.

  “I just don’t like that you’re injured. And I really don’t like that this isn’t the worst you’ve had. Promise me this isn’t going to be our life.”

  His eyes practically lit up and then I realized my mistake. I had pretty much just accepted that I would be attached to this crazy man for the rest of my life. I couldn’t give him false hope though. This wouldn’t last. I would somehow figure out why an assassin was after me, I’d send Craig to take him out, and then I’d go back to living my life. Easy peasy.

  Except, a small part of me wondered what it would be like to stay married to Craig. I liked him. A lot more than I wanted to admit. He was sexy and charming in his own stalkerish sort of way. I knew that he would protect me no matter what, which never seemed like something I would even consider as a positive when dating someone. But with Craig, it was nice, even though I was creeped out. I liked the idea of a man worrying about me. And the sex…that was something that I would have a hard time moving on from. How was I supposed to ever sleep with another man again after knowing what it was like to have Craig inside me? Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe I just needed to accept that Craig was now my husband and I would have phenomenal sex for the rest of my life.

  A knock at the door pulled me out of my thoughts. Craig tried to sit up, but one stern look from me and he laid back down. I wasn’t an idiot. I looked through the peephole first and was surprised to see a beautiful woman on the other side. Was she here for Craig? Was this some kind of twisted joke on me? He’d better not think that I was into threesomes. There was no way that was happening. Especially on my wedding night.

  I picked up the gun that Craig had set on the table just inside the door. I had no clue what I was doing, but the threat of a gun was better than nothing, right? I flung the door open and aimed the gun at the woman. She raised her eyebrows at me and chuckled slightly.

  “I’m Kate
. I’m here to take care of Craig. Gunshot wound?”

  “Oh.” I lowered the gun and stepped back. “How did you know?”

  “Because my husband shot him.”

  “Wait-” I grabbed her by the arm and narrowed my eyes at her. “How do I know you’re not here to give him a lethal injection or something?”

  She smiled at me and walked past me to Craig. “I like her. Although, I have to say, you and Knight have way more in common than I ever thought possible.”

  “Yeah, well, you can thank him for me.”

  “You want her to thank the man that was going to kill me?” I shrieked.

  I didn’t get an answer though, because Kate was pulling off Craig’s shirt and then started cleaning it. I was starting to feel woozy. I wasn’t used to all this stuff, blood and bullets. Was that going to be a sign that we hung over our kitchen doorway? It was clever, that was for sure.

  “What’s going on in that head of yours?” Craig asked me. Kate was already stitching him up and I had to look away. I started pacing around the suite. I was nauseous and feeling lightheaded. I should probably sit down, but I didn’t think I could keep from looking at Craig’s wound if I didn’t distract myself.

  “Reese, calm down,” Craig said in a stern voice. “I’m fine.”

  I snorted and bit at my nail, a bad habit I had when I was nervous. “I just can’t believe that you got shot. I can’t believe that I was there! And I married you! We’re not a normal couple. You know, I was just thinking about our own little motto. Blood and bullets.” I laughed maniacally, throwing my head back as I lost all sense of reason. “That’s the sign that’ll hang above our door. Not Welcome to our Mess or Doorbell Broken. Yell Ding Dong really loud!”

  I looked over at him, still laughing my ass off as Kate continued to stitch him up. Craig was looking at me like he was really worried. And he should be.

  “We’re those people now!”

  “Um…” Craig squinted like he was trying to either figure me out or look for a really tiny bug. I looked down at my shirt, just to be sure there wasn’t a bug on me. “Who exactly are those people?”

  “You know, the crazy neighbors that have more shotguns than toys for their kids.”

  “You want to have kids?” Craig asked curiously.

  “That wasn’t the point of my statement.”

  He nodded. “Well, I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m more of a handgun man. I like rifles too, but shotguns really aren’t my style.”

  “This is insane,” I muttered to myself as I continued to pace. “I need Brooke.” I stopped pacing and turned to him. “Give me your phone.”

  “What phone?”

  “Don’t pull that shit with me. I know you have a phone on you.”

  He sighed and pulled one out of his pocket. I quickly dialed Brook’s number and took deep breaths until she answered.

  “Brooke! I married my stalker.”

  “The Wolf? No way, that’s so cool!”

  “Cool? That is most definitely not cool. I’m sitting in our suite while he gets patched up from a gunshot wound he received from an assassin that was after me! And the assassin’s wife is patching him up!”

  “Wow. Sounds like you’re really living it up.”

  “I’m not living it up. I’m trying to stay alive with a man that-”

  “Yeah, yeah. I got it. You married your stalker, but you like him, right? Did you sleep with him yet?”

  I looked over at Craig, who was grinning at me. It was like he could hear our conversation.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  “Ha! I knew you would! Was it good? Was he worth it? How big is he?”

  “Would you stop? I’m not talking about it with you. Don’t you understand what’s going on here?”

  “Yeah, you’re finally living your life.”

  “No,” I practically shouted. “I’m on the run for my life. I’m supposed to be back at school, teaching kids and developing their young minds, but instead, I’m in Vegas and I just got married by an Elvis impersonator!”

  “That is so cool. I’m so envious of you.”

  “Are you even listening to me? I married my stalker!”

  “Yeah, I totally hear you, babe. But listen, this is a good thing. I mean, he’s hot. He has a good job. And if he gets killed, I’m sure his insurance is kickass. You’ll be set for life.”

  I stood there in stunned silence for a moment. “Who are you?” I shouted.

  “Listen, I know this is all a little bit of a mind-fuck for you, but look on the bright side, you’re on your honeymoon and you can fuck this really hot guy all you want because he’s your husband. Just go with the flow and enjoy it. Hell, I would do the same fucking thing if I were you. Besides, I’ve already heard through the grapevine that you’ve called off sick for the week. You’re good to go.”

  “How did you hear that? I didn’t call off.”

  “Oh, well, I talked to that guy that works with the Wolf, Alec. He’s totally cool and I’m really pissed that he’s already taken. Did you know how many hotties your guy works with?”

  “Brooke, just stop. Why were you talking to Alec?”

  “Well, he needed to know who to call to get you time off work and so he tracked me down. I went out with him and his girlfriend to dinner. They are so cool. They said they would take me shooting, which I am definitely on board with.”

  “How is this my life? I’ve been kidnapped and you’re making friends with my kidnapper’s friends. Do you know how insane that is?”

  “Oh, hey, I’m gonna go because Florrie is calling and she said she would teach me how to kill a guy with one hand. So cool, right?”

  She hung up before I could answer and I was so baffled that I just sank to the floor and stared at the wall. My life was falling apart. Strangely, it didn’t seem like the worst thing in the world.