Wolf

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  “She hasn’t stopped smiling since we got married. I’d say we’re in the clear.”

  “You’d better hope so.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Cap called a meeting. The new building is finally ready to be moved into and he wants all hands on deck.”

  “When’s the meeting?”

  Alec grinned and slung his arm around my shoulder. “As soon as we pull up to the building.”

  “What?” I said in panic. “We have to drop Reese off at home first.”

  He shook his head. “Nope. Cap’s orders are that I bring you and the little misses right to Reed Security. I think he has a welcome home present for you.”

  “Shit. Tell me Knight’s not there.”

  “Sorry, man. I told you this would backfire on you.”

  The fucker was laughing at me. I punched him in the shoulder and headed for the truck. I had to figure out what to say to Reese before this all blew up in my face.

  The problem was, there was nothing I could say to Reese to make this okay in her eyes. I could see that she was happy being married to me. Things were going great. The sex was amazing and our chemistry was off the charts. I had been hoping to have a few weeks at home with her, hide her away before any of this came out. Now, that was all going to blow up in my face and I had no idea how any of this was gonna play out.

  “Where are we going?” she asked as we headed down the road for Reed Security.

  “We have to stop by my work before we head home.”

  “Oh. Is everything okay?”

  I gave her my most reassuring smile. “Of course. We’re opening our new building and Cap wants us all there for a meeting.”

  “And I have to be there?”

  “He probably just wants to meet you and congratulate us.”

  “Oh. That’s nice of him.”

  We pulled through the gates and Reese’s eyes grew wide at the sight of the machine guns that were mounted just inside the gates. Yeah, it was a little intimidating.

  “That’s the new building?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s huge. Why does it need to be so big?”

  “Well, we have a state of the art training center in there, a gun range, locker rooms, offices, conference rooms…plus a whole bunch of other shit for security purposes.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Well,” I glanced at Florrie and saw the huge grin that split her face. Yeah, this wasn’t gonna go over too well with Reese. “We got in a little trouble a little over a year ago with a trafficking ring.”

  “Oh. What were they trafficking? Drugs?”

  I shook my head slightly. “Humans.”

  Her face paled and she clenched her fists tight. “What kind of trouble?”

  “We were trying to find a little girl and got mixed up with them unknowingly. I mean, we knew what we were dealing with, but weren’t aware that we were already acquainted with them. They infiltrated our building and we had a bit of a war.”

  “A war,” she said slowly. “Like a shoot out and people injured and dangerous stuff.”

  “Yeah, it wasn’t really a good time for us. But we went on the run and we just came back not too long before we met. Now we’re up and running again and it’s all good.”

  She nodded, but I could tell she didn’t believe me. Yeah, this was all a little too much for her. Hopefully, the girls would sway her in my direction. We stepped out and went through the very lengthy process of getting into the old training center, where everyone was currently working out of, we made our way to the conference room. My heart was beating out of control. I just couldn’t stand the thought of losing Reese after I just got her.

  I knocked on Cap’s door and glared at him, hoping he got the message to keep his yap shut. He stood and grinned, walking around the desk to shake Reese’s hand.

  “Hi, I’m Sebastian. The owner of Reed Security.”

  “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Reese.”

  He grinned and crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh yeah, trust me, we’ve all heard about you.”

  She flushed bright red and ducked her head.

  “So, I guess you’re wondering why you’re here.” He grinned and motioned for us to follow him over to the table where papers were laid out. “I don’t know if Craig has told you yet, but we’re expanding our property to better protect ourselves. Which means that a lot of the families are buying up properties around the building. I just so happened to get ahold of one of the properties that I’d been looking at for the past few months.”

  “Not the asylum,” I interjected.

  “No. This is a property that an old woman lived on. She wasn’t ready to move out of the house because she had recently lost her husband. They had lived there for forty years together. Anyway, I finally convinced her to sell. It’s a five acre property. It has a great yard and plenty of room for when you two decide to have kids.”

  I glanced at Reese, hoping she wasn’t freaking out. She wasn’t, but she also wasn’t looking like this was the best idea in the world.

  “So, you want us to take over this property? How much is it?”

  “You can afford it,” Cap grinned. “Besides, it’ll make Reese feel safer to be surrounded by all of us. Especially after an assassin was after her.”

  I ground my teeth together, but before I could speak, Reese stepped in.

  “He took care of that.”

  “Really?” Cap raised his eyebrows in surprise. “And how did you get an assassin off your back in such a short amount of time?”

  “Oh, he knew the guy. Knight? Yeah, his wife even came in and cleaned Craig up after our wedding. You know, because Knight shot him.”

  Cap nodded, pulling his lips between his teeth to keep from smiling. “Wow, that’s some really nice assassin. What was his name again?”

  “Knight,” I bit out. He was gonna screw me over. I knew it.

  “And why did he shoot you?”

  “To make sure I was serious about Reese.”

  I could see Reese looking between the two of us out of the corner of my eye. She was wondering what the hell was going on.

  “So, did you find out why you had an assassin after you?” Cap asked Reese.

  “Um…I don’t know. He never actually said.”

  “That’s kind of strange, don’t you think? That he would come after you and then just give up without any reason other than knowing Craig?”

  “Um…I guess. Do you think he’s still after me?”

  “Oh, shoot, I couldn’t say,” Cap grinned, waving her off. “I’m sure it’s fine.” He walked back around his desk and pulled out some paperwork. “Here’s everything you need for buying out the property. If that’s what you want. Oh, and Hud wanted to see you before you leave. Oh, here he is!”

  I turned around slowly when I heard Reese gasp. Knight was standing in the doorway, dressed in his typical black and glaring at me in his usual fashion.

  “Craig, what’s going on? Why is this man here? I thought you took care of all this?”

  “Reese, this is Hudson Knight,” I sighed. “Knight, you remember Reese.”

  He nodded and stepped forward slowly. Reese tucked herself into me and Cap chuckled.

  “Maybe it’s about time you tell Reese what’s really going on,” Cap said.

  Reese spun around and looked at me in confusion. “What’s going on?”

  “Knight isn’t an assassin. Well, not anymore. He was doing me a favor.”

  “And what was that?” she asked warily.

  “I needed to convince you that you had to stay with me. Okay, here’s what happened, and I swear to God, I’m not lying. I was going to kidnap you so that we could spend some quality time together, but when I got to your house, someone had already snatched you. Cap and Knight were with me-”

  “You were going to let him kidnap me?” she accused Cap. “You’re his boss and you thought this was okay?”

  “Well, see, I owed him…” he said dumbly. />
  “Yeah, not such a good idea to tell her, was it, dumbass?” I spat at Cap.

  “So, what happened? Who really kidnapped me?”

  “Your grandmother hired someone to do it to keep you away from me.”

  She threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “Is there anyone that isn’t trying to run my life?”

  “Listen, I really did protect you and get you back from that kidnapper. I got you to the hotel and it wasn’t until I went out to get that shit for your feet that I found out what was really happening.”

  “That was a week ago!”

  I winced at her fury. “Yeah, but see, I love you, and I needed to show you how good it could be. And look! This last week has been great. I love you. I know you’re starting to love me. We’re married now, so it’s all good!”

  Her mouth opened and shut as she tried to come up with something to say in response. I just grinned at her, thinking my adorable charm would be enough. But then she turned around like she was going to leave. I grabbed her arm to stop her and she swung around, slugging me right in the nose. I gushed blood, jumping back in surprise.

  “Holy shit. You just punched me.”

  “You manipulated me! You made me think that I needed to marry you to stay safe!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Reese

  I couldn’t believe this. I was such an idiot. How had I not seen that my stalker was manipulating me? And here he was, pretending like everything he did was perfectly logical.

  “I just don’t understand why you thought that this would work. You had to know that I would find out!”

  “Well, I was kind of hoping it would take you longer to figure it out.”

  I shook my head in shock. “So, you were hoping I was stupid enough to fall for it and let you keep manipulating me.”

  “Well, I don’t want to say yes because you’d probably be pissed at me. Am I right?”

  I screamed in frustration and turned to go, but then I saw my would be assassin just hanging out and smirking at my situation. “What are you laughing at? Do you get your kicks out of making an ass out of other people?” He didn’t say anything, but his eyes turned cold and hard. “Are you a mute now? Got nothing to say?”

  “Uh, Reese, I wouldn’t poke the bear,” Craig said from behind me.

  “Why?” I asked, spinning around. “He’s a coward. He shot you for some unknown reason and you seem perfectly fine with it. He let me marry you even though he knew that it was under duress. Hell, he was the reason I felt I had to marry you. And now he just stands here like an idiot, laughing at the fact that you pulled one over on me!”

  I heard a growl from behind me, but I was too worked up to care. I glared at Knight, crossing my arms over my chest. “Oh, now you have something to say? I feel bad for your wife. She’s seems like such a nice person and instead she married a wannabe assassin!”

  “Uh…” Craig snatched me by the arm and pulled me behind him. “Obviously, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

  “You don’t speak for me. Especially not after the crap you pulled.”

  “You’re stupid if you walk away,” Knight grumbled.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You think you want some pussy that respects you and doesn’t lay a hand on you until you’ve been on so many dates? You want a man that acts like a gentleman all the time and fumbled over himself for you?”

  “Yeah, that would be nice.”

  Knight smirked and shook his head at me. “I’m not one to get involved in other people’s relationships, but Craig chased you because he wants you more than anything in this world. He tricked you to make you his because he knows something you’re too stupid to figure out.”

  “Watch it,” Craig growled from behind me. He wrapped his arm around my waist, his palm resting on my stomach possessively. I felt him tug me just a little closer to him, like he was worried for my safety. I had to admit, I did like that Craig was so possessive of me. It gave me tingles deep inside in places that I didn’t want to admit were turning red hot. I couldn’t want him still, not after he tricked me into marrying him.

  I stepped away from Craig as Knight walked out of the room. This was all insane. I just needed space, and Brooke. Surely she would see logic now that all the facts were out. And just like that, Brooke stepped off the elevator and came skipping over to the conference room.

  “Hey, it’s Wolf! I hear you’re my brother-in-law now!”

  “Wolf?” Cap asked.

  “You know, because he chased her down, sniffing her scent until he captured her and took her back to his lair.”

  I rolled my eyes as Brooke waggled her eyebrows and started jumping around excitedly. “So, you must be the bossman. I’m Brooke, Reese’s twin.”

  “I thought you were her friend?” Craig asked in confusion.

  “Well, yeah, but we’re soul sisters. I encouraged her to give in to her animal instincts and take a chance on you. I knew you were the one that could loosen this girl up.”

  “I don’t have animal instincts,” I muttered. “And I didn’t take a chance on Craig. I was tricked into marrying him.”

  “Nice,” Brooke grinned. “I like your style.”

  “You know, it would be nice if for once you were on my side,” I grumbled.

  “I am. Totally. It just so happens that Craig is the man for you. I mean, he installed that security system for you. He saved you from being kidnapped-”

  “And then he kidnapped me!”

  “And he married you. Girl, you should be down on your knees, thanking the Lord for bringing this man into your life.”

  I threw up my hands in annoyance, pissed when I saw Craig’s smirk. “I don’t believe this. For just once, I thought you would hear ‘liar and manipulation’, and you would be on my side. But you’re taking his!”

  “That’s because he’s your shoelace.”

  “What?” I turned to Craig, thinking he might understand, and apparently, he did. He was nodding along, like she was the most sane person in the world.

  “Yeah, I ran into this really hot guy on the way up. Sinner. And let me tell you, he was definitely sinful. Anyway, we had this really intense conversation about you. That’s when he informed me that you were Craig’s shoelace. Something about a shoe needing a lace to stay on your foot. I don’t know, but it totally made sense when he said it.”

  I looked to Cap, thinking that he might help me out, but he just shrugged. “It’s true.”

  I glared at him and turned back to Craig. “Don’t call me.”

  I stormed out of Reed Security, or I would have if there weren’t so many damn security measures. Some guy named Tony Tacos had to help me get out of the damn building. I swear, these guys were worse than my grandmother.