A Wolf In Wolf's Clothing

by Deborah MacGillivray

  He wanted Raven, wanted to hold her warm body against his. He wanted to cry in her embrace. Wanted to lose himself in the mindless sex that could exorcise all this despair threatening to engulf him. But he’d promised himself he would be strong, for as bad as it was hitting him, he knew it was destroying Desmond. His brother needed his support and strength now, not weakness. Only, he didn’t know how much more of this never-ending misery he could take.

  He glanced at the phone and then started to turn away. It reminded him of Julian counting how many times he’d wanted to call Raven that first day and hadn’t. He’d hurt her by not calling. Only a fool made the same mistake twice.

  Picking it up, he punched the numbers. Only then did he recall how late it was—nearly four in the morning. By God, he missed her. He wanted her here. For various reasons, that was impossible. Desmond was like a bear with a thorn in his paw, more determined than ever to go through with the merger and destruction. Trev feared Raven’s presence would just give his angry, wounded brother a place to vent all his pain. Trev wouldn’t risk subjecting Raven to that.

  “Hello?” came the sleepy voice on the other end.

  “A call to Lil’ Red Riding Hood from the Big Bad Wolf. Will you accept the charges?” He tried to tease, hoping the tears clogging his throat wouldn’t be heard.

  She sighed, and then yawned. “Hmm. That depends.”

  “Upon what?”

  “Upon if he promises to come home soon.”

  Home. The word echoed in the hollow of his heart. It struck Trevelyn he’d never really had a home. They had traveled, moved so many times over the years, often never finishing a full year in the same school. Then, later, Jago and he went to college—paid for by Des—and after graduation he’d lived in a string of apartments wherever Mershan International sent him. He’d never had a chance to set down roots, to plan on celebrating New Year’s at the start of the year and Christmas at the end in the same place. He suddenly wanted that. Wanted it very much. Wanted it with Raven.

  “A few more days.” Then he changed the subject because he simply didn’t know. His life was one endless hell. Worse, he felt bad for thinking such a thought, because for the hell to end would mean his mother would have to die. “How are the beasties?”

  “They miss you. Like I do. Pyewacket sits in the window watching the driveway. Poor Chester goes through the house letting out a mournful howl. He sleeps on your shirt, like your scent gives him comfort. I thought about wrestling it away to see if cuddling up with it would work for me, only he’s quite insistent it’s his. Bit me the last time I tried to swipe it! Atticus just gives me dirty looks.”

  Trev tried to think of something to say, but small talk was nearly too much for him. “I miss the guys, too. I’m exhausted. I better go get some rest. I just wanted to hear your voice, wanted you to know I was thinking of you.”

  “Hurry home, Trevelyn.”

  “Home sounds like paradise. Night, night, pretty lady.”

  He no sooner rang off than the phone sounded. He looked at the damn thing like it was a snake, coiling and hissing. An automaton, he picked it up and punched the button. “Trev.”

  Julian’s voice came over the phone. “You better get back here. Fast.”

  Trevelyn likely broke several traffic laws getting to the hospital. He pulled up at one entrance and jumped out. No Parking signs were all along the circular drive, but he didn’t care. He hurried down the long colonnade, the automatic doors opening as he neared.

  An orderly greeted him as he came in. “Hey, you can’t park there!” he called. Trev flashed him a look that could kill, tossed him the key to the rental but didn’t slow.

  A family with three nearly grown children was at the elevator doors, arguing over who got to go in first to ICU to see Gran. He tried to push by them, but the one lady wouldn’t move, despite him saying “Excuse me” twice. She glared at him with a wait-your-turn flashing in her eyes. Exasperated, he picked up the woman by the waist and set her aside. She fussed and tried to slap his arms. He didn’t care.

  “Oh, how rude!” She glared at her husband. “Well, aren’t you going to do anything, Innis?”

  Trev stepped in and pushed the button to the fifth floor. “My mother is dying. You think I’m going to stand on politeness?”

  The doors closed on her flummoxed expression, but he didn’t give a tinker’s damn.

  The nurses had gotten used to the Mershan brothers coming and going over the past weeks. All heads turned as they saw Trev running down the long corridor. None admonished him. Only pitying stares met his.

  He rushed into the door of his mother’s room. Julian was standing just inside, and Jago, their backs blocking his view. Mindless with panic, Trev tried to push past, but Julian caught him.

  “Steady, friend,” the man whispered.

  Desmond was sitting in the chair at their mother’s bedside; his murmured responses to Katlyn’s soft words didn’t carry. His larger hands cradled her smaller one, which was so pale and frail. Almost skeletal. The fingers twitched three times…and then no more.

  “Momma!” Trev tried to shove past Jago, refusing to believe she was gone. She was just resting. He wanted to tell her how much he loved her, how he understood all she’d suffered just to keep the family together. How valiant she had been.

  Jago’s strong hand took hold of his arm, pulling him back. “She’s gone.”

  The nurse wove her way through the black-haired men to the other side of the bed to take Katlyn’s pulse. She listened for what seemed an eternity, then finally put the stethoscope back around her neck and looked at her watch. “She’s passed. Take relief in that she’s no longer suffering pain.” She reached up and tried to close Katlyn’s eyelids, but they wouldn’t close. She finally forced them down and held them there for a minute so they would stay.

  Des looked up from where he was crying, his expression meant to turn the nurse’s blood to ice. “Get your hands off her. Now. Haven’t you people done enough to her?”

  Trevelyn reached out. “Back off, Des. That nurse has been nothing but kind to—”

  Des rounded on him, hitting him hard with both hands to the chest and slamming him up against the wall. “Where the bloody hell were you? Where?”

  “Des, stop it,” Jago ordered, trying to push between them. “He got here as soon as he could. It was the luck of the draw. She could have died when you or I were off trying to get some rest, too.”

  Desmond closed his eyes, his pain too much to control. He finally thrust past them and out of the room, going down the hall.

  “I drove like a maniac getting here.” Trev forced a mirthless laugh. “The rental car is likely stolen—with my permission.”

  Jago nodded. “I know. As I said, it could have been any of us taking our turn. Don’t let Desmond dump his pain on you.”

  Julian swallowed hard and then spoke. “Please accept my deepest condolences on the passing of your dear mother. She was a lovely lady and a gentle soul, who life treated very unfairly. But she was blessed to have three sons that loved her very much.”

  Trev couldn’t find anything to say, but accepted the hug Julian gave him. Pulling back, Julian patted Jago on the back. Tears streamed down the man’s face and he glanced at the nurse, who was still waiting at bedside.

  “I’ll go after Desmond,” he said. “Give him space. He’s in love with B.A., so this is tearing him apart inside. I’m hoping that love will be his salvation.” With that, Julian spun on his heel and left.

  The nurse offered the Mershan twins a sad smile. “If you would like to say good-bye to her, I can step outside.”

  Trev shook his head. What had been Katlyn Mershan was gone—hopefully to a better place, a kinder place. He watched the nurse pulling the sheet up over his mother’s head, and for the second time thought that the dead woman couldn’t be his beautiful mother. This had to be some horrible mistake.

  Jago ran his hand over his face then looked around him like he was lost. “Bloody hell, t
his whole damn mess is only going to get worse. Des will go after Montgomerie Enterprises with a vengeance now. He will want them to pay. He won’t care he could be destroying all our lives.”

  A chill ran up Trev’s spine, for he feared his brother was right.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “February second. It’s Candlemas…a time of renewal,” Raven said aloud, almost giddy. “What a perfect day to get the news.”

  She buried the tach nearly in the red, hearing her ancient MGB rumble and whine. She didn’t care if it was a cantankerous car, if it wouldn’t start in rainy weather half the time; she was thrilled it lacked cruise control, an onboard navigational device, had no cell phone or any of the other modern stuff that could break. She loved how the car handled and simply enjoyed driving it. Usually she was mindful that it was getting up in years, but today was different. Everything was different. She was going to have a baby!

  The secret inside her was no longer her secret. The doctor and nurse knew, and some lab person, too; probably a bookkeeper and secretary as well. But they were honor bound to keep her happy news to themselves. She would get to do the honors of telling Trevelyn he was going to be a daddy.

  She sighed, wondering how he would take it. They had never really talked about children. Not about having them together. He knew she wanted a child, but since she hadn’t thought she could get pregnant, the topic had fallen off the list of things to share on the nights they lay awake talking.

  She’d fretted about him since his return. The arrogant, playful Trevelyn had gone away on Halloween night. The man who returned nearly three weeks later was increasingly drawn, morose and suffered tormented sleep. She hadn’t pushed. Men tended to turn into clams when you demanded they open emotionally.

  “Especially big bad alpha wolves,” she said aloud. Give them space and they usually come around—that was a lesson she’d learnt by having six brothers.

  Only, it was now two months since he’d come back and Trevelyn seemed no closer to opening up about what was tearing him apart. Oh, her heart ached knowing his mother’s death was hitting him hard. She recalled how he hadn’t told her anything about his mother’s passing until late that first night home. Then, in the middle of the night, he’d turned to her and cried.

  The news had hurt her, his pain being hers. Still, she’d experienced a mild upset that he hadn’t wanted her at the funeral. When he’d sensed her distance and asked what was wrong, she finally voiced that she felt he’d shut her out of his life. He’d said there had been no funeral to speak of, just arrangements for the burial and a brief graveside service with him and his brothers, according to his mother’s wishes. In a way, she understood that. She had a feeling that his family had felt it was them against the world in life. In death it would be no different.

  Clearly, he was grieving, but she had a feeling something else troubled him as well.

  They’d had a wonderful Christmas, putting up an eight-foot-tall tree and decorating it with Victorian Christmas ornaments. She’d loved shopping and seeing that everything was perfect. At times his beautiful eyes seemed haunted, and she knew he recalled Christmases past when things were rough for his family. But those eyes were shining when she’d come down Christmas morning and found Brishen’s rocking horse by the tree with a big red bow around it—Trev’s present to her. For Boxing Day they’d gone to the celebration at Colford, but Christmas had been just for them. It had been a magic time of love and healing.

  Paganne tossed a big New Year’s party. Raven thought back on the next-to-nothing blue Vera Wang gown she’d worn. Designer gowns were not her style, but she’d gone shopping with Paganne and come back with the pricey item. There was no back, and it was cut low in the front. “A slip would cover more,” she’d commented. Only, she’d had an idea the vivid blue gown might be just the thing to shake Trevelyn out of his black mood.

  She deliberately hadn’t let him see her in it until she came downstairs. He was on the phone when she paused on the landing and struck a pose. Poor man’s jaw dropped. He laid the phone down without hanging up, and walked over to the newel post. His stunned expression was worth the price tag of the gown. Of course, she’d been rather speechless herself. Trev was wearing a gray pinstripe suit and oh, wow! Her knees went weak looking at him.

  That night was the first time she’d told him she loved him. She had waited for him to declare it. At times she didn’t need the words, because she saw the love in his eyes when he looked at her. Or when she would catch him with Atticus, feeding the bird junk food. He showed it in a hundred ways. Still, a woman needed to hear it.

  They were dancing when the clock struck twelve, ushering in a new year. He had stopped dancing and kissed her, soft, exquisitely full of the power of their love. She hadn’t been able to keep the words back.

  “Trevelyn, I love you,” she’d whispered.

  He’d kissed her again and then whispered, “I’m not sure I have the right to tell you I love you. But I do.”

  That odd way of expressing it caused her pause, but the party pushed against them as everyone was opening their party crackers, and finding hats and horns to blow. The moment was lost and she hadn’t wanted to ask what he meant afterward. Fearful, she didn’t want to know the answer.

  Well, the time for hiding was over. She was pregnant! After losing the baby seven years ago, she’d gone through stages. At first, she hadn’t wanted to talk about babies, then later accepted she likely would never have one. Some women were career-minded and could have moved on. But at the back of her mind, she wanted a child. Katrina’s Emile had only brought home just how much. Still, she hadn’t contemplated the miracle of having Trevelyn’s baby. Even to wish for it felt like courting pain.

  Parking the MGB at the front door, she breezed into Trevelyn’s office.

  “Miracles do happen, Agnes,” she told his secretary. “So never give up hope.”

  The woman looked up and removed her glasses, then arched her brows. “What? You train Mr. High and Mighty to take out the trash?”

  “Something better.”

  The woman was too bloody sharp. As she looked Raven up and down, shock filled her eyes. “Oh, my! You’re expecting?”

  Raven put her finger to her lips. “Mum’s the word.”

  And then they both broke out in laughter over the pun.

  Agnes came around the desk and hugged her. “Don’t fret about him hearing. He’s out with Julian, doing a banking run. They should be back in a few minutes. How far along are you?”

  “A little over two months. I’ve been sick a couple mornings this week and thought I was coming down with the flu.”

  “You caught something else, eh? You’ll have your hands full with that one, but he’s worth the fight, I’m thinking.”

  “I agree.”

  The room seemed to swirl suddenly, and Agnes reached out to catch Raven. “Come on—you need to have a quick lie down while you wait for His Nibs,” the woman insisted.

  Raven did feel tired, so she stretched out on the comfy leather sofa in the corner of Trev’s office. Lying there, she closed her eyes and played inside the theatre of her mind, running over the various reactions that Trevelyn might display when she told him of the baby.

  She must have dozed off. The hands on the wall clock had moved nearly a half hour when she heard the outer door open. Expecting Trevelyn, she sat up.

  “I’m here to see Trevelyn Mershan,” the woman informed her in a cultured voice.

  “You must’ve come to the wrong address, miss.” Agnes’s voice was frosty. “This is Sinclair Group, Ltd.”

  The other woman snapped, “Don’t give me that, you biddy.”

  Then it struck Raven why the voice seemed so familiar. It was Melissa Barrington! What was Melissa doing in Trevelyn’s office? Then it hit her: Melissa hadn’t asked for Trevelyn Sinclair. She had asked to see Trevelyn Mershan.

  “Young woman, if you don’t leave I shall call the constable and have you remo—”

  Melissa’s
laughter was high and shrill. “I sincerely doubt that. Now, you tell Trevelyn Mershan that Melissa Barrington is here to see him. I’ve been fired by Cian Montgomerie.”

  Raven blinked, puzzled. Well, good for Cian! But what was Melissa trying to do? Apply for another job?

  “I’m sorry, but Mr. Sinclair isn’t hiring at this time. If you leave your name and number, I’ll place it on file in case an opening comes up.” Agnes rose and moved to the door to show Melissa out.

  “You can drop the bullshit. I am not applying for a job. I’ve had enough of these fenhoppers around here. Des Mershan promised a big bonus. I’d like to collect it and be on my way. I tried to call him, but I keep getting ‘He’s unavailable.’” Melissa warned, “If they’re thinking to stiff me on the bonus, they’d better have second thoughts. While I no longer work for Montgomerie Enterprises, I’m sure Cian would pay well to know what Trident Ventures and Mershan International are up to. Don’t you?”

  Raven felt the floor tilt under her feet as she stood. She had never liked Melissa, so the woman’s double-dealing didn’t surprise her. She’d warned Cian that Melissa had poison pumping through her. But…

  She opened the inner door and faced Melissa. “Why don’t you tell me, my dear? I’ll write you a check now.”

  Instead of shock hitting her face, Melissa just smiled. The expression sent a cold chill up Raven’s spine. “I doubt Little Miss Muffet has that much blunt in her checking account, but I would enjoy enlightening you for free.”

  Raven exhaled. What was it with people always associating her with fairy tales? “Actually, I’m Little Red Riding Hood, but I’m sure the distinction missed you completely.”

  Melissa strode forward. “Muffet? Riding Hood? Whatever. Shall we go into the office and sit down while I spin you a modern-day fairy tale? Shocks are absorbed so much better when the knees are bent.” She turned to Agnes. “You can run along and do what you need for the Mershans.”

  Raven walked to Julian’s desk and sat in his chair, and waited while Melissa seated herself. Outside, Agnes picked up the phone and hit a red button. “Julian, you and Trevelyn get back here. Now.”