Eleni was dressed pretty casually this evening in her jeans and T-shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and the more Diana stared the more she realized that Eleni actually looked a little tense. How odd. What on earth did she have to be tense about? Her plan was apparently going perfectly if she was spending Halloween here at the King residence.
“I need to speak with Edward,” Diana told Eleni in a clipped tone. She was tired of waiting for the other woman to continue their pointless verbal sparring.
“Yeah. Edward is kind of busy.” Eleni pressed her lips into a tight line.
Diana felt her nostrils flaring and her temper rising. Her face was beginning to pinken. She could feel the heat increasing in her body. If she didn’t get something figured out soon she was going to explode right here on the porch and melt the discarded candy.
“Tell Edward that I don’t particularly care if he wants to talk to me or not.” Diana took deep breaths. In and out. No point in losing her temper already. She needed to wait because Edward was her real target. “You go tell Edward that I’ve had some issues with his dog and that I would like to speak with him about it.”
Eleni’s dark brows shot up. Her grip on the front door loosened and the heavy thing began to fall open in spite of her standing in the opening. “Did you say dog? The Kings don’t have a dog.”
“Yes. They do. Now go and tell him!” Diana snarled the words. She put her hand on the door and shoved it the rest of the way open. Of course, that was when she spotted the utter destruction of the foyer. “Holy shit! What happened?”
Eleni struggled to pull the door back in order to block Diana’s view, but Diana’s hand was on the heavy thing and she was both stubborn, determined, and taller. “Nothing!” Eleni puffed. “It was just a—Halloween prank. Like the candy scattered on the porch.”
“And the decimated shrubbery,” Diana whispered. It all suddenly made a lot more sense. “Oh my God, he came here too!”
“Who?”
Diana sent Eleni a glare. “Don’t be stupid. If you’re standing there obviously you know that there was some kind of animal down here in the foyer.”
Eleni abruptly stopped shoving at the door. “Yeah. Not really. I got here when the man who did this was kind of... uh, well, he was tied up.”
Diana tilted her head to one side and spotted the bare state of the polished wood staircase. There were gouges all over the wood and scuff marks on the wall. Diana did not know Tisha Oivares-King very well, but she knew her well enough to know that she would not have allowed that to go unrepaired for very long. That meant it was as fresh.
There was also a plush rug right in the front hallway that was ripped. If there was a hall rug then there should have been a matching runner if Tisha followed the same edicts that Diana’s mother had always believed in. There were little anchors for a runner all up and down the wood stairs. It was just missing.
“You said there was a man tied up,” Diana muttered to Eleni. She kept her voice down on purpose. “Did he happen to be tied up in the carpet runner?”
For just a moment Diana thought that Eleni would not answer. Then the other woman seemed to give up the fight to keep what she knew quiet. “Yes. He was kind of wrapped up in it. Jason and Edward carried him upstairs and I haven’t seen any one of them since.”
“Okay.” Diana’s mind was spinning. “And the broken furniture and that lamp? Tisha is going to kill them for destroying that lamp.”
“Yeah. I know.” Eleni sighed. “It’s Tiffany.”
Diana suddenly looked at Eleni with a whole new kind of feeling and it wasn’t necessarily steeped in anger. “Do you have any idea what’s going on here?”
“Not really.” Eleni tilted her head to one side and gazed up at Diana. “I feel like you do.”
Diana could not say yes or no to that statement. But she did feel as though she might know a little more than poor Eleni. Maybe Diana was being too hard on the woman. Maybe she was being too hard on Edward too. Except that right now Edward was apparently harboring the man who was currently responsible for Diana’s impending legal problems.
Diana pointed to the top of the stairs. “I’m going up there. Are you going to try and stop me?”
“No.” Eleni shrugged. “It’s your funeral.”
This was not the time to wonder if Eleni would have liked Diana to get hurt simply to get rid of the competition. Right now none of that mattered. It was all nothing more than romantic bullshit that was likely to get Diana hurt or worse. She needed to focus on her actual life. Her career and the fact that she could not have some bullshit assault charge on her record just because she had done something stupid and stopped some shifter wolf from ripping Gwen Pallister’s dress off.
“Diana!” Eleni called after her as Diana reached a point about halfway up the stairs. “Be careful. All five brothers are up there too. They have the other guy with them. I’m going to back into the kitchen and tell my mother and Ms. Olivares-King that you were just a trick or treater wanting candy.”
Diana was actually surprised by the helpfulness of this gesture. “Thanks. I appreciate that. I know it’s no small task.”
A small smile played at the corners of Eleni’s full lips. She gave a kind of half shrug. “It’s sort of my lot in life. I have plenty of experience.”
What an odd statement! But Diana had no time for that right now. She was too busy reaching the top of the stairs. She had never been here before, but she could well follow the scuff marks. It looked like someone—two someones probably—had carried a heavy and awkwardly-shaped object through here. There were scuff marks all over the barely lit hallway. The only light came from what moonlight and ambient Dallas light pollution that spilled through windows and skylights. It was hard to see where she was going, but Diana aimed for the strip of bright light seeping from underneath a doorway at the end of the hall on the left.
There were sounds of a struggle going on inside the room. Diana caught her breath and whimpered as she heard something break. What was going on? Was she going to walk into another wolf on wolf battle royale like she had at the offices of King Security Solutions? Was she about to finally get bitten by one of these crazy bastards?
But she had to do this. There was really no other option. It was time to stop dancing around the edges of what was happening and take a stand for making sure that these bullies knew that Diana Appleton was done letting them walk all over her.
She grabbed the door handle and opened it with one big push. The door swung with such force that it slammed against the wall behind it and nearly bounced back into Diana’s face. She had to catch it at the last minute and step inside. Then she pushed it closed while she took in the entire scene before it. It was a bit like a scene from some graphic novel about werewolves and the destruction of the human race.
All five King brothers were in the bedroom. Or at least it had once been a bedroom. The furniture was tossed and broken. There were bits and pieces of it scattered about. The bedclothes were strung all over the room and it was apparent that the brothers were currently attempting to use the sheets as some kind of binding on a man who was on the floor in the middle of the room doing his level best to get away.
The man had reddish brown hair. That fact registered with Diana even as she was taking in his position on his back with his feet braced against the carpet and pushing as hard as he possibly could to lever his body off the ground as though he intended to somehow leap to his feet from that awkward stance. And who knew? Maybe he could do such a thing. He was as broad and tall as Orion King and the expression on his face was pissed as hell.
Well, Diana was pissed off too. She was tired of being pushed around by these jerks and she intended to make sure that they knew she wasn’t going to stand for it anymore. Marching to the center of the room, she pushed her way past both Jason and Zane King. Then Diana glared down at the man on the floor. He ceased his struggling when he spotted her.
“Yeah,” Diana snapped. “That’s what I thought.
You remember me, don’t you? Well, I remember you too. And right now I’m ready to drag your ass into the police and go ahead and risk telling them that you’re actually a man who can change into a wolf and that you were the one who attacked my stupid coworker. Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused me?”
Weird. Diana felt loads better after shouting those words even though there was no resolution in sight. Maybe just the act of telling these big animalistic men that she was done putting up with their crap was enough.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Edward felt his mouth pop open when he heard the door slam and spotted Diana Appleton in Orion’s bedroom suite. What on earth was she doing here? But it was her tirade that truly gave Edward pause. Attack on a coworker? Gemini King had gone to somewhere and attacked Diana and her coworker? What was going on?
Apparently Devon was having the same difficulty. “What did you say?” Devon asked Diana. “Did you just say that this man attacked you?”
“I’m not entirely sure what his intentions were,” Diana admitted. She was looking around at all of them with her hands on her hips as though she belonged there with them in this most bizarre of circumstances. “He showed up in the parking garage underneath my building. I was trying to get to my car. Then my coworker comes out of the elevator and starts screaming and he knocks her down and starts trying to rip off her dress.”
Edward felt his eyebrows go up. Beside him, Jason was snorting and trying valiantly not to laugh. There had to be a reason behind this idiot move, but Edward could not begin to imagine what it was.
He turned back to Gemini King. “Explain yourself. Now.”
“I don’t answer to you, pup,” Gemini barked out the words in spite of the amount of pressure the taut sheet placed on his thick neck.
“Fine.” Diana moved closer and put the ball of her foot right over his groin. She pressed down and Edward heard each and every one of his brothers suck in a huge gasp of air. Diana smirked. “Yeah. See these boys won’t do this because they’re boys and boys don’t do this kind of thing to each other. But me? I’m not a boy and I will crush your nuts with pleasure to pay you back for the pain in my ass that you’ve become!”
“Whoa, Edward,” Zane murmured. “That girl has teeth! I don’t remember her being like that before.”
“Shut up, Zane,” Diana said without turning around. “I’m so sick and tired of all of this bullshit that I will tie you up and hit you in the balls next if you don’t watch it.”
“Dude!” Zane burst out. “Hit Edward in the balls. He’s the one who wants you so bad that he can’t seem to stay away from you no matter what’s probably better for you!”
Edward wanted to throttle his brother. No. Brothers. All of them. It was like a constant barrage of bullshit and he was so sick of it. Somehow the idea of just leaving Dallas for good and not looking back was becoming more and more appealing.
“Answer me!” Diana snarled at Gemini King. “Why would you do that? Do you have any idea what kind of shitstorm you’ve created? I want you to change back into your wolf body right now! I’m going to take a freaking video of you in this room and then tell the cops that the Kings have a vicious animal staying in their house that got loose after destroying one of their bedroom suites. Maybe then I can avoid getting charged with assaulting my stupid coworker!”
“If your coworker was there, just have her tell the police that there was a vicious dog on the loose,” Devon suggested. He was obviously trying to be reasonable, but the glare that Diana gave him caused him to shut his mouth with an audible clack of teeth.
Jason and Zane drew back as though they were actually afraid that Diana was about to castrate Devon. Zane shook his head at Devon. “Dude! Can’t you tell that she’s a bit beyond that kind of suggestion?”
“Not only that,” Diana said in a voice so filled with rage and loathing that Edward felt a twinge of sympathetic pain for her predicament. “But this particular coworker would love nothing more than to see me fired and sent to jail. So she is prepared to lie just because she’s got me over a barrel. Do you get what I’m saying? I’m about to out all of you bastards to the first news station that will take the story if you don’t help me find a way to clear my damn name! It isn’t fair! I didn’t want to know anything about this shit! Now I’ve been attacked twice in two days by shifter wolves, and it’s starting to become obvious that I’m some kind of shifter bait and I don’t know why!”
“I just wanted to see what was so interesting about you that Orion would track you all the way to a cemetery and then try to attack you.” Gemini King’s words were hurried as though he was more interested in his balls than just about anything else right now. The guy was obviously willing to talk.
Edward touched Diana’s arm. “You’re getting a little heavy in the foot there, Diana. Shouldn’t you let up?” He gestured to the foot she had resting on Gemini’s groin. “Just in case, you know.”
“You think I care right now?” Diana shot Edward a withering glare. “And don’t talk to me right now, Edward King. I am so mad at you!”
“Uh oh,” Zane mused. He and Jason were officially standing a safe distance away with their arms crossed making comments to each other as though they had been drafted to give some kind of commentary on the events of the night. “The girl is seriously pissed off. I think Edward needs to start wearing a cup.”
“You shut up!” Diana cast the words over her shoulder. “Or you’re next, and don’t think Skye won’t help me, Jason King! If she heard that you were just standing there instead of trying to help she would be pissed.”
“Damn, she’s right,” Jason muttered. Then he exhaled a huge sigh. “I’ll shut up, Diana. Sorry!”
“Pussy,” Zane chuffed out the word and ducked to avoid Jason’s immediate retaliatory fist heading his way.
“Hello?” Diana snapped her fingers right in Gemini’s face. “What are you saying? That you were only in the garage because Orion had followed me the night before? Why didn’t you shift and say something or use your damn words? Seriously! I don’t speak dog! You want to ask me something? Ask it!”
“Why was Orion following you?”
Diana lifted her angry glare to Orion. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask him.”
“Orion?” Edward cleared his throat. Their older brother was looking pretty green. And it wasn’t just because the Absinthe was green in color either. “Why did you attack Diana last night? Who put you up to that?”
Orion seemed to be in a daze. He was staring at Gemini as though he were struggling to make sense of it all. Finally he roused himself enough to speak, but the words were directed to Gemini. “Do you remember me?”
“Yes.” Gemini did not even hesitate. “But only from when you were very young. I remember a pup.”
“I was ten.”
“That’s young in shifter years,” Gemini retorted. “We age like humans. We get old and die, but when we’re ten we can already shift and a ten-year-old wolf is an old creature indeed. Don’t you think?”
“It works both ways,” Orion said dully. “You lived at the ranch with our grandfather.”
“Yes.”
It was almost as though they had thrown a bomb in the middle of the room. Edward could feel the shock and absolute disbelief of every single one of his brothers save for Orion. He knew that they were thinking as he was. What other secrets sat beneath the surface of their family? Did their mother know about what was obviously a bastard child of some kind?
“You’re older than Orion,” Edward said suddenly. He gazed at Gemini and wished he knew the man’s exact age even though he wasn’t exactly sure what it would tell him. “Who was your mother? Did she die before our father married our mother?”
“No.” Gemini pursed his lips. He did not seem to want to talk about this. But Diana’s foot was still on his balls and it only took one wiggle of her toes to make Gemini sing. “My mother wasn’t part of your parents’ social circle. She was a one-night stand. They didn�
�t have a relationship. She didn’t know what I was. She didn’t know what Mac King was. She died last year still not knowing any of this.”
The enormity of that struck Edward hard. It was difficult to have a mother who did not support his second nature. Tisha Olivares-King wasn’t the most warm and affectionate mother. But what if she hadn’t even known about his shifter nature? What if she honestly believed that he was a regular human? How isolated would Edward have felt in life if he had been that alone? No brothers. No pack. Just an absent father with another family to help him figure out how to navigate all of the changes in his body and his mind that happened over the years as he truly came into his own as a shifter wolf.
“I’m sorry,” Edward murmured to Gemini. “I’m sorry that happened between Dad and your mother. I’m sorry that your mother never knew.”
“I started coming around once Dad died,” Gemini admitted. “I was confused about the hunting accident. I had been living out at the ranch. You guys would come out sporadically and Dad would just send me deeper into the woods or something. I’m pretty good at keeping out of your scent and sight.”
“Holy shit, you were running the property when we were there and we never knew it?” Devon looked as though he had officially had his mind blown.
“He knew.” Gemini was staring at Orion. “Why do you think he’s so messed up?”
Devon growled at Orion. “What did you know? And why wouldn’t you talk about it?”
“Do you have any idea what it’s been like for me?” Orion’s words were barely audible. He sounded ill. He sounded like a man who had been torturing himself for weeks now. Maybe more. “I knew about Gemini. I’ve known that our mother knew as well. She wants to get rid of that land for a lot of reasons, you know?”
Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5 Page 41