Billion Dollar Wolves: Boxset Bks 1-5

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “Maybe.” Kami murmured the word just as she was trying to decide if it would be better to just leave the coffee shop and forget about trying to meet up with Devon.

  “There he is,” Shawn said brightly. He touched her shoulder. “I’m going on home as soon as Brandy gets here to close, but Juan is already in the back. Go on and go. I’ll be fine.”

  “Thanks. I guess. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

  It was odd, but Kami turned to face Shawn and felt as though she actually needed him to confirm that everything tomorrow was going to be normal. Maybe she did. At least deep down inside where she had a driving desire to feel as though something in her life was going to be normal even though she was in deep shit with her family and even deeper shit with her husband. Sort of. Maybe.

  “Tomorrow,” Shawn confirmed. Then he smiled and nodded as though he knew exactly what she needed.

  Kami left through the coffee shop doors. She had her duffle bag over her shoulder. It had been rescued by emergency services from the trunk of Devon’s ruined car. She was also lugging around her messenger bag. It was the first time she had taken her laptop anywhere and she felt almost paranoid about it, but there wasn’t a reason not to at this point. She wasn’t going home. She didn’t have to worry about her father stealing it and running to the nearest pawn shop to get whatever money he could.

  Devon was waiting out on the sidewalk with his back to the coffee shop. His arms were folded over his chest. In his jeans and boots paired with a plain gray knitted sweater, he looked both casual and very handsome. Sometimes it astounded Kami that anyone who looked like Devon King could have ever been interested in her.

  He half turned and Kami admired his chiseled profile. Even his nose was perfect. The guy looked as though he’d been carved by a master. His cheeks were high and his jaw was strong and sloping. He was clenching his teeth. She could see the muscles in his jaw jumping around as he did. Was he dreading this as much as she was? Maybe that was good. Maybe it meant that both of them would be reasonable when it came time to—to what? End their association?

  Kami sighed. “Hi, there. Thank you for showing up.”

  “Showing up?” He half turned to raise one eyebrow at her. “Are you kidding me? You’re thanking me for showing up? That doesn’t say much for me as a person. Does it? That you don’t even expect me to show up?”

  Kami groaned. She pressed both hands to her face and prayed for patience. “Can you not just automatically read badly into whatever I say? How about we both stop being so sensitive? It’s like anything I say or anything that you say is automatically assumed to be bad. Right? I just meant that I’m grateful that you’re helping me find a place to live. That’s all.”

  “Okay.” He spread his hands before him. The knitted sweater stretched over the muscles of his chest and Kami had to bite her lip to hold back the sigh of appreciation. “That’s fair. Thank you for pointing it out. So you’re welcome. I’m very happy to help. I feel like I should have done this a long time ago and I’ll admit to being ashamed that I never did.”

  Okay, that was weird. And kind of awkward. But maybe she should just leave it alone for now. Kami turned toward the bus stop. Then she realized that she had no idea how they were getting wherever they were going. “I’m sorry. How are we getting back to Vickery Meadow?”

  “We’re not.” Two lines appeared between his brows. “The building is right there.”

  Kami spun around to face the direction he was pointing. There was a gray granite-looking building jutting up from the center of the block. She knew it had a pool on the rooftop because one of her parents’ friends had the contract to clean the pool. They talked about it often enough. The building was supposedly really nice.

  Devon started walking toward the building. That was honestly where he was going. What in the hell? She couldn’t afford that on her own! This wasn’t good at all! Kami felt her breathing start to speed up. It was going so quickly that for a moment she thought she might actually be in danger of succumbing to a panic attack.

  “Come on. I promise you’ll like it.” Devon waved her on toward the building.

  At this point, what did Kami have to lose? It wasn’t like she could just go and get something on her own right now. If this didn’t work out she would just leave and find something else. Right? At least that was what she kept telling herself as she headed to the curb where Devon was waiting for her.

  He held out his hand. Kami stared at it. Then she stretched her fingers toward his. It was as if the whole world stopped for a moment as she took his hand and laced his fingers with hers. They intertwined smoothly as though there were no friction between them. It was almost as though their bodies were trying to tell the two of them to let all of this overthinking stuff go and just remember what it was like to be together.

  His hand was warm. The way that he held her fingers in his was secure. The gentleness there had always shocked her. Kami had never been touched like that before Devon came along. Everything had always been rough and peppered with undertones of control and domination. There was none of that with Devon. Everything was honest. What she saw was what she got. There was no expectation. Not of a physical or emotional nature. And suddenly the only thing that Kami wanted was for Devon to pull her the rest of the way into his arms and hold her tight. She wanted to feel that strength and know that it was hers. She wanted him to hold her. She wanted him to kiss her. And God help her, she even wanted him to make love to her.

  “This way you won’t have very far to walk to work anymore,” Devon murmured to Kami. “You can probably even sleep an extra half hour every single morning. Maybe more. How amazing would that be?”

  Kami snorted as the two of them stepped off the curb and hurried across the wet street to the big gray building with the lovely tinted windows that promised apartment units full of light and space. “You certainly know how to paint something in a positive light. Don’t you? How can I argue with that?”

  “You got me,” he teased.

  Kami grinned up at him and for a moment it was almost like time had rewound to a place where the two of them were just lovers trying to get by together in a world that was determined to try and control their fates in spite of their best efforts to do their own thing.

  The front doors of the building opened automatically and Kami could not help but walk into the foyer and look around with something akin to wonder. She had never been inside a place like this. She’d heard of them. She’d peeked into a few of the nicer buildings in Vickery Meadow. But this was different. There were mailboxes down here. And there was also a huge desk where a doorman sat.

  “Good afternoon, Mr. King!” The doorman beamed at them. “Is this your beautiful wife?”

  “Yes, sir.” Devon gently tugged Kami forward. “Kami, this is Joshua Ames. Mr. Ames is the day guy on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. There are four different doormen, I believe. We will make sure that you know all of them. If you need help, these gentlemen will either help you themselves or find a way to get the right kind of help that you need.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Ames.” Kami felt like the textbook example of the country mouse come to the city. She shook hands with Mr. Ames and could not help but notice that there was no foul odor of overcooked beans down here in the building’s foyer. “I’m pleased to be here.”

  “Welcome to the building, Mrs. King.”

  Mrs. King. Kami felt as though she had stepped into some kind of bizarre alternate reality. She had put a foot through the looking glass. That was what had happened. Somehow she had stepped into a world where she had suddenly become Devon’s actual wife. People knew this and they supported her and the truth of her marriage. It was too good to be true. There had to be a catch. There just had to be.

  There was a bank of elevators at the end of the airy foyer space. Two sets of elevator doors gleamed with a fresh and recent cleaning. There was an actual freight elevator tucked into a corner by what was likely a stairwell. The windows were high and open
. They gave the entire space a feeling of openness and almost a welcoming sense of homecoming. The idea that Kami was now going to be stopping through here every day to say hello to a doorman right before getting her mail and going up in an elevator to her apartment was just mind boggling. This was not Kami’s life. It couldn’t be. This didn’t happen to people like her.

  There was a ding. The lighted numbers above the elevator started to descend. Soon enough they stopped on the first floor where they were standing. The gleaming doors opened with a muted sound and Kami blinked in no small amount of shock as Skye Kincaid leaned out the doors and waved.

  “Hey! Would you guys hurry up? We’re all getting bummed out waiting for you two lovebirds to come up and have a look at your nest!” Skye’s tone of voice was both eager and welcoming.

  Kami was taken aback. She frowned up at Devon. “What’s she doing here?”

  Then another woman leaned out the other side of the elevator. She was thin with bright red hair and a huge grin on her face. She eagerly waved to them. “Hi! My name is Landry. Devon’s brother Zane is my fiancée. He’s upstairs too. And believe me, he is looking forward to—what did he say?” Landry looked over at Skye for a brief moment and then looked back at Kami. “Oh yes. Zane wants to officially meet you and welcome you to our family.”

  Kami’s heart stopped. Her first instinct was to turn around and run back to her parents’ place in Vickery Meadow. But that wasn’t an option right now. The last text from her father had demanded she meet him at the church on Sunday afternoon at four o’clock to marry the young man they’d chosen for her. If she didn’t come with that intention then she was dead to her mother and father. That was that and there were no other options. So really, did Kami have a choice?

  Then Devon gently wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He leaned down—way down because it had always been like that since he was so tall and she was so short—and placed a gentle kiss against her forehead. The way that he lightly touched her was a benediction. “It’s going to be okay, sweetheart. They truly want to welcome you. I promise. No tricks. No judgement. It wasn’t easy to put this place together in time for you to get off work, but they helped me do it. Give us a chance, Kami. Please?”

  How could she not give in to that kind of plea? So Kami swallowed back years and years of fears and insecurities and stepped into that elevator with Devon King and two women who were apparently her sisters-in-law. At least she could totally handle the concept of a huge family. Of course, that thought made her wonder if Devon was going to want kids. They really should have discussed that ages ago—like before they got married. But there was no time right now to worry. The elevator was heading for the sky and in a flash they were on the eleventh floor of a building where Kami was about to settle in as a married woman.

  Chapter Fifteen

  It was safe to say that Devon felt like a young man bringing his first girlfriend home to meet the parents. Of course, this was even more intense than that ever could be because when you were bringing a girl home, you didn’t have to worry about if she liked the tea towels. When Kami stepped off the elevator and seemed to realize that there were only two units on each floor, she looked right and then left with no small amount of shock and what appeared to be fear.

  “Only two?” She looked at the other doorway. “How is that possible? You could fit like ten apartments in this much space!”

  Her accent was getting thicker. In a moment Devon could see her switching to Spanish. His family had worked so hard. He knew that sometimes when Kami got overwhelmed she sort of lashed out. He didn’t want this happening with his brothers and their wives. It would not go over well. He tried to alleviate Kami’s worries. Or at least he wanted to. He just wasn’t exactly certain what was driving them.

  “All of the floors below us, ten and below I believe, have three or four units on each floor. It depends on the size of the unit.” Devon was glad that Skye and Landry hadn’t opened the front door of unit 11-B just yet. He wanted to give Kami a chance to get herself together. So Devon gestured to the little foyer that sat between the two units on the eleventh floor. “The maintenance crew is responsible for cleaning this area. You don’t have to worry about it.”

  Then Devon realized that he must have said something wrong because Kami turned to glare at him. “It feels wrong.”

  “What do you mean?” Devon frowned. He wanted to understand. He really did. “That’s what they get paid to do.”

  “Yeah, but I’m a janitor too. Why should I make other janitors work hard to clean up my mess?”

  “Does it look that messy?” Devon instantly realized his mistake. He gestured to the other doorway. “There’s a young couple that lives there. I think they both work in some kind of IT field. The doorman was telling me a little bit about them. They don’t have kids. They do have a tiny dog that apparently doesn’t go outside very often because it weighs four pounds.” This was—of course—a source of great amusement to the King brothers who could turn into two hundred plus pound wolves at the drop of a hat. “But this foyer doesn’t look filthy, does it? Does it look like it takes more than a quick sweep and maybe a mop? A buff every once in a while, maybe?”

  “Right.” At least Kami was nodding her head as though she could see his point. “So you’re saying that as long as I do my part to keep this space clean I’m helping them out and I should stop worrying.”

  Devon impulsively drew her into his arms and kissed her forehead. “Exactly!”

  He almost didn’t want to let go of her. It was disconcerting. They had shared so little physical contact between the two of them lately that he hadn’t even realized how much he missed it. The little things mostly. The way that she had often come up behind his desk and simply looped her arms around his neck and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Or the way she would stand there for a minute and press her nose to the back of his neck where it met his shoulder. She would simply stand there and often told him that she was sniffing him because he just smelled so damn good.

  That was the kind of thing that always made his day. It seemed ridiculous. Such a small thing on a scale of larger things that should really matter. And yet those were the pieces of his life that mattered so very much. Those were the things that he missed.

  “Okay. I’m ready,” Kami announced.

  Devon watched his wife walk toward her new front door and knew she felt every bit of the apprehension she was trying so hard not to show. Both Landry and Skye were being very patient. That was no doubt Landry’s influence on Skye. Skye wasn’t traditionally all that tactful or even empathetic. She was far too confident and absolutely dedicated to her conviction that everyone else should be too.

  Devon kept his hand in the small of Kami’s back as he escorted her to their front door. “Should I carry you over the threshold?” he asked at the last second. “You know, like a new bride?”

  “Maybe I would be able to see over the tops of the counters,” Kami joked. “But no. I’m afraid my booty weighs so much that you’d just drop me.”

  Skye snorted. “Whew, Devon. Time to work out. Your woman doesn’t think you can lift her. That suggests she knows you really well.”

  “Especially the part where you sit behind a desk all day long,” Landry added with a good-natured laugh.

  For a second Devon was afraid Kami was going to take offense, but a moment later she looked up at him with a smile of her own. Then she winked and pushed the front door wide open. That was when any expression slid right off her face.

  Devon had never actually been to Kami’s apartment. In fact, he was ashamed to say that he had a vague awareness of where the building was, but that he had never actually seen it on anything but an internet map. Not only that, but Devon’s life did not necessarily place him in areas of Dallas that were anything but affluent. And their old family ranch didn’t count. Not even the ancient A-frame house could compare to ten or twelve people packed into a tiny space meant for two.

  So with that in mind, Devon tried in va
in to see the apartment in the way that Kami might see it. He wasn’t having much luck. The woman was literally rooted to a spot in the entryway of the two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment as though she could not move.

  “Kami?” Devon murmured. “Let’s move inside so everyone can come in. Okay?”

  She didn’t speak. She made a sort of strangled noise in her throat. Was she angry? Devon was starting to feel as though he’d done something really bad. Fortunately for him, Landry was a little more world-weary and wise than Devon.

  “Kami, it’s okay.” Landry took Kami’s hand and tugged her farther into the space. “Let’s start in the bathroom. Okay?”

  Landry did not give Kami one second to do anything but look. She kept Kami’s brain so absolutely busy that it wasn’t but a few minutes before Kami started commenting on the size of the bathroom and the fact that there was an actual bathtub. A bathtub. That was what she thought was amazing? It was a bit of a revelation to Devon. In fact, he felt kind of stupid.

  Skye smacked him right in the belly to get his attention. “Don’t feel bad. You King brothers are pretty much all alike. You forget that there’s another less humble way to live. You know? This space looks to Kami the way Buckingham Palace would to you. Give her a minute. Landry is like a freaking saint. The woman probably should have been a therapist. But I guess teacher is probably a good bit of middle ground.”

  Devon was so grateful for Landry’s help as she and Kami explored the bathroom and then gradually moved to the utility room where there were two full-sized appliances and even a scrub sink available for her use. The exclamations of pleasure and excitement were probably more than Devon had ever expected to hear. His first thought when he had walked in was that the view was at least adequate.

  “Yo. Where’s the lady?” Zane walked up behind Devon and clapped his brother on the back.