Little Hood and Her Wolf (The Big Bad Wolf Trilogy Book 2)

by Janie Marie

  “Than is Reaper, dumbass.” He shifted, leaning back. “He has the rest of the message for you.”

  “What? The police chief is your love?”

  He glared at her. “No, idiot. He’s relaying a message for her.”

  She glanced over as Than Messor harshly dismissed the detective.

  “If you desire to speak with him, I’m sure you’ll only find further proof Logan Grimm is a mean bastard who wanted his ex-girlfriend back by any means necessary. It’s not a crime. Go question those fucks at the station. I’ll handle the rest of this matter.”

  Kevin brushed past them, heading toward Kylie.

  She hid Ryder’s phone in her pocket, not sure what she was feeling as she felt Ryder’s stare the entire time.

  “Kylie, sweetheart, I’m taking you home.” Kevin held out his hand. “Give me Logan’s phone. I’ll turn it in to the officers so they can return it to him. You don’t have to see him again. And I assure you, he’s finished once his contract ends.”

  Than Messor approached, frowning. “Finished?”

  Kevin turned his attention to the chief. “I simply mean I will not be renegotiating another contract with him. I give you my word, no matter how furious I am about this, he won’t receive any retaliation, other than disciplinary action for his involvement in the prostitution ring.”

  “As long as I don’t hear about more laws broken, I don’t care what you do to them.” Than shook Kevin’s hand. “I believe we can let Kylie get back to class.”

  “No, I’m taking her home.” Kevin surprisingly sent Ryder a look that would probably frighten any man, but Ryder simply stared back, then he smirked. Kevin growled, shaking his head as he spoke to the chief again. “I won’t leave her to deal with the fallout that will come from his little girlfriend’s games.”

  Luc chuckled. “I believe your daughter brought that attention on herself.” He gestured for Than to come over to Ryder and uncuff him.

  Ryder glared at everyone, including his brother. “I didn’t call you.”

  A dark smile teased Luc’s lips. “Call it a peace offering, little brother. I was forwarded the photos Miss Hood so thoughtfully posted online. I wanted to ensure you didn’t go off to destroy the town or murder foolish boys.”

  Ryder grunted before following his brother out of the office, then out of the building.

  Mr. Prince sighed as he came to Kevin’s side. “I can keep Kylie in my office until the end of the day. I was arranging for her work to be brought down so she could leave, but I was informed she missed nearly all of last week, and her absences throughout the year leave her in jeopardy of a truancy investigation.”

  Kylie’s eyes widened. God, Kevin didn’t know about how much school she missed. “I can stay, Kevin. I’m way behind.”

  He frowned. “I’m sure they can excuse you for one more day. You really don’t need to deal with this.”

  “I know.” She smiled sadly as her heart went numb. “I’d rather hold my head as high as I can than hide because some lying slut stole my boyfriend.”

  Mr. Prince and Than Messor glanced at each other but said nothing.

  “He was no boyfriend if he did this.” Kevin snagged a tissue from a table and held it out for her. “You deserve better. One day, a man will come along who treats you exactly the way you deserve to be treated. You’ll be the only one for him. I swear.”

  She wiped her tears away. “Can I just have a few minutes, Mr. Prince?”

  He smiled, nodding. “Of course, Kylie. Why don’t you take the rest of the period to relax in my office? If you need longer, you’re welcome to stay.”

  “Thank you.” She stood, smiling as best she could as she followed him to his office.

  “Kylie, I’ll be outside when school releases,” Kevin said. “If you change your mind, just call.”

  She nodded, waving goodbye. She couldn’t deal with him right now, and she couldn’t have him asking questions about her missing so much school.

  Than Messor gave her a tight smile as she passed him. “May I have one more moment with you, Kylie?”

  “She’s done answering your questions,” Kevin said. “Don’t you dare try to harass her over her post. She’s already taken it down.”

  Kylie held up a hand. “It’s fine, Kevin. You can go back to work. Thanks for being here.”

  The chief smiled at her. “Thank you, Kylie. I just wanted to speak on a more personal note.”

  For once, her stepfather looked genuinely concerned but at a loss on how to help. So she went to him, hugging him. “Thank you.”

  He returned her embrace. “You’re welcome. Call me if you need anything. I swear I’ll be here when you need me.”

  “Okay.” She let him go, turning to see two very intimidating men waiting for her to enter the office where her heart had been destroyed.

  Than allowed her to enter first before he followed. “Love is a cruel bitch, Miss Hood.”

  Well, she wasn’t expecting that.

  “Take a seat, Kylie.” Mr. Prince pulled a chair out for her before shutting the door.

  “He said you have a message.” She rubbed her throat as Than smiled.

  “Ryder’s phone,” Mr. Prince said, holding out his hand. “I’ll return it to him.”

  “Oh.” She pulled it out of her pocket. “How did you know I had it?”

  He smirked. “I’m paid to know these things.” Once he had the phone, he nodded at Than. “I’ll be back. Let me get this to him before he does something stupid.” With that, he exited his office, leaving her alone with the chief of police.

  “Yes, I have a message. It’s time you knew the truth.” He opened his phone and selected the text from: My Queen.

  Nine

  When You Trust

  “Kylie?” Logan called out.

  She looked around the trees, her face turned toward where she could hear branches snapping. “I’m over here.”

  He emerged, halting when he spotted her.

  “It’s all true, isn’t it?” she said, her voice cracking.

  “Yes,” he said, not moving an inch.

  She nodded and wiped the tear that fell. “Then wipe your lips.”

  “I—”

  Kylie cut him off. “I said wipe your lips, Logan.”

  Logan grabbed the bottom of his shirt and lifted it to his mouth, not taking his eyes off hers. When he dropped his shirt, she took the steps that would bring her to right in front of him.

  They stared at each other, both breathing heavily, and after a few more moments of just studying each other’s faces, Logan broke the silence. “Can I kiss you now?”

  She let out a sob, nodding. “Please.”

  His mouth covered hers in an instant. With one hand cupping her cheek, he used the other to pull her as close as possible.

  Crying, she kissed him back, clutching his shirt as she squeezed his waist. He kissed her long and hard. It was everything and not enough at the same time.

  He cupped her cheeks as he closed his eyes, smiling. “He told you everything? What actually happened?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes,” Than had said as he held out his phone, and the entire scene unfolded in her mind again. “It’s time you knew the truth.”

  My Queen: Have faith.

  Than pocketed the phone, his blue eyes fierce as he stared right through her. “She doesn’t cheat.”

  Kylie’s heart must’ve stopped. “What’s going on?”

  “Perhaps you should ask that before you throw someone to the wolves.” Than leaned back in his chair as he pulled an envelope from his jacket pocket.

  “Just tell me what’s going on.” She roughly placed her phone on the desk and opened up the picture of Logan kissing Janie. “Am I blind? Or does that look like two people who said they were exes fucking on his bed? Don’t you dare make me feel bad for exposing her. She did this!”

  “For you,” he said quietly, looking away from the picture. “She did this for you.”

  Janie�
��s words from that morning played in her head, and she remembered it all had to do with her trust in Logan’s feelings for her, about giving him a chance to explain.

  Kylie squeezed her eyes shut and tried to slow the chaos in her mind. Everything that had happened was settling down so she could simply breathe. “I was supposed to have faith and wait to talk to them?”

  “Yes.” He sighed, massaging his forehead. “Albeit her plan was shit, but none of us could interfere by the time we found out. Ryder couldn’t stop her without exposing her since she’d gone forward with it without speaking to him first. So he was going to do what he could, let it play out. Of course, he lost it once her text came. She was too soon, and we were too late. I was supposed to show you her text when Ryder caused the distraction—but that poor bastard they hired last week doesn’t know to leave Ryder alone, and Kali is pissed with me so she disobeyed orders.”

  The air left her lungs. “They’re not cheating, are they?”

  He gave her a tight smile as he opened his phone up again. The chief’s voice was clear as day: “I don’t think using Kylie to make Janie jealous is going to work, Logan.”

  Silence, then another male voice spoke. “It could. She’s doing everything in her power to be close to him now. She could still have feelings for him after all.”

  Kylie pressed her lips together and focused on the phone when Logan’s voice came through.

  “Just keep Janie safe.”

  “Of course.” Than was speaking again. “We know she’s all you really care about.”

  Than stopped the clip. “That’s what I was told to play for you. By Luc.”

  Her stomach hurt even more. “Why?”

  “Because he wanted you to go to him for help. He wanted to use you. Trap you. Destroy you.”

  The memory faded as Logan’s voice kissed her bleeding wounds. “We were naked, but we weren’t really kissing. Or fucking. We put a pillow between us.”

  Kylie opened her eyes only to get sucked into the dark brown pools she had grown so attached to. “I know,” she said, smiling when he gave her the happiest smile. “He told me she wanted me to know exactly what would happen.”

  She had stared at the video on Than’s phone. Janie’s face was there, smiling sadly with Logan as he sat beside her.

  Janie spoke first. “After everything that happened this morning, Than told Ryder about the charges Logan was going to face. Unfortunately, Luc knew as well. He contacted me when I was getting told about the shit I’d have to do around school because of that fight I had with Maura. Luc told me he’d spoken to the detective to keep Logan from getting hauled in right away. This was supposed to be a gift to me, as far as he was concerned.”

  “A bribe,” Logan corrected. He sounded utterly defeated. “He wanted her to be indebted to him for keeping me safe.”

  Janie nodded, rubbing under her eyes. “I wasn’t going to listen to him; I was going to ask Ryder to handle it, but then he asked me about you, Kylie. Luc threatened to see you suffer for the pain this was causing me. None of this is your fault, but he was hoping to get a reaction. I was too distraught about the information I’d gotten about Logan, and I slipped up.

  “I threatened him right back to leave you alone and realized my mistake. He wasn’t trying to protect Logan for me. He was finding a tool to control Logan and me. You.” She took a deep breath. “I hope you never have to learn more than this, but Logan is a very important individual in his family. He’s desired because of what’s in his blood, you could say. It’s the same with me. And Luc wants both of us. That meant I had to come up with a way to not only keep Logan safe from the cops, but also keep both of you safe from Luc.

  “I went to my men instead of Ryder because I didn’t want him stressing out any more, and because I didn’t want to ask him to help Logan.” Her chin wobbled as she shrugged a shoulder. “I know he’ll try to stop me, but I can’t let anything happen to Logan. Not again. I hope you both can forgive us. I’m making Logan go through with this. So hate me—not him.”

  Logan looked at Janie heartbrokenly before staring into the phone with an even more devastated expression. “Hood, don’t hate her. I swear we’re only doing what we think will work best. And I swear I haven’t done this shit the cops are saying while I’ve been with you. The girl they said I took home wasn’t with me. I didn’t see her until the next morning. And all the other girls knew what was going on. I wasn’t lying about that. Sex was how I dealt with—”

  “Me,” Janie choked out.

  Logan lowered his head, shaking it.

  Janie rested her hand on his head as she continued, “No one is confessing to making that recording.”

  “I didn’t rape anyone.” Logan covered his face.

  Janie calmed as Logan lost his composure, and she began caressing his hair like he was a little boy. “He hasn’t been with anyone since meeting you. I heard the recording. Some of it sounds like you’re telling him no, but I’m pretty sure there’s a different girl’s voice when it gets more violent.”

  Logan kept shaking his head. “I don’t know who it was. I’ve never—”

  “Shh . . .” Janie cast a worried look at the camera, but there was fire in her eyes as she said, “Hate me all you want, but I won’t watch him get taken away like that.” Janie turned her head, kissing Logan’s shoulder. “We’ll find out who did this.”

  He shook his head again, but he was leaning against Janie like she was the only thing keeping him in one piece.

  Finally, Logan lifted his head, smiling sadly at Janie. “We can let them take me in, baby doll.”

  Janie gave him a big but sad smile. “Suck a nut, Grimm. I’m not letting anyone take you.”

  He let out a pathetic laugh, nodding. “Hood, if there was some other way to get Luc’s attention off you, I’d do it, but we have to act fast, and this is the best way we can come up with to make Luc believe she’d cheat and that you’re nothing important. You are, but I can’t let Luc think you are. Everyone has to think I’m the biggest asshole on Earth.”

  A tear fell from Janie’s eye, and she smiled as Logan wiped it away.

  “Ryder will find you, Kylie,” Janie said, sniffing as her face scrunched up. “He’ll carry out the plan. But he’ll probably be an asshole when he sees you because I’m ignoring his calls and texts. So just take a deep breath and remember he’s a sexy jerk”—she started sobbing—“when he’s being mean.”

  Logan laughed, hugging Janie when she cried louder. “Hood, we have to hurry. Just have some faith in me. In us. I swear we’ll fix this. And I’ll tell you more later. Remember, it’s all fake. Only a few people will see the photos.” Then the video ended.

  Once again, she was yanked from what had happened, and she was in the woods with Logan, confirming it had all been a setup to fool Luc and the cops.

  “Thank you for having faith in me.” Logan kissed Kylie’s nose, then her cheeks before trailing kisses to her lips. “In her, too. We wouldn’t do that to you, and she’d never fucking do that to Ryder.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. “I posted it online.”

  “I know.” He hugged her tighter. “The plan kinda fell apart.”

  She hugged him back as she remembered what happened after school ended.

  “I can’t believe Janie cheated on Ryder,” someone had whispered.

  “Of course she cheated,” another girl said. “Remember how she cheated on Logan with Ryder and only stayed with him when he knocked her up?”

  “What a whore,” the first girl replied.

  Kylie didn’t look over. Luckily, no one had noticed her yet.

  “Logan is so hot though,” another girl said. “Did you see his tattoos? I had to change my panties. He’s my new lock-screen. You think someone can edit my face over Janie’s?”

  Kylie balled her fists and continued toward the exit as the girls laughed.

  “At least Ryder’s single again.” One girl giggled.

  “I wonder what that dumb blonde girl
is doing. She should probably kill herself.”

  “I can’t believe she was the one to post them. She doesn’t even have friends. Janie’s going to murder her.”

  Kylie stopped walking.

  “Oh, shit,” the girls said in unison.

  “Fuck off.” Ryder’s angry voice was probably the best sound she could hear at that moment.

  The girls rushed past her, knocking her shoulder as they ran down the hall.

  “Blondie.”

  Kylie jumped a little and turned to face him. “I thought you left.”

  “Did Than explain everything?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry, Ryder. I didn’t know.”

  He held out a phone. “Take this. I was going to take you to see him, but Kevin is waiting outside for you.”

  Kylie grabbed the phone from him as he started speaking again.

  “She gave Logan one already. Use these when you need to talk to each other or us. I already put him under ‘Fucker’ so you’ll know which contact is his. Delete your thread if you say anything stupid, which will probably be every text.”

  Kylie smiled at all his jabs as she looked up. “Are you okay, Ryder?”

  “Do I look like I’m okay?” That was a big no as his nostrils flared. Then he grabbed her arm and dragged her toward an empty room.

  She tried to stop him, but he shoved her inside without any difficulty.

  “You really know how to destroy a person’s life, don’t you?” He pushed her against a desk. “If you ever throw her under the bus again, I’ll end you.”

  “I didn’t know,” she cried, terrified of him. “You got mad, too! You sent a guy to the hospital.”

  “I was acting,” he shouted. “How was I supposed to get Luc to believe us if I did nothing? And that stupid fucker tackled me. You think I’m going to let that shit go? You think I wasn’t fucking hurt seeing those photos, even if they’re fake?”

  She covered her ears. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t screw this up.” His eyes lit with fire as he gave her the most disgusted look. “She didn’t think I’d protect him or you after the shit you two caused. She’s tired of asking me to protect him, but she cares so much about keeping his dumb ass safe, about keeping your ungrateful ass out of Luc’s sight, she didn’t even stop to think for one damn moment I might already be handling shit for him. I should tell Than to haul his ass in for the prostitution shit and let him rot in prison.”