Rusty Nail

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Chapter 15

  I have a pretty big ass, so when I half-ass something, you’re still getting something fairly impressive.

  -E-card

  Raven

  “Raven!” Wolf yelled the moment I heard him cross the threshold of his office.

  I popped my head out from around the filing cabinet, a thick stack of files in my arms, and stared at him.

  “Yeah?” I asked warily, before going back to the filing and trying for all I was worth to act like I wasn’t affected by his nearness.

  “I need a file on…,” he pursed his lips. “Never mind. I’m going to have to call Travis.”

  He disappeared around the corner, not saying a damn word about the state of the office.

  Hell.

  Even Griffin had said something.

  Immediately.

  Twenty minutes ago when Griffin had walked into the office, he took a short pause to look around, nodded his head, and then said, “Good job.”

  It hadn’t been much, but I’d known it was a lot for him.

  Wolf, however, had been the man sleeping with me.

  And I say ‘had’ intentionally.

  I fully intended not to sleep with him again, but I had a feeling if Wolf made any sort of move on me within the next couple of hours, I’d take him inside of me again without hesitation.

  That didn’t mean I wasn’t still mad at him.

  “Gotta go,” Wolf said. “You want me to get anything from your apartment?”

  I shook my head.

  I had everything from my old apartment.

  “No,” I said softly. “Thank you, though.”

  He started forward until his face was only inches away from mine.

  “If you change your mind, text me,” he ordered. “Don’t leave by yourself, and try to get the files on top of my desk done before you leave. Leave the bottom one.”

  Then he was gone, leaving me alone. Again.

  “I’m not a fucking charity case,” I mumbled as I watched Wolf walk away. “I’m so sick and tired of depending on people to take care of me.”

  I muttered that statement to Wolf’s back as he walked hastily to his truck, not looking back to see if I followed his orders or not.

  Walking over to Wolf’s desk, I picked up all the files that were on his desk but the last one, filed them, and then walked back to the file I’d left there. Marky Mark followed me and curled up at my feet.

  It looked innocuous from the outside.

  It was on the inside that really chapped my ass, though.

  I pulled the file that was labeled as ‘brunette- 28’ into my hands and stared at it with disgust.

  My whole life was in that folder.

  Everything there was to know about me was right there, including the last few months of my life.

  The address of Hail Auto Recovery.

  A receipt for my fucking dog, along with his picture, that dispelled any hope that I had that Wolf wasn’t behind my ‘finding’ Marky Mark in my yard that day.

  Then there was the last known address that put me above the garage of Hail Auto Recovery.

  Seeing me had been no accident on Wolf’s part. It had all been intentional.

  Every last single bit of it.

  The amount of money Wolf has spent over the last week taking care of me stared at me in mocking disappointment.

  I’d found the folder yesterday during my filing.

  I was lucky I happened to read it.

  I hadn’t read any of the other files.

  This one, though, had been thick and large.

  Although it’d intrigued me, sitting on the corner of Wolf’s desk at the very bottom of a stack of files, I’d intended to put it back into the filing cabinet like I’d done all the rest.

  Then I’d bumped the desk with my hip and the file had started to lean over the edge.

  A single paper had fallen out, and it had been intriguing enough for me to break my rules and open the folder.

  But it was what I’d seen inside that had really floored me.

  The first paper had been a picture of Marky Mark.

  The second had been all my life’s work, starting at when I’d gotten my first job at sixteen, and finishing at my current job at Hail Auto Recovery.

  Or my former job anyway.

  I’d debated on whether or not to call Travis and ask him to help me, but he’d already told me his thoughts on Wolf. He’d told me that if I chose Wolf, I would have Wolf and not him to count on.

  At the time, it’d been saddening, but it’d been Wolf. I knew Wolf.

  Or at least I thought I did.

  Now I wasn’t sure who he was or what I knew… except for one thing.

  I needed to get the hell out of Texas.

  I was thinking Alaska.

  Or Seattle.

  A horn honked outside, reminding me that I had less than ten minutes before my ride arrived.

  “Shit,” I said, as I walked to the window.

  Alison waved at me from out by the curb, and I took that as my chance to get the hell out of there.

  Since I didn’t have a key, I locked the front door from the inside, walked through to the rear of the building and then pushed open the back door. I was leaving my dog in the building. Alison was sending someone over to get him and take him to Wolf’s house. It was his dog anyway.

  My stuff was exactly where I left it, and I picked up the large beach bag I used for dirty laundry and tossed it over my shoulder.

  Grabbing the rolling suitcase I’d purchased at Goodwill, I hurried to the side of the building and ran smack dab into a hard brick wall.

  “Oomph,” I said, backing up to look at the man I’d walked into.

  “Oh,” I said. “I’m sorry, are you okay?”

  The man smiled, flashing me an exceptionally straight row of white teeth.

  “Perfectly fine, darlin’,” he said, not waiting for me to respond. “Where’s Wolf?”

  My lips twisted. “Wolf’s visiting a friend right now.”

  “Okay,” he said, looking down at my bag. “You need help with that?”

  The man’s dark black eyes seemed to sparkle the longer I stood there staring at him like an idiot, but I couldn’t make my mind work right.

  The man, the handsome devil, was incredibly good looking.

  He was tall with black hair, silky and shiny that any lady would’ve paid a fortune to get.

  His mouth was lush and plump.

  I smiled at him.

  He was a handsome devil, I’d give him that.

  He wasn’t Wolf, though.

  Where this man was calm, Wolf was intense.

  When I was around Wolf, I felt like I was revolving around a Wolf vortex. I was unable to do anything without first being sure of where Wolf was.

  “No,” I finally answered. “I don’t need help. Excuse me.”

  The man moved to the side and I walked in front of him out of the alley.

  I wasn’t sure what it was about the man, but I instinctively knew he wouldn’t hurt me. He reminded me of someone. It was something about his eyes, so much like mine, that made me feel comfortable with giving him my back.

  Sure, it was stupid.

  A woman in a quickly darkening alley should be vigilant about men at her back, especially ones she met in said dark alley. However, I decided to run with my instincts, and let him follow me out.

  I waved when I saw Alison, speeding my steps up before I lost my nerve.

  She got out and opened up the back hatch of the Tahoe she was in and stared at me as I hauled my bags into the back.

  “You sure about this?” Alison asked. “I’m going to get in so much trouble doing this for you.”

  I smiled over at her.

  “I’m thinking that husband of yours wouldn’t allow you to get in trouble,” I teased.

  Her mouth thinned. “If I didn’t agree with why you’re doing this, I w
ould say no. I don’t want to get involved, but the picture you painted last night was enough to give me nightmares.”

  I agreed.

  Last night, when I was explaining what I wanted, she refused. Vehemently. At first.

  Then I told her about my life. About how no matter what happened, it always seemed that other people were taking care of me.

  I hadn’t lied to her at all.

  I’d told her about my parents. My life. How Wolf had found me when he’d gone in and saved his sister.

  “Who was that?” Alison asked as I felt, more than saw, the man in the alley move away from our huddle.

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “Someone that was in the back of the alley when I came out. Maybe he works next door.”

  The door next to Griffin and Wolf’s was a body shop that’d just moved in, according to Wolf.

  I’d seen quite a few men in and out of the building all afternoon while I waited for Alison to arrive.

  I’d been amazed at how much Wolf knew about the men.

  “They’re in my town,” he’d said. “How could I not know anything about them?”

  Then a disturbing thought occurred to me.

  Wolf and I had been in the same city as we grew up.

  Karnack was a small town, and it wasn’t often that an officer got shot there along with his wife and unborn child.

  I’d known a little bit about Wolf before I’d met him, but certainly the bulk of information I’d learned over the time I’d spent with him.

  So if I knew anything at all about him from our time in Karnack before we’d actually met, of course he had to know about me.

  Had to know every single embarrassing detail of my life. Of my childhood.

  He had to know how much I hated my life and how badly I had wanted to get out.

  In the end, it hadn’t been enough, and I’d paid the price for the decisions I made in my attempt to leave there.

  I replayed it over and over again in my dreams, and at that moment, I realized that Wolf was hiding more than he should.

  “Can we just go?” I asked hastily, now not willing to waste time.

  Before, I’d admit, I’d been secretly hoping that Wolf would stop me from leaving.

  Now, though, I knew better.

  Wolf wouldn’t be stopping me from leaving. I was leaving, and there was no one that would stop me.

  By the time we arrived at the bus station three towns over, I’d worked myself up into a fine dither.

  Alison, though, either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

  Calmly, she pulled up to the curb, hopped out while leaving her car running and had my bags unloaded before I’d made it out of the truck.

  “If you need me, you call. No matter what,” she ordered.

  I smiled.

  “I can do that,” I told her.

  Then, with one last hug, I was alone at the bus station.

  No one to blame but myself.

  Chapter 16

  People say that love is the best feeling, but I think finding a toilet when you have diarrhea is better.

  -E-card

  Wolf

  My heart was in my throat.

  As I made my way to the last room in my house, I knew it was futile. She was gone.

  I looked down at Mark accusingly.

  “You let her leave you?” I asked.

  Mark showed me his teeth, and I growled.

  “Fuck!” I yelled,

  Then a thought occurred to me.

  Although I’d sent her a text message to ride with Griffin to my place, maybe she missed the memo.

  Maybe they were still there.

  Maybe.

  The drive to the office was one of blinding worry, and it only multiplied when I got to the office and found it empty as well.

  “Fuck!” I yelled.

  “She’s gone,” Alison said from behind me.

  I whirled around and stared at her.

  “What?” I asked, the calm in my voice deceptive.

  I was about as far from calm as I could get.

  “Gone.”

  “What?” I asked, my belly tightening into a painful knot.

  “I’m sorry,” Alison said. “But it had to be done.”

  “What do you mean it had to be done?” I barked. “She has a fucking man out there trying his best to make my life, and hers, a living hell. And after what happened today, I wouldn’t put it past Agent Fry to start stooping to lower levels. Such as `killing her` lower levels. She can’t survive out there on her own!”

  Alison’s head turned.

  “She left her dog here. A dog that she loves with all her heart,” Alison started.

  I blinked. That was news.

  “You had her work for you,” Alison said, reading my surprise.

  I nodded, still not comprehending where exactly she was going with this.

  “You had her file in your files,” she said with more emphasis.

  I shook my head.

  “Just tell him, Dove,” Peek said walking up behind Alison. His Irish lilt was back in his voice, full force. “It’s not like you to let him squirm like this.”

  Alison smiled at her husband and then turned back to me.

  “The file you had on her, Wolf,” Alison finally said. “You made a file on her and then left it on your desk for her to file. Which, might I add, is pretty stupid of you if you wanted her to stay.”

  My brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

  “Awwww, fuck,” Griffin said, sounding downright contrite. “That was me.”

  “What was you?” I asked, turning slightly so I could keep him and Alison in my sight.

  “That was me who put the file there. However, in my defense, I didn’t know what was in the file. I just put it there along with about ten other files that came from the interoffice mail,” Griffin replied. “Got a shipment in last Tuesday, and I was in a hurry and put them on your desk instead of mine because yours was closer. That was the day Lenore had some perv in her store jacking off in the middle of the aisle.”

  I closed my eyes and thought back to that night, remembering it vividly because I’d had to come back into town with Nathan and taken Griffin to the hospital because he needed a tetanus shot and a few stitches since the creep had bit him before Griffin had taken him down with a right hook to his face.

  “Why’d we get a file in on Raven?” I asked, starting to pace our small office.

  “I can answer that,” a deep voice that I didn’t recognize said from the door that led to Mig’s part of the office.

  My head snapped around and a gun was suddenly in my hand, pointing at the chest of the stranger who I’d seen standing at Agent Josh Fry’s side earlier in the day.

  A man I’d just gotten a dossier on from Travis.

  “What the fuck?” Griffin barked.

  I chanced a glance over at him to see that he too had his firearm out and pointed at the newcomer.

  The newcomer, however, wasn’t fazed by having five guns pointed at him.

  Hell, even Alison had hers out.

  “I had the file sent over to you, but I had no clue that it was going to work against my favor, rather than with it,” the man said dryly. “I was hoping to give you her information and entice you back to her, not cause her to run away from you.”

  My brows rose.

  “What do you happen to know about all of this, Raphael?” I asked, showing him a little bit of my hand, letting him know I wasn’t completely clueless.

  Raphael’s grin flashed before he walked further into the room.

  “I have a vested interest in the well-being of my sister.” Raphael took a seat at my desk and waited.

  It didn’t take long.

  Alison and I both exploded at once.

  But it was Griffin’s outburst that surprised me the most.

  “What the fuck do you mean, sister?” Griffin asked. “From what I’ve s
een, Raven was alone. She didn’t have one single person at her back other than this fucking club. So, where have you been, motherfucker?”

  My sentiments exactly.

  “I’m too far undercover – and have been since I found out about her – that I could only do so much. Basically, just watch and try to take care of her from afar,” Raphael said, sounding strained and a little bit sad.

  I shook my head.

  “Well, right now I’m worried about finding Raven before she gets hurt,” I said, my hands fisting.

  “She’s fine,” Alison and Raphael said at the same time.

  My brows rose.

  “How?” I asked.

  “I have Core on her,” Alison said at the same time that Raphael said, “I have a man on her.”

  “And what exactly is your role in all this?” I asked, stopping at the corner of the room to lean one shoulder on the wall.

  My stance said ‘calm’ but I was feeling anything but. I was feeling all kinds of things right then.

  Anger that Raven left. Disappointment that she didn’t talk to me before she left.

  I thought I’d shared my feelings with her. I thought she understood the connection.

  Now I come to find out that the connection we were feeling wasn’t as tight as I thought it was.

  The final emotion I was feeling was fear.

  Fear that this whole thing was going to blow up in my face. Fear that something would happen to Raven. Fear that my son would lose a father for the second time in his tiny life.

  “My role is to investigate Agent Fry,” Raphael said immediately. “I learned that he seems to have a little unhealthy obsession with my sister, and I don’t really like it.”

  “So you wormed yourself into this investigation?” Griffin challenged him.

  Peek snorted.

  “Precisely.”

  I sighed.

  “How about you tell us what the fuck is going on, and why Agent Fry has a hard on for us, and we’ll figure something out from there,” I offered through clenched teeth, already fucking tired of all of the bullshit.

  Raphael leaned his shoulder against the door and scrubbed a hand down his face.

  “I started this internal investigation into Fry about eight months ago when there were only hunches on my bosses’ parts that there was something more going on than what was on the surface,” he explained. “Eight fucking months later, and I’m still stuck in this hellhole trying to drag myself out. Every time I get close to getting out and nailing the bastard, he miraculously shrugs off all possible charges or evidence is lost, and I’m pulled back in. Of course, learning that they had my sister didn’t help; there was no way I was getting out while she was still in. Found out they had her in the first place by accident. They didn’t know that I was undercover or her brother, but they knew I didn’t like that whole kidnapping situation and what was going on with July and Raven. To put the cherry on the cake, they had her under Jensen mother fucking Gordon’s thumb. Pretty much forcing my hand and making me work alone on trying to free them both.”