“Please don’t feel like you have to say anything back, Juliette, but I think you should know … I’m falling in love with you.” He whispered the words against her lips. “I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you.”
He covered her mouth with his kiss before she could say anything back.
Chapter Twelve
I’m falling in love with you.
Those words shouldn’t have affected her the way they did, not after guarding her heart the way she had. But Wilhelm had been slowly chipping away at her walls for months, and somehow seeing him look lost with two babies he didn’t know had shown her a side of him that she thought deserved a chance. A man who took on his brother’s family and tried to do right by them was a good man.
Seeing him with the twins made that obvious.
Any resistance she’d had to truly falling for Wilhelm had evaporated when he’d kissed her and joined his body with hers, sending her to heights of pleasure she’d never even imagined with anyone else.
He said he was falling in love with her. And despite all the sadness surrounding Wilhelm’s situation and her worry for the motherless babies, Juliette didn’t think she’d ever had a happier moment in her life.
He kissed her so softly and sweetly, she didn’t try to stop him just to tell him that she was falling in love with him, too. The moment was too perfect for her to impose her will on it. Maybe he was afraid she’d try to talk him out of it, or feel awkward if she wasn’t ready to hear it or say it.
For whatever reason, he hadn’t given her a chance to reply, so she simply melted into the kiss and tried to be patient.
When he finally pulled away, golden eyes staring into hers and looking surprisingly vulnerable given Wilhelm’s alpha nature, Juliette knew he was waiting and hoping to hear the same thing.
“You’re all right,” she said.
Wilhelm froze for a moment, then threw his head back and laughed. His dark stubble enhanced the lines of his neck. It looked so delicious, Juliette leaned in and kissed his throat with a chuckle.
“I’m falling in love with you, too.” She nipped at his Adam’s apple, then dared to meet his gaze again. “I’ve been fighting my feelings for you for some time, if I’m honest with myself. But I can’t anymore.”
Wilhelm pulled her on top of him, a hand sinking into her thick hair. “No?”
“No. I don’t want to fight this. I just want you.”
She kissed him and felt his gasp.
“Grab your clothes.” He gently pushed her up.
“Do you hear the babies?”
He cocked his head to listen. “No. I think I hear one of the staff coming in the back. I forgot there might be someone else here.”
Juliette laughed and gathered her clothes, but didn’t worry about the buttons. She’d have to wear one of his shirts. Wilhelm grabbed his clothes and Juliette’s hand, and ran with her to the guest bedroom where he’d been staying. They ran in, breathless, and fell together on the bed.
A baby monitor sat on the bedside table, so they’d easily hear if the babies woke. Juliette leaned up and unhooked the bra she was barely wearing anyway, and rolled into Wilhelm’s arms.
“That would have been embarrassing,” she said, still laughing softly.
Wilhelm shrugged. “I’ve been caught naked a number of times. I hated wearing clothes as a kid, and would traipse through at all hours. Sometimes we’d have a guest who’d get a surprise, but it never bothered me. I think I might have done it because it seriously pissed off my father.” He chuckled softly and rubbed his cheek against her hair.
Juliette drew a figure eight on Wilhelm’s firm, muscled chest. “Didn’t get along with your dad?”
“We got along all right. I was just a little shit.” He didn’t say anything for a moment, but then added, “It was my brother I never got along with.”
That made her sad. She knew they’d been estranged, but hearing it again drove home the tragedy of the situation.
“I always thought we’d get past it one day. I mean, we always argued. I was nothing like him, and to Halgar that meant I was wrong and needed to be fixed. I let that roll off my back for years, until our father became ill. My brother convinced him to take my name off the property because he felt he was the better son. The more proper son.”
“I’m so sorry.” Juliette had assumed their estrangement was over a misunderstanding of some type, but getting Wilhelm’s name taken off property he would have inherited was a dirty blow. “That’s terrible.”
“It was. And the hell of it is I never wanted the mansion anyway. I wanted my own place, one that I had built on my own. It was the point that he’d undermine me like that because he desperately wanted it and didn’t want to have to sell it to split the estate, or have me lay claim to part of it as my own.”
Wilhelm blinked quickly, moisture gathering in the corner of his eye. “After our father died, if he’d simply asked me, I’d have given him my half. But he chose to manipulate our father when he was half out of his mind with dementia. I made the mistake of threatening to take it to court, to prove that he’d done so, and take the whole thing away from him.”
He stroked a hand down Juliette’s back to rest on her hip. “I wouldn’t have. But I was angry, called him a thief, and said other things I regret.”
Juliette was angry on Wilhelm’s behalf. Yes, those were rough things to say, but the situation seemed to warrant it. “Considering he had stolen it from you, it’s a bit hypocritical of him to judge you so harshly for saying those things.”
“That wasn’t all I said.” Wilhelm sighed heavily. “My brother was never as good at running a business as I was. His own equity was dropping rapidly, while mine was going up. Without our father’s estate mostly going to him, he was looking at some financial trouble. And in my anger, I crossed the line.”
He cleared his throat. “I pointed out that he’d be broke without the inheritance, and he screwed me out of part of it to ensure that wouldn’t happen, because his wife, Carol, had only married him for the lifestyle he afforded her. I flatly accused him of betraying his brother to keep supporting a gold-digging wife.”
Juliette didn’t know what to say to that. It was probably true if Wilhelm had said it, but since she was unfamiliar with the situation, she couldn’t judge. “And?”
“I’d always suspected Carol was out for the money. When you have money, you get a vibe from certain people. I always got that from Carol. I shouldn’t have said it, even if I suspected it. If I’d let it go, we’d have still been on decent terms … and I wouldn’t have to face the fact that I can never apologize. I can never make it right.”
Juliette leaned up on her elbow to meet his eyes. “You can’t. And neither can he. He had plenty of opportunities to talk to you, Wilhelm. This kind of thing, it takes two, and I don’t think you should put the blame for all this on your own shoulders.” She stroked his cheek. “And I don’t think the whole bad situation started with you, so you shouldn’t feel bad that you couldn’t end it.”
He leaned up and caught her mouth in a kiss, then rolled so that she was beneath him. “See why I’m falling in love with you? Sexy and smart.”
She laughed into the kiss, but pushed him away enough to speak. “I’m serious, though. Maybe you said harsh things, but he did a rotten thing to you. I’m sorry it can never be resolved, but that’s his fault too. Please don’t beat yourself up over it.”
It hurt her heart to think that Wilhelm might blame himself, and if it took reminding him that it wasn’t all his fault from time to time, she intended to do that.
“Okay. I’ll try not to.”
A squeak came from the baby monitor, just one of the babies probably making noises during sleep. They both held their breath and watched for the little light to shoot to the top, but within moments the monitor was quiet again.
“We probably have a little more time before they wake,” Wilhelm said, his fingertip drawing a line from her shoulder, down her breast, over h
er nipple. “And I can think of a way I’d really, really like to spend that time.”
He pressed a kiss between her breasts and nuzzled there before moving up to kiss her face. “I’ve waited so long for this, I think every free moment between now and when I leave for Aspen should be spent right here with me kissing every inch of you.”
Juliette arched her neck against his lips when he lapped at her throat greedily. “Oh, Wilhelm, you’ve read my mind.”
Chapter Thirteen
Aspen was only a short flight, but it felt like it took a week. Wilhelm took Sven, his gamma, because he’d left Gunther to keep an eye on Juliette and the twins. He spent the flight listening to Sven hum softly along with whatever music he played on his iPhone. Wilhelm went over everything he knew about the accident, and every question he had for the detective when he arrived. And he couldn’t help thinking of the possibilities—an accident, or a murder. But why? Why kill his brother and Carol? For what?
By the time they reached Aspen, Wilhelm was edgy and wished they’d come at night instead of early morning. He wanted to find a wooded area to strip down and run, pound his paws against the ground until his bones jarred and rattled inside his body. He needed to work out the aggression and stress he felt before having to deal with unpleasant things like the sight of his brother’s car.
Detective Frasier assured him that it wasn’t necessary for him to view his brother’s body. The crash had been high-speed, there’d been a fire after impact, and visual identification was impossible. He didn’t tell the detective he didn’t need to recognize his brother’s face to know who he was. Even if he was burnt almost to nothing, Wilhelm would recognize his scent.
He hadn’t decided whether he’d put himself through such a viewing or not. Juliette had urged him not to unless he couldn’t find closure any other way. She was probably right.
He and Sven met the detective at the impound where the car was still being carefully examined. It was up on a lift with two technicians underneath. The tires were melted, one was even missing, and the car looked like it had been lit on fire and shoved into a trash compactor.
“Mr. Sorenson.” Detective Frasier held out his hand and walked toward him.
“Detective. Please call me Wilhelm.”
“All right. I’d like to show you something.” He led Wilhelm to stand next to the raised car. “Brakes failed. Typically if that happens via sabotage, it’s because the brake line was cut.”
Wilhelm peered up at the undercarriage. “How could you tell?” Everything about the car looked broken and ruined. Surely a single cut could be camouflaged in an accident like this when the crash destroys damn near everything.
“It’s not always easy in a case like this when things are torn apart or melted. They haven’t found anything that looks like it might have been a clean cut. Just accident damage. But they did find residue in the braking system that leads them to believe that the brake fluid was replaced with something else. They haven’t analyzed it fully yet, but it’s not the right fluid. So the brakes failed. Clever, really, because if the car had burned much longer than it did, there’d likely have been no way to discover it.”
Wilhelm clenched his teeth together, opened and closed his fists, the urge to punch someone, hurt someone, for what had happened growing inside him. “So, my brother was murdered.”
“I’m convinced, yes. If it was just funky brake fluid, that could be an incompetent mechanic, a mistake. But they’re finding other signs of tampering, as if someone wanted to make absolutely sure they’d lose control of the car. If the brakes didn’t fail, the steering seems to have been set up to fail. There are ample signs that someone wanted this car to crash. I’m sorry.”
Wilhelm nodded. “How do we find out who did this?”
The detective gave him a sad smile. “I’m looking into a few leads. Business associates, Carol’s friends and family. Not much more to go on right now.” The detective walked to a desk against the wall. Wilhelm followed and was handed a plastic envelope.
“These were recovered from the accident site.” The envelope held his brother’s wedding ring, and Carol’s engagement ring and wedding band. “I’m releasing them from evidence and thought you might like to have them.”
“Thank you.” Wilhelm took the plastic sleeve, numb, wondering if the detective expected an emotional display or whether he might even suspect Wilhelm if he appeared too stoic. “I’ll put these in a safe place for their children when they’re grown.”
The detective bobbed his head and took a deep breath. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go back to the station and ask some questions, get a statement from you, just technicalities. All things I could have done over the phone, but since you came all this way …”
“Of course.” Wilhelm folded the plastic sleeve into a small package and tucked it into the pocket inside his blazer. “And I have some questions for you too.”
Detective Frasier smiled and gestured toward the door of the impound garage. “I expected nothing less.”
*
After about an hour at the station, with both his and the detective’s questions answered as thoroughly as possible, Wilhelm decided that the last way he could honor his brother would be to actually go and see his body. Detective Frasier tried to persuade him not to once again, but Wilhelm felt it was something he had to do.
He worried he’d spent the rest of his life regretting the decision not to go, and once his brother and Carol were cremated, per their wishes, it was something he couldn’t undo. He’d had enough regret in his life when it came to his brother.
It might have been a mercy that the body on the table looked nothing like Halgar. It was shaped somewhat like a man, but blackened from the fire, shrunken, appearing more like a prop from a horror movie than the brother he grew up with. And the burnt smoke smell, the bitter char scent, was almost unbearable. Humans couldn’t understand how deeply a scent could work its way into a body. Wilhelm knew he’d be trying to rid himself of the memory of that one for weeks.
Under it all, though, he caught the faint scent of Halgar. There was no denying it. And as hard as it was to face the loss, he felt better prepared to move on from it.
When he got back to the hotel, ready to research online and find a place he could let his tiger run free later that night, the light on his room phone was blinking. He had a message at the desk. As the clerk read it to him, he sat on the bed and ran his fingers through his hair.
Ralph Marcoby. Carol’s brother.
Wilhelm didn’t know him, had only met him once or twice at family functions when he and his brother still spoke. He probably had the same kind of questions Wilhelm had.
But he wasn’t in the mood to answer them. He needed time to process everything, to try to come to grips with all that happened and all he’d seen. And he needed to talk to Juliette. Instinctively, Wilhelm knew that speaking to her would make him feel better than anything else he could do at the moment, including letting his tiger run free.
With a deep sigh, he decided to call Ralph back merely to get that conversation over with. Then it wouldn’t be hanging over his head when he called Juliette.
Ralph answered on the first ring. “Wilhelm. Sorry to hunt you down at the hotel this way, but I didn’t have your number. How are you doing?”
“That’s fine, Ralph. I’m all right. You?”
“About as good as can be expected.”
“Right.”
Ralph took a deep breath, then cleared his throat. “I wanted to talk to you about Carol’s children.”
Carol’s children. It seemed such an impersonal way to talk about your niece and nephew. But Wilhelm realized he might have used that same phrase before his entire world tilted on its axis and they were thrust into his life.
“My wife and I are fully prepared to raise them as our own. We know you’re a bachelor, and you have a certain lifestyle that probably doesn’t allow for two small babies, and we think it’s the least we can do for … for my sister.” H
is voice broke, but it sounded … wrong. Forced.
Maybe Wilhelm was just tired.
“Thank you, Ralph, that’s … kind of you … but it won’t be necessary. I’m managing with the twins just fine.” His hackles rose at the very notion that Ralph thought he’d just take them off Wilhelm’s hands, almost as if it were some sort of favor.
“That’s good. But it’ll be better for them to grow up in a family, rather than raised by nannies while you’re always at work making your fortune. I know you can afford to give them everything they could want, but that’s no substitute for loving parents.” Papers shuffled on the other end of the phone. “My lawyer has drawn up the paperwork for you to sign so that we can petition the court for custody. I’m sure if you think—”
Wilhelm shot to his feet. “No.”
“You have to think of what’s best for—”
“Ralph, I said no. My brother’s children are the only heirs in this family.” In my entire pack. “They’ll take over his business, my father’s business, when they’re old enough, and as such are my responsibility.”
Silence stretched out between them, until Ralph sniffed. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Wilhelm. I’m sure a judge will see things differently. You can’t provide a loving home living a wealthy bachelor lifestyle. Think of what’s best for them.”
Wilhelm had the urge to explain that he wouldn’t be leading a wealthy bachelor lifestyle anymore. He had Juliette. He could provide a loving home. Just the realization warmed him, and made the phone call twice as annoying because it was delaying his call to Juliette.
“If you think you’re taking these babies away from me, you’re sorely mistaken.” Wilhelm had enough money to pay the best cadre of lawyers ever assembled. He didn’t fear losing the babies in a courtroom.
“We’ll see about that. Expect to hear from my lawyer, Sorenson.”
Oh, now he was Sorenson instead of Wilhelm. Fine. He could play that way. He hung up and immediately dialed Sven to arrange for Ralph to be investigated. Anything that could be dug up on the man, Wilhelm wanted to know it. If he took this to court, he’d be sorry.
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