Secret Babies of the Wolves (Box Set), page 25
10
Rhys
Even though it was a Sunday and no one was at the office, I still didn’t have the day off. When our business and personal lives were so thoroughly connected, there was no way to completely separate them. So once I finished my meeting with Dad and Gabriel to discuss my trip, I was back in my own office soon enough and moving on to one of several other projects I had going.
It was my job to handle things Gabriel was supposedly too busy to do. When he had me doing all his work, I wasn’t sure what he was so busy with, but as his younger brother, it wasn’t my place to complain. Our pack hierarchy made the chain of command even more strict than most organized crime operations: Dad was our alpha, Gabriel was his heir, and I was supposed to enforce their orders.
Of course, that was the way things had always been. No point arguing, even if it seemed like Gabriel gave me more and more to do every week.
Around 6 p.m., I was starting to get a headache from trying to make sense of a barely-legible shipping manifest; I was grateful to be interrupted with a text message. Even more so when I saw it was from Brianna, Do you have a minute?
I told you, come down whenever you want, I wrote back. I spent the next few minutes hoping she was planning to visit soon, since I could use a break from work. Besides, I had been wondering what she was doing all day, if she was any less nervous or intimidated by the place. Soon enough, there was a knock at the front door, and I rushed to answer. Seeing her there was such a refreshing change from all the charts and emails I’d been dealing with. My beast was in complete agreement, stirred up just by the sight and smell of her.
“Am I interrupting anything?” she asked as she came inside.
“Yes, and I appreciate it.” I forcibly held myself back from touching her until she gave me the okay, no matter how difficult it was. She had her ginger curls tied up into a knot on top of her head, leaving her neck bare. Her clothing was casual too, jean shorts and a plain white v-neck t-shirt—but with her figure, all that bare skin was already making my mouth water. “Was there something you needed? Or did you just want to see me?”
She flashed me a playful grin, “Maybe a little of both.” Her eyes wandered around the unit, taking in the differences from hers. The floorplan was the same, but the colors were darker, the décor more minimalist. “I tried coming down earlier, but you weren’t in.”
“Oh. I must’ve been in a meeting with my dad.” That was a bit of a foot-in-mouth moment after I just told her she could come down whenever. “Have you stayed on your floor all day?”
“Where else was I supposed to go?” she asked with a frown. “This isn’t my building. This isn’t my town. Even if there was somewhere I wanted to go, I’d just end up looking like a tourist.” She had a point, especially since she was there as my guest and not with her own plans. I hadn’t given that part much thought when I decided to invite her; I was just concerned about keeping her as close to me as possible.
“There are things to do here,” I pointed out. “There’s a gym on level twenty-three. Maybe you could give my Muay Thai instructor a run for his money.”
“I think I’d rather tussle with you if I had a choice.” She let her gaze wander down my body, sending a rush of hot desire through me.
“That can be arranged. Try not to be discouraged when I win, though. I’ve been at it for a while.”
Brianna scoffed out a laugh, seeming to enjoy the challenge. “Yeah, we’ll see about that, hot-shot. Don’t let the T and A fool you; I can hold my own in a fight.”
“I’m looking forward to a demonstration,” I told her, taking a step closer. Now that we were finally alone again, with no interruptions or obligations to separate us, it was getting harder and harder to resist carrying her off to bed. “There’s also a swimming pool on the roof. I wouldn’t mind seeing you out there either.”
“And here I am without a swimsuit.” She didn’t back away for a second, just watching as I moved in.
“I’ll buy one for you. If it means I get to see you half-naked, I’ll be happy to make the investment.”
“Mm. Not sure I want laundered money funding my swimwear,” she muttered, making a face.
“Why not? It’s funding your living space.” Was she really going to stubbornly stick to her ‘all organized criminals are monsters’ rhetoric throughout the whole stay? If so, it would probably be best to keep her away from Dad or Gabriel as much as possible. “Besides, our resources are going to be useful to you dealing with Antony.”
“What resources?”
“The Simones are really our only significant rivals. They’re the only family within five hundred miles that’s anywhere near as big or as active as ours,” I explained. There was also the fact that they were a rival shifter pack, but that wasn’t something Brianna needed to know. “Over the years, we’ve gathered a ton of information about them. If you look through it, maybe you’ll find something you can use.” That was the real reason she was there, wasn’t it? Just so she could stay safe while she decided what to do about him.
“That makes sense. And it would give me something to do.” She nodded, seeming encouraged by the idea, and looked up to meet my eyes again. The look on her face wasn’t remotely sexual or longing, but I still felt every bit as drawn to her, purely because of her proactive and aggressive personality. “Can you give me some examples of what you have on him?”
“Sure. Wait here.” I went to grab my laptop from my room, and once I got back we sat on the couch side-by-side so I could show her some of the files we had. It was a pretty diversified mix of information: official financial reports of Antony’s ‘legitimate’ businesses, transcripts of intercepted conversations between his men, patterns of how his work had interacted with ours in the past, and everything in between.
“Shit,” Brianna murmured, sitting a little closer so her thigh wound up pressed against mine. “This is a lot of stuff to dig through.”
“Well, you have time.” It took some willpower to focus on conversation when she was so warm and soft and sitting that close, but I put forth the effort. “You brought a laptop, didn’t you? I’ll send everything over and you can look through it at your own pace.”
“Do you think maybe…?” She paused, scrunching up her face like she was about to concede something she really didn’t want to. “Look, I’ve done a ton of research, but there’s still a lot I don’t understand. This is kind of your scene, though, so I’m sure you know better than I do. Do you think I could bring you the stuff I find? If I feel like it’s important enough? Maybe you can help me figure out exactly how to use it?”
No matter how reluctant she seemed, she was acknowledging that she needed my help. She was stubborn, but not enough to let it get in the way of her goals. I replied, “Of course. I’ll be at the office most of the day during the week, but once I get home, we can talk about whatever you’ve found.”
“Thank you.” The sincere gratitude in her eyes was nearly staggering. I definitely didn’t see much of that in my line of work. For a second, her hand rested on my leg, but she pulled it back just as quickly and looked away from me, drawing away to put distance between us on the couch. Did she not want to be near me? The thought put a cold pit in my stomach.
“Are you okay?” I asked, trying not to let my disappointment show. A silent nod was her only answer, and it wasn’t really a satisfying one. Trying to keep the mood light-hearted, I added, “Come on, you’ve never hesitated to say what’s on your mind before. Did I do something wrong?”
“No, no, it’s not you,” she said hastily, dropping her head to stare down at her lap.
“If I’m coming on too strong, you can tell me.”
With a dry laugh, she told me, “That’s not it at all. I like you coming on strong. I like how confident you are and the fact that you don’t treat me like I’m fragile. It’s just that… Any time I get close to you, all I can think about is how bad I want you.” Her eyes wandered to my legs, then up my arms, my chest, to my eyes and then my lips.
“And that’s a bad thing?” I asked, moving a little closer.
“Kind of…” Still, she leaned in to meet me, tilting her head up and letting me kiss her. When my tongue slipped past her lips—slowly, since I was trying not to overwhelm her—she pressed even closer, the softness of her chest pushing up against mine. But just as I thought she was getting more comfortable and tried to wrap my arms around her, she immediately broke the kiss to jump to her feet. And I realized I had done exactly what she didn’t want.
“Shit. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I wanted it. That’s the problem,” she said, folding her hands behind her back, shifting her weight nervously. “I think we both know there’s some kind of animal magnetism between us.”
“Yeah, you could call it that,” I chuckled.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but this has never happened to me before.” Did that mean she was feeling the same kind of fated attraction I did? The kind that didn’t come with an explanation and was impossible to ignore? She had shifter blood; it was possible her body knew her mate even if her mind didn’t recognize the idea. That was what I wanted to believe, anyway. Then she went on, “I don’t understand it, so it freaks me out a little.”
My wolf let out a miserable howl at the thought that our connection was making her uncomfortable. But how could I help her understand it without explaining the whole admittedly ridiculous-sounding concept? “I know what you mean. I can see why it would feel…weird to be so attracted to someone you hardly know.”
“That’s why I want to get to know you.”
Oh. That wasn’t the conclusion I was expecting. But then, she was the kind of person who faced things head-on instead of avoiding them. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I mean, get to know you as a person. Who knows, maybe the attraction is totally justified and I just don’t know it yet,” she said with a shrug and a smile. “Only one way to find out.”
“If you’re asking me to spend more time with you, I’m not about to argue. Maybe…we could have dinner tonight?” I proposed. “Just the two of us. That seems like a good enough place to start.”
Her smile only widened, and I fought back the urge to kiss it off her lips. “I’d like that.”
Unfortunately, I needed to get a little more work done before then, so we said our good-byes at the door. The brief kiss she gave me seemed more teasing than anything, but I tried to enjoy it for what it was anyway. Even once she was gone and I forced myself back to my desk, I couldn’t get her off my mind. And that worried me a little.
There was still one big issue standing in the way of my relationship with Brianna, even if she decided she wanted to be with me. It was the reason Dad and Gabriel were so concerned about me getting involved with her. One of my many responsibilities to the family. I still hadn’t figured out exactly how I was going to address it, but I knew Brianna was going to be furious when I told her. There was no point in bringing it up until I had a solution, anyway, so I told myself it would be fine to put off mentioning it a little longer. The last thing I wanted was her thinking she had competition…
11
Brianna
I got used to living at King’s Crest surprisingly quickly, all things considered. It only took a few days for me to develop a rhythm for how I spent my time. It seemed like Ellie didn’t spend weekdays at the Tower like the men of the family did, so she was always there to have breakfast with me, and I even started teaching her a little about cooking here and there—while very closely supervising, of course. We chatted about whatever was going through her mind, she asked questions about my life, and she offered advice (whether I asked for it or not) about how I could deal with my dad and her brother. I still maintained that Rhys and I weren’t actually together, but she acted like she didn’t hear me.
After she left for whatever else was on her schedule, I would settle into the sun-bathed living room or go out onto the balcony, laptop in hand, and start sorting through more of the materials Rhys had given me. There was a lot of information, but I needed something I could use against Antony, something that would stop him coming after me. As much as I disliked the idea of resorting to blackmail, he wasn’t giving me much choice.
My first hope was to prove I wasn’t actually his child at all, even though my mom had already confirmed it was true. Sure enough, I found her name in some very old observations of Antony’s personal life. In fact, there was a note along with it that read, Law enforcement. Could be persuaded to turn on Antony? Then about six months before I was born, her name disappeared from the records, which confirmed the story she had told me.
Now that that idea was out the window, I was left wading through masses of emails and phone call recordings without a whole lot of direction, taking notes as I went, just hoping something would stand out as useful. For some reason, there was a trend of information about wolves, but I couldn’t make any sense of it. Maybe some kind of code? Whatever it was, it didn’t really seem relevant to my search, so I passed over it.
After a few hours of ‘work,’ usually around 6 p.m., I was so frustrated that I could’ve torn my hair out, so I would call it a day and head down to the gym Rhys had told me about. An hour or so of running Muay Thai drills usually helped to get a lot of that tension out. Rhys typically got back from the office around 7, and we would have dinner together at 8, then talk about whatever I had found in my ‘research.’ Considering how unpredictable my actual job was, this was the most structure I’d had since my patrol days.
The Friday after I arrived went by pretty much like this, but while I was slogging through the Antony Files, I came across something disturbing. It was an audio file labelled, ‘Russo, Andre – settlement.’ When I played it, I was surprised to hear Gabriel’s voice, along with Rhys’s and a third man I didn’t recognize, presumably Andre Russo.
“We aren’t asking for much, Andre,” the recording of Gabriel said. “No big schemes or sabotages. Nothing harmful at all, really. Just a check-in now and then.”
“If you think I’m stupid enough to value your money over Antony’s trust, you’ve got another thing coming,” Andre scoffed.
“Please. We’ve seen your record; we know you’re not sloppy enough to get caught.” Gabriel again. “Antony never has to know.”
“Keep in mind, it isn’t just about the money,” Rhys added. “I’d rather not go into the details, but we all know there’s more to the conversation than that.”
Silence for a few seconds. Then Andre answered with an icy edge to his voice, “No, Mr. DeMarco, I don’t think we do. What exactly do you have in mind?” There was a sigh, then a sound like pages flipping, and Andre sucked in a sharp breath. “Where the hell did you get these?”
“It was definitely a smart move, taking work so far away from your family,” Gabriel said calmly. “But you’ve been in the business long enough now to know that distance alone couldn’t keep them a secret forever.”
“You understand the position you’re in, Andre.” The dark tone in Rhys’s voice was really starting to unnerve me, especially since it sounded so sincere. “Don’t make us spell it out. You give us a brief report every month or so, and Shelby never has to find out exactly what her dad’s doing in St. Louis. Or how dangerous it is.”
“Son of a bitch,” Andre growled. “Fine. Fine. Just stay away from them.”
“Glad we could come to an agreement,” Gabriel said pleasantly.
The recording stopped there, and I had to set my laptop aside for a second, suddenly feeling nauseous. Sure, I knew this sort of thing happened. Maybe it shouldn’t have bothered me, since it sounded like one of Antony’s men they were threatening—but they weren’t threatening him. They were threatening his family. His daughter. Who in their right mind could refuse that kind of pressure, no matter how loyal they were to their boss?
Was this the kind of thing Rhys did often? Nothing I’d seen of him suggested he would ever sink that low, that he could remorselessly threaten a child just for some insider information on the Simones. There was no way I could reconcile the man I had just heard with the man I was getting to know, the one I felt so magnetically drawn to. Suddenly, that magnetism made me feel a little queasy, as I was forced to confront the fact that the man I wanted so bad was factually a criminal.
“Fuck,” I muttered, dropping my head into my hands. There was no way around it; I had to talk to him about this. If he didn’t see any problem with his actions, I wasn’t sure we could go any further.
…
Of course, Rhys noticed how quiet I was at dinner. I think the first clue was that I didn’t want to cook. We ordered in instead, and as I was picking at a tray of lo mein and egg rolls, he finally spoke up. “Okay, what’s wrong? Did you have a bad workout or something? You’re usually starving by this time.”
“What did you do at the office today?” I asked, ignoring his questions. His hazel eyes narrowed slightly.
“Work.” That was usually the extent of what he wanted to tell me. After what I’d heard earlier in the day, I was starting to have suspicions about why he was so cagy.
“Can you be more specific?” I shot him a look, and he sighed.
“I’m never doing just one thing,” he answered, probably realizing that I wasn’t going to give this up easily. “I visited one of our other properties to investigate a client complaint. I spoke with some of our overseas partners to make sure next month’s shipments are on-schedule. Gabriel and I discussed options for an upcoming land development project. It’s just…work.”
Sure, all of that sounded innocent enough in those terms. But exactly what kind of properties and clients did he mean? Smuggling operations? Racketeers? What kind of partners and shipments? The DeMarcos were knowing for dealing in drugs. There was just no way of knowing how much of the ‘work’ he did was legitimate and how much would make me sick to hear about.
