Chapter 14
Male bonding done right was a fearsome thing. It brought together all that heady testosterone into a force that echoed in the bones and stirred even the most timid to battle.
Alyssa wasn’t timid by any means, but this man, this creature that was Simon stood like a god before these men. If he told them to die for him, she believed they would. And they had only just met him.
But what did she think of the man who had just killed not once but twice right before her eyes?
She was a civilized woman and she hated such brutality.
Except she had cheered when he’d killed Nanook.
Her mind had stuttered into shocked awe when he had shot the drug dealer.
And now, when he’d brought his men to a growling roar?
Her heart had surrendered. Though she’d kept silent, her body had thrilled at the sound and her breath had whispered out in a sigh.
She was wet and willing for him, and the very thought shocked her to her core.
She’d promised that he could have her, but at the time it had been simply a way to bring his mind back from the animal inside.
Now she realized, she’d been lying to herself.
If he asked, she was pretty sure she’d do whatever he wanted.
And that terrified her a hundred times more than the violence she’d just witnessed.
He was looking at her now. His body was strong and fiercely male, and he clearly gave no thought to his nakedness. Though, damn, it was hard to keep her eyes on his face. He spoke to her in a low undertone.
“I need to learn the details as fast as possible,” he said. His gaze flickered, and she was startled to sense uncertainty despite his gruff tone. “Will you take notes?”
He still hadn’t remembered how to read and he needed her help. “Of course.” She pulled out her cell phone. She thumb-typed way faster than she wrote.
Then he looked at Vic. “I need a beta,” he said to her brother.
Vic frowned. “I have no idea what that means.”
“An XO. Will you serve me?”
“Yes, sir!” Vic straightened into a military salute that was crisp and so handsome on her brother. Every now and then he gave her a flash of the man he could be, and right here despite all the changes, she was seeing what she’d always hoped was in there.
“The bodies,” Simon said with a gesture. “Talk to the cop. Figure out what’s the best thing to do.”
“On it.” Wow, her brother even did a military turn as if he were on a parade ground. Meanwhile, the cop nodded to Simon and then Vic.
“My name’s Ryan Kennedy. Detective.”
“Vic Nelson. Simon’s beta.”
They shook hands awkwardly, but soon got to business by talking in low tones. Alyssa turned back to Simon, belatedly realizing that she was now the center of his attention. And he just stood there looking at her with an intensity that made her heart beat triple time.
“Simon?” she finally asked when the tension got too much for her.
His voice came out in a bare whisper. “Four steps. First, become dominant. Second, please the alpha female. Third, lead the clan.” He paused as his eyes became brilliant green. “Fourth, lead wisely.”
She didn’t know what to say. Her mind was still spinning on how he could please the alpha female and the guess that he meant her. But that wasn’t what he was asking her, and she struggled to catch up.
“My thoughts are simple: four steps.”
“Dominance, female, leadership, wisdom. Got it.” She didn’t get it, but that’s all she had at the moment.
His gaze traveled the room, pausing significantly on Nanook’s carcass and the dead drug dealer.
“You are the alpha female. Your role is wisdom. Only you can stop me before I go too far.” She nodded, her gaze cutting back to Vic, but Simon grabbed her arm.
“They’ve sworn loyalty. They can’t disobey. ”
And since she was the only one who hadn’t growled or roared, that left her.
And what a sticky place that was. She was supposed to be the brakes on an unpredictable, violent man?
No way. That was crazy and a sure way to die.
She’d seen that enough just growing up in Detroit.
And yet, the way he looked at her—dark and intense as if she was his only lifeline—had her aching to reassure him.
“I can tell you,” she said in a whisper. “I can’t make you listen.”
He swallowed, and his gaze turned anguished. “I know.” Then he glanced behind him at the body of the drug dealer. “I just killed a man.”
“You just killed two.”
“I don’t regret Nanook. He demanded the challenge and would have killed me. The other—”
“Was about to shoot you. Same self-defense argument.”
“Or entrapment. I knew where the guns were. I knew someone would grab one.”
Surprise flashed through her body. While she’d been barely following what was happening, he’d been thinking at least two steps ahead. She’d always guessed Simon was smart. Now she realized he was probably the smartest man she’d ever met.
But rather than give away exactly how sexy that made him in her eyes, she looked down at her phone. “What do you need from me?”
“Just take notes.”
She nodded. “Who do we start with first?”
He gestured to the huge, ebony-skinned man with the scar, and pretty soon she was tapping out details faster than even her thumbs could manage.
Which meant she quickly gave up and switched to record.
His name was Hank and he was very familiar with the details of Nanook’s operation.
He shared them easily while she gestured for Detective Kennedy to listen in.
Next step was to control the physical space.
Apparently Nanook, who had no known relatives, lived right upstairs in what turned out to be a luxury man-cave of truly appalling leather and velvet taste.
His only nod to style was that the painted picture of dogs playing poker was done as bears.
Simon took one step inside, wrinkled his nose and said, “Get rid of it all.”
Alyssa blinked and said, “Come again?”
Simon gestured to the huge open area that took up the entire second floor. “Sell or burn everything. Take the money as a legal defense fund for my people. Give all paper and electronic files to me.”
She nodded slowly. It was a huge task and certainly one she was willing to do. But it was going to take some time and effort. A lot of—
“I’m hiring you, Alyssa. A thousand a week at first. More as we get settled.”
A spark of greed kindled in her belly, and she arched a brow. “I have a business.”
“That’s why it’s only a thousand at first. Because you’ll be splitting your time.”
Good thing she had things running like clockwork at the laundromat. “Triple it and you’ll get me twenty-four/seven this week. We’ll renegotiate next week.”
“Deal.”
And so began the most incredibly exhausting day of her life. It wasn’t just that he needed her to write down everything he learned, but there were bodies to take care of and police statements to give. Nothing in the upper story could be dealt with until that was done.
All in all, it went pretty smoothly. Detective Kennedy smoothed things over and even recommended a good lawyer.
Alyssa was able to check out the guy through her own contacts, and declared he was a good choice.
Plus, it helped that Simon turned over all the records they could find regarding the drug and weapons business.
Yes, Nanook had been into all sorts of nastiness.
Simon worked methodically. He would not be rushed and nothing distracted him.
She had to admire such a steady and organized mind, but as the day wore on, she saw the toll it was taking on him.
Though he never raised his voice, his words got more clipped, his orders became commands, and he rarely waited long enough to see if they were obeyed.
Or even acknowledged. By the end of the day, there was no softness in him, not even for her.
At least twice in the afternoon, he’d managed a whispered, “Thank you,” to her.
Now she didn’t even see a gentleness in his eyes much less gratitude.
He was cold and impatient, and he turned up his nose at the pizza she’d had delivered. When she’d offered him a glass of tap water (he refused to touch anything Nanook had in his refrigerator), he’d slapped it out her hand like it was toxic waste.
It was midnight when she lost patience with him.
Most of the men were gone, though Detective Kennedy was likely to be working at the precinct through the night along with Vic and the accountant whose name escaped her at the moment.
Hank remained a silent witness to everything that went on while a steady parade of people wandered in, greeted Simon by showing him their neck, and then wandered out.
They never shifted and they never said much of anything, but Simon would whisper to her after they’d left.
“Wolf.”
“Cat.”
“Human.”
“Bear child.”
She found out later that meant the child of a shifter but one who had never shifted.
They still owed loyalty—to a point—but were rarely counted as part of the real clan.
As far as she could tell, they were from all walks of life and had varying degrees of annoyance or respect at being called in to greet the new alpha.
But it was the last label that finally tipped her into fury.
“Sycophant.”
“That’s Mrs. Garcia, and she’s important in the neighborhood,” she snapped.
And when he just looked at her with a flat expression, she continued on her tirade, barely able to keep her voice low.
“She owns the cleaning company who is bleaching everything tonight and her nephew is the one taking out the furniture. They’re doing it as a personal favor to me.
” And because she’d promised them a big healthy check if it was finished by tomorrow at noon.
“Plus her sister’s kid runs a furniture store that can get you what you want wholesale. ”
“And she’s important in your neighborhood,” he repeated, as if that explained everything. He gestured to her notes. “Alyssa, I can smell the cannabis on her. She’s the dealer two doors down your street.”