Chapter 15 Neo #2
I keep my gaze fixed on the wood paneling. “Why wouldn’t it?”
“Because I can’t cope with you ignoring me,” he says hoarsely. “I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I can’t concentrate. You think that’s just going to go away when you do?”
“Yes,” I say firmly. “It will.”
It has to, because there’s no future for us. Wylder doesn’t want what I do.
And I won’t settle for anything less.
He laughs. It’s a hollow, bitter sound. It hits me low in my stomach. “You’re more intelligent than that. I barely understand what’s happening here, but even I know it’s not that simple.”
I can’t stay here. If I do, I’ll do something stupid. Something I’ll regret.
Like turning and slamming my lips against his.
I take a deep breath. “Let me leave.”
His arm falls away. “Fine.”
Fine. Funny how we both keep saying that.
I don’t think either of us is fine.
I can’t see a way to change things, either.
Wylder isn’t the only one who can’t sleep tonight.
Even with the wall between us, I can hear him pacing. Before our date, I took this behavior as a win. I loved the knowledge that I’d driven him so crazy that I was costing him sleep.
Now though, it has a pit opening in my stomach. This wasn’t what I wanted when I started toying with him. I didn’t want him to actually care.
It’s not my fault. No one has ever cared before. My behavior and neediness usually have people running in the other direction. Wylder did too…at first.
I know what’s changed for me, but what’s changed for him?
It’s that question and the sound of him pacing that have me working late into the night. There’s no hope of sleep, so I may as well keep working on Umbra’s servers.
I’m chewing on a Red Vine, the end hanging from my mouth as I suddenly hit gold. I freeze as screen after screen pops open.
Holy.
Fucking.
Shit.
My blood turns to ice as I sift through the information Umbra has on The Firm. Information that was missing from Ansel’s initial find. Times of drops. Locations of hits. Addresses of both recipients and targets.
Most of it predates the extra protection both Ansel and I put around the servers here, but not all.
Whoever is working for Umbra is more talented than either of us.
I click on another folder, and my heart stops dead in my chest. There are photos. Countless photos.
All of the Buckinghams.
It shouldn’t be surprising. We knew they were stalking us all before. It was how they forced Ansel to cooperate with their schemes.
The thing is, they shouldn’t be getting this close now. Wylder has more safety measures and guards on us than ever before. Guards are guarding the guards so that there are multiple layers of protection. No one should be able to follow us or get photos of us without someone spotting them.
But they have been.
There’s one of Ansel wearing a shirt he only bought last week. Dalton picking Jackson up from a class he started ten days ago. Wylder and me walking hand in hand down the street on our date.
But the worst one is from a few days ago. I’m crushed between Wylder and Samson as we watch a film. Whoever took the shot even caught Wylder’s proprietary arm around my shoulders.
They’ve been near the house, inside the grounds.
And none of us have been any the wiser.
Again.
I get to my feet and pace, knowing Wylder is doing the same on the other side of the wall.
There’s no good answer. I can’t deal with this alone. It can’t wait until morning, either. Umbra is clearly building a dossier on the Buckinghams for a reason. We can’t let whatever they have planned just unfold.
Taking a deep breath, I pick up my laptop. Moments later, I’m slipping into Wylder’s room.
He freezes instantly. “You came.”
There’s such elation in his voice that it takes my breath away. He thinks I’m here to sneak into his bed. Or to perhaps unleash some mayhem.
But what I’m about to unleash is far worse.
“Don’t freak out,” I warn him, “but I found something you need to see.”
His brows shoot up. “You hacked the servers?”
My head bobs. I hold the laptop to my chest. “I found something big.”
“Show me.”
There’s a wildness in his eyes that unsettles me. This isn’t the cool and collected man who took charge last time Umbra appeared. No, this is someone who has been pushed to the brink.
I know there’s a monster lurking under Wylder’s skin, a part of himself that he tries desperately to keep hidden. With my antics over the past few months, it’s closer to the surface than ever before.
I’d thought that by stopping, everything would go back to how it was when I first arrived. But I was wrong. His behavior since our date proves that.
What if what I’m about to show him pushes him over the edge?
If it were just me who’d bear the brunt of it, I wouldn’t care. But this isn’t about me. It’s not even about him. It’s about all of us. The Firm. The Buckinghams. His family.
We’re all at risk. We don’t need a crazy, out-of-control version of Wylder right now. We need the level-headed version, the one who can find us a way out of this shit-pit without losing any of us.
“Show me,” Wylder barks again. His temper is so high it’s almost palpable in the air.
With shaking hands, I hold out the laptop.
He puts it on the desk and opens the lid. The screen is reflected in his glasses, showing me every awful thing that crosses his field of vision.
When he gets to a photo of us on our date, he stops scrolling. His whole body starts to tremble as he zooms in on our joined hands before moving up to my face. I’m smiling at him in a way that’s so obvious, I wonder if he can see it.
If he’s suddenly realized the true reason for my distance.
He doesn’t say a word. Doesn’t move. Just stares unblinkingly at my smiling face on the screen.
“Wylder?”
There’s no response.
I repeat his name, moving close and putting my hand on his back, right between his shoulder blades. Despite his stillness, his heart is thundering beneath my palm.
Wylder is not calm.
Far from it.
“It’s okay,” I whisper. “Now that we know, we can fix it. That’s what you guys do, right? You’re The Firm. You can fix anything.”
“No, we can’t,” he says hollowly. “If that were true, then these photos wouldn’t exist. I’ve failed. I’ve failed you all.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. These photos don’t prove that.”
“Yes, they do,” Wylder roars. He sweeps everything from the desk in one motion. It’s not enough to satisfy him; the chair follows across the room.
I wince as his hand connects with the wall. He lets out another roar, but not in pain.
In frustration.
Wylder’s monster is free.
I leap back as he continues to trash the room. I’m amazed none of his brothers are pounding on the door, but maybe they assume it’s just the two of us going at it.
I wish that were the case. I wanted Wylder to lose control, but not like this. This isn’t him embracing the part of himself that he’s ashamed of. It’s letting it take charge. Something I know he will be disgusted by when he’s in his right mind.
I bite my lip, thinking desperately of what to do. Others might just leave and let Wylder come back down on his own. But I can’t do that. This is my fault. The photos might’ve pushed Wylder over the edge, but I was the one who balanced him there in the first place.
Another piece of furniture hits the wall. I don’t wince. For all of Wylder’s rage, none of it is directed at me. Even with the red haze clouding his vision, he’s being careful to keep me out of harm’s way.
It isn’t enough, though. This isn’t the Wylder we need right now. We need his cool logic. His calm assessment of a crisis.
I might’ve opened the cage for his beast, but I’ve got no clue how to make him return.
Suddenly, an idea occurs to me. An idea that’s either very clever or very, very stupid.
Slipping out of the room, I go to my bathroom.
I work fast, prepping myself and pushing a plug into place.
When I return, Wylder looks…well, wild. There’s no other word for it.
His shirt is hanging from him in tatters.
His hair is in complete disarray. Blood is smeared across his face, likely from his now-battered knuckles.
Maniacal eyes find me as I step over the threshold. “You left.”
Even his voice is different. Harsher. Guttural.
It doesn’t frighten me.
I let a smile rise on my lips as I slip my shirt over my head. It doesn’t waver as my sweats hit the floor, leaving me completely naked except for a slip of lace panties.
“I did leave,” I say softly as Wylder’s pupils dilate. “And I’m going to leave again now.”
“No,” he grinds out, already striding toward me.
“Yes, I fucking am.” I step backward toward the doorway, evading his reach. “And you know what you’re doing to do?”
His hands flex near his sides.
“You’re going to catch me,” I breathe.
A feral gleam enters his eyes. Then he speaks a single word.
“Run.”