Chapter 24
TRACE
I slept like shit. Staring at the smeared rain on Wolfe’s skylight all night did nothing to soothe the sting of rejection.
Because rejection was exactly what it felt like when Wolfe refused to trust me.
I’d brought up Fletcher Coe’s lyrics, hoping to give him an opening to tell me about it. But when I’d seen the panic in his eyes and the familiar self-soothing motion of his fingers, I’d let it go.
I’d given him another opening when I’d mentioned recording with Shay, but Wolfe hadn’t seemed to even register it.
I tried to remind myself that he did trust me with some things. Enough to let me carry the pack with his journal. Enough that he’d thought about me in his darkest moments today. Enough that the journal cover I’d given him held all his secrets.
But if we couldn’t discuss Wolfe’s secret identity as Fletcher Coe, I couldn’t help him solve the biggest problem.
How could I keep him safe if he wouldn’t fucking let me?
As I lay there listening to his soft breaths, my brain wouldn’t shut off. Every time I got close to falling asleep, I pictured Wolfe incapacitated on the trail. Wolfe tied to a tree. Wolfe crawling down a muddy mountain, injured and alone.
Seeing him wet and filthy on his hands and knees, trying to get to safety, was something I would never forget or get over.
My blood continued to boil.
Wolfe was hurt and exhausted. I didn’t want him to have to carry the burden of trying to neutralize Jake Mason.
I knew if I waited for Wolfe to wake up, we’d continue our very reasonable discussion about the situation. I’d try to control my temper, he’d try to master his fears, and we’d have a rational exchange of ideas in which I’d make sure he felt like his voice was respected as my equal partner.
I wanted that with him.
Hell, I wanted nothing more than to do that every single day of our future lives, if he’d let me.
But right now? At this moment? The man I loved had been assaulted, and the perpetrator still held a sword over his head. I was on fucking fire to do something.
So I decided to take action. And if Wolfe was angry at me for it, then we’d have a long talk about that instead.
Years of experience as a close protection officer and an emergency responder had left me with a habit of acting first and begging for forgiveness later. Wolfe’s safety and comfort were more important than his pride.
When I slipped out of the bed, I moved my pillow into the space my body had been, hoping the warmth of it against his back would fool him long enough for me to sneak away.
Thankfully, he was so tired he didn’t even stir as I carefully slid the van door open and closed again.
I stepped lightly across the gravel of his camping spot until I was on the paved drive, and then I picked up the pace to my rental vehicle, changed into jeans and a sweatshirt, and made my way to Montrose.
It was close to two in the morning when I entered the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office. Thankfully, Clay had still been awake and at the station when I’d texted to ask permission to see Jake. When I arrived, I was shown into a small room, where Jake was waiting at a scarred wooden table.
Just the sight of him made me want to lunge across it and drive my fist into his smug face.
Jake took me in with a quick up-down as if assessing what I knew. “Trace.”
“Jake,” I said, careful to keep my voice low and steady as I took the seat opposite him.
He pressed his lips together, but I could tell he was trying to hide a knowing grin. “Come to fight baby-boy’s battles?”
I inhaled and clenched my fingers into fists under the table.
The smile edged its way out of his pretend nonchalance as Jake filed my reaction away.
“He’s recovering from his ordeal,” I explained. “He was the victim of an assault.”
“Ugh. Poor guy. He okay?” Jake tilted his head in such a good impression of concerned friend, I might have fallen for it myself.
Wolfe really needed to stop beating himself up about being misled.
“Cut the shit,” I said, suddenly feeling the full exhaustion of the day settle deep in my bones. “The lab results will be back tomorrow. You drugged and threatened him.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “You can’t prove that.”
“I came here in an attempt to be reasonable.” Which was not fucking easy for me. But the only thing more all-consuming than my desire for vengeance was my desire to keep Wolfe safe. “I was hoping you’d be reasonable, too.”
He laughed, short and humorless, unfolding his arms and leaning back in his seat. I assumed the posture was meant to look relaxed, but it missed the mark.
“Reasonable. That’s me.” He studied the floor for a moment. When he looked back up, there was a sharper quality to him. “He tell you about Fletcher Coe?”
He said the name like he was dropping an ace on the table between us. But I merely looked at him without moving or speaking and watched his certainty waver by degrees as the silence stretched.
Inside, I’d gone still and cold. I wasn’t surprised to hear Fletcher’s name.
But having Wolfe’s most protected secret weaponized by this man, in that particular tone, in this sterile building, in view of a running surveillance camera, didn’t just make me angry.
It brought me back to a time in my life I hardly ever thought of anymore.
To a Trace I barely remembered. The one who’d survived on the streets for years.
I wasn’t that powerless man anymore.
“Fletcher Coe,” I repeated. “Sounds familiar.”
Jake’s jaw tightened slightly. He’d expected more of a reaction. “Wolfe’s journal was pretty illuminating. He mentioned you.”
It was galling that this man knew more about Wolfe’s inner thoughts than I did, though I refused to let it show on my face. I almost wished I’d snuck a look at the journal so I’d know exactly what kind of “proof” Jake had. But I wouldn’t betray Wolfe like that.
I also knew the proof didn’t matter. All Jake had to do was connect the two names to the rabid public, and Fletcher Coe’s fans would do the rest.
I’d spotted the connections. So had Gabe. They would, too.
“The person you’re fucking with has a family. A very large, very well-resourced family with deep connections in the legal and entertainment industries specifically.” I paused. “Jude Marian… more specifically, his bodyguard husband… does not take threats to his family lightly.”
“Then they’ll be eager to—”
“His family,” I continued, keeping my voice level, “has protected its people from significantly more sophisticated threats than this one. Journalists. Lawyers. People with a great deal more leverage than a stolen journal. If that name—the one you just said—surfaces anywhere publicly, if anything in that journal is shared, copied, or sold, the consequences will arrive fast.” I paused and met his eyes.
“And they will not be compatible with a successful music career for your sister.”
Jake stared at me for a long moment. It was obvious he hadn’t fully thought this through.
He hadn’t realized that Wolfe was surrounded by people who weren’t as sweet as Wolfe himself.
“And if I do nothing? What do I get out of that? Seems to me like it still ends in a jail cell for me, no matter what.”
I shrugged. “He didn’t drug himself, Jake. He didn’t tie himself to a fucking tree. You’ll get whatever the state decides you deserve.” And it still wouldn’t be enough, as far as I was concerned. “Your sister, on the other hand…”
Jake’s eyes turned speculative. “What about her?”
“I’ll promise to introduce Shay to Jude Marian if you agree to sign an NDA related to the journal.”
I despised how Jake had made his sister a pawn in his game, but I wouldn’t let him do the same to Wolfe.
His eyes closed in a disbelieving blink. “You will?”
I nodded, hoping my back teeth didn’t break from my anger.
“I’ll have someone send over the agreement in the morning.
You can take a look and decide if you want to sign it.
The deal is simple. You sign the NDA and agree not to share anything from the journal, and your sister gets the opportunity of a lifetime.
You don’t sign it—or you do, and don’t stick to the terms—and your sister gets blackballed from the music industry for life. ”
It was clear Jake was pissed. He’d already cast himself and his sister as victims of some imagined injustice. But he also knew I represented the kind of power that could actually ruin her chances.
And Jake was very interested in this deal, even though it didn’t help his own fate one bit.
“You’ll help Shay?”
“It depends. How much does she know?”
His eyes widened. “Nothing. She doesn’t even know he’s Wolfe Marian.”
I shot him a disbelieving look, if only to see if it would get a reaction. He kept talking. “I told her I was going to record the two of them performing a song together. That was it. She still thinks he’s a regular guy who knows a lot about the guitar.”
I hesitated before nodding. “Okay. I keep my promises, but it’ll be in writing anyway. Deal?”
I would follow up on my promise to introduce Jude to Shay, but that was it. What Jude decided to do with the situation would be out of my hands.
And Jude Marian wasn’t a fool. He was a fiercely protective father, backed by an even fiercer husband who’d rather burn the entire world down than let one of their children feel a moment of unease.
If and when he learned the truth of what had happened in Hush, Jude Marian would probably feel the way I did.
Furious, but unwilling to let an innocent young woman bear the brunt of her brother’s bad decisions.
His jaw worked. “Send over the agreement.”
I nodded once. And instead of hauling him up by his shirt and knocking his teeth out the way I wanted to, I turned and left.
Outside, the night air was cold and clean after the stuffy heat of the interrogation room. I moved to the rental car and sat in the driver’s seat, staring at the dark street beyond the parking lot.
I felt somewhat better. Wolfe would be furious when I told him I’d gotten involved, but I was a protector, dammit.
By profession. By nature.
Gabe had told me that everyone wanted to be seen by the person they loved.
I knew Wolfe wanted to be seen as competent. Mature. Capable.
But if we were going to have any chance at a future together, he needed to see me, too. He needed to trust that my desire to protect him from hurt and danger didn’t mean I saw him as weak.
I needed him to trust me with his secrets.
And, I realized, I needed to trust him with mine.
Because there were things I’d been holding back, too. From Wolfe. From myself. From Derek and Jude.
My feelings for Wolfe, my homesickness for family… and the knowledge that Wolfe was Fletcher Coe.
I’d wanted Wolfe to come to me about it. To tell me on his own. But the longer I waited to share what I knew, the more it felt like a wedge between us.
So I’d tell him in the morning. Gently. When he was rested and his ankle felt better. When the threat to his safety stopped clawing up my throat and I could breathe again.
And I’d confess about going to see Jake, too, though he’d hate it.
I pulled into the campground and parked in my usual spot. My body was already craving the solid warmth of Wolfe tucked against my chest.
When I slid the door open, part of me worried he wouldn’t be in there. That he’d be missing again. Then I recognized his familiar shape under the duvet and let out a breath.
Wolfe was here. He was safe.
And if I had anything to say about it…
He was mine.