Chapter 34 #2
“Well, Mr. Crawford.” The words come out slow, each syllable weighted with challenge. “If you’re so good at security, where were you when Luna needed protecting from your boss?”
A ghost of a smile touches Cade’s lips. “Ms. Rodriguez, you misunderstand the nature of my employment. I protect Mr. Wolfe’s interests. And currently, his primary interest is Dr. Foster and her well-being.”
“Maren.” I divert her attention before she can continue this dangerous line of questioning. “Shadow really needs tending to. I did a rough clean of his wound and gave him some Gabapentin, but it needs a closer look.”
She hesitates, torn between staying to protect me and doing what needs to be done for Shadow and the sanctuary.
“I’ll be fine. This will all be over soon.”
“Fine.” She relents, but it’s obvious she doesn’t want to. She turns to Damien, jabbing a finger at him. “I’m watching you, Wolfe. If you hurt her again, I will gut you like a fish. Billionaire or not.”
Damien doesn’t flinch. “I would expect nothing less.”
Maren holds his gaze before turning to head upstairs. As she passes Cade, she pauses, looking up at him with narrowed eyes. “That goes double for you, Rambo.”
To my surprise, Cade laughs, a low, rumbling sound like distant thunder.
“Noted, Ms. Rodriguez.”
Maren storms up the stairs, and Cade watches her go, his gaze lingering on her retreating form with unmistakable interest. I turn to Damien and find him looking at me as Cade slips out the front door, closing it behind him.
The whole fucked-up situation crashes into me. The blood, the lies, the bodies, and now Maren and Cade. A hysterical laugh bubbles up from my chest.
“Did your right-hand man just check out my best friend?”
Damien frowns. “It would appear so.”
“She’ll eat him alive.” I imagine fierce, chaotic, take-no-prisoners Maren against Cade’s controlled military demeanor.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” He moves closer. “Are you alright?”
The genuine concern in his voice nearly breaks me. How can he ask that? How can he stand there looking worried about my mental state when he’s the reason I’m questioning everything I thought I knew about myself?
“No. I don’t think I’ll ever be alright again.”
Pain flickers across his face. “I never wanted this for you.”
“Didn’t you?” I challenge. “You wanted me to accept all of you. The monster and the man. Well, congratulations. I’ve seen both now.”
“And?”
His hand brushes mine, the touch so light it could be accidental. But nothing Damien does is ever accidental.
“What do you want me to say?” I keep my voice low even though we’re alone. “That I’m okay with what happened? That I’m not horrified by what I’ve become part of?”
“No. I want you to be honest. With me, if not with them.”
Honest. What does honesty even mean now?
Is it honest to admit that despite the horror and moral revulsion churning in my stomach, there’s also a thread of dark satisfaction in knowing Caleb can never hurt me again?
Is it honest to acknowledge that when I saw Damien’s violence tonight, part of me recognized it as the same intensity he brings to our passion?
“I don’t know what I feel anymore.” It’s the closest thing to the truth I can offer. “I look at you, and I see two different men. The one who spent months deceiving me and the one who will kill to protect me.”
“They’re the same man. I’ve never been anything other than what I am, Luna. I just showed you different facets at different times.”
“And who are you exactly?”
His eyes hold mine. “Yours. Every part of me is yours. The dark and the light.”
The words echo in my chest, finding resonance in places I didn’t know existed until he awakened them.
Places where the veterinarian, who dedicates her life to healing, meets the woman who welcomed a masked killer into her bed.
Places where compassion tangles with desire and where moral absolutes blur into shades of gray.
“I need time, Damien.” I repeat what I told him earlier. “To figure out who I am now. I’m not the same woman who almost shot you on her porch three months ago.”
He nods. Once. Sharp. But his face tells a different story.
Maren comes down the stairs with Shadow at her side, her expression still wary but less hostile. “I think the gabapentin is wearing off. I’m going to give him a little more before I take a look at that wound again. He’s still a bit agitated.”
“Thank you.”
He comes to me, and I crouch to hug him, rubbing my hand down his side, careful of his bandage.
He rubs his head against my shoulder, his fur warm and soft, and tears well in my eyes.
He saved me from Caleb tonight. Both he and Damien, but my wolf threw himself between me and an oncoming bullet, leaving me with an impossible feeling and gratitude.
I lift my eyes to look at Damien, and I know with absolute certainty that my other wolf would have done the same.
My attention shifts to Maren, who’s drilling holes in Damien with her stare.
“Thank you for this, Mar.”
She runs a hand through her curls. “When we’re done here, we’re breaking open that bottle of Fireball Ethan gave you at Christmas. We both need a drink, and you look like hell.”
“Thanks. You’re always so good for my ego.”
“That’s what friends are for.” She squeezes my arm, then turns and makes an “I’m watching you” gesture toward Damien several times, two fingers pointed at him, then at herself, before heading toward the door.
“Come on, Shadow.” She calls to him, and I stand up, urging him to go to her. On his way, he stops in front of Damien. He looks up, and when Damien offers his hand, Shadow lowers his head before bumping and licking his palm. A sign of trust between wolves and deference to an alpha.
Damien is no doubt an alpha, and Shadow always deferred to him, trusting him with me. Right from the start.
Maren and Shadow walk out the door, giving Cade a wide berth as they leave, but their eyes lock.
I nod toward them. “It seems I’m not the only one with questionable taste in older men.”
Damien follows my gaze, observing the charged interaction. “Cade is only fifty-five. The gray just makes him look older. You should see when he lets his beard grow in. But don’t let it fool you. He’s still quite capable.”
“Oh, I’ve seen what he’s capable of.”
As Maren walks away, Cade tracks her movement again.
She glances back, catching him watching her.
Her eyes narrow to dangerous slits, and her lip curls into a snarl, just enough to communicate exactly what she thinks of his interest. Cade meets her hostility without blinking, and his lips pull into a smile, subtle but unmistakable.
The kind of expression that says he’s just found something interesting to hunt.
“Cade is going to get himself slapped.”
“Or something else entirely.”
“Is that a Wolfe Group hiring requirement?” I’m unable to keep the edge out of my voice. “Attraction to stubborn, troublesome women?”
Damien’s eyes soften as he looks at me. “Not troublesome. Extraordinary.”
The word catches me off guard, warming places inside me that I’ve been trying to keep cold and rational. I can’t afford to melt now, not when I need clarity more than ever.
Karen walks in, and Cade follows.
“Forensics is done for tonight. They may come back in the morning to do one last sweep, but what they found so far matches your version of events.” She looks at Damien, then Cade. “I would recommend staying local in case I have any more questions.
“I’m not leaving Luna’s side.”
I know he means it, but I have to get him out of here. I can’t deal with his hovering tonight.
As Karen walks out the door, Damien follows, moving to stand on the porch.
I watch him through the window, taking in the rigid line of his spine and the careful control in every gesture, and my mind drifts to what tomorrow will look like.
Will the light of day make this nightmare clearer, or will it simply illuminate how far I’ve strayed from the person I thought I was?
One thing I know for sure. There’s no going back to who I was before Damien Wolfe climbed into my bed.
That woman died tonight.
Who I am now, standing in the wreckage left behind.
She remains to be seen.