She shook her head. “Thank you for letting me stay.”
“Of course. In your own way, you’re one of us.”
“Am I?”
“We’re all victims of my father. Maybe not in the same way you were, but in other ways.”
“I’m beginning to understand that.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks for showing up. I thought you might have run.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because I’ve done it before. I’ve run to get away from something. But there’s no escaping the past, Zee. You can only accept it, deal with it, and move on.”
“I’ve tried. For over ten years, I’ve tried.”
“Talking about it will help.”
“Will it?”
“I don’t mean talking to us, though I hope you will. I mean talking to a professional.”
“I could never afford that.”
“You can now. I’ll see that you get everything you need.”
“I couldn’t impose.”
“Are you kidding? If I can’t help someone my father hurt, what good is my inheritance?”
“But it’s his money.”
“Correction. It’s my money, and I want to use it to help you.”
“You don’t know what you’re getting into.”
“Trust me. I do.”
Reid approached us then with another flute of champagne for Zee. “Moving in on my date, sis?”
I laughed lightly. My God, my brother could turn on the charm. Already I could see Zee weakening.
I didn’t want her wobbly-kneed over my womanizing brother. I needed her strong. Strong and willing to tell her story.
Reid tapped his pocket. “Phone’s buzzing. Excuse me, ladies.” He stepped away.
“He seems…nice,” Zee said.
“He’s a good guy at heart.”
“He’s so handsome, too, except for…”
“Except for what?”
“He looks so much like his father. Your father.”
God. I hadn’t even considered how much we all resembled our father. But Zee was right. Reid looked the most like him.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t even think about that.”
She didn’t reply.
“You have to understand,” I continued. “None of us can think like that, or every time we look into the mirror, we’re reminded of the man who did such heinous things to all of us. To you. To so many others.”
“What did he do to Reid?” she asked.
I sighed. “I don’t fully know, and even if I did, his story isn’t my story. You’d have to ask him.”
“I can’t. I don’t even know him. Yet you’re asking me to tell all of you my story.”
I sighed again. She had a good point. “Zee, this isn’t about us or even about you. It’s about clearing all of our names. None of us is willing to go down for his murder when we’re all innocent.”
“I get that.”
I looked around the small room. Reid and Rock were in a corner in heavy conversation. Probably about the phone call Reid just got.
Damn. Probably more bad news.
But you know what? I wasn’t going to deal with bad news tonight. It was my wedding day. My wedding night. “Would you excuse me?” I said to Zee.
“Of course.”
I walked straight to my husband. “Time to go,” I said.
“Oh?”
“It’s my wedding night.” I smiled at him. “And you’re not going to get any sleep.”EpilogueReidThe Lone Wolfe.
Ha! Great pun, huh?
Within less than a month, my three siblings had all met their life mates and gotten married.
Not in the cards for me. I was the Wolfe of Manhattan, always with a new lady on my arm. Now, though, since all my siblings were off the market, I was indeed the Lone Wolfe.
The phone call I got after the wedding was from the NYPD detective on our case, Hank Morgan. Consequently, Rock and the rest of them headed back this morning on the jet.
Again, not in the cards for me.
Someone had to stay here in Las Vegas and deal with our damned luxury hotel and casino. Money is money. Words of wisdom from the bastard who’d fathered me.
Sure, all of us were being investigated for the fucker’s murder, but someone had to take care of business.
That someone was me.
Always me.
I wasn’t CEO of the company, but only I could deal with the contract mess here in Las Vegas. Story of my life. Under-appreciated to the max.
The rest of them were called back to New York for more questioning.
I wasn’t going down for his murder, and neither was anyone else in my family. Not on my watch.
Zinnia—or Zee—seemed to be the key.
I just had to get her to talk.
The Wolfe of Manhattan.
I’d never met a woman I couldn’t seduce.
So I’d seduce her.
And oh, she’d talk.