Rebel (Wolfes of Manhattan 1)

Yet someone had managed to breach the unbreachable.

The police had questioned me along with everyone else who had even a slight relationship to Derek Wolfe. As far as I knew, they didn’t have any leads yet, but it was still early. He’d only been dead for four days. The body had been autopsied and then cremated. None of the family seemed remotely interested in a funeral or memorial of any kind. Not that I blamed them.

And why was I ruminating on this?

Because Derek’s death had brought his son into my life.

And Rock had fucked me and walked right out again.

My phone buzzed.

“Yeah?” I said to Charlie.

“Reid Wolfe for you, Lacey.”

Not the Wolfe I wanted to talk to, but I took the call anyway. “Hi, Reid,” I said into the phone.

“Hey, Lacey. Look. I just want to apologize.”

“For what?”

“For my brother. I would have called sooner, but I didn’t want to bother you over the weekend.”

“Which brother?”

That got a laugh out of him. “Certainly not Roy. He hardly said a word during the reading of Dad’s will. Rock had no right to make that remark about your…uh…undergarments.”

I chuckled softly. After all I’d experienced with Rock, I’d nearly forgotten about his comment. “It’s okay. He’s far from the first of his kind I’ve dealt with.”

“Well, don’t worry. He won’t be bothering you anymore. You’re off limits, as far as I’m concerned, and I’m going to tell him so.”

“Oh.” An odd feeling swept over me.

One I didn’t want.

“That’s kind of you,” I said to Reid.

What was more important was what I didn’t say. That I didn’t want to be off limits to Rock Wolfe.

No. I wanted to be back in his bed. Back in the bed of a supreme asshole, but back there nonetheless.

“No problem. I’ve got my work cut out for me, but I’m determined that my brother is going to make a go of this. For all our sakes.”

“I think he’ll do fine.” And I meant it.

“Truthfully? He has a lot of potential, but there’s a lot you don’t know about Rock. He’s volatile. And he can be downright dangerous, according to my mother.”

“Dangerous? How?”

“I never could get her to elaborate, but good kids aren’t sent off to military school.”

I couldn’t argue the point.

“If I can tamp that part of him down, he’ll be fine.”

Dangerous? Not Rock.

Volatile? Yes.

But dangerous?

No, Rock wasn’t dangerous. He was passionate, driven, provocative.

Not dangerous.

Rock Wolfe wouldn’t hurt another living soul. I was sure of it.17RockAfter the conference call during which I’d uttered about four words, Reid took me around and introduced me to Carla, my secretary, and Jarrod, my executive assistant.

“Why do I need a secretary and an executive assistant?” I asked him.

“They both worked for Dad, and now they work for you.”

“Great. I’ll try to live up to his grand standard of shittiness.” I rolled my eyes.

“Think what you want about Dad, but he treated his employees well. Jarrod has been with him for four years, and Carla for a whopping fifteen. She’ll be retiring soon, and you can hire a brainless blonde with long legs, if you want. I don’t give a rat’s ass.”

“Reid, come on. How the hell was I supposed to know Dad treated his people well? He treated me like shit.”

“Yeah, he did. There’s a lot I don’t know about what went on between you two. Maybe someday you’ll tell me.”

“Not likely.”

“Our father was a dick. Bigtime. But you had to do something.”

“I didn’t do shit.”

“Brother, good kids don’t get sent off to military school.”

Yeah? And good fathers don’t rape their little girls.

“Fuck you,” was all I said.

I’d been a hothead. I knew that now. Instead of trying to do the bastard in myself, I should have gone to the police. But now, as an adult, I knew my father had probably had law enforcement in his back pocket.

My words seemed to jar Reid back into work mode. I tried not to hold what he’d said against him. He was my little brother, and I’d protected him as well. Though how he could live in that house and not know…

We stopped in a kitchen. “Coffee?” Reid asked.

“Man, it’s not even noon yet. I feel like I’ve had a full day. Yeah, coffee. Black.”

Reid poured us each a cup and then led me to his own corner office. He gestured to one of the cushy chairs in front of his desk. “Sit down. Let’s talk.”

I sat and took a sip of the hot coffee. “Not strong enough.”

“That’s the coffee for the staff. Jarrod will make sure your coffee is exactly how you like it.”

I set the cup down on the edge of his desk. “Get him in here, then. This isn’t worth drinking.”

“Word of advice. Treat Carla and Jarrod with respect. They’re here to make your life easier, but they won’t have a lot of incentive to do that if you make theirs hell.”