Rake (Wolfes of Manhattan 4)

“No, you have limos available.”

He smiled. God, he was truly gorgeous.

“Semantics,” he said in a teasing tone.

I shook my head. “Don’t play that card. The Wolfe money was enough to put me through hell. Hell that you people want me to revisit.”

Reid’s smile faded. “I’m not my father. Neither are my brothers or my sister.”

“I know that.”

Now I felt like crap. But wait. Why should I feel like crap? I went through what I went through, and I shouldn’t have to apologize for it. I won’t apologize for it. Someone should be apologizing to me.

Of course, that wasn’t fair. They’d all apologized profusely, even though none of them was at fault.

Reid took a sip of champagne. “My brother saved you that day.”

“I’ve never forgotten that,” I said. So true.

“Then don’t equate the rest of us with our father. We’re not anything like him.”

He was right. Still, I couldn’t help, “Except you’re pretty much a dead ringer for him.”

Reid’s jawline tensed. It went rigid, to the point where his lips trembled slightly.

That wasn’t fair. Not even a little. “I’m sorry. That was out of line.”

“Slightly,” he agreed.

“I owe your brother everything. I’ve never forgotten that.”

And I never would.

2

Reid

The black hair goth look was too harsh for Zee. She was a beautiful woman—with a rocking showgirl body—but the black hair wasn’t working.

I understood well why she wore her hair black. It gave her a hard look. A “don’t fuck with me” look.

She’d been fucked with more than enough for one lifetime.

But I’d deal with the hair, because I had to seduce this woman. I had to, not just for myself and my family, to help clear our names, but also because…

Well…because I fucking wanted to.

Zee was a challenge, and I never backed down from a challenge.

My father might have been a raging psychopathic rapist, but he did teach me a few things. Oh, I hated the bastard, but I learned some excellent lessons from him.

First, he taught me about hard work. There was simply no substitute for it.

Second, he taught me the value of the dollar. Sure, we Wolfes had thrown money around for decades, but only because we could. We kept a lot of our money in non-liquid assets where it was safe.

Third, he taught me about challenges. Nothing came easy, and challenges were to be embraced.

Not until his death did I realize just how he embraced every challenge. Criminal activity? Just another challenge. He figured out how to get away with it, and he succeeded.

Another thing I never knew, until after he died, was how much he truly hated his children.

How else would we all be suspects in his murder?

Derek Wolfe was the ultimate egomaniac. A megalomanic, even.

More and more, I wondered if he’d orchestrated his own death. My siblings disagreed with me, but they hadn’t worked with him. I had, and I knew him better than anyone.

In his warped mind, he’d see it as a challenge. Going out on his own terms.

Whatever Derek Wolfe had or hadn’t done, I was going to prove my siblings and I were innocent of his murder.

But I needed to get the cops off our tails to do it.

That was where Zee came in.

I cleared my throat. “You don’t owe Roy anything,” I said to Zee. A little reverse psychology never hurt anyone.

“You can’t actually believe that.”

Right, I don’t. “Of course I believe that. We’re all so happy he was able to rescue you. He didn’t even remember most of it until recently.”

“I’m sure it was horrible for him to realize what his father was.”

“Horrible for all of us. That’s why it’s so important to us—to me—that you know we’re nothing like him.”

“I never thought you were.”

This was where I’d normally try to touch her, but I held back. Zee required a different approach. I’d be in Vegas for another several days, so I had all the time I needed.

The Reid Wolfe seduction was usually a twelve-hour-or-less thing. I was willing to go slowly with Zee. Accept that she’d suffered terribly at my father’s hands.

But in the end, I’d get what I wanted.

I had to.

For my family.

My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out of my pocket. “The limo’s here for you. I’ll walk you down.”

She gave me a smile. Sort of. “You don’t have to.”

“Don’t be silly. It’s no trouble.”

Nope, no trouble at all, because I’ll be sliding into the limo beside you.

“I want to say goodbye to Riley,” she said.

“Of course.” I followed her across the room to where my sister stood with her new husband, Matt Rossi, a Montana man with long blond hair and light blue eyes in sharp contrast to my sister with dark hair and eyes.

“Thank you for inviting me,” Zee said.

Riley smiled, and I swore I’d never seen her look so happy. Funny. All those years, and I never realized how unhappy my little sister was.