Rebel (Wolfes of Manhattan 1)

“Easy.”

“Sorry, baby. But this is a fucking mess.”

“No, it’s not. I’m sorry someone stole your gun, but you weren’t in New York. They can’t possibly implicate you. I’m clearly the one who’s been implicated, and I was in Manhattan that night. I’m the one without an alibi, Rock. I was alone in my apartment. I have no alibi.”

“Your doorman?”

“Maybe.”

“Someone is trying to get to me through you. Damned if I know why, though. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe my mother isn’t behind this. Who else would want me to rot for the murder of my father?”

“Do you have any enemies?”

“Only my father, and even he isn’t stupid enough to plan his own death to get me from beyond the grave. Though he did do just that with that damned will of his.”

I cleared my throat. I had to ask, though I knew he wouldn’t answer. “Just why is your father an enemy, Rock? What happened between you two?”

His lips were a flat line.

No response. Not that I expected one.

I cupped his cheek. “It’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it. But if someone is implicating me—”

“I’ll protect you.”

I sighed. If only he could. Not even Wolfe money could get me out of this mess if someone had decided to frame me.

Why would anyone want to frame me?

Rock thought his mother might be behind this, but I didn’t even know his mother. She couldn’t possibly know Rock and I were together. We’d kept it pretty hush hush. Though if Roy and Reid knew…

Still, it didn’t make any sense.

Every lawyer instinct in me told me his mother wasn’t behind this. Of course, I’d never met the woman, and according to Rock, she was no saint.

My father had once cautioned me never to get involved with a man who had a bad relationship with his mother. “The way he treats his mother is an indication of how he’ll treat you,” he’d said on more than one occasion.

Boy, had I not heeded that advice.

Rock seemed to dislike his mother nearly as much as he disliked his father.

And there had been times in the few days since I’d met him that Rock had treated me less than nicely.

Oh, God…

“First thing we do is check with your doorman,” he said. “He’ll know when you came in and when you left. My father was killed during the night, so if you got home from work and then didn’t leave until morning, and the doorman knows that, you’re in the clear.”

“Someone could pay the doorman off.”

“I’ll pay more.”

“Damn it, I don’t want anyone paying anyone! This is crazy! I’m not guilty of anything.”

“I know, baby. I know. I’m going to make my mother or whoever it turns out to be pay for this.”

“Rock, I’ve been thinking. Why would your mother want to frame me?”

“Why does Connie Wolfe do anything? She’s a nut job.”

“She’s your mother. She created you. She can’t be all bad.”

He shook his head, chuckling. “She’s a mercenary, Lacey. She married my father for the money, lay in his bed for the money, and then, when he divorced her, she made sure she got plenty of his money for her troubles.”

“Does she even know about me? About you and me, I mean?”

“I don’t know.”

“If she doesn’t know about us, why would she have any interest in framing me?”

“She’s not trying to frame you, Lace. She’s trying to fuck with me.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Because it’s what she does. If it made any sense, she wouldn’t be Connie Wolfe.”

I sighed. “Maybe we should fly home. This is a mess. I feel so out of control here. And now with your gun gone…”

“I’ll take you home if it’s what you truly want, but I promised you the ride of your life. You’ll love it.”

I kissed his lips. “All right. Let’s take that ride. I’d love to get my mind off of all of this.”After a quick drive into the small Montana town to pick up riding gear for me, Rock strapped a helmet on my head, and we were off.

I held on to Rock for dear life at first, especially when he took hairpin turns around the windy back road. But soon I was looking above at the big sky, enjoying the wind on my face and the beautiful scenery around me.

We stopped for a late lunch at a biker bar.

Yes, a biker bar. I, Lacey Nicole Ward, good girl extraordinaire, went into a biker bar.

“Rock Wolfe! Good to see you!” A burly and bearded man wearing a black Harley vest greeted us.

“Hey, Burke, good to see you too. Though I think you just saw me two weeks ago.”

“True that. But I heard you went off to New York.”

“Where’d you hear that?”

“Word gets around,” he said. “How about a beer?”

“Not while I’m riding. But we’ll look at the menu for lunch.”