Rebel (Wolfes of Manhattan 1)

Oh, God. I fell into Rock’s arms. Why had I agreed to draft Derek Wolfe’s will?

Rock kissed the top of my head. “We’ll get through this.”

I choked back a sob. Not a great time to be a whining woman—not that there was ever a good time for that.

Rock held me tightly while I attempted to piece the fragments in my brain into some sort of logical sense.

Derek Wolfe.

He was a mogul. A master strategist. A bastard extraordinaire.

But he was too much of an egotist to end his own life.

Rock was wrong. Derek had not been behind this.

Someone else had.55RockOf all the people I cared about—and a select few I didn’t—I was the only one with an ironclad alibi.

I hadn’t been in the state of New York when the murder occurred.

They could steal my Glock, use another with my prints on it and leave it at the scene, and it was still all circumstantial.

I could not have committed a murder if I wasn’t in the state.

But Lacey. Roy. Reid. Riley.

My mother.

Fonda, my father’s last flavor of the month.

They had all been here.

I didn’t know much about Fonda, but my brothers would. I’d bend their ears as soon as possible.

The others? None of them were guilty, especially not Lacey.

I knew it in my gut.

Someone was, though. Someone had killed my father and set us all up to turn on each other.

Who?

Who hated all of us that much?

I was going to find out.

But first—

“We’re getting married,” I said to Lacey, kissing the top of her head.

She pulled away, her eyes wide. “Huh?”

“We’re getting married. Tomorrow.”

“You sweet talker you.” The words were teasing, but not her tone. It was monotonous. Robotic.

“I love you, Lacey. You love me. We’d probably get married eventually anyway. This way I can protect you better.”

She nodded, again robotically. “Yeah. Okay.”

I gripped her shoulders. “Look at me.”

She met my gaze, her gorgeous blue eyes filled with terror.

“We will get through this. I will protect you. I promise you.” I kissed her trembling mouth softly.

She relaxed a bit then, and I deepened the kiss.

I’d protect her—and my siblings—with my life if I had to.

She broke the kiss, meeting my gaze. “I love you, Rock. I’d be honored to marry you.”

I cupped her cheek, her skin so silky under my calloused fingertips. “I love you so much, Lacey, and I promise you. We will have our happily ever after.”EpilogueRoyThe secret had lodged in my gut, always present, sometimes churning, and occasionally clawing its way up my throat as acidic bile, eating through my flesh.

For most of my life I’d ignored it. Not like I hadn’t had years to tamp it down, pretend it didn’t exist. Days had begun to pass where I didn’t think about it. Days turned into weeks, into months, eventually into years.

But always it was there, like a black cancer haunting me from the inside out.

Who to trust?

I was a recluse, never close to anyone, really—certainly not anyone in my family.

Flying to Montana to talk to Rock had been a mistake. I couldn’t expose my secret with his girlfriend there—his girlfriend who was a lawyer, for God’s sake.

Now I existed in a perpetual cold sweat, trapped in the ultimate mind fuck.

Help me. Please. Help me.* * *