That stops me cold.I search his expression and find a sheen of vulnerability in his eyes.
The urge to grab his face and kiss him again thrums under my skin.He has some sort of spell on me, sucking me in.
I grasp for something to break it.“Does Dove know what we did?”
“She knows everything.I gave her every detail.”
My pulse thumps in my throat as I replay his mouth on mine, the frantic grind of our bodies, the heat, the mess, and the shock of wanting him, wanting more with him, more than just sex.
He must read the surprise on my face because he adds, “I don’t lie to her.Not about anything.”
If he’s telling the truth and she knows we fucked around, how are they still together?That’s a hard limit for Dove.Non-negotiable.The moment I get involved with someone she likes, she drops them.No second chances.
But she didn’t drop Wolf?Does that mean she’s open to something blooming between him and me?Or between us three?
A spinning, falling sensation rips the air from my lungs.Hope.It burns bright and dies clean.
It’s too late for hope.Too late for this conversation.Too fucking late for any of it.
I pull my hand from his, removing a fuse before it ignites something neither of us can control.
“I know what happened when you left that day,” I say quietly.“I watched the video footage of your path from the shop to the pier and saw you break.The panic attack, PTSD, whatever the hell that was… I know I triggered it.”
He nods once, eyes on the water.
“It won’t happen again.I’ll be gone by tomorrow.”I glance at the dark sky, remembering how late it is.“Technically, today.When you drop me at the dock, it’ll be the last time you see me.”
“That’s adorable.You think you’re in charge of the itinerary.”He turns his back to me and walks away, his shoulders loose and gait confident as he joins Kodiak’s side.
For the remainder of the ride, he watches me across the yacht.He and Kodiak bow their heads together, discussing whatever plans they think they can force on me.
When we dock, they fall into formation behind me.Wolf, Kodiak, and eight security heavies follow me to the tattoo parlor.Whatever.Let them babysit.
I unlock the shop door, and the parade files in after me.Guards sweep the lobby, the stations, and the break room where I sleep.I don’t fight it.I’m too tired and don’t have anywhere else to go.This is where I planned to stay until the cartel transport arrives.
Security finishes its sweep, hauling knives and guns out of the break room.Every weapon I stashed in there is found and confiscated.Annoying, but temporary.There’s nothing in that pile I can’t replace.
Behind me, Kodiak grunts, and I turn in time to see him pass a book to Wolf.
“Thanks for grabbing that.”Wolf tucks it under his arm.
“I hope you know what you’re doing.”Kodiak glares.
“Not even close.”Wolf gives his stone-cut cheek a patronizing pat.“I’m the jump-first, regret-it-on-the-way-down type.”
“I fucking know.”
Security herds me into the break room.I let them, knowing Wolf’s right behind me.
When he shuts the door, it’s just him.And me.
No Kodiak.No guards.No witnesses.
Wolf sets the book on the table and takes a slow look around the room.There’s not much to see.Cot, chair, metal table, bare walls.His gaze lingers on my duffel bag slumped in the corner, frayed straps, dirt ground into the seams.
“That it?”His brows pinch together.“Everything you own?”
I’ve lived out of a bag since I was sixteen.It never struck me as strange.But to him, son of the wealthiest man in Alaska, it probably looks sad and small.Proof I never stayed anywhere long enough to matter.
