Primal Bargains

by Raleigh Davis

  Primal Bargains

  Raleigh Davis

  A wounded beast in hiding, a brazen beauty, and a killer secret from his past…

  * * *

  Tess: The dark rumors that swirl around Gideon Wolfe both frighten and intrigue me. I’m desperate for the job he’s offering—and intensely curious to see the beastly billionaire recluse for myself. But soon I’m trapped in his castle and entangled in his secrets… and his bed. I’m in deep and I don’t want to find my way out.

  * * *

  Gideon: People would kill to know the deadly secrets of my past. And when someone tries to steal one, I realize I can’t trust anyone… not even the men who share that past. But Tess is different. I have to trust her if she’s going to finish this job—still, I’m keeping her by my side twenty-four seven. But when I start to fall for her, she’ll be the biggest danger of all.

  * * *

  Band of Billionaires: A tragic secret binds them together… Revealing the truth could tear them apart.

  * * *

  Primal Bargains (Book One, Gideon’s Story)

  * * *

  Deadly Appetites (Book Two, Cassian’s Story)

  * * *

  Covert Sins (Book Three, Archer’s Story)

  * * *

  Forbidden Loyalties (Book Four, Gage’s Story)

  * * *

  Lost Hearts (Book Five, Bishop’s Story)

  * * *

  Necessary Betrayals (Book Six)

  Copyright © 2019 by Raleigh Davis

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Chapter 1

  I have no idea Gideon Wolfe’s life is as fucked up as rumor says until I see the smashed gate-access box.

  I’ve heard all kinds of things. Whispers about a ruined face, a mind gone totally insane, a company left completely leaderless—all that flashed through my mind when I got the call about installing a new security system at Wolfe’s South Bay compound. But I put them out of my mind—at least I tried to, because some of them are wild—and focused on the job. A job with a possible payday that could solve all my problems and then some. So I’m going to ignore the rumors and give Wolfe the best security system in the world.

  Every single crazy story comes rushing back to me as we pull up to the front gate, all big and wrought iron and imposing, at least several feet higher than the roof of my little work van. I reach out to punch the buttons in the call box…

  And where the screen and keypad are supposed to be is just a mess of wires and smashed glass and broken buttons. The post is still standing straight, so it wasn’t a car plowing into it that did this. It’s very specifically localized to the screen and buttons—the metal box is intact and smooth. It’s almost like someone took their fist to the sensitive parts of the box.

  Suddenly the darkest rumors I heard don’t seem so far-fetched.

  I pull my hand back as I swallow hard. I look at Victoria in the passenger seat. She’s my coworker and best friend. And my lieutenant once upon a time, back when we were both in the Army. We exchange raised eyebrows.

  “What the hell is going on?” I ask.

  She bites her lip like she wants to turn around. But she says, “That’s why we’re here, right? To make this place secure?”

  “The dude I talked to didn’t say anything about the gate-code box being smashed.” I take a quick glance around and lower my voice. “And then there’s all the stuff everyone’s been saying.”

  Things like Wolfe’s face is completely scarred. That he has burns over ninety percent of his body. That he knew his attacker. That he hasn’t been seen by anyone since the incident. That he’s locked himself in his attic like some mad wife in a book.

  Of course, there are also the rumors that he’s just fine, that this is a publicity stunt, that he hired the guy who attacked him.

  The only thing anyone knows for sure is that Gideon Wolfe, billionaire and inventor of lifesaving, revolutionary medical devices, had something happen at his compound a week ago. Ambulances came, smoke was spotted, the police were there. And he hasn’t been seen in public since.

  No one knows where the rumors came from, but it doesn’t really matter. Once they lit up, it was like a wildfire, racing from person to person. Even if Wolfe did start the rumors, he can’t control them now.

  The one thing I know for certain is that my fledgling security firm was hired yesterday to come out and beef up his security. I was offered an insane amount of money to drop everything to do it, the kind of money that will wipe out my student loans, my parents’ mortgage, and my sister’s legal debts. My whole family would be debt-free for the first time in… ever. We could actually all take a breath without hundreds of thousands of dollars of worry hanging over us.

  It was also a huge coup for my firm, Shield Solutions, to be offered this job. We’re small and scrappy, and being hired by one of the most famous men in Silicon Valley would be awesome for our name recognition.

  Wolfe might even pass our name on to his billionaire friends. He’s got a circle of them, five guys who came up together in the rough-and-tumble tech world. They all started their own companies, and they all got super, super wealthy from them. The rumors about the five of them are even wilder than the rumors about what happened to Wolfe. They belong to the same exclusive sex club. They own a private island—for sex parties, of course. They fly together on their private jet—and have sex parties on it. Oh, and mostly they’re photographed together at fancy parties… where they’re not having sex. But they probably go to the sex club together after.

  When I heard those things, I thought they were funny, like something out of a prestige drama that took itself too seriously. But now that I’m actually going to meet Gideon Wolfe, imagining those stories makes my mouth dry and my heart pound in a way that isn’t exactly disapproval.

  Victoria blows out a long breath. “We don’t know what happened.” She looks to the closed gates. “But if we go inside, we can find out.”

  “Why, Victoria Shepard, are you suggesting we snoop?”

  Her cheeks go pink. “No. But we might see something as we’re going through the place.”

  I look up at the gate. “Well, I’m very tempted to do some snooping. But nothing’s going to happen until we get through this.” I reach for my cell phone. “Let me call the guy and see what’s going on.”

  Right as my hand closes over the phone, the gates start to swing open slowly, silently. Something about the sweep of them reminds me of a bell tolling, which is weird.

  “I guess the security cameras weren’t smashed then,” I say.

  But as we drive through the gates, I can’t see any cameras. And I know exactly where to look because I install the things. If someone is watching us, I can’t see where they’re watching from.

  The estate is out in the middle of nowhere. Like real nowhere, not the Bay Area version of it. We came in on the 84, passed a few small, charming towns, then had to go south on a dirt road. We turned on another dirt road, then another, until we finally ended up on something called a truck trail. If I hadn’t looked up the place on Google Earth, I would have suspected it didn’t actually exist after all those dirt roads.

  But here it is. The driveway is lined with thick trees that block our view of the rest of the property. I can’t see the house yet. The roof on Google Earth looked pretty nice—and pretty massive—though. I’ve done things for wealthy clients before, but not so wealthy they had a wooded estate. I feel like I could get lost in all this acreage. The forest and shrubs grow thick enough to almost seem like
armor for the house.

  Victoria is scanning the trees like she expects someone to pop out of them. I wish she’d stop since it’s making me nervous, but I know old habits die hard.

  Finally the house appears. It’s very… linear, like stacks of glass and wood and steel are rising from the earth to make up the two stories of it. A long deck wraps around the south face, a solid wooden fence enclosing it. The entire first floor seems to be nothing but windows, but I wouldn’t call it open. Elegant sci-fi fortress is how I’d describe it.

  “Wow.” Victoria’s staring at it with wide eyes.

  My eyes are just as wide because it really is something. This is the most extra place we’ve ever been, and tech titans with money can get pretty extra at times. The fortress-like feeling makes the smashed gate call box that much stranger.

  This house is holding secrets, that’s for sure.

  A man is waiting on the front steps, wearing a dark suit. He’s got massive shoulders, a thick neck, and a powerful resting angry face. His expression doesn’t flicker as we pull up.

  Victoria and I exchange a look. “That’s the welcoming committee,” I whisper.

  “If he flexes too hard, he’ll tear that suit apart.”

  I wink at her. “If we’re lucky.” I’m mostly joking—this guy’s too surly for me—but Victoria rolls her eyes and laughs, which was my goal.

  I walk up with my shoulders back, my steps brisk, my spine military straight. Confidence is ninety percent posture, and I’m going to grab for that ninety percent and then some.

  “You’re Rustem?” I ask, holding out my hand. “I’m Tess Robards with Shield Solutions.”

  His face relaxes and he shakes my hand with a firm but not punishing grip. “That’s me.” He’s got a faint, hard-to-place accent. “You found it all right?”

  “We did.”

  Rustem shakes Victoria’s hand, then motions her aside. The movement is brusque and leaves no room for disagreement.

  I grit my teeth and remind myself to keep it cool. Victoria is my employee, but she’s also my friend. I feel as responsible for her now as she did for me back when we were in the Army. All this guy did was be kind of rude. And he’s the client—or the employee of the client—and they’re always right.

  Rustem takes something that looks like a phone out of his pocket and sweeps it over the car and even crouches down to check the undercarriage. He swabs the tires and sticks the testing strip into a slot on the phone. I can’t be completely sure, but I think he’s checking for explosives. Except I didn’t know those machines were phone-sized now.

  “You should have done that before we got this close to the house.” I can’t help offering the suggestion. “If we wanted to blow this place up, we could have detonated by now.”

  He cuts me a look. “I know. Things are… You’ll see. And that’s what you’re here for.” He puts the phone back in his pocket, gestures for us to raise our arms. He takes a wand from behind his back and sweeps us but doesn’t pat us down. Again, the wand doesn’t look like any type I’ve seen before, and I know my metal detectors. Maybe this is like the phone, something totally new.

  But if Wolfe has access to all these cool security toys, why call us in?

  “You’re clean,” Rustem says once he’s satisfied.

  A sudden suspicion occurs to me. “Did you just x-ray us?” If the explosives sniffer is pocket-sized, what could they have done with an X-ray scanner?

  He says nothing, just motions us forward.

  I watch him walk off, and I consider leaving. This is strange, and my gut is not liking it. The job might not be worth whatever is going on here.

  But… it really is worth it. The amount I was promised is astronomical. Life changing. Not just for me but for my entire family. And for Victoria too.

  I exhale sharply and start to follow him.

  Victoria leans toward me and drops her voice. “This is like bizarro airport security. The wand, the scanner… He was checking for explosives, right?”

  “I think so,” I whisper back. “This whole deal is super weird.”

  “But super well paying.”

  We walk up the low steps, which are made of slabs of gray slate, and come to a nondescript door. If I wasn’t looking closely, I might have missed it. Must be the servants’ entrance.

  But when we walk into a gorgeous foyer, I realize I was wrong. That was the front door, although nothing about it was welcoming. The foyer itself is large, leading right into a living room with a massive fireplace dividing the space. Other than the fireplace, there are no walls, and with the exterior walls made entirely of glass, there’s a sense that the space is never ending. A few tastefully refined pieces of furniture are scattered around but not enough to break up the sense of vastness.

  Even though it’s all very modern, I’m reminded of a medieval great hall. There should be knights crowded in, waiting to pay tribute to the lord and lady seated before the massive fireplace.

  There’s an electronics panel set into a far wall, probably some kind of fully integrated climate-control/security/entertainment thing. It’s also smashed to bits, wires and glass scattered beneath it.

  There’s one thing I can immediately fix: if the security system is part of the rest of the control system of the house, that’s got to change. I gesture to the broken panel. “Was that the security system? Was it running alongside the other home systems?”

  Rustem nods.

  “Okay. Well, you should have the security system as a walled garden. Those other systems could be a back door to attack the security.” Although they wouldn’t be if all the panels were smashed to bits. Maybe that’s why they were destroyed—someone got something in through the panels. It’s extreme, but effective.

  Victoria nods while Rustem stares at the panel. I can’t read anything from his expression.

  “What happened here?” One smashed security panel could be an accident. Two is deliberate. And if I’m going to be repairing these things, I should know what went down.

  Rustem shifts, his massive shoulders rolling under his suit jacket. “Mr. Wolfe will explain everything. I’m taking you through the house first so you can see what you’re working with.”

  Victoria and I share a look. We’re going to meet Wolfe. We’re going to see what happened to him and hear the full story. The anticipation vibrates under my skin. But we keep our glance brief so Rustem doesn’t catch us.

  “Great,” I say, pressing my tone flat. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  The rest of the house isn’t quite as impressive as what I’m calling the great room, but it’s still pretty damn amazing. There’s a library filled with books and chairs for reading, a study perfect for long hours of focused work, and a kitchen that a master chef would swoon to use.

  And in each and every room, the electronics have been completely destroyed. There was a laptop in the library—smashed. A desktop machine in the study—crashed on the floor.

  We eventually come to the garage. There’s not one but two Inspiron sedans there. These cars are the rarest things in the world: individually hand built by the company and outfitted with the very latest in technology. Supposedly they’re entirely self-driving—and completely emissions-free—but they’re so rare nobody knows for sure. Seeing one on the road is like seeing a white elephant.

  For all that the cars are so secret, the CEO of the company sure isn’t. Axel Beck is model handsome and appears every morning in the gossip section of Disrupt Dispatch in an amazing suit and with a beautiful person on his arm—sometimes a man, sometimes a woman. He’s certainly savvy about keeping his PR machine running. Right now he’s carrying on a fairy-tale romance with a woman he insists is the one, Morgan Nash. She’s the genius behind the AI that runs Inspiron cars, and the press is calling them the prince and princess of Silicon Valley.

  My hands get shaky as I approach one. It’s like getting close to a unicorn. Victoria’s eyes are so wide; she must feel the same.

  I gasp when I look in
side.

  The entire instrument and center panel of the car is just… gone. Like someone reached in and tore everything out in great handfuls.

  My hands are still shaking, but it’s not from excitement anymore. There’s probably over a million dollars’ worth of damage here, if not more. And it was all done deliberately.

  I wet my dry lips. “Is there… is there anything else we need to see?” I’m more than ready to stop this odd tour and meet the man himself. Enough creepy damage.

  Rustem shakes his head and ushers us back inside. “That’s it,” he says, shutting the door on the ruined cars. “Time to speak with Mr. Wolfe.”

  I hold in my excitement as he leads us to a room we didn’t see before. There’s nothing in it but an intact TV screen on the wall and some chairs. It reminds me of an interrogation room for some reason.

  “He’s coming here?” I ask.

  Rustem doesn’t answer, only gestures me to a seat. “Not you,” he says as Victoria goes to sit down. “Her alone. You come with me.”

  I give Victoria a reassuring look even though I’m not really feeling this. It’s not like I’m going to get murdered here, and even if I was, Victoria probably wouldn’t be able to stop it.

  If I think of the money, I’ll be fine. Wolfe might be odd, but he’s also loaded.

  Victoria follows Rustem but doesn’t look happy about it.

  When the door shuts, I arrange myself in the chair, back straight, shoulders back, staring at a far-off point. I want to be ready when he comes in.

  “Welcome,” a pleasant, soft voice says from the ceiling. “Please remain seated.”

  There’s something canned about the voice that gives it away as computer generated. Like I’m about to go on a ride at a theme park.

  “Okay,” I say, mostly to amuse myself.