Table of Contents
Title Page
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
COPYRIGHT PAGE
Accidentally Wild
The Wilders Book Two
An Accidental Marriage Romance
By Nicole Elliot
Hi Kittens!
I think you’re going to love when workaholic Everett gets a little wild.
xxx
Nicole
ONE
Everett
I stood there as the flames licked the damn sky. The only thing I could do was stare at it. Drew, Cayden, and Cash were here. And I knew Lucas was on his way. But I was so fucking flabbergasted at the whole situation that I didn’t know what the hell to do.
The entire property was burnin’ before my very eyes. The old mansion we’d purchased. The old mansion we’d thrown the damn party at. It was all burnin’ to ashes. Straight to the ground. I raked my hands down my face as I heard a car race up behind me. Tires squealed and rocks kicked up as firemen rushed around. I felt the presence of my brother beside me.
“What the fuck happened?” Lucas asked.
I shook my head, unable to answer his question. The flames roared as they worked their way down the sides of the house. The roof caved in and I flinched, watching as a plump of dust rose into the air. The fire was devouring the house quicker than anything I’d ever seen. Fire trucks roared past us, skidding into the tailored lawn of the property before pumps were dipped into lakes and hooked up to fire hydrants. Water filled the sky as it rained down onto the house, but I knew the fire would eventually put itself out. It would eat up the house before fizzling out once its appetite was satiated.
“I don’t know what happened,” I said.
“How did you know the damn thing was on fire?” Lucas asked.
“When you didn’t answer your cell phone around three thirty, I came out here to make sure you weren’t doin’ stupid shit. Flames were spewin’ from the top of the damn thing and I called 9-1-1.”
“After he called me,” Drew said.
“Why did you call Drew?” Lucas asked.
“You know why the hell I called Drew. We bought this property without Mom and Dad’s help. Our first shot at turnin’ a property flippin’ it for a little more money. Drew’s gonna help us break the news to them.”
“Why do Mom and Dad have to know?”
“Because we’re gonna need their help bailin’ us out financially.”
“You’re talking about more debt, Everett.”
“We don’t have a choice, Lucas! Look at it!”
My arm thrusted out at the towering inferno. We didn’t have another choice. I wish we did, but we didn’t. This mansion was a guaranteed thing. We bought it, we worked on it a little bit, then we’d sell it to the historical society when it was finished. That was the plan. It was supposed to do two things. One, it was supposed to show the historical society of Charleston that we could take care of their properties, thereby bustin’ into a market Mom and Dad have struggled to get into for years. And two, it was supposed to show Mom and Dad that we could take Wisteria Lake Designs and turn it into an entire home-flipping operation like all of us brothers eventually wanted to do.
Now, we all watched as the damn thing burned to the ground.
“Mom and Dad are never gonna trust us to take on properties by ourselves after this,” I said.
“Mom and Dad can deal with whatever we decide to do with our business. They gave us a meager loan we paid back to get Wisteria off the ground. There’s no reason why they should hold this over our heads,” Lucas said.
“Unless we didn’t take out insurance on the house.”
“Are you fucking kidding me with this shit? You, Everett Wilder—the man who thinks of everything—didn’t take insurance out on this house?”
“The rate the insurance company quoted us would’ve made this place a terrible investment. Because it was only going to be in our possession for—”
“Look at it, Everett!”
“I’m looking at it, Lucas!”
“How much are we out?” he asked.
“Don’t ask me that question.”
“How much is the company out on this one?”
“A little under two million.”
“Flynn is going to kill you,” he said.
I watched my brother rake his hand through his hair as the flames cast shadows along the entire property. We’d have to take another loan from Mom and Dad to keep Wisteria Lake afloat. It was the only option we had. And I felt like shit. After years of working to separate ourselves from them and their real estate empire, it took one bullshit move on my part to swing us back to being dependent on them.
“Everett Wilder?”
“That’s me.”
I turned and watched the firefighter as he approached me and took his helmet off.
“Well, we’ve finally got the fire marshal out of bed and he’s personally coming out to the property to look it over. There isn’t going to be much left for him to look at, however.”
“Yeah. I figured,” I said flatly.
“Do you have any idea what caused this fire?” Lucas asked.
“Well, for now my guess is a potential electrical fire? This house is ancient, and it doesn’t take a genius to see that the damn thing’s never been updated.”
“But…?” I asked.
“A buddy of mine who’s still on the hose pointed out that even for an old home, a house that size came down real quick. I mean, we’re talking in less than an hour and over half the house has been eaten up by flames our water ain’t even touchin’.”
“You think someone burned this down on purpose,” Lucas said.
“It’s only a theory. We aren’t investigators. I’m just tellin’ ya what we’ve seen. The fire marshal is about twenty minutes out, and he’ll draw up an official investigation if he thinks foul play is involved,” the fireman said.
“I appreciate the update. Let me give you my information so you can pass it on to him,” I said.
I pulled my wallet out and drew out a card to give to the man. He nodded towards me before sticking it in his pocket, then he walked back over to the fire truck.
“We’ve dealt with electrical fires before. The insurance’s business will cover some of it if that’s the cause,” Lucas said.
“But if it’s foul play, nothing will get covered until the case is wrapped up,” I said.
“Who the fuck would burn down a mansion we were working on?”
“A rival company?”
“Do we have any of those in the state?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t know of any if we do,” I said.
“Well, if it is an electrical fire, we might be out of the woods with the bulk of what we’d ask Mom and Dad for. But if it’s anything else, I’ve got no clue.”
“What if it’s foul play?” I asked.
I turned an
d looked at my brother as he drew in a deep breath.
“What if someone is trying to sabotage us?”
“Then it brings up a whole other line of questions. Who? Why? Things like that. I mean, we’re in the business of designing homes. Not pissing people off,” Lucas said.
“But what are we gonna tell Mom and Dad? I think we all forget sometimes that their loan came with a ten percent chunk of our business. They’re technically a set of hands in all this. And we didn’t tell them about this mansion.”
“I think I’ve got an answer to that.”
The two of us turned around and watched as Cash approached. Everyone else was still standing there with their jaws swinging on the concrete, but big brother stepped up to the plate.
“We’ll have to be honest. Tell them that we wanted to buy the mansion, flip it, and make a quick profit we would've used to buy out their portion of the company because we want to be on our own. Out from underneath them. Which is something that’s gonna rile up Mom and Dad because this has always been a family business, right?” Cash asked.
“Okay? How does that get us out of the woods?” I asked.
“It doesn’t. But it keeps us honest. Mom and Dad are going to have lectures and we’re going to have to suck that up. But lying to them isn’t going to get us anywhere. We tell them that we’re ready to branch out from underneath them and they’ll toss it in our face in the most loving way possible. Then, we stick to our guns.”
“Some plan,” I murmured.
“He’s right. We’ve made enough mistakes,” Lucas said.
“You mean I’ve made enough mistakes,” I corrected.
“No. Just because you didn’t take out insurance on this place doesn't mean you’re the only one taking the fall. We run this company as brothers, so we take the fall as brothers. As far as we’re concerned, all of us blanked on taking out insurance in favor of the excitement of our first purchased property,” Cash said.
“And there’s the lie,” Lucas said.
“Not a lie. We were excited. We kept it from Mom and Dad. We overlooked a step in our excitement, and now we’re paying the price. That’s exactly what’s happened,” Cash said.
“Coming to our rescue as always,” I said.
“I’ve had to bail you assholes out my entire life. This ain’t no different,” Cash said.
Everyone else gathered around us as we turned back to the towering inferno. The entire damn city would know this fucking mansion burned down, and because of the party they’d know exactly who to trace it back to. If Mom and Dad didn’t already know about it, they’d hear about it by morning.
“So, when are we going to tell them?” I asked. All of us looked around at everyone else before I shook my head.
I guess we’d figure that part out later.
TWO
Andrea
“You said you met where now?” I asked as I took a swig of my sweet tea. I loved this little café, had some of the best tea on this side of town.
Jessica looked away from the table towards the windows. I could see the park through them, but that’s not where my focus was. It was on her. Her and this new guy I hadn’t even met yet. “Well, we first met when he stumbled into the tavern with a stab wound in his gut.”
“Excuse me?” I asked setting my drink down.
“Yeah. It was pretty intense, honestly. He hurt himself on the job and didn’t have his cell phone with him.”
“He was on the job at one in the morning?”
“He designs homes. He and his brothers were fixing up a house down the street from the tavern and he fell onto a window. It shattered, pierced him, and he stumbled into the tavern I guess to use the phone. But he didn’t quite get there.”
“And this is the same guy you saw at that party you told me about?”
“Same guy. Lucas Wilder.”
“Wait, you didn’t tell me he was a Wilder brother.”
“You know them?”
“I know of them. The entire state knows of them,” I said. Everyone knew those boys. Good looking trouble makers, the lot of them. Billionaires or some shit.
I never understood people with money. I was sitting here in a dress I ordered from one of those second hand apps, with my dark hair twisted up in a bun because I hadn’t treated myself to a hair cut in a couple months.
“I didn’t know of them.”
“Because you live under a rock, Jess.”
“Thanks, Andrea.”
“So, you say this guy’s your boyfriend? Like, the two of you are an official item?”
“You ask me like that’s not a thing.”
“With the Wilder brothers, it’s not. It’s why I’m asking. Did he explicitly call you his girlfriend? Or are you just assuming this because the two of you slept together?”
“It’s an official thing, Andrea. Stop worrying.”
“But how do you know this?”
“Because when we were in bed together, he told me I was his.”
“Like, gazing into your eyes and stroking your cheek? Or fucking your brains out and growling at you?”
“Andrea—”
“Look. I saw you get your heart broken. I don’t want it to happen again. The Wilder brothers? They’re not just known for their business. They’re players. All of them. And I don’t want you to get hurt again.”
“It’s not like that. He’s not like that.”
“Yes, he is. All of the Wilder brothers are, Jessica.”
“Well, he’s not like that with me.”
“Have you talked to him since the date-turned-night-of-passion?” I asked.
“I haven’t, no.”
“So, you haven't talked with him all week,” I said.
“Why are you ruining this for me? I meet a great guy that tracked me down at a party and we’ve shared two moments of desperate, unadulterated passion and you want to drive a stake into that?”
“You’re talking with hearts in your eyes. You’ve got no idea what Lucas’ intentions are with you.”
“Yes, I do. They’re to take me out again. He’s dealing with work. It doesn’t shock me one bit that I haven’t heard from him this week. Things with families always get complicated,” she said.
“But not even once? Not even a text message? Or a ten-second phone call? Nothing to establish a ‘hey, I want to see you this weekend’ type of deal?”
“You really need to stop it, Andrea. Just because you’ve been single since high school doesn’t mean you need to burst my bubble when I find someone that makes me happy.”
“Well, dig it in, why don’t you?”
I sat back into my chair and grabbed my sweet tea. Jessica was so innocent. So doe-eyed and girlish. She had no idea the type of men that preyed on women like her. Especially the Wilder brothers. They were known around Charleston for their Wild Parties. They essentially threw them so all of them could get laid one proper time. It was the reason why I never went to them, though not for lack of them trying to invite me. I literally ran into Everett Wilder one time and he slipped an invitation into my purse after catching a whiff of my hair.
Creep.
“Did you at least enjoy your date with Lucas?” I asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore. In fact, I don’t want to talk at all. It was good seeing you again, Andrea. I hope things at the center are going well.”
I sighed as Jessica stood from her chair and gathered her things. I waved off her money, letting her know I’d pick up the meal. I didn’t mean to piss her off. I only wanted to protect her. I loved Bianca, but sometimes that girl could be wild. Jessica didn’t have family in town, not after they moved all the way to fucking Oregon. So, I sort of took it upon myself to look after her. She reminded me of some of the underprivileged children I worked with at times.
I picked up my fork and pushed my food around as the sweet Charleston wind kicked up. If things worked with her and Lucas, then I’d be happy for her. She seemed happy. The last time she was this smitten with a m
an, they’d dated for two years before he cheated on her. And not the sneaking around cheating either. The blatant “she walked in on them and they kept going” kind of cheating. He knew she was standing at the doorway watching and he didn’t even bother to stop at look at her. I still wanted to wring that man’s throat.
I didn’t like the fact that she’d thrown my dating life in my face, though. So what if I hadn’t dated since high school? That was my business. I fell in love and got my heartbroken just like every other teenage girl, but I didn’t want to try it again. I didn’t have a craving for men, nor did I have a craving for companionship. My kids filled that void for me.
My kids at the center, that is.
They were my world. After growing up in the poorest city of South Carolina, I saw what happened to underprivileged youth. I saw how they got flown under the radar and passed up grades because no one wanted to pay attention to them. I sat beside three kids my entire eighth grade year that had no idea how to read. Read! Almost in high school and the poor things didn’t know how to fucking read. It was disgusting, and something I wanted to change.
I graduated from Holly Hill high school, got government grants and aid to go to college, and majored in Psychology with a passion for social work. I looked around for jobs my senior year, and the only one I could snag was at the youth center in the middle of Charleston. It wasn’t what I wanted to do at the time and it didn’t pay nearly what I needed to keep myself afloat, but it was all I had.
I took the job at twenty-one, and eight years later I was running the entire operation.
I worked with the less advantaged youth of the area and ran all sorts of services for them out of the youth center. I budgeted for renovations, opened the place up on Friday and Saturday nights to give them a safe place to go, and ran all of the regular services during the week, like tutoring, free meals, food deliveries, and after-school activities. Everything from music lessons, sports, chess games, and video game tournaments. The place flourished under my tutelage. I was lucky to have the job.
I grew close with the original establisher of it when I took the job. His name was Mr. Wilson, and he reminded me a lot of my father. At least, what my father should have been. He was an older man with no family and grew up underprivileged himself. He opened the place up as a passion project with his retirement money with the saying, “If I can’t spend it on my wife, I’ll spend it on my kids.” I learned his story and grew to love the man, and when he passed away three years ago, I found out he had willed the entire place to me. It still brought tears to my eyes to think about.
Accidentally Wild: An Accidental Marriage Romance (The Wilder Brothers Book 2) Page 1
