TAMING KNOX (Gray Wolf Security, Texas Book 3)

by Glenna Sinclair

  “Hey, pumpkin,” I said, catching her body just as she was about to crush Knox. “What’s the matter?”

  “I had a bad dream, Daddy.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  I sat up and cradled her against my bare chest, pooling the blankets on my lap. Knox rolled over and touched her ankle.

  “Hey, Stevie.”

  You’d think the child had waited all her life to see Knox again. She pushed away from me, jumping into her arms so quick that Knox barely had time to sit up and pulled the blankets over her bare breasts. Stevie buried her head against Knox’s shoulder, a sob rattling her slight frame.

  “What’s the matter?” Knox asked.

  “I had a dream. About that night.”

  Knox glanced at me. “You mean the night that your momma died?”

  Stevie nodded.

  “What happened?”

  “I remembered who tripped over the chairs.”

  Another glance.

  Knox slid her hand over her back. “Who?”

  “Grandma. It was Grandma.”

  Just as the words came out of her mouth, a huge explosion rocked the house. I instinctively threw my arm across Knox and Stevie, pressing them back against the mattress. Fire glowed in the windows almost immediately, filling the room with an eerie sort of glow.

  When it was over, I sat up and went to the balcony doors, looking down into what was once my backyard. Now it was a pile of debris. The kitchen, off to the left of us, was gone. Completely demolished.

  “What the fuck?”

  Chapter 16

  Knox

  I sat Stevie in the center of the bed and quickly pulled on the clothes I’d so recently peeled off. Dunlap was dressing, too, tugging on jeans as he rushed toward the bedroom door. I could already hear voices in the hallway, the new nanny calling for Stevie. Dunlap stuck his head out and called to her.

  “She’s in here.”

  The door opened and the nanny, Mattie in her arms, and Elliot looking in. They only hesitated a moment upon seeing me. Elliot snatched Stevie off the bed and headed for the stairs.

  “We have to get you out of here,” he called over his shoulder.

  Dunlap grabbed my hand and pulled me down the stairs after him. We climbed into Elliot’s SUV, all of us squishing in the back two seats. Stevie pulled away from Elliot before he could hand her to me, crawling into my lap and hiding her head against my chest. Dunlap had taken the baby from the nanny, soothing her as she protested being woken so long before morning.

  I could see the flames shooting up into the sky. The kitchen was gone. Absolutely gone.

  Who would do that with two children in the house? Surely not Julep. She wouldn’t risk hurting the kids.

  Elliot was on the phone as he pulled away from the front of the house. We could hear fire trucks coming up the hill. Elliot turned in the opposite direction, trying to avoid being spotted. It was protocol. We were supposed to keep as low of a profile as possible just in case the person responsible was watching.

  “You okay?” Dunlap asked.

  I nodded. “You?”

  “Yeah.”

  He said he was, but he was twisting around, staring at the remnants of his house. He was clearly shaken by this, more so than he had been over the car accident. This one was much too close to home, no pun intended.

  We were halfway across town when I suddenly realized where we were going. Elliot was taking us to Ash’s property. It was a large getaway on the outskirts of town, on the opposite side of town from the compound. It was one of our safe houses, but it was only to be used in extreme situations. David must have felt this situation warranted its use.

  It was that realization that grabbed my heart with icy fingers more than actually seeing the house burning.

  I didn’t understand. Julep wouldn’t have done this. But Stevie saw her at the house the night Colby died. And she had motive. But…she wouldn’t have done this.

  “Has anyone new been at the house recently?”

  It took Dunlap a second to focus on me. “New? No.”

  “Anyone at all?”

  “Janis came by this morning to deliver some paperwork. And my sister and her brood were there for a couple of hours when they brought the girls back.”

  I dismissed those people out of hand. None of them had a motive to hurt Dunlap. But there had to be someone, someone with access to the kitchen.

  I leaned forward so that I could speak to Elliot.

  “Are they reviewing the cameras? Was there someone in the kitchen today?”

  “You know protocol.”

  “Did they see anything that could help us?”

  Elliot glanced at me. “You know I can’t tell you.”

  “Elliot, if it was you—”

  “You’re not technically on this case. You’re part of the client’s family. I can’t share anything until David deems it necessary.”

  “But you know—”

  “I can’t tell you, Knox. I’m sorry.”

  I groaned, but I sat back again, tugging Stevie closer against me. We rode in silence until Elliot pulled up to the front of the house. He led the way inside, making sure we moved orderly and safely. Once inside, he gestured toward the back of the house.

  “You should try to get the children back to sleep.”

  “Take Mattie,” I said to the nanny. I told Dunlap, “We’ll take the girls. You stay here.”

  He nodded, glancing at Elliot. There were four bedrooms, large and luxurious, filled with modern furnishings. Two of the rooms were set up for small children. I assumed they hadn’t always been that way, but now that Ash had children of his own—as did most of his friends who used this place—they were now. I led the way to one of those rooms, gesturing for the nanny to put the sleeping baby in the crib.

  “Don’t leave, Knox,” Stevie said, as I laid her down on the twin bed.

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  I curled up on the bed with her, pulling her against me as she snuggled, tears staining her little cheeks.

  “Can you tell me more about your dream?”

  She nodded. “We’d just gotten home from our trip. Shawna was changing Mattie and I was bored, so I went looking for Daddy. He wasn’t in his bedroom, so I went out on the balcony. I liked to stand out there because it was fun looking down on the world from up high. But then I heard the noise and I looked over the edge. Grandma was there, staring back at the tub.”

  “You’re sure it was your grandma? It wasn’t Shawna or your mom? It wasn’t Janis or one of your aunts?”

  “No, it was Grandma.”

  “Okay, baby. That’s good.”

  She fell asleep a moment later, falling into a deep sleep with the ease of a child. I untangled myself from her a moment later, crawling off the bed slowly.

  “They sleep so heavily.”

  “They do.”

  I walked over to where the nanny was sitting in a rocking chair, watching Mattie through the slates of her crib.

  “You like working for Dunlap?”

  “I did. Until all this.”

  She had her cell phone in her hands. As she spoke, the screen lit up. I recognized Julep Montgomery’s number from the one she’d given me to report to when I was supposed to be working for her.

  “What the hell?”

  I snatched the phone away, glancing over the most recent texts.

  Stevie had a nightmare.

  Don’t let her go into Dunlap’s room.

  She’s already in there.

  Incompetence! What did I tell you?

  “What is this? Why are you talking to Julep about Stevie?”

  The girl paled under her dark, Florida tan. But she didn’t even try to defend herself.

  “Elliot!” I went to the door, screaming down the hallway. The nanny came up behind me and tried to snatch the phone back, but I managed to keep hold of it. Both Elliot and Dunlap came running. The girl was back in the rocking chair by the time they got there.

 
“She’s working for Julep.”

  Dunlap took the phone, reading through the texts. He cursed under his breath before rushing into the room and snatching the girl up from the chair. Elliot tried to stop him, but there wasn’t much he could do without waking the girls or causing more injury than Dunlap was doing with his steel grip. He dragged her into the hallway and tossed her back against the wall.

  “What are you doing? Have you been working for her since the beginning?”

  “She contacted me after I started working for you. She promised to pay off my student loans if I reported back to her. It seemed harmless.”

  “Harmless? Have you seen my house?”

  The girl looked shamed, her face falling as she stared back at him.

  “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

  “Did you plant the explosives or whatever it was?” Elliot asked.

  “No,” she said, indignant. “I didn’t do that.”

  I believed her, but Dunlap and Elliot continued to interrogate her. After about ten more minutes, I moved between them.

  “I think it’s time we call it a night. Everyone’s exhausted.”

  Dunlap shook his head, but Elliot seemed to agree.

  “I’ll put her in the guest room next to mine. You two can take the master.”

  “She’s not to go anywhere near my kids,” Dunlap announced.

  “Of course not. I’ll watch her.”

  Dunlap stared at Elliot as if he was trying to decide if he could trust him. He finally nodded and turned away, grabbing my hand as he did.

  We undressed in silence, falling into the bed just as the sun was slowly beginning to lighten the sky outside. I curled into his arms, laying my head on his chest.

  “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure this out.”

  “I know who’s doing it. I just wish I understood why.”

  “Dunlap—”

  “She never liked me. But to put my kids in danger like that? I don’t understand it.”

  I didn’t say anything because I didn’t think it would get through to him right now. Plus, I was already beginning to fade, my eyes slowly closing. I drifted off, trying to remember something that had been bothering me for a long time. But I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  Something…

  Chapter 17

  At the Compound

  David paced the length of his office, but Kipling was calm. He could see what needed to happen. This was like a military operation that had gone south. You didn’t give up, you just altered your direction a little, just enough to head back toward the solution you wanted.

  That’s what needed to happen here.

  “Let me go over and talk to them,” he said.

  David glanced at him. Kipling knew that David didn’t particularly like him. He was pretty sure the man resented him for coming in and taking over his operation. The thing was, Kipling admired David and his work. He’d done a hell of a job getting this place up and running. And running in the black? It was pretty impressive. But he knew that David felt a little like a failure for having to call in reinforcements.

  If he’d been military, he wouldn’t have looked at it that way.

  “The video shows a woman in the kitchen and behind the house, but there’s no clear shot of her face, so we don’t know who it is.”

  “And the fire department? Have they determined what caused the explosion?”

  “They’re leaning toward a gas leak.”

  It made sense. Loosen a line here or there and the house would explode without anyone any the wiser about how it was done. It was a new construction. Maybe the assumption would be faulty pipe work.

  “We need to draw her out into the open.”

  “Obviously. But how.”

  Kipling shrugged. “We send Dunlap back to the house.”

  David shook his head, but Kipling had a plan. He knew how to work these operatives in a way that would benefit both the client and the firm. He just needed David to learn to trust him.

  “We can do this.”

  ***

  Kipling and David pulled up to Ash’s property a little after noon that afternoon. Kipling had heard the stories of this place, especially after what happened between Donovan, his wife, and the woman stalking them. Donovan’s best friend, Joshua, was beaten to death the night they graduated from high school. His lover, Amanda Graham, had decided it was both Joshua’s sister, Kate, and Donovan who were responsible—even though he was beaten by some bullies who attended their school. She’d gone after Kate, trying to murder her outside her place of business, an act that brought Gray Wolf—and Donovan—into her story. It was more than five years ago, but Donovan still told the story like it happened yesterday:

  I pulled Kate through the woods, trying to step as lightly as possible so we weren’t leaving too big of a trail. But Kate felt like deadweight on the end of my arm. I was so afraid she was making too much noise, that Amanda could hear us a mile away. When she came after us…I wasn’t sure I could get Kate somewhere safe before it came down to a one-on-one situation.

  Why hadn’t I grabbed my sidearm when I left the house?

  Not that I could have predicted that this would go down today. We’d spent, what, five quiet days here. You tend to get complacent after a while.

  I was trying to remember the layout of Ash’s property here. I knew he owned the woods far back behind the house. Acres upon acres. But I couldn’t remember what was on either side of us.

  There had to be a place to hide Kate.

  My damn phone buzzed in my pocket. I ignored it. A little busy just now. But it buzzed again and again. More than one call. They must have figured something out back at the compound.

  A little late, boys.

  And then the sound I’d been waiting for came.

  But it wasn’t just one person’s footsteps. There were many.

  Fuck! She had dogs!

  I turned and grabbed Kate by the upper arms, shoving her against a tree’s trunk hard enough to make her breath burst from her lungs.

  “Listen to me,” I said, my lips tight against her ear, “she’s got dogs. And my guess is, they’re trained to attack. I want you to get up in this tree and be as quiet as you possibly can.”

  She nodded, thank God. No argument.

  I took the phone out of my back pocket and shoved it into her hands. “When the coast is clear, get back to the house. Take the car, like I told you, and run. Then call Ash. His number’s programmed…tell him what’s going on. Tell him about Amanda.”

  “Donovan—”

  “I’ll find you when it’s over. But it’s your turn to make a promise. Do what I say and don’t hesitate.”

  She stared at me a long moment, then she nodded.

  “Good.”

  I grabbed the bottom of her t-shirt and ripped it, pulling a piece of it free. I was hoping that Amanda had prepped the dogs with her scent and not both of ours. That way, maybe, I could confuse them for a few minutes.

  “Go, now.”

  I turned her and gave her a boost before she was ready. She flew, sprawling among the lower branches. But she began to climb, looking down at me only once.

  As soon as I was sure she was secure and she wasn’t about to come climbing back down, I turned and ran. I made as much noise as I could, counting on the dogs to hear me and come in my direction. I could hear them howl and knew they’d caught our scent. There was no turning back now.

  I ran, praying that I wouldn’t stumble over a tree root. The ground was covered in vines and dead leaves and other debris. I couldn’t always see what exactly I was planting my foot in. There was nothing like this in Afghanistan. Nothing like this at boot camp.

  I ran until my chest hurt and I thought I was never going to take another breath that didn’t feel like fire. Then I began to run in a zigzag, rubbing the torn piece of Kate’s shirt against bushes and tree trunks, anywhere I could reach quick and easy. Then I dropped it in a pile of leaves and ran at a dead heat.

  The dogs we
re gaining on me. The howls were coming closer and closer, the sound of their running feet reverberating all around me. It spurred me on, made me go as fast as I could despite the exhaustion that was beginning to settle in every muscle I was born with. I almost didn’t see it, didn’t see the chasm that opened up in front of me, three feet wide and God only knew how many hundreds of feet deep.

  That’s when they got me. The first one slammed into the center of my back, the full impact of his fifty pounds taking the air from my lungs. I fell forward, but managed to catch myself on the edge of the chasm. I ducked my head and the dog, not expecting the earth to open up in front of it, fell without so much as a whimper. Then another, caught my upper arm in its jaws, clamping down with a determination that humans should admire. Then a third barely missed tearing a hole in my jaw. I saw it coming at the last second and moved, causing it to fall, too, right into the chasm.

  The pain rushed through my body, the pain in my arm almost as bad as that in my lungs. I searched, my fingers digging in the loose soil and compost, finally wrapping them around a stick about as thick as half the dimensions of my wrist.

  I beat the dog about the head, knowing that it was never going to let go until its master gave the order. Beautiful dogs. I had a lot of respect for a well-trained pit bull. But not when it was trying to tear my arm off.

  I beat it until I felt just the slightest give in its hold on me. Then I dropped the stick and grabbed its lower jaw, felt it snap in my hand. I was on my feet before the dog knew it was defeated.

  “Where you going, Donovan?”

  I didn’t stop to look behind me. The first bullet whizzed past the side of my head. The second grazed my hip, not far from the scar that worried Kate so much.

  “Where is she?” she called. “I know she can’t be far. You would never leave her unless she told you to. You were always her good little puppy dog!”

  Another bullet glanced off of a tree, the bark exploding into a storm of debris.

  I could only hope I’d given Kate enough time to get out.

  Please, God, don’t let anything happen to her.

  “Why are you protecting that bitch?” Amanda demanded. “You and I both know she’s responsible for what happened to Joshua.”