GRAY WOLF SECURITY, Texas: The Complete 6-Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  I’d never hated anyone as much as I hated her right then.

  “She was my wife,” I said, my voice low and hard. “She was the mother of my children and you murdered her in cold blood? How could you do that? How could you do that to her? To me? You saw how much it hurt! How could you?”

  “Because I knew you’d be better off in the long run. Because I knew you would turn to me and I would be there to catch you. And I was, I just didn’t count on Knox Adams.”

  She touched the screen again, her fingers blurring the picture.

  “I love you, Dunlap. No one will ever love you the way I do.”

  I wanted to scream!

  “You murdered my wife, caused me to be in a near fatal accident, and nearly murdered my children. How can you call that love?”

  “But it is love.” She actually had the gall to look confused. “I got you out of a bad marriage, and I was there to catch you when you fell. Isn’t that the definition of love?”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I hung up the phone and watched the screen go black. I could only hope they were monitoring these calls, that they got her confession right there. I could only hope that she would go away for a very, very long time.

  I needed space. I needed to breathe. I went back to the compound while I knew Knox was out on another job and I packed my kids up. I flew to Illinois to spend some time on the farm with my parents. I needed a break.

  I needed to regain my sanity.

  Chapter 23

  Knox

  He was gone two weeks. I knew logically that he needed to process what had happened. Even I needed to process it and I wasn’t the one who had hired a woman who was a fraud, I wasn’t the one whose wife was murdered over the stupidest thing. She killed her because she was struggling with childhood abuse? She killed her because the burden of raising their child would fall on Dunlap? So what? How many couples had experienced such a thing and managed to come out the other end? Why resort to murder?

  It didn’t make sense, even I could see that. But crazy often didn’t make sense.

  I got my mail from the main house late one Friday night and walked slowly back to my cottage. There were a few bills, credit card statements and the like, and a lot of junk mail. Tucked in the back was a familiar pink envelope. My address was written in my sister’s flowery script, no return address on the left hand corner. Did she really think that if she didn’t put her address on it I wouldn’t recognize her handwriting?

  I shoved it into a drawer with the dozens of others that had come over the past few months. I never read any of them. I didn’t see the point.

  I was in the kitchen trying to decide between a supreme pizza or a meat lover’s when there came a knock on the door. Popular girl. Ricki had stopped by last night and Kipling had made a habit of coming by every couple of days to watch a little reality television with me. We didn’t talk. We just sat there and watched the Kardashians do what they did. I didn’t even care about the show and I was pretty sure he didn’t either. It was just shared noise.

  I opened the door, expecting Kipling’s warm eyes. Instead, I found myself looking into Dunlap’s penetrating gray eyes.

  “Hi.”

  Hi. He disappears for two weeks and all he has to say to me is hi.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to talk to you.”

  I leaned against the doorjamb and studied him for a moment. “I think we’re all talked out.”

  “How’s that?”

  “You said just about everything you needed to say when you snuck out of here when you knew I wouldn’t be around.”

  “I just needed some space. I didn’t do that to hurt you.”

  “But you had to have known it would.”

  “Knox, I just found out someone I trusted more than anyone else murdered my wife. I needed to take a minute.”

  “That’s fine. But you could have said goodbye.”

  “I was afraid if I did, I wouldn’t be able to leave.”

  “Then maybe you shouldn’t have.”

  I turned away, but I left the door open, wondering if he would accept the invitation. A second later, I heard the door snap shut. I was afraid to look.

  “She’s dead, you know.”

  My heart jumped a little. Not because of what he said, but because he was still there. I really expected him to leave.

  “I heard.”

  “She committed suicide when they told her I refused to go see her.”

  “I know.”

  “That’s pretty heavy shit.”

  I looked at him. “She was insane. She would have ended up that way eventually anyway. But if we hadn’t caught her, there’s no telling who else she would have hurt in the process.”

  “I know. And I’m glad you figured it out. Without you, there’s no telling what she might have done to my girls.”

  I shrugged. “Just doing my job.”

  “No, it was more than that. I know that.”

  I turned away again. “I don’t know what you want from me, Dunlap. It was fun. Now it’s over.”

  “It doesn’t have to be.”

  My heart sort of stuttered in my chest, doing that funny jump again. I closed my eyes, so afraid of hoping, so afraid of trusting, that I wasn’t sure what to do next. I froze. I couldn’t tell him how I felt, but I couldn’t not tell him. I couldn’t risk allowing him to walk away, but I couldn’t face the kind of hurt that would come with loving him.

  Or loving those girls.

  “I can’t,” I whispered. “I can’t go through that again.”

  “Knox…” He came up behind me and set his hands on my shoulders. “I love you. I’ve missed you like crazy. All I could think about was you. The thought that I might have lost you is tearing me up inside. Please…”

  “I can’t play games with you. I can’t sit around here wondering if you’ll come back.”

  “You don’t have to. I’m here for the long run. I’m not going anywhere.”

  I turned and looked up at him. “Promise?”

  I hated how needy I sounded, but I needed him to promise me. I couldn’t risk everything if he didn’t.

  “I love you,” he said, moving close to me, his lips grazing mine. “I won’t ever run out on you again. I promise.”

  It had to be enough. I wasn’t good with trust, but I wanted to be.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I love you, too,” I said.

  He groaned, a sound that said so much more than words could have. And then he scooped me up and carried me into the bedroom. And proved to me, over and over, how deeply he meant everything he’d said.

  Chapter 24

  Dunlap

  Stevie ran past me, sliding on the wood floors in her socks. Knox followed, also sliding in a pair of my socks.

  “Hey, ladies! Be careful!”

  “Yes, Daddy,” they both called before dissolving into a gale of giggles.

  We’d been in the new condo for all of twenty-four hours and things were already beginning to feel like home. It was just a few miles from the Gray Wolf compound and a good distance from my offices, but I was in the process of building a new office building about five miles down the road, so it was an ideal location. And it was big enough for all four of us—not to mention the fun wood floors.

  I lifted Mattie out of her play yard and went into the kitchen to heat her a bottle. It was about time to wean her off the bottles, but I have to admit that I liked our nighttime ritual of settling down, just the two of us, with a bottle. Another month, maybe? We were going to have to break a lot of habits over the next seventeen years. This one seemed like such a minor one.

  We were just settling down in the new rocking chair I’d bought yesterday when the doorbell rang. Stevie and Knox were headed upstairs for bath time, so I found myself struggling out of the chair, a nearly comatose Mattie in my arms with the bottle stuffed deep in her mouth, to answer the door.

  And to find Julep standing there.

  “I’m so
rry to come so late,” she said, her tone low and respectful for once in her life. “I just…I know there’s a lot unsaid between us and I figured we should just get it out of the way. Clear the air.”

  I wanted to send her away, but I didn’t. I gestured for her to come inside as I juggled Mattie, moving her into a more comfortable position as I returned to the rocking chair.

  “She’s gotten bigger.”

  “They do that.”

  “And Stevie? How is she?”

  Having nightmares. But I didn’t want to say that out loud. And it really wasn’t true anymore. Since we came home and Knox moved in with us, Stevie seemed to be coping so much better than she had without Knox around. Knox thought it was the idea of a stable home that was doing it. I was pretty sure it was Knox. She and Stevie had a bond that had come on quick and hard that nothing was ever going to break. And I loved to see it.

  “What did you want, Julep?”

  “To apologize.” She studied the surprise in my expression for a moment. “When I’m wrong, I admit it. And this time I was wrong.”

  She’d taken a seat on the couch, perched on the very edge with her purse on her lap. She reminded me of the church ladies who used to come by to check on my mom when my sister was little. Always so much judgement wrapped up in a pious deed.

  “I was with Colby that day. We argued about her memories of her stepfather. I…I knew I didn’t protect her. Ronald was a powerful man, and she wasn’t the only one he was hurting. I was weak, and I will always regret my role in the things that happened to her. But I honestly didn’t know the depth of it all. And I hated it when she told me. Hated myself for what she told me. It was the worst moment of my life, hearing her tell me those things.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  She seemed surprised, but she didn’t acknowledge what I’d said. Instead, she just continued.

  “I’d left my purse there. I came back to get it and I found her in the hot tub. There was another glass on the table, and I thought…I really did believe you’d been there. I really believed that you’d killed her. And the idea that you might hurt my babies…these beautiful children…”

  “I would never do that.”

  “I know.” She stared down at her hands. “When the grief faded and logic returned, I realized I knew that. But then I thought…I believed she’d killed herself. And the guilt was overwhelming. So I told myself that I’d fix everything if I could just do right by her daughters. I realize now that taking them from their father was not the way to do that.”

  I looked down at Mattie, nestled nicely in my arms. I leaned down and kissed her forehead.

  “I love my children. I would never hurt them. I would never do anything that would endanger them.” I sighed, thinking about Janis. “If I’d known who she was, what she was…”

  “You couldn’t have known.”

  That was what Knox kept telling me and I was slowly beginning to believe her. I kissed the baby again to hide the emotions boiling just beneath the surface.

  “I want to be a good father. I want to give them everything they need to be good people. And I know that means allowing them to know their grandmother.”

  Julep’s face brightened. “Yes?”

  “Of course. I want to put all this behind us. I want to make things right. It’s what Colby would want.”

  She nodded. “And this girl? Knox?” I stiffened a little, not ready for a fight. But then she smiled. “I see how she is with Stevie. You’ve done good there, Dunlap. Colby would approve.”

  “I hope so.”

  I walked her to the door a moment later, the baby sound asleep against my shoulder. Knox was coming down the stairs as we said our goodbyes. She moved up beside me and scooped the baby out of my arms, carrying her over to her portable crib in the corner of the living room.

  I opened the door and turned to Julep. “Sunday. Come over for the afternoon.”

  “I will.”

  She stepped out the door and I was about to close it behind her when a skinny, awkward young man came sauntering up to the door.

  “Is this the Spencer residence?” he asked in a deep voice that had a distinctive southern drawl to it.

  “It is. Who are you looking for?”

  “Drake?” Knox said from behind me.

  The man standing on my doorstep caught sight of her and something happened to his dopey expression. He suddenly became handsome. Bright. And when I turned, I could see something on Knox’s face that I’d never seen before. And it scared the crap out of me.

  Drake. The ex.

  Chapter 25

  Knox

  “You don’t have to do this,” Dunlap said to me as I stepped around him.

  “I do, actually.”

  I pulled the door closed behind me, gesturing for Drake to lead the way down the hall. We sat on the top steps of the emergency stairs, sitting close enough to touch, but not touching.

  I hadn’t spoken to him since I left for boot camp. And we didn’t really speak then. It was more tears and kisses, promises unspoken that burned in my chest even now.

  There was a simple gold wedding band on his left ring finger.

  “I’m not sure what to say now that I’m here,” he said.

  “You could start with why you’re here.”

  “Sherilynn. She misses you, Knox. With a passion that’s killing her.”

  I shook my head. “She made her choice.”

  “It wasn’t like that, Knox. We didn’t set out to fall in love. We just…she missed you desperately. She’d come out to the school and we’d talk because we were the only two who really knew you, who could really talk about you. We would go for walks, talk about all our memories of you. And then…” He shook his head. “I wish I could say that we were drunk or that we’d heard you were missing in action or something like that. But I can’t.”

  “You just fell in love.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you ever love me?”

  “Oh, yes.” He said it as if I asked him if he ever liked chocolate. He reached for my hand but pulled back at the last moment. “I loved you so much it scared me. Every time I looked at you, every time I touched you, my heart was about to break.” He sighed. “It’s different with Sherilynn. When I’m with her, it’s like pulling a warm blanket up over me, you know? It’s comforting.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest, thinking about my sister and all the times I sat with her like this, talking her through a broken heart, a bad math test grade, a fight with her best friend. I thought about my sister as a grown woman, thought of her having children with this man I thought was my whole world. And then I thought about the man and children in the condo behind us, of the way it felt when he looked at me.

  “I loved you,” I said. “I thought that you were everything. When I found out what you’d done, I was broken inside. I did things I’m not proud of. I hurt myself because I couldn’t deal with the hurt you’d caused.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t want your apology. I thought I did. For a long time, I thought I did.” I looked at him. “But now…if there hadn’t been you, I wouldn’t have what I do now. So I guess I owe you a thank you.”

  His eyebrows rose. “Really?”

  “I’m in love with a good man who treats me well. And you’re in love with a woman who makes you feel safe. So I think it all came out well, don’t you?”

  He looked thoughtful for a long minute. “All but the fact that you’ve never met your nephew and nieces. Or spoken to your sister in five years.”

  I tilted my head slightly. “I’ve been angry.”

  “Are you still angry?”

  I had to think about it, really think. But then I realized that I wasn’t. I was hurt. I was broken. But I was healing.

  Dunlap had done that.

  ***

  Dunlap was sitting on the couch as we walked through the door.

  “I’m sorry about the short notice, but I’ve told my sister she and her family
can camp out here for the night. Is that okay?”

  “Your sister?”

  He stood, watching the slight woman with hair just as red as mine come into the condo with a baby on each hip. There were still tears on her cheeks, but she was smiling so wide that it belied those tears.

  “Of course. The more the merrier.”

  No questions. No hint of confusion or misunderstanding. Just a welcoming smile.

  And that was how I knew he would forever be my one.

  ~~~

  CONTROLLING BROOKS

  Prologue

  Brooks

  He watched me walk toward him, an unreadable expression on his face. I smiled, but he didn’t return the gesture. He seemed almost distracted. What could be so distracting on this day? On our wedding day?

  A trickle of something—not fear, exactly, but something like it—dripped across my soul. I knew what I was doing, but there was some part of me that was afraid this was not going to end the way it was supposed to. Juan was a good man. I knew Juan was a good man. I’d seen him give money to a waitress who was about to be evicted just to help, not because he expected anything in return. He was good and he was kind and he’d already done so much for me. And for Jimmy. How could I doubt his intentions?

  It's going to be okay…it’s going to be okay…it’s going to be okay…

  But was it? Did I really know what I was getting into?

  Chapter 1

  At the Compound

  David studied the list of names Kipling had handed him this morning, not missing the fact that all of them were people who had served in some capacity in the armed services. There were three women and five men. All well-qualified replacements for the operative they’d fired a month ago after an unfortunate shooting incident in a client’s home.

  David had never fired anyone before. And he hadn’t expected to have to hire anyone new this soon after opening. Gray Wolf Security 2 was only ten months old, still learning how to stand on its own two feet. It seemed like a setback to have had to fire someone and find his replacement. But again, bringing in a consultant like Kipling had seemed like a failure on his part, somehow.