by HELEN HARDT
It wasn’t so much that that scared me.
It was that he made me want to.
14
Reid
“Nieves,” I said, “there’s only one way out of this mess.”
She lifted her head far enough to meet my gaze. “What’s that?”
“You need to level with me.”
She hadn’t. She’d run off in tears to tend to her sister in Helena, promising to call me as soon as she knew Leta was all right.
What could I do? Tell her not to go? I’d run to my own sister in a second if she needed me. Especially now, since I hadn’t been there for Riley when she had needed me. All those years… Roy and I never knew. In fact, we’d been envious.
Reality had a way of kicking you in the nuts. Big time.
The ten o’clock show of Best of Sin City was about to begin. Terrence had gotten me the best seats in the house. God himself only knew what he’d paid for them, but that didn’t matter. I was a fucking billionaire.
Jazzy music from the pit, and then…
Up went the curtain.
I found Zee instantly. She was in the back, but still she stood out. And wowza. What a body! And those high kicks!
And…
Fuck me.
Those tits.
Big and luscious and her nipples were bright red. Yeah, it was probably makeup, but damn… Already I was hard.
Seducing her wasn’t going to be an issue at all. So I wasn’t a huge fan of the black hair. The rest of her was fucking perfect.
My gaze never left her for the entirety of the show.
I’d texted Zee earlier to meet me at the theater entrance after the show was over. I expected to wait a while, as she needed to change out of her costume and all.
She was earlier than I expected…and she had a friend in tow.
Zee wore black skinny jeans and a royal blue silk camisole. I never noticed clothes on a woman, but this ensemble was perfect with that black hair. Her lips were painted red, and all I could think about was her red nipples during the show.
Damn. I wanted to bite them. Really badly.
“Good evening, Zee,” I said.
Her cheeks pinked. “Hello, Mr. Wolfe.”
“Reid.”
She nodded and then cleared her throat. “Reid, you remember my friend Maureen. Mo.”
“Nice to see you.” I took the hand Maureen held out.
She blushed and smiled with mega wattage. “My pleasure, Mr. Wolfe.”
This time I cleared my throat. “Reid. Mr. Wolfe is that bastard who died.”
Maureen’s eyes widened a bit. Had my words been too crass? Probably. Within seconds, though, she was back to smiling.
Zee looked down at her feet. “I invited Mo to come to dinner with us.”
Fuck. Really? How was I supposed to seduce the woman when she had a friend tag along? I could tell her our reservation was for two—truth—but as a Wolfe, I could change that easily with no problem at all.
I forced myself to smile. “How nice. I’m sure she’ll be a lovely addition.”
Mo’s smile dazzled at my words, and her cheeks blushed further. “I’m so glad you feel that way. I didn’t want to be a third wheel.”
“Of course not.” Except that you are, but no matter. I’ve seduced women in the middle of crowds before. This wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.
“Where are we dining?” Mo asked.
“Here,” I said, “at the Mosaic.”
Four eyes widened at me. Yeah, the Mosaic was posh and expensive.
“I’ve never been there,” Mo gushed.
“Have you, Zee?” I asked.
“No.” She didn’t meet my gaze.
“Then you ladies are in for a treat. Please…” I held out both of my arms.
Mo linked her arm through mine right away. Zee was little more timid, but soon her hand rested on the inside of my elbow.
“It’s not often I get to escort the two most beautiful ladies in the show to dinner,” I said in my best Wolfe of Manhattan voice.
Mo giggled. Zee stayed silent.
The maitre d’ greeted us when we entered the restaurant. “Mr. Wolfe! So wonderful to have you with us tonight.”
I disentangled my arm from Mo’s and went for my wallet. I pulled out a hundred and handed it to the man. “We’re going to need a table for three instead of two.”
“Not a problem at all, Mr. Wolfe.” He slid the bill discreetly into his jacket pocket. “Right this way, sir.”
We followed him to the back of the restaurant where a private curved bench booth had been set for two. “Only a moment, and we’ll have another place setting for you.”
“Thank you,” I said. Then, “Ladies?”
Mo and Zee slid onto the curved bench. Nicely done. Now I could choose which one to sit next to, which, of course, was no choice at all.
I slid in adjacent to Zee.
The additional place setting appeared within about ten seconds, and then the sommelier arrived.
“Do you have any questions about our wine list, Mr. Wolfe?” she asked.
“I’m afraid I haven’t had the chance to peruse it yet. We just got here.”
“Excellent,” she said. “If you do have questions, my name is Eleanor, and I’m at your service.” She bowed slightly and then left us alone.
I was used to obsequiousness in restaurants. The servers were all out for Wolfe tips. The thing was, they didn’t have to kiss my ass. I always tipped well for good service. That was all I ever expected.
My old man used to like having his ass kissed.
All this time, I’d known he was a bastard. Never in a million years, though, had I considered that he might be a psychopathic criminal as well.
What he’d done to this woman next to me…
She was so strong. She didn’t even know how strong she was.
She turned to me, still with red cheeks. “Thank you for…for having my shoes repaired.”
“You’re very welcome. It’s the least I could do.”
“But the other stuff,” she continued. “The other five pairs. I’m afraid I couldn’t accept them.”
“Of course you can. I want you to have them.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve already shipped them back to the return address.”
My stomach dropped. Why did I care so much? I’d sent out a personal shopper with Zee’s shoe size on a whim. This shouldn’t bother me.
But it did.
“I told her she was nuts,” Mo said.
“You’ll have to excuse Mo,” Zee said. “She’s a shoe whore.”
Zee’s description shocked me a little, but Mo brushed it off.
“I admit it,” she said. “I love shoes, and those were some beauties.”
“It was very generous of you,” Zee said, “but it was just too much.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way.” I picked up my menu. “What are you ladies in the mood for tonight?”
Nice save, Reid. Why was this bothering me? I’d sent the shoes as a way to woo Zee, but now I realized I truly wanted her to have them. Why?
Was it because…?
Guilt? Guilt for what my father had done to her?
Maybe, though what he did wasn’t my fault in any way. If Roy and I had known what he was doing all those years, we would have stopped it. Tried our damned best, anyway.
But as Riley told us, he most likely wouldn’t have let us.
Derek Wolfe held all the power.
No longer. The bastard was dead and cremated. but his partner in crime—Father Jim—was still very much alive.
And Zee could identify him.
This dinner wasn’t going to get me into Zee’s head or into Zee’s bed. She’d seen to that by inviting Mo along.
I couldn’t blame her, honestly. She was scared. It was written all over her face.
“I’m in the mood for a giant hunk of lasagna,” Mo said and then sighed. “But I’ll probably have the braised cod with lemon.”
I glanced over the menu. “I don’t see that option.”
“It’s not on there,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be cod. Tilapia is fine. Or sole.”
“Sole?” Nieves had ordered the Dover sole at lunch, though I’d had to cancel her order when she left abruptly after getting the call about Leta.
“Any kind of white fish,” Mo said. “Zee and I are on strict diets.”
“Not tonight,” I said. “The sky’s the limit. You ladies order whatever you’d like.”
“And then we’ll have to deal with Tiger tomorrow,” Mo said.
“Who’s Tiger?”
“She’s the choreographer. I swear the woman can see one extra ounce on our bodies.”
“Do you agree, Zee?” I asked.
“I agree about Tiger,” she said, “but Mo knows I don’t stick to her diet as strictly as most of the girls do.”
“Zee is lucky. Nothing ever changes on her gorgeous bod.”
“You both look amazing to me,” I said.
Mo giggled and blushed. Zee stayed silent and blushed.
“Seriously,” I said. “I want you both to order what you want. Even if you only take a few bites. Take the rest home in a doggie bag and have few bites each day until it’s gone. You’ve got to live a little sometimes.”
“Actually,” Zee said, finally meeting my gaze, “I couldn’t agree more.”
15
Zee
Reid’s eyebrows nearly shot off his forehead, which didn’t surprise me. Of course my words shocked him. They shocked me as well.
I wasn’t sure where they’d come from.
Mo was a stickler for our strict diet, but she was right. I was not. I’d been starved during my modeling years. I knew hunger, and it wasn’t pretty.
So never again. Not that I overindulged much, but I never starved myself.
“I’m glad to hear you say that, Zee,” Reid said. “What looks good to you tonight? Or do you want to wait to hear the chef’s specials?”
I picked up the menu and scanned it quickly. “Cedar plank salmon. Salmon is my favorite fish.”
“Salmon is wonderful,” Reid agreed, “but it seems like a red meat kind of night.”
“I don’t eat a lot of red meat.”
“Why not?”
“Never had the taste for it.” True story. It just wasn’t my thing.
“Fair enough. Salmon it is. And you, Mo?” Reid asked.
“I’m afraid I’ll be going with the cod with lemon.”
“As you wish. I’ll see that the chef prepares it to your specifications.”
Eleanor appeared tableside. “Just checking in, Mr. Wolfe.”
“I’m afraid I haven’t glanced at the wine list yet, but I’m in the mood for a red Burgundy tonight. Just bring me your best bottle. How does that sound, ladies?”
“Lovely,” Mo gushed.
“I know very little about wine,” I said.
“It’ll go nicely with your salmon,” Reid replied.
“Red wine? With fish?”
“Oh, yeah. That old only-white-with-fish thing is a myth.”
“I agree,” Eleanor said. “I have a lovely aged Burgundy that will enhance anything on our menu. Thank you, Mr. Wolfe.” Again, she bowed slightly.
Finally our server came by for our cocktail order. Reid declined for all of us, saying we’d already ordered a bottle of wine. The server—Jason—left red-faced and embarrassed.
“I feel bad for him,” I said.
“He should have come around before the sommelier,” Reid said. “He’s late, and he feels guilty. Rightfully so.”
“Rightfully so?”
“Yes. The server should take the cocktail order before the sommelier offers wine. Wine is more traditionally drunk with dinner.” He perused the menu again. “Do you ladies want an appetizer tonight?”
“Goodness, no,” Mo said.
“Zee?”
“You know what?” I said. “I do. I’d like to try the Maryland crab cakes.”
“Your wish is my command.”
Dinner went smoothly, mostly because Mo dominated the conversation, which was, of course, why I’d invited her in the first place. I wasn’t a good conversationalist.
But that was far from the only reason I’d invited her.
I was scared to death of being alone with Reid Wolfe.
He looked so much like his father. Yes, I knew in my head that he wasn’t his father. But somewhere deep inside me I couldn’t escape the fact that this man’s father had abducted me, hunted me.
And now I was attracted to his son.
So unreal. What the heck was wrong with me?
Jason—who’d been extremely attentive since his earlier faux pas—appeared tableside with dessert menus.
Mo waved him away. “I couldn’t possibly.”
Yeah. She’d eaten about a third of her plain fish with lemon and half of her broccolini.
“I’ll take a look,” Reid said. “Zee?”
“I’ll always look.” I took the menu Jason handed me.
“The pastry chef has prepared a special dessert tonight as well,” Jason offered. “Chocolate crème brulée with raspberry coulis.”
My stomach growled, despite being full. I was a sucker for anything chocolate and creamy.
“Sounds amazing,” Reid said. “Zee, see anything you like?”
I’d already thrown caution to the wind, so an eight-hundred-calorie dessert was definitely off the table. “I guess I’ll pass.”
“You sure?” Reid asked.
“No. It sounds wonderful, but I do have to fit into my costume tomorrow.”
Reid smiled. “Bring me the special,” he said to Jason, “with two spoons.”
“Of course. Coffee?”
Mo and I declined.
“Yes, black please,” Reid said.
Mo stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to use the ladies room.”
No. You are so not leaving me here alone with Reid. I stood as well. “I’ll come along.”
“I’m totally envious,” Mo said in the ladies room as she freshened her lipstick. “He can’t take his eyes off you.”
“You’re imagining things.”
“Are you kidding me? I may as well be invisible.”
I regarded my reflection in the mirror. I’d always been attractive. I wouldn’t have been able to try making it as a model otherwise, but I had scars, both visible and invisible.
The invisible ones were worse, to be honest.
When I saw myself in the mirror, I didn’t see beauty.
I saw pain.
I saw brokenness.
I saw scars.
I saw someone trying to hide under garish black hair and darkened eyebrows and lashes. My natural hair color was dark blond, and my eyebrows and lashes were dark brown.
How long had I been hiding?
So very long.
Maybe it was time to pull my head out of the sand.
Maybe…
Maybe, in the morning, I’d make an appointment with my stylist.
Maybe I’d have her bleach the black out of my hair and then give me something close to my natural blond.
Maybe I’d throw away my black eyebrow pencil and mascara.
Maybe…
Or maybe not.
“I think I’ll make a quick getaway.” Mo pressed her lips together to distribute her gloss.
She shocked me out of my thoughts. “No. Please. Stay.”
“He’s obviously into you. I’m just in the way.”
“You’re selling yourself short, Mo.”
She sighed. “I wish I could agree, Zee, but I’m not. His gaze hasn’t left you all night. Whatever he wants, you’ve got it.”
I had it, all right, but it wasn’t my looks. It was a story. A story that could shed light onto who his father truly was. A story that could take the focus off Reid and his siblings…
…and onto me.
I hadn’t killed Derek Wolfe. I’d been here, in Las Vega
s. Though I didn’t have an ironclad alibi, because the show was dark that night. But I could easily prove I hadn’t made any trips to New York. I didn’t own a gun. In fact, guns scared the hell out of me.
This wouldn’t fall on me, no matter what I did.
Still, I didn’t want to be dragged into the middle of the Wolfe family dysfunction. Hadn’t I been through enough at the hands of a Wolfe?
“…so attracted to you.”
Again, I jerked out of my thoughts.
“Sorry, what?”
“I’ve never seen a guy so smitten,” Mo said.
“Smitten?” Smitten meant…well, smitten. Reid Wolfe might find me attractive, might even like me as a person, but smitten? No. He simply wanted something from me.
Not that I didn’t want to help him and his siblings, especially Riley. I’d watched her modeling career since she came on the scene. Though modeling never interested me as much as it did my mother, I admired those who did well. Riley Wolfe was the best.
She seemed the most real to me of all of them, almost as if she understood. But how could she? Surely Derek Wolfe never hunted his own daughter.
“Please don’t go,” I said to Mo again.
She nodded.
We left the ladies room and headed back to the table, where Jason was setting down the chocolate crème brulée Reid had ordered. I slid into the booth, and—
“Thank you so much for including me tonight, Reid,” Mo gushed, “but I just got a phone call and I have to go.”
My jaw dropped. Seriously, Mo? You just lied to me?
Reid stood and gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek. “You’re most welcome. I enjoyed meeting you.”
Mo whisked away, fingers pressed to the spot Reid had kissed, and was gone in a flash before I could even stand.
Reid sat back down quickly and smiled. “Alone at last.”
My stomach fluttered.
I was in big trouble now.
16
Reid
Finally.
Finally, I could begin to work my magic on the lovely Zee. I tapped my spoon on the burnt sugar topping of the crème brulée and spooned a modest portion. Then I held it to her lips. “You first.”
