DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(7)

“I’m sure the bank will cancel the event.”

“I doubt it.”

I almost laughed when his eyebrows rose so high that he looked a little like Phyllis Diller.

“Bankers are ruthless people, Ash. I doubt they’d care enough about a security guard that they’d cancel one of the biggest parties they’ve thrown in six months. These events are a great way to woo new customers, especially those types of customers who have six figure balances all year long, if you know what I mean. They’ll still have the event.”

He studied me for a minute, as if he was struggling to decide what to do. Then he inclined his head again.

“Then we’ll need to know where the event will take place, see a guest list—”

“I can do that.”

“And you’ll have to take my operative as your date.”

I wanted to protest, but the truth was, I didn’t have a date to the party. And it would be a real coup to walk in with a strange man that all the other women in the bank haven’t already gotten their claws into. I could just imagine their faces when I walked through the doors with a good-looking man none of them could touch. And if Ash’s operative looked anything like him…

“Okay,” I said, making a gesture like I was giving him a huge advantage, “I’ll concede that much.”

“Thank you, Miss—”

“No. Kate.”

A slow grin split his serious expression. “Kate.”

He moved away from the door then, approaching me with the file folder he’d had in his hand all this time.

“I have a few papers for you to sign.”

A few papers? I’d signed fewer papers when giving a couple a mortgage! But I signed them patiently, not really minding having such a big, powerful man standing so close to me. And he smelled pretty good. Something spicy, which seemed to fit his personality quite well. Quiet, but potentially deadly.

When the papers were all signed—contracts giving them permission to break into my house and set up surveillance, permission for them to watch me day and night, permission for their operative to live in my house, and of course, the all-important form that freed them of liability if I ended up dead on their watch—he stepped back and studied my face for a moment, as if he wanted to tell me something but didn’t quite know how.

“Is there more, Ash? I can’t imagine how much more of my privacy and freedom I could possibly sign away.”

“No. That’s all the paperwork.”

“Then what?” I asked with what I hoped was a flirty smile.

That smile didn’t come back as I’d hoped. Instead, he studied my face a second longer, then—clearly a decision made—he stepped back and gestured toward the door.

“I should let them in now.”

“Them, who?”

I needn’t have asked. He opened the door and my father stepped inside, curiosity and concern dancing in his eyes. He came to my side, taking my hand between both of his.

“Katie, if any pleasure can come out of such a terrible thing, this is it.”

I had no idea what he was talking about. I found myself wondering if he’d been drinking while he was out in the hall. And then I heard his voice as he spoke to Ash—something about whether the papers had been signed—and my headache became an almost unbearable, piercing pain.

“Oh, hell no!”





Chapter 4


Donovan

“Hello to you, too, Kate.”

She jumped off the bed, nearly sending her father flying on the slick floor as he tried to control her—a mistake I could have warned him not to make—and charged me. Ash moved to head her off, but I stepped around him and grabbed her wrists before she could hurt herself, or anyone else.

“You bastard!” she cried.

“Kate…”

“You killed him. You killed my brother!”

“Katie, you know that’s not true,” Daniel said, confusion radiating from his tone.

She didn’t seem to hear him. She was looking directly at me.

“You should have been there. You knew those boys were looking for you. You knew they had a beef with you. You! Not Joshua.”

I pushed her backward, trying to get her back on the bed before she pulled her IV loose.

“You should have been there to protect him.”

“No one could have predicted what was going to happen that night, Katie,” Daniel said. “You went to the district attorney and the police with me. You heard what he said.”

“I know what the police thought. But I also know what they didn’t.”

Her eyes were so full of anger, the same eyes I’d seen in nightmares much longer than I cared to admit. Beautiful hazel eyes when she wasn’t trying to rip my balls off. But now I just wanted to close my eyes and make them disappear.

I gave her one more good shove and she fell onto the bed, nearly toppling over—except for my grip on her wrists.

“You should have been there.”

“You know why I wasn’t.”

That cooled the anger a little. She turned her face away, and the power went out of her arms.

I squeezed her wrists. “Are you going to settle down now?”

She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t scratch my eyes out when I let her go either.