Cry Wolf (Wolves of Angels Rest #7)(10)

Diesel grinned. “You make it sound so easy.”

“Covering your tracks? For you, I assume it would be.”

“I meant disappearing me.”

“Ah. Well, that part will be easy. For me.” A slow huff of breath hissed in the darkness. “Except there is at least one who knows where you were last night, isn’t there? I hope she was worth the detour.”

Diesel’s grin vanished. Even as he stiffened, he knew it was a potentially fatal mistake, and he couldn’t believe he’d made it. He was no f*cking new guy. How had one night of wild sex so messed up his game?

He couldn’t even manufacture a nonchalant shrug since this goddamn door kept trying to lock him in the void with a bigger, meaner monster than he was.

“She had nothing to do with anything,” he said. At least he managed to keep his tone easy.

“I think she’d be hurt to hear you say that.”

What did this other male know about Red? Or was he just talking? Diesel forced himself to drop that irrelevant line of questioning. “You have to be curious why I’m here.”

“That’s the only reason I haven’t thrown you out the window.”

“Plus, there don’t seem to be any windows. Not to mention the splatter I’d make would be not exactly your subtle style.”

“For you, I could make an exception.”

“Curiosity,” Diesel reminded his invisible opponent.

“Then tell me already.”

“You have a secret Kingdom Guard outpost on the edge of your territory.” He waited, letting that sink in. And maybe forcing the other male to admit a need to know.

Another huff, this time containing reluctant acknowledgment. “Tell me more.”

Diesel quickly outlined the situation: the shifters who’d been taken and made into weapons against their own kind, the decommissioned army base in the desert retrofitted to torture and brainwash the kidnapped shifters, the certainty that other shifters were being held captive even now.

“Why haven’t you gone after them?” Cold fury unfurled from the blackness.

Diesel straightened, taut with the same anger. “Haven’t had the resources. We need to hit them and hit them hard, take them out for good. If they capture our folk or even just kill them and scuttle off to live another day, all shifters will be in a worse position. We only get one shot at this.”

“And what do you want from me?”

“Anything. Everything.”

A soft snort. “With that attitude, no wonder you lingered so long last night.”

Diesel slammed his hand against the elevator door and it finally seemed to get the message they weren’t going anywhere. “She is off limits.”

“She sleeps in my suite.”

Even though he knew he was being tweaked, Diesel felt his hackles rise. “Every inch of this place is yours. But she is not.”

After a moment, a regretful sigh. “True.” Then, more briskly, “I don’t know how much help I can give you. I have amassed a fortune, but as you might imagine, leaving here is…impossible.” The voice dropped again, sounding distant, as if the other male had turned away. “However few of you there are and however constrained you might be, you have more freedom. But if you need money, that I can throw into the ring.”

“We’ll take it,” Diesel said promptly. Then he hesitated. “There’s a little town, out middle of nowhere, we’re using to stage this attack. Might be more chances for you there, away from the city.”

“Vegas doesn’t have enough chances? And they are all skewed to the house. No, all monsters have their lair, and this is mine. But I’ll pay what it costs to end the Kingdom Guard threat. I’ll let my staff know you will be calling, and funds will be made available for you.”

“Thank you.” Diesel peered into the darkness. “Maybe someday—”

“Go away. Before I find a window.”

Resisting the urge to bow—or flip a middle finger toward that one darker shadow he sensed in the void—Diesel backed into the elevator. The door snapped shut as if annoyed he’d been holding it up.

LT and Malachi were projecting the same irritation when he showed up at the off-strip diner. Malachi paced and scowled, while LT showed his annoyance by tapping one finger on his tree-trunk thigh. Diesel held up one hand to stop any cursing or questions as he approached.

“Got in,” he said. “And got out. With all the money we need.”

“No extra bodies?” LT rumbled.

“Almost mine,” Diesel said. “I believe him when he says he can’t do more.”

“Always use money,” Malachi said. “Since we already ate”—he gave Diesel a glare—“let’s get out of here. Unless there’s something else you need to do while we sit around and twiddle our thumbs.”

Diesel’s belly clenched. But it wasn’t bacon and eggs he was missing.

He thought of the white and gold suite with the red-haired beauty.

“There’s nothing else,” he said quietly.

But on the way out of town, he slouched in the back seat of the SUV, frowning blindly out the window. He’d already placed a call to some nameless staffer who confirmed a bank account number open to him. Crazy.

And still not nearly as crazy as the itch in his skin that made him want to reach over to the driver’s seat and yank the wheel out of LT’s hands into a spin that would take them back to the Strip.