Wilde at Heart (Wilde Security, #3)(59)

The hell it didn’t, but he let her go and didn’t chase her. Hands on his hips, he stared at the empty doorway.

What the f*ck was that all about?





Chapter Twenty-One


Reece left another note by the still-warm coffee. He’d gone to DMW’s office, would be back in time to get ready for the gala.

Shelby crumpled the note. It had been sweet of him to leave it, but it wasn’t enough. She’d wanted to talk to him, but she should have figured he’d sneak off to work first thing this morning. Retreating into work was what he did when things got too heavy. Just like her modus operandi was to run away.

She’d hurt him last night. The look on his face when she ran away from his suggestion of sharing a bed…yeah, she felt kind of like she’d kicked a puppy. She needed to apologize, try to explain things to him.

Except how could she do that without explaining everything? She’d need to tell him she never owed The Headhunters money and had used it as an excuse to get him to marry her. The marriage hadn’t been her original plan, but when she found out about the blackmail, she really thought she was helping him out while still furthering her own goals.

Dammit.

Maybe it was time to lay it all out, Jason and his warnings be damned. She’d risk prison time if it meant she never had to see that hurt look on Reece’s face again. But there lay the catch-22, because telling him the truth would most definitely hurt him.

She couldn’t see a pain-free way out of this situation.

Shelby wasn’t usually one to brood, but she couldn’t seem to shake the horrible mood as she puttered about the apartment. She tried calling Libby, but she and Jude already had plans. And Shelby couldn’t bring herself to talk to Eva yet, so she was left to her own devices for the day.

When the doorbell rang in the late afternoon, she jumped. She hadn’t even known the apartment had a doorbell, and now someone was ringing it? She padded over to the front door in her socks, careful not to make any noise in case she wanted to pretend she wasn’t here, and used the peep hole.

Oh, shit. Her stomach flipped. No way this was good.

She unlocked and opened the door, but only a few inches. “Mom. What are you doing here? Better question, how did you know where I was?”

Katrina Bremer wrung her hands. “I-I wanted to see you. Eva told me you moved here.”

Yeah, fat chance. Eva wouldn’t tell her the sky was blue if she asked.

Shelby studied her mother and a fist squeezed hard around her heart. Katrina was still going with the schoolmarm look, but underneath the prim and proper church-going facade was a thick layer of desperation. She was all pale and gaunt, and heavy bags under her bloodshot blue eyes spoke of many sleepless nights.

Katrina was back on the drugs.

Shelby didn’t know why the realization hurt so much. After all these years, why did she always believe Katrina would stay clean? “Mom, you need to go.”

Katrina’s lower lip trembled. “I have nowhere to go. Eva won’t take me in—”

“What about your new man?”

More with the lower lip. “He said he didn’t need me anymore and left me.”

Of course he did. Men always left Katrina. It was in her DNA, which made Shelby wonder if it was a genetic predisposition she shared with her mother. Reece was going to leave, and then she’d be in the same boat as her mother. No job, no home.

Shit. She wished she was more like Eva, but she just couldn’t do it. She couldn’t turn her mother away. Maybe because she saw too much of herself in Katrina.

She backed up a step. “You can stay here until Reece gets home in a few hours. Then…we’ll see. I can’t guarantee he’ll let you stay longer.”

Katrina launched through the door and threw her skinny arms around Shelby in a fierce hug. “I’m so proud of you.”

Oh God. How many times growing up had she wanted to hear those words from her mother? Or from anyone? Shelby closed her eyes and savored the moment until Katrina tacked on, “Bagging a rich man like you have? You’ve done your mama proud.”

Disgust rolled through Shelby and she pulled out of her mother’s arms. “He’s not a trophy.”

“Of course he is. I was never able to find a sugar daddy, and Eva sure as hell didn’t, marrying a cop. Ugh, I swear, I don’t know what’s wrong with that girl. But I should have known you’d wrangle one. You have my looks and your daddy’s smarts.”

Right. Her father was so smart, he landed himself in prison for twenty-five to life.

Katrina bumped her hip into Shelby’s. “Now you just have to hang on to him. Oh!” Distracted, she wandered into the living room and did a little spin. “This place. My little princess found her palace!”

This was such a bad idea.

Shelby hugged herself to keep from shattering into a thousand heartbroken pieces. “Since when have I been your princess?”

“Since always.”

“You attacked me three months ago. Gave me a concussion and a black eye.”

Katrina put on her puppy dog eyes, blinking back tears she could turn on and off at a whim, and piled her hands over her heart. “Oh, Shel-bear, I wasn’t well then, and you know it. You’re my baby. My last baby. Of course you’ve always been my favorite.”

Shelby rolled her lips together and drew in a deep breath through her nose. It was all she could do to keep from screaming, “Real mothers don’t have favorites!” It would be a waste of breath anyway, because Katrina had a remarkable ability to ignore facts she didn’t want to hear. “You need to go.”