Wilde at Heart Read online

  If the authorities believed Shelby started the fire, he’d have to come clean, admit he’d been there with her, and the only fire she’d started was the one in his blood. Which would be uncomfortable for them both, but better than having her accused of a crime.

  “No,” Vaughn said. “The evidence is pretty clear that someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the front window. The investigator assigned to the case is a good one, but Cam still wants us to look into it ourselves when we get back from Vegas.”

  “All right.”

  Vaughn finally gazed up from his computer, his blue eyes narrowed. “That’s it?”

  “That’s what?”

  “Your only reaction is ‘all right’? No bitching about the expense of taking on a case we won’t get paid for?”

  “Eva’s going to be family in two days. By default, that makes Shelby family, too. If it involves her safety, it’s something we need to investigate, expenses be damned.”

  Vaughn froze for an instant, then very slowly turned in his seat to stare. “You look like Reece, but you can’t possibly be him. Real Reece has conniptions over money issues. So where’s my real brother, and who do I have to kill to get him back?”

  “You’ve been spending too much time with Jude. His smartass is rubbing off on you. It’s not attractive.”

  “Good thing I’m not trying to attract your ugly ass then.”

  “Fucking younger brothers.” Reece rolled his eyes to the ceiling in a silent plea for patience, then started back to his office. “Go home, Vaughn.”

  “I will. But first I need to contact Gabe and Quinn, give them Lark’s description, since HORNET is all over the country. Figure if I cast a wide enough net, she’s bound to get caught in it.”

  Reece paused in the doorway and glanced back. Vaughn was again working on his computer with laser-like focus. He was good with technology, but Reece was better. The least he could do was take some of the pressure off, and maybe Vaughn wouldn’t run himself into the ground during his search.

  “I’ll look into her financials, see what I can dig up.”

  Vaughn met his gaze, eyes full of gratitude in the instant before he glanced away. When he spoke, his voice came out soft, a little rusty. “Thanks.”

  Jesus. Vaughn really was tied up in knots over this woman. Out of all the craziness in the past year—Jude reuniting with his lost love Libby, Cam and Eva taking their friendship to the next level, Vaughn nearly getting blown up, and whatever the hell was going on with Greer—this had to be the craziest. Vaughn just wasn’t the kind of guy to commit to a woman, but he sure as hell was committing everything he had to the search for Lark.

  Reece returned to his office, sat behind his desk, but ignored the expense reports on his screen. Instead, he clicked over to the internet and ran some searches on Lark. He got about what he expected: the engagement announcement for Lark and her ex-fiancé, an article about said fiancé’s nasty past and her disappearance after he was caught for his crimes. For a while, speculation was he’d killed her before he was caught, but Vaughn didn’t seem to think so. And now that they knew she had been living in D.C. under a stolen name, Reece had to agree. She was in the wind, but was it because she was a frightened victim or a criminal?

  He’d dig more later. Right now, he had to get those reports done for DMW Systems, the software company he’d built from the ground up after leaving the army. Currently, most of his contracts were government, but he hoped to take his company into the private sector and was in the process of securing a major investor who would help cement DMW’s spot as a top competitor in the field. Everything had to be perfect or it wasn’t going to happen. Irving James III was about as old school as old school money got and the fact he was even considering investing in a tech company was a miracle in and of itself. Reece’s “good old fashioned family values” and “patriotism” had drawn the billionaire’s attention. Now he had to find a way to keep it.

  He worked until he realized the outer office had gone silent. Straightening in his seat, stretching his arms over his head to work out the kinks, he checked the clock on his screen. After two a.m. No wonder he didn’t hear any noise out there. Vaughn probably called it quits hours ago since they were scheduled to be on a seven thirty flight to Vegas.

  By his estimation, Reece had just enough time to get home, pack, shower, and maybe if he was lucky, even squeeze in an hour of sleep.

  He reached to close the lid of his laptop, and his email dinged. Probably shouldn’t look at it if he wanted that hour of sleep…

  He opened the program.

  The sender’s name wasn’t one he recognized, but the subject line hit him like a punch to the solar plexus.

  SCANDAL! DMW SYSTEMS CEO HAS SEX WITH BARISTA AT COFFEEHOUSE.

  What. The. Fuck?

  He ran a virus scan, found none, and opened the attachment. Sure enough, there was a grainy video, like from a cheap security camera. It showed Shelby sitting on the desk with him between her legs and the screen went black right before he pulled away, leaving the viewer to interpret what happened next. Text appeared, followed by a string of numbers he could only assume was a bank account.

  If you want this video to stay secret, pay up. $20,000.

  Reece sat back in his chair, ran his hands through his hair, and just stared at the screen. This could not be happening. Not now.

  Of course, logically speaking, this was the perfect time to hit him with blackmail. So it had to be someone he knew. Someone who had access to, or at least the ability to access the coffee shop’s security footage. Someone who knew his government contracts were running out this year and he needed Irving James’s investment if he wanted to keep both DMW and Wilde Security afloat. Someone who knew one moral misstep on his part would bring everything he’d built crashing down.

  But who?

  He stared at the bank account number. He could trace it but that would take time, a commodity he was preciously short on at the moment. And there was no guarantee it would lead him anywhere. If the blackmailer was smart, and Reece had to assume so, it would be an offshore account under an assumed identity.

  He could try tracing the email, but it was from a free service provider anyone could sign up for. And again, he had to assume the blackmailer was smart enough to know how to cover his or her tracks in cyberspace. You don’t blackmail a computer geek if you aren’t confident in your own hacking skills.

  Which left him with only one choice. Pay.

  He rubbed his damp palms on his thighs and tried to think of another solution, any other solution, but he came up blank.

  If he paid now, he’d have to keep paying. And paying. And paying. He knew how it worked. As long as the blackmailer had that video, he was vulnerable.

  But what choice did he have?

  “Goddammit.” He signed on to his bank account and sent the wire transfer, then shut down his computer. At the very least, that money should buy him some time, but he couldn’t worry any more about it right now. He had to go home, shower, and pack. He wasn’t about to ruin Cam’s wedding, refused to burden his brothers with the possibility of Wilde Security going bankrupt. After all the shit they’d had thrown at them recently, they deserved a worry-free celebration.

  He’d handle this. Wilde Security was going to be okay. His brothers would be okay. Even if he had to pay every last penny he had, he’d make sure of it.

  Chapter Four

  LAS VEGAS

  Weddings didn’t get much shorter or sweeter than Cam and Eva’s. It was a no-frills affair in the smallest of the hotel’s chapels. But despite that, and after much argument, Shelby had managed to talk her sister into wearing a gorgeously simple linen dress instead of a pair of jeans and her favorite leather jacket.

  As Eva walked down the aisle, the cream color glowed against her caramel skin. And going by the look on her groom’s face, the tastefully deep V neckline was well appreciated. Cam even gave Shelby a thumbs-up behind Eva’s back because that man was no dummy. He knew who had the
fashion sense in the family, and it wasn’t his bride. Eva elbowed him in the ribs, and he grinned unapologetically as they turned to face the officiant.

  Ugh. Those two were ridiculously adorable together. Always had been, even back when they were struggling to keep their relationship in the “friend” category. It was about time they figured out how right they were for each other, and Shelby’s heart melted when things got sappy at the exchange of vows. Even Cam’s hard-ass identical twin, Vaughn, serving as best man, looked uncomfortably moved. He shifted on his feet and stared hard at a spot on the floor.

  Shelby knuckled away her own tears and let her gaze wander over the scatter of wedding guests, mostly family and a herd of Cam and Eva’s cop buddies. The remaining three Wilde brothers occupied the entire first row of seats on Cam’s side of the aisle. Jude, the youngest, grinned and pulled his wife Libby into his side as she dabbed at her eyes. Greer, the oldest, always looked about three steps beyond exhausted and today was no different, but a small smile still tilted up the corners of his hard mouth.

  And then there was Reece.

  Pressed and polished as ever, he sat straight-backed in the pew and watched the proceedings with a calmness she couldn’t understand. Color and noise and chaos followed her every move, so his intense stillness was intriguing. Was he really as calm as he appeared, or was there a typhoon swirling under that reserved exterior? Either way, she could so easily imagine him as a Victorian gentleman, born in the wrong era.

  At least until he looked at her.

  Oh, yes, there was the typhoon. All that energy, locked up inside, waiting to be tapped.

  His hazel eyes all but singed as his gaze traced her body. A muscle ticked in his jaw. Without a doubt, he was thinking about stripping her out of her dress, and he wasn’t happy about it. The scene from the other night played out in the air between them. If she closed her eyes, she would feel his hands holding her thighs apart again and his unadulterated enthusiasm as his tongue circled her clit. Heat flashed through her, settled low in her belly, and her inner muscles trembled. She’d gone uncomfortably damp between her legs, and the thong she was wearing wasn’t doing anything to help the problem.

  Reece finally broke eye contact, glancing away when Jude leaned over and said something to him.

  Shelby released the air caught in her lungs and refocused on the wedding, her heart thundering. Given her current situation and all the shit it was bound to bring down on her, she shouldn’t want the man. Oh, but she did. And had since the first time she laid eyes on him.

  This was going to be a complication.

  Then again, when did she ever do things the easy way?

  The wedding wrapped up and Cam hooked an arm around Eva, dragging her in close for a kiss. Then, to a chorus of rowdy applause, they were introduced as the new Mr. and Mrs. Camden Wilde.

  Cam and Eva lifted their joined hands in the air in triumph as if they’d just won a marathon together, and the cheers exploded. And, okay, maybe they had won something. Not many people found their soul mates.

  Shelby had never seen Eva happier than in those moments after the wedding as the newlyweds fielded well-wishes from their friends, and a little seed of jealousy bloomed deep inside her heart. She wanted a piece of that happy for herself. Maybe not all of the marriage crap and certainly not the whole “golly gee” Leave It to Beaver family her sister had always dreamed of, but it would be nice to have the kind of connection Cam and Eva had found with each other.

  She didn’t need or deserve the entire happy pie. But was a sliver too much to ask for?

  Probably.

  She’d made more than her fair share of bad decisions, some of which she’d spend the rest of her life paying for.

  Her gaze sought and met Reece’s again. Only this time, she was the one to glance away after an instant. She was fooling herself. A respectable man like him would never forgive her sins. Especially since one of her sins was coming back in a big way.

  And might just ruin him.

  Every time he glanced up, there Shelby was, her electric blue dress drawing his gaze like a magnet. Someone should have told her that dress was far too sexy for a wedding, especially a wedding where two-thirds of the guests were single guys looking to have a good time in Vegas.

  Okay, Reece admitted to himself as she turned away, the dress wasn’t that revealing, considering Shelby’s usual attire consisted mostly of corsets and miniskirts. Yes, the flared skirt was short and the black lace bodice left her shoulders bare, but all the essentials were covered. Still. It took every ounce of control he possessed to keep from taking off his suit jacket and wrapping her up in it, hiding her from the interested eyes of Cam and Eva’s cop buddies.

  He pinched the bridge of his nose. What was wrong with him? He had far more pressing concerns than Shelby Bremer’s choice of clothing. Like, for instance, finding his blackmailer. Or keeping both of his businesses afloat so his brothers didn’t end up jobless. Really, sex should be the absolute last thing on his mind.

  But it wasn’t. Not when he was in the same room as Shelby. And that was a first for him. She was chaos on two gorgeous legs, and he hated chaos. Preferred neat, tidy, precise. So why did he find Shelby, of all women, so enthralling?

  The room went pin-drop silent, pulling him from his thoughts, and he searched for the source of the sudden tension. At the back of the chapel stood a tiny blonde woman clutching the hand of a distinguished silver-haired man. Take away Shelby’s tattoos and wild hair color, and this woman could be her twin. But she wasn’t one of Shelby and Eva’s long lost siblings, of which they had a ton. No, this was Katrina Bremer, the woman who had birthed an army of children and had abandoned most of them—all except for her two youngest girls. Instead, she’d given them a hellish childhood filled with drugs and a revolving door of questionable boyfriends. Abandonment would have been kinder.

  “Mom?” Eva said, and Cam’s arm slid around her waist in a fortifying hug. “What are you doing here?”

  Katrina released her grip on her newest man and walked forward. She had gained weight since the first time Reece had seen her three months ago. At the time, she’d been strapped into the back of an ambulance—skinny, dirty, and high as a kite—on her way to the hospital for a psych evaluation after attacking Shelby and Eva. Now her blond hair was clean and braided, her dress unwrinkled and modest.

  She stopped a short distance from Eva and clasped her hands nervously in front of her. “I wanted to see my daughter’s wedding.”

  “You weren’t invited,” Eva snapped.

  Shelby stepped between them and held out a hand as if to hold her sister back. “Evie…”

  Eva whirled on her. “Did you tell her about this?”

  “Of course I did. She’s our mother.”

  “Yeah, and there’s a reason I didn’t invite her, Shelby. I didn’t want her here.” She shrugged out of Cam’s grasp and stabbed a finger accusingly toward her mother. “How could you even want to see her after the way she attacked us?”

  Shelby glanced back at Katrina, then rolled her lips together and straightened her shoulders, preparing to face off against her much taller sister. “She wasn’t well back then, but she is now.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “At least she’s trying now. She’s been clean since that night, and she’s engaged to a nice man, a former cop like you and Cam—”

  “Engaged?” Eva spared her mother and the silver-haired man a disgusted glance. “Oh my God. Shel, we’ve been down this road before. Over and over and over. She’s never going to change.”

  “I don’t believe that. People can change.”

  “Not her!”

  “Eva,” Katrina said softly, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Honey, I know I’ve not been a good mother to you, but I am so, so sorry for what I put you girls through. I was selfish and…sick.”

  “See?” Shelby said and wrapped an arm around her mother. “Give her another chance.”

  “No.” Radiating disbelief, Eva shook
her head. “No! I’ve given her more chances than she deserves.” She turned that accusing finger on her sister, poking Shelby’s chest. “I’ve given you more chances than you deserve, and all I ever get in return is disappointment. I can’t—” Her voice caught and she shouldered between her sister and mother, leaving a heavy silence in her wake.

  Katrina tried to hug Shelby, but she shrugged off the embrace and ran for the exit, too. Nobody moved for a solid three seconds after the chapel door banged shut behind her.

  “Shit,” Cam said under his breath and chased after his wife.

  Reece hesitated for only a heartbeat before he followed. He found Cam pacing the floor in the hallway outside the women’s restroom. “Are they in there?”

  “Eva is.” Cam dragged his hands over his head. “Goddamn Shelby.”

  “Hey, she was only trying to help.”

  “Yeah, well, Eva can do without her brand of help. You have no idea what a mindfuck it was for Eva growing up as the daughter of that woman.”

  “Shelby’s her daughter, too,” Reece pointed out.

  “But that’s the biggest difference between them. Shelby bounces back from everything. Eva doesn’t. She carries the hurt forever.” He stopped moving in front of the bathroom door and stared at the female stick figure like he wanted to set fire to it. Finally, he muttered, “Fuck this,” and pushed inside.

  Reece stood in the empty hallway and debated his next step. In a conference room several doors down, the reception revelry was already in full swing. A room full of cops with an open bar in Vegas? Yeah, he should probably go in there and keep things under control until the bride and groom returned.

  He took a step in that direction, but a flash of blue at the other end of the hall caught his attention and he glanced toward it in time to see Shelby step into the elevator. He didn’t think, just moved, striding down the hall and catching the door before it slid shut.

  Shelby sighed and wiped at her eyes with both hands. “What are you doing here?”