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“You’ve fallen for her, mate,” Rowan says. “And there’s no getting up.”
My hand drops from his shoulder. I take a shaky step back.
He’s wrong. Dead wrong. I don’t tell him because he has a temper and enjoys being right, but I know what he’s saying is crazy. I’m just…overinvolved. Maybe I haven’t been having enough sex lately. It’s these woods. I just need to get back to the city and I’ll be fine.
He’s wrong.
A hundred percent.
Even if he was right, which he’s not, the answer is the same. Abort mission. I know not to play with girls like this. I know better than to fall. I’ll go before the entire family and tell them I’ve failed and have them send another man in my place before I let that happen.
I haven’t fallen. He’s not right. But there’s no escaping the fact that she’s gotten to me. She’s getting into my head. Her existence is an ever-present thought in my mind. I don’t like it. Either I convince her to cut the trip short and head for Italy next, placing her in the hands of her very capable possible fiancé’s family while I stand guard with my men very far away.
Or I’ve got to make the hard decision.
And a phone call I’m beginning to dread.
That’s when I feel the first drop of ice hit my skin. Fuck. We knew this turn in the weather was a possibility, but in all my research it should be holding off for at least a few more hours. We need to get on the road before conditions deteriorate.
Having the weather to think about is a welcome distraction to the storm of thoughts I’ve been having and Rowan’s dirty, lying words. I grab my phone from my pocket, ready to send out an all-call to all twenty-four of the guys I made come out here today—you can never be too careful in open, unprotected spaces like this.
Before I can send it, a blaring sound rings out over the misty shore. It’s what we call the five-alarm bell. I was going to send out a different one, a three-toned chime, the move your ass ‘cause it’s time to go sound.
Five-alarm: that means there is a potential threat among us. What could it be? And why does my mind immediately go to half-man, half-wolf? I scan the area, searching. Trees. Rocks. Water. “God, I hate these woods.”
I hear the shout coming from the hills behind me. “Vans!” Alfie’s sprinting down the hill, his ass as much on fire as his red hair. “Now!” He runs for the first van.
My only thought is of her.
The entire ocean disappears from my view and all I see is Paisley standing alone, high on that rock. Exposed. Vulnerable. Unprotected. I can’t tell if time is slowing or speeding up, but the world tilts and the only sound in my environment is my breathing and the crunch of stone beneath my feet.
I keep my tone even, my voice calm. Startling her as she balances on the top of this boulder is the last thing I want to do. “Paisley, come down. We need to go.”
She turns over her shoulder, beaming that smile at me. For one beat of a second all is right with the world. I know I’ve got Alfie on the way with a van and all my men watching my back. So, it’s easy to focus solely on her. She makes her way down the rock, agile and sure of herself. Doesn’t stop me from reaching up my hand to offer it to her when she’s close enough.
“Thanks,” she says sweetly. “But I got it.”
My breath stills in my chest until both those black boots of hers are securely planted on the ground. I wrap an arm around her. “Time to go. Weather’s turning on us and these roads can be slick, so let’s?—”
“Make like the private jet and take off.” She laughs at her little joke.
“Yeah. Something like that.” I’m scanning the area.
Nothing but my men, looking casual unless you take a closer look at the tension they carry in their shoulders. Alfie’s got the van as close to the rocks as he can get. I load her in, finally able to breathe once I close the door behind her.
I need to talk to Alfie, to find out what he saw in those woods, what made him send the five-alarm call. With Paisley in the van I don’t want to do it now.
“Where to, boss?” Alfie asks.
I don’t want to go back to the house. Not without knowing what’s up in those woods. Instead of heading back east to the house, I have Alfie go north.
I know a place I can take her.
twenty-one
Paisley
He says we’re here because the weather turned, and he didn’t want to get stuck at the modern house with that long, unpaved road, but Alfie keeps looking over his shoulder and Sav is acting all weird. And now we’re winding up a steep drive that happens to be paved but this place seems even more secluded than the modern house.
