Wolfe stalked his prey. His stupid, arrogant prey. Did he really think he could get away with what he did?
Did he think he could outsmart him?
No doubt he had a vehicle waiting somewhere. And he thought all the guards were still busy. What he didn’t realize is when you came after his family, then Wolfe would never let you live. Even if he had to hunt you down for the rest of his life.
Enough of this.
For the first time in his life, he was ready to end the chase. He was impatient to get home. He wanted to see his princess. He didn’t like that he’d had to lock her away. But she wasn’t locked away from him. It was to keep her safe.
He knew that Caleb and Aleki were likely with her already. But he wanted to be there with her too. To know she was safe.
So he circled around the dumb asshole then stepped forward.
“Hello, Ben.”
The older man stumbled, coming to a stop. The only light out here came from the moon and Wolfe stuck to the shadows so he knew the other man couldn’t see him clearly.
Not that it really mattered since he was about to die.
“Who are you? What are you doing?”
“I’m the last face you’re ever going to see. So if you have any prayers you want to make, I’d say them now.”
Ben turned and run. Wolfe sighed. Why did they always run?
In the end, it was too easy. It wasn’t much of a chase at all. But then Wolfe was in a hurry.
To get home to his girl.
Wolfe walked into the living room. She was sitting on the sofa. Caleb was next to her, his arm around her while Aleki was trying to encourage her to drink something warm. When she looked up and saw him, he tensed.
Would she feel disgust? Horror? She had to know what he’d done, right? Was she going to reject him? Because he couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t allow her to walk away. Not ever.
Slowly, she stood. He saw the way she trembled and he waited. Tense. Unsure.
“You found him?” she asked.
He nodded. Did she think he would come back if he hadn’t?
“He’s dead?”
He nodded again. Caleb and Aleki watched on, worry in their gazes. Suddenly, she flew at him, hugging him tight. He stood there, shocked, his arms at his sides. He could feel her trembling and knew he had to do something.
A sob rocked her body and then he realized she was whispering something. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me for taking care of you.”
More sobs rocked her.
Wolfe stared at her in horror. Then he glanced over at Aleki and Caleb. “Make her stop crying. Princess, stop crying.”
“I will, if you hug me back.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Anything for you, princess. Anything for the woman I love.”
Epilogue
“Daddy! Daddy!” she cried out, racing into Caleb’s office.
He stood, fear filling his face and she instantly felt guilty. While this was an emergency to her, it wasn’t an actual emergency.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Ever since her uncle attacked her and set off all those pranks, things had been shut down tight at the palace. She hadn’t been anywhere in weeks. Not that she wanted to go anywhere.
Uncle Ben was dead. Not that she cared. He deserved that and more for killing her mom.
She just wished they had some evidence they could use to deal with her father and Roger Mitel. But nothing her uncle told her could be used against her father. It was all hearsay. The guys still had Micah looking into him but she knew that they weren’t hopeful of finding anything.
They were still trying to figure out how her uncle made it into the country and onto palace grounds. Wolfe was upset that he hadn’t questioned her uncle first before taking care of him. For once, he’d let emotions rule his actions. His need to get back to her overriding everything else. Everyone was shocked by it.
Beta team was taking the breach in security hard since her guys had technically still been on leave. They’d all sworn to her that they’d get to the bottom of it, even Judd.
Marilyn had confessed to overhearing a conversation the guys had about her father and William on the plane. Once Marilyn had done some research and worked out who Vivi was, she’d contacted her father to tell him where she was. She’d been deported. And Prince Kassim had assured them that they’d warned their vast number of contacts about her. She wouldn’t find it so easy to find a job again. At least, not one she might want. Vivi was sure she could find a job scrubbing toilets somewhere.
“What’s wrong, jelly bean?” Caleb asked her.
“Piggles is hurt,” she wailed.
“What?” Relief filled his face and he held his hand to his chest.
Whoops.
Although she didn’t have time to feel bad as she thrust Piggles up into his face. “Look! Fix him!”
“Oh no, Piggles, what happened?” Caleb asked.
“He’s had an injury under his chin for a while. I should have taken him to the toy hospital. Now he’s sick! He’s bleeding out.”
Well, the stuffing was coming out of him because there was a hole under his chin where a thread had come loose.
But, same thing!
Caleb grabbed Piggles. Then he wrapped an arm around her and tugged her over to the sofa. “Don’t worry, jelly bean. We’ll fix him.”
He sat on the sofa and drew her down next to him. She sat with a sad sob. “Let’s just secure this wound then we can give him a stuffing transfusion, okay?”
“Okay.” She nodded.
“Why is there something hard inside him?” Caleb asked suddenly. He stuck a finger into the hole. “What is that?”
He drew out a small plastic case. They both stared down at it in shock.
“Guessing you didn’t put that in there?” he asked.
“No. I didn’t know it was in there. Why would it be in Piggles?” she asked. “And what is it?”
“I think it’s a waterproof case.” Caleb opened the case to reveal a flash drive. He let out a low whistle. He stood and grabbed his phone, speaking into it sharply. “Need you in my office. Now. Bring Wolfe. No, she’s fine. I think we might have the information we need, though.”
Her breath caught. Did he think that this could be another flash drive? How many had William made?
Aleki burst into the room, he was breathing heavily, his tank top covered in sweat. Wolfe followed behind, wearing a black t-shirt and black shorts. He wasn’t sweating. His dark gaze ran over her, checking her for injury. Since the night he’d rescued her, he’d managed two more cuddles. She was loving it, even as she was careful not to push him.
“What is it? Are you okay, baby girl?” Aleki asked her.
“Piggles got an injury.” She held up the pig before cuddling him again. “And we found that in him.”
She pointed at the flash drive that Caleb held.
“Someone put it there?” Wolfe asked sharply. “William?”
“It could be the information on her father,” Caleb said.
“Only one way to find out.” Aleki snatched up the flash drive and moved around behind Caleb’s desk. “I’ll need to be careful and make sure it doesn’t have any malware.”