She bit her lip. Usually, he kept most of his emotions under tight control. The only other time she’d seen him like this was. . .
When she’d left them.
Shoot. Why hadn’t she thought of how he might react if he went looking and found her missing?
“Easy, Wolfe. She didn’t go anywhere,” Caleb said calmly.
“She can’t just wander off. What if something happened to her? What if she got hurt?” Wolfe demanded.
“She didn’t go anywhere. She’s safe. She didn’t leave, Wolfe.”
“She can’t leave.”
“She won’t,” Caleb reassured him.
She felt terrible. Wolfe could be demanding, especially with his schedules and need for control, but seeing him like this, she got it. He needed that level of control. She didn’t know much about his past, but there had to be a reason he kept himself so locked down.
He wasn’t locked down right now, though. This was raw emotion. Almost frightening in its intensity.
“Why did you bring her in here?” he snapped at Caleb.
“I didn’t bring her,” Caleb told him. “I found her in here.”
She groaned and shot him a look.
“We don’t lie to each other, jelly bean. It’s the only way this can work. If we’re all honest with each other.”
Yeah, yeah, she got it.
“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” Aleki asked, practically skidding as he flew into the room. He held a wooden spoon in one hand and had a smear of flour on his face.
She blinked at him. “What have you been doing?”
“Making pies. What’s going on? What’s the emergency?” Aleki asked.
“Genevieve went missing,” Wolfe stated.
“What? But she’s right here. What’re you doing in here, baby girl?”
“She was coloring,” Caleb said with a satisfied look on his face.
“I’m really sorry I worried you, Wolfe,” she told him.
“You came in here by yourself?” Wolfe snapped, stalking towards her.
She gulped. Uh-oh. Now she felt like prey. Little red riding hood facing her own big, bad wolf.
That made her giggle a little. It might have sounded slightly hysterical.
“You think this is funny? How did you get in here, Genevieve?” Wolfe asked in a low, dark voice that made a shiver run across her skin.
“Umm, flew?” she suggested with big eyes.
“Flew? What does she mean, she flew?” Wolfe looked to Caleb.
“She’s teasing you.”
“Teasing me? Nobody teases me.”
“I’m insulted. I tease you,” Aleki said.
“You annoy me,” Wolfe snapped back. “How did you get in here, Genevieve?”
“I crawled?”
“Vivi,” Caleb said warningly, his face firming. Damn it, when Caleb looked like that you knew he meant business. And disobeying him wasn’t an option.
At least not for her.
“I walked.”
“On your injured foot. That you’re not supposed to put any weight on,” Wolfe said darkly.
“It’s a lot better,” she replied. “It’s barely swollen anymore. You guys can’t keep carrying me everywhere.”
“Why not?” Aleki asked. “I’d carry you forever if I could.”
“Oh. Aleki.”
He turned away, as though he hadn’t quite meant to say what he had. Or maybe he hadn’t meant it to sound so, well, profound. Meaningful? He was usually so light-hearted, treating everything as a joke.
“You might have to if she does permanent damage to her foot,” Wolfe grumbled, kneeling to examine her.
She sighed. “Wolfe, I haven’t done any damage to it. It’s nearly healed. It’s fine.”
“You’re not a doctor.”
“I’m sure Obian would say the same.”
“We’ll get him in here to check,” Caleb told Wolfe.
Wolfe sat back, not looking any happier. “You were put down for a nap.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“You got up without permission,” Wolfe said.
She narrowed her gaze. “I don’t need permission to get up.”
“Yes, you do. You’re under doctor’s orders to rest. To not walk on your foot. And you did the opposite. You just earned yourself a punishment.”
Her mouth dropped open. “I did not.”
“You did. You’re getting your butt spanked.”
“I am not!” She looked over at Aleki. “Tell him.”
“Oh no, baby girl. When one of us dishes out a punishment, we don’t argue with him.”
“What? That’s stupid.”
“Well, unless he’s wrong, of course.”
She glared at Aleki as he grinned. “You’re saying you think he should spank me.”
“Yep.” Aleki waved the wooden spoon. “And look at this. I brought just the implement for him to use.”
“I don’t need a wooden spoon to spank her,” Wolfe stated.
Her eyes went wide. What the hell? “You can’t spank me with a wooden spoon.”
“Oh, I could,” Wolfe told her. “I just won’t.”
Well, thank goodness for that.
“Yet.”
Yikes.
“And you should do it naked,” Aleki suggested.
She scowled at him. He gave her a look of fake-innocence. “What? I think that should be a SOP. All spankings are to be given while Vivi is naked.”
“SOP?” she asked.
“Standard Operating Procedure,” Caleb said dryly. “How about we talk through some things first? Like rules and consequences. I don’t like that she’s been worrying about things silently.”
“What things?” Wolfe asked.
Even Aleki looked serious. “She’s not supposed to be stressing.”
“I know. She thinks that because we have been steering conversations away from our relationship these last few days that we’ve changed our minds.”
“Umm, you do know that I’m right here,” she said, waving her hand.
“That’s ridiculous,” Wolfe stated, ignoring her.
“We caused more stress by not addressing things,” Caleb said.
Aleki frowned, but didn’t say anything more.
“Guys!” she snapped.
“And she continues to have self-esteem issues. Those assholes wore her down,” Caleb added. “We need to build her back up.”
“Urgh! You guys are impossible.” She started to slide off the bean bag and instantly they turned to her.
“Where do you think you are going?” Wolfe barked.
“I’m going out of the room to give you all privacy so you can all talk about me.”
“What? We don’t need privacy to talk about you,” Wolfe said confused.
She rolled onto her hands and knees, grasping hold of the bookcase to pull herself up.
“Obviously you do since you just spent the last five minutes discussing me as though I’m not here.”
Wolfe frowned. Aleki rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin.
“Sorry, jelly bean,” Caleb told her, crouching and helping her sit back into the bean bag. “We’re used to operating like this.”