Wolf (The Henchmen MC #3) (16 page)

THIRTEEN

Janie

"Where are we going?" I asked as they turned me away from the driveway and led me further into the woods.

"Wolf has a shed a way back," Reign said and I could feel his eyes on my profile. "You know anything about Wolf's past?"

I turned slightly to look at him. "He hasn't left much of a paper trail," I hedged. He knew when he visited Hailstorm that we kept tabs on all of them. There was no reason to pretend I didn't know things about them.

"Babe," Reign said, stopping suddenly. His hand grabbed my arm, stopping me too.

"What?" I asked as he paused, looking like he was trying to figure out how to tell me something. "Reign, I'm not a shrinking violet. I've killed men. I've even killed men at
your
side. I can take it."

He nodded, taking a deep breath. "Wolf has anger issues," he still felt the need to hedge.

I felt my lips quirk up. "Wolf? We're talking about the same guy here, right? Twenty-feet tall, million pounds of muscle, perpetually underused voice box? The most self-controlled person I've ever met..."

"Yeah, babe," Reign cut me off. "Ninety-eight percent of the time, he's the most even-tempered fuck you'll ever come across."

"But that two percent?" I prompted.

"That two percent shows you why his name is very, very fitting."

"He rages out," Repo broke in, sensing Reign's urge to ease me into things and realizing I didn't need it. "Full-on Hulk shit. He's not the man you know right now. We don't want you going in there and expecting Wolf. He's not Wolf. He's a wild fucking animal."

"Okay," I said, nodding at him in thanks before turning to Reign. "Are you taking me to him or are we going to stand here clucking like a bunch of fucking hens all day while he's locked in a god damn shed?"

To that, I got one of Reign's rare and, therefore practically radiant, smiles. "I like you, kid," he said, moving forward again.

You wouldn't if you knew what I did.

But I fell into step, flanked on both sides by two intimidating bikers as I tried to make sense of what they were telling me. If they were saying he was wild and their general lifestyle was wild by most standards, that was really saying something. It was hard for me to even imagine Wolf not being calm, level, steady.

Then again, up until about a day ago, it was hard for me to imagine I could crumble into tears that I couldn't stop no matter how I tried.

People like us, people with pasts, with scars somewhere deep inside, there was no telling what could happen when we were pushed, when we were forced to confront the dark parts of our psyches. He didn't judge me for breaking. I wasn't going to judge him for doing so either.

The shed was nestled a long distance from the house and was more like a mini version of his already kinda mini-cabin, made of logs with a steep pitched roof, a normal door, but no windows. As soon as we got close enough, I heard slams from inside. Something split against the wall. And then I heard the sound I had heard many times before, a growling noise. He made that sometimes, a low sound from somewhere deep in his chest. I kind of found it both amusing and sexy before. But this was different. This was an animalistic kind of growling.

Reign and Repo stopped a few feet from the door, looking at the mini cabin. I turned to Reign. "What are you being bitches about? Are we going in or not?"

To that, Reign made a short snorting sound, offering me a small smirk, pulling the door open and cautiously stepping inside. I moved to do the same and felt Repo's presence behind me. I got into the doorway and froze.

They had warned me.

I hadn't exactly disbelieved them either.

But it was a whole other thing to see it, to see a man you had started to think of as a less golden version of Michael, become a completely different animal.

That two percent shows you why his name is very, very fitting.

That was what Reign had warned and he was right.

Because Wolf was no longer a man; he was a beast.

Every inch of him was covered in bright, vivid red. I didn't have to get any closer to know it was blood. Nothing else was that exact color; nothing else carried with it the metallic smell that blood did. And I wasn't exaggerating either. I could see his beard sticky with it, smears of it across his face, staining his shirt and jeans in large splatters, and pooling around the bottom of his shoes like he had been walking in a puddle of it.

His arms were in front of him, making his big shoulders slump forward. I looked down to find his wrists were imprisoned in handcuffs. They felt the need to... cuff him? Was he really that far gone?

"Key," I said, looking at Reign.

"Babe, no," he said as Wolf roared loudly enough for my ears to ring, picked up a shovel from the floor and threw it at the wall.

"I wasn't fucking asking," I countered, squaring my shoulders. I wasn't about to deal with their macho bullshit. "Give me the god damn key or I will knock your ass out and take it from you."

"Janie he's..." Repo tried to reason, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I grabbed it at the wrist, twisted, and used the momentary pain he was experiencing as an advantage, grabbing his throat and shoving him back against the wall. I wouldn't be able to keep him there. He was taller and stronger. But I was just making a point: don't fucking underestimate me.

Repo smiled at me, nodding his head. "That was fast as fuck."

I smiled at the praise and turned to Reign. "Gonna give me the keys or you want a demonstration on how Israeli defense training can beat your street fighting any day?"

Reign shook his head at me, chanced a glance at Wolf who was pacing the small space, huffing out his breath like a boar, then reached in his pocket and held a key out to me. "You can let him go, but we are staying until we're sure he ain't gonna split your pretty little head open."

I took the key, rolling my eyes. "If you think he could hurt a woman then you don't know a fucking thing about him, do you?" I asked, seeing his eyes flash with something I didn't know him well enough to interpret before I turned to Wolf.

He was still pacing and I had to throw myself in front of him to get his manic body to stop. He made the growling noise, like he was trying to warn me off. "Don't you growl at me," I said, raising a brow. "I was worried sick about you. How dare you make me think that 'dead in a ditch' thing. How freaking cliche is that shit?" I asked as I reached out toward him, but he went back a step, yanking his arms back. "You want to wear the cuffs? 'Cause they're
soo
comfortable," I said, grabbing the chain between the bracelets and yanking it. He yanked back again, dragging me with him. My feet stumbled over the discarded shovel he had thrown earlier and my heart flew into my throat as I went flying through the air. I could make out the sound of Reign cursing and Repo exhaling.

But just as I was sure I was going to have a nice face plant on the hard floor, Wolf charged forward and I collided with his chest instead. His hands were low, the bracelets colliding rather
intimately
with me. I yelped, planting my hands on his chest and pushing myself back. His eyes were watching me, but they weren't Wolf's eyes, not really. They were detached, cold, untamed. I reached between us a slipped the key into the lock, sliding until they clicked before he could even register what I was doing.

He moved back from me and the cuffs clanged to the ground. His wrists were red like he had been pulling against the bracelets.

"Where was he?" I asked, looking at Wolf but talking to Reign.

"Babe..."

"Don't 'babe' me in that tone. You do realize I'm the one that called Cash in on this, right? This blood he's covered in... it's Lex Keith's, isn't it?" At their silence, my head swiveled in their direction to see them sharing a look. "Well?"

"Most of it," Repo supplied on a shrug.

"And the rest?"

"Anyone who got in between him and Lex."

I turned back to Wolf, advancing, reaching out and moving to place my hand on his blood-splattered forearm. His entire right hand was stained crimson. The second my fingers landed, he flew away from me on another growl.

"Janie babe... you need to give him time to calm down," Reign said in a calm way that suggested he had been through this before.

"How long usually?"

Reign shrugged. "Two, three days..."

"Oh fuck that," I exploded, eyes wide. "I am not leaving him locked in a god damn shed for three fucking days so he can calm down."

"It's not safe to..."

"Are you big, bad biker guys really being bigger pussies than I am right now? Seriously? I need to get him back to the house and clean him up. And maybe get some food in him. And he probably needs sleep too."

"Babe, no."

"You know what I really, really like about not being in your little boys club?" I asked and went on when all he gave me was a brow raise. "I don't have to take orders from you. So get in with the plan or get out. I don't care. You have a woman at home. And apparently Repo has a car to make love to. Go. I can handle this."

They shared another look, making me instantly jealous that men could apparently hold entire freaking conversations with just a couple looks. What was that about? Repo winked at me and headed out the door and Reign made his way toward me. He stopped when our toes touched, his hand raising and moving to rest on my arm. "You've got some..."

I wrenched away from his touch, cringing internally at being so damn transparent about my touch issues at times. Wolf made another growl, this time lower, more menacing.

"Guess that means I should keep my hands off, huh?" Reign mused, rolling back on his heels. "You have a piece of what looks like intestines on your shoulder," Reign informed me, turned, and made his way to the door. "If you need help, call Cash. We can have someone here in half an hour."

With that, we were alone.

I took a deep breath, trying to figure out what was the best course of action, before turning and walking toward him. He kept backing away until the wall blocked further retreat. "Alright so I know nothing about how like... cognizant you are right now, but I am choosing to believe that the Wolf I know is listening so... we need to get you back to the house and get you in the shower and get rid of these clothes. I dunno how you handled this shit and what kind of evidence trail you left so we need to handle this shit right now."

With that, I reached out and grabbed his hand, linking our fingers. Seeing it, I flashed back to the first night be brought me to his place, submerging my burned arm in the sink water, his hand holding mine to keep me in place.

I looked up and his eyes were focused on our hands too in a way that I thought maybe he was remembering what I was. But when his head lifted, his eyes were still empty.

"So let's go," I said, moving forward, pulling him with me. He followed and I could feel his eyes on me the whole walk back to the house.

But I was too distracted with a reality I had been waiting almost nine years for: Lex Keith was no longer part of this world. He wasn't breathing my air anymore. He couldn't ever hurt me again; he couldn't hurt any woman again.

Wolf gave me that.

Wolf gave me safety.

Again.

I owed him in kind. I owed him a lifted chin in the face of his kinda creepy, definitely scary, altogether too bizarre rage-out. I imagined this was what it was like to meet a new personality to someone with schizophrenia because it was a person you know and care about, but at the same time, it really wasn't. It was freaky.

Harley and Chopper sat up straight at our approach, heads tilting to the side, noses up in the air, taking in the smell of blood all over their owner no doubt. Wolf's truck was in the drive and I looked at it for a second, realizing that I would have to scrub it down once I got Wolf squared away. There had to be blood all over it.

I led a glamorous life, let me tell ya.

"Alright, shower," I said as I led him inside and toward the bathroom. I closed the lid on the toilet and pushed him onto it. He complied, still watching me and I fought the insane urge to be insecure. He wasn't even
Wolf
right then. There was no reason to feel any more insecure around him than I would around the dogs for chrissake.

I reached for the hem of his shirt, scrunching the material up in my hands and lifting it slowly upward. His eyes pinned mine and his arms went up over his head so I could free him of the shirt. I felt myself swallowing hard, trying to keep my eyes on his face when my body was sort of begging me to look down. Forcing down the ridiculous surge of hormones, I unlaced his boots and pulled them off. Then his socks, before I stood up. "Okay. Up," I said, grabbing his arm and pulling until he took his feet. I gestured toward his pants, hoping he might maybe clue-in enough to take them off himself. But his arms were limp at his sides and I needed those pants off so I could deal with them and the evidence they were covered in.

I took a deep breath and reached for the button. At the brush of my fingers, the muscles in his abdomen contracted and his breath hissed out of his mouth. Okay. I needed to focus. I needed to ignore the fact that my hands were a thin piece of material away from touching his cock. Thoughts of that particular body part needed to stay the hell out of my brain right then. I pushed the button through and pulled the zip before I could chicken out. My hands moved to his hips to snag the material and pulled downward.