“What?” I gasped. “You want him to come after me again?”
A dark look crossed his face. “This is the kind of mud that sticks to a boot, and I can get a footprint. Evidence. Reason to take care of this malignancy of a man the legal way, if I can’t strangle him with my bare hands. And believe me, if Delgado ever crosses me personally, I will dig a grave and bury him myself.”
“I’ve lived a pretty crazy life, Wheeler, but not until I moved here have I had people trying to kill me. No offense, but don’t even think about using me as bait. I have no intention of allowing that human to get the upper hand with me again.”
We headed back inside.
“Right. ’Cause you’re a badass.”
I yanked him back by his shirt and gave him a frosty glare. “My wolf emerged to save April’s life. A human. I’m not a violent person by nature, but my wolf is aggressive and relentless. I’m not going to talk about what she did to a Shifter in Topeka seven years ago who tried to rape a woman in an alley by knifepoint, but let’s just say he’ll have scars for the rest of his life, and deservedly so. I have to balance things out with my energy, so forgive me if I’m not putting on spiked boots and twirling a knife in my hands. I don’t know how to prepare myself for someone shoving me headfirst into a tub of water.”
Wheeler spun all the way around and glared down at me with pale brown eyes. “So tell me why your wolf comes out to save someone else’s life, but not yours?”
“It’s a long story.”
Wheeler had decisive brows, the kind that sloped down in the middle and gave him a sinister expression.
Maybe he wanted to know the answer, or maybe he simply wanted to provoke me, but I wasn’t going to tell him my life story. I’d spent my entire youth in a volatile house and had been forced to cage my animal. After a while, my wolf had given up on fighting for me. But after having been penned for so long, she’d become aggressive and wouldn’t hesitate to come out when someone else was in danger.
To be honest, that kind of relationship with my animal is exactly why I was so perfect to wait tables in crazy bars. I’d seen waitresses who couldn’t control their animal, and all it took was one reckless shift to either get fired or attack someone. Some of those customers could rile you up, but I’d learned over the years to let all the small stuff slide and handle a situation without relying on my wolf.
Plus, she was a pissy little thing. Literally. Years ago, Jericho told me my wolf had pissed on two of his bandmates for taunting her. She didn’t understand what they were saying, but she was smart enough to comprehend their tone.
“We’re going to start collecting dust if we stand in here much longer. Let’s go,” Wheeler said.
***
“There’s nothing here,” I said despairingly. I took a seat at the kitchen table in Hawk’s second home. “We’ve exhausted all avenues and haven’t found a thing.”
After turning the first house upside down, we’d taken a long and arduous drive to the second house, where I’d been held captive. It took a breath of courage for me to walk through that door, but once inside, I remained focused. Wheeler searched the bedroom and basement because I didn’t want to revisit that dark period in my life ever again.
I sighed, looking up at Wheeler. “Did you search the floorboards?”
“I’ve checked every conceivable place, including the toilet tank.”
Wheeler was standing on top of the kitchen counter, looking at the space above the overhead cabinets. He finally rested his arm on the top of the fridge, his eyes downcast. “I crawled around in the attic, but I don’t think he would have put it up there,” he said to himself.
“I don’t think it’s here,” I murmured, circling my finger on the table. “Maybe he sold it all. He could have put the money in the bank.”
“Not likely. That’s the kind of thing that attracts attention,” Wheeler said knowingly. “Men with money like to hide it in overseas accounts, but Hawk seemed like a dumb shit, so I’m not giving him that much credit. A man can leave too many bread crumbs if he starts opening accounts and wiring money around.”
My throat became dry, and I shivered. “What if we never find it? I’ll have no choice but to leave town.”
Wheeler’s shoes slammed against the tile when he jumped down. “Maybe some of the others will *foot around the truth, but I’m going to tell you flat out that I don’t want you taking Jericho away from our pack. That’s a low-down—”
“I’m not—”
“No, let me finish.” His eyes darkened with his expression. “The lowest thing a woman can do is break up a pack. If you leave, Jericho is walking. I’ve known that wolf long enough to know he’ll do it. We can’t force a man to stay, and in time, we’ll gain new pack members. But by then, you’ve already severed the brotherhood, and the damage is done.”