Seducing the Wolf (64 page)

When he moved to insert the key card in the panel, Violet’s hand shot out to grab his arm. “Wait!”

He cocked a brow at her. “What’s the problem?”

Her face reddened. “Well…I just, um, I think that, uh—”

“Are you or are you not pregnant?”

Her gaze dropped to the floor. “No,” she mumbled.

“No what?”

She swallowed hard. “No, I’m not pregnant.”

Manning shook his head, raking her with a look of scathing contempt. “Did you seriously think you could make a claim like that and I’d take your word for it—no questions asked? Did you think I’d instantly drop to one knee and propose to you? Did you think I’d whip out my checkbook and start handing over child support payments? Seriously. What the hell was going through your mind when you rolled up in here tonight and started showing your ass?”

She glared impotently at him. “You’re such a bastard.”

“And you’re fucking delusional. For real, Violet, you need professional help. We spent one forgettable night together.
One.
I’ve long since moved on. It’s high time you do the same. I tried to be polite before, but you obviously need me to spell shit out for you, so here goes. I’m filing a restraining order against your crazy ass. If you ever come anywhere near me or my company again, I’ll have you arrested on the spot. If I even catch you strolling down one of these streets, I’m calling the police. Feel me?”

Her nostrils flared. “Yes,” she hissed.

“Good.” He pointed across the lobby. “The door’s waiting.”

With a muffled sob of humiliation, Violet spun away and hurried for the exit, her heels clacking loudly against the marble floors.

The security guards watched her go, then turned to stare at Manning with sympathetic expressions.

“I apologize for that,” he said grimly.

“No apology necessary, boss,” they assured him. “You handled your business. Now don’t keep that pretty lady of yours waiting any longer.”

Manning nodded tersely. “Night, fellas.”

“Night, boss.”

With his jaw tightly clenched, Manning strode out of the building and made his way to the waiting Bentley. Jerking his tie loose, he climbed into the backseat and slammed the door.

Taylor sat at the opposite end. She was staring straight ahead, tension radiating from her body.

Without being asked, Mr. Haley pressed a button to raise the privacy glass before he pulled away from the curb.

“I’m really sorry about what just happened,” Manning said quietly.

Taylor didn’t look at him. “Is that the woman you were with the night before we ran into each other at the hotel?”

He nodded tightly. “Yeah.”

“She said she needed to talk to you.” Taylor’s voice was cool and measured. “Is she pregnant?”

“
No
.” Manning swore viciously under his breath, seething with fury and disgust. “She tried to claim she was. When I suggested taking her down to the lab for a blood test, she changed her story in a fucking hurry.”

“So she’s not pregnant.”

“Absolutely not,” he said vehemently.

Taylor nodded slowly. But she still wouldn’t look at him.

He scrubbed a hand over his face and blew out a harsh breath. “It’s not gonna be like this, Tay. I haven’t been careless, so you don’t have to worry about baby mamas crawling out of the woodwork. I don’t have any, I
swear
to you.”

She stared silently out the window. After an excruciating eternity, she lowered her gaze to her lap and whispered, “I believe you.”

Almost dizzy with relief, Manning slid across the seat and hauled her into his arms. She burrowed her face against his chest and slipped her arms underneath his jacket to hold him closer.

Whispering a heartfelt prayer of thanks, he fastened her seatbelt and then wrapped his arm around her shoulders, locking her against him.

She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed deeply. “I suppose I should be somewhat grateful to her.”

“Who?” Manning growled in disbelief.

“That woman. If you hadn’t been at the hotel with her, our paths wouldn’t have crossed that morning.”

Manning grimaced, pressing his lips to her hair. “I’d prefer to thank fate—not some cheap hookup—for bringing us together.”

Taylor gave another sigh. “So would I.”

They rode along in silence until she said somberly, “There’s something I need to tell you, Manning.”

He instinctively tensed. “What is it?”

Taylor lifted her head from his shoulder and stared down at her tightly folded hands in her lap. “It’s about my father. He called me last week, the day after the cookout.”

Manning stared at her, his gut knotting. “What did he say?”

She hesitated. “He doesn’t want us to be together. He…he made threats.”

“What kind of threats?”

Taylor looked at him, her eyes full of apology. “He threatened to come after your company. He said he’d use his connections to get Wolf Biotech on the FDA’s shit list—”

“
What?
”

She licked her lips. “He also threatened to infiltrate your company with spies who would sell secrets to your competitors or plant evidence to have you framed for corporate espionage.”

Cold fury swept through Manning, curling his right hand into a fist. “
That son of a bitch!
”

Taylor winced at his explosive outburst. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I wanted to tell you sooner, but I was shocked and I needed time to think. But I should have warned you right away.” She shook her head. “
God
, baby, what are we gonna do?”

“I’ll take care of it,” Manning assured her.

She stared at him, her eyes shining with fear and uncertainty as she took in his hardened jaw and compressed lips. “I don’t want you to lose everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve. I don’t want you to go to prison—”

“Shh.” Manning pulled her roughly to him, giving her a hard hug before drawing back to hold her face in his hands. “Listen to me, sweetheart,” he implored, looking her in the eyes. “I meant what I said when I told you there’s nothing your father can say or do to separate us again. If he thinks he can scare me off by making outrageous threats, he’d better think again. I’m not going anywhere, so don’t you worry about that. All right?”

Taylor jerked her head in a nod. “What’re you going to do? I don’t think he was bluffing.”

“I’m sure he wasn’t,” Manning growled. “But he needs to understand something about me. I didn’t get this far in life by being a punk. If your old man wants a fight, I’ll give him the fight of his damn life. But I don’t want you worrying about that, sweetheart. Stress isn’t good for you or the baby. So you’ll have to trust me to handle the situation with your father, okay?”

“Okay,” Taylor acquiesced, barely above a whisper.

Manning kissed her forehead, then gathered her close again and didn’t let go until they reached home, where they found an unfamiliar rental car parked outside the gate.

Manning was instantly on guard, primed for another confrontation.

“Now what?” Taylor muttered worriedly.

Mr. Haley slowed along the private road and rolled down the privacy glass to address Manning. “Are you expecting any company?”

“No,” Manning said darkly. “Pull up beside the car so I can see what the person wants.”

As Mr. Haley carefully approached the other vehicle, the driver suddenly opened the door and got out.

When Manning saw Taylor’s father, he felt a surge of murderous rage that had him reaching for the door handle.

Taylor caught his arm. “Wait.”

He glanced back at her. The silent entreaty in her eyes willed him to stay calm and let cooler heads prevail.

As they pulled up alongside the rental car, he rolled down the backseat window and glared at Taylor’s father. “What do you want?”

Turner’s expression was stony. “We need to talk.”

“I think we’ve done enough talking,” Manning bit off.

Turner’s gaze skipped past him to settle on his daughter.

Manning looked at Taylor. Her eyes were flashing, anger and resentment warring with some softer emotion.

“Please,” her father said quietly.

Taylor held his gaze a moment longer, then gave a barely perceptible nod.

Something like relief flickered in Turner’s eyes. He got back into the rental car and followed them through the gate.

When they reached the house, Manning climbed out of the Bentley and helped Taylor from the backseat.

Mr. Haley looked concerned. “Do you want me to stick around?”

Manning shook his head. “We’ll be fine. Thanks.”

As Mr. Haley reluctantly pulled off, Turner got out of his vehicle and started toward Manning and Taylor. Manning had a sudden flashback to the confrontation that had taken place in the hospital waiting room after Micah’s accident. He remembered going berserk when Turner had viciously backhanded Taylor, knocking her into the visitor chairs. He’d wanted to rip the old man apart with his bare hands, and probably would have if Taylor hadn’t intervened.

As his fingers curled into fists, he stepped in front of Taylor. If her father so much as
squinted
at her wrong, Manning would kill him.

His protective stance didn’t go unnoticed by the old man, who glared resentfully at him.

Manning glared back. “Let’s take this inside.”

He clasped Taylor’s hand and led her up the porch steps. When she paused and glanced over her shoulder, he followed the direction of her gaze.

Her father stood in the same spot, making no move to follow them.

“I thought you wanted to talk,” Manning said through gritted teeth.

Turner flexed his jaw. “We can talk out here.”

It was just as well. Manning didn’t want the son of a bitch stepping foot inside his home anyway.

“What do you want, Dad?” Taylor said coldly. “Haven’t you caused enough damage?”

Something like hurt flared in Turner’s eyes. He held her accusing gaze for a long moment and then glanced away, staring off into the distance.

“There are things about the past you don’t understand,” he said in a low monotone.

“You’re right,” Taylor retorted bitterly. “I don’t understand how you could wake up one day and begin treating your wife like a total stranger. I don’t understand how you could alienate her for an entire year and not expect consequences. I don’t understand how you could be so cruel and unforgiving that you would wrench her own children away from her. I don’t understand—”

“
I ALMOST DIED!
”

Taylor went still, staring at her father.

He met her stunned gaze, nostrils flaring with suppressed emotion.

“What…what are you talking about?” Taylor whispered.

Turner passed a shaky hand over his head. “I was on assignment, investigating a local syndicate of the Russian mafia. We’d gathered enough evidence to have members of the group charged with murder, extortion, kidnapping, racketeering—you name it, they’d done it. Without going into too much detail about the sting operation, things went horribly wrong the night we raided the warehouse where the group was holding a meeting.” Turner paused, the corners of his mouth tightening. “There was a shootout. No one was killed, but a few of the mobsters managed to run, including the second in command. I pursued him, but somehow he got the drop on me. He knocked my weapon out of my hand, and the next thing I knew, I had a gun pointed at my head.”

Manning could feel Taylor’s hand trembling in his, could feel her shock and horror. His own body had gone rigid as her father’s story unfolded.

“He ordered me to my knees and began taunting me….” Turner swallowed hard and shook his head at Taylor. “As I felt that pistol pressing into my temple, I saw your faces. Yours, your mother’s, your brother’s. I saw your faces and I tried to remember if I’d told you that I loved you before I left the house that morning. I was terrified of not being there for you anymore. I was terrified of dying. So I begged for my life. I begged him to let me return home to my family.”

Shame filled Turner’s eyes before he averted them to the ground and clenched his jaw. “The more I begged, the more he taunted me. He was getting off on my fear, and I knew he had no intention of sparing my life. I was as good as dead. But just as he was about to pull the trigger, he was shot and killed by one of the other agents.” Turner passed a trembling hand over his mouth. “It was the closest I’d ever come to dying, and it shook me down to the marrow of my bones.”

He closed his eyes for a long moment, reliving the harrowing experience. “As soon as I got home that night, I went to your room and then Tru’s. I sat by your bedsides, stared at your sleeping faces and wept with gratitude. And then I went to my room and crawled into bed with your mother. I wanted to hold her, but I couldn’t. I looked at her and I felt…ashamed. I was ashamed of the way I’d begged that thug for my life. I was ashamed of how scared and helpless I’d felt. I didn’t want your mother to see me as a coward…as less than a man.”

He shook his head, his lips pressed into a thin line. “I’d had difficulty separating work from home, and it caused some tension between me and your mother, especially after Tru was born. She wanted my undivided attention when I came home from the office. Over time we reached an understanding that what I did at work
stayed
at work. So I hadn’t told her about the Russian mafia investigation or the sting operation. When she caught the story on the news the next day, she asked me if I’d been involved in the raid. I told her no. I’d done nothing heroic that night,” Turner said in an embittered voice. “I couldn’t accept accolades for almost getting myself killed and needing to be rescued. So I didn’t tell your mother what happened, and she never found out.”

Taylor shook her head mournfully. “You should have talked to her, Dad. She deserved to know what you’d gone through. She wouldn’t have thought any less of you. She would have been relieved and grateful to have you alive.”

Turner’s expression hardened as he resisted Taylor’s words. “I felt like a damn failure, and I hated seeing myself that way.”

“And you projected that hate onto Mom,” Taylor said intuitively. “When she did the unthinkable by having another man’s child, you felt justified for mistreating her all those years. You
finally
had a reason to hate her, and you milked it for all it was worth. But was it worth it, Dad? Did it make you happy to take us away from our mother? Did the Bureau really reassign you to Colorado—or did you request the transfer to put another dagger in Mom’s heart? Did it please you to watch the way she clung to us and wept at the end of her visits? Did you know she missed us so much that she even considered having me and Micah kidnapped and brought back to her?”