Mr. Rothe Read online

  My instinct was to run, but I wasn’t sure I would get far. I should’ve called Emerson and had him pick me up, but it was a nice day and I’d wanted to walk. That was what I got for trying to exercise. It would’ve been healthier for Emerson to come get me.

  “Get in the car,” Gabe said.

  “Um, pass.” I took a few steps away from him then looked over at the three thugs. Toothpick gave me a grimy smile, as if he wanted me to stay behind. “I’m just gonna go home.”

  Which was farther away than Emerson’s place.

  Gabe stepped to me, looked down at my injured arm, then furrowed his brows. “I’m just trying to help you. These men won’t hesitate to hurt you.”

  “I don’t even know you.” Sure, I’d saved his life and was hot for him that night, but I did have common sense. I didn’t care what kind of candy he was offering or if he had a lost dog. I wasn’t getting into his car.

  My mama had taught me better than that.

  Gabe spoke in a lowered voice. “There’s a war going on that you know nothing about. If I leave you here…” He wiped a hand over his jaw. “Just trust me on this.”

  Praying I wasn’t making the biggest mistake of my life, I finally relented and crawled into the backseat of his sleek ride.

  Chapter Two

  Gabe…

  There was a stubborn set to Fitch’s mouth after he’d crawled into the back of my car. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him being harassed by members of the Malkovich pack. There was no telling what they would’ve done to the guy who’d risked his life to save mine.

  “I’ll take you home. Where do you live?”

  “Ha!” Fitch shook his head as mistrust filled his hazel eyes. “Do you think I’m that dumb? It’s one thing to pay for my hospital bill, which I hope you’ve done, but I’m not telling you where I live.”

  The guy had street smarts and a bit of fire in him. I liked that. He wasn’t easily duped, though he needed to learn to keep his ass away from the east side. The inner city portion, anyway.

  “I’m heading downtown. I can drop you off at my law firm.”

  Fitch shot forward. “That’s far as hell from my house. It’ll take me an hour to walk home.” He waved his hand toward the window. “Just drop me off here.”

  We were still deep in the inner city, and I didn’t like leaving him on the streets. I was indebted to Fitch, and I always paid my debts. His safety was now my responsibility. I didn’t know too many people who would’ve risked their life for a stranger.

  Not in my world.

  And whoever had been behind that wheel had been going fast.

  Fast enough that they could’ve ended me. Now that Antonio Malkovich was dead, there were men who were trying to take his place. Anyone who came close to taking over either went missing or became the victim of a drive-by, with the perps uncaring who witnessed the shooting.

  My partners and I were trying to put an end to the violence, but until there was a successor, things would continue to get ugly.

  And I wasn’t letting Fitch out of the car in the middle of this war. Not when someone might have seen his act of heroism the other night. If someone had seen what he’d done, he now had a target on his back.

  “Thanks to you I have someone following me,” Fitch said, as if he’d read my mind. “Some guy with slick back hair. Being around you is dangerous, so let me out.”

  Fitch wasn’t wrong. Being around me did put him in danger. I was not only a lawyer but a crime boss and a wolf shifter. I sat on the council with three others, and we presided over the other packs in Ridgeview.

  We had to constantly watch our backs because there was always someone trying to take us out.

  Like the other night.

  I was still amazed Fitch had been able to shove me aside. I’m solidly built, and the human, well, he wasn’t in the best shape.

  “Then tell me where you live and I’ll be happy to take you home.” I wasn’t budging. Not on this. As soon as I found out where Fitch lived, I was assigning a bodyguard to watch over him.

  The news that someone was following him rattled me. Fitch had done a kind act, and now he’d been pulled into my savage world. And honestly, I wasn’t used to anyone doing anything for me without wanting something in return.

  Except wanting his hospital bill paid, which was completely understandable. I’d taken care of that the morning after the incident. I had a friend who worked at Ridgeview Memorial who had helped me figure out who Fitch was. I’d gotten a first and last name, but hadn’t thought to get Fitch’s address. I’d just told my friend that, when the bill was ready, to send it to my law firm. I had been done with the matter.

  Fitch hadn’t used my business card, hadn’t called or come by the firm and asked for a dime. That, above anything, impressed the hell out of me. His selflessness was rare, and I wanted to protect him.

  “Fine.” Fitch gave me a hard glare. I had to fight not to smile. The guy was short, no taller than five six or seven, and a hard look from him just didn’t work. “You can drop me off a few streets over from my house. Is that good enough for you?”

  No. “Yes.”

  When we arrived on the street where Fitch wanted out, he left the back seat without a word. He slammed the door and started away. I was fixated on the sway of his hips, how his ass looked in those tight jeans, and my dick became rock-hard. I didn’t care that he had a few extra pounds around his midsection. It looked good on him.

  “Follow him and get his address,” I said to Andrew, my driver.

  “As you wish.” Andrew got out. The wolf shifter would follow Fitch undetected. I had a strange feeling in my gut that the human would need all the help he could get.

  Whoever had been following him wouldn’t give up, but I wanted to know the stranger’s endgame. Why was he following Fitch? Was it for leverage over me or to even the score for spoiling his plans?

  Whatever the reason, I would find out and make the bastard pay. Absolutely nobody tried to fuck me over and got away with it.

  Andrew came back and slid into the driver’s seat. “I have his address. What do you want me to do?”

  I was tempted to walk to Fitch’s door and knock on it just to see the shocked look on the human’s face. If I hadn’t been pressed for time, I would have.

  “You? Nothing.” I sat back and stared out the window as Andrew drove me back to the law firm. But I felt edgy about dropping off Fitch and driving away. The guy would leave again. He just seemed the stubborn type, even after his run-in on that street corner with Deon Govetti and his men.

  “Send Cole to keep an eye on him,” I said. “I want to know when the human leaves the house and to find out who’s following him.”

  “On it,” Andrew said.

  I had known those pricks who’d stopped Fitch—and they’d clearly known me—but I would’ve killed all three if they had done something to the male who had saved my life. Even if Fitch hadn’t thrown me away from the speeding car, I would’ve helped him. I was a cutthroat businessman, but I had compassion. Seeing anyone bullied soured my stomach.

  My thoughts took me to a darker time in my life, a time when I’d contemplated ending it all. If it hadn’t been for my best friends, I might have gone through with it. Growing up in the slums hadn’t been easy, and I’m far from a coward. But sometimes, when life had given you too many gut punches, a guy found it hard to get back on his unsteady feet.

  “Sir?”

  I looked up and saw we were parked at the law firm. I’d been so deep in my own head that I hadn’t realized the ride was over.

  After getting out, I stood by the elevator as Andrew drove off to park the car. What I hadn’t told anyone, not even my partners, was that I wanted to shut down the Malkovich pack. Not just replace the leader with someone competent but completely shut them down.

  Max, Reese, and Lucas might not even go for that. Disbanding the pack would mean a significant loss in profits. Not to mention just how hard it would be to rid Ridgeview of the
Malkovich presence.

  But I had inside information that the Malkovich pack had something deadly in the works. I think that was why they’d tried to take me out the other night. To silence me. To kill anyone who knew of their sinister plans.

  And they would’ve succeeded if it hadn’t been for Fitch.

  It was time I let my partners know, and I also wanted to make sure Cole made it to Fitch’s. That was important to me. To keep safe the person who had given no thought to his own wellbeing in order to save a complete stranger.

  I’d just reached the top floor when my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number. “Gabriel Rothe.”

  “Hi, um…Gabe? This is Fitch. I know I just left your car, but I think I dropped my wallet in the backseat. It’s not a rush for you to return it, but I kind of need it in a few hours.”

  I didn’t let on that I knew where he lived. Fitch was already flaky about that fact. “And how am I supposed to get it back to you if I have no clue where to bring it?”

  I didn’t point out the fact that his ID was inside his wallet. I wanted to see what Fitch would say.

  Penny walked up to me and held out something for me to sign. I’d just gone across town for a meeting and had been on my way back when I’d spotted Fitch being harassed.

  I’d almost canceled that meeting but was glad I hadn’t. There was no telling what those thugs would’ve done to the human if I hadn’t been in that area. The Malkovich pack was becoming increasingly unstable, but I had a good idea what Deon had in mind by the way he’d looked at Fitch with sexual interest.

  “I guess I could meet you somewhere,” Fitch said. “At that noodle place from the other night?”

  “You want to return to the scene of the crime?” I nearly choked out the words. Besides that, I didn’t want him wandering around the east side. What if he ran into those men again? Or the one that was following him? I needed to find out who the stranger was. I’d have to tell Cole to keep an eye out for the mystery guy. Maybe Cole could identify him.

  “Oh! I didn’t think of that. I’m sorry. No, we shouldn’t meet there. I’d ask you to mail it to me, but I really do need it later. What do you suggest?”

  A client was coming by my office in thirty minutes. After that I had a ton of paperwork I had to get done, a hearing I needed to prepare for, and a dinner date at five.

  “I could have a carrier bring it to your house.” It was the only option if Fitch needed his wallet today.

  “You’re not that slick. I’d have to tell you my address.” It sounded as if a television was playing in the background. “Emerson just got here. We can be at your office in a half an hour. Is that okay with you?”

  He still didn’t think about the fact that his address was on his ID. I found that amusing.

  “If it’s in my backseat, I’ll leave it at the reception desk.” I hung up and called Andrew, telling him to search the car and if he found Fitch’s wallet to bring it upstairs.

  That was all the time I had to devote to Fitch. My client would be there soon, and I had to get his paperwork together. I owed Fitch a debt, but if he wanted to treat me like a stranger out to get him, so be it. It wasn’t as if I’d been searching for him today. And it wasn’t as if I’d saved him from those thugs. Or the fact that I’d been willing to pay to have his wallet returned to him.

  It wasn’t as if I’d been anything but kind to him. Fitch was nothing to me, yet the fact that he didn’t trust me got under my skin for some reason.

  Chapter Three

  Fitch…

  I honestly thought Gabe would meet me somewhere, that his business card had been fake, like Emerson had claimed. Instead I got out of the car and stared up at the building, impressed with how sleek and modern it looked.

  We walked inside, through the front entrance, after taking ten minutes trying to find a parking space and then another five trying to find change to feed the meter. We’d parked out front instead of in the lot in the back.

  Emerson spotted the cafeteria and tried to steer me toward it.

  “We’re here for my wallet, not to eat.” I yanked his arm and led him toward the bank of elevators. “Stop thinking about food all the time.”

  My cousin, the only rail-thin guy in our family, could eat an entire buffet of food and not gain any weight. All I had to do was look at a donut and I gained a pound.

  Life was so unfair sometimes.

  “I’m stopping on our way out,” Emerson said as I looked at the directory on the wall. “It smelled good in there. In a building like this, I bet they have some good food.”

  Russo and Associates was on the top floor. Now I was really impressed. Maybe that fancy suit hadn’t been for show. I just bet it cost more than what I made in a year.

  “Tell me you aren’t hungry,” Emerson said while I stabbed at the elevator button.

  “I’m not.” I totally was, but I was watching what I ate and highly doubted cafeteria food was healthy. But Emerson was right. The food had smelled divine.

  The elevator doors opened, and others joined us. I was surrounded by men and women in suits, making me feel out of place with my tattered jeans, a shirt that read “I’m just a squirrel trying to get a nut,” and my Van sneakers. I even had plastic bracelets on my wrists, forming the color of the rainbow.

  At least Emerson was wearing a polo shirt, which made him seem more dressed for this atmosphere than I was. The people around us had coffee in their hands and had their noses stuck in their phone, but one guy had a stack of folders in his arms, looking as though he’d drop them at any second from the way he kept shuffling them around.

  One by one they exited until it was just me and Emerson.

  “I’m breaking out in hives just thinking about working at this place,” Emerson said.

  My cousin worked at a tattoo parlor. He was inked up and, in my mother’s words, looked like a thug. Emerson had tried constantly to get me into his seat, but I was too terrified of needles to get even a small tattoo. The process looked painful as hell.

  I knew because I’d sat at Emerson’s work more than once and seen young women cry, and even big guys. It was pain I wasn’t willing to endure.

  The elevator doors slid open, and I gasped. The windows allowed the bright sunlight to filter in, making it almost blinding. There was a ton of glass and tan wood mixed with chrome. I wanted to run home and dig through my closet to see if I even owned a suit. It had to be illegal to step into a space like this dressed like I was.

  “Are you lost?”

  A woman with a stern look in her eyes appraised me and Emerson and, from her expression, found us lacking. She reminded me of my high school English teacher, and already I was trying to think of an excuse of why I hadn’t completed my homework assignment.

  “We’re here to—”

  “Washington crossed the Delaware in 1776!” I curled my lips in as my face heated to nuclear levels. Mrs. Corse, my teacher, had drilled that into my head when I’d failed the answer on a test. She’d shamed me in front of the entire class, and I hadn’t forgotten that history lesson since.

  Emerson stared at me as if I had Tourette syndrome.

  “Yes, he did.” The woman gave a slow nod. “But since that was over two hundred years ago, would you mind telling me why you’re here in the present?”

  “My cousin is here to pick up his dignity, and wallet.” Emerson chucked a thumb at me. “Don’t mind him, ma’am. He gets weird when he hasn’t eaten. You wouldn’t happen to have a corned beef sandwich lying around, would you?”

  The woman looked at me with confusion. “No, and I don’t know anything about a wallet. And if I know nothing about it, then the problem doesn’t exist.”

  “Gabriel Rothe,” Emerson said. “Just ask him about it.”

  “He’s in a meeting and can’t be disturbed,” the woman said.

  “His driver.” My brain finally rebooted, and intelligent thought returned. “Gabe said he’d have his driver check his backseat.”

  “Wait rig
ht here.” She started to walk away then looked back at us. “Don’t touch anything and don’t wander anywhere.”

  “What are we going to do, steal the chrome plating on the walls?” I asked. “I got my eye on that big potted plant in the corner.”

  She sniffed and walked away.

  Emerson snickered. “Good one.”

  I wasn’t going to wait by the elevator like I was some homeless guy who’d wandered off the street. I took a seat in one of the plush chairs and crossed my legs.

  “Emerson, be a good gent and sue everyone I don’t like.” I made my voice sound haughty. “And then pass me the Grey Poupon mustard for that corned beef sandwich. Chop. Chop.”

  “Shall we play a rousing round of tennis afterward?” He dropped into the seat next to mine. “Could you imagine a life like that? Why couldn’t we be born with a silver spoon? I’d be driving a Lamborghini instead of my busted Civic.”

  That wasn’t a dream of mine. I loved my life, my family—as weird as they were—but a little extra cash would’ve been nice. That was one reason I still lived at home. I worked as a cashier at Piggly Wiggly, made shit as far as my paycheck, and couldn’t afford to live on my own.

  Even my bills had bills.

  Luckily I had the best parents in the world, even if they thought the government was spying on them. They didn’t charge me for staying with them, and my mom still did my laundry.

  Not every twenty-three-year-old was ready to face the big, cold world. Besides, I was saving what I could because Emerson had asked me more than once to move in with him.

  Uncle Glen also lived with us. He was senile, but I loved him.

  “Do you think that lady would tackle us if I stole this candy dish?” Emerson pointed to a decorative glass dish fill with peppermints. “It would look cool on my coffee table.”

  “Dude, you’ve never stolen anything in your life,” I reminded him. “Besides, where would you put it?”

  The dish was a bit big for Emerson’s pockets, and we weren’t wearing any jackets, and why on earth was I even thinking about how he could smuggle the damn thing out?