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Wolf shot her a sideways glance. “My, you’re curious today.”
Alex shifted uncomfortably in the Lamborghini’s low white leather seat and recrossed her legs the other way. “You’re acting strange.”
“Am I?”
Her jaw flexed as her gaze rested on him. Something was definitely up. “Secretive,” she added.
“Really?”
She let the subject go for now. He obviously wasn’t in a talkative mood and she didn’t feel like playing games. Her lashes dropped, concealing her anxiety as the miles sped past. They were on the Santa Monica Freeway now, heading toward Hollywood.
“What are you not telling me?” she asked tersely. She didn’t like Wolf like this, didn’t like it when he played the famous actor card and made her feel like a walk-on part in his Broadway play. “You’re acting as if you know something that I don’t. Something that maybe I should.”
“Indeed.” Wolf shifted, accelerated, taking the steep curve of Sunset Boulevard fast. “And I’ve thought about telling you, but maybe I should just let you enjoy the surprise.”
Surprise. So there was something about to happen. She exhaled, her nerves so on edge that she didn’t think she’d be able to sit still another moment longer. “Why do I get the feeling this isn’t going to be a good surprise?”
Wolf shrugged, glanced up into his rearview mirror to check the traffic behind him, including the police car that had settled behind them in their lane. “I suppose it all depends on how you feel about family get-togethers.”
“Families are fine.” Alexandra’s stomach was back in freefall form. “I didn’t realize you had family in town.”
“I don’t.”
She knew then, but she didn’t want to know, didn’t want to have her worst fears confirmed. “Then who?”
He pulled into the hotel drive which fronted the famous Sunset Strip. The Mondrian Hotel was within steps of some of the best restaurants, clubs and nightlife Los Angeles offered. He glanced at her as they approached the hotel, the Mondrian’s entrance marked by a pair of massive decorative mahogany doors that soared thirty feet into the air. “Two men by the names of Troy and Trey.”
Alexandra felt a shot of icy adrenaline shoot through her, pumping her veins full of cold silver liquid fear. Wolf couldn’t have just said what he said. He couldn’t know their names. There was no way …
Wolf heard her faint choking sound and gave her an appraising look. “Those names ring a bell, love?”
The hotel loomed closer; elegant, white and spare, it was said to be designed to remind guests of the famous Los Angeles fog that covered the city when the weather grew warm.
“Troy and Trey are my brothers,” she said unsteadily. Her hands twisted in her lap even as she caught the lift of Wolf’s eyebrow.
“The twins,” she amended huskily.
“And just how many brothers do you have?”
“Five.”
“Five,” he echoed softly. “Out of how many kids?”
“Six.”
“You’re the only girl.”
She nodded.
“And the youngest,” he concluded.
She nodded again.
“So what was this about not having any family, Alexandra?” He’d pulled over to the hotel curb and shifted into park, but the engine still ran and he ignored the cream-suited valet attendant hovering outside.
She would have slunk down lower in her seat if she could. “You’re an only child,” she said hoarsely. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
“There’s five of them.” She swallowed, pressed her hand over her stomach, feeling the nervous nausea start up again. She’d always had a weak stomach, everything used to make her queasy. She’d thought she’d beaten the childish impulse, but since meeting Wolf the feeling seemed to be back all the time. “And I don’t know if you’ve met the twins yet, but they’re all like that. Big, tough, no-nonsense, just like my dad and granddad.”
“I haven’t met the twins,” Wolf answered, finally turning the key in the ignition. “But they’re determined to see you. And me.” He paused, considered her. “Apparently they’re quite worried about you.”
She tipped her head back against the buttery-soft leather seat and closed her eyes even as she gripped the door handle so tightly she felt as though the bones in her hand would break. “Don’t make me go in there. Don’t make me see them.”
“They love you.”
Alexandra heard Wolf open his door and she leaned forward, caught at his hand. “They love me too much,” she said, holding tightly to his wrist. “And after Mom died it only got worse.”
The valet attendant had opened her door and was standing beside her, waiting for her to step out, but neither she nor Wolf paid him any attention.
“They can’t be bad brothers if they’ve flown here looking for you.”
“Yes, they’ve rushed here.” Her hand wrapped tighter around his wrist. “To bring me home.”
“You don’t know that.”
“But I do,” she insisted. Ever since she was little her brothers had been so protective that it’d suffocated her. They wouldn’t let her do anything on her own. They hadn’t wanted her to go away to college either. “I’m not going back.” She lifted her head, met Wolf’s dark gaze. “They can say what they want, do what they want. But I’m not going home. I’m staying here with you.”
Wolf had heard a lot of ludicrous things in his life, touching things, too. At thirty-five, he thought he’d pretty much heard everything. But in all these years he’d never met anyone quite like Alexandra.
She was unique. An original.
“Why would you want to stay with me?” he teased. “You don’t even like me.”
Two pink spots burned high in her cheeks. “Maybe. But you’re the only one I know who can stand up to them.”
Wolf slipped out from her grasp and walked around to the passenger side, where he extended his hand to Alexandra. “A loving family like that only wants the best for you.”
“Sure. I could go back to Montana and the Lazy L ranch and get married and have babies and wouldn’t that be an exciting life?”
Wolf had to check his smile as he drew an extremely unwilling Alexandra to her feet. “Life on a ranch has to be a lot more interesting than that.”
“Oh, yeah. Horses. Cows. It’s just great.”
“Benjamin said your brothers are big. Is that how they got their size? Chasing horses and cows around?”
It was her turn for the corners of her lips to curve. “All Shanahans are big.”
Wolf took the car’s claim check from the valet attendant befo
re putting his arm around Alexandra to steer her through the huge mahogany doors and into the hotel’s vast glossy white lobby. “So what happened to you?”
Her soft, husky laugh suddenly died as two enormous men stepped from the cool white sheer curtains floating everywhere.
Alexandra stiffened and froze. “Trey,” she breathed unsteadily. “Troy.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE BROTHERS SHANAHAN wasted no time getting to the point.
“We’d like a word alone with our sister,” Trey said, and while his voice was quiet, his tone brooked no argument.
“I want Wolf to stay,” Alexandra replied, reaching in panic for Wolf’s hand.
“Alexandra, this is a matter for family,” Troy said, shooting Wolf a far from friendly look.
“Yes, but Wolf is like family,” she answered, holding his hand even tighter. She knew her brothers, knew they weren’t the sort to mince words, and they weren’t mincing any now.
Troy’s expression became ever more suspicious as he stared Wolf down. “Then he should be protecting you, not hurting you,” he said. “Because we don’t like hearing you’ve been hospitalized any better than Dad or the others do.”
Alexandra’s hand was damp and it felt sticky clenching Wolf’s hand, but she couldn’t let go. “It’s not what you think.”
“No? Then explain it,” Trey demanded.
She caught how Wolf’s dark eyes flashed and his jaw clenched. He didn’t like Trey’s tone and he was fighting to control his temper.
Hotel guests glanced at them curiously as they crossed through the lobby, with its flutter of white curtains and the floating wall of elevators. The lobby, with its all-white surfaces, had a surreal beauty, reminding Alexandra more of an art gallery.
The slick and smooth white finishes and furnishings were designed to instill calm, but it wasn’t working on anyone in their little group.
“Alexandra, we’re worried about you,” Troy said bluntly. “We’ve talked to Dad and we’re here to take you home.”
She wasn’t surprised. This was how Shanahans handled things. They came, they conquered, they went.
“I’m not going home,” she answered quietly, standing as tall she could manage considering that, as more than one person had said to her when she was growing up, the twins could pass for mountains.
