My grip tightened just slightly before I released her arm, deliberately, as if I was choosing restraint instead of needing it. It was a lie. The elevator doors dinged open to the ground floor. Neither of us moved.
"Mr. Blackwood? What an unexpected honor." A man who looked like he had more Botox than sense dared to step too close to my wife. "I’m James Sterling Jr. We were hoping for a follow-up on the infrastructure proposal. If you have five minutes?—"
"I don't have five seconds. My wife and I have an appointment to get to."
"Shopping trip for the missus. I hear that." Junior did a double take at Addie. "Wife? I... I had no idea you were married, Adelaide."
I went perfectly still. The ambient noise of the lobby died as this imbecile misnamed my wife. "What did you just call my wife?"
The man laughed, a high-pitched, nervous sound that set my teeth on edge. "Oh, sorry! I meant Addison, of course."
I stepped in front of Addie, tucking her firmly behind the shield of my body. I squared my shoulders, looming over Junior until he was forced to crane his neck back. I let a sliver of the wolf peek out.
"My wife worked for you for all these years; she kept this company afloat with her mind, and you don't even know her name."
Junior sensed the shift in the atmosphere; the sudden, violent proximity of a predator. He balked, his hands coming up in a placating gesture. "Mr. Blackwood, I didn't mean any disrespect. Add?—"
He stopped because he clearly had no idea what her name was.
"There is no infrastructure proposal. I'm taking over this company. I'm doing you a favor. With my wife no longer employed here, the company wouldn't last the end of the month."
I turned my back on him with a finality that was its own kind of violence. I tucked Addie into me, my hand clasping hers with a possessiveness that left no room for argument, and led her toward the exit.
As the silver doors began to slide shut, I caught a glimpse of Nell standing in the open elevator door. She wasn't cowering like the others. She was appraising me anew, her eyes narrowed with a sharp, dangerous intelligence. She didn't look impressed by my protection; she looked like she was measuring the height of the walls I was building around Addie.
The suspicion in those eyes told me everything I needed to know.
Petronella Odhiambo was a tether to a world I was trying to burn down. If I wanted Addie to be entirely mine, I couldn't just own the company. I would have to deal with the woman who actually knew my wife's name and value.
I handed Addie into the back of the town car with more force than was strictly necessary. The velvet interior of the vehicle felt like a pressurized cabin as I slid into the seat beside her.My movements were jagged with a fury I was struggling to keep beneath the surface.
"Home," I barked at the driver.
The privacy window slid up with a hiss, sealing us in a tomb of leather and expensive silence. I turned to her, my shadow swallowing the small space.
"How?" I demanded, the word vibrating with Alpha resonance. "The locks on that penthouse are grade-four industrial. There isn't a key in the world that should have moved that bolt."
Addie leaned back against the seat, looking at me with a tired, clinical sort of detachment that grated on my nerves. "My father used to lock me in rooms all the time when I was a kid. I learned to pick a tumbler before I learned to drive."
"Bastard."
She let out a short, humorless laugh that cut deeper than any snarl. "You think you’re different from him? You’re everything I’ve spent my life trying to escape. You’ve just given my cage a better view."
The accusation lodged under my skin. I’d used the offshore idea because it was the most efficient path. I'd used it because it was brilliant. I hadn't considered that to Addie it was another theft of her identity.
"I can't promise I won't try to escape again. Old habits die hard. But you don't have to worry about the business. I won't do anything to jeopardize either of our families."
We reached the penthouse in a silence so thick it felt like drowning. I didn't take her to her bedroom. I led her into my study. I sat at my desk and flipped my laptop around, sliding it across the polished wood until it was inches from her hands. The screen was covered in the raw, jagged data of the Ironwood accounts.
"Get to work."
Addie blinked, looking at the screen and then back at me, her eyes wide with a mix of defiance and bewilderment.
"The Ironwood assets are a rat’s nest of hidden liabilities." I pointed at a flickering column of red. "The old Alpha buried three shell companies in the Northern accounts, and the encryption is?—"
I didn't even finish the sentence. Addie’s fingers were already moving. She didn't use the mouse; she used hot keys, which I'm not ashamed to say turned me on. The rhythmicclick-clackof the mechanical keys filled the room, steady and aggressive. I stood there for a few moments, paralyzed by the sight of her. I’d seen her beautiful before, draped in silk or flushed with anger, but this was different. This was the real predator in her coming out to play.
Her fingers glided over the board with an elegance that made my own throat tight. She bit her lower lip as she concentrated. The small movement drew my eye to the soft curve of her mouth. She rolled her head around her neck, stretching the tired muscles, and the sudden, sharp sound of her tendons popping in the quiet room sent a jolt of heat straight to my cock.
