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She had heard from Jude, that Graham and Jude had won a major client for the company, someone they had put a lot of time and effort into locking down. Wanting to do something nice for the men, she had called an order into a bakery for a special treat.
What she hadn’t known at the time was that the particular bakery she had chosen for its proximity to the cafe was also a business rival. The baker who answered the phone recognized the number and had decided to take matters into his own hands.
When she arrived at the bakery to pick up her treat basket, nothing had been what she ordered. Raisins instead of chocolate chips, names misspelled—it was a royal mess! She was just glad she had looked at everything closely before walking out the door.
The baker had argued with her when she demanded a refund until she threatened to leave a scathing review, at which point she got her money back and took her business elsewhere. Unfortunately, by the time she had her order filled at a different shop, she was frazzled, and it was too late to walk to pack territory and make it by the time she had planned.
Baked goods finally in hand, Delilah had quickly hailed a cab, and called Jude to ask him to meet her at Graham’s place. While she’d been speaking to Jude, the cab driver had misunderstood her directions and somehow got lost in the relatively short amount of time it should have taken him to drive to her destination.
After getting the driver back on track and haggling over the cab fare, Delilah was hot and frazzled, looking forward to a relaxing afternoon with Graham and Jude. The air was close and it smelled like rain. Maybe they could make some tea and curl up with her basket of cakes and pastries to watch the storm for a while.
Knowing the door would be open, she entered without announcing herself. She had planned to get the treats set up in the kitchen before anyone noticed her presence hoping to have it ready before Jude arrived.
No one seemed to be in the house at the moment.Good, she thought as she wandered from room to room. The place smelled heavily of Graham, but that was to be expected in his own house. She didn’t detect Jude’s presence at all.
Stepping back into the kitchen to lay out everything, she set the basket on the countertop and paused. She distinctly heard men’s voices through the hallway, Graham’s and one she couldn’t place.
For a reason she couldn’t name, she was suddenly on high alert. She couldn’t smell the presence of a second male shifter, or even a human man, so Graham must be using the speakerphone. That in and of itself wasn’t a problem, but the other voice had a ring to it that made her blood run cold.
Delilah left the kitchen and followed the voice through the house and up the stairs. Graham had never kept anything from her before, had never told her there was anywhere in his home that she was unwelcome, but she suddenly felt herself a trespasser.
She edged down the hallway as quietly as possible, knowing that Graham was one of the best hunters she had ever met and that he would surely hear or smell her long before she approached.
When nothing happened, she listened to the voices again. The voice that wasn’t Graham’s bothered her until she felt as if ants were crawling under her skin. She wanted to claw at herself until they popped out, but no amount of scratching could satisfy the itch in her brain.
Inching her way toward Graham’s office, she noticed for the first time how perturbed the voices were. Maybe that was why the wolf with the keenest senses she’d ever seen had missed her presence in his home.
Peeking in through the partially open office door, she saw Graham’s slim form standing next to his desk. He was, indeed, on the phone. The handset was in its cradle and the speakerphone was on, which explained the volume and clarity of the second voice.
Graham’s posture spoke of his tension. He was standing, but he had both hands on his desk as he leaned his weight into his upper body. His head hung over the phone and his eyes were closed.
“Okay, I understand that there was a change of heart, but whose?” Graham was saying.
“I don’t see how that’s relevant,” the voice replied. Those words, the formality, the hedging, the tone, the timbre—they were all so familiar, but they seemed so out of place that she couldn’t put her finger on who they belonged to.
Graham released a sigh of frustration, drawing himself to his full height and rubbing his face with both hands. He tapped his foot as if using his full concentration to rein in his emotions before they got the better of him.
“It’s relevant…” he began slowly. “Because I like to be thorough. Was the change of heart yours or that of the female in question?”
Female in question?It sounded like much more than a business deal. Graham was usually able to handle himself better in a business deal.
“Look, the point is that the deal is off. I don’t like to have my motives questioned, and I don’t like to be accused of withholding information.” The combative and evasive quality of the voice had Delilah so on edge she could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
Graham pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “No one is accusing you of anything, Jonah,” he ground out between his teeth. “I simply want to know what happened, and I don’t understand why that’s such a bad thing. We had a deal and you can’t just call it off.”
Delilah’s scalp prickled as her blood turned to ice. Her throat began to close, and her breathing grew shallow and labored. The tips of her ears felt hot as her vision swam. Jonah. She knew exactly where she had heard that voice before, as well as why it was so difficult to place.
That voice had no business there. In fact, she had been beginning to think she would never have to hear it again as long as she lived. Why should it crop up there, right then, exactly when she was letting her guard down and finding a new way of life—one she actually enjoyed with people she actually cared about?
Jonah Deacon was the last person someone like Graham Grimmaw should be talking to, but there he was doing exactly what he wasn’t supposed to with a voice that Delilah was never supposed to hear again.How could this happen?
Before she could decipher what deal Graham could possibly have made with a cretin such as Jonah, it came over the phone loud and clear. “You’ll do what you have to do, Grimmaw,” Jonah leered. “We both know you’re not the kind of man who would have honored the terms of the peace offering, anyway.”
What the hell?It washer. It washim.Shewas the female in question,hewas the alpha they had been about to sell her to. Everything fell into place like the click of a revolver being held to her temple.
The intensity of emotion that ran through her following her revelation was the bullet. It crashed through her, tearing at her mind and heart in ways she had never thought possible. This was worse than anything Clark could ever have done to her, even if she had stayed with him.
Before she could hear any more words, before that cursed phone could spew forth any more vomitous lies, she turned and ran. She thought she heard Graham call after her, but she didn’t care. She had to leave that horrible place before it wreaked further havoc on her psyche.
