Page 9 of A Wilde Christmas

“We’ll clean up,” Greer’s wife, Natalie, offered. She enlisted the rest of the aunts, and the three of them disappeared into the kitchen.

The remaining uncles hesitated, and then Greer said, “Let’s go help the wives and give the kids some space to talk.”

When they were gone, Davey scanned the faces of his brothers and cousins.

His employees.

Shit. Why did he sign those papers?

His brothers were both red-faced from trying not to laugh.

Daphne and Celeste looked like they wanted to be anywhere but here. Both hunched over Daphne’s laptop as if whatever was on the screen were the most interesting thing in the world.

Liam and Bridger—Greer and Natalie’s sons—had been deep in an intense chess match all evening, barely even breaking for dinner, but now they stared at Davey and the downed tree, the game forgotten.

“What happened?”Liam signed. He’d been born deaf and had a cochlear implant, but often turned it off in noisy environments—like a Wilde family Christmas party—because he preferred the silence. His disability had never slowed him down and hadn’t stopped him from becoming one of the baddest badasses Davey knew. The man could shoot any weapon you put in his hands, from an arrow to a sniper rifle, and his aim was almost supernaturally good.

Bridger signed back, explaining the situation to his older brother. He was the calmest of all the Wildes, level-headed and serious. “Basically,” he added out loud, “Cade’s being Cade.”

Liam turned on his implant. “Well… fuck.”

“Yep, that sums it up.” Fiona walked to the bar and poured herself yet another glass of wine.

Weston joined her and measured out a double shot of whiskey, which he downed in one breath. He set the glass down with a clunk, took out his wallet, and started to hand a twenty to Fiona but pulled it back. “Wait, you had insider knowledge.”

“What?” Elliot asked.

“The bet,” Weston explained. “First blood. We all bet on our dads, butshebet on Cade and Davey.” He shook the money in Fiona’s face. “Because sheknew.”

She snatched the twenty. “Of course I knew. I drew up the paperwork for the transfer, and I know Cade.”

“Cheater.”

Griffin—Fiona’s younger brother and a snarky pain-in-the-ass—scoffed and pushed out of his seat. “Why are you surprised? We all know our Fi-Fi is a self-serving bitch.”

She scowled at him. “Don’t call me that, asshole.”

“Love you, too, sis.” He blew her a sarcastic kiss. “And, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my fill of family drama for today. See ya.” He snagged a cookie from the tray on the coffee table, took a bite, and saluted with one finger before he left.

The party broke up fast after that, everyone making excuses while Davey and his brothers picked up the tree. The aunts and uncles left after finishing in the kitchen, but not before Greer pulled Davey aside.

“This company has been my life since before you were born,” he said, his gaze direct. “Do you know how it got started?”

Davey lifted a shoulder. “You five all left the military and needed jobs.”

Greer shook his head. “No, that’s not the entire story. The year before I started Wilde Security, your father was supposed to go on patrol in the mountains of Afghanistan, but he came down with a bad case of pneumonia and ended up getting shipped to Germany for treatment. That mission went wrong, and all but one Marine lost their lives.”

Davey knew the story. It was the reason Elliot’s middle name was Harlan, after Dad’s friend who had survived that clusterfuck. Dad had always carried a shit-ton of survivor’s guilt about it.

And now, Davey also knew exactly what that felt like. He wasn’t the only survivor—of the six men on his team, three others had survived the landmine and subsequent firefight—but the guilt of those deaths still sat like molten lead in his gut.

Greer looked at the tree, standing again but missing half its ornaments. “The following Christmas was the first time my brothers and I were all together for the holiday in years. We were in a bar, and we’d been apart for so long that we barely knew each other. I looked at Jude and realized we could’ve had an empty seat there instead of his loud, annoying ass, and it terrified me more than anything I’d ever faced in my military life. So I started Wilde Security to take care of my brothers and bring us back together as a family.”

Well, shit. That info did not make the burden of taking over the company any lighter.

Greer squeezed his shoulder. “You’ll bring this family back together again, Davey. I’m certain of it, which is why I chose you.”

No pressure.“I won’t let you down.”

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