Page 52 of Wolf

His eyes slid over to me with caution. I cocked an eyebrowathim.

My threat understood, he snapped the folder closed and set it back on the shelf, his hand hesitating to leave the spine as it slid down the plastic. “I’m not the one holdingback,Anna.”

“What?” Ifrowned.

Wolf turned back toward me, his hands going over the back of the two other chairs, his eyes meeting mine. “Tell me there are no secrets between us,” he demanded,surprisingme.

“A relationship based on pure honesty doesn’t exist,” I returned. “I have my secrets, you haveyours.”

“That’s not what I mean, Anna,” Wolf growled, his fingers digging into thechair.

“Then what do you mean, Wolf?” I argued, jamming the gun forward in his direction. He lunged, grabbing the gun and tearing it out of my hand with enough force to bruise my triggerfinger.

“Wol—”

“Who are you protecting, Anna?” he snapped, stunning me. His knuckles bulging out of his skin of the hand gripped around the barrel of the loaded revolver. “Who are you thekeyto?”

The key. Who am I thekeyto?

“I—”

“Don’t lie to me again, Anna.” Wolf unloaded the gun, the bullets pinging off the wood of the desk, and dropped the weapon down on top of them. He rounded the desk, turning the leather chair to face him, his hands dropping to the armrests, his face leaning in close and sharp as he practically spat the words. “Who are youhiding?”

And it all madesense.

“Oh my God,” I gasped, my heart rate turning into a racing dance in my chest, my limbs growing tingly and cold. “I’mthekey?”

Wolf took a step back, his whole body shocked by my reaction, by mysurprise.

“You didn’t know?” He frowned, his warm eyes rounding with remorse at his behavior, but I didn’t care. I wasn’tlistening.

I launched myself up from the chair, my side burning at the sudden effort. Wolf moved to grab me, no doubt to push me back in my seat, but I shoved his hands aside. I stumbled toward the door, swung it open, and raced the short distance to Wolf’sbedroom.

Heads turned as they watched me kick it open and rush inside, lunging for my purse off the chair and dumping the contents on the bed until my phone appeared in thechaos.

I dropped onto the edge of the bed, my stomach muscles forcing me to double over as I fumbled with the unlocking code and scrolled down my infinitely long contact list. I clicked on “Unnamed.” The number rangandrang.

I became aware of Wolf next to me, his hands gripping onto my shoulders as I breathed through the crippling pain in my stomach. “Answer. Goddammit, answer!” Isnapped.

The ringingstopped.

Noanswer.

“Fuck!” I hissed, throwing the device against the wall, smashing it into pieces. “Shit,” I groaned, my hand cupping my stomach from the pain. I felt dizzy, and my body began to fall forward. I hit something solid, but I couldn’t fight the pain. “Shit, shit,” I hissed, groaning as Wolf shouted something at me. But through all the pain, there was only one thing plaguingmymind.

Ash.

* * *

Kay slappedmy hand as I reached toward my stomach. “Don’t touch it,” she hissed, obviously still pissed at me for what I did. “You’re lucky you didn’t tear your stitches,” she continued to scold me, her head shaking as she carefully bandaged thewound.

“Are you done yet?” I grumbled, the cold of the kitchen island counter prickling into my bare back. “I want togetoff.”

“Tough shit. You’re not moving from that counter until I’m sure this isn’t going to swell. The cold will do you good,” Kay argued, her hand pushing down on my shoulder, forcing me to lie back. “I’ll turn the heating up in here, but I swear to God, if you move, I will let you bleed out on thefloor.”

“And people think I’m the mean one,” I scoffed, earning myself a softened scowl from Kay’s direction. She brushed a hand through my hair, shaking her head at me withasigh.

She lifted a pillow from the floor and helped scoot it underneath my head before she placed a soft kiss on my cheek and went to the door. “Prepareyourself.”

---