Page 27 of Billionaire Wolf Needs a Nanny

For the rest of the week, Lacey avoided me like the plague, only acknowledging my existence when prompted by Emilia. Her attention was focused solely on my niece. Even through her hurt, she was a professional. It was exactly what I asked her to do, but the coldness in her eyes every time she looked at me cut like glass.

We were like ghosts inhabiting the same apartment. What was supposed to be a joyous holiday was now laced with bitterness.

Since Unibrod's men were still out there, I didn't allow Lacey or Emilia to leave the hotel suite. Not even the hotel common areas downstairs were safe.

Emilia was starting to act up from being cooped up. She was regressing and today, it took Lacey two hours to convince her to eat her breakfast. I looked over at the shimmering Christmas tree and wondered what happened to our happy little family that was too short-lived.

My phone vibrated and lit up. It was Reeve.

"What is it?"

"Is that how you greet your newest favorite person?" Reeve teased.

I scoffed. "Who says that's you?"

"I will be very soon. Call down to the front desk and buzz me up, dude."

I tapped on the intercom unit on the wall and ordered the front desk to give Reeve the code to our floor.

What was he going on about now and why was he here in Paradise Peaks? But I was eager for a distraction from the silence of the apartment.

The elevator dinged before the doors opened and Reeve stepped out. He walked into my office and closed the door behind him.

Wordlessly, he grabbed the TV remote and flipped through the channels until the stock exchange floor popped up. One of the female talking heads flashed onto the screen.

"We have some breaking news. Unibrod Corporation stock has just been halted." The anchor paused as she listened to her earpiece. "Sources say there has been a raid by the authorities. All Unibrod facilities in the United States are to be shut down pending investigation."

I was stunned. "Did you have something to do with this?"

Reeve flashed a cocky grin. "What? Like it was hard? It didn't even take me two days to hack into Ulf Nightblood's computer." The joy in Reeve's voice was unmistakable. Like myself, he was stifled by the rules and laws we now had to abide by and itched to return to his unlawful origins. "The Nightbloods have skirted laws and regulations in every country they have operated in. It was only a matter of time before someone,ahem, ratted them out to the feds."

This was it. The moment we had been waiting for. We finally had leverage over the Nightbloods to make them back off, both from Fisher and from my family. I should have been ecstatic. So why was I numb?

Reeve glanced at me expectantly. The grin on his face slowly vanished. He waved his hand back and forth in front of my face. "Hello? Dude, what's wrong with you?"

"I ended it with Lacey," I mumbled.

He stared at me before punching me on the shoulder. "That's stupid, even for a doughhead like you."

I shrugged him off. "She's human, Reeve. You know what that means. Nightblood put a hit on her."

"Yeah, so what? Do you know how rare a true mate match is? Some of us go our entire lives without finding our mate, and here you are, pissing it all away because she's not a pure-blooded female wolf."

"That's not what I mean," I protested. "You know I hate that type of thinking. I'm nothing like my parents."

Reeve cut me off. "No? You still sound like them at the moment. We live dangerous lives, and now you've left her completely defenseless. If you want to keep her safe, then tell her the truth about our kind. Show her our world and prepare her for the threats. You know there's no backing out of a mating claim. You are the only one who can defend her now." Reeve paused his rant and let out a long breath. "Look, she's your mate. Nothing else matters."

He was right. Of course, Reeve was always right. "I have to talk to her."

"Damn, right you do. Go get your woman."

I exited the office to find the kitchen was empty. Emilia was in her room by herself, coloring with Mr. Snuffles.

"Emilia, where's Lacey?"

She shrugged. "Out."

My stomach dropped. Something was wrong. "Did she say where she was going?"

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