The Wolf on the Hill (8 page)

Under her palm, the coiled muscles slackened. “Sorry. When I think of all the trouble he went to, getting everyone here to patch the place up… I don’t want to go cap in hand again. I’ll sort this.”

“There’s no need to be so proud. Or stubborn.” She waited for him to throw that particular character trait back in her face, but he was too caught up in playing the martyr to notice.

“Maybe I’m sick of Super Rory swooping in to save the day and making me feel like the village idiot.” Just when she’d thought they were making progress, Caleb’s defences had shot up again, topped with some barbed wire to make sure no one got close.

“You are a fucking idiot!” That did it. Caleb stopped slouching and snapped upright. Mia gulped, but she didn’t want another whiny Robbie clone.
Bring back my kick-ass bad boy.

“You need to find out who’s doing this and put a stop to it. Or I will.” She folded her arms across her chest, drawing on her inner warrior princess. It merely succeeded in making him smirk.

“Yes, mistress.” The spark flared back to life in Caleb’s green eyes, and he pulled her into a confident, assured kiss. His attempt to take her mind off the subject may have worked temporarily, but his safety wasn’t something she would leave to chance.

Chapter Six

Mia preferred Rory’s house to the one she shared with her parents. Much like its owner, the modest dwelling didn’t pretend to be anything other than a solid dependable structure. It didn’t need fancy embellishments to be loved.

She let herself in with her own key. Rory understood her need to escape from her parents on a regular basis, and let her veg out here when she needed to.

“Come on, huff muffin.” With the door held open, she hurried Caleb inside.

He rolled his eyes at her, but swallowed his pride to enter the house. In her heart she hoped he’d agreed to come, not simply to pacify her, but because deep down he knew he could confide in Rory.

She couldn’t get her head around his resentment that festered towards her brother. Yes, they were close, but Caleb certainly had no reason to be jealous. The two men were similar in so many ways—both independent, pig-headed, dominant males who played huge roles in her life. If not for Caleb’s sake, for her own selfish reasons, she wished they could happily co-exist. After all, she would rely on Rory’s steadfast support when Caleb inevitably left her.

“Hi, bro.” Seeing him on the settee, fire blazing in the hearth beside him, brought comfort, even as she imagined life without Caleb.

“Hey, sis. Caleb.” Rory didn’t get up. He couldn’t with Emily curled up into a ball on his lap. Mia thought the protective father look rather suited him.

Naomi entered carrying steaming mugs of coffee to complete the cosy scene. “Oh, hi, you two. Little Miss Cranky is refusing point blank to leave Rory’s side.”

Neither Naomi nor Rory appeared too distressed over the matter. In fact, they looked every inch the happy family together—a sight that wouldn’t have been out of place on a cheesy Christmas card.

Rather than make some flippant comment that would unsettle the oblivious couple, Mia made herself at home in one of the comfy seats and urged Caleb to do the same.

He took it upon himself to disrupt the easy atmosphere with the real reason they were here. “I’ve had another break-in at the cottage.”

Rory automatically morphed from the laid-back family man into the vigilant police officer. “Did they take anything?”

“There’s nothing left to take.” Caleb snorted but failed to disguise the hurt in his voice. “They smashed the place up pretty good.”

Rory plucked Emily from his person and handed the sleeping bundle to her mother. “When?”

“Sometime today while I was out.”

Waiting on me.

“In broad daylight?” Rory scowled as Caleb nodded. “Someone’s obviously watching your every move. Someone who’s trying to send you a message. Any idea what that could be?”

Caleb didn’t shy away from the blunt line of questioning. “Rory, I haven’t seen anyone here in eleven years. I have no idea who’s doing this. If it’s one of the locals holding a grudge from something I did when I was a kid, surely they’d want me to leave town as soon as possible? Not screw up my chances of a quick sale.”

Mia braved a suggestion, “What about your father? Is it possible someone is taking their anger out on you over something he did?”

Both men looked at her with puzzled expressions but for very different reasons. Rory couldn’t understand why she would besmirch their past alpha’s character, and Caleb couldn’t know how much insight she had into his father’s true nature. Witnessing the brutal beating John Jackson had dealt his son was a secret she had kept for many years. It gave her some understanding of Caleb’s strained relationships with those around him, and also made her question what else his old man had got up to behind closed doors.

“I don’t think he made many enemies, outside of his own family.” A shutter came down over his features with the mere mention of his father. Obviously it wasn’t a matter up for discussion and Mia immediately sensed that she should back away from the subject. For a proud man like Caleb, any hint that she had seen him at his most vulnerable might shatter their fragile relationship.

“I’d like to take a look at the damage. Do you want me to call it in?” Rory got to his feet, raring to go.

Caleb stopped him. “I don’t mind you coming over, but I don’t want anyone else.”

Rory didn’t argue and the two left in companionable silence. They understood each other on a level neither of them appreciated. Mia wanted to bang their heads together.

“Are you okay?” Naomi, quiet during the discussion, now approached, carrying her babe in her arms.

“Yeah. Just upset for Caleb. Anyway, do you want to put her down in the bedroom rather than take her back out into the cold?” Spots of red bloomed on Emily’s cheeks. Guilt would have eaten Mia alive to send her out into the frosty air.

“Do you think Rory would mind?” Naomi shifted the dead weight from one arm to the other, looking as exhausted as her daughter.

“Not at all. Put her down in the back bedroom and I’ll put the kettle on for another cuppa.” She could do with the break—dealing with all this emotion and testosterone was exhausting.

* * * *

It didn’t take long to survey the damage. It lay at their feet in plain sight. Rory wore the same serious expression as he had done the first time around.

“You’re staying at mine tonight.” He was probably used to barking out orders, but Caleb sure as hell wasn’t used to following them.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“You’re not my alpha.” This lone wolf belonged to no pack.

“No, but I do want my sister safe.”

Shit!
Caleb could tell by the steely gaze pinning him to the spot that Rory knew exactly what they’d been up to in the cottage. He didn’t need a lecture when everything in that look said, ‘My sister gets hurt, I’ll kill you’.

Caleb didn’t intend to apologise for something that wasn’t any of his damn business. “Whatever this is, it has nothing to do with Mia.”

“This fucker obviously has anger management issues, whoever he is.” Rory jammed his whole fist into one of the new wall decorations. “How do you know he won’t come after you next? Or someone close to you?”

Caleb could look after himself, he’d spent a lifetime doing so, but could he stop Mia getting involved? He doubted it. What chance did he have of protecting her when he didn’t even know who, or what, he was dealing with himself?

“You think you can stop him? I gotta say, I’m not convinced.” Caleb wouldn’t roll over and let Rory take charge without a valid reason.

The vibrato of Rory’s low growl made Caleb’s hackles rise “This bastard shat all over my backyard and scared my little sister. I will hunt him down if it’s the last thing I do.”

Perhaps having back-up, as livid as he was, might give Caleb the edge over his unknown adversary. With an armed police officer, and one seriously pissed off home owner, this fucker wouldn’t know what had hit him when they caught up with him. In the meantime, Mia’s safety took precedence over their score settling. Now that Rory had put the thought of her in danger into his head, Caleb was keen to get back and check up on her.

On their return they found Mia and Naomi curled up on the settee watching trashy reality television. The women hastily scooted along to make room for them.

“I hope you don’t mind, Rory, but Emily’s sleeping in your bedroom.” Naomi made cute doe eyes at the big dolt who still hadn’t broken out of his funk. To see him this riled over someone he’d yet to cross paths with, Caleb knew he was fucked if he ever messed his sister about.

“Sure.” He totally dismissed the single mum with a gruffness that should have been directed elsewhere. Much like Caleb’s own behaviour earlier, he suspected.

Now he saw Mia’s point about attacking her brother without just cause. It made him question how much of his father’s bad qualities he’d inherited along with the house. He knew only too well that a Jackson temper needed taming and he resolved to work on it. After all, he didn’t want that part of his father’s legacy putting a downer on anyone else’s life, when he was still trying to repair the damage to his own.

Mia couldn’t help but wonder if they’d undergone some sort of body-swapping experiment while they had been away. Rory took to stomping around the house in the traditional brooding male fashion, whilst Caleb moved back into the spare bedroom without a murmur of dissent.

She looked at Naomi and they both shrugged together. “Men!” Their fit of giggles probably wouldn’t have gone down well with either man of the household.

Mia gave Caleb time to get settled in the room before she went in search of him. The faint sound of a guitar drifted across the hall and drew her in like an unfortunate sailor lured by siren song. She found him perched on the end of his bed strumming on one of Rory’s old guitars without a care in the world.

“I didn’t know you played.”

“A little.” He practically threw the guitar on the bed when he discovered she was listening. His grin was surprisingly coy for a man who gave the impression that he didn’t give a shit about what people thought.

“Do you sing too?” Just when she’d thought she couldn’t fancy him any more than she did, he had pulled the ultimate heart throb trump card.

“I used to, in bars for some pin money.”

 She could imagine him sitting in the corner of a dingy bar, holding the audience captive with some bluesy ballad, and wished she could witness it.

“Maybe you could ask Naomi about getting a gig at The Dog?” It gave her chills to think of him baring his soul. The only thing sexier than having her lover serenade her at work would be if he did it naked.

“I don’t know.” He carefully placed the guitar back in the corner of the room with Rory’s stuff and closed the subject.

Mia didn’t push it for now, but, in her mind, this newly discovered talent could provide an income if he chose to stick around. “So, what’s going on with you and Rory? I thought you’d rather die of hypothermia than take a room here again.”

“Let’s say your brother is taking the whole thing very personally. He’s making it his mission to track this guy down, and I think he wants me where he can see me.” The cryptic reply didn’t answer her question fully, but she accepted the change of heart for the sake of harmony. She wouldn’t make any more waves if it kept Caleb safe.

“Are you staying the night with me?” A mischievous Caleb abandoned his shyness to slide his hands around her waist.

“I think that might be stretching my brother’s hospitality a tad too far, don’t you?”

His wicked lips making a necklace of kisses around her throat edged her dangerously close to the point of not caring.

“I can be real quiet.” His mouth trailed down to the swell of her cleavage, zapping her every nerve ending with the tip of his tongue.

“I don’t think I can.” Even with this fully clothed contact she struggled to muffle her moans.

“Oh well. No point getting all riled up for nothing, then, is there?” He backed away, taking his marauding lips with him and immediately cooling her fevered skin.

“Bastard!”

A sharp rap on the door prevented her from throwing him on the bed and having her wicked way regardless.

“Mia? You want a lift home?”

She opened the door to Rory, throwing it wide in a ‘see, we aren’t doing anything we shouldn’t’ move. “Sure.”

Not only didn’t she trust herself to keep her hands off Caleb much longer, but she could take a hint from her grouchy older brother. “Are you taking Naomi and Emily too?”

“No. Er, Naomi’s staying overnight.” Rory couldn’t quite meet her eyes and she couldn’t resist teasing him over his obvious crush.

“Oh? Things must be moving very quickly between you two.”

A click of his tongue and the clenched jaw expressed his disapproval at the accusation. “Emily is still asleep. It makes more sense for the two of them to stay here. I’ll be on the sofa, of course.”

“Of course.” Her exaggerated smile made him turn on his heels and walk away.

“I’d better go before he leaves me stranded here.” The sound of the front door slamming was followed by the car revving in the driveway.

“Yeah, cause it would be tragic if you were stuck here all night. With me.” Caleb lifted up the hem of his shirt, revealing inch after inch of taut, tanned skin. That mouthwatering dip of his hip bones into the waistband of his jeans was oh so tempting.

The car horn blared outside to break her from the trance of Caleb’s hypnotic abs. He grinned, his ego obviously expanding as rapidly as his dick at her open appreciation.

Frustration bubbled over. She wanted him so badly it hurt, and he knew it. “You’re an arsehole!”

“Ah, but you love me for it,” Caleb called after her as she walked away.

Yes, I do.

Mia walked to the car in a daze.
Shit!
Falling for him had never been part of the plan, but the son of a bitch with his big brown eyes and unfailing ability to make her smile had made sure of it. All she could do now was pray that he wouldn’t break her heart.