Wolf had her up and on her feet. His hands ran down her torso, stopping when he got to the gun.
“Wolf,” Shelley began. She couldn’t quite find the words. She thought she could handle Leo’s anger more than Wolf’s disappointment.
Wolf reached under the cotton front of the jacket and pulled the gun free. His eyes closed briefly, and his mouth firmed into a grim line. “The safety isn’t on. I left the fucking safety on. I know I did.”
Shelley looked down at the gun. It was a foreign, dangerous thing, and now she was starting to realize she didn’t know much about it. “I might have fumbled with it a little. I might have hit it. I don’t know. I didn’t really know it had a safety.”
She’d never worked with handguns. Her father and brother had used shotguns and rifles on the ranch. How was she supposed to know?
There was a loud crack. Shelley started. Wolf wrapped an arm around her middle and hauled her back.
Leo had put his fist through the wall.
“What are you doing?” Shelley asked, shocked. Leo was always calm.
“Hush or I’ll start your punishment here and now,” Wolf promised. “I’m only calm because my brother isn’t. You’re going to keep your mouth shut unless you want to apologize sweetly and beg for some forgiveness.”
“I am sorry, but you don’t understand what you’ve done,” Shelley said, trying to wiggle away. Tears coursed freely now. There was a huge part of her that wanted to do exactly what Wolf had said. She wanted to get down on her knees and ask them to forgive her. She wanted to calm Leo down. She didn’t like seeing him on the edge of his control.
Leo pulled his fist free of the wall. Miraculously, he hadn’t broken anything but the wall. There were scrapes, but he managed to flex his hand.
“Are you done taking it out on the walls or should we move on to other inanimate objects?” Wolf asked. He didn’t let up on his hold.
Leo’s face was a blank as he turned back to them. “Better the wall than her ass. I can’t touch her right now. Set the punishment for later. Neither one of us is in any headspace to lay a hand on her.” Leo took a deep breath. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he seemed to have more control. “Why?”
“It’s none of your business. I would really like to go now.” They couldn’t hold her. They couldn’t force her to stay here. She would get her things and leave. She would try to text this guy back and figure out another meeting. She would find another gun.
“Try her phone, Wolf.”
Sneaky, too-smart-for-his-own-good son of a bitch. “Hey, that’s mine.”
Leo was too smart, and Wolf was too fast. He had the phone out of her pocket and tossed it to his brother.
“Damn it,” Shelley cursed.
Wolf’s arm tightened around her waist. “I have a very good memory, love. Every time you curse me or Leo, you’re doing nothing but adding to your punishment. And it’s bad right now, Shelley. I can’t begin to tell you how bad it is. Do you see how that vein over his right eye is throbbing?”
Sure enough, Leo’s eye twitched. He didn’t seem to mind. He didn’t look up, merely began going over the contents of her phone. His mouth tightened.
“That’s his tell. You think you’ve seen him mad before, but you haven’t until you’ve seen that little tic. You pushed him too far.”
“I was only trying to protect you.” There was nothing left to do. Leo had read the text.
“Mother fucker.” Leo read the text out loud. “Bring her along, Wolf. I don’t dare lay a hand on her. We’ll deal with her when we get her down to my office. I want to see if Ben and Chase can do anything with this. And I want a full workup on Holder, man. I don’t like the fact that he showed up just as someone is after Shelley.”
Shelley dug her heels in. “No. You guys have to let me go.”
Wolf simply lifted her up, and in a show of pure power, turned her in the air until she was over his shoulder and her stomach was flattened against him.
“Damn it, Wolf, you do not have to obey him.”
Wolf started to follow Leo back to the elevator. “That’s not what our momma said.”
He was frustrating. And it was very difficult to talk to his ass. Even though it was a spectacular ass.
“Besides, if I hadn’t listened to Leo, you probably would have gotten away. I was going to take the main elevator,” Wolf admitted. “But Leo said that you would probably run either down or up and try to get to the service elevator because you would think we would go up to the condo.”
Leo pressed the button to the very service elevator in question. “And I had men in the garage and at all the exits. The minute Finn called me, there was no way out of this building, Shelley. I had everyone in place before you could even make it to the elevator. Remember that the next time you decide to take things into your own hands.”
The only thing she could take into her own hands now was Wolf’s ass, and she thought that might be pushing things. “Please let me take care of this. It’s my problem. Did you not read that text? Don’t you get it?”
The elevator doors closed behind her, and Leo gently lifted her head up. “Do you know what they would call you in writing circles? I know a little about this. I’ve thought often of writing a novel of my own. You wouldn’t be the heroine because anyone who read it would say you’re too stupid to live.”
She felt herself flush. “Screw you, Leo. I was trying to protect you.”
Wolf put her down, her feet hitting the floor as the elevator shuddered to a stop. Wolf stared down at her. She barely reached the top of his shoulders. He outweighed her by a hundred pounds. He knew that guns had safeties.
Yeah, maybe she was too stupid to live, but she’d only been trying to make sure they didn’t die.
“I’m sorry.” She couldn’t look at him. “I didn’t want to drag you into this.”
Leo put a hand on his brother’s arm. “Don’t. The elevator will be infinitely harder to fix than the wall.”
“You got to punch something,” Wolf said with a frown.
“I’ll let you punch the hell out of the condo later. Or maybe Chase. He annoys me at times. Yes, punch Chase.” Leo actually smiled a little at his brother. “It’s all right. This is what she does. I let her get away with it once. Don’t make the same mistake I did.”
The doors opened.
“Guys, I know you’re mad. I know you think I’m stupid, but I had my reasons. This isn’t your fight.”
Wolf’s fists clenched. “She’s pushing me, Leo.”
“Yep,” Leo agreed. “It’s what she does. Of course, you’re her Dom. You know she’s going to require a bit of training. Come on, Shelley. Don’t give me any more trouble. You’ve already made us both look like idiots.”
She found herself following Leo down the hall, Wolf hard on her heels. “I didn’t mean to. And I don’t see how me trying to handle a situation makes the two of you look bad.”
Frustration was starting to crowd out her panic. There was nothing left to do now except convince them to let her go. Except they didn’t seem to want to listen to her.
Leo stopped, turning on his heels. It threw Shelley off balance and sent her stepping back, where she ran straight into Wolf. Wolf didn’t seem to feel the same need for personal space that she did. He was a brick wall.
“Wolf is your Dom,” Leo pointed out. “You signed a contract to obey him. Everyone in this club knows we slept together last night.”
“Everyone?”
Leo’s eyes rolled. “Yes, everyone. It’s a small club, and I have a housekeeper. She comes in early on Saturdays. She caught me coming out of Wolf’s room this morning. If Kristina knows, then everyone knows. And if everyone knows that I slept with you, then everyone will know that you’re a disobedient little brat who can’t mind her Dom or her lover. Every goddamn Dom in this place is questioning us right now. You reflect on your Master.”