Page 15 of Wolfish Heart (Billionaires of Wolfe Mountain #1)

KADEN

I t’s terrible timing, but Zoe’s sunny attitude on the drive out to the river tells me that she understands my responsibilities.

“You know, if we were at an important birthday dinner or something, I’d have one of my brothers do this,” I say, reaching over to squeeze her knee. “But I’m closest.”

She smiles, then jumps as the front wheel hits one a large pothole. “It’s just a short trip. It’s fine.”

We reach the river and Zoe follows me along the trail, then we veer off to the east past a huge boulder. “We take a slightly different route every time so that we never create a real path,” I explain, taking the long way around a pine tree before getting back on track.

“That makes sense.” She looks around the forest, breathing in the fresh air. “I really appreciate you showing me your super-secret spot.”

My arm circles her shoulders for a quick hug, my other hand slipping down to squeeze her ass. “Baby, I want to share all our secret spots with you.”

Once we get to the camera, I’m relieved to see it’s simply been knocked off its tripod. Zoe looks around. “Could someone have done this on purpose?”

“Nah, it’s the squirrels. Once in a blue moon, they just attack it. Jerks. It’s okay. We have a system that drops an out-of-commission data point from the mix until it’s up again.”

I lock the camera back onto its tripod and test it to confirm that it’s recording data again. We hurry back to the truck, then I pull out my laptop to double check that the data is coming in as expected.

On the drive back through Old Hemlock Valley, I spot my brother’s truck. He drives right over and pulls to a stop on Zoe’s side.

“You must be Kellen,” she says brightly, rolling down the window.

He blinks in surprise. “And you must be this Zoe person we’ve been hearing about.”

“That’s me.” She shoots me a look. “Kaden just fixed the river camera.”

Kellen grins. “Good to know he’s upholding our security protocols by bringing a chick along.”

“Hey now – don’t call my girlfriend a chick.”

He holds up his hands. “Just teasing, man. Hey – did you hear about the school issue? Apparently they only have a week or two to get it sorted out.”

The fact that he doesn’t go into detail makes me wonder if Kellen isn’t sure if I want to speak about this in front of Zoe. Well, I’m not going to keep any secrets from her.

I turn directly to her. “The school is growing faster than expected after a bit of a baby boom six years ago,” I explain. “It’s in a very convenient location, but it’ll be expensive to build an extension because of the rocky ground.”

Kellen nods. “There’s been some talk of whether it would be cheaper to relocate the entire school. But that means all kinds of upheaval, and you know…”

I chuckle. “Yeah. People around here don’t like change.”

“Plus,” Kellen adds, “it would be really hard to…” He trails off with a half-smile and significant nod.

Zoe’s eyes widen. “You mean hard for you guys to sponsor it anonymously?”

My brother grins. “Wow, I see you’ve already learned about some of our weird family stress.”

She stares through the windshield for a moment.

“Well… Kaden kind of mentioned that people don’t know what your company does, and are a bit wary because you guys are always travelling and hanging out in the big tech circles.

If you want to improve likeability, what’s more likable than paying to expand a school? ”

I take her hand just as Kellen reaches in the window and pokes her shoulder. “Smart girl you’ve got here, man. If we don’t have to hide it, we can just throw a boatload of money at the school and have a huge extension built. That’ll last them ten years, at least.”

“I’ll call a family meeting in the next couple of days,” I say. “If Wolfe Security sponsors the school, maybe that can get the town to stop whispering about us so much, too.”

“Sounds great,” Kellan says. He steps back, gives me a thumbs up, then jumps back into his truck.

Zoe squeezes my fingers as she turns to me. “Shining a light into the darkness is the quickest way to dispel rumors. Let everybody know that yes, you now have a crazy amount of money, but you’re determined to share it responsibly. Boom – instant likeability.”

Leaning over, I intend to kiss her gently, but the heat between us immediately rushes to the surface, and I send my fingers spearing through her hair as I hold her close.

“Speaking of likable, have I ever mentioned that I like you better naked? In my bed? Showing you how much you mean to me?”

“I don’t think you have, at least not recently.” Her eyebrow lifts. “Gosh, I hope there aren’t any freak traffic jams on the way back to your place.”

I squeeze her knee hard, then throw the truck into gear and zoom off.

To hell with the potholes.