Rake

Wolfes of Manhattan Four

Helen Hardt

Dedication

For those who beat the odds

Book Description

Reid Wolfe is a master of seducing women.

This time, his life may depend on it.

He’s known as the Wolfe of Manhattan. Reid Wolfe sees women as playthings, and most are happy to be arm candy and bed warmers for the handsome billionaire rake. He knows the art of seduction like no other, so surely he can get a Las Vegas showgirl into his bed in record time. He must, because she has information he and his family need to prove their innocence in their father's murder. And Reid is at his most persuasive between the sheets.

Zinnia Rehnquist, now known as Zara Jones or simply Zee, lives her life under the radar. Chorus line girls are supposed to be invisible. The audience sees the big picture, not a single dancer, and that suits Zee just fine…until Reid Wolfe shows up and turns her life upside down. He needs her to talk—to tell the story of what his father did to her—but she’s finally put that part of her life to bed.

Reid is ready to pull out all the stops to get Zee under the covers and talking, but when new evidence comes to light, the game changes for everyone…and Reid finds he may feel more for the beautiful Zee than he ever meant to.

Praise For Helen Hardt

STEEL BROTHERS SAGA

“Craving is the jaw-dropping book you need to read!”

~New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones

"Completely raw and addictive."

~#1 New York Times bestselling author Meredith Wild

“Talon has hit my top five list…up there next to Jamie Fraser and Gideon Cross.”

~USA Today bestselling author Angel Payne

“Talon and Jade’s instant chemistry heats up the pages...”

~RT Book Reviews

“Sorry Christian and Gideon, there’s a new heartthrob for you to contend with. Meet Talon. Talon Steel.”

~Booktopia

“Such a beautiful torment—the waiting, the anticipation, the relief that only comes briefly before more questions arise, and the wait begins again… Check. Mate. Ms. Hardt…”

~Bare Naked Words

“Made my heart stop in my chest. Helen has given us such a heartbreakingly beautiful series.”

~Tina, Bookalicious Babes

WOLFES OF MANHATTAN

“It's hot, it's intense, and the plot starts off thick and had me completely spellbound from page one.”

~The Sassy Nerd Blog

“Helen Hardt…is a master at her craft.”

~K. Ogburn, Amazon

“Move over Steel brothers… Rock is everything!”

~Barbara Conklin-Jaros, Amazon

“Helen has done it again. She winds you up and weaves a web of intrigue.”

~Vicki Smith, Amazon

FOLLOW ME SERIES

“Hardt spins erotic gold...”

~Publishers Weekly

“22 Best Erotic Novels to Read”

~Marie Claire Magazine

“Intensely erotic and wildly emotional...”

~New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones

“With an edgy, enigmatic hero and loads of sexual tension, Helen Hardt's fast-paced Follow Me Darkly had me turning pages late into the night!”

~New York Times bestselling author J. Kenner

“Christian, Gideon, and now...Braden Black.”

~Books, Wine, and Besties

“A tour de force where the reader will be pulled in as if they're being seduced by Braden Black, taken for a wild ride, and left wanting more.”

~USA Today Bestselling Author Julie Morgan

“Hot. Sexy. Intriguing. Page-Turner. Helen Hardt checks all the boxes with Follow Me Darkly!”

~International Bestselling Author Victoria Blue

BLOOD BOND SAGA

“An enthralling and rousing vampire tale that will leave readers waiting for the sequel.”

~Kirkus Reviews

"Dangerous and sexy. A new favorite!"

~New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Day

“A dark, intoxicating tale.”

~Library Journal

“Helen dives into the paranormal world of vampires and makes it her own.”

~Tina, Bookalicious Babes

“Throw out everything you know about vampires—except for that blood thirst we all love and lust after in these stunning heroes—and expect to be swept up in a sensual story that twists and turns in so many wonderfully jaw-dropping ways.”

~Angel Payne, USA Today bestselling author

Also By Helen Hardt

Gems of Wolfe Island

Moonstone

Raven

Billionaire Island

Escape

Follow Me Series:

Follow Me Darkly

Follow Me Under

Follow Me Always

Steel Brothers Saga:

Trilogy One—Talon and Jade

Craving

Obsession

Possession

Trilogy Two—Jonah and Melanie

Melt

Burn

Surrender

Trilogy Three—Ryan and Ruby

Shattered

Twisted

Unraveled

Trilogy Four—Bryce and Marjorie

Breathless

Ravenous

Insatiable

Trilogy Five—Brad and Daphne

Fate

Legacy

Descent

Trilogy Six—Dale and Ashley (coming soon)

Awakened

Cherished

Freed

Blood Bond Saga:

Unchained

Unhinged

Undaunted

Unmasked

Undefeated

Sex and the Season:

Lily and the Duke

Rose in Bloom

Lady Alexandra’s Lover

Sophie’s Voice

Temptation Saga:

Tempting Dusty

Teasing Annie

Taking Catie

Taming Angelina

Treasuring Amber

Trusting Sydney

Tantalizing Maria

Standalone Novels and Novellas

Reunited

Misadventures:

Misadventures of a Good Wife (with Meredith Wild)

Misadventures with a Rockstar

The Cougar Chronicles:

The Cowboy and the Cougar

Calendar Boy

Daughters of the Prairie:

The Outlaw’s Angel

Lessons of the Heart

Song of the Raven

Collections:

Destination Desire

Her Two Lovers

Non-Fiction:

got style?

Warning

The Wolfes of Manhattan series contains adult language and scenes, including flashbacks of child physical and sexual abuse. Please take note.

Prologue

Reid

The Lone Wolfe.

Ha! Great pun, huh?

Within less than a month, my three siblings had all met their life mates and gotten married.

Not in the cards for me. I was the Wolfe of Manhattan, always with a new lady on my arm. Now, though, since all my siblings were off the market, I was indeed the Lone Wolfe.

The phone call I got after the wedding was from the NYPD detective on our case, Hank Morgan. Consequently, Rock and the rest of them headed back this morning on the jet.

Again, not in the cards for me.

Someone had to stay here in Las Vegas and deal with our damned luxury hotel and casino. Money is money. Words of wisdom from the bastard who’d fathered me.

Sure, all of us were being investigated for the fucker’s murder, but someone had to take care of business.

That someone was me.

Always me.

I wasn’t CEO of the company, but only I could deal with the contract mess here in Las Vegas. Story of my life. Under-appreciated to the max.

The rest of them were called back to New York for more questioning.

I wasn’t going down for his murder, and neither was anyone else in my family. Not on my watch.

Zinnia—or Zee—seemed to be the key.

I just had to get her to talk.

The Wolfe of Manhattan.

I’d never met a woman I couldn’t seduce.

So I’d seduce her.

And oh, she’d talk.

1

Zee

My mother was the typical Long Island “stage mom.” She’d decided as soon as I crawled out of her womb that I was going to be in show business. I spent my formative years being dragged to audition after audition. What little time left was devoted to ballet, tap, and acting classes.

I was good at the dance part. I always got top roles in all the recitals. The acting part? Not so much. I got a commercial here and there, probably based solely on the fact that I was a really cute kid. The big break my mother hoped for never came.

Then puberty hit. I grew to five feet ten inches seemingly overnight, which ended any dance aspirations as well. My mother’s answer?

Modeling, of course. I was thin, well-built, a natural blonde, and free of an awkward stage, so she enrolled me in classes. Yeah, we really did walk with books on our heads. I also learned how to create the perfect smoky eye.

You know, things you need in life.

Despite my mother’s persistence, no agent ever signed me, and by the time I turned eighteen, my modeling career—if it ever truly existed—was effectively over.

My mother was more disappointed than I was.

I wasn’t disappointed at all. I was free! Free to pursue what I wanted. I’d been homeschooled by a tutor because of my grueling schedule, so when I was a high school graduate—or the equivalent thereof—I accepted admission to Smith College in Massachusetts. I drove my car—the one luxury my mother allowed me—to college via a stop in the city to do all the touristy things my mom never took the time to show me—sights I’d been promised by my mother after I made it in modeling. Which of course never happened.

I made it to New York.

But I never made it to Smith.

I was taken. I was hunted.

Then saved by a man whose name I never knew.

Reid Wolfe was an attentive date. He didn’t know me from Eve, but he never left my side as we celebrated the weddings of his brother and sister. I’d seen my share of Las Vegas chapel weddings, but very few included a toast with Dom Perignon.

I wasn’t a champagne connoisseur by any means, but Dom Perignon was in a class by itself.

It tickled my tongue and tasted like crisp apples and—believe it or not—toasted bread. Sounded terrible, I knew, but it worked. It glided down my throat effortlessly, so when Reid brought me another flute, I took it.

I didn’t drink, normally. I never did anything that might take away my faculties. I was on high alert at all times.

All times.

This would be my last glass of bubbles. Riley and her brothers all wanted me to tell my story. To go public. Although I understood why they needed me to, I couldn’t. Which was why this would be my last glass of champagne. I couldn’t risk getting too talkative.

Not that getting talkative was really a risk with me. I didn’t talk. To anyone. Especially not about my past. I could fly under the radar in Las Vegas. No one in the dressing room questioned me about my scars, because most of them had their own. Beatrice always had new bruises on her thighs and back from her abusive boyfriend. Marie had special pancake makeup for her nearly omnipresent black eyes. And Frannie? She had the worst of all. She danced almost every night in constant pain from the five pins holding her right tibia together. Her ex shattered it five years ago, and though you’d never know watching her dance with that toothy smile pasted on her face, she was in agony.

But bills had to be paid, so you do what you must. Frannie danced. Beatrice and Marie danced.

And I danced.

I was the only one with scars like mine. Two perfectly straight cuts above each breast. Over the years they’d faded, but still they stood out like bright red lines to me.

I didn’t let myself think about them much anymore.

Until recently, when two private investigators accosted me in the dressing area after one of last week’s shows.

“Hanging in there?”

I jerked out of my thoughts. Reid Wolfe stood next to me.

He was crazy handsome. Tall and muscular and gorgeous with dark brown—nearly black—hair. But even so…

He looked too much like him.

Like his father. Derek Wolfe. Reid’s eyes were different, though. They were a blue so bright and sparkling it almost seemed too beautiful to be real.

All the Wolfes were gorgeous, and the three significant others weren’t anything to sneeze at either. I felt so out of place. Sure, I had the body of a Vegas dancer, but the rest of me was a huge mess.

“Why do you color your hair?” Reid asked.

I wrinkled my forehead. “What?”

“I’m just wondering.”

“I like it.” I took a sip of champagne.

The answer wasn’t a lie. When I arrived in Las Vegas six years ago, I needed to reinvent myself. Zinnia “Zee” Rehnquist was a blonde. Zara Jones? She had dark hair. Not just dark hair. Jet black. The kind of jet black that said, don’t fuck with me or I’ll kill you with a butcher knife.

It worked fine with my own blue eyes—slightly lighter than Reid’s, and the black hair made them seem even lighter—and my dark brown eyebrows and lashes, colored black with makeup. I was a dark blonde, not platinum by any means.

“You’re beautiful no matter what,” Reid said. “I’d just love to see what you look like with your natural color.”

My stomach clenched. I never let men get close to me. The few times I’d tried had ended in disaster.

“Black hair is who I am now.” I handed him my empty champagne flute. “I should be going.”

“Sure. I’ll take you home.”

“I’m fine. I’ll just hail a cab.”

“Zee,” he said, “I have three limos on call. Already paid for. There’s no reason for you to take a cab.”

Three limos. Already paid for.

Wolfe money.

The Wolfes had so much money that their patriarch could afford to build his own human hunting ground. Unreal.

“He’s dead,” Reid said.

Had I spoken aloud? I hadn’t drunk that much champagne. “What?”

“You had a look on your face.”

“What kind of look?”

He sighed. “It’s the same look I’ve seen on my sister’s face forever. I just didn’t know what it meant until now. You were thinking about my father. About what he put you through. I know the look.”

“Actually, I was thinking about his money. About how you can have three limos on standby for no reason at all.”

“There’s a reason. My family is here in town. We need to go places, so we have cars available.”

“No, you have limos available.”

He smiled. God, he was truly gorgeous.

“Semantics,” he said in a teasing tone.

I shook my head. “Don’t play that card. The Wolfe money was enough to put me through hell. Hell that you people want me to revisit.”

Reid’s smile faded. “I’m not my father. Neither are my brothers or my sister.”

“I know that.”

Now I felt like crap. But wait. Why should I feel like crap? I went through what I went through, and I shouldn’t have to apologize for it. I won’t apologize for it. Someone should be apologizing to me.

Of course, that wasn’t fair. They’d all apologized profusely, even though none of them was at fault.

Reid took a sip of champagne. “My brother saved you that day.”

“I’ve never forgotten that,” I said. So true.

“Then don’t equate the rest of us with our father. We’re not anything like him.”

He was right. Still, I couldn’t help, “Except you’re pretty much a dead ringer for him.”

Reid’s jawline tensed. It went rigid, to the point where his lips trembled slightly.

That wasn’t fair. Not even a little. “I’m sorry. That was out of line.”

“Slightly,” he agreed.

“I owe your brother everything. I’ve never forgotten that.”

And I never would.

2

Reid

The black hair goth look was too harsh for Zee. She was a beautiful woman—with a rocking showgirl body—but the black hair wasn’t working.

I understood well why she wore her hair black. It gave her a hard look. A “don’t fuck with me” look.

She’d been fucked with more than enough for one lifetime.

But I’d deal with the hair, because I had to seduce this woman. I had to, not just for myself and my family, to help clear our names, but also because…

Well…because I fucking wanted to.

Zee was a challenge, and I never backed down from a challenge.

My father might have been a raging psychopathic rapist, but he did teach me a few things. Oh, I hated the bastard, but I learned some excellent lessons from him.

First, he taught me about hard work. There was simply no substitute for it.

Second, he taught me the value of the dollar. Sure, we Wolfes had thrown money around for decades, but only because we could. We kept a lot of our money in non-liquid assets where it was safe.

Third, he taught me about challenges. Nothing came easy, and challenges were to be embraced.

Not until his death did I realize just how he embraced every challenge. Criminal activity? Just another challenge. He figured out how to get away with it, and he succeeded.

Another thing I never knew, until after he died, was how much he truly hated his children.

How else would we all be suspects in his murder?

Derek Wolfe was the ultimate egomaniac. A megalomanic, even.

More and more, I wondered if he’d orchestrated his own death. My siblings disagreed with me, but they hadn’t worked with him. I had, and I knew him better than anyone.

In his warped mind, he’d see it as a challenge. Going out on his own terms.

Whatever Derek Wolfe had or hadn’t done, I was going to prove my siblings and I were innocent of his murder.

But I needed to get the cops off our tails to do it.

That was where Zee came in.

I cleared my throat. “You don’t owe Roy anything,” I said to Zee. A little reverse psychology never hurt anyone.

“You can’t actually believe that.”

Right, I don’t. “Of course I believe that. We’re all so happy he was able to rescue you. He didn’t even remember most of it until recently.”

“I’m sure it was horrible for him to realize what his father was.”

“Horrible for all of us. That’s why it’s so important to us—to me—that you know we’re nothing like him.”

“I never thought you were.”

This was where I’d normally try to touch her, but I held back. Zee required a different approach. I’d be in Vegas for another several days, so I had all the time I needed.

The Reid Wolfe seduction was usually a twelve-hour-or-less thing. I was willing to go slowly with Zee. Accept that she’d suffered terribly at my father’s hands.

But in the end, I’d get what I wanted.

I had to.

For my family.

My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out of my pocket. “The limo’s here for you. I’ll walk you down.”

She gave me a smile. Sort of. “You don’t have to.”

“Don’t be silly. It’s no trouble.”

Nope, no trouble at all, because I’ll be sliding into the limo beside you.

“I want to say goodbye to Riley,” she said.

“Of course.” I followed her across the room to where my sister stood with her new husband, Matt Rossi, a Montana man with long blond hair and light blue eyes in sharp contrast to my sister with dark hair and eyes.

“Thank you for inviting me,” Zee said.

Riley smiled, and I swore I’d never seen her look so happy. Funny. All those years, and I never realized how unhappy my little sister was.

I felt bad about that. Really bad, like I kind of wanted to puke right now. All those years I thought she was the favored one who got to go on special trips. My brothers and I had no idea what actually went on during those trips.

We knew well what our father was capable of. He was a monster, but we never knew just how much of a monster he truly was. Beyond monster. He was Satan.

My sister knew this well, and so did Zee.

Zee, who I was planning to use to get the information we needed.

I didn’t like the idea. Not the whole idea, anyway. The part about seducing her? I was good with that. Even with her gothic black hair. The rest of her was to die for.

“I hope you know you can call any of us anytime if you need to,” Riley said to Zee. “We’re all here for you.”

“Absolutely,” I agreed. “Anytime, day or night.”

“How long will you be in town?” Zee asked.

“Matt and I are leaving tomorrow. So are Rock and Lacey and Roy and Charlie.”

“But I’m staying.” I smiled. “We’re having issues with one of the contractors for our new hotel, and someone has to handle it.”

“Why doesn’t Rock stay?” Zee asked. “I heard he was the CEO.”

Yeah, in name only. My father’s little dig still stuck firmly in my craw. But it wasn’t Rock’s fault. I kept telling myself that, though it didn’t take the sting out. At all.

“He is,” I said. “But I’m the COO. I’m in charge of operations.” And my big brother doesn’t have a clue how to handle contractors and lawyers.

I kept the last part to myself.

“Yeah,” Riley said. “The rest of us have to get back, as we’re all persons of interest in our father’s murder investigation.”

“And you’re not?” Zee said to me.

“Oh, I am, but someone has to see to business. I’m only a plane ride away if I’m needed in New York.”

“So Reid will be here for you.” Riley pulled out a card. “Did I already give you my card? If not, here it is. My cell’s on it. Call me if you need anything. I mean anything.”

Nice touch, Sis. However, Zee will be coming to me with all her needs.

And I intend to fulfill them.

3

Zee

Reid took my hand—it felt good in his—and led me out of the chapel to the waiting limo. And man, was it ever a limo! I’d lived in Vegas for the past six years, so I’d seen my share of limos. This one was longer than most, and maybe my imagination was working overtime, but it seemed shinier and blacker as well.

The chauffeur held the door for me. I opened my mouth to thank Reid, when he slid in beside me on the lush white leather seat.

“Thank you for everything,” I said. “I’ll… I guess I’ll be in touch.”

He didn’t move.

“I should give the driver my address,” I said.

“Already taken care of.”

“Then…goodbye. Thank you again.”

Again, he didn’t move.

But the limo did.

“I don’t need a chaperone.”

“I’m not your chaperone.” He smiled.

And oh my, his smile dazzled. Perfectly straight teeth surrounded by those full Wolfe lips.

So handsome.

And so… So…familiar.

I scooted away from him, just enough so that no part of him was touching me. Then, for the first time, I looked at my surroundings. This limo had a full bar. Seriously. A full bar. Another leather bench seat sat on the other side of the bar, and then two large bucket seats sat adjacent to it. All white leather with black accents.

I’d never seen anything like it.

The Story Continues on BooksBarbecue!

Enjoyed this preview? ❤️ Do not stop here!

Read the complete book free online → 🔗

Continue reading now on BooksBarbecue and discover every page!

Love reading? Bookmark BooksBarbecue.com for more amazing books!

Happy Reading!