Total pages in book: 211
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 201554 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1008(@200wpm)___ 806(@250wpm)___ 672(@300wpm)
I also get my brother.
Too well.
He doesn’t know how well, but he will soon.
“We need to walk this,” Savage announces. “There’s a traffic jam an hour long.”
I curse, and give him a lift of my chin. “You with us?”
“Me and Adrian. He’s walking toward us from the building.”
I give a nod and we cross the street. We’ve just hit the opposite sidewalk when an uncomfortable awareness washes over me. Someone is watching us beyond Savage. I pull Harper closer, under my arm. I don’t tell her what I feel. I don’t want to scare her. We’re only a half block from the building when my phone buzzes with a text. I slow our pace in case it’s an alert to detour, nonchalantly reaching for my phone to read a message from Savage, who’s literally right behind me: I feel it, too.
“Everything okay?” Harper asks, shivering and I don’t think it’s the cold winter day. She senses something too. She just doesn’t have the training to know what it means.
It’s another two blocks before we reach the building, and Adrian is at the door waiting on us, when I never saw him on the walk, but I assume he was there. Harper hurries inside, a little extra lift to her step. Oh yes. She feels the urgency in me. She feels that we’re being watched. I wrap my arm around her and guide her to security where we obtain a long-term pass for her. “You’re official now,” I say, as we stop at the elevator bank and I punch the call button.
She smiles, a beautiful smile, all the nerves she’d been throwing from the sidewalk outside, fading away into happiness. She kisses my cheek. “You’re going to—”
I give her a little tug, aligning our legs and when she’s nice and snug against me, my palm flattens on her lower back. “Make you come on my desk, and then later on your new desk.”
She blushes a pretty pink. “You could get me fired.”
Mischief twinkles in my eyes. “I know the boss.”
“Hmmm,” she murmurs playfully. “Well, if you know the boss.”
“Did someone say the boss? I’m right here.”
Savage. “Fucking Savage,” I growl, but it’s not a sincere growl. I flick him a look over her head and he gives me a barely perceivable shake of his head. He didn’t find those eyes that were on us and he’s nervous. Me fucking, too, because the assassin being gone doesn’t mean anything at all with a professional operation. It might even be a way to throw us off.
The elevator door opens and Harper enters first, with me following. Savage is next. Once the doors shut Harper offers Savage a keen inspection. “That eye looks painful.”
“So is an empty stomach,” he says, “but it’s worth it to enjoy a good meal. Same with a black eye. Sometimes it’s worth it just to get to punch the other guy.”
Here, here, I think. “He’s not wrong.”
The elevator doors open and I find Grayson waiting on us in the hallway with Blake standing next to him, both men in jeans and collared shirts. Blake, who I told to just fucking wait.
With a flex of my fingers at her back, Harper steps forward and I join her, Savage immediately at my opposite side. “You have a minute for me?” Blake asks.
“After my meetings,” I say.
“Mitch Carmichael is running a half hour late,” Grayson interjects. “I can give Harper a rundown of the players and meet you in your office in fifteen minutes.” He inclines his head left at Harper. “Mia’s in my office. Let’s head in that direction.”
None of this please me, not one little bit, and I pin Blake in a critical stare. “Can this wait?”
“No,” he says firmly. “And we need to talk now and alone. You and me. Just you and me.”
Chapter one hundred fifteen
Eric
Blake’s request to speak to me alone is unexpected.
Alone.
As in without Harper present.
Blake’s point is crystal clear. He’s sheltering her from something. I don’t believe Harper needs to be sheltered. She has an inherent need to feel in control, and under the circumstances, it’s expected and understood. Knowledge is security, and it lends to the trust that will allow her to settle with two solid feet inside this new life. That doesn’t happen by shutting her out.
My hand settles possessively on her lower back. “Harper can hear anything you have to say. She’s with me. We’re relocating her here. She’s moving in.”
“Alone,” is Blake’s only reply before he seems to feel a need to clarify. “Alone means alone and I don’t ask for things without a purpose.”
“My mother—” Harper begins, worry etched in her delicate features.
“Is fine,” he assures her. “No one is injured. No one is in imminent danger.” His eyes fall on me, with a heavy beat. “Are we doing this or not?”