“Hi, Mia,” Kara greets. “Please tell me he didn’t tell you the tomato joke.”
I laugh. “He did.” I eye Grayson, whose green-eyed stare is fixed on my face. “You missed the world’s stupidest joke.”
He rounds the coffee table and sits down next to me. “You can tell me later.”
“Or not,” I say, giving Adrian a tease. “I don’t think I can tell it as perfectly as he did.”
Kara claims the chair opposite Adrian, and Blake perches on the arm. Smith leans on the desk behind Adrian. Everyone falls into an awkward silence. My teeth are back on my lip and I decide this has become a nervous thing for me. My fingers are back in my palms and I glance around the room. “What’s going on?”
Grayson folds one of my hands in his bigger one. “Nothing unexpected,” he assures me. “The press are nuts.”
“We’ve been working with Eric this weekend,” Blake interjects. Eric being Grayson’s right-hand man, best friend, and a literal savant. Eric’s involvement is good but not a surprise. They’ve made a fortune together. They’ve built trust. And Grayson has talked to him over the weekend, as he did all the key players in the company. But it’s Eric who is always welcome and in the middle of all things Grayson. “That bastard’s brilliant,” Blake says. “Between his genius and my hacking, we’ll do what we need to do to end this.”
“End this?” I ask. “I thought Ri was this? And Ri is gone. Are we talking about the bad players he placed inside Grayson’s operation?”
“Exactly,” Blake says.
“Ri contacted the Dungeon,” Blake explains, “a powerful underground operation. Fool that he is, they literally inherit part of his fortune if Grayson goes down.”
I gasp and look at Grayson. “I don’t even want to know what ‘goes down’ means.”
“It’s vaguely defined,” Blake says. “Too vaguely for my comfort. I assume there is a broader definition we haven’t managed to discover.”
Bile rises in my throat. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I’m not going down,” Grayson assures me. “Not by any method of defining those words.”
“They had a three-month window to reach this goal,” Blake explains, “which I know from hacking Ri’s computer and finding the agreement which he signed. It’s on file with his attorney, who’s being pulled in for questioning on Monday.”
“Three months.” I can feel the blood drain from my face. “And they have a plan. Surely they do.”
“The FBI knows what’s going on,” Blake assures me. “They aren’t deaf, dumb, or stupid.”
“And Blake is one of the best hackers alive,” Kara quickly adds. “He and Eric together will find out what’s planned and head off any attacks.”
“Who does something like this?” Guilt stabs at me, a blade that twists and grinds. “I did this.” I turn to Grayson. “I fell for everything he threw at us and I left you exposed.”
“He would have found a way to come at me no matter what, baby. You know he would have.”
“He’s right,” Blake says. “I found proof that he hired the Dungeon before he ever set Grayson up and got rid of you. That’s how long this has been going on.”
“Got rid of me,” I whisper and my gaze is now locked on some fruit arrangement on the table. I don’t really know why hotels are obsessed with fruit. I don’t know why I’m thinking of fruit. I guess it’s easier than where my head is going otherwise. But I go there anyway, and I don’t mean to say it out loud, but I do. “He might have been better off if I’d stayed away.” It’s out before I can stop the words, and I don’t even have to wait to know Grayson will not like this answer. I turn to him. I turn to him, and he’s already turned to me and the air is charged, the nerve I’ve hit between us raw and real.
We’re oblivious to our audience. It’s just me and him. It’s us. And I’ve weighed us down with the very baggage we’re trying to leave behind.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Mia
Grayson catches my arms. “Don’t do that,” he orders, his voice gruff in a way Grayson is rarely gruff. “He wins if he tears us apart again. Listen to Blake. He had a plan even before they came at you and me together.”
“Maybe breaking us up would have been enough. Maybe it would have been enough. Now, your family business, your father’s heart and soul, your heart and soul, is at risk.”
“Everyone who needs to know, knows,” Blake says. “And the bad players, as you called them, don’t know we know.” Grayson sucks in a breath, his broad chest expanding and when he releases me, his hands don’t return to me. I want them on my body, but they’re now on his legs, his fingers pressing into hard muscle.
“Grayson is not going down,” Blake continues. “The bad players are. And the most important thing you can do is act like this is behind you. We need them to think that we’re oblivious. This is why we wanted to meet tonight. You and Grayson together tells the world good things will follow. Show off that rock I’m seeing on your finger. Enjoy your life. We got you. We got this.”
“We do,” Kara says. “We have this and you.”
I nod, but I’m aware of Grayson not touching me and not looking at me in such a deep, gut-wrenching way, that that’s all I have to offer. I listen as Blake covers the plan. Open security until the press dies down. Then Walker will go covert operation on us. They’ll watch us. We’ll communicate our steps with them, but no one will know that we’re still protected.
“We’ll leave you two to your night,” Blake says, and he and Kara stand. Adrian does as well and Smith steps into our circle as Grayson and I push to our feet.
“We’re in the next room over,” Smith says. “We being me and Adrian, but we’ll likely rotate in some other men. Don’t go anywhere without us right now.”
Grayson gives him a nod and Kara catches my attention. “Lunch this week?”
I like her. We connected easily when we first met. And I trust her. “I’d like that.”
“It’s a date then,” she says. “I’ll call you tomorrow. Oh, and we brought you a couple of suitcases full of things. Sorry. I know that’s kind of an invasion of privacy.”
“Thank you for doing that,” I say quickly, but she’s right. It is. It’s weird but still appreciated.
“The bags are by the door,” Blake offers.
A few more words are exchanged between everyone and Grayson walks them all to the door. And he does so in that controlled way I know well. His spine is extra straight. His stride extra measured. He’s owning the moment. He’s forcing his control. He’s angry. He’s really angry.
I sit down. I grab the cushion from beside me and hug it to me. I toss the pillow away. I cannot sit here a minute longer.
Rounding the table and couch, I walk to a large half window behind the living area and stand there. I know the minute Grayson returns, and not because of his soundless footsteps. I feel him. My skin tingles. My belly flutters. Don’t ask me why, when he’s angry and I’m upset, but my sex clenches. And then he’s there, his hands on my body a blessed relief, turning me around to face him. “We are either forever or not at all. Decide now.”