Xander snorted. The Martin Group was a private aircraft and drone manufacturer, and he wanted that company because he suspected that the aircraft that was involved in the attack on Team Stealth last June had come from the Martin Group.
“Then we need to up our offer, arrange an in-person meeting whenever he’s back in town.”
“You need to tell Harper how you feel.”
If he thought for one moment that he would be any good for her, he would. But he went through women hard and fast, and when it came to having a submissive, Xander knew that what he required, what he craved would destroy her, it had destroyed the last woman he’d had a long-term D/s with.
When Harper had graduated from university and asked to be his assistant, Xander thought it was a bad plan. He was a hardass. He wanted everything right, all the details in place. He didn’t cut corners. But he saw how his expectations helped focus her mind and she transformed from the scattered nervous creature she had been when he first met her, and he began to wonder if Harper could handle his dominant needs. He shook his head. There were things You-Only Live-Once Logan Marrock wouldn’t get. The man was a Dom, but from what Xander knew, only during a scene. He wouldn’t know that Harper used to cry herself to sleep and wake up covered in sweat from a nightmare, that her favourite weather was the rain, and she hated any temperatures above twenty degrees Celsius. He wouldn’t get that Harper did best-having someone give her a point of focus. Logan Marrock was one of his best operatives; when he was on the job, he was detail-oriented and the person most clients wanted leading their team, but in his personal life, he was relaxed. Too relaxed for what Harper needed.
The ringing phone brought Xander’s attention back to the present.
“Took you long enough to answer that,” Ares said with a grin. Xander shook his head at his brother.
“Hey, Nick.”
“Sealed and done. Benoit will be happy to let our cyber people try out his new toy.”
“Yes! Outstanding job Nick,” Xander said.
“Okay, but before you bring out the bubbly, I told him about Jordan. He’s an emotional guy, Benoit.”
Xander closed his eyes. He didn’t want anyone, least of all his competitors, to know his weak spots, but in this case, he couldn’t be helped. Benoit would want to know what drove the outrageous price Axis Management will pay for his technology.
“I don’t want Benoit mouthing off to the press about some deal he’s made with Axis Management, Nick. You press the fear of his god into him, got it?”
“Okay, boss,” Nick said.
“See you when you get back.” Xander hung up and looked across at his brother. They high-fived across the desk. With Benoit’s invisible hacking technology, they could send out feelers for anyone who is selling a similar aircraft to the one used in the attack last June, when Team Stealth went to rescue Mulberry Stevens, daughter of actor Grace Stevens, who had been left alone in the desert by kidnappers.
He lost a man on that job. It was their first causality of doing this work, and there wasn’t a day that went by that Xander didn’t think of Jordan, his first recruit of Team Stealth, and the founder of Bandit Brothers.
Xander was going to find out who was responsible for his friend’s death, no matter what it took.
“One step closer.”
“Not this time. I still can’t piece it together, Ares. Someone had to have known our team was there.”
“Or we were tragically unlucky.”
Xander tidied his desk, logged off the system and stood up, grabbing his briefcase off the edge of the desk. “If I find out someone in this building leaked it—”
“Our people are solid,” Ares said. “We’ve been over this. It has to be whoever was behind Mulberry’s kidnapping, and whoever they were, they seemed to be warned off. She hasn’t had a threat since.”
Xander knew the facts, as well as Ares, but he wasn’t convinced. It was high on his list of things that kept him from sleeping.
“We will sort this out, and I will destroy whoever was behind that attack,” Xander said.
“Perfect. Ian and Charlotte are coming by tonight for some drinks and I have a girl coming over. We can open up our dungeon. Want to bring Harper?”
Xander snorted. “You’re not giving it up, are you?”
“She’s not Olivia, Xander.”
He shook his head, his teeth gritting at the mention of his ex-sub. It wasn’t himself he was worried about it; it was Harper, who he had promised to protect.
“Come on, that new scotch is calling my name.”
Ares opened the door for him, and he stopped. The other thing that was keeping him up at night, was right in front of Harper’s desk, holding her hand.
