Did he hear her right?
“Josie I—” the word stuck in his throat.
She laid on her side, her eyes closed, clearly back asleep.
Maybe she didn't mean it, he tried to convince himself of that as he showered, and got dressed, wanting to believe it so much he didn’t want it to be untrue.
The early morning light, casting artful shadows on the wall, barely registered as he made his way to the kitchen.
“What is it, Mack?”he said into the phone.
“I need you on video, boss.”
“Fine.”
Ares grabbed his laptop from his office, set it on the counter and brought up the feed.
Mack’s shaved head filled the frame.“Look you got to talk to her, that's her one request for agreeing to stay where you want her.”
His usual hard-edged voice had a hint of wistfulness to it.
Ares bit the inside of his cheek.He’d heard other men with similar tones.
Like Drustan when he talked about Ida.Like Xander every time he said Harper’s name.
“Mack, you're there to do a job.”
“And I've done it, but we need to move forward.”
“Are you telling me what to do?”Ares put as much threat he could into his tone.
On screen, Mack rubbed his face.“No.Look, the asset is not going to agree to it.We’re going to have to ship her back.”
Damn, he didn’t need this before coffee.His phone buzzed with an incoming call from Xander.
“What do you think the holdup is?”Ares asked.His designer got him the exact fancy espresso maker that Harper used because he liked it, but he still hadn’t figured out how to work it.He cursed as he couldn’t get the thing going.
“Talk to her.”
“Keep the feed open.Give me fifteen minutes.”
“You got it, boss.You won’t regret this.”
Ares strode to his office, calling back his brother.“Make it quick.I’m online with the sweeper team.”
“Merry Christmas.I need you to send me the latest semantics on Ida’s project.Henri woke me up an hour ago telling me Drustan has called a press conference for tomorrow.”
“This is not a Christmas present,” Ares grumbled.But he turned on his PC.“I have a beautiful woman in my bed.”
“I know the feeling.Henri is mad and I told him I would send it to our legal team but I need to see it first.I’m not happy with the term.”
“You’re lucky I have the computer with me.”
“What do you mean ‘with me’?Where are you?”
Ares bit his lip, tapping the panel that brought down the privacy doors, closing off the office space.
He didn’t want Josie to overhear and the acoustics in this house were fantastic.
