When Councilman James stepped inside the room, I glanced up. “Was there something else, sir?”
“I left a file in here.”
“File, sir?” I made a show of glancing around before pointing. “Is that it, sir?”
“Yes.” The councilman picked it up and started back for the door. He paused when he got there. “Sinclair, you didn’t look at this file, did you?”
I looked the man right in the eyes and lied through my teeth. “No, sir.”
Councilman James’s eyes narrowed as he stared at me. I knew he was trying to figure out if I was telling the truth. Lies had an acid smell to them, except I didn’t have a scent at all, so the councilman could never be sure if I was telling the truth of not. I looked back at him for another moment before asking, “Was there anything else, sir? I need to make some phone calls and get this contract updated so I can call in a few more men.”
“No.” The man turned and walked out of the room, file in hand.
I blew out a breath of relief when the door swooshed closed behind him. I didn’t like that man, but up until now, I had always respected him. He was the man in charge after all. I was starting to wonder if my trust had been misplaced.
I couldn’t let my guys be hunted and killed. They were my guys. I had to do something. I grabbed my cell phone—the untraceable one I used specifically to call Stone—and quickly typed out a message. The man might not want to hear from me, but he still needed to be warned.
It was the least I could do for my mate.
Chapter One
One month later
Sinclair
I smiled as I watched through the window as Shade whisked Bob off to a waiting vehicle. Those two were going to be just fine. I was just sorry they had to go through so much crap before they got their happy ever after.
As I watched Stone follow after the two men, getting into his own car and driving off without a word to me, I knew I would never see my happy ever after. That had been taken from me with an assassin’s bullet and the wrong DNA.
I had no one I could blame, not even my parents, wherever they might be. I didn’t even know who my father was and my mother was no prize. Being human, she hated the very idea that she had given birth to a half-breed.
She hadn’t wanted anything to do with me since the moment she dropped me off at social services when I was an infant. Her name, and a clear warning never to contact her, was all I had of the woman who had given me life.
It was too damn bad she had kept me around until I bonded with her before she threw me away. If she had given me up at birth, things might have been different. As much as I hated her for what she had done, there was a part of me that still loved her.
And how sick was that?
Now, someone else in my life had decided I wasn’t worth the effort, and they waited until after I bonded with them to leave me.
I was starting to think it was my fate to be alone.
Fine.
If Stone didn’t want me, then I didn’t want him.
Really.
I refused to wipe at my tear-filled eyes. Stone might not actually be able to see it, but I wasn’t going to give the man the satisfaction of knowing how badly he was hurting me by walking away. I did blink rapidly, though. I could barely see through my blurred vision.
I jerked when I heard a throat clear behind me. I quickly swung my chair around. “Oh, Conrad. Was there something you wanted?”
“Dinner is ready, Master Sinclair,” the butler said. “Do you wish it to be served in the dining room, or shall I have the cook prepare you a tray?”
“He didn’t go through too much trouble, did he?”
“It is no trouble, sir.”
Right.
