“Not without proof that he’s done something wrong. Just because he doesn’t like me isn’t a reason to fire him.”
“Yes, it is.” I was positive of it.
“Stone—”
I grabbed Sinclair’s shoulder, giving him a little squeeze. “Baby, he works for you. Not the other way around. If he’s not respectful, fire his ass.”
“He’s always respectful.”
Not if he was poisoning Sinclair.
“Besides, we have no proof that I was even poisoned,” Sinclair reasoned. “It really could have been a stomach bug or something.”
“Bullshit.”
“Stone!”
“No, I’m serious.” I walked around in front of Sinclair’s chair to stop him from moving. “Someone is trying to kill you, Sinclair. You need to wrap your head around that.”
Sinclair’s hands moved to his lap and he began twisting his fingers together. “I don’t want to.”
I sighed as I squatted down in front of his chair. I reached down and covered his hands with mine. “I know you don’t want to think about it, but you need to. Someone is after you, baby, and we need to figure out who it is before they succeed.”
A lone tear slid down Sinclair’s cheek. I gently wiped it away with my thumb. “We’ll catch whoever it is, Sin. I promise.”
“No, it’s not that. I just…is it because I took over for Councilman James? Or because I’m a hyena shifter? What? Why would someone hate me so much that they wanted to kill me?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out.”
Or I would take Sinclair and go somewhere that no one could find us. I refused to let some asshole take my mate away from me.
“Come on.” I stood and moved back to stand beside Sinclair’s chair. “Let’s go meet with the others. Maybe together we can figure it out.”
I wouldn’t stop until we did.
When we walked into the room, the people waiting for us stopped talking and turned to stare. “What?”
“Well, no wonder we haven’t seen you in nearly twenty-four hours,” Shade said. “It had to have taken that long to carve a smile in that stone face of yours.”
I flipped the man off, much to the amusement of the others.
I walked with Sinclair around the side of his desk, then grabbed a chair and pulled it close before sitting down.
“I’m guessing from the way you’re hovering over Sinclair that he’s finally broken through that icy facade of yours?”
I pinned Shade with my eyes. “He’s mine.”
Shade grinned. “Well, it’s about damn time.”
“You knew?” Sinclair asked.
Shade waved a hand toward me. “Stone there explained it to us yesterday before he went up to see you.”
I slid my hand down to clasp Sinclair’s when the man stiffened. “I only told those in this room, Sin, and I swore them to secrecy.”
Sinclair’s eyes panned to me. “Are you ashamed of me?”
“No!” I frowned as I stared at my mate. “What would make you asked something like that?”
