He has Mom’s phone, so that’s why she’s not calling me back. But what about Sam? He won’t let this happen.
Right?
I’m needy and desperate that night and Mason is happy to abandon dinner. He hoists me onto the kitchen counter and thrusts into me, whispering filthy, profane things in my ear andI love it. He takes away everything else, I can only feel what he gives me and for a few blissful hours, my mind is clear.
***
My opportunity to spy comes sooner than I like.
Arabella invites Luna and me over for ‘tea.’
“Tea is the code word for baked goods and wine. It just sounds so ladylike, aye?” she says, lounging in a sunny spot like a cat.
We’re enjoying a rare day of sunshine lounging at the top of Arabella and Logan’s house in their converted clock tower.
“It’s quiet.” I’m speaking and signing. Despite my YouTube tutorials, my progress with British Sign Language is irritatingly slow. “Where are the kids?”
“They’re with their dads,” Luna says, eyeing a rosewater flavored macaron. “It’s good for all of them. They’ll come dragging home tonight, all worn out.” She hums happily as she piles cookies on her plate.
“I’m surprised they agreed to it,” Arabella says, “given how unsettled everything is at HQ right now.”
There’s a fist twisting my stomach but I sound casual as I say, “Oh, the Japan deal?” I’m waiting for them to look at me blankly, like I’m an idiot and they have no idea what I’m talking about. I’m hoping they do.
“Oh, that’s a smaller deal,” Luna says, “but Kai thinks it’s better to take minimal profit with the Saito group, just so we can establish ties. He’ll be happy when we receive the shipment tonight and all the making nice with Saito is done.”
“So, what do we get out of the deal, then?” I raise my head to the sun, closing my eyes and pretending I’m sunbathing and not being a complete piece of crap.
“Oh, goodness,” Arabella laughs. “Ye should have seen Logan with the military-grade drone they sent as a sample of the product. Outside of our wedding and Brodie’s birth, I dinnae think I’d ever seen him this happy.”
“Your husband is definitely the most extra of the MacTavishes, this generation, at least,” Luna agrees. “Frankly Afton, you got lucky. Logan taking on the mantle of the unhinged MacTavish left room for Mason to do Mason.”
“Yeah, I heard my father-in-law was a loose cannon,” I smile weakly. “I cannot picture Mason being that way.”
“Mason’s more… surgical than the rest of the cousins,” Arabella says. “They’re stomping around, blowing things up-”
“Like half the coastline of Denmark,” Luna adds, laughing as Arabella throws a cracker at her. “Mason though, he’s different. Michael says that, ‘Mason is our neutron bomb. He kills everyone and leaves the buildings standing.’ He’s intense in his own, sometimes scary way.”
“That’s harsh,” I say, feeling defensive for my husband.
The one you’re about to betray,I think.
“He’s cold, and calculating when he needs to be,” I continue. “But he cares deeply for this family. The MacTavish clan means everything to him.”
“As do you, based on that bite mark you’ve got on your shoulder,” Luna says with an evil little grin.
Looking down, I flush beet red. Not just one bite mark. More like four. I pull the neckline of my shirt higher as they pretend not to notice.
They mercifully change the subject and it’s not until I cross the green space between the houses that guilt sears me again. Pacingthe length of the greenhouse, I squeeze my phone. Put it down. Pick it up.
Self-disgust swamps me as I dial the number.
“This better be good.”
Hello to you too, you miserable excuse for a father.
“This is all I could get,” I swallow hard. “It was from a conversation I overheard. About the Saito Group.”
“Saito?” His voice is sharper, more alert. “Go on.”
