“Morning.”Leaning forward, he opened the box and smiled at the assortment of pastries inside.“Wow.These all look amazing.”
“The muffins are blueberry, orange and cranberry, and banana walnut.That’s coffee cake.And, obviously, these are cinnamon rolls.”David pointed as he spoke.Mason went for a cinnamon roll, while Lincoln took a piece of coffee cake—probably to go with the coffee he’d brought in with him.David picked up one of the blueberry muffins and sat down at Lincoln’s right hand.
It was a heck of a spread.Something Audrey should be proud of.They all looked and smelled incredible, and Mason knew they would taste that way, too.The cinnamon roll was still warm.And sweet.Just like her.
For fuck’s sake, get over yourself.
A moment later, Zeus came in to hook up the projector and was given the same offer.He grabbed one of the orange and cranberry muffins and set it off to the side while he did the hook-ups.
As he was in the middle of that, and the rest of them were unusually quiet because they were eating, Drew came striding in like a man on a mission, drawing everyone’s eyes to him.He ground to a quick halt when he saw Zeus, his expression darkening, and lifted the laptop he had tucked under his arm.
“I need you to hook this up.”The stilted way he said it was almost antagonistic, and Mason frowned at him as Zeus raised one eyebrow.
“That’s what I’m here for,” the bald man said, nodding his head at the table.“You can put it in the center there.”
Drew scowled and put it down, seating himself next to Mason with a small huff.They were there to talk about Devlin with the whole team.Drew had been on surveillance this weekend.The fact that he was now behaving in a hostile manner toward Zeus… suspicion rose up in the back of Mason’s mind.
He didn’t want to not trust Zeus, but…
If Lincoln was worried, it didn’t show in his expression, which remained bland as he glanced at his watch.
“Two minutes ‘til the meeting starts, which means—” He cut off as Claudia came in, coolly regal, and holding a coffee in one hand with a file tucked under her opposite arm.“Good morning, Claudia.”
“Morning.”She took the seat between Lincoln and Mason, so he was now between her and Drew.Drew was still glaring balefully at Zeus, who was ignoring him as he finished hooking up the laptop.
“Muffin?”David asked, nodding his head at the box next to the laptop.
Claudia considered the offerings for a long moment before taking a cinnamon roll instead.
“Thanks.”
She was a woman of few words this early in the morning.
“Everything ready?”Lincoln asked Zeus, who nodded before taking his seat next to David.Drew leaned forward to pull the laptop near him, opening it so he could get it started and find the files he wanted.
“Wait for me!I’m here!”Jensen came skidding into the conference room, just barely making it on time as usual.He grinned at everyone.He’d been grinning ever since Friday when he’d taken Jennifer to the soft opening of the bakery, so Mason took that to mean their date had gone well.Jensen quickly rounded the table to take a seat on the other side of Zeus, looking pleased with himself.
“Great.Everyone’s here, so we can get started.”Lincoln folded his hands on the table.“Drew, you told me yesterday that you have something big to report, so we’ll let you start.”
“Oh, I definitely have something big to report.As you all know, I was doing surveillance on Devlin this weekend, and he was on the move quite a bit.”Drew glanced up at the screen on the wall, where he’d pulled up some photos of Devlin with MacLeod, which wasn’t surprising.He flipped through several photos of them together at different events.
Devlin was being a lot more hands-on with MacLeod than he’d ever wanted to be at Black Fox, when he’d left most of the actual security work to Lincoln and Harris.Previously, he’d been content to be the behind-the-scenes guy, probably because it had given him more opportunities to embezzle.Apparently not anymore.
“It wasn’t until last night when he was done with his official duties for MacLeod that I hit paydirt, though.”
The picture on the screen changed to one of Devlin embracing a woman with long blonde hair, though her face was hidden.Then it changed again, as she stepped back away from him, beaming up at him with an expression of intimate enjoyment.
“Holy shit!”Jensen’s expletive expressed what they were all thinking.“Isn’t that—” He cut off, and they all looked at Zeus, who was still staring up at the screen where his current girlfriend was embracing his ex-boss.
If someone hadn’t been paying attention to Zeus before, they might not realize that he’d gone tense all over.A muscle in his jaw ticked.Otherwise, his reaction was pure stoicism—that is to say, no reaction at all.
“Shit,” David muttered.
Drew clicked through to the next picture.Devlin and Noelle kissing.
Next picture.Next picture.Next picture.
It was a slide-by-slide account of them kissing, then going into a motel room.
