Ares nods, and that’s the closest Baz will get to an acknowledgement of thanks. I roll my eyes, adding another item to my mental checklist for my convo with Ares—how to be gracious and show gratitude.
“Thanks, Baz. We appreciate it,” I say, shooting daggers at the man sitting beside me.
“You’re welcome, beautiful.” Baz’s grin is downright wicked, and if I don’t shoot this down now, World War Three will break out. “What happened at the meeting with your dad?” I blurt, looking between Baz and Jase.
Baz drops the flirty smirk in a nanosecond. “He suspects something. He was sniffing around, asking questions about Carter and Salinger.”
“Well, shit.” I turn to face Jase. “What did you tell him?”
“I played dumb and deflected all his questions.” His eyes lift to his brother’s. “I don’t think he would have bought it if Baz hadn’t backed me up.”
“So what was all the shouting about when we came in?” Bree asks with a frown.
“Baz thinks we should tell Dad everything,” Jase replies.
“No way.” Ares slams his fist down on the table. “We’ve already taken a massive risk bringing you in and planning to rescue the jock.” Frustration seeps from his tone as he glares at Baz and then Bree. Jase wasn’t the only irate male in this house last night. “My sister’s life is at stake here! We can’t take any more chances. She could die if we make one wrong move and Carter finds out about it. I haven’t come this close to finding her just to lose her.”
The gravity of the situation hits home at his heartfelt words, and tension bleeds into the air.
“I understand,” Baz says. “I would feel the same way if it was Jocelyn. She’s the baby in our family, and we wouldn’t want to do anything to risk her safety, but I know my dad. I have worked closely with him for years. I have his trust, and he has mine. He doesn’t always confide in me, but I have known for some time that he’s up to something. I think he suspects Carter and Salinger of plotting something. I think he would side with us if we told him.”
“And I told you it’s too risky.” Jase leans across the table. “I don’t happen to share that same level of trust. I don’t trust him.”
“If you knew the lengths he’s gone to in order to give you as much freedom as he can, you would. He’s not your enemy, Jase. He’s not any of our enemy. I know the reputation he has. He has cultivated it to be so. But he’s a good man, and he wants change as much as we all do.”
“If that’s true, he’ll agree to help us once Walter Salinger and James Manford are out of the picture. If he sides with us on the vote and agrees to help us kill Carter, then I’ll believe you.” Ares crosses his arms over his broad chest. “But not before then. We can’t risk it. We can’t risk him warning Manford or Salinger or going head-to-head with Carter on his own. Unless you can tell me with absolute certainty that that wouldn’t happen, we say nothing to him now.”
Baz rubs the back of his head, looking torn.
“Exactly,” Jase says. “You may know him, but you don’t know exactly how he’d react. For now, we continue deflecting. In the coming days, we’ll see if Eric Stewart is the good man you consider him to be.”
ChapterTwenty-Four
Ashley
“I’m trying to keep my head in the game,” Jase says, sitting alongside me in the back of the limo taking Bree, Baz, Ares, Jase, and me to the Christmas party being held at the Carter mansion. “But it’s challenging when you look sexy as sin, and all I want to do is peel that dress off and fuck you six ways to Sunday.”
“We can hear you,” Bree drawls, fiddling with the hem of her sparkly, purple dress. We both opted for minidresses and sky-high ankle boots. Where Bree’s vibrant dress is one shoulder, my black, silver-sequinned gown has spaghetti straps and a crisscross feature at the back. It only reaches mid-thigh when I’m seated, so I’m flashing a lot of flesh. Jase isn’t the only one feeling frisky. Ares’s eyes are like laser beams on my body, undressing me with every heated look he sends my way. He’s sitting directly across from me with Bree beside him. I might have parted my legs, offering him a tantalizing glimpse of the flimsy lace thong I’m wearing, on purpose.
“I don’t care,” Jase retorts as his fingers glide up and down my thigh.
His touch sends scorching heat racing across my exposed flesh, and I’m not exactly opposed to his sexual overtures. Especially when he looks good enough to eat in his Prada tux. His wavy, dark hair is tamed back off his face, highlighting those gorgeous green eyes and the dimples I love. Jase is sex on a stick, and my libido is itching to climb on to his dick and ride him into oblivion.
But sex will have to wait.
We are on a mission, and we can’t get distracted.
“Get Chad out, and I’ll be your reward later,” I say, cupping his junk and squeezing gently. Ares’s eyes flare with fresh heat. Tracing the edge of my boot up the side of Ares’s leg, I add, “The same applies to you.”
“I don’t share,” he grits out predictably. It’s like a mantra these days.
Baz chuckles. “You’re such an idiot.”
Ares turns venom-filled eyes on Jase’s older brother. “Fuck off.”
“Only a guy who has never had group sex or experienced DP would spout that shit.”
“Screw you, asshole. I’ve fucked multiple girls at once. By myself and with other guys. It’s—”
