Josie
"Idon't understand what happened with Payslee," I said to Mace when we were alone in his office at PharmaTech. He had been on the phone the entire drive over. I had heard several men yelling on the call.
"Doesn't she just want money?" I asked. "Could you pay her to make her go away?"
"Hunter tried that. It didn't work. I think it just emboldened her," he said tersely. "And then that leech of a lawyer stuck to her, and I'm sure he's egging her on too."
I rubbed his back, and he pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me.
"I never got to thank you for last night," I murmured.
"Please," he said, tipping my head back and kissing me. There were echoes of last night and promises of future pleasure in that kiss. "It was my pleasure."
"Actually it was mine," I whispered to him. His hands inched under my skirt. "It's too bad your office is glass."
"That doesn't have to stop us," he said, smiling at me wolfishly.
"For someone who doesn't like eating junk food, you sure are willing to take risks in other ways," I said, raising an eyebrow.
There was a knock on the door, and Adrian came in. "We need you downstairs, boss."
"Sure, I'm coming," Mace said, straightening his jacket.
Adrian looked at him oddly. "No, I meant Josie. She's the boss of marketing."
"Ah," Mace said.
I elbowed him in the stomach. Not that it hurt him—his abs were rock solid.
"I'm right behind you," I told Adrian, grabbing my laptop and following him out of Mace's office.
"How are you holding up? This morning was scary, huh?" I asked.
Adrian looked down at the floor. "My mom was always nutty. She believes in aliens and that the government was controlling us with radio signals. We weren't allowed to have anything metal. She was miserable to be around and a terrible mother. It's good you're here," he said, stopping to look at me. "It's nice to just have a woman who's really kind around. And"—he blushed—"for what it's worth, I think you're good for Mace. He's a lot more relaxed and easier to deal with since you arrived."
"Aw," I said, hugging him. He was almost as tall as his older brothers, but I still pulled his head down under my chin to snuggle him. "I wish I could help more," I said after I released him.
Adrian shrugged. "Hunter and Garrett will deal with it. They always do. Though no one else's mom has shown up at the house before. That's a new one."
All that morning, as I worked on the marketing material, I wondered how I could help Mace. Payslee was out of my league, but Mace had other problems I could solve.
"Hey, Adrian," I said. "You busy?"
"Just finishing up pulling some data for Willow," he said, swiveling around in his chair.
"I don't want to take your time away from the marketing project," I told him, "but I was wondering if you could do some research for me on that factory and new research facility your brothers want to build."
"Mace had me working on it," he said, navigating to the folder on the network. "What do you want to know?"
"I want to know if there's another place they could put it," I said, looking at his screen.
"There are lots of good places," he said, pulling up the map. "But we own all this land." He showed a satellite view of the big greenfield and wooded area to the south of the city where PharmaTech was currently located.
"This used to be the town dump. That's why it's on a hill. The land was cheap, which is why Hunter and Greg bought it. Svensson Investment also owns all these other properties, see in purple?" He pointed with the cursor. "But none of them are big enough or in a good location. They ideally need to be on the train line or a track spur."
"Could they buy others?"
Adrian nodded and pointed to an area in orange. "These properties together would be great. They're on the same large block as several of the ones Svensson Investment already owns. Unfortunately, each one is owned by a different entity. A couple are owned by the city, further complicating the situation. It's highly unlikely any of the owners would sell. And all of them? Forget about it."
