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I looked at Nik. “What the fuck happened?”
“Close the door.”
“That sentence has never led anywhere good.”
“Gabriel.”
I kicked it shut behind me.
Nik had several sheets of paper spread across the desk. Luca’s attention dropped to them, then came back to me.
He looked like he’d seen a ghost.
Unfortunately, I was beginning to suspect whatever was going on had to do with me and it wasn’t good.
“All right.” I pointed between them. “One of you start talking before I develop an anxiety disorder.”
Nik drew a breath. “There’s something I’ve uncov—
The office door flew open hard enough to hit the stopper behind it.
All three of us snapped our attention toward the doorway.
A woman stood there with a little boy perched on one hip.
Aria appeared behind her a second later, looking more flustered than I’d seen her in years.
Slade came around the corner behind her.
“Before anyone starts,” Aria said, holding up one hand, “Slade stopped her downstairs. She and the boy were screened. They’re clean, and he recognized her.”
My attention shifted to Slade.
He shrugged. “She used to come around years ago. She was a private member.”
Aria continued, “She also showed him a picture of the two of you together that would be extremely difficult for a stranger to fake convincingly. So, I allowed her to come up, and he escorted them personally.”
The woman folded one arm beneath the child on her hip. “Are we finished with my criminal background check?”
Aria gave her a perfectly pleasant smile.
“That wasn’t a criminal background check. If it had been, you’d still be downstairs.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed.
“You told me I could speak to Gabriel.”
“I told you he was unavailable for a few minutes and asked you to wait at my desk.”
“I did wait.”
“You stepped off the elevator, counted to approximately five, and darted past me.”
“My time is just as valuable as yours,” she said, jutting her chin in the air, “and I need to speak with him right away.”
Aria’s smile somehow became even more polite. “Most people find waiting preferable to being tackled by security.”
“Most people haven’t been trying to get one stubborn man’s attention for almost four years.”
