Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“That’s not—”
“You’re not being fair,” Aaron interrupted, and I saw the anger on his face. “I—we—would never purposely sacrifice a member of our team for optics. That’s not how we do business at Sutter.”
I took a deep breath. “You came to me for a reason.”
“No, we—”
“I mean,” I said, talking over him, “you came to me because there’s only so much you can do.” I turned to Miguel. “You would have to assemble a team and get them to Bangkok. Come on. You know you want me to take care of this.”
He shook his head.
“Yes,” I insisted. “It takes care of your PR problem—as in, you don’t even have one anymore—and you don’t have the manpower.”
“I assure you,” Miguel argued, his eyes flat, “I do have the manpower.”
“You’d have to hire people. Contractors. And then you’d have to get them to Thailand. Don’t be ridiculous. Let me take this over for you, and more importantly, for me.”
Both men were sitting there, staring at me.
“Owen is on my payroll,” Aaron pointed out. “We need to be the ones to keep him safe. People need to understand that if you work for me, anywhere in the world, we are responsible for your safety.”
I stood and walked to my desk. “I understand that, I do. But you can’t seriously think I’m going to sit on my hands here and wait for an update.”
Miguel smiled. “No. That’s not what we expect.”
“Then?”
Miguel looked at Aaron. “If we entrust this to Jared, the company washes its hands of the matter, and that’s what we need. And he’s right about the contractors. I have feelers out, but beyond our own people, I’d have to outsource. Our in-house security is for protection, not extraction, and we certainly don’t have mercenaries on our payroll. That’s not what either of us, me or you, wanted.”
Aaron thought a moment and nodded before he stood, Miguel following suit, and faced me. “I’ll defer to your judgment, but please, Jared, if there’s something you need—and we both know I’m talking about funds—please don’t hesitate to contact me.”
“I won’t.”
“And you’ll keep us in the loop.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I will.”
Both men shook my hand, Aaron holding longer, squeezing my hand tight.
“I know it’s hard to be in the dark about where the man you love is. I’ve been where you are, and I promise you, I’m at your disposal.”
What?
I watched them walk out, off-balance for a moment with Aaron Sutter looking over his shoulder at me before the door closed behind him.
The man I loved? What the hell?
Not my friend. Not my colleague. The man I loved.
What?
My brain was going to explode. How on earth had he come to that conclusion? I certainly had never spoken to Aaron Sutter about my relationship with Owen, so where was he getting that? Had Owen spoken to him about me? About us? That made zero sense, and even if he had, Owen loved me the same way I did him, as a friend. Loved? Where the fuck was that coming from?
When my phone rang, I saw it was Darius.
“Well?” Darius asked. “What did Sutter want?”
“You have great timing. He just left.”
“Why do you sound pissed off?”
Because I was reeling from what Aaron Sutter had just dropped on me, but saying that to Darius wouldn’t be helpful at the moment. There were far more important matters to discuss.
“I’m fine, just worried.”
“About what? Tell me what he said.”
“Owen’s missing.”
“What do you mean missing? Define missing.”
“He and his bodyguard have gone radio silent.”
“A thirty-two-year-old man and his bodyguard have gone radio silent. This is what you’re saying to me?”
“Yes,” I snapped at him. “Why don’t you sound—”
“Is the bodyguard a man?”
“Yes, he—”
“And what does the bodyguard look like?”
“The fuck does that matter?”
“You tell me.”
I had to think a second. And then, from a place of worry, I moved immediately to irritation. “You’re saying what? That the kid is off somewhere, fucking—”
“Not a kid,” he corrected me. “He’s not a kid. He hasn’t been a kid for a long time.”
“No, I know, but—”
“Do you?”
This on top of Aaron’s odd words about the man I loved. “I do,” I said tightly.
“Owen is a beautiful man with a smile that makes other men want to get naked and—”
“Why are you being disgusting?”
“How is that disgusting?”
I couldn’t answer without revealing that there’d been flickers of things over the past year. How I’d see Owen’s face, and the light would catch it a certain way, and I’d suddenly find myself unable to breathe. I would be transfixed by the play of muscles in his back, the line of his jaw, or the glint in his eyes. I’d been having trouble separating the person I thought I knew better than myself, from the surly one now haunting my house. The thing was, I was attracted to the man who didn’t want anything to do with me, which was my reasoning for allowing the gulf between us to widen. If it was time for him to go and spread his wings, so be it. That was better than him hating me. If he knew at all how I felt, my conflict and confusion, he’d be horrified. Keeping it to myself was the only thing that was saving our relationship. It was the reason why I’d been so pleased to have Shaw and Benji take over the office in Chicago for me, the reason that suddenly Torus International, instead of Torus Intercession, had my attention, because sticking around to see Owen date was not on my list of things I wanted to do. Being on another continent seemed like the best answer. But now I was scared he’d actually picked someone and run away.