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The chat streams for the room are blowing up, and when I send out a blanket message to the others, I get fifteen replies in less than five minutes.
No info.
Checking into it now.
We won’t stop until we find the answer, Mistress.
I’ve got a gut feeling that whatever or whoever is behind this won’t stop until more of my guys die. And it’s funny that my guys are the only ones suffering, the only ones turning up.
“You look troubled,” Blake says suddenly.
The sound of his voice makes me jump. "What do you mean?”
“I mean, it seems like you’ve got a lot going on. Is it just because of what happened yesterday, or is it more?”
He’s staring at me, pressing me, wanting answers I’m not able to give him.
I scowl at him over the edge of the laptop and slowly close the screen to let him know, without a shadow of a doubt, that he’s bothering me. “Don’t you have work to do? I swear, Blake, there’s always something, and nothing on your list says I'm the one you need to check on. Okay?”
The headache is back, and I wonder why it seemed to disappear only last night. Only with Devan.
Distraction. That’s what it must have been. I was too distracted to remember I’m supposed to be stressed.
Blake throws up his hands. “Fine.” The way he says it? I’ve hurt him. “I thought we were in this together.” He sighs and shakes his head. “I’m sorry for being concerned.”
At once, I feel like a piece of shit.
I open my mouth to apologize when a knock sounds at the door, and Antoni scowls into the room.
“He wants you,” Antoni tells me.
“I thought he was going out of town today?” My insides go cold.
He knows. He knows. It’s the only thing I can think about, and my punishment isn’t going to be good. It won’t be limited to bruises where no one will see them.
“He’s leaving in five. You better hurry your ass.” Having delivered his message, Antoni disappears, and I sit for only a second while my body catches up with my brain’s need to move.
Instead of doing what I'd done, I should have been focusing on working harder. I might never be the next head of the Black Market Syndicate, but it doesn’t matter. I love Broderick—I want to work harder.
Except I also wanted to tease Devan.
My priorities are absolutely fucked.
“He’s in his office, then?” I ask lightly. But Antoni is already down the hall, too far out of earshot to hear my question.
Broderick isn’t in the office or the boardroom when I check, though, which leaves one place. My feet get heavier with each step down the hallway, my heart following. The bedroom.
I knock on the door, stealing my nerve, before I push inside.
There he is, standing in front of the mirror in the entryway to his closet, a towel wrapped around his lower half and his hair still damp.
“Aria.” His voice promises both heaven and hell, and I try not to wince.
“I’m here.” And now I sound too chipper. “What’s going on, Broderick?”
He turns to me, pushing a hand along his jaw. “I’ve had a thought of late, and you are the best person I know to help me hammer out logistics.”
I’m not quite ready to release all of the barely contained panic just yet. This might still be a ploy to get me to spill the beans on my night. “Oh yeah?” I ask.
