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“We’re scaling back the poker side of things until…” Eli frowned. “Shit, I was going to say until the baby got here, but maybe after, too. We’ll have to talk about that.” He looked down at Claire.
“I can write engagement scenarios from anywhere,” Georgia agreed as she swiveled her laptop to give everyone a nighttime view of glittering lights on a lake behind them. “We’re in Geneva right now.”
“We’re wrapping on Porter’s movie in a week, and he says he’s curious about heading up security for Cavendish, right, babe?” Becca looked at Porter.
“Yeah, I think I can be helpful there,” Porter allowed. He gave a cynical smile. “I can’t be worse than the last guy, right?”
Becca frowned. “Too soon, babe.”
Porter rolled his eyes.
“I think you’d be fantastic, Porter,” Hartley told him. “I’m sorry for what I said the last time we met.”
“When you warned Becca that I’d killed someone?” Porter asked, giving her a half grin. “With everything that’s happened, I think we’re all on the same playing field now.”
“Well,” Claire said, glancing at Becca and Georgia, who nodded. “It sounds like the Sigma sisters are all in.”
“I am,” Georgia agreed, and all three raised their hands.
Hartley gasped, and Montgomery nudged her. “This feels like an official vote, so…” She already had her hand up. Her entire arm reached for the ceiling, in fact, and she gave a shaky laugh.
“Sigma sisters, the motion to continue with Cavendish is carried unanimously,” Hartley declared.
The women whooped, the sound dispelling the weighty feeling in the living room.
“Okay, so if we’re moving forward with renovations, how do we decide where to start?” Georgia asked. “It sounds like the whole place needs to be bulldozed.”
“It basically does,” Eli said. He opened his laptop and pulled up a digital map of the estate, sharing his screen for everyone to see. “Jackal rigged all nine properties with explosives, but surprisingly, the Manor came out of it with the least amount of damage.”
“That makes sense,” Montgomery said. “It’s where the main offices were. Also, it likely had the most traffic while Jackal was setting up the charges. He probably didn’t have enough cover to rig it for maximum destruction.”
“Would we get someone to come and assess the integrity of the remaining structure?” Becca asked.
“Yes,” Montgomery confirmed.
“All the finishings and furniture were shipped in, but it was built on a modern, concrete foundation,” Hartley added, pointing to the image Eli brought up—an original blueprint titledEnglish Manor Replica.
The room buzzed with conversation. He eased Hartley away from him and took her coffee mug. “Warm up?” he asked, and she nodded while debating with the other women about changing it from an English manor to some other replica building.
As he poured black coffee, he watched her. She spoke animatedly, her hands moving in the air, covered in Band-Aids. Her black eye was bright in reds and purples, yet her whole being sparkled with passion as she laid out ideas and listened as her sorority sisters agreed or argued about them.
His wife, he thought, and the hand pouring the coffee trembled. He’d almost lost her.
“Okay,” he said, returning and letting her nestle back beside him. He handed her the mug. “Are you getting your way yet?” he whispered.
She sipped the hot brew and gave him a surprised smile. “Actually, I don’t know. But you know what? It doesn’t matter.”
He looked at her with mock amazement. “Hartley Meyer okay with not orchestrating every angle of a business deal?”
“Well, I’ve already orchestrated the most important one,” she shot back, piquing his interest.
“Which one is that?”
“I know for a fact,” she began, a smirk teasing her lips, “that I’ll be accompanying you to Beijing.”
He felt a lump in his throat as he pulled her closer, tracing the healing cuts on her cheek. He’d found it hard to let her go at all these last four nights. Touching her, even in the smallest way, had become oxygen to him. “I didn’t think you’d get over the throwing-you-in-the-dumpster thing that fast,” he told her, losing himself in the fire that flared in her eyes. She might fuss over him, but she still had that feisty spirit deep down. That combination was proving impossible not to love.
“Oh, I haven’t forgotten that,” she agreed, lifting her mug to him. “But I think we can work through it. As long as you promise not to do it again.”
