"Oh, but he does. I mean, imagine forever having to look after your best mate's sister."

  "I don't know. I've seen the way he looks at you sometimes. I mean, he's exasperated, yes. But he's curious. And you know Bridge, he keeps himself so buttoned up. I always have the urge to muss him just a bit to see what he'd do."

  "Yeah well, I have mussed him, and all he does is sit there in flat, not-so-silent condemnation. And tonight, I thought… I don't know what I thought. But it turns out, I'm still just annoying Emma, because when Mina showed up, he went off with her."

  Telly straightened in her seat. "The fuck?"

  "Oh yes, it was quite entertaining. She cornered me at the restaurant, which meant she was following him. She basically told me to lay off her man."

  "Oh, Jesus Christ."

  Precisely. "Yeah, it was a bloody delight. Very exciting."

  "Fuck, Ems, I'm sorry."

  I shrugged. "Not your fault. And then, well, she turned up at the house. She tried to tell me that he was keeping secrets and hiding things from me. Which, as it turns out, he was."

  "What are you going to do about it?"

  "Well, the only thing I can do. I agreed to marry him, not because of any teenage feelings I have for him, but because he and the lads can help me get justice for Toby. So, I'm going to do my part. If I was going to break into a secure laptop, and I only had a few minutes to do so, how would I do it?"

  Telly sat up then. "Are you thinking of doing what I think you're thinking of doing?"

  "Yes, I certainly am. I'm going to break into Middleton’s computer, get the dirt we need, and so then maybe I don't have to marry Bridge at all."

  She sighed. “Then we’re going to need a plan. C’mon, let’s stop stalking your parents’ ghosts and get to work.”

  Bridge

  Emma hadn't come home last night or the night before. There had been a small part of me that had thought maybe she would. We'd been working together as a team. I thought she would understand. Come home. And God knew she was temperamental at times. That was half of our problem. I was always too controlled, and she lacked any control. She hadn't come home, and the security team hadn't been following her, so I had no fucking clue where she was or where she’d spent the night.

  Conventional wisdom told me she was at her mum’s. I checked there first, but I didn’t see hide nor hair of her there. There were some hints that maybe she'd been there over the last couple of weeks. Open drapes, that sort of thing. But yeah. If she'd been there in the last day or two, I certainly would’ve known.

  Fuck. Why the fuck did you agree to speak with Mina?

  Over the last thirty-six hours, I’d convinced myself that talking to Mina had been necessary. But had it? It always went the same. Her trying to convince me to let her come back. The first time, admittedly, I'd been ambushed in my office. So that one wasn't really my fault. The second time, at the hotel, I'd sent her packing. But this time, I’d fucked up, thinking that this was part of her getting her things and then she'd swept me by the balls with the one chip she had left. My one and only secret. Even East didn't know about Darcy. At least I didn't think he did because we had a rule; no peeking around in each other's lives. Anything we did publicly was fair game. But it was the only way the four of us could work together. Trust. And most of the time, we told each other everything anyway. The way Ben and East loved gossip, it was like living with teenagers.

  But fucking Mina, she knew the one thing, the one thing I should have kept to myself. But I’d honestly thought I was going to marry her and we were going to start our lives together, so I'd shared. Because Darcy was going to need someone. Not just someone to look after her, but someone who understood her. When Mina and I got together, Darcy was eleven and needed a woman to talk to. I already wasn't very good at talking.

  Every three months or so, I made time to go see her. Take a couple of days. Actually take the bloody weekend off. And if there was time, I'd take her skiing or do something that she wanted to do. I figured sooner or later she'd get tired of her big brother, but she never did. And Lord, did she love to talk. About anything.

  The last time I'd seen her, she had asked me about the hotels. Taking a full-on interest, like she was an up-and-coming investor. I wasn’t really sure why until I realized that she'd been trying to take an interest in my world so we'd have more to talk about. Which was quite smart of her, and really what I should be doing. But who the hell knew what a tween was interested in? She really likes to read. So every time I went to see her, I'd find some rare edition of some fun book and get it for her. There was an author called Darcy Morgan, and she wrote these fantasy stories. At first, Darcy loved her just because she had the same name. But she wrote about dragons and princes and things that really kept Darcy firmly entrenched in her books.

  One time, when the newest book was coming out and hadn't been yet released, I'd managed to get her a copy. I'd never seen that little girl squeal so hard. Honestly, I was worried she'd been stuck with something and was bleeding everywhere. But no, all she was bleeding was enthusiasm. I couldn't help the tug of a smile on my lips when I thought about the way she'd marched herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck. That really was the best feeling.

  And so, when Mina had pressed that button, the reminder that Darcy was going to need more than I could give her, I had to give in. She knew how to get to me, and she worked it. Pushed on my weakness, and I'd fallen for it. I hadn't seen that pressure point being applied until it was too late. So now it had been two days and I hadn't fucking seen Emma.

  Ben shoved his way into my office with Drew on his heels. "Mate, what did you do at dinner?"

  I frowned at him as I looked up from my laptop. I had the Dubai project file open, and I was fully focused on them. The build was going fine. There were some problems with one component that we had to solve. The engineer still hadn't gotten back to me. "What are you doing here?"

  Drew grinned, heading straight to the bar. Had anyone else noticed he was drinking a lot? It was only bloody two in the afternoon.

  "I don't know what either one of you are on about."

  Ben laughed. "You should. Fredericka bloody loves you. Even more, she bloody loved Emma. Now she is insisting on throwing your reception."

  I groaned. "Oh, for fuck's sake, are you serious?"

  In the back of my mind, I had hoped we might never even have to get married. That we could have one of those long engagements that just never seem to pan out. But it looked like we were moving forward, and there was no pulling this train back. “Well, I'm glad we performed.”

  Drew tossed his drink back. "So why don't you look happy? You should be over the moon. It's starting to look like someone kicked your puppy."

  "Since neither one of you seems to know what this is like, I actually have bloody work to do. We have to break ground in Hong Kong in a couple of months and you two are worried about my love life?"

  Drew chuckled. "Well, it's not your real love life."

  Ben lifted a brow. "Drew is right. I can’t believe I’m actually saying that, but what's wrong with you? You seem out of sorts. You've got that laser focus turned off. So what if the old lady wants to throw your reception? The idea was a very private ceremony. We all go to a party, you smile at Emma adoringly, and then we get on with this. Zicks gets signed over. The deal is a month away. What is your problem?"

  I rubbed the back of my neck. "Nothing. It's fine. Everything went as planned. No surprises."

  Ben lifted a brow. "What aren't you saying?"

  I could lie, but I was already quite done with that. "As it turns out, we did so goddamned well that we got people like Mina nervous."

  Drew whistled low. Ben's brows just popped. "What does Mina have to do with this? You're not still seeing that cunt, are you?"

  I scowled. Not so much at Ben, but more about the fact that he'd been right. All along he had been right, and I had ignored his blatant hatred of her. He'd had known more about her than I had. But at the end of it, even before I decided to marry her, he'd never really wanted Mina for me. I hated the constant reminder that he had seen something I hadn't. Like it had a lot to say about my abilities.

  "No, she's… we're done."

  He visibly relaxed. Drew just nodded his head as he poured himself another scotch. "So if you are done with Mina, what's the problem?"

  "She came by the house making another plea for reconciliation. Emma was with me, and I just had to focus on the problem at hand."

  This time, Drew's brows went up and Ben leaned forward. When Ben spoke, his voice was slow and coaxing, as if talking to a scared, wounded animal. "Please, God, please, tell me you did not shove aside Emma to talk to Mina."

  I frowned at that. "Mina was the problem at hand. I had to deal with it before it blew up in my face."

  Drew whistled again. "How is he the calm and rational one?"

  My gaze jumped between the both of them. "I maintain that it was the right call. Mina is a grenade that can go off at any moment."

  Ben shook his head. "Mate, for someone so fucking brilliant, you are an eejit. How can you not know that was going to set Emma off, first of all? That all Mina wanted to do was start trouble, second of all. And that no matter what, there is nothing you can give Mina to make her just quietly go away. You need to make severing your relationship painful. Definitive and final."

  "I thought we weren't trying to make noise and make waves. With the induction of the new initiates, with their training, and with everything else we have going on, the last thing we need is another crisis. Didn’t you just give me that speech the other goddamn day? About how I am shit with a fucking distraction? So I dealt with the problem."

  Ben shook his head. "Let me guess, you haven't seen Emma since?"

  I frowned at that. "No. I went by her mother's, but she wasn't there. I called Livy, and Nyla, and Telly. No one has seen her. Or if they have, they're not telling."

  Ben muttered under his breath. "Now it all makes sense."

  I frowned. "What makes sense?"

  "Last night, Olivia was on the phone talking with someone. Calling someone a fucking idiot. With her, it could have been about an episode of The Bachelor, who the fuck knew? When I asked her about it, she just rolled her eyes. She was in no mood to tell me. But it was her you're-a-fuckup face. Turns out, I’m the fuckup by proxy. You messed up, which means you have to fix this."

  "How am I going to fix something with someone I can't find? Who, if I could find, wouldn't talk to me, and whom I don't understand at all. Not to mention, she’s working at Middleton’s office, so she’s also not safe. It’s like she’s deliberately trying to fuck with me."

  Ben shook his head. “I have a solution for that, actually. I’ve put Alex in play there.”

  Alex was one of the new Elite recruits. Ollie, Alex, and Liam were part of our attempt to do things differently. The three of them were still in training. “Is he ready for that?”

  “It’s strictly observational. When the three of them indicated for specialties, he requested media. So this is a good fit. Anything out of sorts, and he’ll alert us.”

  I still didn’t love it. But at least she wasn’t entirely alone. Drew chose that moment right then to size me up entirely. "You mean, someone you have the hots for is running away from you? Ben, mate, tell your friend."

  Ben shook his head. "I'm not claiming him. Not with these kinds of fuckups. We'll give him to East.”

  “But East isn't here."

  I scowled. "You know what. I've about had it with you lot."

  Ben shook his head. "I'm sure that's what Emma is feeling right now too."

  "It's not that bad. How mad can she get?"

  Ben laughed. "Mate, I can't believe I was ever even mildly relieved about you having a fiancée and seeing you settled. You haven't got a clue. Emma Varma is about to make you pay."

  Something about the way he said that made me realize he was telling the absolute, unvarnished truth. I'd fucked up. And Emma would get her pound of flesh.

  Chapter Ten

  Emma

  I would be a liar if I said I hadn't been watching my phone all day. For two days. two goddamn days, not a word from Bridge. I half expected him to have someone watching me and come find me on the roof on Saturday night, but he hadn't. Nor had he called yesterday.

  So, I started my new job at Middleton Communications wondering just what the hell I was going to do with him. I was already in this hornet's nest. I had made my bed, and I had to live in it. The good news was, I actually was good at crisis management. I hadn’t lied my way in there; I did have the skillset. And that was going to come in handy because when I rolled in on Monday morning, it had been a hoard of client files. So many.

  Most of them were fairly simple. Basic image checks. Nothing major. But when Francis poked his head into my office at 5:30, I was starting to wonder if I'd ever get the stink off of me. So many of his clients were utter sleazeballs. There were so many sex scandals to deal with that I couldn't even count them.

  I knew the rules. Our client was our client, and our only job was to keep their name out of the press or put it in the press, depending on the situation. So that was beg, borrow, steal, and brand as much as you had to. I couldn't help but be swept up in half of what I was reading. There was one guy, a lord, who'd carried on a sexual relationship with a sixteen-year-old. He was married too. And while the age of consent in the UK was sixteen, it was still gross. Really gross. Not to mention, his wife was the reason he had any fortune at all. His family, while they had the title, had lost their money nearly a century ago. So they'd been marrying rich heiresses for decades. And to make matters worse, he was using his wife's family money to pay for his mistress.

  Really, mistress? She was a teenager. How could she be a bloody mistress? She didn't even know anything. Anyway, he was using his wife's money to pay for her flat, and an overly zealous pap had gotten a photo of the two of them making out on the balcony. Good God. No wonder he was looking for a crisis management company if he was going to do shit like publicly make out with his teenage girlfriend where cameras could see them. It wasn't like they had high privacy fences or anything.

  That was the file I was looking at when Francis knocked on my desk. Two sharp raps. It worried me that I hadn't even heard him come in. My head snapped up and I startled and pushed back automatically. "Jesus Christ, you scared me."

  "Sorry." He held his hands up. "You were so engrossed I don't think you heard me knock."

  I'd let him get away with the lie, even though I had the transparency function turned on in my bloody earbuds. They weren't noise-canceling. I found that wearing them and piping in low levels of classical music helped me concentrate better, but I never, ever put the noise-canceling on. It was like asking to get murdered.

  "Right. Sorry." I tugged them out of my ears. "What can I do for you?"

  "Ah, I see you have the Webster file."

  I pursed my lips. "Yup, sure do."

  He frowned at that. "Remember, we don't pass judgment on our clients."

  The way he said that made me highly uncomfortable, but I covered it well. "No, it's not that." I forced a smile of neutrality on my face. "My concern is that he's a moron."

  Francis choked a laugh. "Oh. Yes, I generally don't like stupid people either.”

  “Why would he do something so reckless as to make out with his girlfriend on an open balcony? Dumb."

  He laughed. "Yes well, never let it be said that our clients are always playing with a full deck."

  "It's frustrating. I could do a much better job if people would just follow the rules. Don't do anything in public you wouldn't be comfortable plastering as a front-page headline on a newspaper.”

  He guffawed. "Do you mind coming with me? There's something I want to show you."

  I forced a smile on my face. God, he was sleazy. He was the kind of person who gave the profession a bad name. Everyone always looked at crisis managers like we were devils hiding things.

  We were not hiding things. Some people just really had no idea how to weather a situation. A good crisis manager could get you through that. But Middleton, Jesus. The kind of clients he had, I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to get this stink off.

  I got up and grabbed my phone and the little black device that was directly under it. Wherever he was taking me, I might actually have a chance to use this thing. If I could just show the lads that I could copy his phone and do something helpful, something useful so that I wouldn't have to stay in this job for too long, that would be ideal. I followed him into his office and in there was a stack of paperwork. "Sorry, HR brought this to me. I figured you and I could have a drink and find out more about each other as you sign."

  "Right, more paperwork. I thought I signed everything already."

  "Yeah, it's more NDA clauses.”

  "Well, you know I'm not going to sign anything else without my lawyer actually reviewing this, right?"

  His brow furrowed. "What's the problem?"

  "Nothing. It's just not smart. And I know you wouldn't accuse me of not being smart, would you?"

  "It's HR paperwork," he pressed.

  "Yes. And the last time I signed HR paperwork, I had my lawyer present. So, I won't be signing anything else. This isn’t an exemption."

  I hoped I wasn’t being foolhardy. Middleton stared at me, and I got the distinct impression I was being examined as if I was on a petri dish.

  "But I'm more than happy to get to know my new boss better." I grinned at him in that coy manner that seemed to convey that I was good-natured even though I was saying hell-fucking-no. I sat down on the low leather couch and grinned up at him as I ignored the stack of papers in front of me.

  "I can't say I love this turn of events."

  I smiled at him, determined to put him at ease and not choke on it. "Oh come on, considering that I didn't get this paperwork until just now, it can’t be that urgent. Either you got too busy and just realized that it had to be signed, which is fine, or it's a power play in which you expected me to comply and just sign them. See, I'm too smart for that. I'm not sure what kind of game you're trying to play, but it's really unnecessary."