Page 4 of Defenseless
“Thank you. HICC has been more successful than Stella or I could have ever imagined, and while there have been both bad and good times, we wouldn’t change a thing. But times do change. Life changes, priorities change.” Hunter tilted his head and rested it on his sleeping son’s shoulder. “We don’t want to pull back from the good work we’re doing, but we also want to be able to spend more time as a family. And we want our employees to feel like they can do the same. Opening the California office might seem like an expansion. It might even turn out that way. But what we’re really hoping is that we’ll be able to split responsibility for the jobs between the offices so that neither is overloaded. For more reasons than just the skills you, Sabina, and Colton bring to the company, you all are a dream team to lead that effort. We know you’ll help us continue to build the company we want to build. So, thank you.”
Chad wasn’t often at a loss for words, but he struggled now. Hunter rarely said more than what was strictly needed. That he’d said what he had told Chad more about the importance of the new venture than anything discussed in the past six months. This office wasn’t just about business, it was about family, too. Despite the unease he felt about Sabina now being part of his team, a sense of rightness settled inside him. He wanted the same thing they did, and he was going to do his best to make it happen.
* * *
Three hours after leaving the DC headquarters of HICC, Chad stood on the tarmac of the private airfield. Workers were loading the final pallets of equipment into the belly of the plane that would take him and Sabina to Northern California while a smaller plane idled behind it. Colton stood beside him watching the same scene, although the man would be flying to LA rather than to Mystery Lake.
“Who are you taking, Colt?” Sabina asked, coming to stand between the two men, a small aloe plant in one hand.
Colton nodded to the smaller of the two planes. “Bertha,” he answered.
Sabina made a little “hmm” noise before hooking an arm in each of theirs, jostling a little dirt from around the aloe. A small shock of desire traveled through Chad as her skin brushed against his. He might believe she was hiding something from him, but that didn’t mean his body had gotten the message that she was hands-off.
“Good choice,” she said. “Bertha’s small but fast.” Before any plane made its maiden flight for HICC, it was christened with a name other than its official registration numbers. The one he and Sabina were taking was Agatha. No one seemed to recall where the name had come from, but to everyone, even Stella and Hunter, she was just Agatha.
“You’re bringing that?” Chad asked, nodding to the plant.
Sabina looked down at the small, slightly sad aloe, then up at him. “I am. Roger, meet Chad,” she said, holding the plant up while keeping her arm looped through his. “Chad, meet Roger. He’s been with me for years,” she added with a grin.
“He’s a little small for being years old, don’t you think?” he asked.
“Hush,” she said, curling Roger closer to her belly. “You’ll hurt his feelings.”
Chad stared. She stared back. Then she winked and turned to Colton.
“How long will you be in LA?” she asked. A shop in the City of Angels was customizing several company cars and SUVs for them. Colton was traveling there to oversee the final modifications before bringing them north to the new facility.
“Three weeks. Maybe a month,” he answered.
Chad tried to ignore the feel of her body beside his by returning his attention to Agatha and keeping it focused there. But of course, Sabina wasn’t having it. Her hip bumped into his upper thigh, forcing him to turn and look at her again. “What?”
Wisps of her strawberry blond hair flew into her face thanks to a sudden gust of wind, and he fought the urge to brush them back. A storm was brewing, not unusual for DC in August, and he hoped they’d make it out before it hit. Agatha could take thunder and lighting, but the flight would be much more comfortable if they could avoid it.
“Surprised to see me?” she asked, her blue-green eyes dancing at the thought of catching him off guard. He wasn’t a fan of surprises, and everyone in the office knew it.
He shrugged and swung his gaze back to the workers loading what looked like the last pallet. “Stella and Hunter told me you and Jun switched places. I may be old, but I’m not so old as to forget a conversation from three hours ago.” He wasn’t old at all, but hewassix years older than Sabina.
Colton chuckled, and from the corner of his eye, Chad saw Sabina make a face. “Try as you might, Sabina, you aren’t going to get under his skin,” Colton said. If he only knew.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Colt,” Sabina said with so much faux innocence both men snorted. At some point shortly after he’d joined the firm, Sabina had decided he was too serious. She’d been trying for the better part of two years to get him to crack and loosen up. It wasn’t going to happen. She was already under his skin—though not in the way Colton meant—and if he let go of his control even a tiny bit, he wasn’t sure what would happen. And again, back to that not liking surprises thing. Not even—especially even—if he surprised himself.
“Why the last-minute switch?” Colton asked the million-dollar question. Chad didn’t move, but his senses leaped to attention as he waited for her answer. Not that he thought she’d give an honest—or complete—one.
Sabina lifted a shoulder. “I decided a change of scenery would be good for me.”
He fought not to slide her a look of disbelief. Sabina was not a woman who acted on whims. She might have decided a change of scenery was good for her, but there would have been a long train of logic behind that decision.
Even knowing she’d never expose her thought process, a small, masochistic part of him wanted to ask. With a deep breath, he shoved that urge down and stepped away from the pair. Her arm slid from his and he turned to face the two people with whom he’d been entrusted to head this new venture. He intended to get to the bottom of Sabina’s sudden decision, but he needed a plan to break through her considerable defenses. A plan he didn’t yet have, so it would have to wait.
“Ready, ladies and gentlemen?” he asked with a grin.
Sabina and Colton smiled back.
“More than,” Sabina said.
“Oh yeah,” Colton responded.
The sound of Agatha’s loading door closing behind him echoed across the tarmac. “Bertha and Agatha aren’t exactly covered wagons, but let’s go forge our way to new adventures out west.”
