Page 39 of The Gift
“I’m glad you know that already.” I tip my cup up at him and he nods his head back.
“You won’t like some of what we suggest, but we’re all about mitigation at this stage. Although, if we, that’s my pack and you, believe the threat changes or intensifies, collectively we will look at our options again.” Henley interrupts the relaxed chat, keeping the seriousness of the discussion at the forefront. As if I needed a reminder.
“Is it killing you not to throw me in your car right now and drag me to the centre?”
“Not at all.” Henley has the good grace to smirk. “We have a good idea that doing that, we’d lose the upper hand in negotiation down the track.”
“How so?”
“Bailey, come on, it’s you we’re talking about. We’re not trying to clip your wings. How you decide to go forward is up to you, but in a lot of ways how we approach the future is as important,” he answers quickly, keeping his eyes on my face, searching for my reactions.
“What do you propose?”
“Well, really it’s easy to have one of us with you. Since we’re doing the show with you and your team. I guess after we’re done is what we need to talk about,” Ashton adds, keeping his mood lighter to counter Henley’s brittle demeanour, which I like, and appreciate.
“You honestly think I need round the clock watch?”
“Yep. So, we can do that with you knowing, or we can do it without you knowing. I’m leading with honesty, hoping that works for us.” He grins, like he’s won a competition.
“Bonus points for the A-team.” I smile. And it’s an easy, honest smile.
“Why the A-team?” Henley asks abruptly, clearly a little caught up on the name.
“The whole concept of a pack isn’t something that I have ever felt comfortable with, so team over pack is an easy do. But I’m not really here to peel back my layers.”
“Back it up! You’re truly not upset that we know you’re an omega?” Ashton interrupts; he’s gaping like a fish. It’s comically cute.
“Okay, one last titbit about me, and then I want the rest of whatever is needing explained. But in some respects, no, I’m not upset. For a long time, I’ve felt like I was living in a slow draining sink. Which probably makes no sense to you, but it does to me. What I have done, I don’t need to justify to anyone. Like you said though, you’ve known for a while. For the record, if I was aware, I wouldn’t have agreed to Reno taking blood. Moot point now though.”
“Yeah,” he agrees. And then Henley shocks the pants out of me by not pushing the discussion further. In some ways, I was preparing myself for a cross examination, but instead, he nods once, completely satisfied with my acceptance and my desire not to prattle endlessly about the how’s and whys of who I am. Privately, I have no doubt I’ll crumble or combust at some point but right now, maintaining a cool façade is child’s play. Considering it’s what I’ve done for a while now.
“Let’s stay on track,” I murmur, checking the time, “I take it you’re coming with me back to Jenna’s cottage?”
“Correct,” Henley does a swift nod. And then he opens up the manila folder in front of me. Of all things there could have been, I did not expect a spreadsheet. Or the size of it. Three large pieces of paper are taped together making it poster sized.
I groan at the size, and Ashton laughs. “It looks complicated, because it is, but we’ll walk you through it. We don’t want to share this electronically, so Koda prepared this for us.”
“Fair enough,” I reply as the spreadsheet gets spun to face me.
“Can we both sit on your side to explain the data?”
“Why are you asking? Of course you can.” I shake my head at his question.
“We’re being overly considerate, I suppose,” Ashton answers.
“You haven’t had any issue being around me so far, have you?”
“Umm.” Ashton has the good grace to shrug, looking not too guilty either.
“Really?”
“Take out the fact that you are practically the walking embodiment of an alpha’s wet dream, and I mean that with no disrespect.” He smiles like the Cheshire Cat, all teeth and zero remorse. “You’re fucking stunning. Your confidence is as breathtaking as you are. And I want to make you mine, in every way possible. However, I’m the personification of control.”
I laugh though it kind of comes out like one of those deep, sultry chuckles. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should. I’ll sit on my hands so I try not to rub my fingers all over you. See, last night the table was separating us, but you saw me watching you all night. I know you did because you spent a quarter of your time watching me too.”
“The other three quarters?”
