On Her Master's Secret Service (Masters and Mercenaries #4)(53)

She hugged her robe and hoped she looked somewhat presentable. Kristen had knocked on her door five minutes earlier and told her to wake up because Alex had called a meeting and he wanted her in there pronto. No time to shower or get dressed. Alex was having a meeting and they were all supposed to fall in line.

She’d touched the side of the bed where Alex had lain. It had been cold, proving he’d left their bed a while before. Sometime before dawn, she’d fallen asleep, her tears dried up because she simply had no more to shed, and she’d woken alone.

She felt different, a little less burdened, but the sadness of letting Alex go was still an ache in her heart.

And she had to work with him now. God, how was she going to get through this? How was she going to sit in the same room with him and pretend like everything was normal when a wealth of pain sat between them?

The early morning light streamed through the big bay windows, illuminating the whole dining room.

“Eve? I’m glad you could join us. There’s coffee if you would like some.” Alex sat at the head of the table. He stood, holding a mug in his hand. He was dressed simply in sweat pants and a T-shirt that clung to his every muscle. “I’m getting some for myself. Cream and sugar?”

She shook her head. He knew very well she drank it plain. “Black, please.”

He looked her up and down. His eyes caught on her breasts for a moment, and she wished she’d worn less leisurely leisurewear. “Huh, I would have thought you like it sweet. I will note your preferences for the future. You should know that we meet every morning at seven sharp for discussion and breakfast. I’ll wake you myself tomorrow morning. I know you’ve worked with Ian and Liam as leads, but I like to run a very tight ship.”

So he was going to go the professional route. She could handle that. It might be for the best. “All right. I’ll be here on time.”

Alex nodded and gestured to the table. “Good. Now, we’re bonding over Kristen’s excellent homemade cinnamon rolls, and I want reports on the day.”

Kristen grinned as she sank into her chair. “And they’re totally not poison or anything. Little Tag thought they were.”

Sean rolled his eyes. “God, no one calls me that anymore. And I have to admit, they’re actually pretty good. You should try one. If she’s put poison in it, at least she’s going to die with us.”

She might have to have a talk with Sean. Even in the small time she’d spent with Kristen, she would trust the woman. She might be hiding something, but Eve would be surprised if she was capable of truly cold-blooded betrayal. The redhead seemed passionate and stubborn, but there was a moral streak to her that was blatantly obvious to Eve.

Adam snorted a little as he pulled off another cinnamon roll. God, they smelled heavenly. “I still call you Little Tag. So does Jake.”

Alex returned with her coffee. He set it down in the chair opposite his and settled a plated cinnamon roll with a bowl of fruit in front of where he obviously expected her to sit. “Little Tag, why didn’t you make cinnamon rolls?”

Sean’s middle finger made an appearance. “I’m not a f*cking pastry chef. Tomorrow I’m making frittatas, and they will put these to shame. I also slept through the alarm. I was up half the night talking on the phone with Grace because Carys has her days and nights mixed up. This was way easier to do when I didn’t have a baby.”

Eve sat down in her chair, pulling the coffee into her hands, warming them. The bay windows showed a spectacularly beautiful morning outside, and the rest of the people at the table were joking and laughing like they were a longtime team. Even Alex was jovial, though his eyes found hers from time to time, and that was the only time their light dimmed.

She felt so odd. He was fine. She was a mess on the inside, and he looked like a man who had been completely unburdened. She hadn’t seen him smile so genuinely in years. He even looked younger this morning, as though the night before had released him.

He’d said good-bye to her and it looked good on him.

Her nose was still red from crying, her eyes puffy. But she’d done the right thing. She wanted Alex to be happy. She truly did. She just had to suck it up because she hadn’t thought he would be happy quite so fast.

“So, I want to make sure everyone has their assignments for the day. Eve and I have to be at the club by eleven thirty this morning. Sean?” Alex asked, looking every bit the leader of the team.

“I’m going in earlier than you. I’ve got to go in and make a list of the upgrades I need. Chazz mentioned there was a luncheon in a couple of days. I need to prep for that. After breakfast, I’ll head in and see if that dumbass sous-chef followed my instructions.”

“What else?” Alex asked.

“I’m going to get a look at the kitchens and see what I can find out about the staff in there. I’ll very carefully plant a couple of bugs and take some surveillance shots so we know all the entrances and exits to the club in the unlikely case we get made and have to get out of the place before someone takes our balls off. You should know that my wife expects me to keep my balls. She doesn’t want Carys to be our only child. I’m also going to try to get a full list of the kitchen staff. I’m going to assume they’re not all on the payroll,” Sean said with a knowing grimace.

Kristen shook her head. “Oh, no. Most of those guys are paid under the table. I would suspect half of them are illegal, so good luck with the IDs.”