Page 11 of Ruthless Rebel

A soft chuckle leaves me as the dial tone sounds out around us, and I can’t help but lean forward and whisper, “I’d say I don’t bite but I know you don’t like liars.”

His entire body reacts to my breath against the back of his neck and a thrill shoots through me as he cuts me a scathing look. “I also don’t like you.”

Excitement buzzes beneath my skin as I lick my lips and his eyes track the movement unconsciously as I mouth back, “Liar.”

“What’s up, gang,” Max’s voice interrupts us, and Ash is still frozen, staring at me as I move my attention to the screen.

“Max, how are you? I miss you,” Elle starts off, smiling at him with complete adoration.

“I miss you too, my little warrior,” he gruffs back, flicking hisgaze to us. “Lincoln, good to see you, and how’s my favorite Donovan?” he taunts, forcing Asher to look his way.

“Still a billionaire, can’t complain,” Ash grunts back, his distaste for Max still as present as ever and Max chuckles. “Where’s Zack?” Ash adds. “I thought he was coming on the call too?” He looks back to Elle, dismissing Max completely, and I smother a smile.

“Don’t tell me my little brother misses me,” Zack teases, stepping into view beside Max, neither of them looking like they were actually in the middle of a work day.

“I didn’t know you two were working together this week,” Elle accuses, and they both smile.

“Max is just helping me with some training routines,” Zack replies with ease. “Plus we are having dinner with Logan later, I haven’t seen him in a few weeks so we thought it would be nice to all catch up, Lily is coming too,” he explains, and the mention of Logan has me flashing back to how I spent my weekend with him.

“Oh my god, I am so jealous, I can't wait to see you guys for the wedding, it feels like it has been forever since we were all together,” Elle complains, and she is right, we spent weeks and weeks together after the war ended, and then slowly we all drifted back to our own lives.

Lily and Logan went back to college, Zack returned to his New York office, and Max and most of his guys returned to their base of operations too. Elle keeps busy with Cassie and running the Kennedy foundation with the help of Asher and Helen. Arthur has been doing some teaching, and Marcus and Jace finished up the gym on the South Side and now hold classes there for kids every day. And with Ash and I manning the Royton Tech office here in Black Hallows, it makes it hard for all our schedules to align and catch up. We have family dinners atthe house most nights but it’s only usually Elle, Marcus, Cassie, Jace, Asher, and myself.

“That’s what happens when all your enemies are dead, less reunion parties,” I joke, which must be to everyone's surprise, because they all look at me in shock.

“Unless you find new enemies,” Asher replies, looking at me with intent, calling me out without actually calling me out, yet still I see Elle frowning in my peripheral vision.

Thankfully Max saves me.”Speaking of traitors, how are my guys holding up?” he asks me, and a soft laugh leaves me.

He likes to pretend he is pissed that a few of his guys decided to stay here and use Black Hallows as their base of operations. I guess he presumed that when the war was over they would all return to New York, but some of them talked and agreed it would be good to stay here, which of course we appreciate, you can never have enough security. Max was surprised at first, but he soon got on board with the idea when Zack agreed it was a good one, but that doesn’t mean he doesn't call the guys out every chance he gets.

“They’re good, man, working hard as always,” I reply.

“Good, that’s what I like to hear, gotta keep my reputation clean,” he replies with a wink, and Zack laughs.

“Like that could ever happen,” he muses to his best friend, and Max pretends to be offended.

“That’s just earned you one-hundred more push ups, prick,” he tells him with warning, before turning back to us. “Anyway, let’s get this wedding finalized, hey?”

Marcus and Elle are getting married in the Maldives in a couple of weeks time, and have rented out a whole portion of an island for the affair. The island has a hotel with beach villas, water villas, a gym, a spa, multiple restaurants and bars, and a whole hoard of activities for everyone to indulge in. The newlyweds will be spending just over two weeks there, with thewedding taking place in the first one, and their honeymoon in the days after. Cassie will stay with them for the wedding and part of the honeymoon, but then will fly home with Asher to give them a few days alone together.

Everyone is flying out for the wedding and a few days on either side of it, but we just need to finalize everyone's dates and travel arrangements. Of course Max and Zack run through all the security procedures in place both for traveling and on the island, and they send both Asher and I a copy of all the details being discussed as they go, along with the rest of the security team.

Elle planned the wedding as close to Christmas break as she could to accommodate everyone, and none of us missed the checks she wrote to soften the blow. As a result, it’s decided that Elle, Marcus, and Cassie will fly out first, accompanied by Arthur, Helen, Lily, Logan, and Zack, with Max, Owen and Josh as their security detail.

Jace’s little sister is in school another day, so he will wait and join Riley, Sofia, Gerry, and Ava, along with Elijah and Liam as their security the following day once Sofia gets home. Max’s guys Oliver and Alex drew the short straw, and are being left behind to man his New York office, while Seb, Harry, and Landon drew the same fate to stay and man the office here.

I presumed Asher would be traveling out with Elle and Cass, but when both his and my name don’t get mentioned, I start to wonder. The first lot are traveling out on a Thursday, and the second on the Friday, but I know I have clients that I couldn’t move on Monday morning, so I won’t be traveling until Monday afternoon much to my annoyance, but then I figured I could get some of my other work done over that weekend uninterrupted.

“You two both have other engagements running through to that Monday, so rather than you traveling alone, I thought it would be easier to group you together, so you’ll both catch aprivate plane on Monday afternoon at 3pm, sound good?” Max finishes with, and I practically feel Asher flinch beside me.

“What? Are you certain of my schedule? I bet I could move things around,” he pushes, but Max cuts him off.

“I already had Eliza check with all your clients, and certain ones won’t budge, especially given the amount of time you’ll both be away from the office, but it’s fine, it works out well. We’ll charter you a smaller aircraft, it will be less stressful,” Max continues on, oblivious to Asher’s outrage, much to my amusement, and once again I feel Elle’s watchful eyes on me.

The rest of the meeting is wrapped up quickly after that. We discuss some more details like catering, the bachelor and bachelorette parties etc, by the end two hours have flown by and the whole thing is pretty much set in stone with flights booked.

Asher storms from the room pretty much as soon as Zack and Max say goodbye, and Elle looks at me and rolls her eyes, more than used to his particular brand of moods, before she settles her focus on me.

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