Page 58 of Mountain Security

“Well,Ido,” Yvette said fiercely. “We’ve done some good work together over the last three years, Pierre, but it’s not enough. We need more time to finish the things we started.”

Pierre shook his head fiercely.

“I know, dammit. I’m just finding it hard to think of anything other than Vivienne.”

Yvette sighed. “Fine. Go home and talk to your wife, Pierre.Reallytalk to her.”

“And you?”

“I’ll stay here with the team. We’ll figure out how to respond to this shit show.” She turned to look at Alex. From the professional look on her face, nobody would know they’d been naked in bed together just a few hours earlier. He remembered the feel of her soft curves against his, the way—

Keep it professional, asshole.

Don’t embarrass her.

“Alex. What do you think the chances are that the two things could be related?”

“It’s possible. I’m still monitoring access to your network, but there’s been nothing unusual. I left a file, clearly marked personal, and made that one easily available, but nobody’s tried to get into it. We’ll give it a bit more time. I ran a search on everyone involved in those seven files, including project developers, landowners, etc. I need to go through that with you when you have a minute.”

“Okay. Let me catch up with the team and then we’ll sit down to look at it together.”

With that, she turned and left the office, disappearing into the meeting room. Alex stalled for a moment, but there was nothing he could say to the mayor that would make him feel better.

* * *

Yvette

Yvette’s phone pinged.

What now?

It’d been doing that all day. She wondered what would happen if she dropped it onto the carpet and stomped on it with her heels.

Her team would think she’d lost her mind.

The message was from Aristide Gaultier. That was a surprise, until she remembered she’d seen the man, together with his father, shortly beforeThe Newsbroke the night before.

I stand by you, Yvette.

She wondered how to interpret the statement.

Does he mean politically?

Aristide’s father, Arnaud, had always supported Pierre—at least until the aquarium investment debacle. Did Aristide mean that he and his father would continue to support them politically?

Arnaud Gaultier was a heavyweight in the community. His public endorsement of Pierre’s campaign at a time like now would go a long way to lay to rest any concerns the community had about Pierre’s morals.

Another thought struck her.

Or does he mean personally?

Argh.

She hoped he didn’t mean personally.

Yvette and Aristide had been on one date together a couple of years earlier. Arnaud was handsome, intelligent, and rich as Croesus. Unfortunately, he was also an entitled prick, who’d spent more time during their date on the phone debating where to park his private jet on his next jaunt to Milan, than actually trying to get to know her.

She’d agreed to the date because she knew there had to be more to the man than what he showed publicly. Hell, he’d been behind several successful start-ups, two of which had gone global. She’d been wrong. Or, at least, she hadn’t been able to get through to him.

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