Page 29 of Provoke You

9

Are You Surprised?

Ela

“Your brother’s cute.” Out on the New Jersey tarmac, Tyler geared up to ride his motorcycle. In a leather jacket, no shirt, he certainly didn’t have the government-official vibe anymore. Not that he did before, when I first met him in New Orleans. What was he up to? “Did he really just come over to get you to call your mom?”

“You’re talking to me now?” Matt sat on the seat adjacent from me. There was another row of seats where he wouldn’t have to look at me, but he chose to stay here with me. Maybe to make sure I didn’t get intel from his marine buddies, as I had with Tyler.

He was right in that. I didn’t have nearly enough information. Like how were his parents dead, but he still had four brothers and a mom who worried about him? Enough to send the family jet to help his future boss’s daughter. Jesus, was that what I was? I’d be lying if talking to Tyler hadn’t made me want to be something bigger or more meaningful in Matt’s life.

“I can see you’re still not answering my questions.” I stared at his perfect profile, straight nose, the dark stubble on his cheeks, and full lips. Not that it made a difference. Not that he noticed. He’d had his nose buried in his laptop since we left New Orleans. Probably working on those ungodly logistics that were too dangerous for me to handle. At least now I knew there was more to his icy black suit.

“What do you wish to know?” He typed with long fingers. Every now and then his gold watch would slip up and he’d flick his wrist to get it back into place. My cheeks got hot thinking about the kiss we had in the pastry room. What would have happened if the explosion hadn’t ruined our night?

“Is your brother single?”

He slammed his laptop close and met my gaze. “I think so.”

“Good to know.” I turned my attention back to the puffy clouds licking the wing of our plane.

“Is that all?” He leaned forward, bracing his arms on his knees. It was impossible to ignore him when he did that.

“Why can’t we just call Old Ben and ask him how I can stop Dad from selling the Baroness?”

He regarded me for so long without moving I thought maybe he hadn’t heard my question. I wanted to poke him with something hot so he would just tell me everything already.

“Your dad knows that if you decide to claim your inheritance, he may not have a hotel to sweeten his international deal.”

“Dad knows I wouldn’t do that to him.”

“Maybe. What about his investors? We have to tread carefully here. No phone calls. Trust me on this one.”

Matt was a logical creature. This was why I needed him. Not because Jennifer put him in charge of me but because he had the skill to figure out how to get to Old Ben and keep me safe. I just wished he wouldn’t exclude me. I wasn’t that useless.

After what felt like one-hundred hours later, he switched to the seat directly across from me. If I wanted to, I could scoot down a bit and have our knees touch. As if he could read my thoughts, he sat up straight in his chair. I leaned forward anyway.

“It seems Ben knew something was not right. A few weeks ago, he packed his things from his lake house and moved.” He’d finally decided to clue me in.

“I thought you said he was in Utica.”

“He is. He moved to a rental home in the historic district. I guess he couldn’t bring himself to leave altogether.”

“How do you know this?”

“As head of security, I needed to know what information was available with an easy search. I used my findings to come up with a proposal I could use to impress Mr. Benoit.”

“At your interview that you didn’t get to have because of me.”

“Right.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Like I said before, I kind of brought this on myself when I went looking for you.” His features softened, as they had last night, and I relaxed a little in my seat. This Matt was way easier to deal with.

“So what did you find out about us?”

“The secret deal your dad has been negotiating for the last few months was one of the items that came up on my radar. I dug a little just so I would know enough to talk security. Ben’s name came up as part of that. I have a file on him, same as I do for you.”

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