Page 46 of Come Inside

“Steve? What are you doing here?” James was surprised to see his partner in person. They had only met on a few occasions, conducting most of their business through phone calls and emails.

“You going to go on another discretion package with the CEO?” Steve walked into the office, shutting the door behind him and leaning against it.

There was something just a bitoffwith his tone, but James couldn’t pinpoint it. And he wouldn’t be questioning it, either.

Steve sought him out when he was at his lowest, offered him the funds needed to get his feet under him again.

James shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He had originally lied about why he was meeting Yara, he decided it best to follow through on the lie. “Yeah, couldn’t find the right fit and we had a bit of an argument. I’m trying to get in touch with Yara to apologize and to find another match.” The lie tasted bitter as it left him, but even more so?

James couldn’t deny it, Steve had a weird interest in this entire encounter.

James hadn’t thought much of it before, too wrapped in his own anxieties, but now he watched Steve with careful eyes.

“Hmm, Yara? She reminds me of a doll, except she needs to be put together a bit better.”

“Doll?” The word caused sharp pangs of anxiety to hit him directly in the temple.

And the familiar tone Steve spoke in.

Did SteveknowYara?

Steve stepped further into the office, shadows following him until he stopped right in front of James’s desk. Directly on the other side.

The lamp on it lit up his face eerily and shone directly on his bright cerulean eyes.

“Yes, a doll.” Steve smiled, his face warping into the typical mask of emotionlessness that James was accustomed to. “Best to meet back up with her again. Let me know how it goes, will you?”

Steve reached forward and it took everything for James to not flinch back, but Steve just grabbed the frame from his desk. It was a picture of James’s little girl on his shoulders.

“Isobella was so pretty here, so sad you lost her all those years ago. I wonder where she is now?” On those ominous words, Steve set the frame down, spun on his heel and left the office, shutting the door behind him.

It took James a few minutes to calm his nerves, and even longer to realize something.

He had never told Steve his daughter’s name.

Chapter 31

Mateo

The maddening pitch of a phone woke Mateo from the best sleep he had ever had in his life.

He glanced down at the beautiful woman that was draped half-way across his body.

“Help me,” he directed the words to Kazi. ”Only you two and Emilio have this number.”

The latter didn’t say anything; he simply assisted with shifting Yara off Mateo.

Finally reaching the phone, he answered the call. “Boss.”

“That’s fucking rich since you sent me off like your errand boy.”

“Information?” Mateo shifted on the bed, casting a glance back at Yara, she was still soundly asleep. His hand reached up on its own accord, brushing a piece of hair that had fallen across her face.

“I looked into the man,James, and into all of his business associates. She said his silent partner sent him to the company? Well here is where it gets weird, for all accounts and purposes, the silent partner is a complete ghost. I couldn’t find anything on him. Except—” he paused.

“I told you not to tell him about James!” Kazi mouthed the words in anger at Mateo, but he brushed them off.

“Except what?” Mateo rumbled out.

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