Page 17 of Born for Starlight

“I don’t want to sit down.”

“Yelling at us isn’t going to un-air the podcast.”

“I’m aware of that, Simon, thank you.” Jase dropped into his chair anyway, actually more collapsed than sat, and put both hands over his face for a second before dragging them down. “I’ve got to call her again. I already told her not to go, and she’s going to do it anyway, because that’s exactly the kind of person she is, and I love her for it, and I also want to lock her in a room until this blows over.”

“That’s not going to happen either,” Simon said, not unkindly.

“I’m aware of that too.”

Jase looked up at me and gave me a chin tilt. He’d spotted me as soon as I’d come in, but it was only now that he was calm enough to acknowledge me. “Why’re you here?”

“Same reason all the rest of you are. The podcast.” I looked again at the man I didn’t recognize. “Tried calling Bruno, but didn’t reach him. Thought he might be on the phone with Angelica, or deep at work. But knew people here would be at it.”

“You got that right.” Jase nodded. “Dammit!” he bit out the word.

I glanced again at Simon and the unknown man. Jase looked over his shoulder. Looked back at me. “That’s Billy Anderson. Former SEAL. There’s a deep connection between him and Simon. He just came from Alaska.”

All I could figure is he might be angling for a job. With what I’d been hearing about Onyx, the jobs and money were coming in hand over fist because of Simon’s background as a former Lieutenant Commander over SEALs. Everybody wanted to hire him, or his people.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Simon said, looking at me.

“Thinking.”

“About?”

“That a woman I barely know, but is a sister of someone I consider a friend, just did a very stupid thing.”

Jase jumped up and pointed at me. “There! What he said!” He came around the conference room table and clapped my back. “I knew I liked you!” He turned to Simon. “So, what in the fuck are we going to do about it?”

Simon turned slowly away from Billy Anderson and looked at Jase, then his eyes settled on me. “I don’t know. Why don’t we ask the man who has a background on human trafficking?”

Seriously?

I took a deep breath. I was so fucked.

Jase turned back to look at me. “What the fuck, Matthew. That’s not what you said you did. You said you were Army Intelligence, and then landed into consulting work. You never once mentioned trafficking.”

“It’s complicated.”

“It sure is,” Simon said. “Seems to me that you deciding to buddy up with Bruno, brother to Angelica Drakos, was a smart move.”

I held up my hands. “There is no way in hell that I knew Angelica was going to pull the stunt that she just pulled,” I defended myself.

Jase stepped into my personal space. “What the hell do you want with my sister?” he growled.

“Besides her phone number?”

He took a step closer. “Don’t get cute with me.”

“There is a tiny chance that Angelica might be pulled into something that I was working on a while back, with what she just did.” I wanted to cross my fingers behind my back. I wanted to pretend I hadn’t had breakfast with Little Grandma.

“If I find out, there’s more that you’re not telling me, I’ll pull off your nuts and roast them over a fire, and feed them to my friend’s dog. Are you understanding me?”

I didn’t roll my eyes.

“I’m understanding you,” I told the former Navy SEAL.

“Good. Now tell us what you know,” Jase demanded.