After they paid for the haul, the girls headed to Viola’s car to drop off their goods before grabbing a bite to eat. Shelby felt her phone buzzing in her purse, but had her hands too full to fish it out. Once they got to the car, she felt it go off again, but this time, she heard the sound alerting her of the text message she’d received. She shoved her bags into the backseat, pulled out her phone, and gasped.
Mason had called.
Mason had sent the text.
“What is it?” Viola asked when she saw Shelby staring at her phone, not moving.
“Showalter.”
Viola rushed around the car. “Let me see.”
Shelby yanked the phone back out of her grasp. “I haven’t even read it yet.” She was almost too afraid to see what he had to say.
“What are you waiting for?”
She shook off her stupor and entered her password. As she read it, she frowned. “Just that he has a meeting Tuesday afternoon and might be late.” She looked up at her friend. “He said to wait for him and not to leave.”
“Okay. I guess it’s good he gave you a heads up. Should you call him back?”
“No.” She couldn’t talk to him right now anyway. She didn’t know what to expect when she saw he’d reached out to her. A little part of her had hoped he’d apologize for how things ended and maybe even make plans to see her outside the club. That same part of her that was being stupid because he’d done neither. To do so might encourage her to believe there was something more going on between them, and he’d made it clear that was not the case.
At least on his side.
The jury was still out on hers.
He should’ve sent her flowers.
Roses.
Yes, he should’ve sent her roses. Two dozen long-stemmed ones. That was what men did when they royally fucked up with their women. But Shelby wasn’t his. She couldn’t be his, not right now. He had too much shit going on at work to get carried away with her. He knew that. By God, he did, but it didn’t make it easier.
Nor did it mean he couldn’t explore something with her once he got William taken care of. But for that to happen, he needed to find a healthy balance between keeping her at a distance for now without her feeling completely dismissed by him. That felt too much like playing games, which he hated, but it was the best compromise he could come up with.
He’d realized this on Saturday, after the second night of no sleep and spending every daylight hour holed up in his office. If he couldn’t be with her, he’d work, and he did, but his thoughts belonged to one long-haired brunette.
Mason had been so distracted by thoughts of Shelby he’d almost missed seeing William logging onto the system Saturday afternoon. What had made it stand out was William had connected from his office at the firm, not remotely from another location.
Why had his boss come to work on a Saturday? It hadn’t made any sense. William spent as much time at the office as Mason did during the workweek, but the man never came in on the weekends.
Almost as quickly as William had logged in, he’d logged right back off. Although Mason had been exhausted from lack of sleep, he’d acted quickly, dragging his tired ass away from his desk to intercept his boss.
He’d succeeded in his efforts.
William hadn’t been quick enough to hide his shock at seeing Mason at the office. That had told him William was doing something specific, possibly in a hurry, and hadn’t been aware of anyone else being in the building or online. But what had been the strangest thing of all was William hadn’t been alone.
Mason hadn’t recognized the man with William, and his boss had fed him a line about leaving his access card to the country club in his office and needing it because they had a two o’clock tee time. Mason hadn’t bothered asking him about accessing the computer network, rather, he’d made a mental note to check the logs for anything suspicious.
When William had asked why he wasn’t out enjoying his Saturday, Mason had said he was looking for leads on the matter they’d discussed before. Mason didn’t go into details in front of the stranger, but William understood he was talking about Carl. Before rushing out with his mystery guest, William mentioned he’d be scheduling a five o’clock conference call Tuesday afternoon with their Tokyo counterpart since it would be first thing in the morning their time.
Mason had much more important things to do that night, so he had fought down any immediate retort. That meeting was likely to last hours and would definitely interfere with his plans with Shelby.
No way was he canceling. He’d tried calling her to let her know he’d be late, but she hadn’t answered. He’d immediately wondered if she was ignoring his calls, but didn’t blame her if she was. He didn’t like it, regardless, but everybody had a defense mechanism. He was sure hers had been activated.
Now it was Monday, and he still hadn’t been sleeping worth shit. He hadn’t found anything new on William or his involvement with the Culpepper Hedge Fund. From everything he could see, it all looked legit.
Too much so. Almost as if someone had made sure everything was in crisp order. That in and of itself had to be a red flag.
After seeing William at the office on Saturday, Mason had pulled out his special phone and relayed the details of his strange encounter to his silent partner. The man had been grateful for the information and was going to look into it immediately, but Mason hadn’t heard back if they’d found anything viable. Unfortunately, that wasn’t saying much. He was doing all the digging without much in
