Chapter 39 #2
A sudden commotion of noise, loud voices, in the front had them both lifting their heads.
They looked at each other for a long moment, but it only got louder.
Audrey patted her dough and decided it was time for it to take a rest, anyway.
Grabbing a cloth to set over it, she headed to the front to find out what the heck was going on.
The bakery was filled with large, muscular, angry men. And Claudia and Darcy. Thankfully, it must have been a lull because there were only a couple of customers seated at the tables and someone else on their way out the door.
“What are you all doing here?” Audrey asked, startled, and her heart did a little hop, jump, and skip when her gaze met Mason’s. His jaw was locked, his expression grim, but it lightened a bit when he looked at her. Shouldering his way through the crowd, he made his way to her as David answered.
“The FBI kicked us out of the office.” Her brother looked like he was about to explode, he was so pissed off. “They got an anonymous tip about us.”
“Oh my God.” Audrey covered her mouth with her hands as Mason reached her and put his arm around her. “About what though? What could you have done?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing,” Lincoln confirmed from behind her counter, where he had just finished giving his wife a greeting kiss. To Audrey’s surprise, he was grinning. She felt Mason jerk in surprise as well when he looked over and saw his boss. “But they would have found something if not for Zeus.”
Everyone’s gaze turned to the muscular bald man who had been hanging back next to the broken front window, a slight space between him and the rest of the teams. He blinked back at them, his neutral expression not changing one iota.
“The break-in wasn’t about taking something; it was about leaving something.
Namely, some of the files Marshall kept on the side about some of the things he was actually doing under Black Fox’s banner.
” Lincoln’s expression hardened, and Ashley leaned into him, offering support and solace for the betrayal of his one-time friend and business partner.
“They’d been slightly altered to remove any mention of him and to put the blame solely on us. ”
“So, they aren’t going to find anything?” Drew asked, appearing more worried than ever but also hopeful. Relieved. He kept shooting little glances over at Zeus, who remained utterly nonchalant. Audrey glanced up at Mason, but he wasn’t looking at her; he was watching Drew closely.
“No,” Lincoln confirmed. “Zeus found it and reported it to me, and we removed it with Jaxon’s help. We didn’t say anything to anyone else except Harris because we weren’t sure what was going to happen or why it had been planted.”
Audrey glanced over at her other customers, who were watching everything warily, but Lincoln didn’t seem to care if they could overhear.
Thankfully, none of them had their cameras out as far as she could tell.
Not that she wasn’t grateful for the business the viral videos had brought in, but she had that business, and she didn’t want Black Fox to be affected by the social media attention unless she was sure they’d be okay with it.
“Where is Harris?” Ashley asked, looking around.
“He stayed to represent us until Jordana could get there.”
“Who’s Jordana?” Audrey whispered to Mason, as everyone else nodded as if that made sense.
“Harris and Lincoln’s lawyer and Harris’ nemesis,” Mason murmured, the corner of his mouth lifting.
He was watching Zeus now, and Zeus was staring at the ceiling with a bored expression, not doing anything.
Audrey couldn’t figure out what Mason found so interesting about him.
She knew that the team didn’t trust him, but he’d just saved the day… right?
“Why is Harris meeting her instead of Lincoln if she’s Harris’ nemesis?” she whispered back, not sure she could ask about Zeus right now.
“That’s why.”
She didn’t understand, but okay.
“Thanks for saving our asses, Pepper,” Jensen said, stepping close enough to Zeus to be able to clap him on the shoulder. “Appreciate it.”
Zeus considered him for a moment before giving a slow nod. His mouth may have softened slightly. Not a smile, but not totally emotionless anymore, either.
“You’re welcome.”
“So, what do we do now?” Darcy, from Harris’ team, asked.
“We wait.” Lincoln looked at Audrey. “We were hoping you wouldn’t mind us waiting here since you’re so close by.”
“Of course,” she replied immediately, as if she would have kicked them out now. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the men in the corner lift his phone up slightly, as if he was taking a picture. Inwardly, she sighed, but at least he lowered it immediately, so it wasn’t a video.
And it wasn’t like Black Fox didn’t know that they were considered desirable sightings to the bakery’s customers.
“Great.” Claudia was hanging out by the display of baked goods with an anxious-looking Jennifer. Jensen slid over to where they were, putting his arm around Jennifer, and she leaned into him. She’d probably been pretty freaked out when the FBI came in. “Who wants a cupcake while we wait?”