worried about her, and honestly we only have to keep it until next week. The client is making a decision then. If we work this correctly and they accept our lower bid, that should put some tension between Charles and his spy,” Rene replied. “And quite frankly, the companies he’s working with. They won’t like the tables being turned and they’ll blame him for his bad intel.”
“So he’ll go into the celebration for your aunt wounded.” A wounded opponent could still be dangerous. “We’ll have to be careful.”
“And we have to figure out who’s feeding him our bids.” Rene’s jaw tightened and so did his hands on the wheel as the big house came into view. Her husband hid his anger well, but she was starting to learn his tells. “I’ll make a list of everyone who worked on the bids or had access to them.”
He was extremely angry about the spying, and he had every right to be, but he was good at shoving his emotions down.
Except in bed. How could this man think he wasn’t passionate? He’d given her everything he had in bed. She had to find a way to let him know it was safe to share those parts of himself with her outside of sex.
“That’s a lot of cars,” he said as they approached the house. “It looks like your mom is here.”
She saw her mom’s sedan parked beside the Mercedes that Cricket was driven around in, and there was a big SUV beside it. “Louis is here?”
“I’m sure my mother called him when she couldn’t get hold of me. He was in charge at the office while I was gone.”
“He also knew where we were going.” Louis had been there when she’d convinced Rene to play hooky. “We should have listened to the man. He knew the weather reports.”
“Yes, I remember he warned us.” There was something about his tone of voice, a hint of suspicion.
“It’s good that she’s got someone to rely on.” That was all Sylvie was going to say about that until she had far more information. Rene had been extremely prickly at the thought of his mother dating again. She knew Cricket’s health had been a problem, but she seemed much more active lately.
“She has a lot of friends,” he murmured.
Yes, this was one of those times when she needed more information. “Are you all right lying to your mother about where we were all night?” she asked.
“She’ll be happy we’re okay,” he replied. “I need you to tell me if Charles contacts you.”
“Why would he contact me?”
“He’ll try anything. He knows he’s running out of time. His best play is to break us up before my aunt’s party,” Rene said grimly. “I assume he’s going to come up with something that you’ll find unsavory.”
She wasn’t going to be played for a fool. “Well, I’m not about to listen to the man. And I’ll certainly tell you if he tries to contact me.”
“You won’t meet with him,” he said, each word a grave command.
It would be great if she could simply close her office door to anyone she didn’t want to see. There were days when that was the dream. Unfortunately, she had a job to do. “I can’t agree to that. He’s a constituent, and one of my promises was to have an open-door policy.”
“You don’t meet with every constituent who asks.”
“Of course I don’t. There’s not enough time in the day.”
“Then there’s no reason for you to meet with him. Gertie can put him off. She’s good at that,” he said as he put the car in park. Her own car was still at his office because he’d wanted to drive.
“Like I said, I’ll let you know if he tries to contact me.” She slid out of the passenger seat. He was starting to irritate her because she was fairly certain if she tried to tell him what he could or couldn’t do at his job, this discussion would go an entirely different way.
“I thought you wanted to help me with this problem. I seem to remember you saying that me keeping you out of my family issues was one of the reasons you couldn’t trust me,” he argued. “Now that I brought you into it, you’re fighting me again.”
“No, I am explaining to you that I won’t let your family keep me from doing my job. And this isn’t making me part of the solution. This is you trying to control the situation again, and that’s not