Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6) - Lauren Dane Page 0,24

the air and moving toward the target.

“Calm your butt,” she said as she got her seat belt on. “We can’t leave until they get the all clear and when that happens, Betchamp will come back into the cabin.”

“Calm my butt?” he asked, outraged and yet amused. “My butt is just fine, thank you. We can’t take off if you aren’t belted in and you’re notorious for refusing to comply with rules.”

“Yes, calm your butt. It’s not about my seat belt. It’s about your control freak ways. You can’t fold space-time just yet and it offends you on some basic level.” Rowan rolled her eyes. “In other words, handle your own shit and let the rest of us get along with ours. It’s not the first time we’ve been on a plane.”

He ignored her as he got himself seated. Responding to her then would only embolden her. Especially because she was right.

They took off shortly after that—once Betchamp had come back into the cabin to announce takeoff as Rowan had said he would—and the moment they achieved altitude he got in touch with Warren.

Chapter Eight

Rowan kept an eye on Clive. He was more disagreeable than usual. She figured he’d be a little more relaxed since he’d finally recovered Lyr’s memories but it seemed that he was driven to go and do right then.

And as an entire ocean and most of the United States was between them and their next target, it wasn’t possible.

While Clive and Warren had an endless series of conversations about protocol and process, she dashed off several emails to Susan, letting her know Rowan was on her way to London and might lean on Hunter Corp. resources for some work. She also let the real estate agent know she wanted to make an offer on the third property they saw that afternoon. Purchasing the entire building would solve several problems and it gave her enough space to have layers upon layers of security.

“We need to hire some more staff to get the Motherhouse up and running,” she told David when he brought her a cup of coffee and some sort of sweet roll Elisabeth had probably made.

“Hunters or valets and support staff?” he asked, settling in at the chair across from hers with a cup of tea and his own sweet roll.

“All the above. You’ll need your own assistant but I’ll let you do the hiring for that.” Goddess, maybe he’d be a little less up in her business every moment if he had someone to supervise and sniff indignantly at.

She nearly laughed and he gave her a closer look so she carried on. “Vanessa has already started but she’ll have an office and at least one or two staff of her own so they can be available for Hunters nationwide. A resource library needs to be created, maintained and then as much as possible, needs to be made easily accessed by Hunters and their staff no matter where they are. I expect Vanessa will be the best person to get on that.”

David scribbled notes, comparing to his tablet from time to time.

Rowan continued. “The Hunters in the region we know already so we’ll need to have enough space for them to be able to use the Motherhouse at any time they might need to. We’ll need some permanent offices on the fourth and fifth floors, but let’s also set up some guest offices on the lower floors, along with sleeping spaces—bedrooms and some dormitory type rooms with bunk beds in case we might need it and I sincerely hope we never do. A communal kitchen area on each floor. Conference rooms of varying sizes with all the prerequisite tech.”

Things were beginning to take shape in her head. The vision for the future of Hunter Corp. filled her with a growing passion to forge a safer future for them all. The status quo had gotten so stale it had allowed for rot. And that rot and the betrayals that had followed had devastated their organization to the very core. All that loss had to mean something. Rowan would not let it be in vain.

“We’ll have to make sure the training opportunities for Hunters and valets alike are available. Like Susan’s valet, I think you could be an excellent liaison.”

David blushed furiously. “Me?”

“Having a well trained valet means that valet’s chances of survival on the job are higher. You’re very good at your job and I think you have a very good way with people. Even difficult people