The Mercenary Next Door (Rogues and Rescuers #2) - Lucy Leroux Page 0,44

took a few steps forward, close enough for her to feel his heat.

“I know I shouldn’t be here,” he said in a hoarse voice. “You’re seeing that guy now, but there is something you need to know.”

Laila clutched her apron tighter. “What is it?”

“That night…” Mason broke off, rubbing his face with his good hand. “Actually, the next morning is what I wanted to talk about. What you saw—that girl. Her name is Angie.”

Laila flinched. She didn’t mean to, but she did. Mason swore under his breath.

“She didn’t stay the night with me,” he said urgently. “She was there the next morning, but she wasn’t invited. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

Laila suppressed a shiver. She was almost as wet as he was now, but she didn’t care. “You…you’re saying you didn’t sleep with her.”

“Yeah,” he said gruffly. “I didn’t. I wouldn’t have. And she wasn’t after me for real—she’s getting married to Dusty, the man she really wanted, in a couple of weeks. It’s not important. My point is that I wouldn’t have done that. Not right after you and I… I know that doesn’t matter now because you’re with someone new, and he seems…great. Fine. But I needed you to know.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Was Mason asking for another chance?

He stilled, then rolled his shoulders. “I needed to clear the air. You had to know I have more honor than that.”

Her throat was too tight to speak. “I…”

“It’s all beside the point. You’ve moved on,” he repeated. “I know it’s selfish to come around again after all this time, but I didn’t want you to go on with your life thinking badly of me. Because what you think matters to me. It matters a lot.”

Pivoting abruptly, he started to leave. He was at the door of his Mustang before she could react.

“Mason!” Laila ran toward him. She stopped short at the edge of the lot. “I—I believe you.”

He nodded once. And then he got in his car and drove away.

Chapter Nineteen

Five Months Later

Mason kept his face impassive as Rainer Torsten finished the obstacle course a full fifteen seconds after the rest of the delta team. It was a pretty decent time for a playboy billionaire, but Mason still shot him a warning glance. It wouldn’t do to let the other guys think he would accept this kind of performance from them. But for someone as pampered as Torsten, it wasn’t half bad, especially in this heat.

He had to hand to the billionaire—the man had committed to the training. His counterpart, Garret Chapman, had dropped out ages ago.

But Rainer surprised him. He was here every Saturday, rain or shine. Mason didn’t take it easy on him either, refusing to tailor the routine to his level or soften it in any way. If Torsten couldn’t keep up with the others, then he had no right to be here, even if they spent the six days working here to Rainer’s one.

If the rich man’s lag widened to thirty seconds, however, Mason might discreetly ask him to tap out. But there was no real reason for it. Torsten had done his best to minimize disruption. He didn’t bring his bodyguards to the warehouse and fields where they trained, and he was always on time.

And he was friendly and strangely unobtrusive in a way Chapman, or his bosses, Ian Quinn and Elias Gardner, were not. Though he could never truly stay in the background, Rainer was one of those men who silently observed, never letting on what was going on behind those inscrutable eyes. By reputation, he was a shark in the boardroom, but he was respectful and friendly here.

“Do you have plans for the weekend?” Rainer asked after the recruits had gone off to hit the showers. “I was going to fly down to my place in the Bahamas, and I thought you’d like to come along. “

Mason gave him a sharp look. “You’re not coming back next Saturday, are you?”

Rainer appeared caught off guard. Then he shrugged. “No,” he said shortly.

He shared a hapless smile that no doubt got him far with the ladies. “Sorry, it’s not that I don’t appreciate your efforts to train me. It’s not even that I’m unwilling to do the work, but I used to travel a lot—business—and coming here every week is starting to get in the way.”

That was the reason Chapman had stopped coming. But Mason had always wondered what was keeping Torsten from dropping out. Six months was an eternity