Rich (Benson Security #5) - Janet Elizabeth Henderson Page 0,102
to take that job, Michael. I know it’s not what you envisioned doing when you left the CIA. It’s hardly the pinnacle of a security career.”
She felt him shrug. “I’m not an ambitious man, Rachel. I wanted the challenge of working with the CIA, now I want the challenge of loving you and making our life together. I’ll be fine. And if I get bored, I can always do some freelance work for Callum.”
“You’re sure you want to come with me?” Changing his whole life for her was a huge ask, and she feared he’d regret it.
“I’m sure, but there’s a condition.”
Her heart stuttered. “Of course, there is.”
“No trust.” He chuckled again. “I want us to get married for real. Those are my terms for sorting out TayFor’s security and for watching your back for the rest of your life. You have to make an honest man of me.”
“You are pathetically bad at negotiation.” She felt a surge of pure happiness. “You should have held out for a higher salary and a better car.”
“I don’t need a higher salary. I’m marrying an heiress.” When she sat up and glared at him, he laughed. “I’m worth millions, Rachel. I’m very good at playing the stock market. I don’t need your money or the job at TayFor.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? Or my stupid cousins when they went on about prenups.”
“Because it’s not important. I was lucky with the stock market, that’s all. Plus, I planned to keep you whether I had money or not.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “That arrogance of yours really isn’t attractive.”
“Yes, it is.” He smiled, and it made her melt. “You haven’t answered me. We’re getting married, right?”
Letting out a heavy sigh, she rested her head back on his shoulder. “I suppose so. If we must.”
“Your enthusiasm underwhelms me, but I heard a yes in there, and that’s all I care about.” His body flexed as something seemed to occur to him. “We’re not going to triple barrel our names, are we? Rachel Ford-Talbot-Carter? That’s just wrong.”
“Don’t be an idiot.” She snuggled closer. “You’ll just change your name, and that will be the end of it.”
“Yeah, that ain’t gonna happen.”
“Men. You’re always so difficult.”
“You’d better believe it,” he said as he stood with her wrapped around him. “Come on. This time, you can scrub my back.” And he headed for the bathroom.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rachel might have avoided the topic of the video during her night with Harvard, but the following morning, there was no getting away from it. Especially as her colleagues at Benson Security seemed so adamant about discussing it.
It was barely seven a.m., and the conference room was full. Everyone who was able had turned up for the meeting—and they’d brought breakfast along with them. There were donuts and Danish pastries, coffees and teas. And then there was Ryan, with a full English breakfast in front of him.
Rachel let out a sigh of disgust as she eyed the mountain of food in front of Ryan. “Do you have to turn every surface in front of you into a pig trough? You’re heading for a heart attack.” Not that she cared. She just felt the need to point it out.
“At least I have a heart.” He grinned and held up his hand to Joe for a high five.
Joe just groaned. “Dude, that was lame.”
“Yeah? Well, it’s early.”
“Aye,” Callum snapped. “It is. Too damn early. Some of us have been up most of the night. How about we get to the point of this meeting?”
“Isobel isn’t sleeping too well during this stage of her pregnancy,” Noah informed everyone. “So Callum isn’t sleeping either.”
“Did I ask you to update everybody on my life?” Callum barked.
Lake shook his head at his partner, his lip twitching in what approximated a smile for him. “Did Elle get something off the video?”
Well, that answered that question. Apparently, everyone was up to speed with the latest piece of her past that had slapped her in the face.
“No.” Elle shook her head and yawned. “Harry’s running every imaging analysis tool we can get our hands on. The pixel ratio isn’t as good as we’d like, but then the video was shot on a ten-year-old phone. Cameras have improved a lot since then. After we run a comparative diagnostic, we’ll take the video frame by frame and enhance the quality to isolate any details that may have been hidden. But that’ll take time.”
“What about the metadata?” Harvard asked.
“It was stripped.” Elle looked annoyed. “But Harry