"The Nakamura deal," Matteo says. "No they won't," I say, dropping into the chair across from him.
"Restructure the offer. Better terms, full week rescheduled, upgraded hospitality across the board. They'll come back angrier and settle faster because the numbers will be better and men like Nakamura-san always follow the numbers." I hold his gaze.
"Jennifer needs looking after. Some bastard alpha got her pregnant and walked out. Left her with nothing. She got on aboat in the middle of the night, and the last thing we did when we saw her was hand her five thousand dollars and send her home alone."
I sit forward. "Canceling a meeting is the least we can do, Matteo."
He looks at the folders, then closes them.
"I'll call Nakamura's office now," Matteo says, already reaching for his phone. "Santos should stay with her while we sort this."
"He's already on the floor outside her door," I say. "Hasn't moved since she went in."
Matteo pauses with his phone in his hand. "Go," he says quietly. "I'll handle everything here."
I stand, pull up Diego on my phone, and lift my jacket from the hook in the corridor on my way out.
He picks up on the second ring.
"Ferretti," Diego says.
"There was a taco truck," I say, walking toward the bay path. "Virginia, possibly registered in Vegas or the surrounding area. Owner surname Sullivan, first name Jennifer. The previous co-owner walked out. I want everything. What happened to the business, what she was owed, who walked, and anything still outstanding."
"Timeline?" Diego asks.
"Yesterday would have been ideal."
A short pause. "Tonight," he says.
"This one is personal, Diego. Be thorough with it."
I end the call and keep walking.
Some bastard alpha knocked her up and then dumped her. I wonder if it's the same one who stole her truck. It's none of our business, but I want to do right by her. I feel as if I need to do it after everything she has been through.
I want to find him more than I want the Nakamura deal.
The anger sits low in my chest, the specific kind that doesn't spike and doesn't shout. It just settles in and stays there, quiet and certain, the kind that means a decision has already been made and is simply waiting on information.
As soon as Jennifer went into pre-heat, Matteo called Carmen and told her to contact Daniel. A day, maybe two. No renegotiation. The guests still need feeding and Jennifer needs to rest without the service collapsing around her. It was the right call. It still sits badly.
I'm nearly at the dock when the unfamiliar boat stops me cold.
Daniel is sitting on the supply crates with the loose-limbed ease of a man who has not yet understood the nature of his error. He watches me come down the path like he half expected it.
I stop at the base and look at him.
He opens his mouth.
He doesn't get there.
Because the figure stepping out from behind the supply shed hits me somewhere below conscious thought, and my body reacts the way it always did. Hands going still at my sides. Everything in me going very quiet and very focused all at once.
Chiara.
Three years. She looks exactly the same and I am apparently not as done with that fact as I thought I was.
She walks toward me with those dark eyes steady and carrying something she has clearly committed to saying regardless of how this lands. One meter. Then less.