He Came Back Running (Maya and Mason) novel Chapter 203

Chapter 203

+15 Bohus

Chapter 203

Zara’s POV

I had not slept.

Not from guilt, I had moved past guilt approximately three days ago, in the car outside the café…. I had not slept because I had been working.

I walked into Mason’s office without knocking.

Not from aggression…. from the understanding that knocking communicated uncertainty about whether I had the right to be there, and I had decided, overnight, that performing uncertainty was no longer available to me.

He was at his desk.

Documents spread across it in the organised way of someone who had been working for an hour or more….

He looked up.

Not with surprise.

“You’ve been lying to me,” I said.

I closed the door behind me.

He looked at me for a moment.

“Have I?”

His eye turned back to his desk.

“You told me we were partners,” I said. “You’re making plans you haven’t told me about. Bringing people in you haven’t mentioned.” I held his gaze. “The woman at the café. Who is she?”

He smiled.

The small version. The one that communicated he was not going to pretend he didn’t know what I was talking about and was not going to apologise for any of it.

“I never said you needed to know every detail,” he said.

I moved closer

Not to crowd him…. to be close enough that the conversation was unambiguously between us and not for the room.

“If we’re working together,” I said, “I deserve answers and now.”

He leaned back in his chair.

The unhurried, settled posture of a man who had been in enough negotiations to know when someone across from him was operating from a position of less information than they wanted and was trying to close the gap through directness.

“No,” he said. “You deserve results.”

The calmness was the most irritating thing.

Not because it was performed…. I had spent enough time with Mason over the past weeks to understand the

1/3

Chapter 203

+15 Bonus

difference between his performed attitude and his genuine one, and this was the genuine one. The

So are you telling me that you don’t trust me?” I asked.

“I don’t trust anyone,” he said.

His answer coming in immediately without letting mine land.

“Then what exactly are we doing?” I said.

He looked at the documents on his desk.

The gesture of a man who was about to return his attention to something more important.

“We’re doing what we agreed to do,” he said. “I’m managing the mechanics. You’re available for the access component when the time comes.” He held my gaze briefly. “The fewer people who know the plan in detail, the smaller the chance of it failing.” He paused. “You understand that. You’ve been in professional environments where that’s true.”

“I’ve been in professional environments where that’s a reason,” I said, “and professional environments where it’s an excuse. I know the difference”

He looked at me.

Something behind the flat calm…..

“What are you looking for?” he said.

“Certainty that I’m not the one who takes the fall if this goes wrong,” I said.

He held my gaze.

Then he looked back at the documents.

“Go home Zara,” he said. “I’ll be in touch when I need you.”

I turned.

Moved toward the door.

My hand in my bag… the casual reach of someone finding their phone or their keys, the movement that existed in the peripheral vision of a room without requiring attention.

My thumb found the voice recorder.

Pressed it on.

Not dramatically. Not with any change in the pace of my movement or the quality of my breathing. The simple, quiet action of someone adding an instrument to a situation that had been operating without one on their side.

The recorder ran.

I kept my hand in my bag around it.

Turned back.

Not all the way….. partially, enough to be facing him, enough for the microphone to have line of sight to the room.

“The woman you paid,” I said. “What exactly did you tell her to say to Alex?”

2/3

Chapter 203

+15 Bgnus

Mason looked up.

His face changed slightly… I’ve gotten his attention after all

“Nothing that isn’t true,” he said. “I’ve been very consistent about that.”

“Consistent about it to me,” I said. “What about to her?”

“She has her own grievance,” he said. “I simply gave it an audience.” He looked at me. “Real information, Zara. No fabrication. When it comes back to us… and it won’t, but if it did…. there’s nothing there to find.”

“Except the payment,” I said.

“Which runs through two removes,” he said, “and connects to a consulting arrangement that has legitimate documentation.”

I looked at him.

“You’ve been very thorough,” I said.

“I’m always thorough,” he said.

I turned back toward the door

Opened it.

The corridor.

The door closed behind me

The recorder still running in my bag.

I walked toward the elevator with the, controlled pace of someone who had completed the task they came for and was leaving at the appropriate speed.

Pressed the button….

Waited.

Inside the office, behind the closed door, Mason looked at the door for a moment.

Then he looked at his desk.

At the documents.

He picked up his pen.

Made a note on the document in front of him.

And smiled.

Comments

Support

Share

3/3