Chapter 208
Jocelyn walked into her office at the Wolfe Hotel, her mind still replaying the breakfast conversation. She. He said she.
Carmen Golden was waiting for her. The CFO looked stressed, her usually impeccable bun slightly askew.
“We have a problem,” Carmen said without preamble. “The board wants to meet. Today.”
“Today? Why?” Jocelyn frowned, setting her purse down. “The quarterly review isn’t until next week.”
“Senator Collins requested it,” Carmen said, checking her watch. “He said he wanted to personally inspect the asset before the election cycle heats up.”
Jocelyn froze. Justin Collins. The serious brother.
“By the way,” Jocelyn said, lowering her voice. “Elbert called me yesterday. He was asking pointed questions about you.”
Carmen blinked. “About me?”
“Asking if you were single,” Jocelyn warned. “He’s on a matchmaking crusade for Justin.”
Carmen laughed — a dry, humorless sound. “I have a fiancé. Quentin. Remember? I told you.”
“I told him,” Jocelyn said. “But Elbert is persistent. And Justin — well, just be careful. The Collins men are intense.”
о𝘳𝗀𝖺ո𝗶𝘇𝖾 𝘆𝗼ur 𝗅𝗂b𝗿а𝘳𝗒 o𝗇 𝗀𝗮𝗅𝗇𝘰𝗏𝘦𝘭ѕ.𝖼𝗼m
Carmen shrugged, gathering her files. “I can handle a politician. Let’s go.”
The conference room at the Wolfe Hotel was usually a place of calm strategy. Today, it felt like a cage.
“Why is the board meeting moved here?” Jocelyn whispered to Carmen as they set up the projector. “Usually we go to Collins Tower.”
“Senator Collins insisted,” Carmen murmured, adjusting the HDMI cable. “Said he wanted to see the operations on the ground.”
The door opened. Justin Collins walked in.
He was taller than Gaston, broader in the shoulders, with the kind of imposing presence that seemed to drain the oxygen from a room. He wore a charcoal suit that probably cost more than Jocelyn’s car.
But it was his eyes that were truly unsettling. They didn’t scan the room. They locked onto Carmen like a missile guidance system.
Carmen didn’t notice. She was busy syncing her laptop.
“Senator,” Jocelyn greeted him, rising to her feet.
Justin didn’t look at her. His gaze remained fixed on the back of Carmen’s head. “Mrs. Collins. Please, sit.”
The meeting began. Carmen presented charts on occupancy rates and revenue per available room. She was brilliant, articulate, and thoroughly professional.
Justin sat at the head of the table and didn’t look at the screen once. He watched Carmen. He watched her hands move as she gestured, watched her lips form words, and listened to the cadence of her voice with an intensity that made the hair on Jocelyn’s arms stand up.
He isn’t listening to the numbers, Jocelyn realized. He’s memorizing her.
When the meeting ended, Carmen exhaled slowly, as though she had been holding her breath for the past hour.
“That was… intense,” Carmen whispered as Justin left the room without a word of goodbye.
Jocelyn’s phone buzzed in her pocket. A text from the private nurse: Grandma is asking for you.
Jocelyn rushed into the exclusive medical wing of the Collins Premier Living facility, her heart in her throat. She expected beeping machines, doctors rushing, some kind of emergency.
Instead, she stopped dead in the doorway.
.