Tell Paul that I'll join them presently." He waited for the phone to buzz again and hit the speaker button. "Marcus?" You got good news for me, Julius..." I don't have bad news if that helps."Marcus sighed heavily, "George has given me a couple estimates if'n this bill passes. Right nasty." Can we absorb it?"There was a moment of silence then another heavy sigh, "Yeah, profit margin'll make Momma scream ta all hell but we can take the hit. Don't know how some of the smaller charter's'll do with. There only needs to be four of us in there.”“Five,” Natasha stood up. “I will not be--”“I counted you in the four,” Owen said. He reached up to scratch his hair as he thought. Maxim saw the quick turn of Owen’s wrist. Maxim frowned.“It is unimportant,” Maxim said. “Giselle?”“Oh, Giselle! There’s the one I was missing,” Owen laughed. “Dess-soul-lay.”“De rien,” she said, smiling at Owen’s attempt at French. The strange cadence of English speakers using her mother tongue aggravated her, except. I should have been half asleep with jet lag, but I was so thrilled to finally be with her that I felt wide awake. Even the wine wasn't affecting my energy levels. "It's amazing what love can do to me," I thought to myself as we ate, talked and laughed together. Allison and I held hands under the table for the whole evening. When we got back to Allison's place we walked arm in arm from the car to the door. The whole day had been completely crazy yet utterly fabulous at the same time. Despite all. "I'm going to tie you up and put on a gag. If one of the gang comes in to check on you, I don't want them to worry you could get away and mess this up. I didn't tell anyone else the details of our discussion, so if they get worried about you, they'll kill you. I don't want that to happen."He nodded his understanding.I indicated he should turn around so I could tie his hands behind him. "When we've secured the load, I'll come back and release you. Your family will be fine." I don't want you to.