“Linc. I haven’t forgotten you,” I say with a smile. “If Devon agrees, I am going to give you fifteen percent of my shares in Saxon and fifteen percent of Accounts.”

“No, Liv. You don’t need to do that,” Lincoln says.

“Yes, I do,” I say firmly, and he smiles.

I turn back to Devon, “Which makes you majority shareholder. My gift to you.”

Devon shakes his head, “No. I don’t want it. I said it before, Liv, it’s ours. Yours and mine. We stay equal partners. You give Lincoln seven and a half percent of your shares in both companies and I will do the same. We three will make up the board, with Scott as CEO, and Constantine stays as Chairman. All we need now is a replacement for me.”

“You would do that? Give up the chance to be my boss?” I ask him.

He laughs out loud. “Oh, gods, when you put it like that, I take it back! But no, kidding aside, it’s a good arrangement and I am happy with it.”

“So am I. Everyone gets taken care of.”

“Erm, what about me?” Cole says with a mock wounded look.

I chuckle. “You are my husband, what’s mine is yours. Although…” I pause for dramatic effect.

He steps closer. “I hope you aren’t going to name me replacement for Devon. I haven’t got a fucking clue what he does for a living.”

Devon laughs again, as do I. “No. The idea is that we spend more time together. I don’t want you off working while I am stuck at home. But I am giving you my title at the Studio, pending board approval. Scott has already had the meeting; we are just waiting for the vote.”

“What?” he asks, shocked. “I don’t know anything about running a Studio, not to mention I thought you didn’t want me off working.”

“Do I look like I do any work for them? I turn up at a quarterly meeting and give them money. It’s really not that taxing. Edward runs the show and we are both happy with that arrangement.”

“Seriously? How much of my money do I have to give them?” he asks, a bit put out.

“Nothing, you fool. You use mine,” I say, rolling my eyes at him. “Ours,” I amend with a quick look at CK who isn’t very happy about that. It has nothing to do with Cole exactly, but he is very protective of my finances for some reason.

“Oh, in that case, board approval pending, I accept,” he says with a cheeky look.

“Good. We are getting our collective ducks in a row. Now, there is one other matter that needs discussing.” I stand as this is far more serious than who gets what out of my retirement. “There is an issue about to arise that needs our attention. Specifically, for the Vampires in the room.” Everyone stares at me unclear of where I am going with this. I look to CK and say, “May we discuss this freely?”

He knows then exactly what I am about to say, and he moves to stand next to me and says, “Yes.”

I have everyone’s undivided attention now that the tone of

the meeting has gone into serious mode. I take a deep breath, “It has been brought to my attention that some of us are due for a change. A new identity, a new life.” I let that sink in as Devon looks intrigued and Cole looks a bit afraid. “Constantine has a few years on us, Dev, but we are still at nine to his twelve. We need to think about what we are going to do. It isn’t going to be as easy this time. Well, for you guys at least. But all of us here in this room are going to be affected by the change and we need to decide together what our course of action will be. For these purposes, we stand as a democracy and a unanimous vote has to be decided upon. We all have to agree as I won’t have some of us happy and others not.” I blink but no one yet dare say a word, so I continue, “So, I ask that each of you go away and think up a game plan and bring it back and we’ll see what our options are.”

“I say the G6 takes a nosedive into the North Atlantic to go and live next to the Titanic for a while,” Devon grouses albeit with humor.

“I shall bear that in mind for our faked deaths but seeing as we need it for the next few months don’t be plotting its demise just yet, okay, sweetie?” I say.

“How…how long do we have?” Cole asks with trepidation.

I look to CK. “I guess you should answer that.”

“Not long, two years at the most this time. I will have to disappear for a while. There is very little chance I can pull off being thirty-eight without dire suspicion,” he says wryly.

“Thirty-eight?” I say incredulously. “Christ, you can barely pull off twenty-eight. Which reminds me, Dev, no way will you be able to hit thirty.”

“Says you. You couldn’t look less like twenty-six if you tried. Your Aefre/Liv face is far too sweet and innocent.”

“I agree,” CK says. “You always thought you looked older, but you will forever look sixteen, my love, no matter how hard you try.”

Sebastian snorts. “Should have stuck to the rules.”

Tags: Eve Newton Fantasy
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