_Theo’s POV_
By the time the reception finally emptied out, my patience for pack optics had hit the floor.
I found Kane near the side service corridor, where staff had been ferrying trays back and forth all evening. He was out of the main traffic, phone in hand, looking like a man who had survived exactly as much polite conversation as he could tolerate.
“Your captain held the line,” I said as I walked up.
Kane didn’t look surprised to see me. “So did yours. In that stiff Ashwood way.”
“That stiff Ashwood way is going to give him a migraine before this alliance is over.”
Kane slipped his phone into his pocket. “Miles already has one. He just wears it as temper.”
That got a short breath of laughter out of me. Around us, the building was still in wind-down mode — event staff packing s
