Ethan POV

The meeting room in Bamako was too quiet.

I sat at the head of the long glass table, my executives still talking—numbers, contracts, expansion timelines—but their voices blurred into meaningless noise. My pen lay forgotten between my fingers as my gaze drifted to the dark screen of my phone.

Claire still hadn’t called.

I checked the time again. Late afternoon. I’d been done with the meeting for almost an hour now, yet I hadn’t moved from my seat. Normally, I’d ...