“Hey!” I said at her knock. “How’s it going?”
“Fine,” she said, but her frown suggested otherwise. “Do you have a minute?”
“Of course. Come on in.”
Something about her looked different today, and it wasn’t until she sat down that I realized what it was. Mia was one of those perpetually cheerful people. Everyone in the office attributed it to her relationship with Tenor, who also, according to them, was happier more often than not since he’d been seeing Mia. But for whatever reason, Mia appeared down today.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
She winced. “Is it that obvious?”
“I’ve never seen you without a smile.” I hoped nothing had happened between her and Tenor. The two of them seemed made for each other.
She sat down in one of my free chairs with a sigh. “I have something I need you to help me with.”
“Of course,” I said. “Anything I can do to help.”
“Please keep this between you, me, and Tenor.”
I nodded. “You have my word.”
She hesitated before continuing. “Tenor and I have reason to suspect someone is trying to sabotage or somehow discredit Bachelor International.”
I schooled my expression. Had she discovered who I was? What my connection to Piers was? I bit the inside of my cheek to keep my emotions in check. “Why?” I asked.
“We aren’t sure.” She shook her head. “And we don’t know who it is either. The gentleman who used to be our head legal counsel—his name is Piers Worthington; you might have seen him around—has been working to find out who it could be. We think it’d be a good idea to review our client files, but it’s more work than Piers can take on. Tenor and I were hoping you could help him.”
It wasn’t until that moment I fully realized the ramifications of my plan to bring Piers down. Bachelor International would be a casualty. Which meant Mia and Tenor would be as well. I’d known as much intellectually, but somehow I’d managed to overlook the details of what that meant.
All at once, I felt sick to my stomach. Tenor and Mia didn’t deserve to have their business ruined simply because it was in the crosshairs. Hell, I wasn’t as certain as I’d been last week that Piers deserved what the Organization had planned for him. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop them.
It hit me, however, I could slow everything down. I wouldn’t be able to do it forever, but hopefully I could pull it off long enough to figure out a way to keep Mia and Tenor safe while at the same time discovering the truth about Piers.
“If you’d rather not,” Mia said, “I can ask someone else, but you’re my first choice. I like the way you reason through things.”
I realized Mia had mistaken my silence for hesitation. “Oh no. It’s not that I don’t want to work and help you solve this. I’m just shocked it’s needed in the first place.”
“You and me both,” she said with a shake of her head. “For the life of me I don’t know why anyone would want to hurt us.”
All I could do was sit there and hope I didn’t look as guilty as I felt. For a second, I thought about coming clean and telling her everything, but I told myself if I did that, I’d never be able to know the truth about Piers. I needed more time, and hopefully this additional request would give it to me.
I reached over and took her hand, all the while calling myself every bad name I could think of. “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Chapter 10
Piers
I accepted Mia’s offer to have one of her employees assist me only because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get through the arduous tasks of searching through the company’s client files in a timely manner alone. Though Bachelor International was important to me, I had other obligations I couldn’t ignore.
However, when I walked into Bachelor International after Mia called to say she had someone lined up, I was unprepared for that employee to be Bri. In fact, after finding Bri sitting in one of Mia’s office chairs, I found myself frozen in place.
How did I not know Bri worked for Bachelor International? I thought back to the dinner we had a few nights prior. She said she worked in this building, but nothing about for whom.
It was only when Bri squirmed in her seat it hit me she hadn’t told Mia about our connection. Because I’d reacted so gobsmacked at the sight of her, there was no way to act as if we didn’t know each other.
“Bri,” I said, because it appeared to be the only thing to say.
Bri didn’t respond. Rather, she nodded her head in acknowledgment.
Mia watched our exchange without speaking, but after a few long seconds of silence, she crossed her arms. “Did I miss something? Do the two of you know each other?”
I waited for Bri to explain, but when she didn’t, I spoke up. “Yes,” I said, keeping my attention focused on Mia and doing my best not to look Bri’s way. “But it was a very long time ago. In London.”
“Is working together going to be an issue for either of you?” Mia asked.
“No,” Bri and I answered in unison.
“In that case, I suppose there’s no need for introductions.” Mia spoke in a calm and even tone her expression didn’t match. When neither Bri nor I replied, Mia continued, “I’ve put the files in conference room B. The two of you can work in that room for the time being.”
And just like that, Bri and I were dismissed.
We walked to the conference room in silence. I opened the door, and my eyes grew wide at the sight of the files piled high on the table. Now, to be completely honest, the space was less like a conference room and more like a large closet. Conference room A was much larger, but it was also the room that the office held client meetings in, so we really couldn’t commandeer that one.
Bri stepped in beside me. “I didn’t know there was a conference room B.”
Frankly, I didn’t care if she knew about the conference room or not. “You didn’t tell me you worked for Bachelor International,” I said.
Her head jerked from the cluttered table to meet my expression, surprise registering in her eyes for a brief second. But just as quickly, it disappeared. “You didn’t ask,” she replied in a deadpan voice.
I snorted, knowing that was the exact response I should have expected from her. “Since you do work for them, odds are favorable you heard my name before you stalked me.”
“I think it’s a bit egotistical to assume all we do is sit around and talk about you all day. But at the risk of making your head even bigger, yes, I had heard about you. Though you should know most it wasn’t sunshine and roses.”
I grunted. “I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
It was nothing other than human nature and nothing to take personally. Of course I would be fodder for gossip. No one wants to sit around and talk about how great someone is or spend over two minutes talking about some marvelous thing someone else has done. No, as a species, we prefer to hear about drama, bad choices, and train wrecks. Had the incident between me and Mia never happened, more than likely Bri wouldn’t have heard a peep about me. She wouldn’t even be aware of a connection between me and the agency unless our paths crossed when we were both in the office.