Page 7 of Passion and Deception

“So, will you tell me about yourself?” she asked, then took a bite of the shrimp taco. “Oh, this is so good!”

Ramit watched, fascinated with Maggie. She hadn’t let him pay for their meal. Again! He didn’t understand her insistence on paying for everything, but he found it charming. Was this another trick? A new way to get him to lower his guard so that he would offer her everything?

Because he wanted to. She was so lively and beautiful. But there was a caution in her eyes. Another mystery, he thought. His guards had done a quick background check on her. He’d only listened to the assurance that Maggie was safe, with no criminal history. The rest, he wanted to learn on his own by talking to her.

“I think you should tell me more about yourself first,” he replied, then tentatively bit into his food. He didn’t believe that good food could come from a truck, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings by not eating the dinner she’d so sweetly provided for them.

But as soon as he bit into the taco, he pulled back, staring down at the food. “Wow!” he muttered, chewing and trying to understand the wash of delicious flavors. “This is amazing.”

She laughed and he looked at her, charmed by the melodic sound.

“You’ve never eaten anything from a food truck, have you?”

“Never,” he replied staring down at the curious food as if he needed to make sense of it. But then he shrugged and brought the taco to his mouth for another bite. “This is shockingly good.” He even glanced over his shoulder at the line of food trucks speculatively. “Are all the meals this interesting?”

Maggie nodded. “Most food trucks are really good. Some aren’t so interesting. A lot serve decadent foods that aren’t unique, just run of the mill fried foods or inventive desserts, but I haven’t run into a bad food truck yet.” She took another bite, then lifted her hand. Quickly, she swallowed, then said, “I take that back. I avoid the trucks that sell steak and cheese sandwiches. In my experience, the meat is always ridiculously overcooked, the runny cheese is skimpy, and the thick slab of bread usually overwhelms everything else.” She shrugged and examined her taco to figure out the best bite. “Just my opinion though.”

Ramit nodded as he took another bite. “Noted,” he finally replied. “Avoid the steak and cheese trucks. What else?”

She wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. “The desserts are usually to die for. There’s a truck that sells a warmed brownie that’s covered with ice cream, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, then chocolate sprinkles.”

Ramit stared at her for a moment, his taco frozen in place. Then his head swiveled towards the line of trucks. “Which one provides this dessert?” he demanded, his tone grimly determined.

She laughed and pointed towards the end of the line of boxy trucks. “It’s over there. I’ll get one for us when we finish with the tacos.”

Ramit relaxed at that news, but there was no chance he was going to allow her to purchase the dessert. She’d already bought him two meals. That was the limit of his ability to step back and let someone else pay. Especially a woman.

Yes, he was aware of his sexist tendencies. He didn’t care. He treated women with respect, and that included paying for their meals.

They finished off their tacos and it took a great deal of self-discipline to not jump up and get another order. The shrimp had been spicy, but the sauce covering the cabbage and salsa had somehow been creamy. And overall, the lime flavors came through, adding a bit of zip to the whole experience.

“You don’t like guacamole?” she asked, nudging the container of the green stuff closer.

“I’d prefer to get that dessert,” he told her. “Stay here.”

Then he was up and walking towards the truck she’d indicated earlier.

“Your Highness,” his guard called to him as he headed for the food truck. “Asti is calling for you.” Asti was the liaison for the problem he was trying to eliminate.

Ramit scowled, but didn’t slow his pace. He wanted to get back to Maggie as soon as possible, but he was never completely free of his responsibilities. It annoyed him sometimes, such as now, but knew it was a pointless reaction. It wouldn’t make the problems go away and leave him time to get to know Maggie better. Impatiently, he frowned at the proffered cell phone, not wanting to touch it. Accepting this call could mean the end to his time with Maggie. Still, he couldn’t avoid the problem forever. “Does Asti have new information?”

“I believe he does, Your Highness.”

The guard handed him the phone. With a sigh of resignation, Ramit took it, trying to tamp down on his frustration. “What?” he snapped. “Have you discovered anything new?”

“Your Highness, the men have asked for a meeting. They called five minutes ago.”

Ramit looked around, but didn’t see the other diners strolling along the sidewalk or the park area. “Where? And when?”

“They agreed to meet you at TBC at eight-thirty on Friday night. They will explain their demands at that meeting.” TBC was known to the membership as “The Billionaires Club”, but Ramit knew the owners, Levi Harris, Sean Byrne, and Matteo del Campo. They were good men, but they were all illegitimate. Ramit suspected that the true name of the club was “The Bastards Club”, a sort of snub to the previous owner’s hypocrisy. Levi Harris had inherited the place from his father. It had been a final slap in the face from the wealthy man who had left Levi to the untrustworthy whims of poverty while ensuring that his two legitimate sons received every possible advantage.

The irony there was that Levi was now wealthier than his father had ever been, while the legitimate sons were barely able to keep their remaining sporting goods stores open.

News of another day’s delay caused him to clench his jaw. “They got me to Philadelphia just so that I could meet them, now they want to wait two more days?” he growled.

“That’s all the information I have, Your Highness.” Asti hesitated. “If you could tell me why this meeting is so important, Your Highness, I might be of more help.”

Ramit ran a hand through his hair, furious that he was this situation. If his sister hadn’t…! But she had. And now, he had to clean up the mess!

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