Page 105 of Fierce-Zander

“Why?” she asked. It was later than normal. Almost time for her to get ready for bed, but he’d texted and she said she’d love to see him. She figured there had to be a reason.

“I went to see Sloane tonight, you know that.”

“I do,” she said. He’d filled her in some of what he was doing for Sloane. Not a big deal. She never said anything and often gave him ideas on a situation.

“What I didn’t tell you was the reason I had to go to Tennessee was that Dane hired me to look into Sloane’s background.”

“Why? Does he not believe or trust her?”

She’d heard about the other Fierce setup and she was starting to realize that they all were just about perfect and there was no way there could be something going on to ruin things. Unless the Fierces were going to finally have their first failure.

“He trusts her. Let’s say she had a rough upbringing. You don’t need to know more. But Dane was concerned that she might be in danger if someone from her past came back. He wanted me to look into it.”

“Oh dear,” she said. “Did you find anything out?”

“I did,” he said. “She’s fine. She should be fine. I explained it all. I hadn’t planned on bringing it up tonight in front of Sloane, but he did.”

“And she got pissed when she found out?” she asked. “I think I would too.”

He sighed and patted the couch next to him and she moved over and sat down. “Yep. She’s pissed and I guarantee they are fighting right now.”

“Does that bother you?” she asked.

“Only that it told me I’m not alone in wanting to protect someone I love. I wanted you to understand that and see where I’m coming from. If the roles were reversed and you were me, wouldn’t you want to protect me?”

“Now you’re going to play dirty and turn things around.”

“I’m just asking a question. I’m not playing any games.”

Her head went back and forth. He wasn’t doing anything she didn’t do with her clients.

“Fine. I understand and maybe agree. But I’d also understand if you told me there was no danger.”

“That’s the thing,” he said. “Since you don’t know who it is, you don’t know that. Statistics are there for a reason, but that doesn’t mean you might not be the one that no one thought of.”

She didn’t like hearing that but couldn’t dispute it either.

“I won’t argue,” she said. “I’m doing what you asked of me, correct?”

“You are and the fact I’m still bothered is my problem. I’m working on it. Maybe you can give me pointers on how to get past that.”

She cupped his cheeks in her hands. “I can show you how much I love you,” she said. “And I can open up to you more and say that I might be a little scared, but if I don’t keep it contained I can’t do my job. I can’t focus. Then I’m no good to anyone. So know that I’m human and feeling this, but there are times only you will know those things. Is that okay to do that, as long as you don’t work me up or wind me up to make me shut down again?”

“You can do that too,” he said. “And thanks for opening up and explaining it. So we can be done talking about it so that you know I understand and appreciate your side of it. You met with Sophia this afternoon?”

What more could she ask for from the man she loved? One that understood every part of her and even listened when she talked!

“Thank you for that. Is this a debriefing now though?” she asked, grinning. “I didn’t know we’d be working this late. I thought we were going to talk about it tomorrow.”

“I’m here, might as well get it all out now, and then we can put it from our minds and go to bed.”

“We can do that,” she said. “Sophia didn’t seem content with the report.”

“Why?” he asked. “I thought Miles was giving it to her. Is that the problem?”

“No,” she said. “She was fine with that. She read it over while she waited for our appointment to start. But then when we met...”

She couldn’t say much more. That her client was distracted. She was upset.

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