Page 63 of Fierce-Zander

He knew that was going to happen. He wasn’t the neatest person when he worked.

“Betsy always has it in order for me when I come in. Or at least most times.”

“She cleans up after you?” she asked, lifting her eyebrow.

“Kind of. I don’t ask her to,” he said sheepishly.

Regan opened her salad container and started to eat with the fork that was on top and he sat down with the warm sub on a paper plate.

“This looks awesome.”

“Diane Fierce stopped in to say hi today. I ran into her at Trent’s. Somehow we got talking about food and lunch and she told me about her daughter-in-law’s deli. Miles went and got the menu from Roni. You know Roni downstairs, right?”

He took a bite and chewed. Interesting. But he was going to keep his thoughts to himself right now.

“I do know her,” he said. “She’s engaged to Trent.”

“So I found out a while ago from Miles. I know he and Betsy chat—more like gossip— and he told me they’d met here and were engaged now.”

If that was all she knew that was fine.

“They did,” he said. “So this is from Payton’s?”

“Oh, you know her?” she asked.

“It’s hard not to know the players in the Fierce family,” he said.

She laughed at the dry tone he used but didn’t seem to understand why he was asking.

His radar was up and now he’d have to find out what was going on with his employee and if she was in on this just like Janine had been with Trent and Roni.

No way they were pulling this over on him.

At least he and Regan had something going prior so he knew for a fact it wasn’t that someone set them up.

Maybe he’d let Regan know that too so she didn’t think she was manipulated. He was willing to bet she wouldn’t be thrilled to find that information out.

“I hear the names enough,” she said. “I’ll talk fast since you’ve got things to do.”

He listened while she filled him in on Sophia’s contract and that she’d get information by next week for him to look into. Betsy and his father could do the legwork on that first.

“Sounds good,” he said. He was rushing through his sandwich and she noticed.

“You need to leave,” she said. “I understand. You should have said something.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I need to go see if I can look at camera footage somewhere without a warrant.”

“So you are going to charm your way into it?” she asked.

“I am,” he said. “But the good news is, I’ve been there before and got to see it, so maybe I won’t have a problem tonight either.”

She closed the top of her salad. It wasn’t done, but he wasn’t going to argue with her.

The fact she understood and wasn’t giving him a hard time was more than enough.

19

PLAY DUMB

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