Nodding, Brooke said, “And it’s not like they’ve ever asked me to come into the brewery. It’s always been me calling Thom to ask for a meeting. Although I will be meeting with him very soon to present him with the concept pieces I’ve come up with for the rebranding. It would be highly irregular for me to avoid that, which might trigger suspicion.
“But Gene will also be there, so I can’t see where I’ll have anything to worry about.” She snorted. “Thom will give me a song-and-dance about how fabulous I am, then rubber-stamp my art to get rid of me. Depending on how everything pans out, I should never have to see any of them again after that.”
Tipping her head back and closing her eyes, Jaime asked, “How long do we have until you meet with him?”
“A few days.” Brooke sighed and rubbed her temple. “Although I initially wondered why I was even bothering to do a good job on these concept art pieces, it may well be that Gene can still use them after these dicks are out of the picture. If I give them to him without charge, then finish everything else at a discounted rate, it might be helpful in getting him back on his feet after the whole embezzlement fiasco is over with.”
Bryn’s voice was soft. “You’re good people, little sis.” Brooke’s cheeks warmed as everyone around the table gave her a gentle look, and Blake kissed her forehead.
After smiling at her, Jaime continued. “Alyssa had a good idea. While sending someone associated with APS with you to your presentation would be a bit too risky, Lys said there are a couple of art students she knows who would be happy to go with you to your meeting as your apprentice.” Alyssa was an art therapist. “One of them, Neeta, would be perfect, she said.
“Neeta comes off as dingy as hell at times, Lys said, but she’s actually quite sharp and has a great eye. If we told her you wanted to get her impression of the meeting because you were having second thoughts about working Reflex, but didn’t want them to know you were having misgivings, Alyssa is positive Neeta would be more than willing to help out.”
“Perfect.” Trill’s fingers were moving over her laptop keyboard again. “Brooke can make it seem as though she’s teaching her apprentice how to do a proper client presentation. Neeta can be all wide-eyed attentive, as if she doesn’t want to miss anything, but Reflex won’t realizetheyare her focus, not the presentation itself. No risk to either one of them that way, but with a bit of luck, we should get some good intel out of it.”
Continuing to make notes on her phone, Drew said, “We need a few more days in Purgatory to shake the trees and see what else floats up about Reflex. We don’t want to give them a hint anyone is digging into them, so we’re moving slowly. Neither Liz nor Toni from my team are typically down in Purgatory, not the way the rest of us are, so my crew and I agreed those two will have the best chance of grabbing intel without anyone else being the wiser. Maybe Teag and Remy will have more by then as well.”
“Then we’ll meet at the beginning of next week, after Brooke has given her presentation and she and Blake have gotten Neeta’s impressions. Quite frankly, it doesn’t sound like she can expect anyone but Thom Berger or whatever the fuck he’s calling himself these days to be there. We can also assume the duration of her meeting won’t be long because he’s not truly interested.” Trill stopped, as though something else had occurred to her.
“Brooke,” she said slowly, the expression on her face contemplative, “I realize what I’m about to say will freak my cuz the hell out, but you know there is no way the management teamwould ever ask you to do anything that would put you at risk.” Blake’s forehead scrunched as Trill continued.
“Under the guise of wanting to learn more about the direction they want you to take, how would you feel about innocuously asking Thom which other breweries they’ve had a hand in rescuing? Of course, it’s not like he can give you a real answer, because therehavebeen no other successful rescues, but I’m interested in hearing what kind of bullshit answer he gives you.”
Her normally sunlit light green eyes dark, Blake gritted, “And that’s a good idea,why? Jesus Christ, Dacanay! How about fuckingno!”
Brooke put a calming hand on Brake’s rigid arm as she nodded at Trill, understanding exactly where she was going. “Because that would be a perfectly normal question for me to ask. There’s nothing about it that would trigger any suspicion. As a matter of fact, a question like that would tie right into my teaching Neeta the ropes.” Softly, she kissed Blake’s cheek.
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if they haven’t already prepared themselves for the eventuality of me wanting to know something like that, honey, especially since I didn’t present a proposal for this job in the normal way. Nor did I have to go through the typical presentation process, which is when questions like these are normally asked.”
Her brows still drawn together, Blake growled, “And just what are you supposed to do with the bullshit they hand you? Push back? Accept it and move on? We have already determined these arenotmen you want to play around with, baby!”
“I know that. Honestly though, I think a combination of the two would be the best approach. Thom might think it a bit odd if I simply accepted his attempt to avoid talking about any other breweries without me trying to change his mind. If, however, my pushback happens in a way that comes off as non-threatening,he won’t feel like there’s an ulterior motive hidden behind it. He’ll give me an answer, no matter how much of a con it is, and I can pretend to be satisfied. All done. What wemaybe able to learn from his response, though, is who else has fallen prey to these guys…or, at least, find out enough so we have a starting point to begin looking into it.
“And I remember Kel telling me another thing a while back.” She grinned at her friend, who stared back at her with a raised eyebrow. “Ms. CIA Hotshot over there told her girls the best way to pull off a lie is to stick to the truth as closely as possible. That way, the likelihood you will trip yourself up is a lot less, plus you’ll sound a lot more believable. And I’m betting Reflex Rebranding is fully aware of that, too.” Brooke burst out laughing at the look on Kelly’s face.
Pursing her lips, Kelly muttered dryly, “I see my bitch has been paying attention” as the management team chuckled.
Blake was only partially appeased. “I’d still feel a whole fuck of a lot better if we could get one of our part-time associates into the Cask & Canvas brewery operations, like Leighton did for Kenn when Piper was dealing with Jean-Baptiste Legrand at LME.”
“Whole different skill set needed, though, Blake,” Brooke told her. “General warehouse operations is one thing. A regular warehouse guy who isn’t specialized in any particular industry rarely needs any specific skills as a warehouse worker, except maybe having a forklift operator certification. But even a packaging technician in a craft brewery needs to know how to work with kegging equipment or help out with cellaring operations, if needed.”
Frowning, Blake’s eyes narrowed as she snarked, “This is Florida, tigress. We don’t have cellars here, unless you want to end up submerged in a water table.”
Brooke burst out laughing. “What ‘cellaring’ means, smart ass, is to store your beer out of the sun and at a cool, consistent temperature. In instances of home brewing, for example, you can even use a wine rack in your apartment for cellaring if you have the room and the proper environment.”
Sobering, she laid one of her hands on Blake’s arm from her perch on the team lead’s lap. “I promise you I will be fine. They think I’m a clueless graphic artist, remember? The only thing Thom will be looking to do is get rid of me as fast as possible so he can go on his merry embezzler way.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Trill tapped the side of her laptop keyboard. “During Monday morning’s management meeting, we’ll compare notes and decide our next steps. By then, Brooke and Neeta will have met with Tom, the two of them will share their impressions with Blake immediately afterward, and any additional intel from Drew and Teagan should be available.” She shook her head. “I’m telling you, I’m smelling something more than rotten behind all of this. Let’s hope we have some answers by then.”
“We will.” Bryn sounded confident. “Guys like this are too greedy to keep their plans and intentions out of sight for too long. They want to hit, they want to score, then they want to get the hell out of Dodge. Finesse is not their strong suit.” Her grimace was reflective. “That said, we definitely need to know what’s behind this. Like all of us, my gut is firing on all eight cylinders.”
As everyone started to get up from the table, Drew cocked an eyebrow at Brooke. “Be extremely careful, little sis. While I agree that I don’t think you’re at risk right now, what we don’t want to do is give that asshole any reason to start wondering. I’ve known you forever, so I know how careful you will be, but I also think Piper had a good point: Thisisn’twhat you do. Theway criminals think is not something you’re familiar with, so you won’t necessarily know what to look for or how to avoid a trap.”
“But—as you so awesomely remembered—stick as close to the truth as you can, homeslice, and you’ll be fine,” advised Kelly as Brooke slid off Blake’s lap and stood next to her chair. “You, Blake, and Neeta can dissect it all later.”
The meeting concluded, Brooke automatically curled her fingers around Blake’s as they headed for the door with everyone else. “It sounds like we have a plan then. Although you do realize I’m going to demand my Krav Maga punching bag rights when this is all over, right? Italian tempers are not to be trifled with, and these fuckers havehugelypissed me off.” The team laughed.
