“She’s offering you a job right now, Elena,” Lissa bounced on her toes. “And about time. I’ve been telling her—”
“I’m offering you achanceat a job, if you choose to take it. My kitchen manager just gave me a month’s notice, and she was a no-show today, as you can see. She’ll be back, but I’ll need to replace her pretty quick. What do you say?”
“Yes!” Elena squealed before she could think. “I already have some great ideas.”
Lissa gave her a quick hug from behind. “I’ll help.”
Delia grinned and nodded. “Then I’ll need both of you here Saturday morning. We’ll have the kitchen to ourselves to try out your ideas before the dinner prep. Be here at eight sharp.” She looked around. “I think we’re caught up. Go sit and I’ll feed you.”
Elena and Lissa took their aprons off and sat down to Delia’s famous cheese and meat board with warm bread. Lissa looked like the cat who swallowed the canary.
“So, do I have you to thank for this opportunity?” Elena popped a cheese cube in her mouth.
“Do you just love me?” Lissa grinned from ear to ear. “I so wanted to say something on our way over because you looked totally bummed.”
“You mean clucked?”
“Yeah! I figured you and Julia were at it again and this is your chance to get the hell outta there. I’ve been telling Delia how efficient you are at work, how you’ve got all the agents on trackandeating out of your hand—”
“I do not.”
“Shut up, you do. And Delia’s been sizing you up anyway. I could sing your praises all day long, but if she didn’t think you’d work hard, that you didn’t want this job with your heart and soul—and that you’d be perfect for it—she wouldn’t have offered. You’re a natural and she knows it.”
Elena laughed. “Hardly. I have a background in fast food and greasy spoons.”
“Whatevs, that’s like everybody else in here. So, what did you want to talk about? Am I right, is it Julia?”
“No. It’s…”
Shit. The full implications of what Elena had just agreed to hit her full-force. If she was going to manage the catering job, that would put her right smack dab in the middle of things. Right after she told Camden she’d stay away from Cici. But there was no way in hell she was going to pass up this opportunity. Besides, it was just one gig for just one night. She’d be totally in the background, right? Cici wouldn’t exactly be hanging on her caterer at an event where she needed to be the supportive wife of the newly-announced candidate. And, Camden did say he was one-hundred percent behind her aspirations. He’d understand. Right?
“It’s what?” Lissa tilted her head, her smile replaced with a frown, her eyebrows drawn down in concern.
Elena waved her off. “Oh, it’s nothing. You’re right, Julia’s getting to me. You’re lucky you don’t report directly to her.” She picked up her water goblet and clinked it against Lissa’s. “But now, everything’s going to be fine.”
They hurried through the rest of lunch. When they walked back through the dining room, the crowd had thinned. Lissa was talking about her plans to someday get to Maui for some sort of big competition, but Elena didn’t catch what it was.
She felt eyes on her, watching her every move.
Predatory, the same feeling she got from her days at the meat-packing plant. No, worse—she hadn’t had this prickly feeling of dread since the day she’d gone to pick Tina up from school and was stopped in the parking lot by a man who had her little girl drugged and in the back of his car. His eyes had told her she was helpless prey, taunting her, daring her to fight, to scream, to even say a word, and risk never seeing her daughter alive again.
Elena looked around the dining room until she saw the source of her fear. He sat alone at a corner table, one where he could survey the entire place.
Lawrence Franklin.
And he was looking directly at her. It took everything not to gasp at his cold hard stare. In a blink, it warmed as he lifted his rocks glass and toasted her. He stood and Elena’s first impulse was to push Lissa ahead of her so they could run for their lives, when he turned toward another familiar-looking man with white hair and a cane who had approached the table. As they were about to shake hands, the white-haired man burst into a coughing fit. Lawrence’s attention left her as if she’d never existed.
She was sure she’d never seen Lawrence at Delia’s before yesterday, and now he’d been there two days in a row.Is it just my imagination that he’s stalking me?
Lissa had gotten a few feet ahead of Elena so she caught up to her. “…but if I do, I’ll be going alone because there’s no way I’m taking Brice.”
“I don’t blame you,” Elena said, with absolutely no idea what Lissa was talking about. She glanced back to see Lawrence engaged in an animated conversation with the new guy, Elena completely forgotten, it seemed. She shook off her feelings as paranoia. Lawrence had barely paid attention to her at lunch the day before. In his eyes, she was no one special—a woman to be talked over, dismissed, forgotten. Besides, didn’t he say the person he was meeting with yesterday had canceled on him? It made sense they’d reschedule for the next day at the same place.Get ahold of yourself, Elena—this isn’t Ross, Nebraska and that isn’t Earnest Deal.
All the same, she wondered if she should tell Camden. Or rather, how much she should tell him.
Fifteen
Camden rubbed the tight spot between his eyebrows when Gina finished giving her report. They were in Watchdog’s conference room along with Jake, Costello, and Lachlan, who seemed to be chewing especially hard on his cigarette substitute, the plastic clicking against his teeth and driving Camden to the edge of crazy.
