June walked in. “Is everything okay? Mr. Quinn looked ready to strangle that guy.”
Bronwyn shook her head. “That was the weirdest thing that’s happened to me in a long time.”
“Can I bring you anything?”
“No. Thanks,” she said as Mo returned.
“She needs some water, June. Would you mind?” Mo had his phone to his ear, and as soon as he’d spoken, he went back to his call. “Yes. That’s correct. Everything, and I mean everything. Thanks.”
He disconnected that call and dialed another number.
June returned with an unopened water bottle and handed it to her, eyes wide. “Ms. Pierce?”
Mo spoke into his phone again. “Hey, I’m going to escort Bronwyn home so she can go to her massage, which she needed before, and now shereallyneeds. What kind of security do we have in the spa?”
He listened, and Bronwyn motioned for June to sit. She sipped her water and fought to keep from trembling as the adrenaline left her system.
It hadn’t been her imagination. That whole situation had been beyond weird. Mo was clearly cool and calm as he gave orders, but she knew he was masking his fury. He was probably fighting the need to run Peter Brown out of town.
And what was with her reaction to the man? She was in the hospitality industry. She handled come-ons and put-downs withoutgiving them a second thought. But Peter Brown’s very presence made her skin crawl.
“Okay.” A pause. “Good.” A longer pause. “Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it?”
Bronwyn took another drink. Mo looked at her, then at June. He put his hand over the phone. “Do you have anything sweet around here? A candy bar? A Coke? Something with a little sugar?”
June jumped to her feet. “On it.” Mo returned to his phone call and when June came back thirty seconds later with a tub of salted caramels and two Cokes, he gave her a thumbs-up.
Bronwyn didn’t bother to argue. She had no idea if chocolate and Coke would settle her nerves, but they couldn’t make things worse.
Mo continued to talk to someone, but his side of the conversation was mostly grunts andhmms and, once, a “we have to do better than that.” Then he looked at his watch. “Gotta go. Yeah. Thanks.”
He turned to June. “Thank you for getting those things for Bronwyn. I apologize if I was abrupt.”
“No, sir. You weren’t.”
“I don’t want to overstep, but you need to be on your guard around that man,” he said, his eyes on June. “He’ll be on-site for the next two days. I don’t know what his game is, but I’d bet a year’s salary that he’s not who he claims to be. I suggest you wrap up and go home. Marcus will follow you to your car and make sure you make it out of the gates. Then he’s coming back to escort us to Bronwyn’s house and then to the spa.”
Marcus had been part of the security team here for most of Bronwyn’s life. She trusted him. Apparently Mo did too.
“June, there’s a chance Bronwyn won’t be in the office at all tomorrow. Can you hold down the fort if she’s not in?”
“What?” Bronwyn tried to protest but June and Mo ignored her.
“Of course.”
“Marcus will be here, and he’ll have everything locked down. But if I can figure out how to keep Bronwyn off-site the entire time Peter Brown is here, I will.”
“I think that would be a good idea.” June would agree with anything Mo said. That was plain to see.
“Maybe you can talk her into it for me?” Mo held his hands in a praying position.
“Ms. Pierce is too smart to be manipulated.”
Bronwyn wished that were true.
“She has incredibly good instincts.” Mo seemed to be agreeing with June. What? “Which is what had me on alert. She didn’t like that guy from the moment she laid eyes on him. If she ever reacts that way to someone, pay attention. She’s almost never wrong. And that”—Mo pinched his lips together—“is why I think we’ll be able to convince her to stay off-site. Maybe by the time her massage is over, she’ll come around.”
June didn’t look convinced. “Good luck with that.”
