Simon rubbed the back of his neck. “I have a reputation for being a bit...well, that I can take on anything. Nothing affects me.”
Marianna raised an eyebrow. “And I affect you?”
He huffed out something closer to a laugh. “You need to ask after last night?”
This was going to be interesting.
Simon led her around the corner to the conference room at the end of the hall. Two men lounged in chairs, in the middle of a conversation.
The room fell silent as they walked in. The dark-haired guy nodded at Simon and the blond guy smiled a little at her. Yep, these two definitely knew her and Simon’s history. Simon glanced in her direction and moved away, as if a little more distance might help disguise their tangled past. Right.
He cleared his throat.
“Marianna, this is Derek Latu and Max Jensen,” he said, gesturing to each of the guys.
Simon glared at one of them, then the other, as if daring them to say something.
Max raised his eyebrows at Simon, clearly amused, then flashed her a wide smile as he stood up. He and Simon were an exercise in contrasts. Whereas Simon was the dark, lone-wolf type, Max had tousled blond hair, light blue eyes and an easy smile. This man came from money and privilege. After years of charity dinners and country-club events, Marianna could sniff it out from a mile away. The only thing Max and Simon seemed to have in common was build. Broad shoulders, muscular, lean. But Max was glaringly attractive, almost excessively so. Simon? He was...hot.
And, um, she was in a business meeting.
“Nice to meet you,” he said to Marianna. He stuck out his hand.
“Nice to meet you, Max,” she said, taking it and giving him a polite smile.
She glanced over at Simon, creases etched deeply into his brow. Derek headed for him. He put an arm on Simon’s shoulder and said a few words she didn’t catch.
Derek had an ease about him, but it was different than Max’s. It wasn’t privilege. He was built and solid, with arms that both her hands couldn’t fit around, and he carried himself as if he knew the effect it could have on people. There was a gentleness to him, as if he fully understood the responsibility that his kind of physical presence demanded.
But as Derek gave Simon one last pat on his back, she was struck by the mix of concern and understanding in his expression. Her heart gave a tiny jolt. Long ago, Simon had been close to his father and brother. Had he found a new tribe here in Sydney?
Not her business. Marianna pushed those thoughts away.
Derek left Simon and came up to shake her hand, too. “A pleasure to meet you.”
His gaze was probing, so she gave him an equally assessing look.
“Thank you for taking on this last-minute job,” she said.
He gave a nod of acknowledgment. “We have connections we can use to make this work, but there are still a lot of risks involved.”
“I understand.” Especially after seeing the results that had come from just asking questions in Miami.
Simon shifted on his feet then pulled out a chair for her, and she sat down at the conference table. In front of her was a folder labeledRuiz Imports.
“I’ve never hired personal security before. How does this work?” she asked.
Derek opened the folder in front of him. “We’ll go over your schedule and make sure we haven’t overlooked any factors. But first I’d like to hear a little more background on the meeting you’ve set up with Joseph Goodwin tomorrow.”
Marianna nodded. “Ruiz Imports is privately owned. My father and William ran the day-to-day business, and I handled more of the PR, marketing and the charity arm of the company. After my father died, William and I divorced, but we remained co-owners of the business.”
She frowned. Marianna had a business degree in marketing, so the division had made sense when her father was alive. But why didn’t her father leave the company solely in her hands in his will? It was too late to ask, but that question left a fissure in the idea of family she still held on to.
Marianna glanced around the table. All three men were focused on her. She cleared her throat and continued.
“Being an owner requires that I sign off on costs over ten thousand dollars. So recently I started paying attention to stuff I never used to. And there were a lot of payments I didn’t understand. Numbers that didn’t add up, funds moved around, money we have that the records don’t account for.”
“And when you checked out the docks, your ex-husband became aware of your digging around,” said Max.
