“I’m telling you, they’ve got good genes in the Campbell family.”
Cam shot her a look. “Do I even want to know?”
“Probably not.” Norah grinned. Shifting her attention back to her friends, she asked, “Now seriously, what are you doing here?”
“We come bearing gifts.” Christoff’s Slavic blue eyes sparkled.
“Uh oh. I know that look. What did you do?”
“Nothing that didn’t need doing. If we can find somewhere a little less public to make our reveal?” he suggested, looking around at handful of patrons, who’d decided to stop for a pastry after being lured in by samples.
“I am suddenly very, very afraid.”
“You’ve got nothing to worry about.” Christoff slung an arm around her shoulders.
“Upstairs at The Grind?” Cam offered. “Daniel’s on duty. He’ll keep anybody out for you.”
“Us.” Norah grabbed his hand. “You’re coming with. I have a feeling I may need moral support for this.”
Leaving the other recruits in charge of samples and petition duty, the group of them hiked down the street to The Daily Grind.
“Hail our conquering heroes!” Daniel called as they walked inside.
“Don’t count your chickens yet, Danny boy,” Cam told him. “We’ve still got the vote to come.”
“I have faith. What’ll it be?”
“Y’all go ahead and order. I’ll see if it’s clear.” Cam sprinted up the stairs.
Norah requested their usuals, while Cecily and Christoff hemmed and hawed over what to try. Judging by the look of speculation on Christoff’s face, he was thinking he’d take his caramel macchiato with a side of Daniel. When the latter suggested the strawberry hand pie, the calorie conscious Christoff didn’t blink before adding one to his order. Armed with pastries and caffeine, they trooped up to the empty second floor.
“Just tell me one thing before we get started. Are you two in trouble? Is my lawsuit against Helios causing you problems?”
“We are not in trouble,” Cecily assured her.
“But it is causing you problems. Damn it. I didn’t want any of the blowback to hit y’all.”
“Patience, grasshopper.” Christoff clapped his hands together. “So, we all agree that Philip and Pierce are douchecanoes, yes? Yes. They’ve gone to great lengths to smear your name, making claims about your behavior that Cecily and I know you didn’t actually do. And anybody with a brain at Helios knows you didn’t either. Even the people who are claiming to know are just lazy and jealous of your success.”
“This is all old ground. It’s part of why the lawsuit is stalling out. There’s no way to prove one way or the other.”
“Yeah, about that,” Cecily hedged.
“Oh God…”
“Christoff and I concocted a plan.” She pulled out a laptop and turned it on.
“You know Adam in IT?” Christoff asked.
“The one with the dimples and great abs.”
“Stupendously fabulous abs. Well, I sweet talked him into setting up the webcams in Pierce’s office where we could record remotely, whenever we wanted.”
Feeling vaguely queasy, she asked, “You were spying on Pierce?”
“Not exactly,” Cecily said. “So Pierce…kind of has a history of making passes at me.”
Norah barely trusted herself to speak. “He what?”