Page 106 of Just One Silver Fox

Sonia sat back, her excitement rising. Her podcast was on its way to becoming a success. She hadn’t planned it but she welcomed it, and she was going to celebrate it—once the Saturday meeting was behind her.

Maybe when she’d healed more, she’d have a better chance with Nate.

That was enough incentive to encourage her to work on that script with Katia. She crossed her fingers, meanwhile, hoping that all the details of her plan came together.

* * *

“This just came in yesterday,”Pierce said when he convened a video meeting for Silver Fox Security on Thursday morning. “It’s kind of special, being a request from Flatiron Five Fitness, my old haunt.”

Nate straightened with curiosity.

“I spent yesterday gathering information and deciding whether we should consider this job. I think we should.” Pierce touched his laptop and an image appeared on the big screen. It was a smiling older couple who Nate recognized immediately.

What was going on?

“Olivia Fairley and Derek Strong!” Mack said with awe.

Everyone looked at her, even as Pierce nodded.

“They’re actors,” she said. “Married and divorced, then recently reunited on a set.” There was silence and she looked surprised. “Come on. He’s the Heart-Throb of America.”

“Seriously,” Angel said.

“Hardly,” Nate said under his breath.

Mack shook her head. “Don’t you people read the papers?”

“I read thenews,” Troll said.

“Actors,” Smoke said with a shake of his head. “I’m with Troll. Give me real news.”

“Not everyone wants to read about wars all the time,” Mack said, prickly.

“The four horses of the Apocalypse,” Regan said. “War, famine, pestilence and death. My favorites.”

“Maybe that’s what’s wrong with the world,” Angel drawled. “We’re too good at pretending it’s not as bad as it is, so nothing ever gets fixed. Let’s watch sitcoms instead of feeding hungry kids.”

“Spoken like the team cynic.” Mack rolled her eyes.

“Hey, when I get assigned a task, I deliver,” Angel said.

Pierce held up a hand before they could continue and the group fell silent again. “Mack’s right. Apparently, the Strongs have reunited. They have two daughters and are only in touch with one of them.”

“Where’s the other one?” Mack asked.

Nate wondered whether he should say anything. For the moment, he listened.

Pierce started a slide show of the happy couple. There was an image of them waving to their adoring masses outside a club or restaurant. The next was of them signing autographs together on the set. The next image was of the couple with two girls. It was an older picture, at least fifteen years old, given the change to the couples’ appearances. The girls were blond and clearly teenagers. It was the one from the tabloid that Nate had seen at Sonia’s place.

“That’s an old picture. How old are the daughters now?” Jimmy asked, who had two daughters of his own.

“Thirty,” Pierce said. “One left home at eighteen. The Strongs are apparently mystified as to why.”

Smoke coughed. “She might have been abducted. Shit happens to teenage girls.”

“She could be dead,” Troll contributed, which wasn’t the most cheerful thing he could have suggested in Nate’s view.

“Apparently not,” Pierce said. “She’s the one who contacted me.”

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