"Thanks a lot for your help, Reggie," Beau said, hanging up his cell phone. With a satisfied smile, he stared out the window at the fabulous view of Chicago for a few minutes. Finally, everything was starting to come together.
A light knock on his door let him know Emily had arrived to get him for his meeting. "Come in," he said, still smiling.
Emily breezed in the door, holding the files he'd be needing. "Good morning, Beau. Here are the reports you asked for and-what has gotten into you?" She stopped, staring at him, her eyes wide as she giggled at him.
"Huh? Oh, nothing. I just... got some good news. That's all."
"Well, I hope it has to do with Mia. We really had a nice time the other night at dinner. She's such a wonderful person. It's really too bad she has to work for Sam."
"Hopefully, that won't be for too much longer," he said, standing and taking the files from his secretary. "I just heard from my friend Reggie. He owns a marketing firm down the street."
"The one Mia applied for a job at?"
"That's the one. I didn't want to interfere, but I know she'd be great, and I didn't want him to miss out. So... I gave him a call, and he's going to contact her to set up an interview. He was really excited to hear about her. He said he's having a tough time finding someone."
"That's great, Beau! She'll be so excited. It's too bad you don't have time to stop by and tell her before your meeting. I think Sam is already waiting in the conference room."
Beau checked the time. He had two minutes. "You know what? Screw it. Sam can wait." With the files he'd need for the meeting in hand, he headed off to tell Mia the good news before he went to meet with Sam.
Still beaming with joy, he opened the door to her secretarial area, but Mia wasn't there. "That's odd," he muttered. It wasn't like her not to be sitting there, particularly when Sam had a meeting. He glanced around as if she could be hiding somewhere and then stepped out.
Veronica happened to be walking by. "Hey, Veronica, do you happen to know where Mia is?"
"She's not in her office?" the woman asked, as surprised as Beau was. "I guess she must be in with Mr. Whitaker, then."
"He is about to have a meeting with me, so I doubt that. She is here today, though, isn't she?"
"Yes. I saw her come in this morning. Weird."
Beau agreed. It was odd. He checked the time again and decided he better not keep Sam waiting any longer. They had a client coming in to meet with them as well. With a frown on his face, Beau headed toward the conference room, hoping the meeting was quick so he'd have time to ask his brother if he knew where his secretary was. In the back of his mind, Beau was beginning to think there was something wrong. If Sam had done anything to hurt Mia, he'd pay for it.
Inside the conference room, Sam was seated at the head of the table, next to Pete Seleka, their client, a woman from Pete's office named Toni that Beau had met a few times, and another man Sam didn't recognize.
"Here he is now," Sam said, standing as Beau came in.
"So sorry to keep you waiting." Beau shook Pete's hand, greeting him, and then Toni's.
"No problem," Pete assured him. "We've just been here a few minutes. This is Kent Stevens, the new manager of your account for Seleka Enterprises. We brought him along to get him up to speed."
"Nice to meet you." Beau shook the short, balding man's hand and settled into the seat next to Sam, across from Pete. The fact that they'd brought someone new along made Beau think this meeting might be a long one. He thought he needed to figure out a way to find out where Mia might be sooner rather than later. "Sam, why don't you have your secretary bring in some coffee for our guests?"
"Oh, can you ask yours to do it? Mine is... tied up." There was a mischievous twinkle in Sam's eye, and Beau knew exactly what he was getting at. He hadn't been able to find Mia because Sam had her tied up-literally.
Seething with rage, Beau tried his best to calm himself so that he didn't cause a scene in front of the clients, but there was no way he could just sit through a long meeting while Mia was potentially in danger or at the very least discomfort. He needed to figure out a way to get Sam to go set her free and then, he'd make his brother regret his destructive ways-once and for all.