She tried to appear nonchalant. “Oh. Well, if you can reach him, will you have him call me?”
“Sure.” He reached for his cell, picked it up, and turned in his chair. He spotted Wrath, appeared startled, and dropped his phone on the desk. He fumbled, grabbed it and spun to face the screen again. “I’ll call him now.”
Lauren turned, smiling at Wrath. “This way, Mr. Williams. I’ll pull up those condo listings.”
“Lauren!”
Lauren jumped, turning. Mel stood in her office, staring at Wrath with an odd expression on her face.
“Hi, Mel. This is Mr. Williams. He’s interested in condos.”
Mel smiled but it looked forced. “May I speak to you for a moment?”
Lauren nodded and motioned Wrath toward an open door near the front by the reception area just around the corner. “This is my office. Go on in and I’ll be back in a second.” She moved toward her boss, wondering if she was in trouble for trying to argue the night before over showing the property. “What is it, Mel?”
Mel waited until Lauren was inside her office before she spoke. “Who is he?” She kept her voice down.
“That’s Mr. Williams. He was just stationed in this area and plans to stay a while.”
Mel chewed on her bottom lip for a few seconds then frowned. “He called you and set an appointment?”
Lauren nodded and hoped her boss wasn’t planning to screw her over by trying to steal a client. It wouldn’t be the first time. Of course Mel didn’t realize Wrath wasn’t a real client and she worried what would happen if her boss wanted to show him listings instead.
“How did the showing go last night?” Mel changed the subject.
Lauren managed to hide her relief. “Good. Mr. Herbert is interested in buying the property but there are these large cargo containers left inside the warehouse that he wasn’t interested in. He asked me about them but it’s not my listing. I didn’t know if they stay or if they’ll be removed. He wanted to talk to Brent.”
“I’ll pass that along.” Mel studied Lauren. “Okay. Go ahead and deal with Mr. Williams but I called a meeting in half an hour. You can set him up with some coffee while he waits for you. It won’t take long.” She glanced at her watch. “My office in half an hour and it’s mandatory. You can go show him the properties he’s interested in right after the meeting.”
“Is everything okay? We usually don’t hold meetings when clients are here.”
A smile curved Mel’s mouth. “Everything is fine, Lauren. We had some parking issues come up with the landlord and I swore I’d talk to all the employees. The man is a pain in the ass but we don’t want to lose our lease. It won’t take more than a few minutes. I just want to address everyone at once so no one feels singled out but we both know who the two worst offenders are. Both John T and John B know better than to use the alley. The other tenants complained.”
“Okay.” She left Mel, returned to her office and smiled at Wrath. She sat down at her desk and glanced at the open doorway, lowering her voice. “We’ll be here for at least half an hour. My boss called a meeting and she said it was mandatory. That should mean that he has to show up for it too. He could walk in at any time.”
“Did you hear that?” He seemed to be listening to his earpiece and gave Lauren a slight nod, keeping his voice low too. “They heard.”
“I’ll pull up listings while we wait. We’ll just pretend to look at them to pass the time.”
Lauren had him scoot his chair closer so both of them could view her computer screen. “While we look at condos, we can watch who walks in the door. I never get tired of looking at these. Some of them are kind of cool.”
“I like the curved stairs and the big bathtub.” He pointed at the computer monitor but his other hand brushed her thigh and rubbed before he leaned back in his chair.
They had viewed several listings when Lauren’s phone rang about fifteen minutes later and she answered. “Lauren Henderson.”
“Hello, Lauren. It’s Brent.”
Her gaze flew to Wrath. “Hello, Brent.”
Wrath tensed in his seat and leaned closer. Lauren tilted the phone, hoping he could hear both sides of the conversation.
“I heard you were looking for me.”
“Yes. I had to show a warehouse property for you last night. The guy is interested but he doesn’t want the cargo containers. He had some questions about the roof, well, you know the drill, but I didn’t have any answers for him. He wanted me to get the answers and meet with him today.”
She looked at Wrath for direction and held up her hands questioning about what else to say. He nodded at her. He mouthed “at the warehouse at noon”.
“He wanted me to meet him there at noon today to show it to him during the daylight hours. I told him I’d try to send you instead so you can answer his questions since it is your listing. He seems really hot for the property.”
Brent chuckled. “Great. I’ll meet him instead. Thanks, Lauren. I know we don’t get along but this was really nice of you to call me. You could have screwed me out of the whole thing.”
“It’s your listing, Brent. One day I could have an emergency and you might have to show one of my properties. I would hope you’d do me right.” She refrained from snorting. The guy would have no qualms over stealing a deal right out from under her.
“Thanks. I’ll meet him at noon.” He hung up.
Lauren grinned at Wrath, happy that she’d been able to help him. Brent was a bad guy who needed to be arrested.
