“Not a problem,” Zoe said, practically bouncing on her chair. “I have a few wigs that I wear occasionally. You come over early, and I’ll fix you up with one. I’ll do your makeup so he won’t recognize the chef from Madeline’s who usually wears dark jeans and kitchen clogs. We’re about the same size, so you can borrow one of my dresses.” She smiled. “I’ll pick out a few that will guarantee Dawson won’t be looking at your face.”
The idea of Dawson leering at Julia made Nico’s blood heat. When he realized he’d curled his fists, he flattened his hands on his thighs. “That sounds like a great idea,” he forced himself to say. He turned to Julia. “Would you be able to take a night off? I think this is important.”
“Yeah, I could,” Julia said, although she sounded reluctant. “It might be tough if we haven’t hired more people by then, but I’ll have to trust Delia to handle the kitchen.”
“Do you have security at your parties?” Flynn demanded.
Zoe gave him a cool look. “If it’s in my apartment, I do,” she said. “They’re either servers or guests. And they’re armed.”
Flynn narrowed his gaze. “You ever have problems at one of your parties?” Flynn asked.
“Rarely. I don’t invite the kinds of people who drink too much and cause trouble. But that’s what the security is for. Just in case.”
Flynn leaned forward. “I’ll be doing security for that party. You might talk to Mel, too. If she has some team members who aren’t busy, you’d have someone we all trust backing us up.”
Zoe studied Flynn for a moment. “You have the finesse of an elephant, Flynn, but that’s actually a good idea,” she said, sounding surprised. “I’ll give Annie a call.”
“Thanks, Zoe,” Nico said, turning back to her. “You’ve been extremely helpful, and we all appreciate it. It’s good to get an idea of what kind of person Dawson is.” He leaned closer to her. “In your opinion, is he the kind of person who could harass someone the way it appears he’s harassing Julia?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitating. “A business rival, or an ex-girlfriend. Or someone who got on the wrong side of him. I could absolutely see Dawson badgering them.”
Julia frowned. “But I don’t know Dawson. I’ve never met him. So why is he going after me?”
Nico turned to look at her. “That’s the big question. But if he’s the one behind everything, we’ll figure out why. Zoe,” he turned to the woman across from him, “you’ve been extraordinarily helpful. Great information, and your reading of Dawson sounds right on the money. We’ll keep you in the loop as we get more info.”
“Thanks,” Zoe said. She looked from one of them to the other. “How about we order pizza and have a glass of wine? I’m starving.”
* * *
Two days later, as she and Nico drove home at the end of a long Wednesday evening at Madeline’s, Julia rested her head against the back of the seat. She was worn out. They’d hired two new bussers to take the place of the two she’d promoted to servers, and she’d been acting as the hostess. Between doing all the hostess’s work and running back and forth to the kitchen, she’d probably walked ten miles in the last six hours.
She felt Nico’s gaze on her and turned her head to face him. “What? Something wrong?”
“You look exhausted. Completely beat. Go ahead and fall asleep.”
She shook her head. “We’re only ten minutes from home.” She gave him a faint smile. “I can gut it out until we get there.”
“Okay,” he said, turning his attention back to the road. “No shame in sleeping after the evening you had.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I know you…” Nico glanced to his right. Sucked in a breath as his hands tightened on the steering wheel and he stomped on the brakes. “Brace yourself.”