Andrew caught up to Chad that afternoon heading down the hall to the back of the top floor where both of their offices were. Each of them had one of the back-corner offices with Andrew’s finance team and Chad’s security and tech people spread out around the rest of the floor with them.
Chad shot him a look as Andrew fell in step beside him.
“You’re running full background.” It wasn’t a question. Andrew knew Chad would run full background on Jack’s bride. What he wanted to be sure of was that Chad gave him a copy of the results.
And yeah, he wanted to be sure the check was damned thorough. Like knowing what kind of underwear the woman wore kind of thorough.
Chad gestured to his office. “Let’s wait until we’re alone.”
They passed several of Andrew’s people and most gave him smiles or nods as he went by.
Chad paused at the door to the office of his righthand woman at the office, Samantha Page. She was a computer genius who Andrew was pretty sure they’d never be able to replace if she ever left.
“Don’t forget to eat, Sam,” Chad said.
“The wizards have to die,” the dark-haired woman muttered as she leaned back in her chair, eyes closed.
“Samantha?” Chad said louder.
Sam shot forward, sitting up in her chair and throwing herself off balance as she overcorrected.
She flushed red and looked at them, brows raised.
“Don’t forget to grab lunch.” Chad said again before continuing on.
Samantha was brilliant on a computer but she could often get so tied up in whatever she was working on, she would forget things like eating and sleeping.
“Wizards?” Andrew asked.
Chad shrugged his shoulders. “She’s designing another multiplayer gaming world in her head. She told me once she designs the whole thing in her head before she starts the actual coding.”
Andrew didn’t have to ask if Chad minded her working on her outside projects while she was at work. Some companies would try to claim ownership of anything their employees created while at the office.
Sutton wouldn’t do that, at least not where Sam was concerned. She was one of those employees who got her work done and then some. If she wanted to take a break and let her mind wander to wizards and gummy bears, what did they care?
They reached Chad’s office and shut the door after entering.
Chad sat and began tossing pencils at his garbage can, more often than not, getting them in on the first shot. It was one of things he did when his mind was racing. Andrew and the rest of the company had grown to ignore that long ago.
“You’re digging deep?” Andrew asked.
Chad nodded. “I was going to check in with you about it. Jack didn’t tell me to run a background on Kelly, but seeing as the first I heard of her was when they announced their engagement, I thought it was prudent.”
Andrew had to walk a thin line here. He couldn’t let on to Chad about the truth of Jack and Kelly’s engagement. But as glad as Andrew was that Jack had a solution to his problem with a woman who, on the face of things didn’t seem to be a psycho, he needed to be sure about Kelly before he let his best friend go down this road.
Andrew skimmed that line, hoping to set Chad at ease about Kelly so he didn’t go digging into the legitimacy of the wedding, while still convincing him to run the background check he needed to feel right about this himself.
Jack was having someone outside the company run a check for him, but Andrew wasn’t one hundred percent sure Jack was thinking clearly on this. His head had been screwed up about this clause in the will and Andrew wasn’t convinced he was thinking straight.
“Jack says he met her through Jennie a couple months ago,” Chad said. “Did you know they were dating?”
“You interrogated Jennie?” Andrew asked.
Chad shot a scowl his way. “Talked. I don’t typically grill the people who work for us.”
It wasn’t entirely true. There was that time they had a guy in the mailroom stealing from their other employees. Chad had been the one to figure it out and if Andrew remembered right there’d been some grilling alright.
“What did she have to say?” Andrew had been planning to talk to Jennie himself, only she’d been down in human resources filling out the paperwork for her new job.
Chad shook his head. “Said Kelly’s just a nice normal person. She and Kelly have known each other for years, met at a yoga class. Kelly’s going to law school next year.”
Andrew worked to keep his face blank as he nodded. “When will you get her background check?”
“I’ve already got a basic report. I’ll have more by the end of the day.”
“You’ll share?”
Chad nodded and Andrew stood. When he opened the door, Chad called out to him.
‘Hey, you never answered my question.”
Andrew turned back. “What’s that?”
“Did you know they were dating?”
Andrew could see the hurt in Chad’s eyes. The man was trying to hide it, but it was there. And Andrew got it. Jack and Chad were close. It had to have hurt to hear Jack was going to marry a woman Chad had never met, much less even heard of.
Andrew didn’t want Chad to think he had known something Chad didn’t and make the situation worse.
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t meet her before yesterday.”
It was the truth. It just wasn’t all of the truth.