The Full Story, with all Side Stories and the Housekeepers’ War series integrated in.
“Y’all get it straight?”
We’re on the road to Houston, RMSA men behind us in another SUV, and Lula’s looking at me out the side of her eye.
“Yeah. We’re straight.”
She nods. “Good.”
I look over at her. “We’re good too,” I tell her quietly.
She exhales. “Thanks. So what the hell was wrong with you?”
I sigh. “A bunch of things.” Continue reading
“Sir?”
I wave Candace into the room. “I have a management problem.”
“One moment, sir.” She leaves and returns with a legal pad. “OK, shoot.”
I give her the brief outline of the discussion with Steph, taking care to represent what happened on both sides. I also give her the recording of the meeting from my phone. She sits back to listen. By the end, she’s pale and shaking her head.
“Wow . . .”
“Yes. Opinion?”
“Verbal reprimand.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Why not written?” I slide the one I wrote over to her and she reads it, nodding, before sliding it back.
“Because this is a first offense, sir. Yes, she was insubordinate, but gloves off?” She shrugs her shoulders. “OK, maybe I wouldn’t have told my bosses to go fuck themselves, but she felt comfortable enough to.”
“And that makes it OK?” I ask coldly.
“No, sir,” she replies, arching an eyebrow. “It makes this entire situation a pain in the ass. You’re all friends but you also have a line. She’s a subordinate doing the job of a board member. Lines are blurry. I have to ask, sir, if you intend to keep her.”
“We do. We want to, but my partners will vote to fire without some sort of corrective action.” Continue reading
Me and Candy are in my temporary office at RangeMan handling business when Steph walks by.
“Hey, girl! What—”
One look at her face and whatever I want to say dies on my lips. Steph looks seconds from crying. I don’t hesitate.
“Go to the Escalade. I’ll be down in a minute.”
“I don’t want to be tracked.”
“Then you’re shit out of luck leaving this building. At least if we take the Escalade they’ll leave us alone.” Continue reading
Ranger leaves for the airport at noon. The weather over DC is bad so he needs to make it in as fast as possible. He said he would be back this weekend, but the guys already had something planned. He might not see me before Monday, but I’ll be back in Trenton by then.
I agree to meet with the guys in Tank’s office after lunch. Les walks in last and waggles his eyebrows at me.
“Hey, Les. I thought you were headed to the East Coast with him.”
He hugs me. “Next week. I can do what I need to by phone for a while.” He moves to his seat, where Bobby takes his head and twists it back and forth.
“Still firmly attached. Good job, Lessie.”
Les’s ears turn red as Tank laughs. “Shut up, Roh-bear.” Continue reading
My phone beeps at 0700.
“Hello?”
“Aguilar?”
Trent. I wonder what’s happened. Steph shifts on my chest and opens an eye. Moments later, she makes her dash for the bathroom. I sit up.
“Yes?”
“Any chance you can get back here? James White’s been found dead in Newark.”
I lean back and smile. I can’t wait to tell Les. “Is it crucial?”
“Yes. The FBI is in an uproar. He shouldn’t have gotten bail, in their opinion. As the gangs specialist, he should have been put in a segregated area. His family is here screaming too. Plus, we need to start debriefing your agents. Madam Secretary would appreciate your cooperation.” Continue reading
Lula and I wake up bright and early (or somewhere around 9 AM) and go for a run. She’s determined to get her stomach flat for that wedding dress. I’ve gained a little weight and now that I’m going to be in the wedding, I need to trim down a bit.
I’m going to be in my brother’s wedding! I had to praise HIM and give thanks for my blessings. The one thing I assumed my attitude had completely ruined was given back to me. I have my brother’s love and respect again. Continue reading
“Mommy! Mommy!”
Yala sinks to her knees in the middle of the Rikers visiting area and grabs the boys in a tight hug. I see the tears in her eyes and I kneel and wipe her face with my hankie.
She opens one eye and peers at me. “Thank you,” she whispers.
I nod and back away. This is her time. I know how she feels.
-oOo-
Earlier
Javi has my ass working like a cheap trick. I’m starting to get a flava, a style to work the streets, and I’m pulling back bigger and bigger contracts. The street guys are thrilled. We’re certain we’re gonna push past Trenton this month. We just know it.
After watching me handle that, Javi changes my job again! Now he wants me to handle more of Jorge’s stuff while Jorge works with Hector and Danny to get the technical setup for the Business Investigations group really moving. I start participating in the strategist calls and learn my new teammates across the company are good peeps. Continue reading
I slide out of Les’s Range Rover and grin. Mrs. CJ is standing on her porch, smiling. Her hair is blonde this time. I have a twenty on her and Lula having the same shade.
“Ric! Boy, you did lose weight! Come here and let me fatten you back up.” She’s off the porch and walking over to me, hands on her hips, like a woman on a mission.
Steph’s jaw has dropped to her chest, but I jog over to Mrs. CJ, pick her up and twirl her around. I look down at her wide smile and grin. Impossible to stay unhappy or upset around her. “Not too much. I only need five pounds this time,” I tease. “Not twenty.”
I love Tank’s mom. She’s a wonderful woman, so loving and giving to everyone, regardless of who shows up at her door. She lives her beliefs and there’s a lot less pressure staying here or at Bobby’s than in Newark with my family. Mrs. CJ doesn’t ask questions and she lets us come and go as we please. Plus, no pressure to get married or have babies. I’d die for this woman in a heartbeat. Continue reading
I saw a lot of comments on FanFiction about Lula’s position in the last chapter. Lula’s position is similar to Vinnie or David. She’s a ‘special’/’contract’ employee, not a RangeMan. Just as Vinnie and David do not have to undergo RangeMan training, neither does Lula because she gets paid for each project she handles. The same for the contract workers who man the monitors at each location. They don’t have to be trained to RM standards because they’re paid per job.
Lula’s in an awkward position. She’s the only wife/fiancée of RangeMan leadership living in the building. She doesn’t have a job and she doesn’t have kids. Aside from school and wedding planning, she doesn’t have anything else to do and, as we’ve seen, bored characters get into trouble. Also, RMSA is Lula’s home, since she and Tank can’t agree on a house. She’s interested in the running of the place and trying to help out as much as possible because that’s her home. Lula working at RMSA started off as a volunteer thing, something for Lula to do while visiting Tank, but when Les saw how good she was at it, they formalized her role.
Essentially, she’s just filling in at the moment, something for her to do while she takes her college classes because she’s not taking a full load. When she starts taking a full load, then she won’t have time to help. If she ever became a full or part time employee then yes, she’d have to get the training and that’s something she’s contemplating already, on her own. An earlier example is Mariela Cortes. When she worked as RangeMan’s exclusive seller’s agent in Miami, she did not have to be a RangeWoman to do that. She worked on a commission basis, piece by piece, project by project.
As Tank said, it’s his job is to hire and Candy’s job is to do employee admin and we’ve seen that when Candy thinks there should be a change made, she doesn’t mind standing up to whoever is in charge. That’s vital for HR people. They have to be willing to hold the line. Now that Candy is on-site to see what Lula’s doing, she can assess whether or not a change needs to be made and she is the correct person to bring that up with Tank, not Steph. Tank and Candy can handle that.
I am stating now, as the author, there’s no hypocrisy in how Lula is being treated. It’s in line with how certain employees, historically, have been treated. It simply feels and looks awkward because RMSA is Lula’s home and the lines are blurry.
Veiland
Tank calls Diego and me into his office on Friday afternoon, before we leave for the restaurant, to speak to us. He motions for us to take a seat in front of his desk.
The late afternoon sun is shining into the room and I can see Diego checking everything out. The knowledge that this might become his new home is obvious if you know Diego as well as I do. He’s trying to hold it in but he’s excited.
I expect him to do a toothbrush-level inspection. I can’t wait to call Mando!
“First, welcome to RMSA. Glad to have other members of the leadership here with us.”
Surprising. “Thank you, sir. Glad to be here,” Diego replies, getting comfortable. Continue reading