Chapter 23: Temper Tantrums

Steph’s POV

My first month as CO was not as bad as I feared, but it wasn’t a walk in the park. One of the best decisions I made after I took over was to offload all Trenton branch work to Hal. There was no way I would ever meet standards and stay sane if I had to run the company and a branch. Besides, I had to remain neutral and above board. Being involved in the day to day operations of a branch wouldn’t help me do that. Hal grumbled about it, but he took on the extra work without too many complaints, restructuring the Trenton office and leadership to accommodate what has to be done. The guys here look a lot happier. I overheard one say that they were starting to feel like there was a possibility for promotions in the company, and I added that to my list of things to consider.

The work of the company really requires me to be creative. Danny, Hal, and I had a conference video call so that I could look at their projections for Hospitality work, and I gave them the OK to pilot it for four months in their branches. Before I offered the chance to Hal, I asked Mark if he wanted to pilot it in Boston, but he said he didn’t have any projections to give. I asked him what happened to the projections he’d previously given Lester, but he claimed not to have submitted any. He said he’d only had discussions about possibilities, not numbers. So why am I getting the feeling he’s going to do it anyway?

It was a great move for the Trenton office; they had about six contracts for conferences in the Philly area within two weeks, although I think Ram had some problems securing those contracts at first. Atlanta had a harder time getting the contracts they wanted, so I advised them to start with smaller conferences and to also make contact with the events coordinator at the venues they thought they could cover. After that, they started getting the contracts they needed, but it reinforced what Les said about moving into this very carefully.

The announcement of the implementation schedule for the SharePoint site went out, and the Miami office had a fit because they weren’t going to be the first office that went up. Hector said that anyone who wanted to challenge his decision on the deployment schedule was more than welcome to come to Trenton to discuss it with him. I heard nothing more, so I suppose that was the end of that.

Our guys really didn’t see the point of it until they got a look at Manny’s temporary site. Then the ideas and suggestions started flowing. I thought about what Lester said before he left, about soliciting more ideas from the staff, and asked the XOs if they thought it would be a good idea for me to have an email address where the men could email their suggestions and concerns. This idea was met with silence.

“It’s not that I don’t think it’s a good idea, Stephanie,” said Danny. “It’s just that I don’t want to encourage the men to think they can bypass their XO and go directly to the CO with every little flight of fancy that enters their skulls. A suggestion box can quickly turn into a ‘moan and groan’ box or a ‘snitch’ box if the idea gets out that the CO will take ideas she gets from the men back to the XOs for implementation without discussion.”

All the XOs agreed with that statement, so I put the idea back on the list as something to think about later.

Later that afternoon, Hal and Manny came to talk to me.

“I think that if you put it out that the emails were going to be shared by the Leadership, the CO and all the XOs, with an eye toward improving processes and procedures, then the men wouldn’t be encouraged to send in every thought that enters their head,” Hal said. “Knowing that their XO may see it too means they should stick to company matters.”

Manny nodded in agreement, so I sent an email to the XOs outlining how I thought it should work. Everyone responded in favor, so I asked Hector to help me set it up. The email went out, my first official email as the CO of RangeMan, and I’ve gotten some surprisingly good suggestions from the box, which I’ve set aside to think about.

I’m using the XOs as my sounding board for major decisions I need to make, and it’s an adjustment for all of us. They are not accustomed to being asked to weigh in on the direction of the company as a whole. Ranger and Lester think up the big ideas, Ranger gives the OK, Bobby looks for weaknesses and defects and Tank executes. The Leadership Core has defined roles, but for the next year that structure is not in place. I have to find my own structure, and it’s a waste of the XOs not to use them.

Some of them, like Danny, Hal, and Javier, are enjoying this new freedom to weigh in on the direction of the company, and because of it I’m getting great ideas to consider. Armando participates sporadically; Mark does not participate at all. I now consider Danny and Hal my main sounding boards. I know that if I have questions on procedure or policy I can always ask Hal, and if I have questions about finances I can ask Danny or Ryan, the head of Finance. I’m careful about how I approach the other XOs because I remember what Les said about their weaknesses.

Lester’s warnings about Mark were dead on. I was surprised to find Hal waiting for me in my office one morning looking angry and irritated. Hal had just been informed by the accountants that Mark is asking for monthly budgeting reports for both his branch and Trenton, and they needed Hal’s permission to release the Trenton budget to him. Evidently he told them that Hal had requested his assistance with understanding the process.

“I swear, Steph, you gotta get a handle on him. I can’t have him poking his nose into my branch.” Hal truly feels the ownership of the Trenton branch and he’s protective of it.

“How do you want to handle it?” I have an idea, but I want to see what he will think up first.

“I’ve already told him that if I feel I need his help I would call him. I’m tempted to turn the process around on him, but I don’t have the power.”

Great; exactly what I was thinking. “Then don’t do anything. I’ve got it. And don’t mention this to him. Call the accountants back, deny permission, and say nothing else.”

I wait an hour then call Ryan.

“Ryan, I have a question and a request.”

“Shoot, Steph.”

“I already receive all Mark’s financial paperwork, correct? All his monthly spending and budgeting reports, forecasts, etc, right?”

“Right . . .” I can hear Ryan getting suspicious.

“Great. Don’t release any of his financial paperwork to him or anyone else until Hal and I give you further notice. Make sure your staff knows it as well.  Only HalandI will be allowed to lift the order.”

“Noted. What should we tell him if he asks?”

“Call the Trenton branch.”

The next week, when his financial paperwork didn’t show up, Mark’s first step was to call all the other XOs to find out if they had received theirs. Everyone reported that they had. Step two was to call the accountants to determine if there was a problem; he was told to call the Trenton branch. He reached Hal, who was ready for him.

“Mark, how are you? Can I help you with something?”

“Uhh . . . yeah, I called the accountants about my financial paperwork. They said to call here. Any idea why?”

“Not a clue.”

“Who would know?”

“You ask Steph?”

Silence on the phone. Obviously, it had not even occurred to him that I was the only person who would have been able to give the order to prevent his paperwork.

“Did she have it held?”

“Above my pay grade.”

Mark hung up. I waited. I ended up waiting two days, until Monday afternoon.

“Hello, can I speak to Stephanie?”

“Speaking. Hi Mark, how can I help you?”

“I didn’t receive my financial statements last week. Wanted to know if you know why.”

“Yes.”

Silence. I’m not going to make this easy for him.

“I would like access to my paperwork again.”

Silence. “Is that a request?”

“Yes.” Silence. Magic word, Mark. “Please.”

“Sure. What do you need?”

Silence on the phone. Hal is shaking with silent laughter. Mark is not enjoying his humbling.

“I need all my regular financial paperwork. All budgeting, spending reports, and forecasting. All the stuff the XOs get every week.”

“Ah. OK. I’ll call Ryan. Anything else, Mark?”

“No. Thank you.”

I call Ryan and lift the order. Ryan asks if Hal’s order is still needed; yes, it is.

I get a call back an hour later.

“Stephanie, this is Mark. The accountants still won’t release my paperwork to me, and they won’t tell me why.”

“Mark, if you think carefully about this, you know why and you know who you need to call.”

Hal came strolling in two hours later. “Would you like to hear the completely insincere apology, or is it enough to know I got it?” We both laugh.

---

The training to meet standards has not been as much fun. It’s not that the guys don’t try; it’s that I really don’t want to do this. I want the freedom over my life back, but I’ve begun to resent the fact that everyone thinks I have to know all this in order to be a bounty hunter. Lula was right; I was a bounty hunter for four years. Four years! I don’t need lessons in how to do my job.

The first time I said this out loud, Hector raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t need lessons in how to do this?” He was teaching me how to pick locks, and I was handcuffed with my hands behind my back and had a bobby pin, which I kept dropping.

“Nope,” I said. I know I’m acting like a spoiled brat, but really. 100% capture rate. Four years and counting. I’m OK at my job. I’m still alive.

“Fine. I’ll put the word out that you don’t intend to bounty hunt for the next year.”

“Fine.” Yeah, this is childish, but it’s all I have left.

“OK. When you get out of those handcuffs, you’re free to leave,” Hector said nonchalantly. He picked up his lock-picking tools and walked out of the apartment.

Hmm . . . might have been a bad time to pick this particular fight.

Two hours later, I still hadn’t managed to get free and I needed to pee. Finally, the door opened and Ella walked in with dinner.

“That looks uncomfortable.”

“It is. Can you free me, Ella? I really need to pee.”

“I don’t have a handcuff key, dear. Let me see if I can find one of the men.”

She returned minutes later with Ram in tow. Ram took one look at me doing my bunny impression and said, “I’ll help you to the bathroom, but I’m not releasing you. You want out, talk to your partner.”

“I can make it to the bathroom on my own. I need help getting my clothes off. I need free hands.”

“Again, not releasing you. I’m more afraid of Hector than you. The clothes sound like an Ella sort of situation.”

Ella helped me to the bathroom and pulled my pants down. I was too desperate to be embarrassed at this point. When she had my panties off and I was seated, I praised God for Ella once again.

I walked out the bathroom calmer, and Ella helped me get my clothes back on. Ram had disappeared and Hector had returned. My dinner was rapidly cooling from Ella-induced perfection.

Hector simply looked at me. “Shall we try this again?”

“No.”

I could see Hector assess me coolly. “Do you enjoy being helpless?”

Huh?

“Seriously, Angelita, do you enjoy being helpless? Do you enjoy being at the mercy of others? Hoping that Ranger comes to rescue you? That your Merry Men show up in time to save your life? Do you expect your mom to show up to mow me down at some point?”

I hadn’t thought about that. Wonder if Mom is . . . no, it’s 6:15 PM. She’s knee-deep in gravy.

Hector stands up with a pillowcase, which he tosses over my head. A black pillowcase. I can feel myself begin to hyperventilate. This is my worst nightmare.

“Do you enjoy this Angelita? Do you enjoy having your panic overwhelm you?” Hector’s voice seems to be coming from all directions. I can’t make heads or tails of anything.

This is horrible.

I want out.

Please stop.

“Is this a familiar feeling, Angelita? Feeling terrified? Feeling afraid? Feeling alone?”

I don’t even pretend. I’m on my knees sobbing, big snot bubbles sliding down my face. This is worse than being on the playground with the Slayers or being trapped in the casket by Con Stiva.

Hector is my partner. He’s supposed to have my back and he’s frightening me on purpose. There’s no point to this.

“Wrong, chica,” Hector says unsympathetically. “There is a point to this and the point is this: If you intend to do this job, you have to do it right. You have to quit relying on luck. You have to quit assuming that we will show up to save you in the nick of time. You have to learn to rely on yourself, on your skills, on your abilities. Right now, at this very moment, Ranger is god knows where. Tank, Lester, and Bobby are in Texas. The rest of the men are downstairs. Who could stop me if I attacked you? Could you even defend yourself if I attacked you?”

No. No no no, I can’t defend myself. We haven’t started defense training. My arms are handcuffed behind my back and my face is covered. I can’t see anything. I’m too afraid to move.

“Exactly.” Hector removes the pillowcase from my head and wipes my face with his handkerchief. He pulls me to my feet and hugs me.

“Shhh, sweet Angelita. Shhh.” He rubs my back and we sway from side to side as I calm down. Finally he looks at me. “What I did was cruel but necessary. I love you, Angelita. I want to see you live a long long life. But you don’t take your life seriously, which makes me nervous. I haven’t survived all these years and gained the reputation that I have to be brought down by you. If we are going to be partners, I need to know that I can rely on you. That’s why I’m overseeing the first part of your training, so I can assure myself you’re taking it seriously.” He walks into the kitchen.

“Why does everyone think I have a death wish? I don’t have a death wish.”

Hector returns from the kitchen with water, a hard look on his face. “Clearly you do. You believe that simply because you’ve done this job for four years and you’re still alive, you don’t need training. Well, I want you to consider what might have happened if Ranger had not found that casket in time. If the cross dresser had not seen you, had not had an Uzi, and had not known how to wield that school bus in a deadly manner.”

He places the water next to my feet and wipes my faces. “Chica, what might have happened if your mother had not known you were in danger and had not chosen to run down the man in the bunny suit? Think, Angelita! Your mother committed murder, vehicular homicide, for you! And you and I both know those were just the biggest incidents. Shall I start on the hundreds of little things?”

I shake my head. I’m seated in the chair again, looking at my feet. I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want to consider those things.

“Aside from the fact that this company is ‘lead by example’, have you ever considered what it might be like if the cops never had anything to bet on?”

Ooohh, now there’s a thought. I look up at Hector, who has a half-smile on his face.

“Have you considered what your life might be like if your mother could never again complain about your job?”

Keep talking, Hector. I like the sound of this.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to lock Morelli up with his own handcuffs?”

At this, I look over at Hector sharply. He shrugs.

“You interrupted a poker game. We were all a little surprised to see Ranger leave looking excited and return looking slightly dazed and confused.” Hmm . . . something to think about later.

Hector moves to the kitchen. I hear the microwave door shut.

“Now, let’s discuss how you get out of the handcuffs then I’ll reheat dinner.”

It took two hours, but I can now pick most locks. Joe won’t know what hit him.

---

I never gave Hector another temper tantrum. I took what he said seriously. I know Hector has an infamous reputation, but hearing him tell me that he was afraid for his life because he wasn’t sure I could hold my own in the field made me stop and think.

Do all the men think I’m this bad?

I decide to take a small amount of courage and ask. I decide Ram is the best target. Ram is incredibly diplomatic.

“Ram, have a minute?”

“Sure, Bombshell. What’s up?”

I motion for him to follow me to my office and shut the door. That gets raised eyebrows.

“If I were your partner and we were in the field, would you trust me to have your back?”

“Hector is your partner. Is there a problem with Hector?” I can see that Ram is clearly hoping that there isn’t a problem with Hector.

“No. Just assume for a moment that Hector was unavailable and you and I were in the field. Do you trust me to have your back?”

“Yes, Bombshell. I do.”

“So do you think I need all the training that’s been assigned to me?”

I see Ram slam his blank face into place. “That wasn’t my call to make. It’s RangeMan standards. You’re the CO.”

I sigh. “I’m looking for an honest answer, Ram. How would you assess my abilities in the field?”

Ram is still looking for the trap. I can see him picking his words very carefully. 

“Well, in the field, my strength is target acquisition and elimination, preferably rifle-based and long range.”

Translation: I prefer to lay low and shoot. Sniper. Need I say more?

“If we were in the field together, I would expect that we would be out there looking for a target that required a non-traditional method of capture.”

Translation: I assume that I don’t get to shoot and you’re running a distraction.

“Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, Bombshell. The goal of RangeMan standards is to minimize weaknesses. Every man, and woman, must meet standards because it puts us all on a level playing field, a base minimum, and everyone knows that each man has a basic core of abilities. From there, each man’s particular strengths can push us over the top.”

Translation: You need all the training you can get. Your specialty is mayhem and confusion, and we can only use that in small quantities. And only in certain situations.

I nod. Diplomat. I wonder where I can buy Ram an ‘Idiot’s Guide to Being a Politician’.

“Did you know that even the housekeepers and maintenance men have to meet standards?”

What! Is he kidding? I know my surprise must show on my face because Ram nods.

“Yeah. There’s a set of standards for them too. Not so much being able to run a mile but standards for the range and driving and certain other essential skills.”

“You mean Ella logs range time?” I can’t imagine pretty petite Ella handling guns.

Ram smiles. “Yeah, she hates guns as much as you do, but she logs her range time. Every Thursday morning at 7AM she and Luis are down in the range. They’ve made it a game between them. Winner buys ice cream on date night.”

I consider that. Ella has motivation to get down there. She and Luis have made it a game between them. “Is Luis former military?”

“Nope. Civilian, but when he started work here and I came onboard, I helped both of them get better. Ranger had been teaching them up to that point.”  Ram grins. “Ranger was thrilled to pass that duty off to me. Ella liked to twist his ears when he wouldn’t listen to her. I had my ears twisted more than I care to think of until she met standards.” Ram grimaces but smiles at the memory.

I grin. I’m trying to imagine Ella twisting the men’s ears and I can imagine it happening with everyone except Ranger.

Thursday morning at 7:30, I’m down in the range. I make it there just in time to watch Ella and Luis trash talk each other in the lanes. Apparently, this is considered highly amusing among the men because I see the cameras pointed toward them and the men in the range are hiding smiles.

Ella is taunting Luis. “Come on cariño, can’t you shoot’em up better than that? I got the paper man in the crotch and three to the heart. Whatchu got?” The men all grimace slightly and smile. Wimps.

Luis stands up straight and glowers at his wife. “I have respect for the paper man’s cojones,” every RangeMan is nodding, “so I got five to the heart, clustered. Beat that, querida. Ram should see this.” Ram, who had just entered before me, hurries forward to check both targets and declares Luis the winner. Ella scowls playfully then spots me.

“Stephanie! What do you think? I think I should get another point for getting the paper man in the crotch!”

I grin. The men are looking at me in shock. I hate the range, so to see me there is surprising. I’m certain I’ve never been there before noon either. “I think she’s right, Ram. Can’t she get another point for that? After all, if I shot you in your cojones, you wouldn’t move anymore either.” At this all the Merry Men groan and twist slightly. Wimps. Even the thought of something happening to their precious cojones makes them whimper.

“The point is to take ’em down, Steph. Kill, not injure,” Ram replies.

“If I shoot you in the cojones, I’d kill you. Maybe not on that shot, but since you’d drop the gun to clutch your balls, I have a free shot after that.” I smile. The logic is sound, and I can see that Ram knows it even though he doesn’t want to agree.

“That assumes you still have bullets, but fine, Ella can have another point if we can leave my cojones out of this discussion. Please quit threatening them. Luis still wins.”

Ella is happy and so am I. I considered what Ram said yesterday, so I ask Ella and Luis if they would mind if I spent part of my range time with them. They were happy to have me join them, so I decide to shuffle my schedule around so that I can spend some time in the range with Ella. If we share a mutual hatred of guns, then sharing the range time might not be so bad. Thanks to the 7AM Core Team call, Ella can spend 30 minutes trash talking with Luis and I can spend time with the both of them afterwards.

Not bad. I might be able to work this out in my favor.