Chapter 48: If you keep going like this . . .
Lester’s POV—Monday night
Beautiful and I have to have a talk.
When a man walks into his home and encounters a shapely behind clad only in a thong and a tight black T-shirt laid out on his sofa, he gets thoughts. Cargo tightening thoughts. Hell, that’s a fucking invitation.
If we have to share this apartment for two weeks, she’s gotta wear pants to bed. That’s a temptation I don’t need. I’m here to assess and stabilize the branch, not fantasize over Steph’s ass and prowl the NYC clubs for suitable alternatives. Damn!
I shut the water off after my extra-long (i.e. 15 minute) shower and step out. I open my eyes to the sight of Steph, knife in hand, staring at me in surprise.
Little Les preens at the attention. He’s thrilled by her slack-jawed confusion. Is that drool that I see? She’s gotta stop. This is killing me. He’s coming back to attention, waiting for orders. I just spent 10 minutes putting him at ease.
I clap my hands loudly. “Steph!”
She blushes completely red in two seconds. “Oh God, Les, I’m so sorry. I’m so, umph—”In her haste to run out the bathroom, she runs right into the doorjamb, overcorrects and hits the other. She’s dropped the knife already but she’s barefoot. She attempts to run out the bathroom again but overcorrects and slips. I dive just quickly enough to prevent her from falling on her ass on the tile floor. She rolls off me and pants, eyes tightly shut. I hop up, wrap a towel around my waist and bite my lip to keep from laughing.
“If you’re attempting a retreat, Beautiful, it helps to open your eyes.”
“You’re naked.” She’s still attempting to run, well crawl, and I’m turning red at the effort of not laughing.
“I have a towel on. Don’t move another step until you open your eyes.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s a bad idea. I’m pretty sure I want to go and–you have a towel on?” She opens her fingers and peeks. She relaxes when she spots the towel.
“Yeah. Would help him if you put some pants on.”
She frowns, looks down, and blushes red again. I walk over, pick up the blade, and set it on the countertop out of her way. Beautiful has her eyes closed again so I grab a towel and wrap it around her waist before lifting her onto the countertop. God, her breasts are soft. Little Lester is dying for some attention. He’s parting the towel trying to find the prize and Steph’s shifting all over in my arms to avoid him.
Well, this couldn’t get any more awkward. How could this get any worse?
You know what they say about not asking that question?
“Umm . . . Ranger, this isn’t what it looks like.”
Oh.
Dios.
No.
“Explain,” hisses a very angry voice behind my shoulder. I feel the knife at my back, right above my kidney. Great. Perfect position to allow me to bleed out.
Silent approach. I hate my cousin sometimes. I should have sensed his presence anyway. “You explain, asshole. What are you doing here? Sneaking into my apartment with no advance warning? You didn’t give me enough time to get her completely naked. And tonight’s not group sex night. You leave.”
The knife pricks. OUCH! Well, at least Steph is laughing.
“Oh for God’s sake, Ranger! I heard an intruder and thought I was back in my apartment for a moment. I came to investigate. I forgot I was in a secure building and that Les was coming in tonight.”
I’m looking at his face in the mirror. It’s not placated. I’m the meat in a Beautiful-Ranger sandwich, not the bread, and this isn’t where I want to be. His eyes shift back to me. Well, humor didn’t work. Perhaps indignation will.
“OK, we’ll discuss your absolutely shitty hello later. I reiterate: This is my apartment, not yours. Besides, I was trying to prevent further injury. She had,” I look down, “what appears to be one of Hector’s wickedly sharp blades and she was running into doorjambs and slipping on the tile. What would you do?”
A few heartbeats later, the pressure eases. Both Steph and I breathe sighs of relief.
“Nice to see you too, Primo. What are you doing here?”
“Crashing. Gotta follow up a lead in the Bronx in the morning, then over to Philly. I’m only here overnight.”
He’s taken Steph into his arms and is moving back toward the guest bedroom. Good.
“Les?” I look up. “Take care of that.”
Asshole. Little Lester droops in disappointment while I head back to the shower.
Steph’s POV
I’m not sure how to feel about Ranger’s appearance. He’s only here overnight? “Did you know I was here?”
“No.”
Surprising. He usually always knows where I am.
“I couldn’t reach Hector until a few moments ago. Otherwise, I might have known you were here.” Gotta work on my blank face again.
“He must have been asleep. It was a condition of him coming.”
Ranger nods. “So he is here.” I nod. “Good. I need to talk to him.” Ranger texts Hector. I frown. “It’s not life or death. Since both he and Manny are here, that’ll make my life easier. I have intel to discuss.”
I slide the towel off and climb in the bed. No sex tonight. He’s here at the wrong time.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re here, I’m here, Lester’s killing his dick. I’m happy.”
Gotta work on the blank face again. Maybe he’s reading me because I’m not concentrating on it? I laugh, but the laughs taper off as I watch Ranger strip for bed. Damn period. Always showing up at the wrong time.
“Why attack Lester?”
Silence. I look at Ranger. His face is blank, but Hector’s taught me to look in the eyes. Sometimes, you can get a clue there. Ranger’s not giving away anything. Sigh.
“You aren’t suggesting I’m having a torrid affair with Les, are you?”
That gets a small smile. “No. I trust you. I trust Les. I just didn’t have any idea what was going on or if Les was being inappropriate. I needed answers.” Ranger slides into the bed with me and pulls me into his arms. “Busy day tomorrow?”
“Don’t know yet.” I’m still considering his words and I decide to let this one go. I can see Hector doing the same thing.
“Update.”
My nose wrinkles. That sounded like an order. “Manny found Javier a new strategist, so Les is here to enforce order and meet the guy. I’m here to back up both of them.”
“Name?”
“Jorge Ortega.”
“Shane?”
Then again, this is standard Ranger. Why use two words when one will do? “Bobby wants him fired. Armando is nervous down in Miami. Doesn’t like the guy. I get frequent reports from him. He doesn’t like his ideas. ‘Not Ranger’s standards’ is what I hear all the time.”
“Fire him.”
“I want to, but I want to assess him myself first. If I do decide to fire him, Bobby said he and Les are flipping a coin for the right.”
“Ask Bobby to do it. His ‘exit interviews’ are instructive.”
“I know. I saw.” I can feel the question. “I was here for Liam’s.”
“Brutal?”
“I sent a RangeMan to check he was still alive in his apartment two days later, just in case.”
“And?”
“Alive. His mother and sister were there caring for him, and they were angry. Liam told them to shut up, it could have been worse.”
That gets a smile. “Yeah. I was listening in. Bobby could have killed him.”
“He came close.”
I feel Ranger chuckle. “Anything else?”
“Les is here to negotiate the settlement with CombinedSecurities.”
There’s a moment of silence. “Explain.”
“Liam was selling information to them. Bobby authorized the civil lawsuit and asked Manny to work with the DA on the criminal case.”
“What’s the number?”
“Dunno.”
“Tell Les I said nothing under $150 million. Take the entire fucking company if you have to. Matter of fact …” Ranger rolls over in the bed and picks up the phone. Lester is apparently in his bedroom.
“YO!”
“Yo.”
“Take the company.”
“I plan to. You have a number in mind? I was thinking $100 million.”
“$150 million and jail time.” Click.
Wow. “Are you sure you want to go that route?”
Ranger kisses my forehead. “At worst, we cripple them for years to come and send the CEO to prison. At best, we bankrupt the company, buy its assets, and Javier and Jorge are able to rebuild the branch with their clients and men. No matter what, no more losses for us.”
I blink. That’s brilliant. I’ll tell Les in the morning. We lie in the dark, engrossed in our own thoughts, before Ranger speaks.
“Your period doesn’t bother me.”
“Not a chance, buster.”
I can feel his smile. “I can give you an orgasm without being inside you.”
“I’m sure. But I don’t feel sexy and Lester is next door. And the men are under us.”
“Sound proofing.”
“No way. Are you angling for a blow job?”
“No. I was only thinking of you, but if you’re offering, I won’t turn one down.”
I consider it. Ranger’s like a jack-in-the-box on this mission. I don’t know when I’ll see him next.
I slide down the bed. An hour later, I’m chanting his name. He’s right. He doesn’t actually need to be inside me to give me an orgasm.
Javier’s POV
This has already been the best week I’ve had in months as XO for NYC. My boss told me she supports my decisions, she approved of me hiring my best friend, and Les is coming for the first time in months. I swear, Stephanie Plum as CO is the best thing to ever happen to me. She called at 0600 to ask me to double-time it to the apartment for an important discussion. What now?
I walk in and stop cold. Ranger is sitting at the bar.
Les and Steph pat my back as they leave for the gym, and I desperately want to follow them. Ranger never gives any indication of his mood, good or bad, and this morning is no different.
“I haven’t liked what I’ve heard so far. I need to know what happened here.” He motions for me to take a seat at the bar. I sit, gather my thoughts, say a quick prayer, and start telling him everything I told Steph five weeks ago. I level about everything then finish with the information Diego and Manny dug up. Hector joins us halfway through, so I switch to Spanish to finish up. At the end, I look up and, for the very first time, I see an emotion on Ranger’s face.
Pure rage.
I look over at Hector and he, too, looks pissed. I remind myself that I am largely in the clear. Well, I am with the CO and the rest of Leadership Core. Ranger might be the exception.
He nods at Hector, who leaves the apartment, then turns back to me.
“I don’t know where or how to begin to apologize to you, Javier.”
Fuck. Me. You could knock me over with a feather right now. An apology? From Ranger? I want to tape record the moment.
“You repeatedly called on me for help. I didn’t heed your call. I left you here to handle it, thinking that you were being dramatic. It couldn’t be that bad.” A muscle in his jaw twitches and I can see he is holding himself back. “I was wrong, so very very wrong, and you paid the price.”
All the while, he’s been looking me dead in my eyes. I can see he is angry and remorseful.
“I don’t know what to say to all this except I’m sorry. I am sorry, Javier.” He shakes his head, and I am not sure what to think. It’s silent for a few minutes before he continues. “I can promise you this: It will never happen again. Not just to you, but to any XO. I will never dismiss your calls for assistance again. This failure is mine and I must own it.”
Ranger is running a hand through his hair in a frustrated motion, and I feel for him. He’s running a deadly op and he’s taken time from it to come apologize to me. I never expected that. It’s the only thing I wanted and assumed I’d never get. I got an apology from Ranger.
“Sir?” He looks at me. “Thank you, sir.”
He nods. “What do you need right now, Javier?”
“Most of the things I need Steph and Bobby have provided, sir. I have money, men, and strategists with a game plan. I talked to the CO yesterday and she’s clear on my needs. Bobby and Lester are looking for a new liaison for me and we hired a new strategist yesterday. Once I have all the pieces in place, I’ll be ready to bring the branch back better than ever.”
I get a small smile. “We’ll talk more when this op is over, but remember this, Javier: I placed you as the XO of NYC for a reason. I believe in your skills and abilities. I believe in your ability to fully examine issues and make the right decision. I trust your knowledge of NYC and the landscape here. I haven’t done a good job of showing that lately, but since this branch was still limping along, you showed your strength even when you weren’t getting backup or support. I’m proud.” He claps me on the back and I smile.
“Show Steph your strengths. She’ll back you as I would, as I should have all along.”
Lester’s POV
Today’s Goals.
1. Meet the new strategist for RM-NYC.
Manny and Beautiful like him and have hired him, so I’m sure he’s the right man for the job, but I want to assess him myself. At breakfast, Steph tells me that the Trenton guys are doing a full background but that he’s Javier’s childhood friend. Lost it all in the financial crisis but has a Columbia degree in Marketing and Finance. She’s impressed by the degree and Javier’s from NYU.
I shrugged. And? I have a degree from The George Washington U (International Affairs. Thanks US Military!). Bobby has a master’s from University of Nebraska, courtesy of the military PA program. Tank’s poli sci degree is from Tulane, and he didn’t even need it as an NCO. Ranger finally finished his degree from Rutgers (Management), but only because he had to in order to enter OCS (and of course, he graduated magna to impress). Hell, Steph graduated (barely) from Douglass. Upper Management is full of degrees: Danny (Emory), Mark (Ohio State), Hal (Kansas), Armando (Florida), and Hector (NJIT). I’m sure if I keep thinking I’ll come up with all the liaisons’ and strategists’ degrees too.
In other words, degrees, while nice, mean less to me than critical thinking skills, creativity, leadership, drive, enthusiasm, stamina; in short, all the things they can’t teach you in college. At least, not from a book.
2. Assess the men and the branch
This is probably more important to me. I’ve reviewed Manny’s notes about the branch and I’m interested to see how the men stack up. I almost want to pull each member of leadership onto the mats to assess their skills, just to ensure they can enforce SOPs and standards here. In fact, I think I probably will. I want to see what Manny means by ‘undisciplined’. This is going to be an interesting week.
3. Give Javier, Jorge, and the new liaison (if they’ve picked one) a copy of The Prince.
I had to give Danny another point. While The Art of War informs my critical thinking and tactical skills, Il Principio is my favorite book on leadership. I plan to give all three men copies of each book. Forget the gossipy reads in today’s bookstore. These are the classics, which is why they’ve stuck around for hundreds of years.
4. Install more soundproofing between my bedrooms.
Three showers in one night is two too many. And Ranger’s a bastard. Just say it in English, man! If she ever learns that you tell her how you really feel in Spanish, you’re a dead man.
Jorge Ortega is a man on a mission. He’s determined to prove to everyone in the room that Javier and Steph made the right call in hiring him and he’s determined to make sure I approve of him. He’s also very tense, which makes me laugh mentally. Manny whispers that he understood the psychological intent of the lobby, so he’s expecting me to test him. Nope. Nothing worse than expecting the test and finding it doesn’t come. Besides, he understood the lobby. That’s the test. He passed.
By noon, I’m tempted to tell him to calm down. I approve. He outlined the option he gave Javier yesterday, and I was impressed by his quick thinking, drive and enthusiasm. I’m watching the way he and Javi bounce ideas off each other and how they work together, and I can see that I was right in thinking Shane was the wrong person for Javi. He needs someone like this guy to push him along. Jorge is excitable and ready to get started; Javier is just barely holding his buddy back. I snort mentally; Jorge is reminding me of myself when we first started and Javier is playing the ‘Ranger’ role. No wonder Ranger started calling me ‘Perrito’ (puppy).
Case in point: He’s already lined up lunch and dinner meetings with some of his old colleagues around the financial world to get the ground info needed for the business investigations unit. I’m impressed by his calendar. Steph is amazed by everything he’s done in 12 hours.
“Not a problem, Steph. The markets open at 9:30 AM here, but London opens at 3AM. Hong Kong was open at 9:30PM. I know guys who were up at midnight, so I got the ball rolling.”
I’m amused. He quickly learned that ‘ma’am’ was a banned word with Steph and he’s been careful to use her name instead. Javi, Manny, and Diego are grinning. Those are contacts they never would have been able to make. Jorge made phone calls and set up meetings. He woke Javi in the middle of the night and they spent the night outlining options and defining what they think this offering should cover, including pricing schemes. He got Javi to make some decisions and anything they couldn’t use he outlined for me and Steph to review. They both look dead on their feet, but he’s ahead of the eight ball.
“You’re lucky Manny is the man he is,” Diego says, smiling. His face must be cracking. Diego is the strategist that amuses me most. He strives to be Ranger. “Otherwise, you’d have no business cards. They won’t arrive until tomorrow, but we put a rush job on them. We’ll go with you and hand out ours until yours arrive.”
Jorge smiles. “Great.” He turns to Steph. “Would love to have you along, CO. You would be invaluable in helping start these discussions.”
Steph frowns. “Me?”
“Yes.”
She thinks about it and looks at me. I can think of only two possible reasons he’d want her there. “Why Steph?”
Jorge smiles. “The Managing Director, the head of the company, at the table? Invaluable. Shows we’re serious about this offering and are interested in allowing them to be on the ground floor. You would also be a great addition, sir. As a partner and member of the board, it’s your kind of experience we’re touting in this new endeavor.”
Excellent answer! The other option: Steph’s a pretty woman and it would be good to have a pretty face for the marks to look at. If he’d gone anywhere near that, I might have fired him. Instead, he focused on her position and importance. Good.
The first lunch takes place two days later at Sophie’s. Edward Jones (yes, yes, he’s aware of all the jokes) is meeting us and is interested in the business investigations group. He works for a major bank (very major), and the management is extremely embarrassed by some of the business partners they have taken on and their assets. Unfortunately, there was no way to get info on these guys in a timely fashion. His bosses are just the kind of clients we’re looking for in this kind of venture.
“I mean, we later find out that this guy is the second cousin of a strong man and is financially tied up with him.” Jones is working his way through his Cuban sandwich. Steph bowed out of this one, saying she wanted to investigate something else. “Complete disaster. Now we’re trying to figure out how to spin him off, but he’s stuck to us. We need his contacts but we don’t want him.”
“What country?” I ask. He supplies the answer and I’m amused. I’m thinking I know exactly who he’s speaking of and, if I’m right, the only way his bank gets loose is with a major check. Or if their new partner gets a bullet in the brain.
Yeah, this is the sort of intel we can sell. I could’ve given them that info in 20 minutes. Thanks US military!
“Well, the ability to avoid that sort of public relations situation is exactly what RangeMan would like to offer you and your employer. We have and maintain contacts worldwide. Our company is filled with men of various backgrounds and they’re all adept at obtaining tightly held information with minimal fuss.”
I sit back and smile. “For example, what I can tell you about your target is that he smokes Cubans he obtains illegally through a contact in Venezuela. He has a wife and three kids, but his illegitimate son just entered high school in Bolivia and his newest mistress is Estonian. I know that his cousin hates him but relies on him for information and that his next move will be to threaten you with a public relations nightmare unless you give him voting rights.”
Throughout this little speech, Jones has gotten paler and paler. By the time I get to the threats, he’s white. “How . . . how . . . do you know that?”
He’s one of my enemies, in my folder. If this experience helps sell us throughout Wall Street, perfect. Jorge has a blank face (good man) but his eyes suggest he’s ready to pop in happiness. “I took a moment to look at your leadership and board before this meeting. The moment his name popped up, I recognized it. You aren’t his first mark and you won’t be his last. He just threaten you for the voting rights?”
Jones nods. I smile and slide the prospectus towards him. Nice work by Jorge and Javier. It’s glossy and detailed.
“Let’s discuss contracts and we’ll help you and your employer extricate yourselves.”
By the time we get to lunch on Monday, Wall Street tycoons are calling us. We have enough work for the business investigations department to handle for the next two months. We thought it would take that long to get the information needed to market this option but the right man, in the right position, can make things happen.
Jorge Ortega is a keeper, but I’m not telling him yet. Pass the standards, buddy, and you and Manny could be my new best friends. Regardless, Jorge is thrilled.
“Shit! I hated some of these bastards for laughing at me, but watching them sign multi-million dollar deals makes up for every snigger and joke.” He grins. “I have to work hard not to be smug.”
I laugh. I like him. Javier and Jorge took me around their old neighborhood over the weekend (Tremont?! Holy shit! I felt under armed.) and we had dinner and just hung out. I know Ranger likes to keep a certain reserve between him and the men, but right now, Javier needs support more. Steph told me the story about Jorge’s fall from grace. Both of these guys need to know that someone is standing behind them, ready to catch them. They need to know that I won’t hesitate from now on, that my support is absolute. They’ve had some rough years and stuck by each other. I need to ensure they know I’m standing behind them both.
I think it’s working. Javier and Jorge bounce ideas off me all week. I can see why Steph immediately hired Jorge and it was a good call. Now that he understands what he’s supposed to do, he’s brimming with ideas. Manny and Diego can’t write notes fast enough and watching all four of them is like watching a musician’s jam session. Adam and Steph just laugh listening to them. We’ve both told them to write everything down, get the core ideas up and running first and then we’ll pilot the new ones. They’re all excited about the possibilities.
Javier has been an entirely different man since last Tuesday. I’m not sure what Ranger said to him, but Javier is walking around like a man minus two tons of worry and frustration. I know Ranger, so I hesitate to say he apologized but that’s all I can think of. Ranger must have apologized and that’s like rain in the Sahara: rare enough to be life changing.
In any case, whatever Ranger said, I took Javi out separately and apologized to him. This is my home branch and he needed to hear that from me. He needed to know I count this as a personal failure of my own. I should never fail in keeping an eye on any branch under my review and each XO (even Mark, fuckity fuck fuck) should feel comfortable talking to me. I’ve done some soul searching of my own and I haven’t liked what I’ve had to own. I’m determined to never let this happen again.
I’m thinking that if Ranger did apologize, then the only person left is Tank and I know Tank plans to apologize. As Chief XO, he took the near collapse here in NYC hard also, but for more personal reasons. Tank was a Staff Sergeant in the Army, the man in charge of developing and supporting men. If the XO doesn’t feel comfortable turning to the Chief XO for help and support, it means something is wrong. As a Staff Sergeant, Tank took the NYC failure as a reminder that his job is to develop men, not make it uncomfortable for them to talk to him. I bought him another set of cold compresses for all the talking he’s going to have to do.
Steph catches me in my office Wednesday morning and closes the door. I sit back and smile.
“First thing: New decorator!”
I laugh long and hard. “No way, Beautiful. There’s a reason this place is decorated this way.”
“Yeah, I know. Manny explained the whole psyop angle to me.” She blows out a breath and glares at me. “It sucks. I’m afraid of sitting in any chair in this office for fear that I won’t be able to get up.”
Ka-Ching! Plus, the chairs are all low slung to give the appearance of comfort but in actuality leave a negotiator at least a half a head shorter than me, unless he has a really long torso.
“Compromise?” She wrinkles her nose and waits. “Different furniture in the Core Team’s offices. We’ll move my psyop furniture into other rooms.”
“Done! Just get it out of any office I might have to be in!”
I grin and motion for her to sit. The chair in front of me is comfortable. She sits, tests it out and smiles.
“OK, next thing. I’m thinking we need to do this every six months. Let’s get all the strategists together for a week and let them bounce ideas off each other,” she says.
I grin. “I’m in complete agreement. I was thinking it was like watching a musician’s jam session, the way Manny, Diego, and Jorge bounced ideas off each other. I’m curious to see what Pat might come up with. I’ve long thought he was the most innovative strategist in the company, and if he and Chase had been a part of that session today,” I sit back and whistle, “we’d have ideas for the next five years lined up.”
“Question.”
“Hit me.”
“I would but I’m afraid of knocking something loose.”
I grin. This is more like it. Beautiful’s been kinda moody all week. I’m chalking it up to a visitor (or the other).
“Shane.”
That wipes the smile off my face. “Demotion is certain. Exit interview is a possible.”
She cringes, but Bobby and I made that decision after he returned from conducting Liam’s. Tank agreed. Besides, he hasn’t had any good ideas for Miami and Armando is desperate to be rid of him. Armando tells Tank that Diego is pitching in from NYC and giving him more ideas to consider based on his NYC work. They’ve cut Shane out completely; Diego had already implemented all the bodyguard ideas Shane had and Armando says he can’t implement the ideas Diego is passing back effectively, so it really showed his weaknesses. He has nothing to offer.
Beautiful shrugs. “If we demote him, which branch does he go to? Javier refuses to allow his return to NYC.”
“I’m headed to Miami after this. I’ll discuss it with him there. So, your vote is demotion?”
“Give him another month. I promised him a quarter, so let’s see what he comes up with. He wasn’t engaged in sabotage. He had no respect for the leadership, so if you take him to the mats, work it out for insubordination. Otherwise, he was betrayed just as Javi was. Liam sunk his ideas and thwarted him in bids. What little he was able to do was sunk by the liaison.”
I consider this, then nod. Beautiful’s right. I’ll give him another month because she gave him her word. After that, I’ll take him to San Antonio with me. That way I’ll be able to thrash him on the mats daily.
Steph grins. I know that grin. She’s up to something.
“Where have you been? You haven’t exactly been around.”
“Hector and I went out with the men. I wanted to see what was really going on with our Bonds Enforcement group.”
Javier did mention dropping that, and I told him that if he truly wanted to do that he needed to be ready to justify that to Ranger. I’m on the fence about it.
“Hec wasn’t exactly thrilled. He termed that ‘field work’.” Steph makes a face and I smirk. I term it field work too, and she hasn’t been cleared yet but I watched her and Sarah. Steph’s getting there quickly. I think six months was the right call. Sarah’s good and Steph’s motivated.
“I learned a few things. One, Javier may be right. There’s a thousand bounty hunters in this city and they’re all as good as RangeMan. I went out with Mack on Monday. He had a brand new file. He attended the Trenton workshop, the first one.”
I sit up. That workshop made the men sit up and notice their CO in a new light. “Before you continue, exactly what were you doing while they chased the skip?” I have no worries. If Hector was along for the ride, she was completely protected.
She scowls. “I sat in the car, OK? Hector threatened to handcuff me to the door if I didn’t sit nicely.” My blank face is getting a workout. I can’t see Hector doing that, but he would not have allowed her to chase the skip and no amount of whining would have changed his mind. “I watched Mack work the file. He had sight on the guy in 24 hours and we went after him.”
I chuckle. “Hector’s been saying something about you catching a skip by slamming a car door in his face.” Steph blushes completely red and I howl. Somehow I knew there was more to the story.
“Hector’s a dead man. Anyway, another agent found him just as fast, but we just barely got him first. The second day it was the same thing. They got to the skip just as another agent did. We won the tug of war but, again, it was a near miss on that one and the guys weren’t doing anything wrong as far as I could see.”
I see her point. Too many close calls for this work.
“So, I can see Javier’s point. Too many people in this field here in NYC. In Trenton, it was just me, Jeanne Ellen and RangeMan. Perfect mix. Here, it’s too crowded and bonds enforcement only makes up 10% of their budget. If they can make the new offerings work, I think we should cut bonds enforcement loose.”
“You feel comfortable doing that?”
Steph nods. “Yeah. Javier called that one right. He has a good idea of what’s going to work here and what won’t, and he’s right. We’re good, but we could use the men for other things,” she grins, “like counter surveillance. I think Jorge was right about the bodyguards. Everyone in NYC has two and three bodyguards because they need that many to effectively guard their client.
What if RangeMan offered the bodyguards plus counter surveillance? That would be a winner and our niche. It markets right back to the financial contacts Jorge already has and it’s another use for the investigations guys. Another service we can spread through Wall Street, that and the hospitality services for major events here.”
I lean back and consider it. It’s a great option. Both are. I smile.
“I had another idea.”
“You’re thinking too much. Keep this up and I’ll make you a strategist.”
Steph laughs but I’m serious. We should’ve found a way to blackmail her into the company long ago. I need to send Thomas Mann a fruit basket. Well, after I break his leg for breaking hers.
“Sarah got a call from an old client Friday. I’m telling you, too many things are just lining up. This client lives in Westchester County?” She shrugs and attempts to raise an eyebrow.
I bite my lip to keep from laughing. “North of here. Expensive area.”
Steph shrugs. “Well, this old client wants to train for Ms. Universe again and since Sarah thinks I’ll clear standard in another month or two, she’s lining up prospects. Anyway, this woman wants to start in three months.”
“And?”
“Well, if we’re going to hire NYC RangeMen, bring them in on probation and work to get them up to our standards, we need to organize that. Someone will need to assess them and get a fitness plan together.”
I lean forward in my chair. I see where she’s going and I like it. “So you’re thinking about offering Sarah another contract to work with the NYC RangeMen to get them up to physical standards?”
She nods. “Yeah. I mean, she got me close to the minimum in four months. I think. No one tells me how close I am but, I mean, if I didn’t have to move carefully on the leg, I’d probably have cleared minimums by now. She’s good, and we need someone we know and who is trustworthy. If she can get the exercise-hating CO up to standards on a broken leg in six months . . .” she shrugs and smiles, “what could she do with RangeMen who’ve never had to make physical standards before? She can work with that client and with us too.”
Insane. How much am I going to have to pay Steph to stay?
