Chapter 37: What Haven’t We Done
Lester’s POV
Tank and I simply look at each other. Tonight’s call was almost as bad as the original NYC call.
Bobby has gone back to the gym and he will need to have Tank check his knuckles later. I call down to the gym and tell Chester Deuce not to allow anyone near the company liaison right now. Not till he calms down. Otherwise, he’s liable to kill someone. Ches is stunned by the level of force in my voice. No need, he replies. Bobby looked murderous, and that scared Ches shitless. He’s never seen that look on Bobby’s face, and Ches’s first response was to close the gym to everyone. He’s keeping an eye on Bobby from the doorway, where it’s safe.
Tank opens his mouth to speak, but I shake my head. Not right now, bro. I need a minute too.
I walk into my office and shut the door. When the FUCK did we allow the company to get like this? How did we miss all these issues? Where did we go wrong? I’ve always prided myself on being detail oriented, on assessing the target and meeting goals. So how did I miss that we have a branch headed into collapse? How did we miss the bonds issues in Atlanta?
What on earth will Steph find next?
I realize that I, too, have been guilty of underestimating my dearest friend.I’ve always seen Steph as a lightweight. Well, once I got over the fantasies of seeing her naked in my bed. Pretty but not serious about anything. Loyal but too easily guilted into situations out of her control. Tenacious but not likely to do things in the most straightforward, common-sense way. Steph has survived on a combination of luck, being in the right place at the right time, getting people to like and talk to her, and tenacity. The real reason we set the year goal at 6%? So she could make up her deficit to us. That’s it. Now it’s clear that Steph’s going to blow that number out of the water and, well, talk about a kick in the balls.
Steph has taken my company and turned over all the nasty bits for us to see. She’s found issues at Atlanta we didn’t even realized existed. She came up with a fucking brilliant plan to save NYC and has uncovered liars, incompetents, and sabotage.
Steph’s a fucking GREAT leader. Shit, she IS Ranger.
I find my tequila and take a shot. The burn is welcome. Otherwise, I might shed a very unmanly tear right now.
When I first proposed putting her in charge, I never expected it to take on this level of importance and seriousness. First, Steph has never stayed at RangeMan for long, just when she needed money, so I expected her to leave at the end of the year. Now I don’t give a damn what I have to pay her, I need her to stay. Second, this plan was about improving her and bringing her up to our standards so Ranger could consider a future with her.
We’re getting everything we wanted in goals A-F, but I forgot something big. Something huge.
I forgot to factor in the ‘Plum Curve’.
So let’s reassess and factor that in. What are we left with?
I underestimated Steph based on her personal life. I fed her a line of bullshit about the fact that she handles her professional life better than her personal life, but it’s not bullshit. It’s the truth. I forgot to factor in Steph’s commitment to responsibility, her natural willingness to please, when it comes to Ranger. We’ve set up a perfect storm of events to tie Steph to Ranger and RangeMan so thoroughly that she accepts her position as CO beyond what we ever expected.
She’s taking it seriously. Very seriously.
She’s ‘becoming’ Ranger, with all the consequences that implies. She’s determined to do the best for him, and maybe for us too, simply because we placed her in charge. She has far more skills than I gave her credit for and she’s using all of them because we told her we believe in her. She doesn’t like to fail publicly so she’s pushing herself to succeed, not just in the standards but in company matters as well.
And she’s accepting that, at least in company matters, to lead means to follow. To make sure the XOs know what they’re doing, have what they need, and have the freedom to do it. Where they need the assistance, the help, she’s providing what she can and working with them to make it better. She’s willing to go to bat for them, even against us.
It just helps that her naturally devious mind has come up with some brilliant solutions.
Ranger once said the most powerful phrase he could say to her was ‘Proud of you, Babe’. I brushed it off, thinking that ‘I love you’ was a better choice (if he ever stopped being a chicken shit), but he was right. To tell her he was proud of her was to tell her he loved her, he believed in her, he approved of her choices or actions, and that he refused to believe she could ever fail him.
Inspired, I surf the web, looking for the meaning of pride, the way it’s been expressed through the ages. I find, oddly enough, that Michael Crichton’s definition suits Beautiful the best. It suits what Ranger has been saying to her best.
“All your life, other people will try to take your accomplishments away from you. Don’t you take it away from yourself.”
Tank’s POV
I’m not quite sure what has happened today, but I know one thing.
If I have to beg and plead and grovel, Stephanie Michelle Plum will stay in her position as CO until I retire. I’m willing to do it. Hell, I’m willing to talk to make it happen.
What Steph has done is beyond anything we ever expected. I can tell that Les is completely thrown and he’s probably in his office right now beating himself up for not catching all the problems my Little Girl is finding. I’m not going to do that. I’m not blaming myself.
We’ve been so in the weeds trying to keep Trenton afloat and trying to cover up the bleeding there that we allowed the XOs to handle their branches. We allowed them to make the calls they thought appropriate. That’s why we pay the fuckers: so we don’t have to micromanage them. Now we’re finding that the reason for the bleeding in Trenton is finding issues all over the company, and I’m surprised and pleased to see she’s taking it seriously.
She’s taking Ranger seriously.
She’s taking his life, i.e. his company, seriously.
She’s doing everything she can to fix and stem the bleeding and problems all over the company. She’s putting her skills as an investigator to work to stop the losses and put the company back to rights.
I’m not blaming her for the problems at the other branches. That’s not her fault. I’m simply acknowledging that, for the first time in four years, significant attention can be paid to the other branches because we don’t have to cover Trenton all the time.
Honestly, to me, this is almost poetic justice. The cause of the problems with Trenton’s bottom line is finding all the issues at every other branch.
As a matter of fact, the more I think about it, the funnier it is to me. I allow myself a chuckle or two and consider breaking open my tequila. It’s a good plan, so I reach for the shot glasses and bottle just as Bobby walks through the door. His hands have been taped.
“How long you gonna be out?” I ask.
“At least a week,” he replies tiredly, dropping into the chair.
“Think you can manage a tequila?”
“God yes. Hell, pass the fucking bottle.”
I smile and pass the bottle over. He swigs directly from it. Bobby has an iron constitution; it’ll take ¾ of the bottle to knock him out. Les finally walks in. He shed a tear or two, I can tell. Yeah, he blamed himself. Time to take charge, to be the Staff Sergeant in charge.
“It’s not our fault.”
I get two disbelieving looks at that.
“No, seriously, it’s not our fault.”
“Explain,” Bobby says, astonished.
“We’ve spent four years covering her ass. Riding to her rescue. Covering how much she truly cost us. Delaying our overall corporate plans. Waiting for her and Ranger to figure out their shit. Waiting for her to figure out her shit. Hell, our Trenton SOPs have an entire chapter on dealing with her various issues.
This plan started as an attempt to make her see reason, to shove it into her face how much she costs, to make her take herself and her life seriously so Ranger could see a life with her. And we’ve succeeded. Beyond our wildest fucking imaginations, we’ve succeeded.”
I take another shot of tequila and smile. “She’s acknowledged her red ink. She’s apologized to us and to the new Trenton Core. She’s taking them seriously. Hector forced her to start taking her own life seriously when he told her to stop putting his at risk. She’s in training to meet our standards. And I can’t read her as well as you do Les, but I’m betting she made a choice. I’m betting she finally chose Ranger.”
I sit back and grin. The more I think on this, the happier I am.
“I’m a happy muthafucka right now, and here’s why: the person responsible for all the red ink at RangeMan Trenton is paying us back. Not only has she not caused any issues at RMTrenton to require them to bleed money, but she’s uncovering issues all over the company. She’s helped Danny fix Atlanta’s budget issues and taught them her secrets to skip apprehension. The men there love her. She listened to Javier, followed her instincts to send Manny in, and by the way Les, you were right about developing his skills and letting him run free. Anyway, he uncovered numerous issues at NYC and between them they’ve got the fix underway.
Without even meaning to, she’s put all the XOs on notice that they can be reviewed and/or fired at any time, so for the first time in four years they’re being reminded that they are not little fiefdoms with no overlords. Her ‘management review’ program has them shaking in their boots, wondering what shit she’ll uncover at their offices. Gentlemen, for the first time in four years, hell, for the first time, we have true corporate management within our company, and it’s headed by the woman we all love but were prepared to kick to the curb just a few short weeks ago.”
I chuckle and wait for the response. Slowly but surely, Bobby starts to chuckle, then laugh. Les finally joins us, still disbelieving but in stitches all the same. Within minutes we’re in hysterics like we haven’t been since Lester screamed bloody murder after taking a cross-dresser home and nearly sleeping with him.
Chester Deuce, who’s been serving as my backup at this office, pokes his head through the door. Through the crack I can see every current RangeMan standing on the other side, wondering what in the hell is going on. Leadership Core is on the floor of my office laughing like they’ve lost their minds.
“We’re fine. Close the door,” I choke out. Bobby has tears running down his cheeks and Les is crying and laughing all at the same time. This shit’s too funny. This is a Leadership Core thing. Chester blinks then shuts the door behind him.
The laughter lasts at least five minutes, and I have a headache at the end. I look at my brothers and grin. “My first thought when I walked in here was that this was poetic justice. Only with Steph could this shit happen.”
Bobby shakes his head. “You’re right. This is payback for all the insanity. She’s earning that salary, boys.” He looks at Les. “You can’t take this on yourself, bro. Javier has some responsibility here too. He should’ve asked for help long before now. There’s loyalty and there’s stupidity. The first had merged with the second.”
Les shakes his head. “No, I have to own this. We all do. Javier has been begging for help for the past six months. Think about it. He constantly called about the pay issues and needing help figuring out why they couldn’t grow. The man called on us repeatedly and we didn’t heed his call. We didn’t provide the brotherhood we’re so famous for. We left him to die.”
We all sit back and sober up. Les is right. We left Javi swinging in the breeze, and if the branch had collapsed, we might have blamed him for it.
“The biggest reason I left Javi in his position is because he could always justify his actions. He had proof behind his decisions. He didn’t just do shit for the sake of doing it.”
Les shakes his head, and Bobby and I ignore him while he wipes a tear away. He’s taking this hard. He sees it as a personal failure and he’s right. We owe Javier a lot more than an apology.
“So yeah, I want to blame Steph for being the reason I failed to drop in on NYC like I should have, and I’m sure if I go look at the schedules I made it will coincide with some emergency of hers, but still. NYC is, what, two hours away at most? I could have day tripped it there once a week. I could have done a ‘one week there, one week in Trenton’ thing. There were other ways I could have handled it. I’m sorry, but I left Javier out there with his ass swinging in the breeze and I should have helped him more. That’s supposed to be my home office. I should never have let things reach that point.”
Bobby and I nod. If nothing else, this is proving the extent to which we’ve allowed the company to slide. Atlanta had serious budget instability and NYC was on the verge of collapse. Trenton couldn’t keep the bottom line. Only Miami and Boston weren’t having problems, and Les says that both he and Steph have their instincts ringing about Miami. Sweet Jesus, what will my Little Girl find there?
Les sighs. “There is one other point I want to make.” He takes a swig and continues. “Steph blamed Mark for the rampant paranoia in the company, for the lack of trust among branches. Well, she’s wrong in that assessment. That started at the top, with us. We were so determined to hide what was going on from the company that we set up the conditions for the problem. Knowing Mark wanted to become a partner, we sought to thwart him by cutting him off from information, which only turned him into a rabid bloodhound. We should’ve had Ranger body check him when it first started.”
I think about that and I have to agree. Les is right on that point.
Les chuckles then laughs. “But, at the end of the day, it still comes back to the fact that Steph is her own worst enemy. Shit, I was so scared to leave Trenton for fear that she might kill herself, or someone might try to kill her, that I stopped keeping an eye on the ball. I love her so much I was willing to let the company slide to hell to keep her alive.” Bobby and I nod, sober. Same here, Les. Same here. “So, shit, I can’t blame Ranger for his ops anymore. I finally understand his reasoning. So I’m stuck between wanting to help her clean that one up and wanting to let her handle it.” Les grins. “Like you said Tank, payback for all the times we covered her ass.”
I nod. “Let her handle it. The company is hers to run. The problems at the other branches are not her fault but,” I shrug and take a swig, “for the first time in four years, we have corporate management. If nothing else, this proves that we’re great security experts but we really do need another layer of management to ensure everything runs smoothly. We know how to do the job of security and we know how to develop men and business. Ranger’s a great manager, when you can tie his ass to a chair to do the fucking job, but between the ops and his hatred of office work,” I shrug.
Les and Bobby nod. It’s a constant source of annoyance for us, the fact that Ranger hates doing the office stuff, but he’s the best at it. Bobby’s second, but he has enough on his plate. I hate office work. I develop men, not forms. So far, Steph’s turning out to be spectacular at it, but she’s another Ranger. She hates being tied to an office and we already know this.
“We need to make sure our Little Girl stays to ensure the job of business is getting done. She’s there now, so from now on, we only intervene when necessary. We said we believe in her, so we’re putting our money where our mouths are. We’ll make sure she knows she can do whatever the hell pops into her mind. She’s the CO. It’s her company to run.”
Bobby smiles. “I just had a scary thought. Wanna know?” We nod, intrigued. “We set a goal of 6% because we wanted Steph to make up her deficit. Where’s the company at now and what could Steph possibly hit at the end of the year if she cleans everything up?”
Les and I sit back, eyes wide. Scary thought indeed. I look at Bobby and Les, imagining the possibilities.
We all nod. My brothers and I are in agreement.
The CO is going to earn her salary this year.
Bobby’s POV
I’m nowhere close to drunk, but I’m extremely happy. Tank is right. This is payback.
The laughing jag was great medicine. For the first time in months, I let go of all the anger and frustration I still carried around over Steph. I love her dearly, would take on any enemy for her and wipe away her tears, but I was just pissed about the entire situation. The Cop, Ranger, his contracts, her inability to make up her damn mind, Ranger’s inability to man up and confess he loved her, although I could understand the situation from both their viewpoints.
They’d both said stupid things to each other. Neither of them could be truthful with the other about their feelings. They were in an unending game of ‘chicken’ and all of it had just combined to piss me off beyond reason, but I finally accepted that, well, shit happens, especially when she’s involved.
It takes two to tango, and I’m finally accepting that Ranger bears responsibility for this fucked-up sequence of events also. I was pinning it all on Steph, which wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair to her. The man loves the woman. He should’ve had the balls to tell her before now. OK, so it might’ve meant putting himself out there. Anyone looking at them could tell Steph was in love with him, even after all the bullshit he’s fed her. Instead he chose to put himself into danger and keep his mouth closed. He lied to her, she lied to herself, The Cop, and the world, and we all watched this dance in confusion and frustration.
They deserve each other. Neither one knows how to open their mouths and be truthful. That’s going to be a match made in . . . I’m not even sure.
Ranger, the king of one word sentences and quick getaways.
Steph, who hasn’t met a question or thought she can’t avoid, the resident Queen of Denial Land.
I chuckle. The King and Queen of Denial Land. That’s it! It’s a match made in Denial Land, for sure.
The next morning, we meet in Tank’s office to review the paperwork. Screw everything else, let’s look at the state of our company. Chester and the boys can handle it for one day.
Lester reviews the financial reports for the past six months, moving line by line to determine if there’s anything funky going on. Tank and I have split the Core Team reports for each branch, and we’re taking it one step further by reviewing all the direct report submissions from within each branch.
It’s illuminating reading.
Because of personal interest, I start with Atlanta. The XO reports before and after Steph’s visit are remarkably different. Before her visit, it contains reasons and explanations for the budget instability. Requests to move into Hospitality that I continually denied until they got the budget straight. Requests to redeploy men east, which I held off, again because of budget concerns.
Why the fuck didn’t I ask more questions about why the budget was so damn unstable?
After her visit, it’s a brag report of successes, with issues Danny would like her to review before he moves forward. It has requests from the men, for a review of ideas that have been funneled up to Danny that they would like to discuss with her. It contains info on the financials he wants to make certain is brought to her attention. The budget is stable, Bonds Enforcement is making money hand over fist and Marcus is overjoyed with their success. He’s working his APD (Atlanta Police Department) contacts to get info to go after more bonds and enforcement work and open up the possibility of consulting contracts. Outstanding!
Chase’s reports are incredible. The company reputation in Atlanta is improving. Bomber’s advice has put them on the fast track to getting bids. They don’t have to chase bids for Hospitality contracts anymore; people are coming to them. My cousin is thrilled and is ready to start negotiating for more venues, but he wants to talk to her first. Adam is getting the Charlotte office up and running, but he has questions for her to address and has found possible office space that he would like to forward to us (Leadership Core) for review. He wants to know what he needs to do to make this office a success. Nate has identified a conference or two he’d like to attend with an eye to scoping out the climate for attracting small businesses to mirror their servers to us (Hector’s idea).
Completely different reading. Open, direct and enthusiastic. Steph helped them fix their problems and has given them approval to move forward with ideas I blocked, demanding they get those problems fixed first. She’s won their trust. They want her assistance, her approval. They value her opinion. Wonderful!
She’s validated my trust in her all over again. I no longer worry that she’ll make standards. I know she will. She can do any damn thing she wants, as long as someone believes in her. We do. She’ll do it.
Miami contains a bunch of very angry men. They’re angry about the SharePoint deployment, they’re angry about the server farm (really? That decision is four years old!), they’re angry they’re not being reviewed first, they’re angry they don’t know what the criteria for all this ‘review’ stuff is. They’re angry.
I’m tempted to call Armando and tell him to tell his men to piss off.
I look over at Tank. He’s amused.
“Trenton?”
“Hal keeps putting a postscript in his reports that if the CO keeps taking his Core Team away, he’s going to stick her on monitor duty again.”
I nearly piss myself laughing. Les is wiping his eyes. Again, we break out the tequila and toast Hal’s balls.
Tank shakes his head. “Jesus, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m beyond proud of the white boy from Kansas. Fucker is definitely earning his bonus check.”
Les and I nod; Hal’s balls are closing in on legendary status.
Tank grins. “Hal believes he may have passed Boston as the most profitable branch.”
We look at Les, who grins. “He’s close. He’s in second, with Danny right on his heels. If Mark’s not careful, those two will knock him to third.”
Damn! That’s spectacular! He’s done it as a brand new XO with less than six months in his tenure, all while having his Core Team in and out of the branch on assignment for the CO and the CCO (Chief Commanding Officer, the new internal title for Ranger to distinguish between Bomber and Ranger). From last to second? That takes leadership and creativity. Hal’s proving himself as an XO. Ram and Manny are proving themselves as liaison and strategist. We’ll have to see what happens when Steph is cleared to be back in the field. If she continues to perform as she has and they can continue to grow the branch, then the three of them are looking at an impressive bonus check at the end of the year.
Mark will never make Leadership Core as long as I have breath in my body, but Hal is starting to look like a possibility. Him and Danny. Strong XOs with leadership skills, drive, tenacity, and creativity. The kind of men we served under and the kind of men we hope we’re serving as. Yes, if Hal and Danny can keep this up, we may extend a partnership level to them. We’ll have to talk about that at some point.
Tank is shaking his head and frowning. Boston. Has to be.
“Mark?”
“Something fishy in this report.” I grab the liaison part of the stack and start reading. I agree; something’s off. Lester grabs the strategist reports. An hour later we look up. Les is smiling. He pulls out his phone and texts someone. Has to be Ranger. Sure enough, two minutes later the phone rings.
“Aguilar.” Ah. OK.
“Company matters,” Lester replies.
Silence. “Two minutes.” We wait. “OK.”
“Boston in April?”
“Yes.”
“Nature of threat.”
“Ice breaking at the top.”
“How many cracks?”
“Three.”
“10-4.” Les hangs up and smiles. “OK, now it makes sense.”
“Good.” Tank replies. “Now make it make sense to me. I think I understood that but let’s be sure.”
“That voicemail with the recorded convo Beautiful sent in April. Remember?” I nod. Mark was dead man walking as of that call. “Ranger was in Boston. He told Mark that he was skating on thin ice and the ice was breaking under his feet. He warned Patrick and Rodney of the same.”
Now these reports make total sense. In an effort to prevent Mark from being fired, Patrick and Rodney have been doing the digging.
“Any findings in yours?” Tank asks me.
I shake my head. “Veiled suppositions. It’s clear that Rodney doesn’t want to be fired so he’s straddling a line. He’s keeping his promise to his XO to try to find something, but he’s not finding anything. My guess: No one is talking.”
We look at Les.
“Nothing. Accusations that ‘failure to give them an understanding of the standard upon which the management review will be based is unreasonable because it doesn’t allow them to prepare their supporting documentation in a timely fashion’. Bullshit basically.”
“So what’s got you nervous?” I ask Tank.
“Nothing now. Clearly Ranger handled the problem and handed Mark his ass. The reports before and after that little visit are remarkably different.” Les and I nod.
OK, so where Steph has been she’s won over the company. Where she hasn’t, they’re nervous.
And after two months in her tenure, the company has grown 3.5%. I’m almost afraid to think of what the growth might look like at the end of the year. 12%? Is that unreasonable? Could she double our expectations? Could she hit an even higher number? I’m dizzy at the thought.
Ms. Plum is earning her paycheck. I wonder how much pleading I’ll have to do to convince her to stay.
