I stepped out. Kylie fell in line behind me. The hallway was relatively empty. I nodded at a few people as we passed.
My assistant met us halfway to my office.
“I can reschedule everything,” Collin said. “Should I cancel your dinner with Mr. Evans?”
“Not yet.” He handed me a folder. Probably assignments for the different events going on at the hotel for the upcoming weekend. Collin was baby-faced, but he was more put together and organized than anyone I’ve ever met. Everyone has tried to steal him away from me, including Kyler, but when it came to priorities in the company, security was at the top of the list and what security wanted, security got.
“Ms. Stands.” He fell in step beside Kylie. “Can I get you something? Coffee, tea, soda? I can have your chocolate and peanut butter smoothie brought over from Blenders.” He looked at his phone.
“Does everyone know everything about me?” She stared at the ground and nodded toward him.
Collin blinked and looked up.
“Well, not everyone, but you know. We are in the security business.” He chuckled. “It’s kind of our job to pay attention to stuff.”
“Get her the smoothie.” I stepped through the open door of my office. Kylie stopped at the door and peeked in. “It’s perfectlysafe. We can even leave the door open if it will make you feel better.”
“Randall sent you a red alert.” Collin rolled his eyes. Randall’s red alerts could be anything from a cybersecurity breach in our London hotels to his request for a certain type of IPA to be served in the hotel lounge he frequented. “I’ll be right back with that smoothie.” He winked at Kylie and her face softened.
“He’s nice.” She drifted into the office and took up her familiar position behind a chair instead of in it.
“Yeah, Collin’s great.” I sat down and woke up my laptop. “Have a seat.” I pointed to the chair. She remained standing and looked around my office.
The floor to ceiling windows offered a pleasant view across the desert. The sun was high in the sky, bathing the mountain landscape in the distance in golden light. She looked at the chair, but instead of sitting, she sauntered over to the window and looked out.
Bratwas on the tip of my tongue.
“You want to talk about what happened in Kyler’s office?”
“Not really.” She shrugged, but realization hit her. “Wait, you could see us?” She walked back toward my desk and lowered herself into the chair.
“Audio, too.”
“You spy on your boss?” She leaned forward. “Does he know?”
“Spy on my boss.” I shook my head. “If the security is triggered, I have to have a way to see inside to know what’s going on. Not like I sit and watch him while he’s working.”
“What security breaches can happen all the way up there?”
“Well, clearly you found a weakness.”
“Yeah, it might work better if the door closed before I entered.” She snickered.
“Well, while you were distracted by the lockdown, if Kyler wanted to remove himself, there is a door behind his desk that leads to a secure area, and it would have immobilized you in that room alone.”
“Interesting.” She rested her chin in her hand. “And then what happens? You send in a team to apprehend the perp,” her tone was pure television drama, full of clipped questions and manufactured authority. “What if they fight back? Is the glass bulletproof? Does the secure area have another escape route?”
I held up my hand. She stopped talking.
“We can immobilize them before anyone on my staff has to enter the room.”
“Oh, wow! How do you do that?” Her eyes grew wide. But the pout returned when I didn’t answer her.
“We provide answers to these and other questions about our operations only to people who actually work for us.” I nodded.
She covered her hands with her face.
“If you heard what Kyler said, then you know.” She peeked through her fingers. “What he accused me of being.”
