“Welcome to the team, Kylie.” Chandler’s booming voice filled the room. His smirk filled his entire face. Chandler wasthe playboy of the brothers, and his handsome face lit up every room. He was also the most personable. Despite my better judgement, I liked him. I nodded and smiled. He winked at me. Patrick stiffened next to me.
“All right, does anyone have anything else to add?” he asked.
Heads shook.
“Have a good week, everyone.”
“Patrick, Chandler, Randall and Kylie, can you stay? The rest, thank you.” Kyler said, his voice softer than I’d ever heard. It threw me. I felt like I was being held back by the principal. The rest of the room was more than happy to scamper out.
Josh remained even though his name wasn’t called. He was, apparently, a given.
“Tell me more about the littles’ weekend events. There’s some excursion Rayna has been going on about for a couple of weeks.” Kyler stood and walked over to a sidecar and poured himself some water.
“The theme for the weekend is a Trip to Oz.” Chandler stood up, clapped his hands together like he was about to tell us a story. “Starting on Friday, we bought out the 3:30 pm showing of TheWizard of Oz at The Sphere. We have about three hundred people signed up. We will transport the guests to the private screening and then back to the hotel. That night, we’ll have a dessert dinner and activities, and entertainment. The decor for the evening is Emerald City. Littles and bigs can dress up like their favorite character from the movie. Then, Saturday night, the party theme is Follow the Yellow Brick Road, where the littles can stop at stations along the road and collect coins with a scarecrow, tin man, and lion on them. Once they collect them all, it unlocks a special present for each guest.”
He was probably giving more detail than was necessary. He seemed excited.
“300 hundred guests, but how many littles?” Josh asked.
“I’d say more than half of them are littles,” Chandler answered. He had yet to look at any notes or refer to his phone. He came off as unserious, but he had a handle on the goings-on at Quad IV.
“Security atThe Spherewas amenable once we described our concerns.” Patrick chimed in. “It’s been seamless. All the guests have been security checked and vetted. All members and special guests of Quad IV, no surprises expected.”
“There are always surprises,” Kyler chimed in.
“And we will deal with them.” Chandler said it, but Kyler looked at Patrick and me.
“We still have a few weeks before the event. We've got it covered. We’ll have a full briefing Tuesday, the week of, and maybe a discussion with Rayna and Tinley the morning of the scheduled outing. Have Kylie reiterate the rules,” Patrick answered with confidence.
“And Daddies will reiterate what happens if they are broken.” I’d never heard Josh’s Daddy voice. It had me sit up and pay attention. It was kind of hot.
“This is Kylie’s first outing. Should she be in on their detail so soon?” Randall interjected. My hackles rose. He didn’t seem like the social type, and he wasn’t a Daddy nor was he a little. Why did his opinion matter?
“It’s what we hired her for. Might as well jump in.” Josh’s eyes fell on me. “If you’re ready.”
“Of course. I will be,” I answered. I appreciated Josh addressing me directly.
Kyler nodded and said softly, “Thank you. Rayna and Tinley will be excited to join.” And with that statement, he nodded toward the room and walked out the door.
The rest of the room filed out.
“What did I just agree to?” I asked under my breath.
“What was that?” Patrick asked.
“Nothing.” I gathered my stuff.
“See you at 2 p.m. in uniform. Time for you to meet the whole team.” An alert popped up on my phone as he finished his sentence. It was a training session. I was being thrown in headfirst.
Back in my office, chatter on the dark web about an LA gang member had my attention. The morning rushed by. My uniform was back in my room, which was in the next building a few floors up. And I needed to have lunch before training.
A knock at my open door pulled me out of my to-do list.
Patrick stood with a paper bag in one hand and a smoothie in the other.
“I thought you might need to eat before training.” He set the smoothie on my desk and pulled out a sandwich wrapped in parchment paper with the Lefty’s logo stamped across it in red. It was my latest favorite. Their spicy Italian subs were to die for, and they cut them into small sections. A treat for my little that I allow.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
