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“She needs to pass a background check.”
“Lucky for me, I know a guy who can do one.” He looked at me.
“She most likely won’t last a week.”
“Funny, she said you’d probably fire her in a day.”
I didn’t want to be amused. “Probably.”
“Then I’ll rehire her, and we’ll rinse and repeat. You did leave the decision to me, remember?”
Nic knew I needed him much more than he needed me. He was the reason my business had taken off like a rocket, and I’d been able to double my work force, providing more jobs to veterans. “Fine, but she’s reporting to you for everything, not me.” That situation would provide me less time with her, plus I wasn’t exactly known for my people skills.
“The reporting structure was a condition for her accepting the job. Anything else?”
“You have sales meetings all afternoon downtown?”
“I do. Kelsey has to be on-site all day too.” She was a forensic accountant and took jobs all over the place.
“I’ll cook tonight. Dinner at seven.” I’d never admit it to anyone, but having my brother stay with me in my big house and share dinner when he was in town had taken the edge off a loneliness I hadn’t previously recognized. Having his girlfriend there only made it more social. Kelsey was an introvert like me, and it was nice having her there.
After spending years overseas and away from my family in the military, I’d missed spending time with them.
“Yes, Mom, we’ll be home by seven.” He chuckled. “Speaking of Mom, she mentioned throwing a big birthday party for Samantha in six weeks. She’s turning thirteen. You able to make a trip to San Diego for it?”
It was crazy to think of my baby niece as a teenage girl. I still remembered my oldest brother, Gabriel, packing her around in a car seat as a baby. Where did the time go?
“I’ll be there. Guess I’ll text Gabe for gift ideas.” I’d probably settle for giving her cash.
“I asked her directly, and guess what she said?”
“What?”
“Cousins. She said being the only grandchild is boring, and she’s hanging her hopes on me and Kelsey having babies. I told her to give us a couple years.”
Hearing my niece had never considered me as a candidate for giving her cousins shouldn’t sting. It wasn’t as if I’d ever been in a serious relationship.
At first, my single status had been the result of a lifestyle of overseas deployments and as it wouldn’t have been fair to a significant other. But after returning from my last tour in Iraq together with emotional baggage I couldn’t begin to unpack, I’d relegated myself to staying single for good. Honestly, I could see myself on Christmas mornings cooking breakfast and coaching soccer games for kids. But I was deluding myself if I imagined a man with post-traumatic stress disorder that manifested itself in violent nightmares would be fit as a family man.
Jesus, what was with me lately? Maybe it was being slightly north of thirty that was messing with my head and making me sentimental. At any rate, I had my hands full building a business. I didn’t need to dwell on things better suited for my brothers, who didn’t have a dark side.
“It’ll be nice to have more nieces and nephews to spoil.” I’d settle for being a fun uncle.
Shifting to business, I studied my calendar. “I have a meeting this afternoon with Chance Maxwell to go over the specs for his nightclub.” Chance was a powerful man with several businesses, located in Vegas, Los Angeles, and soon to be overseas. He was also Kelsey’s brother, who’d been extremely grateful for us taking care of her psycho ex, which is how we’d been given the inside track for his business. He was my most lucrative client to date.
Nic scrunched up his nose. “Yes, you do. Just make sure you shower again. You’re still sweating.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Some might think it unconventional to have a gym and locker room attached to a place of business, but working out had always been therapy for me, and it was a big draw to have one on-site for the guys who worked here.
After my second shower and changing into my suit, something I only wore to business meetings, I walked up to the second floor and the command center. In addition to installing residential and commercial security systems, we also offered monitoring services for commercial businesses, liaising with the police if an alarm was triggered.
The hub ran three shifts over a twenty-four-hour period. Currently I had two men operating the helm, and it was clear where their attention was when I stepped in and saw the main screen. It was trained on the receptionist desk where I could see Addison rubbing her left ankle.
“Turn it off,” I said in a low voice.
Both men jumped. Doug, the supervisor, turned beet red. “We were trying to figure out who she was.”
“Her name is Addison, and she’s the new office manager. I catch any more cameras on her, aside from the regular monitoring of the front door, and we will have a problem, do you understand me?”
