“Nice,” Rio rumbled, his eyes moving from her to me. “So who are you taking as your date, spitfire?”
Seriously? Trying to hide the blush I could feel creeping up my neck and into my face, I looked down and fussed with the money in my wallet. “Dunno yet,” I mumbled, shoving a twenty at Beta while avoiding any and all eye contact.
“No need to beg, Vons. It would be my pleasure to accompany you.” Of all the nerve! As if I wanted to go with him of all people!
“Perfect,” Beta cried with a laugh and a hand clap. “I think you’ll like it. The gardens are gorgeous this time of year and since Diane’s putting together a picnic pot-luck, it’s bound to be fun.”
Twisting back to me, Beta continued. “Which reminds me. Di said to bring drinks. Soda, beer and wine. But you’ve gotta remember the opener this time.”
Couldn’t she have saved that last bit for later, maybe have put it in a text message or something? Mortified, I shot her a scathing glare while searching for another (any other) topic of conversation. “How are you doing on selling the rest of the tickets?”
“Okay, I guess. Only have five left and then I’m done.” While Beta was very accomplished in the world of music, sales were not exactly her forte.
“I’ll buy ‘em,” Rio cut in, lifting a hip and bringing out his wallet. “So that’s fifty, right?”
“What the hell are you gonna do with five tickets, dude?” Geez, he’d just roped me into allowing him to join us and was buying even more tickets? What the hell was he thinking?
He shrugged as he and Beta did their transaction. “Give ‘em away, I guess.”
I opened my mouth to refute him but didn’t get a chance to say anything since his cellphone rang. Tucking his wallet in one pocket while reaching for the other, he brought the black rectangle up and checked the screen. “I gotta take this. Nice to see you again, Beta.”
She, I and Pookie all watched as he moved off to the kitchen to take his call in private.
“So,” Beta started, dragging that two-lettered word out as she waggled her eyebrows. “This is new.”
“Shut it, Bey.”
Her eyes were dancing as she tapped her chin. “Seems to me I remember a certain little someone claiming she didn’t date. Has something changed?”
“I mean it, girl. Now’s the time to plug your pie-hole.”
“I guess you must’ve changed your mind. I know I would if a guy like that came into my life.”
I narrowed my eyes to give full effect to my words. “You are in serious danger of losing a limb, Bey.”
“I mean, honestly! Did you see those shoulders and that ass?” She fanned herself with her hand. “Very hot. Very, very…oh my god, hot.”
I rolled my eyes, but was secretly kind of pleased she thought he was even marginally interested in me. As for what I felt about him? Yeah. I wasn’t gonna go there.
“Anyway, I gotta go.” Standing she shoved her hands in her pockets as if to prevent them from reaching to try for a good-bye hug. “I’ll see you and your man Saturday night.”
The bitch just couldn’t resist shooting off one last zinger, God love her.
*.*.*.*.*
He’d left DB a pretty lengthy voicemail that morning before he left the hotel. Seeing how he had been too wired to sleep, he done an early checkout and was on the road by four.
“I sent the email to all eight of the addresses you provided,” she began in that damn sultry voice which used to drive him crazy with desire. Although now it didn’t seem to affect him in the least. “I’ve already received affirmative responses from two. Shall I schedule them for an appointment on Monday?”
“Works for me,” he said with a self-satisfied smile. “When you call them back, make sure you tell them we’ll be picking up the tab for any travel expenses.”
There was a pause, a hesitation before she replied. “Has Mr. Max given his approval on that, because he usually keeps me in the loop for these sorts of things?”
“Naw,” Rio drawled. “Black Ice won’t be paying that portion. I’ll be footing the bill for these guys. In fact, let me give you my credit card info so you can make the arrangements.”
After taking down and then repeating the info he gave her, DB murmured, “These men must be special to get this kind of treatment.”
“Yeah, they are.” Rio felt his smile slide away as his mind caught on each of the eight surviving warriors he’d chosen. “They’re the last of our unit.”
“That explains it then. Do you want me to follow up with the others, do a second email if there’s no response by Monday?”
Rio thought that over for a beat or two. “I’ll call them direct instead. Two emails might be a little too pushy.”
“Roger that.” Her use of military lingo in her sexy voice was kinda disconcerting. “Anything else I can do for you?”
“Yeah. I need help to find a place for me to live, maybe an apartment or something. One that’s pet-friendly and reasonably close to the office.” It’d be great if he could get out of the hotel and into something more permanent.
He could hear her working the keyboard before she uttered a soft, “On it. I also want to remind you of the staff meeting tomorrow. Ten o’clock sharp and Mr. Max is a stickler for time.”
Tell me something I don’t know he thought on a mental chuckle. “What’s the dress code when I’m actually in the office?” It was a legitimate question seeing how Max had cast more than a few disparaging looks at his t-shirt and jeans ensemble before demanding he buy a suit.
“I don’t know that there actually is one, but all the Santiago-Adams men tend to wear dress slacks and shirts only putting on ties and jackets when they meet with clients.”
Shit, he was gonna have to go shopping again. And Rio frickin’ hated shopping. DB’s soft giggle showed she got it, probably by the long, hefty sigh he’d let escape.
“If that’s all…” Her voice trailed away and he thought of one last item.
“How’d you like to go to a concert at the University on Saturday? I’ve got a couple of tickets you and your husband can use if you’re interested.”
She was.
Now he only needed to unload the remaining three.
After ending the call he turned to find Vonnie again sitting at the bar, her eyes soft but planted firmly on him. “You’re really just gonna just give them away?”
Leaning back against the countertop behind him, he shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
She turned to look into the front room, at PK who was catching a mid-day nap in the nest of that damn pink blanket (luckily it had a border of black or otherwise he would’ve tossed that out at the earliest available moment) and that frickin’ stuffed monkey. What was it about that toy she loved so much?
“Okay, for tomorrow. I gotta shit to do at the office. So I’ll drop PK off at eight-thirty but I don’t know when I’ll pick her up. Is that good for you?”
She nodded after dragging her glance back his way. “Yeah, okay.”
He eyed her with skepticism. “You sure? Because according to you, nine in the morning seems to be the crack of dawn.”
She didn’t answer verbally, allowing her snarky eye-roll to let him know her opinion instead.
It didn’t take long to collect PK’s stuff and pack it away as he prepared to leave.
The only hiccup being, he had the most driving desire to kiss the little spitfire good-bye in the process.
Which didn’t make a damn lick of sense.
*.*.*.*.*
Del sat in his late model truck and looked through his notes. He’d spent yesterday and today dodging the heels of the smaller girl as Anton instructed. But when he’d gotten close enough to her on one of her dog-walks in the park, the one she combined with her picture-taking, he saw she wasn’t quite as young as her small stature indicated.
No, she was a woman full-grown.
One that was full of piss and vinegar, if her smart-assed attitude when he’d asked her for one of the cards she wa
s passing out was any sort of measure. He’d pulled his baseball cap down low and put on his sunglasses even though clouds were rolling through, but she’d treated him like the stalker he was, asking him why he wanted the damn thing before finally giving it to him. Like she was doing him some kind of goddamn favor or something.
Her business card gave him both good news and bad. On the good side of the column was he finally had her name. Veronica James.
The bad portion was that her card didn’t include her address, only a phone number. He’d tried doing a reverse look-up, but all the internet revealed was that it was a cellphone number, dammit.
Still, his time following her wasn’t in vain. Because he’d gotten a pretty good look at the expensive camera she either wore around her neck or tucked into the big bag she wore looped across her big boobs. He’d researched the camera as well, hearing bells go off when the website describing it showed the thing had a memory card. As a professional photographer, she’d have to use that add-on to access her pictures. Or so he thought. He’d tried to research how that shit worked but most of it was way over his head.
All he knew was that she took pictures for a living and for some reason had snapped some photos of him and Anton doing the switch off of one of the new ‘products’. When they’d started working their new business, both of the men had called what they moved from point A to point B as kids. Which they technically were.
But after a while, it started getting under Del’s skin—what they were doing and how they were making money hand over fist by basically selling young children. Then and there, he’d started calling them ‘product’ instead. And that word helped appease both his guilt and the acid indigestion which came with it.
Before he called Anton to give him an update, Del decided to try one last time to get her address. He could probably just follow her home from the park, but he’d seen she didn’t always go as the crow flies. Sometimes hitting Buxby’s or the bakery—he just couldn’t be sure and since he had other responsibilities, other things to do, Del just didn’t have the time nor the patience to trail her for a full day.
So he’d try one last thing.
Dialing the number on her card after putting in the code to hide his number he waited until it went to voicemail. Damn. Luck just wasn’t on his side today.
Well, at least he knew who she was and that he hadn’t been wrong about the snaps he’d seen her take.
He’d let Anton know and let the other man worry about what to do. Since Anton always thought of himself the brains of the operation after all.
Delmar was just the brawn.
And as he watched the tiny woman’s ass shake as she stepped along the sideway, Del was glad for holding such a lowly place.
Chapter Nine
BI was growing so quickly Cruz was the one to suggest a weekly staff meeting. A time where all the heads of the business divisions within the company came together to review what each other was doing, using the old ‘two heads are better than one’ adage.
They met in the conference room to hash out new policies, payroll issues, personnel, who was doing what, and most importantly in the areas of accounting, i.e., what money was coming in or going out from where.
Although it was a given, Max had the final say on everything, but only used his CEO card sparingly which worked well in Cruz’s opinion. And from the outside looking in, all that shit worked, helping the three brothers better understand what was on each other’s plates as they worked through their day-to-day business.
But this time, in that particular meeting, Rio joined them. And that fact alone turned Cruz’s normally jovial vibe to something more morose.
Shit! Just what BI needed. Another Max throwing his weight around, he thought, sliding down further in his chair as he eyed Max’s old Army buddy warily from underneath his lashes. Sure, the guy was dressed in nice clothes and had even tamed his too-long hair into some appearance of ‘cool’, but the dude was still a goddamn warrior, a red-neck, in Cruz’s opinion.
Another cock-of-the-walk. One of the shits we should’ve studiously avoided. But Cruz nodded politely as Max introduced Rio and gave a list of the duties Max’s former Army co-worker was allegedly to perform.
Cruz wasn’t concerned.
Because as things went, he wasn’t much into self examination and didn’t really want to ponder too closely as to why he’d taken a visceral dislike to Rio—from the very moment he’d met him.
Although it might have been because of Rio’s commanding air. Which in and of itself, was irritating as hell, probably a leftover from the man’s military experience.
But still, we’re not in the fucking Army, Cruz groused to himself. It annoyed the fuck out of him since a lot of the other BI employees looked up to Rio. Probably just because the dude was some kind of war hero or some such. Sure he’d saved Max’s life which made Cruz work the whole grateful vibe.
Cruz really wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. True the guy was taller and had more muscles than him. But as far as Cruz was concerned there was nothing about the man which might make others fucking admire him so much.
Jesus, even his Ma sang his praises and she’d never even met the guy!
“You ready, hermano?” Max asked, turning his eyes to his middle brother.
Cruz nodded and pulled up the report on his laptop, clicking in order to have the info projected on the big screen that took up most of the space along the far wall. Talking through each slide, he covered their profits and losses. Those of the last week and then compared that data to the previous month before showing a bar graph of the monthly numbers over the last year.
“Damn,” Rio breathed into the mound of his fists, currently resting on his mouth as he leaned his elbows on the table. “Not only are y’all making a profit but are able to show it in multi-colors in a way even I can follow.”
He turned to Max’s end of the table. “Am I gonna be expected to do the same when my division is up and running?”
Finally, something the ass-hat doesn’t know.
“It’s easy, Rio,” Ryker threw out. “You need help in learning to work Power Point, just let me know.”
Cruz clicked to his last slide, the one that listed his recommendations, laid out in bullet points, for managing the accounting portion of his family’s business.
There were a few beats of silence as each of the other men at the table read through the list.
“Shit,” Max grumbled. “Fucking brilliant to think of hiring a CPA for this shit. It’s a waste of your talents, bro’, doing all the accounting crap and, honestly? I need you in other areas.”
Cruz’s heart took on a different beat as he accepted his older brother’s praise. Mainly because that brand of shit was given in dribbles and dabs, few and far between all the different ass-chewings both Max and Ryker handed to him.
Max continued on, never realizing how much his words meant to Cruz. “DB gave me her husband’s resume and it’s pretty impressive. Look it over and if you think he’ll be a good fit, let’s hire him. Because if he’s half as good as DB, we’ll be fucking lucky.”
Looking back to his laptop, Cruz closed the projection portion and filed his report in one of the many BI folders on the shared drive, his ears still ringing with Max’s accolades. But his big bro’ wasn’t finished.
“Actually, Rio’s gonna be hiring a crew of Close Protection Specialists, meaning we’ll be sending more men into the field. This equates to expense reports I more than fucking know you don’t want to dick with.”
Cruz nodded because it was abso-fucking-lutely true.
“Another good reason for hiring someone to fill that position,” Ryker added with a nod and a glance Cruz’s way.
“Good job, buddy.” While Cruz didn’t need Rio’s opinion, the fact the hero said it only reinforced the congratulations his brothers had given. “I have some questions.”
“Fire away, Cloud,” Max offered, waving out a hand.
“The surveillance room downstairs is fuck
ing awesome and kudos for having it set up for fifteen screens.”
“I hear a ‘but’ in there somewhere.” Ryker didn’t look up from the pad of paper he was doodling on.
“Yeah,” Rio replied and Cruz caught the coppery-color as it hit the other man’s face. Was the dude nervous about talking to him and his brothers in a business meeting? “What about my crew’s downtime? Where can they go if they need a little shut-eye in between their shifts?”
Damn, why didn’t I think of that?
Chancing a glance to his brother, Cruz saw Max’s eyebrows were in the ‘up’ position. “What do you mean, like a bunk-room?”
“Yeah. That, with maybe a shower facility and a little kitchenette.” The large man swallowed and Cruz couldn’t help as his eyes followed the rolling of the other dude’s throat.
He was nervous!
Would wonders never cease?
“How about a gym while we’re at it?” Ryker quit the pen-squiggles and shot his eyes over the group as he offered up his suggestion. “I fucking hate having to hit the gym after work, when I could squeeze in a workout on my lunch hour. And if we had showers available? Count me right the fuck in.”
I should’ve thought of that, too.
Damn, Cruz wasn’t on top of his game that day. Of the three of them, he was known as the ‘idea guy’, always coming up with ways to improve their business, make it more cutting-edge. But he’d thoroughly failed in that endeavor if even Ryker had more ideas than he’d ever fucking considered.
Cruz watched as Max went to still, which was one of his older brother’s ‘tell’, signifying that he was deep in thought—comprising a pro and con list on whatever was suggested.
Something all of them gave the man space to do.
Cruz needed to throw out some ideas of his own and quick, before the conversation got away from him. “Works for me. Maybe we could include a training ring where we, and whoever we hire, can learn martial arts. Judo, karate or even some of that crazy Israeli shit.”
Vonnie: Book Two of Broken Girls Series Page 8
