After having loaded their plates with food and chosen a place to sit, they were enjoying a relaxed breakfast when Acker realized they were being approached by Roscoe.
“Morning, Acker. Ma’am,” he said, greeting them both.
“Roscoe. How goes it?” he asked.
“Better than I expected,” Roscoe answered. “General Ferriday jumped on your idea of having individual homes and duplexes put in. He’s out there already with a builder deciding exactly how many and where.”
“That’s great news. We’re certainly looking forward to ours,” Acker said, putting his arm around Nina’s shoulders and smiling at Roscoe.
“They’ll be nice from what I’ve seen. We’re planning to build some apartment buildings, too. Thinking maybe eighteen units in each. Two story with nine on each floor, ‘U’ shaped buildings, with courtyards in the middle.”
“It’ll be a real little community,” Acker said.
“It will, yeah. We’re thinking about putting in an Olympic sized pool as well since it’s so damned hot here,” Roscoe said.
“Sounds good. I’m excited to see it all grow.”
“Me, too. But, I actually had something else on my mind when I saw you here,” Roscoe confessed.
“What can I help you with?” Acker asked.
“Well, it’s more what can your friend help me with,” Roscoe answered.
“What friend?” Acker asked.
“This friend. You,” Roscoe said to Nina.
Nina’s eyebrows rose. “Me?” she asked in her typical soft voice.
“Yes, ma’am. I want to offer you a job,” Roscoe said with a sincere smile.
“What kind of job?” Acker asked.
“What do you want me to do?” Nina said at the same time.
“When you sat at my desk yesterday, I had three bank accounts open on my desktop. I’d been fighting to reconcile the three accounts for two days. Each was open to their reconciliation page. In the few minutes you sat there, you reconciled all three accounts.”
“I’ve always been good with numbers. They relax me,” Nina said, afraid she’d done something wrong. “I’m sorry if I crossed a line. I just saw the problems jumping out at me, so I fixed them and reconciled the balances.”
“No apology needed. However, I need an assistant. Been thinking of hiring someone, but couldn’t decide on it. Then you sit down and in fifteen minutes have taken care of reconciling all three accounts. I need an assistant. Will you come work for me. Standard office hours. Bookkeeping, answering the phones, correspondence, payroll if you have the experience. I could really use your help.”
“Really?” she asked. “Where would I work from?”
“We’ll enlarge my office. Have it expand down to where the General’s starts and make it a suite of offices. Wouldn’t take more than a day or two. The office I use now will become yours. There’ll be a door to connect it to the new office space which will be connected to yet another office and then a shared conference room with the General’s office on the end.”
“You’re filling that whole side of the building with office space and a conference room?” Nina asked.
“Exactly. The first office, yours if you’ll take it, will be for reception. Then mine connected, then another and the small conference room connected to it, then the General’s. Law is taking the office with the small conference room. The conference room will give the board the men are electing a place to work and meet.”
“So, I’d be a receptionist?” Nina asked.
“Formally, you’d be my assistant. But technically, anything needed in the office would be overseen by you, or me. So, what do you say?” Roscoe asked.
“I don’t really have that much experience in an office. I just happen to be good with numbers and grammar,” Nina said shrugging. “I was a good student.”
“And you’re smart. And you’re not afraid of computers. And I could really, really use an assistant. Whatever you don’t understand, we’ll figure out together. And the pay is good.”
“What is the pay?” Nina asked.
“Whatever you want it to be,” Roscoe said smiling. His attention was taken momentarily by a couple of the males walking by. “I have to point out though, that you would potentially have to interact from time to time with everyone in the community. If they have a problem, or an issue of any type they need assistance with, or even just want to discuss something with myself, Law or the General, they’d come to the reception office first.”
Nina shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not afraid of them. They’re not drugged anymore. They’ve been very respectful when I’ve been near them.”
“I’m glad to hear that. So… you’ll take the job?” Roscoe encouraged.
Nina looked over at Acker who’d sat silently while she listened to the proposal. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s a good opportunity for you, if you want it. But don’t think you have to take it because you want to make a living. I’ll take care of you, I told you that. If you want to work, then it’s your choice. I will be going back on active duty with rescues soon, so you’ll be home alone. It would give you something to do, or you could just relax and wait for me to come home each evening,” he said, grinning at her and taking her hand.
“You wouldn’t mind?” Nina asked.
“Of course not. I want you to be happy, but what makes you happy is your choice,” Acker said.
Nina sat looking at her plate for a moment. “I’ve never been able to choose what I preferred to do before. I was always just told,” she admitted. “Even before…” she started to say, but stopped herself from finishing that sentence.
“You’re always going to have a choice. For the rest of your life, your decisions are your own. Even if I tell you what I’d prefer, you always have the freedom to do what you want,” Acker said firmly.
Nina smiled at Acker. He was the best man she’d ever known. He was rough around the edges and gave off a definite biker vibe, but, he was kind, and caring, and never failed to make her feel safe. “Then I think I’d like to give it a try. I don’t want to just sit around with nothing to do,” she said.
“Wonderful!” Roscoe said. “You’re hired. When can you start?” he asked.
“Umm, tomorrow?” she asked.
“Tomorrow is perfect. If you want to stop by later and check everything out, you’re welcome to. Otherwise, I’ll see you in the morning. 8:00 A.M.?” Roscoe asked.
“8:00 A.M.,” she confirmed.
“I’ll be waiting,” Roscoe said, as he stepped away from their table. He stopped and turned back to them. “Wait! What’s your name?” he asked.
Nina’s smile faded. She hadn’t thought about that, and she wasn’t sure she wanted everyone to know her name.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Roscoe asked, moving closer to them again.
“She just now told me her name last night. She doesn’t want everyone to know her name,” Acker said.
“Why?” Roscoe asked.
Acker opened his mouth to say it didn’t matter why, but Nina answered instead. “I don’t want to have to go home. I never want to go back there again. It was almost as bad as being in captivity. I just can’t go back there,” she said, starting to cry. “If he knew I was alive, he’d come for me, and I…” she couldn’t say anymore, her voice was shaking and cracking, and Acker took her into his arms.
Roscoe pulled out the chair next to her and sat down in it, leaning over so he could see her face where she hid it in Acker’s chest. “Hey, it’s okay. No one is ever coming after you. No one has to be notified of anything. You will never be forced to leave here, or to accept a visit from anyone for any reason. Someone comes here looking for you for any reason, they’ll be told we don’t know who the hell they’re looking for. This isn’t public land. People can’t just drive up on it. And we will certainly take care of anyone trying to force their way on. But none of that matters, because no one but the people living on Alliance Ranch will ever know you’re here. And I have
a feeling from the way these people are all pulling together, they don’t want to leave either. And they protect their own. You have no worries.”
Nina had turned her face just enough to be able to watch Roscoe as he spoke. “Are you sure, no one can come for me? I don’t want to ever be found!” she said passionately.
“I give my word. No one will be allowed to find you. No one will come here for you. And if they did, they’d be intercepted, and chances are they’d never be heard from again, if you get my meaning. Okay?” Roscoe asked.
Nina took a moment to get herself under control. “Okay.”
“Good. If you don’t want to give me your name, make one up,” Roscoe said, offering her a smile.
Nina shook her head. “My name’s Nina.”
“Nina. It’s a beautiful name. I’m very pleased to meet you, Nina. And proud to have you as my assistant,” Roscoe said.
Nina smiled at Roscoe. “Thank you for offering me the job, and for making me feel safe.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll see you Monday morning.”
“Yes, you will,” she answered.
Roscoe turned and walked back toward his office.
He got halfway across the room that doubled as a cafeteria and a meeting/war room before Acker called out after him. “Roscoe!”
Roscoe stopped and looked back at Acker.
“Anything happens to my woman while she’s here under your watch, I’m coming after you.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less. But nothing is going to happen. She’s here with us, and always under the watchful protective eye of someone else. Me, Law and his team, or General Ferriday. Or the cafeteria here, there’s always someone in it — both the workers and people looking for a meal. Believe it or not, the men we’ve rescued, excuse me, males we’ve rescued as they prefer to be called, have shown a strong protective streak over the few women who’ve ventured out. I’d pity the idiot that decided to give any of the women in Alliance any trouble at all.” Roscoe focused on Nina. “I have absolute faith you are completely safe.”
Nina nodded while Acker just pinned Roscoe with a stare.
“I’ll see you in the morning, Nina,” Roscoe said.
Roscoe continued on into his office with a relieved spring in his step. He’d finally found some help. He took a seat at his desk and grabbed a legal pad and a pen to start making a list of all the things that would be her new duties. Once that was done, he started working his way through all the programs on his computer, setting her up a user name and password for each program. He already felt better just knowing that he’d have an assistant to help him out.
Acker watched through the glass walls of the office as Roscoe alternately wrote on his legal pad, and worked at his computer. He knew this job was something Nina wanted, but he was having trouble not resenting Roscoe for offering it to her. He was having a hard time figuring out how to protect her while she’d be exposed to everyone on Alliance Ranch. He didn’t care how respectful the males they’d rescued appeared to be. Some of them had abused her in the recent past — drugged or not, and she’d not come face to face with any of them yet. He wanted to be there if she did.
“Are you alright?” Nina asked.
Acker met her worried dark eyes. “Yes. I’m fine. How about after breakfast we go look for the General and take a look at the new construction site.”
“I’d like that. Maybe we could pick out where we want our new place to be,” she said, showing excitement for their future home.
“Me, too,” Acker said, deciding that being seen out and about with her on his arm was an excellent way to have word travel that she was his.
“You know,” she said as she walked beside Acker. “I only know you as Sergeant Acker. What is your first name?” she asked.
Acker smiled down at her. “Glenn. My name is Glenn but no one has called me anything but Sarge or Acker in so long I didn’t even think to tell you I had another name,” he said smiling at her.
“Glenn,” she said, trying out the name. “I like it.”
“Then that’s all that matters,” Acker answered.
Chapter 26
Nina walked comfortably at Acker’s side. She wasn’t as bothered as she’d thought she’d be as every once in a while they’d pass a male who was obviously one of those rescued. They were bigger males, and usually had a haunted look in their eyes had Nina taken the time to notice, but she never looked that closely. She left them alone, and expected them to leave her alone. Live and let live was her new mantra.
Acker held her hand in his as he quizzed her about which building was for which purpose. “Very good,” he said, when she answered all of his questions correctly. “You’ve only been out with me a handful of times and you already know which buildings are where though they’re not all marked.”
“It’s not that difficult,” she said smiling.
“Yeah, but now you need to know since you’ll be all official,” he teased, knocking her shoulder gently with his arm.
Nina rolled her eyes. “I’m not official. I’m just assisting in the office.”
“Office. Official. See the connection there?” he asked, grinning at her.
“Fine, I’ll agree that I’m official if it makes you happy,” she said, pretending she was put out by his insisting that she was official.
“See that dust over there behind the recreational center?” Acker asked.
“Yes. Is that the construction site?” Nina asked.
“I think so. Let’s go check it out,” he said, changing course for the red dust that could be seen rising into the slight breeze behind the recreational center and the barracks on the left hand side of the quickly growing community.
As they walked across the park like space with the benches and gazebos for relaxing, Nina looked out over the green grasses that an auto waterer took care of like clockwork at dusk every afternoon. “It’s beautiful in this little space. They should put a small pond here with ducks and geese. Just to have the calmness of the water near, you know?” she said.
“Sounds beautiful. You like ducks and geese?” Acker asked.
“From a distance. They’re beautiful to watch. I don’t really want to play with them, though. I was thinking more like just sitting and watching them swimming on the pond.”
Acker smiled at her and brought her hand to his mouth to kiss her knuckles. They cut a path between the barracks and the recreational center and came out behind the buildings to find General Ferriday and Law standing with a man in a hardhat, pointing to what looked like blueprints then looking up at the site where General Ferriday pointed, before nodding and looking down again. There was a lot of noise between the front loaders and the dump trucks that were preparing the site for building. Acker walked right up to General Ferriday and Law, and waited for them to finish their conversation. As soon as the contractor was satisfied he understood what was wanted, he shook General Ferriday’s hand, and Law’s, and walked away to tell his crew what needed to be done.
Acker looked a little more closely at the crew and smiled when he realized that about half of them were made up of males they’d rescued.
General Ferriday turned his attention to Acker. “Acker, how are you today?” the General asked, patting him heartily on the back.
“I’m good. Very good,” Acker answered, then looked at Law. “Hey, Law. You doing alright?”
“I am. Just trying to get a jump on everything. Questions come up faster than answers,” Law said.
“You never did introduce me to your girl,” General Ferriday said.
Acker looked down at where she held tightly to his hand to see how she may respond. She was smiling at him and gave him one nod of her head.
“This is Nina. Nina, this is General Ferriday. He’s responsible for all of us being here. And this is Law. He was voted to lead the board. He’s the leader of all those who are planning to make a life here,” Acker explained.
“I’m happy to meet you, Nina,” Law said graciously.
/> “Thank you,” she answered, casting her eyes down at his feet rather than look him in the eye. “I’m happy to be here.”
Law smiled at her, knowing without a doubt this female was a rescue just like himself and most others at Alliance Ranch. In fact, if truth be told, he knew her personally. His heart pounded at the memory of when she’d been gifted to his squad as a reward. He lived with regret every day, and she and others like her were a huge part of that regret. As foggy as his memories of those nights were, he only hoped she wouldn’t remember it either. “We all are. I’m really happy to see you outside moving around our new community. Let me just reassure you, none of the males here intend you or any of the other females any harm. Our situations have much changed. Many of them, of us,” he said, hoping she’d look up at him, “are very, very regretful of the things we’ve done.”
“Wasn’t your fault,” Nina said, her voice noticeably quieter. “You were all drugged. So was I sometimes. Wasn’t our fault,” she said again, shrugging her shoulder delicately and stepping closer to Acker.
“Thank you for that,” Law said.
General Ferriday smiled and spoke to her. “It’s good to see you out and about, Nina.”
“Thank you, sir,” she answered, her eyes still cast down.
“Oh, no, now, none of that. I’m pretty sure you’ve never been in the service, and I don’t stand on circumstance anyway, so Martin will do just fine,” General Ferriday said.
“But I’ll be working with you, so sir seems more fitting,” Nina said.
“Ahhh, then Roscoe tracked you down. He’d said he hoped you’d accept his offer of employment. The boy needs all the help he can get. He’s too finite. Needs to learn to relax some. You take some off his plate, I’m sure he’ll be able to dial it back a bit,” General Ferriday said.
“I’ll do my best. But office work is new to me,” Nina answered.
“You’ll do fine. Managed to do in just fifteen minutes what he couldn’t in almost two days, the way I hear it. You’ll shine, I’m sure,” General Ferriday said.
“So, what’s going here?” Acker asked.
Beginnings Page 22
