35. Pecker
Chapter 35
Pecker
“This is it.” Mason spreads his hands wide and motions around the space.
There’s a desk with a woman smiling at us behind it. She has a phone pressed to her ear and is taking notes. There are two couches off to the side with a coffee table, but not much else.
“This is where you do everything?” I grip the back of my neck. I really expected more.
“Hell no.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “Follow me.” He walks right over to a wall and pushes in the center. A door opens and he walks through it.
“That… was unexpected.” I frown as I step through the door and it closes behind us by itself.
“We don’t enter this area if anyone is here. This is like our secret lair,” a man sitting at a huge desk murmurs.
“This is Maddox. He’s the Bradley in Bennett Bradley Security.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” I hold out my hand and smile when he stops working to shake it.
“It’s nice to meet you too. I’ve heard a lot of good things about you. Especially from Sophia. She won't shut up about how amazing you are.” He smirks.
“Does she ever stop talking in general?” Mason rolls his eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the girl to death. She’s so much like Kelsey.” He turns towards me. “Her aunt and my gorgeous wife.”
“She was a model, right? Now she’s a nurse?”
“Exactly. Maddox’s wife was a model, then nurse too. They met when they were both kidnapped. It was a blast.” Mason lets out a long sigh.
“I think you’ll need to tell me this story some time. I’ve heard comments about it, but I haven’t been told the entire thing.”
“After you guys get settled in, Kelsey’s going to invite you over for dinner. She was upset we were out of town when you were visiting. She can't wait to meet you.”
“We’d love that. Thank you.”
“What about me?” Maddox scowls at Mason.
“Oh, you know she’s going to invite you and Cali. Possibly even Jesse, that’s Wyatt’s uncle.” Mason adds for my benefit.
“I feel like I need a chart to keep track of who is who.”
“Good luck. That would take up more than this wall.” He motions to the wall that’s probably close to thirty feet long. “The real aunts and uncles are easy. It’s Kelsey, me, Zoey’s parents and one other aunt and her husband. It’s the pseudo uncles that get complicated. Jesse is Kennedy’s brother, but I guess since Wyatt’s adopted you could argue it’s not his uncle.” He scratches the thick stubble on his jaw. “It’s complicated.”
“That explains all of Mulberry Lane. It’s complicated.” Maddox chuckles.
“I’ve always considered my family just my sister and her kids. Sophia’s shown me how family is so much more than blood.”
“Yeah, that’s been ingrained in her since birth. She cares more about who sticks by her side than who she shares DNA with.” Mason nods his head, clearly agreeing with the thought.
“So, the lair is a secret from everyone?” I motion around the room.
“Not everyone. Sophia knows how to get in here and so does the rest of the family. We don’t want any clients knowing though. We have our meetings in the lobby with clients. We really don’t get many here. For the most part things are handled at the clients’ homes or businesses.”
“And you only do private security?”
“And private investigation, though our bread and butter is security. We don’t really want to follow a bunch of cheating assholes and take pictures of them. We’re happier trying to protect someone who’s life is in danger or checking the security someone already has in place.”
“Those are my favorite. These people pay us to try to get through the security they paid millions of dollars for.” Maddox chuckles. “Most of the time we make it through in less than twenty minutes.”
“Sometimes we get schools or businesses who want us to run through active shooter drills too. We kind of do it all.”
“That’s cool. What will my position be within the company?”
“How much computer knowledge do you have?” Maddox arches a brow.
“A decent amount. I thought I wanted to do cyber security for a while. I didn’t finish the degree, but I almost did.”
“How would you feel about finishing your degree and being our cyber security guy? It’s a huge field and we’re constantly getting asked if we can handle it. We’re too old for this shit, but Colt told us you could do some of it. You’d be the head of cyber security and can hire whoever you want.”
“I'm the head of it?” I blink in surprise.
“Colt and Jonah told us you helped each department get more up to date with technology. Maddox and I are the head of everything, but we’re not keen on dealing with cyber security. If you’re comfortable with it, we’d rather have family at the helm than hire some random person off the streets. We want someone who has more stock in us succeeding than just their paycheck.”
“Yeah, I mean, I’d love to, I just don’t know if I'm really qualified.”
“Which is why you hire people.” Maddox grins. “You need to know what you’re doing, but you don’t need to be the best. I have a buddy who does cyber security with some government agencies. He said he’d be happy to sit down with you and help you along. I just need you to be willing.”
“Yeah, I'm definitely willing. I’m happy to do whatever you guys need.”
“Great. Then text me after you’re settled in and you can start whenever.” Mason waves his hands through the air like it really doesn’t matter. “We’re chill here.”
“Thank you for this opportunity. I appreciate it more than you know.”
I never expected to be able to find a job, let alone something as awesome as this.
“The only thing is, if you’re going to visit Sophia a dozen times a day, we want some snacks brought back.” Maddox points at me. “I’ve had some of her desserts and they’re amazing.”
“I'm sure I can work that out with her.” I chuckle. “I should probably get back to her though.”
“Yeah, let me show you out.” Mason leads me back to the secret door, but when he glances at the screen on the wall, there’s someone in the lobby. “Backup door it is.” He sighs and moves over to another wall. There’s a screen that shows a small room with no one in it.
He opens the door and we enter the small room. As soon as we’re through the door, it shuts automatically again.
“What’s with the secret doors?”
“When we were undercover, we saw some bad shit. We quickly realized how important it was to keep eyes off of what we’re working on. I don’t need someone wandering into the lobby while Gina’s on lunch and sneaking into the back. No one knows about these doors and it keeps our client’s information secret and secure. There are multiple entrances because we don’t want to get stuck, but they’re all hidden.”
“That’s probably smart.”
“We’ve had someone show up here to confront one of our clients before. We were able to hide her before he found her and he happily left because he thought the place was empty. We take our jobs seriously and will do whatever is needed to protect our clients, but we’re also protecting ourselves and our families.”
“I like the sound of that.”