Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
GABE
I needed a drink. The meeting with the headquarters bigwigs had not gone well at all. Even though they’d hired me to tell them if their tech needed improvement, they didn’t actually want to hear that their tech needed improvement. When I had the audacity to point out potentially dangerous flaws in their prototype, the program manager got so mad it looked like he was about to bust a blood vessel. He then had the balls to question my expertise in field operations. I guessed the guy hadn’t read my CV. So I enumerated each and every one of my ops until the CEO put a stop to it. I told them if they wanted to get that twenty-five-million-dollar government contract, they were going to have to make changes. The military didn’t play.
Ugh. I wanted a glass of good whiskey. And a nice quiet evening at home. Maybe Nico and I could watch another movie tonight.
I frowned as I pulled into my driveway. “Why is there an electrician’s truck outside my house?” I asked no one. I looked at my neighbors on either side, and it didn’t seem like either was home. “What the fuck?” I muttered.
I walked into my house and was greeted by the music from Encanto coming from Cody’s corner. When I entered the living room, the little boy was nowhere to be found. What the fuck?
“Cody? Nico?” I called out.
The sound of little feet running on the hardwood floor came toward me as Cody rounded the corner out of the room I’d set up as my office. “Mr. Gabe!” he shouted. He had a tiny tool belt around his waist and was holding a bright-yellow plastic…screwdriver? I wasn’t sure what it was. It looked kind of like a screwdriver but thinner.
I caught him as he ran up to me and settled him on my hip. “What are you doing here?” I asked.
He proudly waved the little plastic tool. “I’m helping Daddy and Mr. Mir.”
“Mr. Mir. Who the f—” I stopped myself before cursing in front of the four-year-old. “Where’s your daddy?”
He pointed down the hall. “In the basement.”
“Let’s go find him,” I said.
The basement door was open, and I heard two men talking. One was definitely Nico, but I didn’t recognize the other man’s voice. I was halfway down the stairs when Cody shouted, “Daddy! Mr. Gabe is home!”
Nico was just walking out of the utility closet when I reached the bottom of the stairs. He was followed by an older, heavyset man with light-brown skin and dark hair shot liberally with gray. He looked to be Arab. Possibly Iranian. Both men looked startled to see me. Nico seemed anxious and uncertain. “What’s going on?” I asked. “Why is there an electrician’s van in front of the house?”
Nico rubbed the back of his neck nervously. But then he blew out a breath, straightened, and said bluntly, “It looks like the person who rewired your house did a shit job. You’re lucky there hasn’t been a fire.
“Daddy, that’s a bad word,” Cody chided.
Nico shook his head and sighed. “I know, little man, but sometimes bad words are necessary for really bad situations.”
I snorted. “You better not let Zach hear you say that.” I set Cody down. “So tell me what exactly is wrong.”
He gestured toward the utility closet. “It would probably be better if I showed you.” He indicated the man standing next to him. “This is Amir Osman. I apprenticed under him before I went to prison.”
I held out my hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Osman. Gabe Warner.”
“A pleasure, Mr. Warner,” he said in softly accented English. “Please, call me Amir.”
“Just Gabe is fine.” I looked around them to the closet. “I guess I should go look at the problem.”
They led the way to the small room and then stepped aside to let me enter first. And holy hell. I didn’t know much about electrical wiring, but I sure as fuck knew a circuit breaker wasn’t supposed to look like that. “What. The. Fuck?” I whispered.
“That about sums it up,” Nico said.
“How did you know there was something wrong?” I asked.
Nico told me about his attempt to use the new toaster oven I’d bought and his discovery of the mess of an electrical panel. “I just don’t know how they managed to get a certificate of occupancy with it looking like that.”
Amir looked at me. “What contractor did you use?”
“Johnson Brothers. They came highly recommended.”
Amir’s lips flattened to a thin line. “They used to be good. But the older brother retired, and the younger brother cuts corners. And he has friends in the code enforcement office.”
I let out a string of curse words that had Cody protesting loudly. “My house could have burned down! How did they think I wouldn’t find out?”
Amir shrugged. “They probably counted on nothing happening.”
I felt my whole body tense. I’d seen men die in fires. The fact that these assholes played fast and loose with people’s lives was making me wish I had them in front of me. They would remember it for the rest of their lives.
I was startled by the feel of a hand on my arm. I blinked and saw Nico standing beside me with a concerned look. “Gabe? Are you okay?”
Shit. I’d probably gone into my Dexter serial killer impression. I let out a slow breath. “Yeah. I’m okay. I’m just angry that they risked my life and the lives of the people I care about.”
“We have to report this,” Nico said.
Amir waggled his hand back and forth. “It’s difficult to do because the code enforcement office can make your life hell if you get on their bad side.”
My lips twisted into a smirk. “They have no idea how much of a living hell I can make their lives.” I took a picture of the panel and sent it to Marco.
This is my electrical panel.
To my surprise, he got back to me right away.
What. The. Fuck?
Can you come over here today so I can tell you all about it in person? I think I’m going to need Michael’s skills.
What for? The only electrical work he does is putting his computers together.
I rolled my eyes and muttered, “For fuck’s sake.”
I don’t want him to fix it. I want him to look into the code enforcement office in Asbury Park.
Okay. I’ll be over in a couple of hours. I’m waiting for Liam to get off work.
Ok. See you when you get here.
“What was that about?” Nico asked.
I slipped my phone back into my pocket. “I asked Marco to come by so we can talk about setting this right.”
He looked confused. “I don’t understand. Marco’s not an electrician.”
I chuckled. “No, he’s not. But Marco’s brother Michael is a computer genius. I agree with Amir that getting on the bad side of a town’s code enforcement office can be hellish, but they can’t be allowed to get away with it. People could die. Michael has ways of finding things out that would give us an advantage when going to the city with a complaint.”
“Okay,” he replied uncertainly. Which was fair because he didn’t know all the things our team got up to.
I pointed at the electrical panel. “In the meantime, what do I do about this?”
Amir cleared his throat. “You will have to rewire the house—again—to be safe.”
I groaned. “That means we’ll need to move out while it’s being done, right?”
“That would be best,” he agreed.
“Dammit.” I looked over at Nico. His face was pale, and his jaw was clenched. “Nico, I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “Not your fault. Amir’s right. We shouldn’t be here while the rewiring is being done. It’s dangerous and messy. Plus, we won’t have electricity.”
I sighed. “Yeah. I’ll have to find someone who can do it pretty quickly too.” I glanced over at Amir. “Are you available?”
The older man frowned. “I am not. But I can find someone who can do it for you.” He pulled out his phone and walked away to make a call.
I put a hand on Nico’s shoulder. “I feel bad. You just got here, and now I’m uprooting you again.”
“It’s not for long,” he replied. “Probably a week to ten days.”
“We’ll have to figure out where to go. I guess I can get us hotel rooms.”
Nico balked at that suggestion. “That’s pretty expensive.”
I shrugged. “Like you keep saying, I’m bougie.”
“You don’t need to spend that kind of money on me,” he objected.
“How about we wait to see when we can get somebody in here to do the work? Then we’ll figure it out.”
His shoulders slumped. “Yeah. Okay.”
I hated that he looked so defeated. He hadn’t even gotten a chance to get settled here, and now he would have to leave. That contractor better hope I never saw his face again.