Chapter 6 Theo
THEO
With a firm handshake, I greeted Nick and opened the separate entrance to my office. “Nick, I don’t want to do this much longer.”
It had been a little under two weeks since Maggie had moved in but I was beginning to resent the fact that I had to hide a part of my business dealings from her.
“Kid, I never expected you to do this for so long.” Nick gripped my shoulder with his other hand. “Let’s finish off this case, and then we can talk. In my office.”
We always did our meetings in my office. Never in public and never in Marina De Ferrier. For one thing I had the secret entrance to my office. But also, it was easier to explain Nick’s presence in the city than we could explain my presence in the Salinger Security building.
I turned to Hunter, who always sat in on my meetings with Nick and offered him a wry smile. “You heard him.”
“Yeah, hopefully he’ll have something more exciting for me than protecting your ass.” Hunter leaned against the bookcase, arms folded, face sober. “We need to discuss the Ripper situation. I don’t trust that he’ll just back off when he learns where Maggie and the kids are staying.”
Nick nodded. “I’m concerned about what the warden said. It was specific, like the warden was repeating something he’d heard before. Not a summary for his wife. Do you think he knows about you?”
“No.” The word was a reflex.
“Maybe.” Hunter lifted a brow and his gaze moved between Nick and myself. “That threat was too specific for us not to at least consider the possibility that he knows. The number of people who knew where he would be is small.”
I took the lead, though. “In this world, if there was even a hint that me or Snow Enterprises was involved in Fred’s arrest, that would’ve travelled through the industry. It would’ve affected the bottom line in so many ways. If he knew, there’s no way he would’ve kept that to himself.”
Nick nodded. Not really satisfied, but confident that we had taken every precaution to hide our identity. “He could’ve got hold of the CCTV footage. That warehouse had been monitored. Every law enforcement agency in the country had a stake in that take down. They all wanted Fred to talk.”
“Which he never did.” The asshole chose to spend four years behind bars instead of giving up who his supplier was. “But Jared made sure that the footage had disappeared from all the servers.”
Hunter nodded at Nick and crossed his arms. “Unless they hacked your systems. The only copy to exist is on the servers at your office. Jared made sure of that.”
“Still. I want us to keep an eye out.” He looked at Hunter once more. “Are all the cameras working at the Snow house?”
“I’m right here.” I frowned between the two men. “You can ask me about the security measures at my house.”
Nick shook his head. “Please, you have a woman you’re attracted to and needs protection living in your home.” Before I could interrupt him, he held up her hand. “I don’t know if everyone knows. She doesn't, which just means she’s oblivious because it's clear as day to me.”
“And to me.”
“That doesn’t make me less competent.” In fact, I was more vigilant because of the trouble Maggie was in.
“Look, Theo, if that threat is taken literally, you are the real target.” Nick shoved his hands in his pockets and faced me head on. “Its not a bad idea to have someone else overseeing everything.”
“You make me sound like an incompetent lovestruck teenager.”
Nick let out a chuckle. “Look, when Hunter here finally lands the woman of his dreams, I’ll let you take point when she eventually finds trouble.”
Hunter snorted and rolled his eyes. “That’s never going to happen.”
“Oh, we both know that it will.” With that, Nick turned and walked through the passageway that lit up as he went.
I closed the door behind Nick and secured it once more, before moving over and unlocking the proper door to my office.
I popped my head out and spotted my assistant.
“Rina, when the Chief gets here, can you lead him to the conference room?” Then I turned back to Hunter.
“You want to sit in on that one. They’re looking at securing protective gear for the county. ”
“I’ll be there.” I wasn’t surprised. Hunter gathered information like some people collected baseball cards. “I want to get a feel for the chief to see if he’ll have our back if we ever need him to.”
It was not a bad strategy. We could use all the allies we could find. “Sure. We meet in ten minutes.”
While Hunter went off doing God knows what for ten minutes, I brought up the feed from the cameras at my home.
Inside, there were only cameras at entry points.
I used to have nanny cams when Zoe and Connor were younger, but out of respect for everyone’s privacy, those were long gone.
I checked all the feeds and found Maggie and the kids walking out to the pool.
I turned up the sound. It wasn’t great, but I could make out some of what they were saying. Hayden was looking up at his mom. “—and I need to build a model of a type of natural disaster. I want to do an earthquake. But doing the quaking part would be hard.”
My lip twitched as I listened to them. Maggie giving Hayden ideas and him rejecting each one. A low chuckle escaped me as I watched her let out an exasperated smile. Her loose dark curls were piled on top of her head and that tank and cut-offs showed enough skin to make my mouth water.
Of course, my little Pop-Tart needed to give her input as well. “You could make a world with no unicorns and pink animals. That would be a dis … disa…” She looked up at her mother.
Maggie kissed the little girl’s forehead. “Disaster.”
“Yes, that.”
“We already live in a world with no unicorns. And pink animals do not exist.”
Jaycee frowned fiercely at her brother. “That’s not true. I have this many on my bed.” She held up a hand showing him four fingers.”
I didn’t get to hear any more because my assistant popped her head into my office. “Mr. Snow, they're all in the conference room waiting for you.”
By the time I entered the room everyone was seated. Hank James, the chief of police for the state, a representative from the sheriff’s office as well as the head of the California Bureau of Investigation. Then my VP of sales and marketing sat on the other side of the table.
Hunter stood close to the door. He made no attempt to be discreet. He also didn’t pretend to not be paying attention.
“Gentleman.” I started once all the greetings were out of the way.
I turned to the one woman in the room. “And lady. I think we all have a mutual interest in keeping our people in blue safe. You because it turns into a nightmare if you cannot protect your people. And me…” I wondered how far to play my hand.
“Well, I stand to make a lot of money by protecting those men and women.”
Mercenary. That was what they expected from me. And I won’t lie, there is a certain rush with landing big deals like the one I was sure to land.
I was not the salesman. These people were in this room because my sales department had done their job. There was a reason they all wanted to meet with me. It was the reason I needed the head of the CBI in the meeting.
Hank steepled his fingers and pinned his wise eyes on me. “We do see the benefit of what you have to offer. But there is no denying the rumors that you have not shaken off your father’s legacy. In fact, if those rumors are to be believed, you’ve embraced it.”
I nodded in his direction. Schooling my facial expressions was something I learned early in life.
Darren Snow never appreciated emotions, and he hated to see it in his children.
It was a sign of weakness. That lesson came in handy now.
I didn’t need Hank James to think I was rattled by the question.
But I also didn’t want to give away that I knew something they didn’t.
Neither of that was good for my business.
“Chief James, I have no room for rumor and innuendo.” I would not be explaining myself. “I know you have already done your due diligence and vetted us before this meeting.”
I met the chief’s gaze and narrowed my eyes.
A big part of me was always prepared to allow people to think what they wanted about the weapons distribution arm my great-grandfather started.
This division was mine. The protective gear, the vests and the emergency gear.
That was mine. I may not be able to undo the damage of my father’s legacy, but I could ensure it got somewhat mitigated in the future.
I didn’t want to insult the man or make him defensive. He would be a good ally to have going forward.
He nodded. “Okay… then tell us what you have.”
“Of course.” I knew he would make us go through a sales pitch. “I’ll let Mr Croy, my VP of sales, go through that with you.”
While Joel Croy repeated the pitch he had done thousands of times before, my mind drifted to the tragedy of a world without pink animals.
My lips twitched as I fished my phone out of my pocket.
I confirmed it was on silent mode before I brought up the camera footage from my home.
I scrolled through the tiny screens and caught on the image of Maggie laughing at the poolside.
She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and my fingers twitched to do that for her.
This is why. All the posturing, all the deals.
It was just a way to build a big enough fortress to keep the people I cared about safe.
I tapped on another screen. Zoe was playing a one-on-one game of soccer on the grass with Hayden, little league soccer was a bit of a tradition in Marina De Ferrier.
Both Zoe and Conner had played when they were younger, but Zoe was the only one who still played.
I watched as she showed Hayden how to tap the ball from his foot to knee.
Watching the two of them brought a smile to my lips.
On another screen, Connor and Maggie seemed to be enjoying a tea party with Jaycee.
I watched my brother sip imaginary tea from a tiny pink cup.
A pang of something hit me square in the chest. Was I jealous of my little brother?
He was in that world, and I was trapped in here.
I wanted to be sipping imaginary tea. I wanted to kick a ball with Hayden.
Actually no, I didn’t want to do that. Zoe was the athletic one.
But I had ideas for Hayden’s earthquake project.
I looked forward to sharing that with him.
“All right then.” The sheriff’s booming voice got my attention. “Send us the formal proposal, and I’ll have the county lawyers draw up the contracts.”
Hank James nodded. “I will be submitting my proposal to the higher ups.”
Finally, Elise Thompson smiled and nodded. “You know we’re fully on board. We’re here to extend our contract.”
Actually, she was included to provide credibility. The CBI had already vetted us. They were also the ones working with Salinger Security on the illegal arms case. They knew the rumors about Snow Enterprises because they’re the ones who spread it.
With one last round of handshakes the conference room emptied and I made my way back to my office. “Rina. Do I have any more meetings for today?”
“Just the one with HR about the new structures they want to put in place.” She stared at her screen as if to confirm. Then looked back at me. “Yup. That’s it.”
“Reschedule that for tomorrow sometime. Fit them in as early as you can.” I knew the HR manager wanted to relook at how we do things and I promised to give her some time. “I’ll be heading home. You can put through any urgent calls to my cell.”
Her eyebrows raised enough to form several lines on her forehead. “You’re leaving now? At…” She looked at her monitor. “Three-o-two.”
“Yes.” I nodded and walked into my office.
I could understand her confusion. Usually, I stayed way past business hours.
The only time I left early was if my siblings had something important happening, like a big game or something.
And since Rina had my schedule she knew that was not the case.
I texted Hunter and grabbed my brief case. “I’ll see you in the morning.”