Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
TONY
Going back to work on Monday had been hard. Greg and I had extended our stay in Delaware by two days so he could spend more time with his siblings. We also wanted to spend time with each other without the pressures of our everyday lives interfering.
Now it was back to work for both of us. He had a video meeting with a client to present their finished website. I had three interviews, all for Hunter’s team.
After the debacle when my father was in the hospital, we realized that we were still running the business like we had in the beginning, back when we did everything ourselves.
It had been simpler when we started out because it was just Michael and me.
We’d stuck to what we were good at. When Marco joined us four years later, we’d expanded to include things he could handle.
We’d since grown in size and reputation, but our approach hadn’t changed with the business.
To be fair, Hunter had tried to gently guide us in that direction, but I could be a stubborn asshole at times, and I blew him off.
We’d been lucky we had the extra team members.
Otherwise, we would have had no choice but to send Marco, Michael, and Liam on a mission, despite our own family emergency.
So we’d expedited the search for more extraction team members, with Marco and Gabe using their own contacts to find and vet viable candidates.
We also decided to create a team of people who, like Liam, had other jobs they didn’t want to quit but could take time off to do missions when necessary.
Gabe had taken to calling them our pinch hitters. It was accurate.
I greeted Liz with a smile when I walked into the office. She smiled back. “You look pretty pleased with yourself. I take it your time off with Greg was good.”
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. “Yeah, it was good. Really good.”
“What was really good?” Michael asked from behind me.
Liz pointed at me. “He said his weekend with Greg was really good.”
I rolled my eyes. Here we go. Michael turned me so I was facing him and looked me up and down. “Holy shit. You’re glowing.”
He grasped my upper arm and towed me toward my office. When we passed by the gym, he poked his head in the door and said, “Marco, get your ass over here.”
Irritation rose within me. I yanked my arm out of his grip. “For fuck’s sake. My love life is not a source of entertainment for you.”
I continued walking to my office, not caring if he followed me.
I had to stifle the urge to call Greg just to vent.
I knew he was preparing for his meeting, and I didn’t want to interrupt him.
Instead, I sat at my desk and opened my laptop so I could bring up the résumé of the first interview candidate.
The tentative knock on my door came shortly after I started reviewing the résumé. I thought about letting them stew, but we all had work to do, and I didn’t need a couple of grown-ass adults pouting like five-year-olds when I was trying to conduct interviews. “Come in,” I called out.
My brothers entered the room tentatively, both eyeing me warily as they took the seats across from me. “I’m sorry,” Michael blurted out. “I wasn’t trying to make a spectacle out there. I just got excited and overstepped.”
I inclined my head. “Okay. I appreciate your apology.”
My gaze slid over to Marco, who put up his hands defensively and said, “I didn’t do it.”
I snorted a laugh and shook my head. “You two are ridiculous.” I huffed a sigh. “What do you want to know?”
Marco gestured at me. “Michael said you were glowing, and you are. What happened over the weekend? What changed?”
I almost didn’t want to share that precious moment when Greg had whispered his love to me in the warm, dark cocoon of our embrace. Before I could say anything, Michael breathed out, “Oh my god. He said it. He told you he was in love with you.”
“Yeah,” I acknowledged.
“That’s great,” he enthused. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks,” I replied.
Marco gave me a soft smile. “Congratulations. I know how much you wanted this.”
He was right about that.
Michael huffed impatiently. “Why are we acting like this is some kind of board meeting? Get over here so I can hug you.”
Chuckling, I rose and went around to the front of my desk, letting my brothers envelope me in their love and affection.
Our hugfest was interrupted by a knock on my door. Liz poked her head in and said, “Sorry to interrupt. I have Mr. Chen here for his interview.”
I pulled away from my brothers. “All right, enough hugging. We have a business to run.”
By the end of the day, I was more than ready to go home.
Greg was coming to my place for dinner and a relaxing night on the couch watching a movie.
The office was mostly empty by the time I shut down my computer.
I saw that Michael was still in his office, so I went over and knocked on his doorframe. “Go home. You’ve worked long enough.”
He nodded absently, then held up his hand. “I forgot that there was something I wanted to tell you. We got so busy today that it slipped my mind.”
“Okay, hit me.”
He tapped a few keys on his laptop. “Do you remember how we were wondering if Greg’s stalker was his ex?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Greg didn’t seem to think so but said it was worth looking into.”
“It was,” Michael agreed. “He’s dead.”
Shock rippled through me. “Dead? When? How?”
His eyes focused on his computer screen.
“Randolph Kramer was charged with fourth-degree felony assault and got six months in prison. Greg was granted a permanent restraining order against him. Randy served another year on parole after he got out of prison and was mandated to get anger management and counseling.”
I resisted the urge to tell him to get to the point. This was the way Michael did things. “What happened to him after that?”
“Once he was off parole, he moved to Texas—I guess thinking he could get far away from anyone who knew he had a DV charge.”
“Texas isn’t exactly the friendliest place for gay men,” I observed. “Did someone kill him because he was gay?” I really didn’t want to feel sorry for the guy, but that would have been a shitty way to go.
Michael shook his head impatiently. “No. He moved to Houston, which is a fairly progressive city—for Texas.”
I reined in my impatience. My brother had his process. “So what happened?”
He went back to reading his screen. “About three months after he moved to Houston, he started dating Corey Harrington. They’d been together almost six months when they had an argument in Corey’s apartment.
According to the police report, it got physical.
Randy was much bigger than Corey and was giving him a hell of a beating.
Corey got away and locked himself in his bedroom.
Randy didn’t like that and decided to break through the door.
Corey shot him in the chest. He was dead before he hit the ground. ”
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “And Texas is a stand your ground state.”
“It sure is,” Michael agreed. “No charges were filed against Corey.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. I’d already been almost one hundred percent certain Greg’s ex wasn’t the stalker. It would have been so much easier if it had been. We had so few leads on the guy stalking Greg.
“Thanks for looking into it. At least we have one person eliminated.” Another thought occurred to me. “Did you ever get the security video from Greg’s apartment building?”
Michael nodded. “I did.” He opened a video window that showed the hallway on Greg’s floor and what looked like a man in an oversized dark hoodie kneeling by his apartment door.
I growled in frustration. I really didn’t think there would be anything, but I’d hoped. “Nothing.”
He shook his head. “Nothing to go on at all.”
“Thanks.” I squeezed his shoulder. “Go home. You’ve worked hard today.”
He hummed in agreement and turned back to his computer. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “Goodnight, Michael.”
“Goodnight,” he murmured.
I was about to walk out the door when I saw Liz was still at her desk. “What are you doing here so late?”
She shook her head in exasperation. “Today was one of the weirdest days I’ve had since I started working here.”
“What happened?” I asked.
She held up one finger. “First, we got a food delivery that no one ordered. I spent fifteen minutes explaining to the guy that no one in the office had ordered food. I even went to ask Michael just to make sure, since sometimes he forgets to tell me to expect a delivery. And then it turned out the guy had misread the order slip, and it was for the next floor up.”
“That is strange. Those guys are usually pretty good about that. Their whole goal is to make as many deliveries as possible.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he was new.”
“Was there something else?”
“Yes.” Her brows drew together in a frown. “I spent half an hour on the phone with some guy who wanted to know how the personnel extraction team worked.”
“What? That doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t they just talk to me?”
She threw up her hands. “I asked him the same thing. But you had back-to-back interviews today. He said he didn’t want to wait for you to call back.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make sense. If he wanted to hire us, he’d have to talk to me anyway. Did he leave a name?”
“No, he did not,” she replied, her frown deepening. “After all the information I gave him, he just said thank you and hung up.”
A frisson of unease ran up my spine. My gut was telling me something was off about that phone call. “What kind of information did he ask for? Did he ask for names?”
She shook her head. “I’d have hung up on him if he had. He asked about how it worked, how many people were on the team, how long the missions usually took, and whether we used a computer expert to help on missions.”
“Did it sound like he was fishing for a job?” I asked.
She shrugged, her expression uncertain. “Maybe? He was very interested in what the computer expert did during the mission. I kept telling him I didn’t have the answers to his questions and that he’d be better off talking to you.
I finally had to cut him off because I had work to do.
Now I’m wondering if it was some elaborate prank. I don’t get it.”
“That really is bizarre. I’m sorry he wasted all that time.” I’d have to remember to bring her flowers in the morning. “Are you leaving now?”
She shook her head. “I just have a couple of things to do that will only take me ten minutes tops.”
“Okay. Don’t stay too late.” I gestured toward Michael’s office. “And poke Michael before you leave. Tell him I said to go home.”
She laughed, knowing it was not likely to have any effect. “Goodnight, Tony.”
“Goodnight, Liz.”
As I rode the elevator down to the ground floor, my mind kept returning to Liz’s bizarre phone call. It didn’t make sense, and my gut was telling me something was off. I just couldn’t figure out what.
My phone vibrated with a text, interrupting my musings. I checked the screen and smiled. It was from Greg.
Looking forward to spending time together tonight.
Me too. I made bolognese yesterday, and it’s heating up in the crockpot.
Yum. Can’t wait. I got another bottle of that Tuscan wine you liked.
That’s great. I can’t wait to see you. Love you.
I love you too.
I knew I was probably smiling like a goofball, but I didn’t care. Life was good.