10. Chapter 10
They’d found the two Security guys late last night when they came to and radioed in. Apparently, they’d gotten out to question someone who kept going to the front door of Melanie’s building. The stalker managed to taser them, knock them out with a drug he sprayed on them, and drag them to some bushes. It was a definite escalation. They were keeping those details from Melanie. None of them thought it was a good idea to scare her any further.
Not that she was acting scared. She was putting on a brave face and unwilling to let this guy interrupt her day. Levi had seen her this morning when she came into HQ. There was nothing about her appearance or demeanor that would make anyone think there was something wrong with her or her life. He wanted to ask her to go stay with her parents or a friend, but at the same time, if she stayed in her apartment, they had a better chance of catching this guy. DeLaney had people stationed there full time now. They were ready this time. If he showed back up, they would get him.
So far today, Levi hadn’t been able to focus on that investigation because he spent the morning going over security protocols with Victor. It was important that he understood how everything functioned. A lot of it he already knew, but Andrea hadn’t told him everything. There were also a lot of contingencies that he needed to be familiar with in case something happened to the people at the top. After Victor was done with him, it had been Scarlett’s turn.
She enjoyed trying to make him struggle. For her it was a power thing. They went over the protocols again only she questioned him harder than Victor had. Then they’d gone to the range to shoot because she said she wanted to make sure he could actually hit a target. It had turned into a competition. In the end, she beat him with one more bullet in the center than he got. When they walked out of the range, she’d said, “Not bad, Superstar.” It was official, they’d given him a nickname.
Now, the three of them were sitting in the conference room on the sixth floor going over personnel. There were a few guys he requested right off the bat. Flip was one of them mostly because he had been with DeLaney ten years now. He was solid and had spent a lot of time working closely with Victor. It was hard for Victor to let him go, but he agreed it was time for Flip to move up in the world. Levi was positive that he was going to make a good right-hand man.
Most of the suggestions about personnel changes were theirs to make anyway because Levi only had information on some of them. There were hundreds of Security team members. They were split between all the DeLaney businesses, the tunnels, HQ, the clients who had contracted their services, security details, Rovers, Control. It was fucking insane seeing it in black and white. How the fuck Andrea had grown DeLaney this big while still maintaining the control she did was beyond him. Of course there were the managers, team leaders, and group leaders to help but it was still crazy. Looking at DeLaney from this angle was a whole new perspective.
“Ok, that gives you thirty-one,” Victor said after he finished counting down his list. “Thirty-two if you include yourself.”
“An even number. I like it,” Levi said with a nod.
“You’ll need to figure out how you want to divide them. Investigation teams and surveillance teams for the gang side. They’ll also need to stay where they are until the new schedule comes out next week. There’s no way in hell I’m redoing the fucking schedule just so you can get started sooner,” Scarlett said.
He didn’t blame her one bit. Scheduling everyone looked like a nightmare to him. “That’s fine. I want to dig into their files before we contact them anyway.” The more information he could gather, the less surprised he would be if something popped up when they got rolling.
“Until they get the eighth done, you can work out of the back office on the seventh,” Victor said.
“Got it.” Finally he could put his computer and files somewhere, even if it was temporary. “Does Eli have an office here?”
“Why?” Scarlett asked, eyeing him carefully.
“He has a contact that deals in specialty office equipment. I have some ideas for the Command Center that I think his guy can help me out with.” Eli was DeLaney’s fixer who paid people off when they needed to be. If Andrea needed something out of the ordinary, Eli was the guy to source it. He also dabbled in a few other markets around town. Levi liked to think about him as the man who everyone knew about but didn’t actually know.
“Eli has an office that he’s actually in about once a quarter, usually on Board meeting days. Other than that, he’s…well wherever he needs to be,” Victor said.
“I’ve got his number, I’ll just call him,” Levi said with a shrug. More like he would snag the number from Scarlett’s phone.
“Alright, well, if we’re done here for the day, I need to go check on the new recruits. Hopefully, the Lucas brothers didn’t run too many of them off today,” Victor said.
“You left them in charge?” Scarlett asked, looking horrified.
“Strength test day,” Victor said with a shrug before walking out.
“Fucking hell,” Scarlett muttered.
Levi didn’t know Joey and Jacob Lucas personally. He knew of their father, Jimmy, who was Alexander DeLaney’s bodyguard, but he only knew any of them by their reputation. The twins were weight room junkies. They were also team leaders, so it made sense that Victor would pull them in to help with training the new people.
“You don’t approve?”
“They’re meatheads. If all they were doing was running the strength course, then it’s fine, but for anything else on the training schedule, no I don’t approve.” She stood up and pulled out her cigarettes. “I’m going outside. Walk with me.”
That sounded like a trap. He nodded anyway. Technically, she was his boss.
Outside in the steamy afternoon air, he leaned against the wall in the shade while she lit her cigarette. After a long drag, her eyes focused on him. “Are you and Melanie a thing or what?” she asked. He could always rely on her to be direct.
“No. We went on one date, but then I started this job.” There was no point in lying about it. He could gain nothing from hiding it.
“I’m guessing it’s only a problem for her.”
He shrugged. “Yeah.”
She turned and watched a car coming their way while she took another drag. After the car passed, he saw her frown.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Something,” he countered.
“I think that was Gabe with the Red Stars.” She pulled out her phone to look at it, but then shook her head and put it back in her pocket. “It’s probably nothing.”
Levi looked down the street. The car was still driving straight. If it was Gabe, he was pretty far out of his territory. That was something to follow up on.
“Melanie’s very by the book. It’s not a bad thing, but it can be frustrating,” she commented, looking at him again. “Maybe when we catch her stalker things will settle down and she’ll see that dating you isn’t against the rules.”
He really didn’t want to discuss this with Scarlett of all people. “Maybe.” That’s all he was going to say on the subject. If it happened, it happened. Right now, he’d decided to focus on making this transition and not his love life. Today showed him he still had a lot to learn and familiarize himself with.
“How did you meet Andrea?” Scarlett asked.
Now they were getting to the real reason she dragged him out here and away from where anyone might overhear them.
“Ask her.”
“I already did.”
“And?”
“She said she contracted your P.I. services sometimes when she didn’t want to run something through the Security team.” It didn’t sound or look like she believed that was the full story.
“You already know that’s true.”
“It may be part of it, but there’s more to the story. I’m not an idiot. Andrea doesn’t just pull anyone in and give them full access. She has bigger fucking trust issues than I do, so who are you really?”
He stood off the wall and put his hands in his pockets so she would know he wasn’t a threat. “I’m the Superstar,” he said with a laugh and walked away to go back inside. Behind him he heard her mutter several cuss words.