As always all things familiar belong to JE!
Thank you for the reviews! I'm not sure how long this one will be yet but for now I have at least a few more chapters to add. Enjoy!
Chapter 3
Lester POV
It was the day after Christmas and the Rangeman offices were running on skeleton crew for the holidays. My name is Lester Santos and I am the current #2 at Rangeman Securities while my cousin and owner Ranger, Ricardo Carlos Manoso, was away doing his government thing. The current #1 was Tank, our good friend and Ranger's right for most of our time in the Army.
Currently I was in conference room 2 and the woman in front of me, Jeanne Ellen Burrows, the real one, was currently sitting in front of me talking about a skip she recently took down for one of the local bond agencies. I was only half listening though for two reasons the first being that right off the bat she told me that she didn't like working in teams and preferred to work alone which would not fly here so she knew she wouldn't be getting the job and second I couldn't stop thinking about the other woman.
She was gorgeous, her blue eyes bored into your soul so quickly the reason really didn't matter because all you wanted to do was talk to her. Which is probably why I had ushered her upstairs so quickly. She also didn't hesitate to speak up when I finally let her speak and she didn't seem timid around me or the other men. In fact she had asked to speak with Hector who was easily the scariest guy at our company. I really hope she filled out an application so I had a reason to talk to her again.
Jeanne Ellen finally finished her story to which I thanked her for sharing before wrapping up the interview in the standard "Thank you for coming in, you will hear from us shortly about next steps if we decide to move forward" that was part of the script Ranger wrote for me before he left. I escorted her back to the lobby but before I went back up to discuss with Tank I stopped to check in with Vince.
"Hey man. Sorry I jumped to conclusions earlier. Were you able to help Stephanie? I asked.
"Yes she was able to give her treats to Hector and she filled out this application." He said passing me a manilla folder.
"What treats? You know those are restricted from the building." I replied putting on my boss persona.
"She had brownies, cookies, and fudge. I figured since Ranger was gone and these were gifts that they would be okay. Besides they were really good so good luck getting them from Hector you know how he is about chocolate." Vince sheepishly replied.
"Well you thought wrong, Mats 0500 tomorrow." I said as I stepped back onto the elevator. I pressed three first though so I could stop by Hector's lab and steal a cookie. I made my way to the door at the end of the hallway and opened the door to find not only Hector but Ram, Hal, Junior, and Hank all standing around one of the tables with the treats in hand.
"What's going on here." I commanded.
Swallowing quickly Hank spoke up first. "Hector said a woman that He and Hal helped when her car ran out of gas dropped off these treats as a thank you so he wanted to share."
"And you thought eating them in here would keep you from getting mat time?" I questioned. All four heads nodded as they finished up the treats in their hand.
"Not our best idea but they're really good. Do you want to try some?" Junior asked. I contemplated giving in because it had been why I came down here in the first place.
I motioned them to follow me and to bring the treats. We all got in the elevator to go up to the fifth floor. We arrived on the floor and I led them past the control room to Tank's office. I knocked once, getting a grunt of acknowledgement before opening the door and heading into his office. He took a moment to finish typing on his computer before looking up.
"What's the emergency?" He asked as he took in the five of us standing there and assuming that's the only reason five of us would show up in his office at the same time.
"I found these four hiding out in Hector's lab eating these," I said, gesturing to the boxes of treats in Hal's hands.
"And?" He replied.
"And since they were a gift from a woman who Hector and Hal helped on Christmas Eve I figured we could allow them to be placed in the break room for the guys to enjoy." I said hoping he would say yes.
He paused for a moment looking at each of us before making his decision. "Fine go ahead." He said. We cheered and the men started to head out to the breakroom. "But each treat is an extra mile on the treadmill and I will be checking the tape." He said before they exited.
"You manipulated me." Tank said as I closed the door behind them after grabbing a brownie for both me and Tank. I handed one to him. "Yeah but this way we get brownies!" I said cheerfully biting into mine. "Oh my god this is amazing! How did she do this?!" I exclaimed with my mouth full as the heavenly bar took over my tastebuds. Tank picked up his and popped the whole thing in his mouth.
"Damn." He exclaimed. "So I assume you met this woman? Tell me more about her and how we might be able to get more of those."
I laughed before handing him the manilla folder. "Lucky for us she just applied for a job at Rangeman" He took the folder and gave me a rare smile before flipping it open and reading through the application.
"She has a business degree from Rutgers and was employed up until September. She doesn't have any military background but she's applying for the office manager position so that isn't a big deal. Plum any relation to General Plum?" Tank said.
"No idea haven't done the background check yet."
"Run the report and bring it to me when you're done reviewing. How did the other interviews go this morning?"
"One no, Two could be good for contract work, and one yes. Manuel Ramos, yes those Ramoses, however he is a good fit and he should be brought in for a final evaluation. Jeanne Ellen is the no but you'll want to run it through Celia so we don't get hit with a gender discrimination lawsuit considering we still don't have any female employees. The other two you can read about and decide if we should add them to our contract shortlist." I explained to the big man.
He nodded but asked no further questions which I took as my queue to leave. I went back to my office to run the background report on Stephanie Plum only to find it already placed on my desk with a sticky note that read "FYI - Hector" huh it seems she has already made her impact on the men. I flipped and saw he had even highlighted a the important notes including the one that confirmed that Stephanie's father was one of our Commanders at Basic Training several years ago and again during Ranger School. She also had no criminal background. He pointed out that she had a low account balance on her bank accounts but didn't have any crazy credit card purchases so it was easy to deduce that she had just been living off her savings and was probably desperate for a job which would mean she should be available to start right away. At the very end Hector had added one more stick note that read "Good Fit". I agreed with Hector so I dropped it off at Tank's office before heading to the break room to see if any more of her treats were left.
